Reminiscing

I drove by my old house in Mississauga recently. And my old grade and middle schools in the same trip. It got me reminiscing about people and events and brought all kinds of emotions and memories to my mind. The house is similar, but with new paint and different trees. The old apple trees are gone and so was the TV antenna. My first thought was don’t they know that the kids will need it to climb down off the roof when they sneak out a window after bedtime and over the roof? It worked on several occasions and was always Tom's idea.

I pictured each house around our old one and who lived there in my memory. There was even an older man working the in garage where I remember Mr. Sevren working. Across the road was where Max and Susie lived. Down the road was Christies where my younger brother was dared into eating dog food. Greg and I were born on the same day, same year and used to have birthday parties together. Around the corner was where Bobby Maxwell and I smoked a pack of his dad’s Colt cigars in his tree house and made ourselves sick. Begg’s lived on the other side of us from Sevren’s and she did a lot of knitting if my memory serves me well.

Molters were between Lakes and Christies and I remember spending hours listening to music in the basement. Todd was a year older and we played a lot of baseball in the school field behind our houses. The older boys taught me to catch a baseball by throwing the ball at my head. The Nicholls were on the corner and on the way to Bobby’s house. They recently moved in to the senior’s complex where Elaine runs the salon. Fortunately for me she recalls that I was pretty much an angel. Guess she didn’t know about the cigars.

I sat in the truck in front of the old house so long that I expected Mrs. Lake to come out and run me off. Mrs. Lake was that lady in the neighbourhood who scared all the kids, and maybe a few of the adults. Eventually it was time to head for my next meeting. There were so many more memories that came to me then and as I finished my drive to Hamilton. Until the next visit…

Bend for Your Elves

I’m not sure this happens at your house, but it sure does at ours. That is sometimes you just don’t want to cook supper and it is preferred to tell your family to fend for themselves. We had this one day, but in a noisy house it was done as charades so that “fend for yourselves” came out as “bend for your elves”.  Now it has become a “house classic” and even made it in to our family cookbook. Enjoy this many optioned meal from the kitchen of the Greenfields.

Ingredients

• Use whatever you can find in the fridge, freezer, cupboards, pantry, on the counter, or other places food is stored in your house.

Directions

• Combine several ingredients together to make a new dish or an old favourite.
• Use as many ingredients as possible
• You can choose to eat it cold or hot
• Cooking options include microwaving, baking, frying, BBQing, steaming, toasting, searing, boiling, sautéing, etc.
• Condiments are always popular so try a new one or just hot sauce

Notes:

• Each portion is an individual serving
• Some favourites include 12 kinds of cereal in one bowl
• Grilled cheese with various additional ingredients
• Nachos loaded with lots of cheese (this is especially excellent on Sunday nights and is one of my favourites)

An HR Review of Jesus' Disciples

TO:
Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

FROM:
Jordan Management Consultants
Jerusalem 26544

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them.

As part of our service and for your guidance, we make some general comment, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.
- Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper.
- Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership.
- The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty.
- Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale.
- We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau.
- James, son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of great ability and resourcefulness, interacts with people well, has a keen business mind and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely yours,
Jordan Management Consultants

Seafood Chowder

This isn't my usual blog post, but I just finished making a pot of this seafood chowder and decided to share. I have been looking for a seafood chowder recipe for a while and couldn't find one I liked. SO, I set out to put together a list of ingredients that I liked and it turned out quite well. Sometimes food experiments can turn out as a terrible disaster, but my family tells me this one is good. I'm sure if you are on the east cost of just about anywhere this won't compare to the fare you are used to, but we enjoy it. On a cold snowy afternoon in Muskoka, its just the thing to have with some pull-apart buns or toast.
Enjoy...

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter

2 tsp minced garlic,

1 stalk celery, minced (I skip this one)

1 onions, minced

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon dried marjoram

½ teaspoon dried parsley

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

3 tablespoons flour

3 ½ cups milk

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 cup whole kernel corn

1 ½ cups chopped potatoes

½ pound shrimp

½ pound small scallops

½ pound crab meat

1 small can chopped clams

Directions

Melt butter in 3-quart saucepan over low heat
Sauté onion until tender
Add cayenne pepper, thyme, marjoram, pepper, parsley and flour and stir until smooth
Add milk and condensed soup and stir until piping hot
When soup is piping hot, add seafood, corn and potatoes and stir on medium heat until seafood is cooked through

Widji Fall 2012 Update

Camp is very quiet this week as we head into the fall season. The campers and staff all left on the Labour Day weekend, a small group helped clean camp, prepare for and run a youth retreat for 77 youth we hosted and now it’s just me on property closing up after a great season of ministry and God’s faithfulness. We had a GREAT summer of ministry including seeing 33 campers who became new Christians. We had the best staff this summer and all were dedicated to being ambassadors for Christ to the campers and each other. It was certainly a summer of personal and spiritual growth. My health made the long days difficult, but I knew I had a leadership team who were capable, dependable and reliable. There was a great spirit amongst the staff this year.

We finished the waterslide and it was a big hit with campers and staff alike. We build a large 20’ by 24’ gate and painted it to be part of the various theme weeks. Other big props included a 10.5’ Widjisaurus, turning the tower into the eye of Sauron and the Longhouse castle.

Our four year partnership with Toronto Police to bring at-risk-youth to Camp Widjiitiwin from Malvern and other communities within 42 Division in Toronto was a great success. In 2011 we had 67 campers in this program and this year we had 85. On the Monday prior to the group arriving on property we had raised just 25% of the funds needed for the week and no money in sight from our major funding partner. The officer called me and was considering cancelling the week. After careful consideration we decided to go ahead with our mandate to reach kids for Christ and trust God to deliver the much needed funding. Within the week we went up by $22,000 and completed our total funding goals two weeks before the end of the summer. Nine campers gave their lives to Christ that week. Two of the previous campers from this program were on summer staff this summer, one as a cabin leader. Next summer the target is 100 campers, making it our largest week of the summer. We are hearing about change happening back in the community from the kids experiences at camp. Very exciting!

Escape, our new partnership week with Hughson Street Church in Hamilton, also went very well. We had 33 campers with us for the first week. So many of them had never been out of Hamilton before. They had so many firsts, like swimming, archery, seeing stars, and hearing God’s Word. These campers came from families that are in the working poor category who just could never think about sending their kids to camp. We had three campers give their lives to Christ this week. Next year we’re planning for 60 campers to Escape to Camp Widjiitiwin.

From just 35 sponsored campers in 2009 we’re targeting 200 sponsored campers in 2013. More details to come in the new year, BIG things are coming.

I’m Passionate about Leadership

I’m passionate about leadership. I like being a leader, I like teaching the next generation of leaders and helping them discover their potential. I like working alongside people to create a greater good. I love the opportunity each summer to teach our SALT (Skills And Leadership Training) campers about leadership and teamwork. To be able to give them opportunities to try out their leadership abilities and even the chance to “fail with dignity” is a great privilege. I want them to become leaders not just at camp, but in their youth groups, sports clubs, schools, homes, communities and more.

SALT #1 2012

Summer camp is one of the very few industries where we entrust our operations to 18 to 20-something leaders and 15-17 year old staff. BUT, what a great time to be learning and practicing their leadership skills and abilities. It’s a great responsibility to lead a group of 8 campers through activities, games, meals, camp life and cabin devotions. Our staff rise through the ranks of summer staff from kitchen or service to be cabin leaders, SALT leaders and then to leadership staff. Summer leadership staff learns to lead the younger staff and their peers by being responsible for program or waterfront or foodservice or staff community. I would be greatly pleased if the next Camp Widjiitiwin director was one of these staff on leadership now.

My favourite quote about potential has long been, “You can always cut open the apple and find out how many seeds are inside, but there’s no way you can cut the seed and find out how many apples are in it.” I’m excited to find out how my investment in youth and young adults and their investment in others will create a chain reaction of leadership and change in our camping community, our communities at large and our nation. I can only imagine where these new leaders will go. 

Camp Widjiitiwin – the way camp was meant to be… relational, central, natural, reaching out, a loving community focused on Christ. It’s like coming home, it’s my camp!