Back at school... but not (quite) doing school

Well, I'm in Canada yet again, preparing for the next batch of Discover students to arrive. I arrived in Calgary the 25th of July, then left on a canoeing trip the next day. We, the intern team plus our directors, went to Lakeland Provincial Park, up near Lac Le Biche, Alberta. I thought, instead of just telling you about it, I'd put up some pictures, and add words to tell you about the trip. So, let's start.

We began by driving north to Edmonton, where we shopped for food and picked up the canoes. After getting the canoes, we did a semi-traditional picture-next-to-the-vehicle.


Then, we continued on into the sunset, David driving...


While Krysti consulted the map.


We arrived at a campground on Touchwood Lake, where we laid out a tarp and went to sleep. The next morning, we packed up our gear, drove to the staging area, and got ready to begin our first portage.

Portaging was definitely the most physically straining part of the trip. Some of us carried gear...


while others carried canoes.


I soon found that I preferred the latter.

During the trip we paddled the canoes,


We portaged many kilometres (This was the shortest portage. The longest was 3K)


We built shelters


We rested after portages


We whittled spoons for eating


We watched pretty sunsets


We got sore feet


We built a teepee


We got wounds


We consulted many maps


And we took pictures of our paddles.


At the end, we were very happy.


Then we cleaned up.


You might be wondering to yourself, "Why is a week-long canoeing trip part of school?" Well, in short, it wasn't about school. It was about building our group of friends into a strong team, focusing ourselves on God, and having an opportunity to process what God was teaching us. While intense, it served its purpose.

So, what's next? The new students arrive on Saturday, at which point they will have orientation (which we will lead) over the weekend, then start a two-week version of the one-week class I did last year-- The Way. I will be working on getting ready for the students, getting details in place for our time in Montana, as well as travel to there, and finishing up the distance ed course I was working on over the summer.

Over and out,
~A~