Where else but Qwanoes can you be woken up by a tower blasting music through the forest letting  you know it is time to start another awesome day of adventure!? That’s what happened every day at Qwanoes this week! We actually have a sign right on the main road as you enter Qwanoes that says “Let The Adventures Begin!” What does that mean exactly? Well one minute your surrounded by your friends enjoying lunch on the Sky Deck and the next you might find yourself in any number of places from Q-Town to the waterfront or soaring through the air on the Sky Scraper! You could even find yourself defending the Kingdom of Utasia from total destruction in one of our many All Star Games!

It’s amazing what happens in the world of a camper as they  quickly get caught up in an unforgettable life-changing week in a place built for kids from the ground up!

Another adventure that campers have quite often at Qwanoes is discovering life like no other. This week many of our campers discovered a world that they never thought was possible, a world with Jesus at the center, which is truly life to the full. This week our speaker Sid Koop shared all about how we don’t have to walk through the adventure of life alone, we can walk confidently with the one created us.

I just got back from being out at tuck time and I ran into some campers from Korea! That’s right, all the way from Korea. A group of about 30 students just arrived in Canada two weeks ago and they will be here for five more months. I was so curious to see what they thought of all of this and what they thought of being at camp. The three girls that I met were Jieun, Ye In and Sujin. Right away they told me Canada is very cold… and it was +24 out at the time! They love the big mountains, and said everything is so green and big. Their favorite thing to do a camp is the SkyScraper and they love cookies at Mug-Up! They enjoy Q-Town music very much, and said it is very different then their chapel times back in Korea. I have to admit… our Q-Town’s are quite different than most chapels! Oh one last thing that I thought was quite interesting… they think Canadians say “excuse me” ALOT!

Another great week of Junior High camp comes to a close at Qwanoes – our very last Junior High week of the summer. We are sad about that, but still very happy we have our Juniors Camp coming up and then Youth Camp!

Tuck time is a grand old tradition at Qwanoes! It’s a time when the whole camp takes a break together and heads to the main field to hang out. It is quite something to see 400 campers and almost 200 staff descend onto the field from every corner of Qwanoes. I just got back from a walk around the field and boy was there a lot going on!

First I stopped by the most famous island at Qwanoes –  “Ice Cream Island” of course! There I met Zack who just got his order of a coke and mint chocolate chip ice-cream…now that is quite a combination! Our stores at Qwanoes are really neat, as everything is run through personal Tuck accounts. Our Juniors campers feel so grown up as they walk up to the counter and put in their order at one of our 5 stores spread around Qwanoes.

Walking past Ice-Cream Island you can find Shave Ice Palace! It is brand new this summer to our Juniors campers and they are loving it! I just walked the line and the campers are feeling the Hawaiian spirit as they can’t wait to get their mouth around a cool tasty ice treat. Shave ice can be found on many Hawaiian islands, and we thought hey! we are on an amazing summer island too, so why not have shave ice right here at Qwanoes! Russ the “Squirrel” even wrote a song called “on the island” and he sings it while playing a ukulele!

Talking about the Squirrel, there is something going on at the qrok Tower across the field! I better make my way over to see what’s going on! It seems that some crazy summer staff and campers have spontaneously broken out into a dance party ont he qrok deck. Wow! What a day! The sky is blue, the qrok tunes are playing, tuck is happening, it is summer at Qwanoes!

Our Tuck store was the first store at Qwanoes, and still a favorite of all our campers. I like to walk inside sometime as you can smell the wood, and all the treats… it reminds me of camp so much. Okay, that might be a little weird, but you should try it sometime!

Up on the hill I can see Grandma and Grandpa doing memory verses with the campers! During tuck the campers gather together in their cabins and tell their memory verses to our camp Grandma and Grandpa. I yelled out “What are you guys doing?” A couple campers spun around and said: ” Earning points! Memorizing verses is a way God can teach us about Him!”

And last but not least, it’s a special day today as the winners of “Cabin Clean-up” were announced. The winners all receive an ice-cream party right on the qrok deck. I asked one of the girls cabins who won what their secrets were and Evelyn told me: ” Stick everything in the bottom of your sleeping bag and no one will ever know!”

So long from tuck time at Qwanoes! Until next time!