Comfort Foods and CRU

60^th AUS Trip Blog 4

Crusaders – Re-visiting my youth

 

Sausage Rolls with Aussie tomato sauce, cordial, jelly filled donuts, white tea, Anzac biscuits, flat white coffee, meat pies, morning tea.…….. Slowly I am eating my way through a bucket list of favorite foods from my youth.  

Sampling ANZAC Bicuits with Crusader Exec Director Gary Hill and Staff

 This week I am visiting, as official food tester, school camps run by the Crusader Union of NSW, the Christian Camping Organization that was so important to me when I was in High School. It is Spring Break, and they have several dozen camps of all varieties and age groups in session. So far, I have visited a Leadership Training Course, a Study Camp for seniors cramming for the Higher School Certificate, a dirt bike camp and a general sports camp held at my favorite Crusader Site, Lake MacQuarie.

Bible Presentation at Lake Mac 

It’s just as well for my hankering for Aussie comfort foods that I am on camps. The modern Aussie diet revolves around much healthier things like Thai and Vietnamese, light pasta dishes, grilled fish and disgustingly healthy salads. I can’t even find half n half for my coffee – it is all healthy skim milk. Oh well, they still feed the kids junk food.

There is one exception – McDonalds. Yes the ubiquitous restaurant is frequented by young and old, and is the most successful fast food restaurant in Australia. Gone is the Milk Bar Welcome “Maccas”.  At least there is an Australian flair to the Golden Arches. I saw a billboard which read:

“Mary had a little lamb. And fries and a Coke.

Try the New McDonalds Lamb Burger.”

Lamb Burger at Maccas

 

Note the Beetroot in the Lamb Burger.

It is nice for me to see that Crusaders has not lost its energy or its vision. Their camps, even study camps, are a mixture of high energy activities and highly sophisticated presentations of the basic Christian message. The leaders are appealing and kid friendly.  I’ve witnessed surprisingly good contemporary Christian Music, hilarious drama skits and articulate speakers, usually Youth Ministers from local churches. These get a free holiday for their family in return for making the presentations.  And the settings are rustically beautiful. 

Cru Leaders getting ready for a skit. They are snakes.

 

The campers are really into the experience, although the camp of 9-12 year olds where I am on now has over 80% of first time away-from-home kids. There is a fair degree of home sickness. Boys more than girls for some reason. Max, the boy I sat next to at dinner last night, spent the entire meal quietly weeping into his spaghetti Bolognaise.

Canoeing on Lake Mac

 

 

 With Iain at the Dirt Bike Camp, Southern Highlands

I hope to get pictures of the birds here. They are so different and colorful and they abound in these camps. So far, I have seen Kookaburras, Lyrebirds, Lorakeets, Rosellas and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. Each one of these is the kind of bird you stop in your tracks to admire. I also saw a live wombat (as opposed to road kill) and several kangaroos on the dirt bike camp. These are nocturnal, so you need to be about in the bush at night to get a good look.

 

Well it is now time for breakfast and my food tester duties are calling.

Too many Anzac biscuits, too little time!