Survival Camp

They were good. It's just a little early for edible things to be growing. We found about 14 things we could eat.

There was a Rabbit that would have been dead meat if I hadn't trapped food at Walmart first. GRIN!

Mark Jones

If you call what you buy there edible food ha!

Dude it was all good. Those boys were ready to eat anything. They really had a great time. The long night with no pad or sleeping bag was a vigil but... next time we will be even more so up to the task.

Mark Jones

It's that time of year again. 3rd Annual Survival Camp, is Halloween. This time it's personal.
We'll be camping at a new location. Half an hour hike from parking to camp. This year's focus will be making water filters from both natural and common house gear.

I'm on the fence, but part of me really wants to do the Cmdrs vs Rangers camp. I'll probably let it be voted on.

RRCmdrBennett wrote:If you call what you buy there edible food ha!

Pretty handy and it's good food. Specially the produce section.. thank goodness we have some specialist there keeping it all fresh and wonderful!

Mark Jones

It occurred to me that I never sent in my report for this, so I'm fixing that now.
This year we were blessed. We were focusing on water filtering so we went to a new location. Our church is the host church to a local Teen Challenge location, and they have 80 acres of land with creeks and ponds and welcomed us. A pair of my commanders work there and asked us what we needed.
I said a place to camp and access to water is all. If you want to go over the top a pile of fire wood would be a blessing.
well WOW. When we got there the fire was already roaring, and the wood pile was easily 2 rows deep, 4 foot high and twelve feet long. Apparently they made us part of their chores for the day. I think Justin told some of the students there something to the effect of "We got boys sleeping out here tonight, and by golly, they're going to be warm."

In the evening it was all about shelter, insulation, and warmth. Several of us are hammockers but one pair of rangers buddied up on a tarp A frame. Then everyone was raking leaves and filling bags for insulation off the ground.

Once beds were set it was a lot of fire time. I always bring a huge box of hot chocolate packs so we got the water on the boil and let it flow. One ranger took survival seriously and made a batch of Hard Tack. It was fine by itself but doesn't take long to figure out hard tack is better dunked in hot chocolate.

So the next morning two boys who didn't prep their site quite as well came round the fire and chanted "C'mon the sun!" and hopped into the hot cocoa early. I don't care, that's what it was there for.
The rest of us slept very well. I love the hammock my wife got me. I think of her every time I camp in it.

Anyway, that morning another Teen Challenge worker walks on down and invites us to breakfast. Now when I told the boys about Survival camp, I told them it was Bring your own, Cook your own, or go hungry. Do you think we went to that breakfast invitation?

You're dang right I did!

One of the Rangers asked, "Well what are you having?" Before our escort could answer I said, "Who cares? It'll be in a heated building, surrounded by Christian brothers, and 80% chance it's a hot meal!"

Well when they invited us for breakfast, they were not kidding. Bacon & eggs, and Biscuits & Gravy. Milk based hot chocolate, OJ, muffins... For me it was one of those nice signs that the Lord gives your from time to time to verify that yes you are doing what you are supposed to do and as a Christian and a Commander, it is nice to get those from time to time.

So after breakfast our commanders / TC employees ask if we'd like to give the boys a tour of the place. See real life examples of ministry in action, somewhere outside the physical church.

Now this was not on my schedule. I had not planned for this. I had written down on paper what we were going to teach these guys today and breakfast had changed that already. do you think I would allow my precious schedule to be further derailed?

You're dang right I did. Turns out we found out on the tour that one of our guys is putting thought into being pastor so he was HIGHLY interested in a ministry tour. Also it seems we became a bit of the legend of the day for the camp out. Word had spread either from the firewood crew or the sighting of our campfire.

"So you guys really stayed out there all night?" "Man, I like to camp, but not that cold." etc...

The Rangers got a few confidence points from that, they all had grins at the end of that tour.

So after the tour we all got to work on our water filters. I had the boys all make a tripod based with either bandanas or an old t shirt. I made one from a plastic bottle so they could see what you can do with practicing nothing, or common trash you can find almost anywhere. After we filtered it, we boiled it up, and everyone drank "wild water" they had cleaned themselves. In our outpost that earns them a blue Wilderness Bead for their necklace.

Enjoyed the report. Good Job Commander.

Mark Jones