Update on North Shore camping trip
What an awesome trip! We had so much fun! I experienced things that I had never experienced before on a camping trip. A majority of our kids who attended the trip had NEVER been camping before! It was fun teaching and showing them how to do the little things around a campsite that need to be done. Things like getting water, keeping ALL the food inside the van so the animals don’t eat it, and why it is important to take your shoes off BEFORE you enter your tent. 
One of my highlights was sitting on a kayak on a wilderness lake approximately 50 yards from a moose!! It was standing in the water, drinking and eating along the tall grass in the water. I was able to share that moment with one of the boys on the trip and I know it is a experience we were able to both bond over. It has helped us grow in our relationship together because for guys, bonding typically comes while DOING something together (a shared experience).
We also had some other really exciting things going on at the wilderness lake. This particular lake was crawling (or swimming) with leaches!!!! They were just waiting for you to step into the water near the edge so they could grab on to you! One kid had (and I am not exaggerating this amount!) 15-20 leaches on his feet and lower legs from standing in the water for less than 2 minutes!!! I had to grab them with my finger nails and pull them off his feet!! That was pretty gross.
We spent a bunch of time swimming in Gooseberry Falls, jumping into Lake Superior, and hanging out at our campground playing games. (I will attach our schedule if anyone wants to check out in detail what we did during the week and what time we did it!) It only rained one afternoon while we were there but I was able to rig up a tarp over our table so we were still able to stay outside and play games in the rain.
Our evening talks went very well! The kids were able to connect very well with our topic and added a lot of good conversation during the group discussion times. They also LOVED the “Child of the King” bracelets I had made for them. On the final night I gave an invitation for any of the kids who had not become a Child of the King to take that free gift. From talking with the other staff afterwards I do not think any of the kids accepted Christ for the first time that night but I do know that a few of them were encouraged and challenged to pursue a deeper relationship with God. Many of them had never thought about all the blessings they inherit as a Child of the King. It is always rewarding to help open their eyes to something new about God and their position in Him.
I will find out if I am able to post some pictures from our trip because I want to show you more about our trip. I am soooo thankful for all of you who sent summer scholarship money in because we only had ONE kid on the trip who was able to pay for the whole trip cost. One kid was not even able to pay the minimum $20 deposit. We were able to take these kids because of your generous giving. It is an experience they will never forget! Thank you so much. I am also in the process of making a short DVD of the trip so if anyone has video editing skills down so well they could do it in their sleep and wants to help me out with our DVD let me know!
Have a great week and I will update you all again soon! Obviously Maggie did not have the baby yet so we are still waiting for that to come. I’ll let you know, don’t worry!
Dan
Wow, that trip sounds awesome! Camping is so much fun, I was thinking I”d really like to go to that place until the leeches thing. I’ll be okay camping somewhere else. I’m glad you were able to bond more with the kids, and what a great place for it! We can’t wait for Mini Schmoyer to be born, can you make that happen early on a Saturday so we can come the day of?
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