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










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