The Blog of Thanks!

Last weekend Camp Evergreen was at our annual Alberta Mennonite Brethren Church conference.  I tried to take a selfie of the delegates after I shared my report but was unsuccessful!  You'll have to make do with this selfie of Kevin and I.  I need to say thanks to Kevin for not only heading up our building committee, but for keeping me on the straight and narrow when it comes to Camp Evergreens financial numbers.  I appreciate Kevin more than you know.  On a side note - if you were at the conference and suddenly heard the Bee Gees singing "Stayin Alive" Saturday morning - that was me!  In my defence the mute button was on and there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling...

I believe that I can safely say that we had our strongest (and largest!) winter staff this year.  It was great serving alongside them and seeing their heart for ministry.  Our vision is to see "individual lives transformed by the power of Jesus" and I have definitely seen transformation in our staff lives this winter.  A HUGE thanks to our staff for working so hard.  I'm looking forward to keeping this culture moving into spring.

I'm thankful for a couple of good Reaching Higher meetings in Gem and Rosemary recently.  It seems like the Reaching Higher momentum continues to grow.  Our current pledge/donation total is $694,003 and progress continues on the homes.  I'm thankful for volunteers like Barry and his daughter Kristianne who connected power to the homes.  The plan is to turn the heat on today!  I want to say another HUGE thanks to Scott and Brian for working on our "mud homes."  They are making great progress with the window batten, soffit and fascia in spite of the incredible amount of mud they are working in.  Brian was moving a ladder yesterday, got stuck, and we almost had to tow him out.

 

While I'm thanking people I would like to thank some folks from Lendrum church.  Our good friend Bob is working with David, Diana and Don to get our Gator back on its wheels.  Thanks also to David and Mary for donating our "new to us" maintenance truck.  This truck will replace our aging Dakota which we just found out was donated to us by George - who also attends Lendrum! 

We continue to be thankful for our full summer camps.  As of this afternoon we are 98 campers ahead of last year.  15 of our 26 camps are full - which means unfortunately we are turning children away.  I'm thankful for our good challenge, and I'm also thankful that as a camp we have a plan to address that challenge in Reaching Higher.  By the way, we are still looking for a few good men for our cabins this summer.  You know who you are!  :)

And finally, I'm thankful for your continued support!

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker - one last selfie with the Dakota!
Executive Director