Harder Family

Harder Family

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Trip West: Part 4 - Copper Island

Romans 10:14-15 "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'"

If you missed any of our pictures and updates from our trip, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

On Saturday, June 25th, we drove from Victoria, Vancouver Island and headed north to Port Alberni. There we met up with friends from our church. We all boarded a boat and headed for a small island 2.5 hours away. The scenery was amazing!! Our whole family fell in love with the area. The first day we were on the island, we had some free time to explore the island. The kids had a blast finding sea life (star fish, crabs) as the tide went out. 

We spent the week working along some amazing people. It was a privilege to participate in the work that is being done on the island and helping prepare the camp for campers this summer. The girls are already asking when we can go back. The week flew by quickly as we all worked hard every day. Some of the work Wayne and I did included: splitting and stacking firewood, trimming/pruning bushes, stacking lumber, building swim ladders, mowing and trimming grass/weeds, picking up rocks and sticks around the camp, etc. Others in our group helped clean the boat, set up the dock with canoes, cleaned the dining hall & kitchen, planted flowers, more splitting and stacking of firewood, etc. We all worked long, hard days. It was common to find me in bed early every night from pure exhaustion! We are so thankful for this amazing opportunity to serve the Lord with other amazing believers. Below are some pictures of our time on the island.



Our family stopped at this beach to eat lunch on our way to meet up with the group in Port Alberni.



Loading the boat


Micaela and Joella were thrilled to be reunited with their best friends!




Ray Badgero - our captain and leader for the week
























Coming into the camp...we've arrived!!








Note the bushes behind the sign. We removed all those bushes during the week (in the group photo later you can see the "after" picture)












Every night after dinner, we were blessed to have a chapel service.




















The woodpile we conquered!!




Micaela & Joella helping clean the kitchen.























On an afternoon off, our crazy group decided to hike to the small copper mine on the island. It was an intense hike!! The best story was Abigail and her friend were in front of me as we entered the mine. They were giggling and laughing and then Abigail turned her head toward the wall with her headlamp. She started screaming and ran past me saying, "Huge spiders!!!" I decided to suck it up and push forward (since the mine was small and I wanted to conquer my fear of the spiders...I just didn't touch the wall or look at the wall). 




The spiders (which covered the mine). They were actually pretty good size...Abigail said they were the size of a trantula. I didn't take time to look at them closely, so I can't confirm. I did hear others say they were good size spiders!






After hiking, the kids insisted on going swimming. Mind you it was in the 60s and the water was freezing (in the 50s). If you added the temps together, it was not warm enough to swim...it didn't reach the 120 degrees which prevents hypothermia (air plus water temp). Here is Joella wearing her sweatshirt to go swimming!!!




The kids lasted longer then I thought they would. Naomi and Sophia got even their heads in the water.


The teenagers and adults were the smart ones.




In the afternoons after working in the morning, the kids would play. All the kids got together and were creative playing "Chopped". Here are some of their "meals" they made. It was cute to see them all work together and their creativity.




Chopped judges






The last day, the kids finished up their work and were invited to swim off the dock. At least the sun was out this day, but it was still cold!! They all had a blast.








Mowing


Doing dishes and cooking



Weed whacking




Planting flowers




Naomi helping repair a bench



Sue splitting logs!!






Splitting logs was actually a lot of fun (even though it was a lot of work)





2016 group


Heading back to Vancouver Island





On the ferry to British Columbia



Crossing back across the Canada-USA border.



Preview: Part 5 will be posted on Friday (Redwoods, San Francisco, etc). I wanted to get all of our pictures up before Piano Man gets here so then I can share posts about him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAYNE!!! I also wanted to wish Wayne a happy birthday today. He is 40 today! We are so thankful that he is here to celebrate his 40th birthday. He hopes to get old and gladly embraces his age. It's a great reminder to us all to love our lives that God has given us and not complain about getting old. Embrace that wrinkled face, grey hair!! 

I love how Wayne loves God so fiercely and is committed to serving Him anyway God calls us! He also loves his family, knows how to have fun/be silly (see proof below), is a dedicated employee, and how he is willing to do crazy things on our journey of life together. I love you Wayne and I'm so glad that God brought us together.





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