I am thinking about food. Again. Week after next, a group of us are going to spend a week at a First Nations’ reserve on Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario, Canada. We’ll be running a vacation Bible school day program for the kids and a group for women (I’m involved in the latter).

We’ll be running the programs on the reserve, but camping at a nearby provincial park, right on the water, and eating al fresco. We will have a dining shelter with power outlets, and there’s a comfort station nearby. I don’t mind roughing it. The challenge will be knowing what food to buy and bring and how to keep it.

Breakfasts are easy: cereal or instant oatmeal with milk (in tetrapaks). Maybe some dried fruit and nuts. Bread and peanut butter. Snacks and lunches will be prepared on the reserve – one of our group is the designated “kitchen lady”. Some groceries will be trucked up with us; others will be bought in a nearby town, as needed. It’s dinners that will be a bit of a challenge.

There are 6 in our group and we’ll be up there for 7 days, so each of us takes a turn cooking and one day we’ll dine out. We’re bringing up a couple of crockpots (aka slow cookers) so I have been looking for simple recipes. I found a couple that could work, with either chicken or pork. Rice rotini (good for those with gluten intolerance) mixed with a couple of cans of cream of mushroom soup will make a nice side dish. And we’ll buy some frozen veggies to cook as well. Voila – dinner on day 3! I’m baking a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and taking some crackers, pita chips and salsa for snacks.

If we survive the 7 hour drive with 3 women and their stuff in one car, we’ll be fine 🙂 The challenge for my co-facilitator and me will be organizing our women’s group meetings. There is no internet connection available – so no cute or inspiration You Tube clips. We can’t get our laptop and projector cooperating, so no DVD teaching series (we were going to build on Joyce Meyer’s “Power Thoughts”). We were hoping to show a DVD of the Father’s Love Letter ~ it’s more powerful with the male narrator reading the words as we gaze upon beautiful scenes of our Father’s creation.

Oh well. This whole mission trip requires that leap of faith, that foundation of trust in God’s faithfulness and confidence in His leading and provision.

We are praying Ephesians 3:20 and believing and counting on Romans 8:28. Please pray with us. Thank you and bless you.

If you want to see it before I do, watch and enjoy this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMtNeHEYdZM