More pictures from camp. Here is breakfast.
Elijah went with a simple bowl of cereal.

Mike had a breakfast burrito using up the last of leftovers.



The Rangers had to cleverly deal with the yellowjackets. These boogers would eat the meat off your plate if you let them.

Here is Ron telling the boys and leaders more about Jedediah Strong Smith



 

Royal Rangers is a great ministry to boys that our church supports. Mike has been a leader in Rangers for over 5 years now. One of the great perks is the campouts. Here they went Cibbets Flat during the weekend of 9/26/08

Here is a shot of the camp they set up.

Food

One focus point at the camp out was to make sure everyone remembered it. One way to remember an event of friendship & fellowship is to have great food! They had about 15 people to feed. Mike really enjoyed the challenge of creating the menu and working in the camp kitchen. Les saved the church a ton of money with her hard work at shopping, driving, and coupon cutting as she bought all the groceries. The Rangers had 5 star food at discount prices!

Here are some gross pictures of pork steaks marinated in a wet homemade rub from Mike.



On Saturday they planned a big lunch. The menu was BBQ chicken legs, pork steak, mashed potatoes and baby carrots.

A significant effort was made to conserve food and reuse as much as possible. For Saturday dinner, the plan was to convert the left over mashed potatoes from lunch into potato cakes. Interestingly, all the masher were eaten at lunch, so, at dinner, new mashers had to be made and then converted to cakes. The potato cakes were not without their own problems. Mike tried a new recipe that he did not try at home first (lesson learned!) and the cakes were not cooking through and firming up on the griddle. Another leader, also named Mike, helped to saved the cakes by thinning them and adding a touch or two of flour. The flavor was right on and, with help, they kept their shape. They served the cakes by first putting a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese on the plate and covering it with the hot potato cake.

Dinner was those potato cakes plus sloppy Joes, which was reusing the spaghetti sauce from Friday night's pasta dinner. It is amazing how you can change spaghetti sauce with just some brown sugar and BBQ sauce.

Dessert time - doughboys! Sounds strange, but they are terrific!
 

Ministry

Food is only a ministry to our stomachs. Our Rangers were at the campgrounds with Rangers from several other churches in San Diego. The boys and leaders met together throughout the weekend for great devotional times lead by Ron who is one our church's leaders. Do you know who Jedediah Strong Smith was? Ron used his story to teach the boys that they & the leaders should never cease to the be very best at what God has called them to be. Ron pointed out that Jedediah was called the best mountain man by his fellow mountain men and, here is the key, Jedediah's enemies said the same. The question to the boys and leaders: Does the enemy of your soul know you?

Competition

Saturday was the day of events. All the boys from all the churches competed together in relay fashion on several tasks.

Knot making. Here is Elijah and an adult working on their knots.

Fire starting. Elijah is using a metal match to create a spark which will ignite the cotton ball.


Not pictured is the compass relay and a fun water game.

Hiking

Boys and leaders went a short hike together on the Pacific Crest Trail. Here we have leader Mike finding and stripping a bloom from a cactus for him to eat. 



You should click on the picture to see it a bit enlarged. This is a tarantula hawk. It is a wasp and has an amazing story.



 

The Royal Rangers group from church organized a family hike at Missions Trails Regional Park. One of the leaders has gone through a detailed training process from Mission Trails and is now an official guide at the park. He led the group around the "Old Mission Dam" where Mike and the kids went to the event. They started pretty close to the area of the dam and were given great information about the park and the dam and the original Padres (Franciscan friars) who came to San Diego and oversaw this project.

Rachel knows where they are going .. water.


Fearless leader


Monument at the dam remembering the project and the workers




Inner boys group "Alpha 3"


"Joanna 1"


The dam still works. Here is the flue.


Rachel using Brad as a sun shade


Cool Joanna on the way home

 

Competition time! Elijah is racing the pinewood derby car he designed, built and painted. Rebekah didn't make a car this year, but she went along to cheer on her big bro.


Everyone loves Elijah, even those registering the cars for the race!


Elijah's car is the black one. He lost this race which secured his third place in the division.


Proud Elijah getting his bronze metal for third place in 2nd division (3rd to 5th graders).

 

Here we have the ranges for paint ball in the dark covering and next to it is the archery range. Mike & Elijah weren't able to get to shoot in either of these ranges. They lost track of the time while playing in the lagoon. By the time they got out, the ranges closed for the day. That gully raised the temperature by 10 degrees topping it off at 110 degrees.

Now they did get a chance to "shoot" lasers. Mike didn't take up arms and, instead, was the field photographer.

 

Early morning of Mike's & Elijah's campsite.

Best refuge from the heat. This is an early morning picture, so there aren't very many people, but, after lunch, this swimming hole would be packed.



Pretty funny? Who put that sign there?



He is throwing a knife.

 

The boy's group at our church has regular camp outs, but every 4 years, there is a huge event bringing together thousands of boys -- Camporee. This year the Camporee was held at Buena Vista Aquatic Center just west of Bakersfield. Mike & Elijah went along with other boys and dads from our church.

On the way, there was a little situation. The tire on the trailer blew out.

Good thing that there were many manly men there to change it!

The caravan has arrived at the park.

Opening of the doors for the first time at the camp. Things get a little thrown around inside while traveling.

Here is part of the site after they set up their tents. The boys and men have to work together to build their camp site: set up tents, set up the kitchen area, raise shelter, etc.

Sometimes a man has got to do what a man has to do to create some shade. This is important since the temperature was 100 degrees for the 4-day camp out.

On the first day, the boys and a leader take some time to prepare their pinewood derby cars. You should be able to see the red cheeks. This picture is about 4 hours after arriving.

Every morning and night, there was a great "church" service. There was a fancy stage with a sound system and lights. A band led worship and there were several different speakers. Oh, and lots of give aways--that was the best part for the boys!