Turtles Unite

Outdoor Ed Fall 08 233

Originally uploaded by noinkling

Rain is a funny thing until it rains on you. Last week (9/8-9/10, 2008) Harvest Christian Academy’s 6th and 7th graders experienced a little rain, a little fear, a little fun, very little sleep, a little knowledge and a whole lot of God’s creation during their three days of Outdoor Education at Timberlee Camp in Wisconsin. I was privileged or cursed (depends on how you look at it) to oversee a group of seventh graders; group C, also affectionately called the “Seven Seas.”

The story you are about to read is exclusively the property of the Seven Seas for the very simple fact that they were the only ones I traveled around the camp with going from activity to activity, experience to experience and adventure to adventure. So, let us begin.

Day One:

Our very first adventure was the activity called, “How to thoroughly soak your body on a rainy day so that you will be miserable for the rest of the day’s activities.” My group passed this activity with flying colors! Next, we went to pond scum studies or was it Aquatic Adventures - I can’t quite recall. At the pond we netted a lot of scum, and a few interesting aquatic creatures. They were as follows: Giant water bugs (That were not very giant-like), a leech or two, a back-stroking water beetle, and zero dragonfly nymphs that we were told eat mosquito larvae.

From aquatics we drudged across the entire camp to archery where I discovered that it is a good thing food comes to me via the supermarket, because if I was depending on the Seven Seas to shoot some food … well, let’s just say I would still be hungry. Austin and Carol did manage to hit the target several times, and one in our group (who will remain nameless) not only missed the target, but the huge sheet backing up the targets. The day was not a total loss, for I did discover two boys in my group that love to shop for shoes, and they too will remain nameless.

We ate a great dinner of something or other, and Mr. Duvall and Mr. C led the boy’s cabin in an entertaining impromptu talent show that included some spectacular acts such as: burping the alphabet, double jointed acrobatics I would just as soon forget, and several group hugs.

The night’s chapel won the day with Mr. Devol rooting us in the Word and Mr. Mahoney (on guitar) and Mr. Crognale or Mr. C (on drums or something like a drum) leading us in time of sacred worship. Mr. Devol used the examples of the churches in Revelation to exhort us to learn from their mistakes and their good deeds. In fact he gave us some “C” words for my Seven C’s for each church in Revelation: Pergamum – Conforming to false teaching, Thyatira – Compromised, Sardis – Complacent, Philadelphia – Consistent with God’s word and didn’t deny Christ’s name, and finally Laodicea – (over) Confident and self-reliant.

Under a three quarters moon our Seven Seas wolf pack found the Alpha wolf with much howling and moaning to end the perfect first day of outdoor Ed. I should back up and say some of the Seven Seas found the wolf, the rest of us were shaking in our skins with ly fear written across our faces.

Day Two:

We had a wonderful breakfast of what I believe was French toast and sausages. The Seven Seas promptly met and walked the long way round (Due to their over rambunctious leader) to our first activity of the day: How to start a forest fires… err… Wilderness Survival. We learned the acrostic STOP:

Stop – don’t panic or run around
Think – Use the mind God gave you
Observe – Look around for shelter, and other helpful materials
Plan – make a plan to survive

We also learned we can actually go 3 entire weeks without food. None of my seventh graders bought that piece of propaganda!

After the classroom part, we broke into s and boys and were set loose to make a fire using only one match. Neither the boys nor the s were able to start a fire with the one match or the several 1000 other matches the leader allowed us to have. Don’t judge us too harshly; it did rain all day yesterday.

Orienteering was next. I thought we were headed to the Orient, but instead this activity was all about compasses. We learned about all the parts of the compass and how to put “red Fred” into the shed. Next, we went outside and did some true orienteering. Carole turned out to be a master orienteerer!

The final activity of the morning turned out to be Student Forester. In this class we learned to hug trees with tape measures, find out how warm the ground was, and more importantly estimate the number of popsicles one could make out of a 40 foot pine tree. The answer is … lots!

Lunch! We were all starving from our strenuous activities in the wild, and all the mind power we exerted too! Outdoor Ed can be an exhausting affair.

Animal Enc. was next, and I embarrassingly interpreted the schedule as meaning Animal Encyclopedia was next. It was a natural error, but the activity was really called Animal Encounters of the Third Kind (Actually I added “of the Third Kind). This was one of the coolest activities because we got to hold LIVE animals: doves, turtles, chinchillas, ferrets, a humungous rabbit, and all kinds of SNAKES – Indiana Jones would not have enjoyed this activity. All was well until the humungous rabbit, because I have a humungous allergic reaction to rabbits! Danielle also was having allergy problems, and we decided to go outside and observe the blind opossum whose name escapes me at the moment.

We survived Animal Encounters only to wind up in endangered communities where we lassoed hollyhocks and pulled them up by the roots making way for the indigenous trees and plants. I think Zach, Austin, Dan and Hunter enjoyed yanking these plants up by the roots. I know I did.

Dinner, free time and then another great chapel time came next. Mr. Devol once again opened up to us the letters to the churches in Revelation and gave us new insights. Tonight he zeroed in on the church at Sardis and the complacency that had permeated that whole area. Mr. Devol challenged us in our complacency to move closer to Jesus! He wanted to shake us up so that when Christ comes like a thief in the night we will be up and awake and ready to meet Him.

The day went full circle, and after chapel we cooked up s-mores over a big bon-fire. I flashed back to our pitiful fire-starting in Wilderness Survival class this morning, and I marveled at how big this conflagration was.

One more night left, but what is a camp without a good scary tale to put the students in such a state of fright t they won’t sleep a wink. The story told, however, was not very scary. I should know…I told it.

Day Three:

Morning brought another beautiful sunny day and the Seven C’s last activity, Owl Pellets. I try to make it a habit to learn at least one thing new on these kinds of trips, and I certainly learned something new in Owl Pellets. Did you know that the owl’s pellet is not what most of us believe it is. The owl pellet is produced in a special area of owl called the PROVENTRICULUS(Can we say Proventriculus children?), and anything the owl cannot digest is separated and made into this cool little pellet which the owl coughs back up. Our kids got to dissect owl pellets and they found little intact skulls, jaw-bones, and other tiny bones. I found the whole thing very fascinating.

Carpet ball championships reigned for the rest of the day right up to lunch. After lunch we boarded the bus and headed for the school with a no non-sense kind of bus driver. Unfortunately traffic did not cooperate with us on the way back, and we found ourselves redirected around a major on route 12 and backed way up on another road so near the school I could almost smell the paint disaster from the day before.

Finally we arrived to the joy of the parents and teachers…and of course the students. To all the students of the Seven C’s I just want to say it was a delectable three days.