Well this is the day...

This will be our last post before our return from our Jungle Camp summer. We have been putting in long hours to prepare a place for us to live the next four weeks. Right now it sounds like a long time, but I am certain it will go by quickly.

The house is not completely finished. There are quite a few minor things to complete. Jinni wants to add some storage area to the back area, near the kids 'rooms'. I need to finish 'hanging' the back door. I have the front door framed, but it needs some tweaking, too. All in all there is not that much left which seems impossible since the time has been some brief to erect this dwelling.

Jinni will be going on an overnight hike in two weeks. It will be over some of the same beautiful terrain I had the pleasure of seeing. I know she will have a great time. I will be with the kids while she is away, obviously. I am looking forward to some really great quality time with these precious little ones.

As you pray with us, please remember Jinni and the ladies as they are hiking. The families with newborns will be needing some strength and wisdom as they live in the 'jungle' for the next month. Some fathers will be dealing with babies that are still nursing, I remember those days well - grace, real grace during that time was a blessing.

Jinni's Mom, Sister and niece came up for the last few days. It has been great having them here they'been a real blessing - refurbishing the reading lounge chair, hanging out with kids, even playing soccer with some of the staff and their kids! Thank you Lord for sending them our way at this time.

We will be having "Camp Open House" July 8-9, if you are in the area either day is going to be great to have you stop by for a visit!

We are looking to the Lord for wisdom and direction as we enter these summer weeks. We long to know His guiding hand as to where He would have us serve. We are so certain that this is where we should be. How we thank God for His precious promises...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall make your path straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

...God had directed us into this preparatory training and we are so thankful that He continues to confirm this is the path for us day by day. We have seen Him use various means to ensure we do not miss a single opportunity to know Him more intimately. His provision for the entire year of training has been the highlight of our knowing His hand on the most intimate areas of our lives. He continues to show us our need of Him for life daily. Our trust in the guiding hand of the LORD continues to be a point of blessing as we see Him exalted in our minds and hearts daily.

Thank you for your continued prayer on our behalf. We can not tell you how much we appreciate the time you take to go to the throne of grace on our behalf. We thank God every time we remember you and your love for us. We can be contacted by regular post while we are in the 'jungle'. If you would like to write us, here's the information:

Roland and Jinni Shafer
313363 Hwy 6 South
Box 707
Durham, ON, Canada
n0g 1r0

We would love to hear from you. We even have stamps to write you back!! In closing I offer you a blessing I love from the Old Testament, found in Numbers 6

"The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually)." Num 6:24-26 AMP

Until July 15th, keep resting in Him!

Well today was very productive!!!! It is starting to look like a house and even a home
the "boys" return from their 3 day hike tomorrow and my Mom, sister and niece arrive at dinnertime Kids are a big help ! RJ and Elijah mostly, but girls are having fun and help in small ways like collecting wood for the fire in the stove and straightening out the rocks for the paths

Photos for the day----- Front View from group firepit

View from staff house

I can sleep now ----zzzzz

More shelving for food

Our 10 foot table

Well the kids and I were all alone as Roland and the men left for a 3 day hike
I got some things done---but they are half finished Praying Roland will be OK on hike and have fun My sister Mom and niece come Wednesday---yahoo
Now the kid's can do the dishes and help cook

beginning benches still need work

We miscalculated a little, so now we have a BEDroom all bed

Roland had this chair nice, but I had to move it and now it is lopsided ugh!

Here are the girl's beds

Day 08 - Seperate Paths

Today I will be heading out on the Bruce Trail 3-day hike with the men of my class. We will be moving through maps 6-8 on the reference page I have included the link to. It will be a tough hike but not as difficult as keeping things going back here at the Jungle Camp "community".

Here is another map of the area maybe a little less clear. We will be leaving at 7:30 this morning and coming backk Wednesday night.

Please pray for safety ad endurance of the men on the hike. Knees and backs can have
problems we have heard. I am on both of those hit lists! Anyway, jinni will be updating the blog while I'm away.

Please, pray for her and all those who will be remaining to accomplish much.

Until the last tribe is reached...
2 Corinthians 4-5

Day 07 - They RESTED!!

How we thank the LORD for a day of rest. It has been a strenuous week of managing children , anti-infalammatory medication, hard work, and sleep. The day of rest we had will enable us to press forward toward completing our Jungle Camp preparation final week.

Please continue to pray for our spiritual growth as we move into week 2, that the lives of many who have not heard the saving testimony about Jesus Christ would remain our heartbeat, that God bearing fruit through our loves would be our breath, the truth that Jesus Christ is our All-Sufficient One would be our mind set and that Jesus Christ is our life source would continue to be our lives' foundation.

Today - Day 6!

Six straight days of building our Jungle Camp residence. days.We have worked hard these past six It has been a great learning experience. We have had the chance to work with others and learn some nifty ideas for those we've been able to ask questions of. The most wonderful time each day has been the times we've spent before starting our work. We've gathered in a few different places just to pray with those of us who are there early. It has brought most of us closer together, knowing the things we are most concerned about others are willing to pray with us about.

We have been able to enlist the help of the kids to some degree. RJ and Elijah have been especially helpful when they stay focused on their individual tasks. They need some coaxing at times and lots of breaks to keep their motivation level up and their thinking machines engaged.

RJ learned quite a bit working with Jinni today. Together they completed adding the shelves to the 'kitchen' area. It was not easy but he was able to get the job done. Elijah helped Jinni with the stove for some time today. The girls played mostly but asked if they could help with the clay. Jinni got out some of her old 'beach glass' so she and the girls could add a decorative touch to the otherwise drab clay of the stove.

I have been hurting for about 10 days, from a soccer injury to the left chest. I am not sure if a rib is bruised or has a slight separation. It has been painful at times and bothersome during the night when I need to sleep. I am counting on some rest Sunday to see if it will heal without the stress of building.

Jinni and the children will be by themselves for three days starting Monday morning. The men are scheduled to hie for three days and two nights on the "BRUCE TRAIL". The entire trip is about 30-35 kilometers. I think that comes out to near 20 miles. I havent been hiking that far for over 25 years. It will be quite a trip to be sure.

Please pray for Jinni while I am away. It is challenging when we are both home caring for our little ones. Please pray she will be able to get some of the needed storage structure built. Pray for RJ and Elijah to be motivated to 'pick-up the slack' and continue to help Jinni. I am going to need some physical strength to make this hike without injury. I could stay back here, if I am in too much pain. That is not my desire, please pray for wisdom to make the right decisions.

Mostly pray that we will continue to see this time as preparation for our serving those who have not heard about the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that the urgency of reaching them would continue to grow as a heart vision within Jinni and I, and that God would emphasize that in the minds of our precious children, too.

These are pictures from Day 5 they show Jinni working like mad to get our stove ready to cook, and heat our bathing water from. She (I helped a little, too, between other projects) lined the cradle with regular dirt and then as you can see she had to mold her way around the entire contraption. The clay is for containing all heat from our fire within the drum structure it is constructed out of. She did a bang-up job, don't you think!?

The last picture in this series is from outside the house. The stove pipe has been added to enable a better burn from the wood. A draft coming over the top of the roof provides a better draw out of the internal combustion chamber. Works incredibly - proven by the many who have done this before us and survived ... :-)
Here is where we will be "bathing". There will eventually be a small bench seat for sitting to dry feet, etc.
One of last year's Jungle Campers built this door and left it behind (some folks leave work for those following) and Jinni inherited it from another family in our Jungle Camp community who couldn't remember how to install it. I didn't either but Jinni asked them for it. So... later the builder of the door came by our place and explained how to get it to work while his wife graciously handed us some treats they had made for all the crews working. Bernd and Hannike Buseman, the builder and his wife are heading back to Germany to have their first child and wait for the Lord's direction as to where they will be serving. We'll miss them
This is the Dining Room area. Bench seating for everyone during meals, with enough table space to seat our whole class (almost). Our dining table is 10'long!

Day 4 - What an awesome Day

Today we moved forward on getting rooms divided, building the support carriage for our Jungle Camp stove, dug refrigerator holes, and then watched the sky break apart with rain followed by a 10-15 minute HAILSTORM!!

That's right I said hailstorm. It was incredible. We looked over the newly installed roof and thanked the Lord for no branches through
it during the HEAVY weather. When the storm passed through again it dumped even more rain and hail so that the hail almost looked like snow piles in some places.

Whew! We were scheduled to have the weekly 3 PM coffee break at our new 'digs' but the storm put the damper on that... temporarily. A fellow rain-soaked citizen was able to get some coffee brewed and delivered to the JC Chapel, another had pre-purchased 2.5 dozen doughnuts which along wih Jinni's homemade Oreo/oatmeal special cookies it turned out to be a great time about 4PM.

Bye Steve and Katrina Marti. We'll continue praying for you as you head to Arizona. Glad to have had the oportunity to get to know you this past year. The sun be at you backs and the wind always fill your sails...

Jungle Camp - Day 3


Today was an other exciting day for us all. We started out with a few of our fellow builders and had a time of prayer. It was a great way to begin our 3rd day of construction.

We got to our lot and knew we were just a
few rafters short of a roof (not me - the Jungle Camp house) :-)
As the morning wore on, quickly, we saw two of the last three plastic roof going on to our neighbors' places. Finally came the moment we had been waiting for... our plastic roof was installed!



What a joy to see our plastic atop our Jungle Camp living quarters - whoooooeeeeeee!


Jinni was able to snap a few pics while some of our neighbors and me were working on getting the plastic on.


When it was all in place (not anchored to the structure though) one of our neighbors took our first family photo in our new Jungle Camp Summer residence! YEAH GOD!!!

Jungle Camp - Day 2 Photos


RJ is all 'tooled up' and ready for the next big job. Here is the loft where he and Elijah will be sleeping. He constructed the ladder.

(Underneath their loft, the girls will be sleeping.)

This shows the first rafters Jinni and I were able to get up on the roof structure. We secured the rafters with baler twine. Lots of knot-tieing (glad I paid attention when Pop was teaching me).



One of our 'neighbors' from in town, Donna, stopped by to show us her hair had actualy been cutoff. We think she was sponsored to cut her hair off for a children's hospital charity event. She comes to the Mission Training Center very regularly.

Those are some of the sites from day two of Jungle Camp building.

Hi All: We just got back from our site for the night It is 10:30 WE ALMOSt got the roof finished We'll finish the few rafters in the morning and then have everyone help with the plastic It is a group effort there are just 3 of the 11 houses without roof plastic then we'll start on the stoves the metal part is made but we have to build a frame and put clay around it fun fun fun too tired to post pictures,,,,maybe in the morning


Please keep praying We can tell you are

Love In Christ, Jinni

getting started 6 am





our "Other Cornerstone"


Our littlest helper


the biggest challenge so far -- lighting a fire - one half hour


end of day one, all the poles in yahoo