Sunday

The devil just doesn't give up. Doesn't he know that we've got his number? Right before most any missions trip, he amps up distractions to get our focus off God and what He has in store, and it seems as though the more distractions the better the week will be. That being said, the Camp Daniel missionaries are in for a super special week at Special Touch camp for people with disabilities! Tony, John and Jen are morning chapel speakers and worship, Tim and Marceaux will both get there opportunity to be counselors for the first time. 
Here's a summary of recent antics. Tim. He worked at Camp Daniel part of the day on Saturday, then went home to install a hot water heater and pack for camp. Problems with the install, then a phone call that his mom severely broke her arm, and he was off to the hospital in Green Bay where he spent a few hours while mom was in surgery. He then went back home to finish that hot water heater. A leak and much aggravation later, it was 2am. This morning he got up early to go to the store to get a part and finish the hot water heater. Oh yea, he still has to pack. Oh yea, mom is still in the hospital and is having nausea from the general anesthesia. Oh yea, he runs the sound board at Mega and needs to be there at 9am. All those things don't fit! Thanx Doug to run sound so Tim can miss church! Pack, drop kids off at Mega and go to the hospital to help mom get home and all situated. Finally, at about 11:30 the devil has run out of tricks.

Then there's Jen. Her Grandma, with whom she lived with and take care of for the last  2 years, is in her last days here on earth. So Jen has been bombarded with emotions and decisions to be made about leaving on this missions trip. She also has the stress of Marceaux being a counselor for the first time at a camp for people with disabilities. She made the decision to go and after only 5 hours on the road she got the call that grandma had died. She continued on the trip but will return Wednesday for the funeral. Tony and John will drive her to St. Cloud about 75 miles on wednesday to hitch a ride with her cousin back to Green Bay.

Even Little Tony had much stress this morning with running behind due to the MEGA video that he had to film not working right (no sound).

Pastor John taught Sunday School and then they all had a meeting after church with a LHC team discussing the possibilities of a feeding ministry such as a food pantry or meal site. They Got on the road at about 1:30

Long story short, please pray for the Camp Daniel missionaries that are at camp in Minnesota this week, that they stay focused on all God has in store for them.

The crew arrived safely at the camp in Alexandria, Minnesota at about 11PM. All tired and ready for bed. Orientation does not begin till 10 Am so they can al sleep in!.

Saturday

I'm sooo sleepy, but this sucker is sooo yummy! No Charlie Brown moves here.

How cute are they?

This was a fun version of potato sack races.

Anthony and Annissa in a water balloon toss. I think Anthony got a wet leg on this one.

Today Little Tony and family went to the Family First picnic at Pamperin Park in Green Bay. Living Hope Church has definitely raised up some great leaders for this ministry. The highlights included a devotional, fun family games, lots of food, and fellowship. Many new families came out for the event, too! Lots of brochures were handed out to people in the park, so we're excited to see where those could lead.

Tim worked in the Craft Cabin some today before going home to get ready to leave for camp tomorrow. He prepped the dresser that will be used as a sink base in the small Craft Cabin bath (the one with the riverbed). Karol's plan is to complete the tiled top while the guys are gone, which sounds great, "in theory". Time will tell. Tim also put in the floor vent in the large bath which will provide additional heat, supplementing the electric baseboard heater. He probably did other stuff that I didn't notice as well. Presently, Tim is in Green Bay at St. Mary's with his mom, whom broke her wrist. We're praying for her.

Friday

Another busy day on the grounds at Camp Daniel! Little Tony got back on the bulldozer this morning to continue shaping the earth. He pulled out two large pine trees that were in the way of future patio and road. Just before lunch he got a heavy hydraulic leak. Little Tony and Tim got it fixed after lunch, so he "dozed" most of the afternoon. Tim poured the concrete countertop today. The guys had to bring the concrete in by the 5 gallon bucket full. It took __ bags of ready mix to do the entire countertop. It set up all day. At 9:00pm he's still working the cream to the top to smooth the surface.

Karol did some planting (still not done), painted the front door, put on outlet covers, cleaned up after Tim's concrete leakage, and helped Little Tony and Tim with planning the area being bulldozed. It never ceases to amaze how much planning needs to be done early on in a project. Everything affects a dozen other things, and many decisions need to be made every day that will affect something else down the road. It's a good thing that we pool our brain power together, as to not forget any subtleties, nuances or details.

Chrissy did data entry today for the counselors that will be coming to camp this summer.

John was in Green Bay all day, and did Able Fellowship tonight.

Little Tony and the guys were digging behind the Craft Cabin and they came upon what must have been a dump area from the Salvation Army era. In the pic below you can see the quantity of things found. The group on the left is all bottles. The right pile has metal pieces, a shoe, cans, broken china and crockery. We saved a bunch of the pieces for future display. Little Tony had fun on the heavy equipment. He started to pull up some of the old concrete on the side of the craft cabin. After the picture was taken, he worked until 9pm. Both pine trees are now gone and much of the dirt from the high area behind the cabin was dragged back to fill in the lower areas where the road will go.

This morning Jen and John did some planning and preparations for the chapel services that they'll be running next week at Special Touch camp. Then Jen and Marceaux spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening painting the 2x4s that will be used for exterior trim.

Karol and Little Tony did some shopping at Menards for Craft Cabin supplies, then had a meeting in Menominee. After arriving back at Camp Daniel, Karol primed the window, and painted both sliding glass doors and window.

Tim and Chrissy had a meeting in Green Bay this morning. This afternoon, Tim finished the prep work needed for the poured concrete countertop.

Wednesday

One day of rain may slow down work outside, but not two! Little Tony, Richard and Brian worked this afternoon in a steady rain getting the Craft Cabin patio ready for a concrete pour next week. They laid down pea gravel for a base for the landscaping block. The first row of block will be used as level for the screed. They dug out an area to pour footings for some more block work behind the craft cabin. George figured that if everyone else could handle the weather, so could he! I wonder if the guys all felt as cold damp as George looks in this pic. After his dinner he got a bath, because all day rain and dog don't mix. Little Tony spent the morning on the phone arranging the delivery and unloading of cultured stone, retaining wall block and concrete. He also worked on advocating for a Camp Daniel family on the phone with their pastor, which resulted in a Camp Daniel Service! He also began construction of a small wood shed near The Hartley House fire pit.
yea! The tile is officially done in the large bath in the Craft Cabin. The white grout really cleaned it all up and made the look more crisp and fresh. Karol was a happy camper (or shall I say, grouter)

Tim and Nick finished installing the cabinets. Then, after a quick online tutorial, they started on prep work for a poured-in-place concrete countertop. Below you see plywood base, 2x4 and wood that will frame up the front edge, tar paper, and rebar suspended from the tar paper by wood blocks. Tim is excited to do this project for the first time. He and the guys will probably pour it on Saturday.

After completing the grout in the bath, Karol primed the two sets of wood sliding glass doors.

Pastor John came back from MN today. He & Richard went to the dump, (which is always better on a cool day, rather than hot) Pastor John also continued work on the lessons He, Little Tony and Jen will teach next week at the Special Touch Camp in Minnesota, Tim and Marceaux are attending as counselors.

Tim, Chrissy and family headed into Green Bay for youth group, Tim s preaching tonight as pastor Mike is out of town. Jen and Marceaux are in Green Bay, spending time with Jens grandma, who is not doing well physically and is not expected to live very long. please keep Jen in your prayers during this hard time. 

Tuesday

The parade's over, time to get back to the Craft Cabin. The goal is to get Jen in before they (Tim, Little Tony, Jen, Marceaux and John) leave for camp in Minnesota, which is Sunday. Karol and the guys cleaned up and put away tools that won't be needed anymore (and a few that surely will) Tim began the day in a battle with the fax machine (he did eventually win.) Victory in hand, he moved to the Craft Cabin and finished the plumbing for the bathroom sink, then put the top trim on the border in the bathroom. Meanwhile, Karol and the guys got the cabinets (see pic below) from the dorm and put them in order. Then Karol puttied the nail holes on the border trim and gave it all a coat of paint. Tim moved into the main room and started on the cupboards. They are commercial cupboards from a lab and are about 4" deeper than average. Some were 10" deeper than average, so Tim cut two of them down to match the rest. Nick helped him level and attach the cabinets. They got about 75% done.
When the guys weren't helping Tim and Karol, they worked on leveling the new patio area that's adjacent to the Craft Cabin. They also had to cut out roots that were in the way. Some large enough to require Nick to use the reciprocating saw. They also made time to get their house clean. Quite a productive day.
Below is the toilet area. There's a wall dividing it from the sink. The hole on the left goes into a shallow closet. Just adding the upper trim makes it look better. The grout will bring it home!

Karol went over applications for the third week of camp (that's the week Living Hope Church is staffing) and organized who we still need applications from, who's coming, who's not, etc.

Jen and Marceaux were in Green Bay today. They ran Able Fellowship Family Night tonight and will be back tomorrow.

Pastor John came back from Minnesota directly to The Able Family Night. Sue will stay in Minnesota all week.

Little Tony Spent several hours on the phone talking to our camp speakers for 2009 and returning calls from campers parents and guardians. He also worked on getting organized for camp.

Memorial Day Monday

Today was all about the parade!
We left Camp Daniel for the Memorial Day Parade in DePere at 6:00 am. almost 40 people from The Able Church and Living Hope Church marched in the parade to promote our Mega ministry for kids and their families. Little Tony and Tim stopped at Living Hope Church to pick up the costumes for the parade. Then, we all headed to the parade route where we decorated the truck, trailer and Mega Micro Bus. Our paraders included kids, adults, puppets and all of the main characters from Mega, including the above shown Mega Claus. He was a huge hit with the kids.

Norton the Rat was one of the puppets singing along to the Figureheads song, "Born for a Reason" and MEGA theme song which was cranking from the Mega sound system.

Here's a shot of all of the paraders before we started on the route.

Marceaux was the Professor and Anthony was the micro prof.  They were a lot of fun. But I'm not sure that anyone out shown Kitt Cleereman. She's the consumate cheerleader.

Here's a pic of Marceaux and Jen. How cute are they?
We handed out about 500 MEGA brochures, we will have 2 or 3 thousand ready for next years parade. Overall it was a ton of fun and a huge success. The bus drew a lot of attention, and many were interested in finding out more about MEGA.

Tony and the guys unloaded the bus and moved some dirt in the evening and Karol continued gardening into evening. 

Sunday

The Kelly's, the Piantine's, the guys, Jen and Marceaux all went to Mega this morning. After church, Tim held a missions trip meeting for those from Living Hope Church that will be coming to Camp Daniel's third week this summer. Even with it being a holiday weekend, there was still a good turnout for the meeting. Everyone at Camp Daniel is looking forward to that week.

This evening we all gathered again, this time at the Kelly's home, for the weekly Sunday dinner. We discussed what's going on in the coming week. The DePere parade is tomorrow. Then it'll be crunch time to get Jen into the Craft Cabin before she, Tim, Little Tony, Marceaux and John leave for Special Touch's Minnesota camp on Sunday.

After getting back from the Kelly's, Marceaux, the guys and Little Tony got the Mega Micro Bus, "Mega Mac" loaded onto the trailer and ready to go for a 6 am departure. Karol painted banners for the parade. It's 10:15, and LT's working on the music for the parade tomorrow. Any further developments tonight will have to be shared on tomorrow's blog.

Saturday

Sam Johnson arrived at Camp Daniel at 7:30 this morning, after leaving Black River Falls at 2:30 am! They worked on the heavy equipment today. He took pictures of most of the pieces and will try to sell some. We'd like to sell some of the larger pieces to buy a skidsteer. They worked all day, and left at about 4:00 pm with caffeine in hand for the 4+hour drive back to Black River Falls. Tim and Little Tony were Sam's lovely assistants today (aka they mostly watched him work) There are very few things that those two can't do, apparently welding is one of them. Maybe they picked up a few pointers. After the Black River Falls crew left, Tony used the tractor to dig out dirt (of course by dirt, what I really mean is sand) around the Craft Cabin where a concrete patio will be.

Karol worked on getting all those plants in the ground from Thursday's plant sale. She planted/weeded her way around the gazebo. She discovered that there's a lot more garden there than it appears!

In the evening, Little Tony, Karol, Annissa and Anthony went to Karol's dad's cabin for dinner.

Marceaux didn't have much of a change of scenery. Yes, the Mega Micro Bus again. What a huge undertaking it has been. He did officially inform Little Tony that it won't be running for the parade on Monday. The parts he needs are only available via junk yards. He found what he needed...in California.

The guys worked by the lakefront some today, but mostly, they dug up the sod from the area previously mentioned by the Craft Cabin. The sod will be reused elsewhere.

Jen painted 2x4s that will be used as exterior door and window frames on the Craft Cabin and Hartley House.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

Wednesday

Karol & Little Tony went to Green Bay for the day. Karol shopped for camp and some things needed for the Craft Cabin. Tony had meetings at Living Hope Church. They also bought shrubs for the Camp Daniel grounds.

Tim, Karol and Tony met with some of Karol's clients interested in more design work in their home
Tim had meetings at Living Hope Church in preparation for the Living Hope Church picnic.
Marceaux continued work on the Mega Micro Bus, bringing the engine roaring to life!! Now he is waiting the for brakes to come in so we can stop.
John mowed and trimmed most of the day.
In the evening, Tim and Chrissy help lead the youth group at Living Hope Church.


Thursday

Little Tony and the guys worked on the lakefront. They fixed the eroded areas and expanded the beach. They put in sod and planted all the bushes they bought yesterday.
Karol bought about 30 plants for the Camp Daniel grounds at a plant sale in Grover. aka "The Crazy Plant Sale." Nick and Brian came along. They were a three-man team with a serious plan of attack.
Tony did some maintenance on the tractor

Karol also got some things done for camp, like finalizing the menu.
Tim plumbed the large bath in the Craft Cabin and cleaned up along with Jen, in the main room of the Craft Cabin in order to install the cupboards on Saturday.
John finished mowing and trimming.
Sue left for Minnesota. She'll be watching the grandkids for a few days.

Tony Sr worked on the books in his newly updated quickbooks program.

Jen worked on her missionary newsletter.

Julia Axelrod, former CD intern visited in the evening. Julia is looking for a job in Minneapolis with a non profit doing advocacy work for people with disabilities, if anyone has a connection call us!

Jeff Olsen came over to borrow the CD sound system for a camp out for his off roading club.

Friday

The guys continued work on the lakefront, including the daily watering of the area of newly planted grass and the over 100 trees and shrubs planted this spring. Karol did some garage saling. The prize of the day was a pair of wooden water skis that will used for display in the Bait Shop. She also bought a pile of 45 records to decorate with on Fifties night at camp.
Little Tony, Tony Sr. and Jo drove to Waupaca, WI to attend the funeral of Ona Heuser. She and her husband Darwin where their pastors for almost 20 years in Illinois. Ona is also Larry Campbells (Speaker at CD) Aunt. The Heusers estate made a donation to CD which is the beginning of the what will be Heuser Chapel at Camp Daniel.
Jen and Marceaux took the guys to The Able Church.
John left for Minnesota. He'll be staying with Corrie in Rochester.
Karol planted many of the plants purchased in the past few days. Still many to plant though!

Friday night is Able Church night. Jen, Marceaux, and the guys went down. Marceaux taught for the first time on a Friday night. Pastor John left for Rochester and His daughter Corrie's house early in the morning.

Tuesday

You never know what's going to happen at Camp Daniel on any given day. A phone call came late this morning with the offer of a black bear that was found dead on private property in northern Marinette County. The game warden picked it up and brought it to Camp Daniel. Below Richard is checking out the new addition to "his" nature center. After the photo op, John brought the 250 lb male black bear directly to the taxidermist in Three Lakes.

Little Tony, Richard and Brian formed up the new concrete walk near where they pulled out the boat launch yesterday.

Tim and Nick worked on the exterior of the Craft Cabin. They framed, insulated and sheeted it. They also installed the final window.

Marceaux still plugging away on the Micro Mega Bus! He's been told that if it isn't running by Monday for the Memorial Day parade in DePere, that he'll be pushing it thru the parade! how's that for incentive. Hopefully he'll get all the parts he ordered today in time to get 'er done.

Deacon Jim from Our Lady of Hope Church, in Illinois, came up today. He's the leader of the youth group that's done 3, one week, working mission trips to Camp Daniel over the past several years. They're a great group, and we always appreciate everything that they do when here. He came to finalize the projects and place a materials order at Menards. Karol made lunch for him, Little Tony and Tim after she spent the morning helping in Anthony's class and grocery shopping.

Monday

Tim and Karol toiled with the epoxy grout in the two bathrooms of the Craft Cabin. Hard to believe that this grout job could possibly take that long or be that much work! They kept Nick busy bringing buckets of clean water. The epoxy grout will last forever, and not stain, so it'll be worth it in the end.

Little Tony, Richard and Brian broke up the old concrete boat launch by the lake. The removal of it will help with beach erosion and will make way for a new path.

Marceaux got some parts for the Micro Mega Bus, and continued work on it.

John and Sue came back from MN

Chrissy came out to Camp Daniel in the morning and did some work in the office getting organized. She came back with the kids after school and all of the CD missionaries had the weekly dinner. They covered highlights from the prior week, and plans for the coming week. It's a lot a people to keep organized as far as who's going where a doing what each day of the week. John shared some funny stories and had everyone laughing. A great beginning to what will hopefully be a great week!

Friday May 15, Saturday May 16

Friday & Saturday

Karol and Chrissy both went on school fields. Karol and Anthony went to the NEW Zoo and Chuck E Cheese's. Chrissy and Kaden went to the Children's museum in Appleton. After school, they all headed to Green Bay to help out with the Figureheads hip hop concert. Of course, Tony and Tim had been at church for the the last 3 days. They organized breakfast and all of the other logistics at Living Hope for the teacher seminar with Vicki Seilaf from Living Hope Church, that the Figureheads did that morning. 60 teachers from Green Bay Public Schools participated at the Church. It was an awesome event. After that event was over, it was time to get ready for the concert that would start at 6:30. They set up chairs and redid a bunch of sound system stuff and hung out with the Figureheads.

The concert was a hit. We all had a lot of fun. DJ even got to work with the group to play harmonica on one of their songs! There was about 200 people there. Many from the Able Church, and many people who'd never been to Mega. Hopefully, some will come regularly.

Thankfully, today (Saturday) was a bit more low key. Karol did some gardening for a couple hours this morning, til it got too cold. Tim got things ready to grout the baths this coming week. Tony worked on the computer making a dvd for Living Hope Church's Family Camp, and he also worked on video for Mega.

Jen worked the guys today. They pulled nails from all of the wood that Little Tony had taken off of the Craft Cabin's exterior and moved it to storage and the burn pile. She also entered counselor information into the computer for this coming summer. Marceaux was back at trying to hook up everything in The MEGA Mini Bus, he only has week to have it running for the Memorial Day parade in Green Bay.

John and Sue took off to Minneapolis.

Yesterday, Little Tony and Tim had some struggles, but they did manage to get the Mega Micro Bus to Green Bay for the Figureheads concert. The Figureheads are a hip hop group out of Milwaukee Wi. The Figureheads are missionaries, who go into public schools and teach students that they are born for a reason and also teach teachers how to reach students who have different needs in learning all through their music. The Figureheads are scheduled for 3 school assemblies tommarow and then a teachers training in the MEGA Center on Friday morning, and then the big concert hosted by The Able Church Friday eve. 

Tony and Tim worked on finishing the installation of the super sound system and 42" flat screen TV in the MEGA bus. (Eat your heart out Mystery Machine!) Jen's cousin Chris helped them  and that only took til 3am. Oh yea, they also had to meet up with the Figureheads (band doing the hip hop concert at Mega) when they got in at about 11pm. After a short night sleeping in the church it was up bright and early to be at Helen Keller School at 7:30 am. The Figureheads did three assemblies there today. It was an awesome time of reaching out to the community and connecting with others in ministry. Tony and Tim brought the MEGA Bus which talked to all the kids throughout the day. The kids loved talking to a van!

Yesterday Karol tried to get caught up on lots of things needing done, and all was going well until it was time to work on a computer. Can you hear the progress coming to a screaching halt? Who needs address labels anyways?

Yesterday John and Marceaux went to Menominee MI to check out a donation of a box truck that is needed for storage. They also got a load of mulch from the cedar fence guys at Machalk.
When they got back, Richard and his crew got straight to unloading the full load of mulch, so that Karol could hook up the trailer to the pickup.

This morning, Karol and Chrissy headed off bright and early to load up on food for camp and work days at the food bank in Omro. (with detours to drop off Marceaux at Jen's parents, and to Helen Keller school to drop off Micah (no kids are allowed at food bank)) Got back to Camp Daniel at about 2:30 and unloaded and organized the food in the snack stand.

Tony Sr. and Jo flew out to Pennsylvania today to visit family. They'll be back on Tuesday.

Karol finished tiling in the large bath of the Craft Cabin!! yea!

I told you this would be cool. Tim did a great job on the small bath. On to the grout...

When Tim finished tiling, jumped in with Little Tony and the Guys on the Block work. After the blocks were all mortared in, they covered the walls in plastic to protect the insulation until the rest of the exterior can get finished.

Marceaux spent many an hour trying to get the Mega Micro in driving condition.

Jen, John, Sue and DJ, went to Able Family Night.

We're quite happy and proud of all the work that's been done in that past two days.

Jen primed the wood for the trim in the Craft Cabin.

The Guys helped Tony with the block work.

Little Tony stripped off the old exterior and started the block work for the new exterior.

Tim installed the door for the small bath, installed trim in large bath, then started laying tile in the exterior bath for the Craft Cabin. Check out the stones in the middle of the tiles! Very cool. Wait til you see what's coming next...

While Tim was tiling in the small bath, Karol installed part of the tile border in the Blue and Lime Green Bath.

Sorry, no pic, but Marceaux worked on getting the engine up and running in the Mega Micro Bus.

Tony Sr. worked on mailing labels and the CD Books.

Pastor John went to Gendrons in Coleman to have the riding lawnmower serviced and ran errands getting saw blades and building materials

Today was a busy day at Camp Daniel.

Every Sunday Camp Daniel Missionaries direct a kids program in partnership with Living Hope Church in Green Bay. MEGA is a program developed by Camp Daniel for churches to use to reach out to kids and their families in the local community and to have a place for people with disabilities to minister. MEGA is a high powered, loud and crazy time of presenting the gospel in a unique way. Many of the Able Church members minister on the worship team, with puppets and in acting roles.

Also every Sunday morning at 9 Am Pastor John has an Able Church Sunday School class.

Sunday evening kicked off weekly Family Meeting Dinners for the Camp Daniel Staff

the large bath has colors and the floor tiled. Yes, that's lime green on the ceiling. Doesn't everyone?

all painted in the exterior bath. There's a small shower tucked in the corner.

almost gone...

Porch on the way out