Summer Wrapping-Up

An amazing summer. God really uses people to love on each other and create space and miracles that could only be because of Him and His unconditional love. I know it seems strange for people to be used...we are all so broken and hard to get along with when we get down to it. But I saw it. Folks sacrificed their summer's to serve. Sure they got to stay in a beautiful place but they worked like dogs to insure that kids and leaders had the best week of their lives. Amazing! The Smiley clan had a great summer..lots to learn and lots of work too. Ryan worked in the pits (dishwashing) and got to know all sorts of kids that came to stay at Lost Canyon. Justin "went around camp" a lot and spent hours with our video Intern helping to capture the moments of summer on tape. Both boys logged good hours on the zip and on the water slides. Mom and Dad took one spin down the zip together. (aaaaah) It was a great summer and got to know some amazing folks. The latest pictures is of the Smiley's supporting the Local Baseball club..ya know the Diamond Backs! Great game and stadium and a blast with the interns down in Phoenix.

Day 3 of Camp

I am without excuse for not updating this sooner. Its been a crazy couple of months with the sprint to summer. We finished up (mostly) 4 major construction projects and got the rest of camp ready for summer. Been praying for the kids coming and the staff that will run the various camps as well. Today was Day 3 ....huge event late tonight for the kids to help them play a bit. I took a nap in the middle of the evening around 9..and woke up for the event and now its 2:30 a.m. What has transpired between that time...amazing stuff. A huge event with 300 kids eating popcorn and playing..a few altercations one that went into the night with 8 people sitting around a table getting to know each other better and God's peace settling so everyone could go to bed. A medical emergency that required a bit more attention than was probably necessary but got to keep folks safe. And I can't sleep now...anyway...was a great first week of camp for first 3 days. Let the summer rage!!! Praise God He is present..this is going to be quite a ride.

Spinning up for Summer

Staffing, Insurance, Water, Construction,Pray...or is it Pray, Staffing, Insurance, Water Construction or even better. Pray, Staffing, Insurance, Water, Construction, Pray. Vote on the best way to handle my recent days. These have been the hot topics along with risk management of the last few weeks...all while I got to travel to the nation's hot spot of Atlanta....woot. Amazing that both IBM and Young Life seem to want to send me to Atlanta...very cool to visit friends there. I also got to meet the entire summer assign team the week before here at Lost Canyon...overwhelming but very fun.

J- man's basketball is wrapping up at the Y. B-days for the boys have come and gone. Ryan has just built his first Star Destroyer....the dark side is strong in this one. And Amy had an amazing time at the YL Women's retreat at Camp...She went to this cool camp and got my a sweat shirt there. Will try and get a picture up of it.

Return of the Day in the Life Post

Ok, its been a while and a new diversity of stuff has risen to the surface. These past weeks have been quite different. A day would start with a devotional with the staff...great folks. The other day I handed out pieces of paper to everyone and said "7 lines"....they proceeded to draw 7 lines in various configurations...was very interesting. Stop by the office to see the Lost Canyon first annual art show of "7 lines". Similar days might have a worship prior to staff lunch at the dining hall or the Assigned team for the summer might be here for training from various western camps to meet and plan...lots of dining hall food that week...mmm. Yes I might gain weight. Travel has been a recent activity..flying to Reno for the Western Property manager's meeting at Mountain Lodge..a very cool location..and then a few weeks later to Atlanta at Sharp Top to meet with the rest of the property managers for some refresher training for them..new to me. Risk management was the scariest....even over finance. Truly by God's grace we walk in this ministry..any youth ministry for that matter. Still loving the diversity. Another day would be filled with discussion on starting the new intern program, followed by review of a store layout chock full of train station themes and concerns over materials and probably display space and the best use of the entire floor plan. More invoice signing of course and a day long meeting and overnight with the property committee at Lost Canyon to make sense of the future. Kicking out the next 5 year plan and budget for round 1 discussion for 2008...man already!! Major maintenence is a continual focus to keep the camp in as new condition as well as expand on some unfinished parts of the camp...got to get that mud landscaped. Hit the Lost Canyon website and see the new buildings..its really going to be amazing in Summer 07. Oh and for Y-man...I will try and post some frisbee designs per your request in the last post. For the more observant blog reader...you may have noticed that Ryan and Justin's ages have changed...yes it is birthday time..both kids will have had their birthdays in the game room here at camp...very cool. To keep folks interested...two words for another post "pig roast".

A Post from Ryan (10)

Hi fourth grade,
I am having a great time here. I am also having a bad time. Hope you are having a good time. How are you guys? I miss you guys a lot. I have some friends. My school is fine. But it is not RMCA. Thank you for giving me encouraging words. I really needed them. Some of the kids in my school are mean. I have different special subjects such as typing class and Spanish. I won first place in the science fair with a friend named Nick. Subjects are 1 hour long and at recess every grade goes together. My family does like our house. My school’s name is Maine consolidated #10. Justin said it wasn’t fair that you guys got so much snow. My school has a big play ground but there’s not much you could do. My teacher is funny and serious. There are many spider webs on the high ceiling but otherwise it is fine. The kids in my class don’t laugh as much. Some of them laugh at each other if they fall down or something like that. Sorry I didn’t write back quickly. My dad got the hang of his job really quickly. My favorite subject is probably technology now. My PE teacher is fun and not fun. I still play the recorder in music. I also have this activity in music called recorder karate.

I miss you guys, Ryan Smiley

A post from Justin (8)

Dear 3rd grade,

I like it here and I don't like it. I don't like it here because I miss you guys A LOT! I like it because there's two big water slides at the camp's pool and the camp is huge. They've got a coffee shop, a game room, a snack bar, and a club room.

The school's great too. Instead of having one big building they have different buildings for different things, and only one of each grade, but the one thing I like that it doesn't have is you!

Your friend,

Justin

A Day in the Life

For those who have worked with me before..I would often say..Hey I learned something new..time to go home. Well I go home about every 5 minutes here (or figuratively) although our house is now about a 45 second golf cart ride from the office. So here is an example day.

Leave the house and drive the property ..just to see it. Construction trucks start coming in around 7 a.m. Detail out parts of my day until the rest of the staff arrive for a morning devotion and any announcements. Email is here as much as anywhere..although it started as a Satellite connection in the canyon. Intern applications for the summer are reviewed. Construction plans are discussed. Meetings with corporate. (sound familar) Menus for food service are learned. Frisbee designs for the summer passed around. A quick run home for lunch with Amy. Sewer sepage smell is researched, water truck zips by as our well is not strong enough..yet, fill my pockets with trash from the ground as I walk around, stop by the wood shop and see what got created, dig golf cart out of snow to drive to go visit various folks on property, sign invoices, sign invoices, discuss staffing needs, (to be continued)