Late this summer, a full group of children joined us to experience God in creation. We learned about God’s love and concern for all creation and God’s work in sustaining and redeeming it. With the camp, we spent the day exploring a piece of creation, the Pembina Valley, with all of our senses.
We began the day with a forest walk, seeing the scenic views, smelling juniper bushes, touching moss, and hearing birds as we went. Later, we built fires and shelters with dead fall gathered from the bushes to do more hands-on exploring. To end the day we collected and ate wild edibles such as buffalo berries and leaves from wild bergamot.
It was amazing to see the enthusiasm of the children to explore. An explosion of questions and stories were sparked with every topic we discussed. While we were shelter building, they had an amazing focus to build the best shelters they could. In the process, they discovered ferns, mosses and mushrooms. They also learned to tell the difference between living and dead trees.
This was the second of this summer’s two Creation Kids Day Camps. The first one had a smaller group where participants learned about coyotes, porcupines and beavers. Additionally, we talked about how God designed us and the animals for neighbourhoods and we explored the ‘pond neighbourhood’ at the centre.
