One thousand and two!

Today was our annual Senior Day.  What a blessing to share the day with some of the very folks who started Evergreen 54 years ago.  It was good to hear their stories, and we hope the seniors enjoyed the stories of God's faithfulness today.  It's also encouraging to know so many of our seniors are praying for us on a regular basis.  Thank you seniors for the hard work and sweat poured out over our land so many years ago, and for having the vision to see lives transformed by the power of Jesus.

We continue to reach higher as we get ready for summer.  This week we're reaching with a brand new 54" lawn mower that arrived this morning.  One of our Evergreen couples funded the tractor and Moody's Equipment gave us their non-profit price.  Thank you very much!  I'm guessing there's going to be a line up to mow the lawn.

Rolf continues to work on his projects.  We're waiting for the good kind of strapping to go on the roof over the new freezer.  Having a covered area outside of the kitchen will be a great addition allowing us to BBQ under cover.  And what about that "thing" Rolf is building.  Its now at a different angle, and you'll just have to stay tuned to find out what it actually is.

Scott and Brian have finished up the window batten, soffit and fascia.  They are now framing another home in Cochrane and will return to finish the siding.  We're waiting for the ground to dry out so we can backfill the homes.  The ground around the homes has been so gooey we were afraid of losing the D6!  Once we've backfilled we can move on with the drywall and basement floor.  We've also upgraded the water pressure in anticipation of the two new homes.  The immediate result is not having to run around in the shower looking for water!

1,002!  That is the total number of children, youth and family campers that have registered for this summer as of today.  We have already passed our total number of children and youth campers from last year.  We're also excited that God is providing the staff that we need - including those elusive boys.

With an increase of campers comes an increase in our campership aid need.  Please consider donating to our campership aid fund which directly helps children come as campers who otherwise would not be able to attend.  This is a very practical way you can help our ministry of seeing lives transformed.

In other news I'm still working on my selfies.  Who knew you could angle the selfie stick?  I just kept trying to get the crazy thing higher!  :)

Thanks for your continued support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

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

Trombones In The Bathroom!

Last week Bev, Courtney and I took a road trip to the west coast to visit with our staff who are currently attending Columbia Bible College.  It was a real treat to connect with them and to be able to take them out for supper at Red Robins.  Not only was my burger very good, (don't forget the bottomless fries!) it was fun to tell camp stories and reminisce about last summer.  Our staff are really the heart and soul of Camp Evergreen and the main reason for our success as a camp.  We're excited that these staff can spend time deepening their relationship with Christ and their knowledge of the Bible at CBC.  We would love to see them all back this summer!

The new homes continue to move forward in spite of a -37 feeling like -45 Wednesday morning!  Our electrician was back and is close to finishing the first house.  We've started strapping the second house (remember, strapping is a good thing) in preparation for those fabulous boys from Gem and Duchess to come back for roof number two.  We met with Ben and Craig this week to talk about cabinets.  Ben's excitement for the homes and Camp Evergreen is very contagious.  All the kitchen, laundry room and bathroom cabinets will be custom built (with love) and installed at no charge to camp!  That is exciting and that is worth sharing!

In other excitement I've discovered the selfie stick.  Similar to Crocs, in that I never thought I would use them, a selfie stick is actually fun and simple to use as you can tell by this blog.  I'm still working on focusing and where to look in the phone.  My kids are already dreading the next holiday with their dad, and as you can tell the staff are pretty "excited" about it as well!

Our two family camps filled up this year in less than three hours.  You read that correctly.  Last year our family camp filled so quick we added another one.  This year we were ready (so we thought) with two family camps.  Registration opened at 9 am and both camps were full before noon.  We are now in the early stages of planning a winter family camp on the February 2018 Family Day weekend.

What about those trombones?  One of the reasons we need a new lodge is because we are running out of room.  Cochrane High School Band joined us this week for their band camp and the only room left for the trombones to have their clinic was in our outdoor washroom block foyer.  Not necessarily the best place to practice, although the acoustics are pretty good.  I guess the plus was they didn't have to ask permission to visit the washroom!

As we continue to reach higher would you consider becoming a monthly donor to either our general fund or Reaching Higher campaign.

Thanks again for your support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director