Camp Island Life

So what is living as a missionary like? I’m sure it is very different for everyone who is working in ministry service. It is certainly a change in lifestyle and an understanding of sacrifice.

It is a simple life here at Camp Symonette.

We are living and working at the camp. We have a room and we have use of the rest of the camp when there are no work teams here. We are the only people currently living at the camp. We have the use of the kitchen and dining hall to prepare our own meals and a place to eat them.

On a week day some of the young staff, mostly Leroy, arrive early enough to make themselves breakfast using the eggs collected from our chickens or leftovers from a meal when teams are here.

Leroy's best three egg omelet

Our pantry

 We share space – in the kitchen and in the refrigerator. Everything needs to be marked so you know who bought what food. Food is just expensive here so it is not polite to use another’s supply without asking.

Everything we have in our pantry to cook meals for the week.

Our laundry is hung out to dry on the line. So you have to think about things like – will it be cloudy today or will it rain? – When you have a clothes drier there is no need to plan for the weather.

We have daily chores to do – taking care of the chickens. They are so interesting to watch and to learn their habits and routines. Also, we make sure the garden is being tended.

Our first week of work we were called to do many things. When no teams are here to work in the repair of homes, camp prepares for the next team to arrive and finds time to organize and clean up. These winter months are slower than in the summer so much is being done to prepare for the summer busy season.

This week’s task was to clean out a space at camp to prepare it for future interns to live. Some tasks happen as a result of things breaking down. Our large camp freezer, which was in need of repair, stopped working – so, fixing this snowballed into removing it from the room, repairing it, and while it was out of the room, painting the room (always in a color which is fun and bright and tropical!) and shelving in addition to tiling the floor.

David cutting tile

This was also the space where all of the camp medical/emergency supplies are kept so this needed to be reorganized and put back in the room. (we seemed to find enough items which I think would allow someone to undergo a surgical procedure while at camp) Besides your basic band-aids and headache pills – we have blood pressure cuffs, blood sugar monitoring, CPR kit, tourniquet, survival heat blankets, suture kit, eye wash, eye patches, asthma meds, itch creams, allergy pills, bug bite wipes, Epi-pen and more gauze then anyone should ever need.

We try to take time each day (usually in the morning) to do devotions. One day I got up in time to watch Joyce Meyer online from the roof deck as the sun was rising.