Hi St.Tims! This past July, our team consisting of: Joel Chung, Elisabeth Jeong, Torrance Yoon, Paul Jang, Doyeon Oh, and Monica Park have been so fortunate to have had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Saskatchewan. Here is a short but sweet breakdown of our two weeks there!
St. Andrew’s Daily Summary
Tuesday
As soon as we arrived in Saskatoon, we went straight from the airport to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church to help run a VBS for the children there. We were surprised to see the diversity of the children there, both in age and ethnicity. The youngest children there were just entering Kindergarten, while the oldest was entering grade 8! After finishing our day at VBS, we headed to our Airbnb, and were surprised to be greeted by a cat named Tom! We were all pretty exhausted after our long day and fell asleep pretty early!
Wednesday
On this day, we helped teach the kids some of our own praise songs, as they had only been singing one song so far! Pastor Sunny taught all the kids popular songs such as: Fruit of the Spirit, and Our God is a Great Big God! After helping out at the VBS at St. Andrew’s, we headed to the Inner City Mission in Saskatoon. Most of the people we served food to were indigenous, and it was interesting to hear the many stories from the people serving there. While some of us served at the food bank, the rest of us were in the next room doing art with the natives where they could express themselves freely. It was a new experience for many of us which we could all learn from.
Thursday
On Thursday, we helped run some icebreakers and games at the VBS. We played soccer with the kids, which they seemed to really enjoy! During the bible study, it was amazing to see how fast the kids could memorize their bible verses! After the VBS we headed to the Inner City Mission again, where those of us who didn’t serve yet got a chance, and the others went to the art station. This was our last day at our current Airbnb, and our last day with Tom! We moved into our new Airbnb after working at the Inner City Mission.
Friday
On Friday, the kids got to take home all of the crafts they had made over the course of the past week! This was our final day with the kids at St. Andrew’s, and it was sad to say goodbye to all the friends we had made here. It really touched our hearts how quickly the kids opened up to us and we really miss them! While we enjoyed our time here, it was time to look ahead to our next week at Camp Christopher!
Camp Christopher Daily Summary
Monday
Our first official day with the campers started bright and early at 6am! From starting our day with a staff meeting on the beach to ending it off at 11pm making sure all the campers were washed up and ready for bed, our 24 hour working life had officially started! We were all slowly getting used to the real camp life, something so different from our usual camp Medeba retreat life.
Tuesday
On this day we were apart of a big camp tradition called “camp out”. The guy and girl cabins split up into their respective areas, and had their own camping party/bonding time! From talking about your counselor crushes to telling scary stories, it was a time where everyone was able to bond with one another in the wilderness!
Wednesday
Wednesday was a relaxing day where nothing special in particular happened, but our lunch time was particularly memorable for all of us. We realized that each lunch at camp has a certain theme. One day was Disney and another was Halloween, on this day in particular, it was monk theme. Meaning everyone had to be quiet during lunch time, and it was truly an amazing and peaceful lunch! Felt like our first quiet time in such a long time!
Thursday
Thursday was our final day with the campers before they all go back home the next morning. We were all sad to see the campers go because they were truly the life and happiness of the whole camp. If it felt dead when we first got there, as soon as all the campers arrived, the overall atmosphere and vibe of the camp changed completely. By this day, all of us had grown an attachment to the campers, and to think that we would never probably see them ever again, made us really reflect on our time there with them. Aside from the emotional aspect of that day, we learned a new not so great tradition called “kangaroo court”. It’s a trial roleplay that takes place on the second last day for campers and counselors. It consists of campers charging different counselors with the most ridiculous and hilarious charges. Whether it be from “you’re too quiet” to “you don’t like hugging people”, it was a time where the campers could see their favourite counselors drenched in cold water. Our whole group was charged with various charges, and we really didn’t know how to approach this whole camp wide event, but in the end it was a fun experience for all of us… Except for Torrance and Doyeon who weren’t so lucky and ended up getting drenched.
Friday
After saying our goodbyes to the campers, our team was finally given a day to really relax and catch up with one another. It was truly a tiring week for all of us, both mentally and physically. It really isn’t easy taking care of young kids, especially for 24 hours. For our team’s final bonding time, we decided to spend time at the beach looking off into the distance, thinking about how much we all just want to sleep. We also decided to take a trip to the local ice cream store not to far from the camp, who would have thought there would be an ice cream store in the middle of nowhere! Overall, our week at Camp Christopher was full of new experiences and with that came stress and hardships along the way, but in the end, it was a fruitful time of bonding with a new community and amongst ourselves!
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