Edge Camp 2013

Greetings - From an Exhausted Priest!

I know I have not Blogged in a while.  I have had many things going on - and it seemed I was not often in the office.
In this past 4 weeks we concluded Holidays for 2013, I spent some time with my Brother, Sister in law, and nephew before they went to China to teach, and I went to the Edge Adventure camp 2013.

Our Holydays was another success with over 650 Camper slots over the 6 weeks of Camp!  Congrats to the team of Counsellors, CIT's and Admin Staff who made this our most successful year ever!

My Brother Chris is a teacher in the Kingston area, and 6 years ago he and his wife Maria went to a school in Suzhou (near Shanghai) to teach.  This year they are going to do the same (For possibly 2 years) this time with a 4 1/2 year old son - Michael! They will be in a different and smaller school, closer to Shanghai. They were supposed to leave from Toronto on August 15 but the Visas could not be arranged in time because the letter of invitation for this new school did not arrive on time... Plus they had to get a whole battery of Physicals and Doctor's Notes and Lab tests.  There were some crazy few hours when it looked like we were going to pull an Amazing Race type of journey and try to get Visa's all in 1 day... but then I found out that their flights had already been re-booked to this past Sunday - August 25.  After more letters and Visa office visits - All was settled and they did indeed fly off to China!  (And they arrived safe and sound and have a McDonald's next to the School they are teaching in!)

Edge Summer Camp!  WOW!  I thought all these years I was doing the sacrifice by staying back and looking after the parish while the Associate went up to camp!  Was I wrong!  Being at camp is the hard part!  Leaders typically do not get to bed until after 12 Midnight and I was up at 5:55 to attend the Morning team meeting at 6:30 am... So Sleep deprivation - here we come! On top of that there are 6 activity periods each day with Activities like Swimming, Mountain Biking, Zip Line, Kayak & Canoe, Hiking, just to name a few...  Each afternoon there was Praise and Worship, and Mass.  On Sunday Afternoon we had Bishop Boissonneau up to celebrate the Eucharist!  On Friday we celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and in the Evening had a big Carnival! Each of the other evenings was like an Edge Session with a Gathering Activity, a teaching, some reflection time on the teaching, and a conclusion.  The theme this year was Radiant Joy and we probed the Joy of being a Child of God, the Joy of being Forgiven, the Joy in seeing God, the Joy in sharing God, and the Joy in choosing God.  It is neat when many of the Edgers say that Adoration was a high point for them in the week!
This week - well only 6 days - was AWESOME!!!  God is Good - ALL the time!  All the Time - God is Good!