French Beach Camping - Lifelong Leadership

 This past week we had an incredible time camping together on the West coast of Vancouver Island! We pitched tent for two nights within 100 meters of the Pacific Ocean at French Beach Provincial Park. It was an incredible time of community, relaxing, reading, and learning about how to be lifelong leader wherever life takes our students after the Kaleo Program. This year is almost over—Can you believe it?! We definitely can’, but it is certainly settling in that it’s less than a month till graduation. 

Sarah H, and Kelsey W, walking up to the campsite covering from the beach.

The camping trip provided the perfect balance of time spent with each other, time to go about and explore the beautiful beach front park, opportunities to reflect and learn about leading in the future, and also plenty of time to read the course material for their next class. 

Chris, Dawson, Jon, and Ian exploring the beach front. 

While camping we were divided into 4 groups that would separately prepare their own meals.
(pictured is Dawson and Jessica)

Lots of time to connect and read

The students each had 3 books with them as they were preparing for the course which just started today, Introduction to Christian Worldview with Grant Poettcker. There was lots of discussion happening all around camp about the contents of the books throughout the trip, the books are some of the more challenging philosophy books they will read this year, and most were enjoying the challenge. There was lots of re-reading pages to try grasp the concepts, but certain enjoying the moment where the idea 'clicks'.

Our three days also had a focus on learning what it meant to be lifelong leaders. This was incorporated through some interesting yet challenging group games and also Devo's during the mornings and evenings that were lead by the leadership team (Andrew, Lyann, Ashley, and Levi).

Trying to communicate without sight and sound proved to be quite a challenge!

We also had one of the most impressive tarp structures I have ever seen.
We dubbed it the coliseum, truly is a piece of art.

For our last leadership game it involved trying to build a structure with your team out of random things from the beach. The creations each team made were great and everyone had fun despite the rain. 

Our time at French Beach was definitely a highlight for a lot of us. So good to just spend time with each other in creation. The weather was pretty cold, and it did rain, but it all added to a comping trip that we are sure to never forget!

Thanks for checking in on what's been happening in the Kaleo Program! We have a lot more to share in the coming month, so keep checking back every thursday! 

Until next time,

Levi