Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Freiwillige


Thanks?  Thank you?  Thanks lots?  Thanks a bunch?  Danke?  

How does one adequately say thank you to all our volunteers?  As with most summers we could not do what we do without the help of many (many) volunteers.  This week alone we have 43 volunteers on site.


Volunteers make me happy for so many reasons.  They are an encouragement to us staff who are here for the summer.  They have energy that is infectious.   They have ideas and different ways of thinking which often helps us.


What do they do?  A wack of things as you can see from the pictures.   Laundry, flowers, kitchen, organizing, making signs, weed wacking, mowing, roofing, garbage runs, cabin leading, AV, hanging tarps, the list goes on and on.  Sometimes we need certain skill set and sometimes a cheerful heart with willing hands does the trick just nicely.

Claudia, who helped me with the blog word of the week – which means volunteer in German - joined us for May and June and journeyed back to Germany where she decided after about 2 weeks at home to return to Evergreen for 3 more weeks.  How cool is that?


Kato was a seasonal staff back in the 1990’s and has returned from Abbotsford to join us for a week.  I’ve been here six years and the cereal boxes have never looked so neatly lined up.  Thanks Kato!


Brian is back for his second summer and brings a whole new meaning to BYOH. (Bring your own horse.)   This year he brought Chevy who is a little afraid of our little donkey Puzzles... 


The list could go on and on.  But for now, thanks very much to our volunteers this week:  Brian, Caleb, Claudia, David, Doris, Eden, Ethan, Esperance, Fiona, Harry, Helmut, Jana, Janice, Jannik, Jaxson, Jesse, Josiah, Joy, Julia, Kathy, Katie, Kato, Kelly, Ken, Kiah, Lennard, Lois, Marni, Micah, Michael, Mirja, Naemi, Nathan, Nathaniel, Noa, Ponn, Rebecca, Rhea, Ron, Shauna, Tamara, Tyson, Yliza



And thank YOU for your continued support.  We are still looking for some help to get us through the summer.  You can connect with Lane for more information.  staff@camp-evergreen.com

Walter Loewen (our first full time director) started his 40 day prayer walk today in Coaldale.  He will be arriving at Evergreen on September 1 and you can follow his progress here.  Walter would love to pray for you if you send him your prayer request.  wbloewen@gmail.com
 

Bob “Ranger” Kroeker
Executive Director




Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Two Hundred and Fifty-Five

It is my favourite time of year - summer camp.  This will be my 26th summer of camping ministry.  Every summer is different.  Every summer has it's unique joys and challenges.  And every summer is exciting.  Why do I like summer camp so much?

C - Christ.  The best thing about summer is that we get to share the life changing Good News of Jesus Christ each and every day in summer.  Morning chapels, evening campfires, cabin devotions, Pit Crew Bible studies, Intern quiet times, morning staff meetings are always focused on Christ.  While we will never coerce or pressure any camper or staff into making a faith decision, we will very clearly present the Gospel each and every day and trust that the Holy Spirit will work in all of our hearts.


I love the stories that we hear each week of different campers growing and seeing their lives being transformed.  I love giving Bibles out each week to campers who do not have God's Word in their home.  I love seeing our staff being challenged and stretched, relying on Christ's strength to get them through the week.

I love being able to share Christ with campers who have little or no idea of who Jesus is.  We are entrusted with our campers lives and need to make sure we do our best to give them their best week of the summer here at Camp Evergreen.


A - Atmosphere.  I love the atmosphere of summer camp.  Last week was our first week of summer camp and even though we had just come through a long training week you could sense the excitement in our first staff meeting.  Everything we talked about, all the activities we practiced teaching, all the food we had prepared, came together when the Welcome Centre windows opened and we registered our first camper.

For those of you who have worked at a summer camp you know what I'm talking about.  The atmosphere of excitement and wonder.  What's happening next?  Will we have bacon for breakfast?  Are we playing Jug and Jog tonight?  There is energy in the atmosphere!


M - Munchies.  If you know me at all you know that I love munchies.  I can't remember not liking munchies.  Thinly sliced vegetables (chips).  Dairy and grain (ice cream sandwiches).  Root beer (root beer).  They all taste good.  In summer we have tuck time every day.  (every day!)  Tuck time is a great opportunity to hang out with your cabin, to connect with your campers and of course to play Willson Ball.  Tuck time is a great opportunity for the director to get out of his office and relate with the campers by having an ice cream sandwich!


P - People.  The second best thing I love about summer camp is all the people.  This week Ainsley is our youngest person on site at age one.  Helmut could be our oldest but I didn't actually want to confirm his age because ice cream partners have to look out for each other!  This week is one of our busiest camps.  102 Trail Blazers, 21 Charge campers, 12 Roughin' It girls, 16 Pit Crew 1, 16 Interns, 77 staff and volunteers and 11 guests for a grand total of two hundred and fifty-five people!  255 people is a great segway into reminding us to pray for Ken and the kitchen staff and to consider volunteering in the kitchen!


My blog word of the week is Levi.  Levi is a future camper and future staff member who already loves tuck time!  Levi is one of the people that makes us a summer camp.  Levi is the reason we're reaching higher.  By the time Levi is on staff he will be able to serve his campers even better than we're serving our campers today because of our commitment to see more lives transformed by the power of Jesus.

Thanks for your continued support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director