The Portion of my Inheritance

This year the Survival Skills day camp moved to a new location, Wise County Park at Bridgeport Lake. 

The campsite/park is located between Bridgeport and Chico, and just three minutes from my house-a super plus!

This day had been covered in prayer and it turned out to be a perfect day. The weather was perfect and the ever blowing wind was down.

Just as planned our day started at 8:00 am.

Starting the fire is always first on our list of setting up camp. We at least try to start the fire without using a lighter, and this year the Survival Skills class started the fire with dried grass, twigs that they gathered from around the camp and a flint-with some help from one of our chaperones, Jason.

They set up the tent, which was a group effort, while the fire built up enough to start breakfast.

Just in time! The fire is ready to start the pancakes and hot cocoa.

After breakfast they had a few hours of free time. They had the options of fishing, hiking, or kayaking. They all chose kayaking and spent the whole entire time on the water.

Several students had their own kayaks and were experts. Others needed about a ten minute crash course and they were ready to go.

This campsite actually turned out to be pretty perfect. There was a slough that ran just behind our camp. It was big enough for all the kayaks to fit, but not too big. It ran into the main body of the lake, but they stayed in the slough.

It didn’t take long for them to ditch the kayaks and jump into the water.

We did have a couple of fishermen.

Lunch time came too soon for our kayaking crew.

We had our usual hot dogs and chips, with cactus on the side.

Don’t you just LOVE a good ole American hot dog?

It is our custom to finish our day camp off with s’mores. Perfect finish!

This year the Survival Skills teacher forgot to bring the roasting sticks, so the students had to actually kick into Survival Skills mode and get creative. So we did it the old fashion way and cut sticks off of the trees and trimmed the tops to a point.

Back into the water and kayaks one last  time!

A big round of applause to our amazing parents! They sacrificed their Saturday to bring their children to the camp, bright and early. They supplied food, drinks and supervised the camp. I am so blessed to be surrounded by such an amazing group of parents!

But I have to give kudos for the little heroes of the day. The little ones who very patiently sat at the shore and watched, with no hope whatsoever of participating in the water fun, but didn’t seem to mind just watching.

Who stood by ready to lend a helping hand.

Who made new friends.

Who found whatever way they could to pass the time.

Who practiced their survival skills.

Yes, this was the perfect day, everything about it was in our favor, a gift from our Lord.

But . . .

*Note to self: Don’t forget the insect repellent next year-Chiggers are out earlier than originally thought!

This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.    Psalm 118:24