Mountain Site

LET'S TALK ABOUT COOKING!!!

O.K. I (Cassandra) cooked for Mountain Bike Two which housed about 44 people in total.

Did you know that it takes 15 cups of sugar to make enough apple crisp for this gang?

Did you know that sometimes 44 people can eat like 75?

Did you know that small 14 year old boys can eat 4 submarine sandwhiches?

Here is my claim to fame.  I can cook enough pancakes for the group in 1/2 hour flat! It was a record.

Here is my great faux paux ( I don't even know if that is spelled correctly however it means big mistake!!)  I was very tired 2/3rds of the way through the week and I saw we needed to make cherry tarts so I pulled the tart shells out of the freezer and started to fill them with cherry pie filling.  My cook's helper (Noel ) gently tapped me on the shoulder and said in a very sweet and unassuming voice "Shouldn't we cook the tart shells first?"  I looked at the now soggy, thawed but certainly not cooked shells and started to laugh.  Good thing she caught me before I had filled the entire batch.  Luckily we had more and I pulled out a new batch, cooked the shells first, then filled them and all was well.  But hey, this was my first official time cooking for a camp so I was just waiting for some big blunder to happen.  This one wasn't so bad.

I enjoyed cooking until the second last day when my neck decided it had had enough of lifting heavy pots and pans and I blew out my disc.  I finished cooking with the help of Noel and Shauna Dunbar (who, by the way were excellent to work with) but I'm afraid I'm taking it easy in the lifting department for a while, until my neck and arm feel better and heal. 

The mountain bike camp went well, and Sid Koop, the speaker was awesome.   He has a real way of commuicating with the kids and was hilarious to boot! I was personally challeneged by his messages.  Yes, that is correct, even the kitchen staff went to chapel.  The story goes like this.  None of the kitchen staff were morning people so we all dreaded the mornings.  So we decided to work ahead at night and be prepared for the mornings, even to the point of attending chapel.  That was a real blessing because Sid was worth listening to and we found ourselves making sure we would be ready with the food so we could go.

I was struck by the phrase "Make God Ultimate".  I have been meditating on this concept a lot recently.  Here is a phrase that goes around in my head  often:

You can love God and enjoy ____________(put anything in the blank....like food, or biking or???   But you can't love _____________ and enjoy God. (again put anything in the blank, like holidays or chocolate or mountain climbing.)

The point is, if God is first then everything else comes into it's place and we are able to enjoy it.  But if something else is more important than God, you will find yourself being unable to enjoy anything, especially God. 

Let's keep God Ultimate in our lives.

Well, I have to keep this short (I know, you are shocked and amazed that that is even possible!)  But I do have some pictures to show you.  Finally, the mountain biking pictures.

Also a picture of the pack rat we captured which had taken over a cabin that we are reclaiming.  Pack rats are interesting creatures and we found all sorts of shiney things that he had collected in his cabin.  They tend to take things like forks of foil or nuts and bolts and then leave something behind in it's place like a pinecone.  They love the barter system.  We also found a huge pile of intertwined dandilions (probably his winter food supply).  We live trapped him and took him on a long drive and released him in the wild.  He reminded me of all the cute annimated mice they have in the movies.

Blessings and thank you for praying for us during the mountain site camp season.  Although the official camps are over there are still some boys and girls clubs coming up for overnights, visitors and family camp coming up that we are leading worship for so we appreciate your continued prayers.

P.S.  There is a need for cooks for family camp so if anyone is interested please let us know.