Hello friends,
I am now at the start of another camping season.On June 6th, we will begin 7 weeks of intense work.
That is not to say we have not been working already though!
In my last update, you heard about a lot of the stuff I did, and the snow I was able to enjoy before it melted away.
In the past couple weeks, Family camp was a big event.
Over 111 people were here over the weekend. We had a speaker and some good singing and other programs. There were many youth and young people too. I was able to utilize the Rock wall for two days. They enjoyed it a lot, even though we did not have enough staff on hand to open up the rappelling side of the tower.
(It will be fully used during camp summer camp)
Lots of beds were moved after that, as we prepared for the summer kids camp.As our summer staff started to fly in, things started happening and Kyle and I tried to keep all the jobs and projects going.
I built a couple more bed frames.
One picture you will see shows me putting 5 new canoe paddles into service.
Using some nice birch wood, the paddles look and feel like the same thing you would buy from a catalog that makes wood paddles.
The bathroom upstairs in house 8 is done, and now the 10 men staying in my house are enjoying the best shower(in my humble opinion) in camp! The last of the exterior trim is being installed now.
Another quad was brought into service as I rebuilt 3 of the starters for the 4 wheelers.
That meant that we had 6 quads zooming around camp!
We have been working on a new idea for heating our 15' swimming pool.
We have been having fun with our creative idea of having floating heater elements.
Thanks to Steve, one of the men that came up for the spring, we have a level pool, full of water, and in great shape. (He did many other tasks as well)Recently Byron and I finished a frustrating project in House 3, as we got the girl's house ready for them.
The water heater was not working and I endevored to fix it. (I enjoy having a hot shower in my house, and know they would also enjoy having hot showers) After taking a part a lot of the heater, I found the plugged up pipe in the tankless water heater. But it took hours and hours to solder the stuff back together and make repairs to things that should never have been attempted to be repaired.
But it is all done, and working well now.Another thing that we are working on are the final flights of stairs on the rappelling tower. I got the stringers in place for the second flight. The tower seems to be in great shape, and ready for another season!
Arnold and his crew are busy at the sawmill making more lumber, which will be needed for different projects.The red truck is repaired and usable again.
It might be good to give a brief report on my engagement as well.
Rebecca and I knew that it was going to be very challenging to be engaged and handle our different responsibilities of helping run summer camp at the same time.I am not complaining.
I am thankful for the challenges, and for the revealing of our character when the going gets tough. And it will!
It has already been challenging, finding the balance between the retreat center, and our relationship. Yet we know full well we will learn more, and will appreciate your prayers for us even more as we head into 7 weeks of camp.
(Read last year's stories and you will get a feel for how intense the time is)
We have done a few fun things together. We climbed up Kako mountain one evening.
On another trip we went down to the lake on a Honda and watched the ice on the lake, and were in places where many memories have been made in the past.
Then I took her down the road a ways, and we enjoyed our fries(pieces of wood) under the double arches, the big 'M', like we were at McDonalds! (See the picture for the trees in the shape of it)
Then Rebecca thought I was crazy, as I wanted to go run on some 'icebergs' floating in the middle of our pond. I swam out to them and indeed run on them. 
I had fun as I jumped ona little one, and it sank under me and I had to catch another one. I had about enough, and dove in off the ice, and swam to shore. (warm shower after!!)
Now it is time to focus on the week of camp ahead.
Please lift this week of camp up, as we have so many elementary age children coming in.
Pray for us in our walk, and responsibilities.
We have a need for .22 LR ammo for our riflery event.
Back to John Erickson
