The Best Moment of the Summer

Gavyn

When I arrived at church in Sioux Lookout on Sunday, I ran into several campers.  One of them was Gavyn, who reminded me of my favorite moment from the summer.

Gavyn has been a camper for several years.  His whole family usually spends 3-4 weeks at camp as his mom serves as the camp nurse.  The whole family pitches in to help, and we really enjoy the time we get to spend with them.

This summer  was different.

In early June, Gavyn was experimenting, as Gavyn is prone to do.  He was using a knife to remove power from some caps and then putting the powder in a tube.  He was using the handle of the knife to tamp down the powder when it suddenly ignited and propelled the knife upward, and it pierced Gavyn's eye.  The next several weeks were spent in surgeries and trips to specialists and ended with doctors removing the lens from Gavyn's eye.  When he grows up, they intend to replace the lens, but for now, Gavyn has lost sight in that eye.

It was quite a struggle for the whole family.  Plans were disrupted.  Anxiety about Gavyn's sight was constant.  And they were also upset that they weren't able to come to camp.

But finally, during the last week of camp, everything had settled down enough for them to come.  Gavyn was told to take it really easy, but that is a very difficult thing for him.

During the week of camp, Gavyn came to one of the activities I was leading, "Parachutes with Pam."  I would help the kids make a parachute and then we would attach water balloons to them and see if we could float them safely to the ground.  Gavyn made a parachute and launched his, but as soon as he did, he was off saying, "What will happen if we tie two parachutes together?  What will happen if we make it bigger?"  And on and on.

So we happily experimented.  Later I said to Gavyn, "I just love watching your mind work, Gavyn.  You are so curious and wondering what will happen next.  I think it's so great."

Gavyn said, "Yeah, that's how I lost my eye."

Wow!

While he was working with me, he saw my rocket launcher.  He wanted to know if he could build a rocket and launch it.  I said sure.  I showed him the ones we had built and told him how they worked, but Gavin had his own ideas about how this should go, and he wanted to build one that had a parachute.  I told him that rockets with parachutes are very tricky, and I had not seen anyone be very successful with them, but that did not deter him.  He spent a good part of the day developing a rocket that had a parachute attached.

That evening we launched his rocket.  The parachute did not deploy.  He was so disappointed.

He spent a good part of the next day tinkering with his rocket, refining the design, trying to correct the mistakes.  He is a really hard worker and very persistent.

That evening after chapel, we launched his rocket once again.  His dad had arrived and both his parents were able to be there for the launch.  This time the rocket blasted off and quickly reached the apex of its flight.  And then, as it started its descent, the parachute deployed perfectly.  The rocket floated flawlessly to the ground.

And we celebrated!  The smile on Gavyn's face was priceless.  It was a spectacular moment!

We launched the rocket again to see if we could replicate the flight, but this time, the parachute did not deploy.

But no matter.  The success of the previous launch was enough.  It made Gavyn's heart sing to have had this moment, and I'm so glad I was there to share it with him and his family.