Capernaum Camp

Tertia and I had a wonderful opportunity last week. We flew out to Virginia to join big brother Daniel and go to Capernaum Camp with the Young Life Fairfax group. Capernaum is the branch of Young Life that reaches out to young people with special needs. Tertia has been attending a Capernaum Club here in Clark County since last December, but Daniel arranged for it to happen where he knows some of the leaders and had volunteered in the past.

The campground is Rockbridge Alum Springs, in rural Virginia. Young Life camps are designed to make you overwhelmed with the awesomeness of it all from the moment you arrive. Kids are told this is going to be the best week of their lives... and special needs kids are no exception. They each have a one-on-one "buddy" and are called Friends, not "kids with disabilities." They can do everything the typical kids can do... horseback riding, the zip line, the rope course, the "screamer" swing. All with the assistance that friends and family provide to people who need barriers to be removed so they can encounter Jesus... like the paralyzed man in Capernaum.

There is a pretty high energy level all week long. It reminds me of a perpetual Field Day, but cooler. Fairfax Capernaum dressed as the Toy Story Aliens for the Disney challenge.

 Club meetings are very loud, but noise-canceling headphones are available. Tertia is going to get a pair of these, I think!

 She loved most of the thrill rides, except the ropes course. But the giant swing was her favorite.

In the meeting time they break down the message of Jesus so beautifully and simply.
1. We can trust God because He made us "very good." I was in tears when I realized there were kids there who have never heard that, or maybe assumed that because of their disabilities, they weren't included in that. But here, they were the majority.
2. We can trust God/Jesus because He is always with us, like He was with the disciples in the storm at Galilee, and like He promised before the Ascension. We can trust God just like we can trust our harness to keep us safe on those thrill rides that are so fun and scary at camp.
3. When we turn away from God, it's like being cut off from our family. We feel scared and alone. The Narnia story illustrates this, and so does the great parable of the prodigal son. Scared and alone... how I'm sure many kids living with disabilities do feel.
4. But Jesus gave his life for us. So he can bring us into his family and we don't need to feel scared and alone ever again.

 With big bro in the dining hall. Did I mention, the food is fantastic... served family style with a comedy-variety show after every meal.

Tertia loved Stormin' Norman and his little sister Gigi, and fiercely booed the villain who was trying to steal camp from them.

With her wonderful Buddy.

It was an amazing week. I'm so glad she had the experience, and I hope we can participate again.

July ending, August beginning

 I haven't blogged all the July pics yet, and here we are in August. Some dancing shots of Daniel and Tertia at Ian and Ashley's wedding...

Tertia dances with such complete joy, even when her feet hurt from dancing all night.

 My July birthday girl made her own birthday cake. It was a Mocha Toffee Crunch cake, and it was delicious! She is seventeen now.

Also, Tertia and I entered the Harry Potter trivia competition on July 31 at Latte-Da Coffeehouse and Wine Bar. We won second place! Tertia is the trivia whiz... I provide transcription and spelling assistance, and I know Latin so if she remembers  something that sounds vaguely like "priori incantatem" I write it down.

 A shirt, a Dobby poster and a special vial of Felix Felicis (for decorative purposes only) were the spoils of victory. She is already making plans for the next event on Halloween.

 The Clark County Fair is  now open. Pygmy goats are always photogenic.

 I didn't enter any quilts, but enjoyed looking at those on display.

And the girls doing a silly shot in the 4H cats and dogs pavilion. Not pictured: our annual stop at the Dairy Women's booth to buy milkshakes before leaving the fair.

The plum tree is doing its thing, we are making plans for camp, the Megaquilter is semifunctional again and I am binding Grand Illusions quilt, which really deserves its own post. I'm also doing  genealogy semi-obsessively - which needs its own post; and I'm working on my Latin course for Wikiversity, which needs its own post. The random number for August is 9 - that means that my randomly selected UFO's for this month are (1) to resurrect the ancient Mariner's Compass rug hooking project from... maybe 18 years ago... and (2) work on knitted gifts for my stash. Neither of those is happening so far but I have finally turned the heel on my purple Sara Elin socks. 

Ravelry is still being a booger though, so I'm spending very little time there. They have lifted the restriction on me posting but they have blacked out my profile and are showing no signs of restoring it even though I purged it of everything political and asked to have it restored. And it wasn't even political in the first place! For the record, I oppose censorship. And the people who run Ravelry ... well, I can't say anything nice. But hey, at least they aren't spitting in my food or trying to get me de-platformed everywhere else. Their lunch counter, their rules. It's just one more symptom of a broken culture, where disagreeing with the Left on anything makes you a racist, and Twitter mobs can force the New York Times to take down the bland headline "Trump Urges Unity vs. Racism" because it wasn't anti-Trump enough. Yes, definitely time to tune out of Twitter and Ravelry and any other triggering sites for awhile.

Well, back to your previously scheduled summer. I want to prep a dehydrator full of plums today. Quarta has already made a load of plum-roll-ups for the winter. I also need to tackle Tertia's clothes and bag up the surplus ones so she can actually get them put away in her dresser. And there are a few quickie baby quilts I would like to make, but probably not until after camp.