Picture This

Pictures.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  They also say that Henrik Ipsen was the first person to use the phrase!  I've had a few favourite pictures over the last seven years I've been at Evergreen.  I'll focus (pun intended) on one picture in a minute but let me share a couple in the preamble!  And as far as the preamble goes it was difficult to narrow the "field" down.

For those of you who know the Kroeker family, you know that we really (really) like Disneyland.  Bev's parents used to be snowbirds in Palm Springs (Sky Valley) and we would vacation there every year.  Disneyland was a quick trip away and so our love for Disney was launched.  Here we are as a family on Radiator Springs Racers playing Uno.  I wonder who won?

Thanks to our friends Andrew and Lisa we discovered Maui back in 2015.  It has become one of our most restful vacation spots.  No matter how good your picture is, it's not even close to being there in person.

Finn and I go on regular walks.  Sometimes I bring my phone and often I don't.  Very happy I had my phone on me for this shot.  Anyone know where I was standing when I took the picture?

Kids!  My mom used to remind me that kids were baby goats and that I should call them children.  Well we are a children's camp for sure.  While we have all kinds of groups during the year, our focus has always been children in summer.  Here are a couple of my favourite campers!

This is the picture I wanted us to "focus" on.  You've seen this picture before and it's on track to be one of my absolute favourites.  We brought back the rodeo this summer and even though it was a bit of a work in progress, the summer campers and family campers really enjoyed it.  One highlight of course was the exploding outhouse.  (Have you heard of the book Race To The Outhouse?  Written by Willy Makeit and illustrated by Betty Wont)

Isn't this a great picture!  Starting at the far left and moving to your right we have Willy Makeit (Harold), Router (Ken), Acre (Helmut), and Stinky Pete (Dylan) - who's obviously fully engaged with the YMCA song!  Take a moment to click on the picture to make it bigger.  One of the first things you'll notice is the different understanding of the letter Y.  Willy has the tightest Y and by time we get to Pete...well I'm not sure if that's much of a Y anymore.  Willy looks like he is really concentrating, Router and Acre look a little surprised, and Pete  - as we already mentioned - is fully on board!  Did anyone notice Acre's boots?  One cowboy boot and one rubber boot.  Seems like there was a 50% chance of rain that evening.

I just want to say a big thanks to these four men for serving us this summer.  Harold was at the barn all summer, Ken built us a wack (and by wack I mean a wack) of directional signs, we had a hard time getting Helmut off the lawn tractor. and Dylan served us in maintenance alongside Rolf.  There is no way that we could run summer camp without our staff and volunteers, so if you think you've got the mojo to sing the YMCA song complete with actions, consider joining us next summer.  (We'll take you even if your actions are off key!)

We had four companies on site last week for a mandatory pre-bid meeting.  These companies will be bidding on phase 1 and phase 2 of our new and exciting septic system.  (You'd be hard pressed to see the septic system as exciting based solely on this picture!)  The bids will be awarded in November with construction scheduled to start April 15th - subject to frost!

We would appreciate a few extra prayers (and bodies) next week as we have a very busy week.  One very large guest group, followed by a large group, followed by our Lead Retreat with over 100 youth! Did I say busy?

Thanks again for your ongoing support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

Is That Really Don Cherry?

2019 started off with a bang...well more of a ricocheting slap shot!  Our 10th Annual Pond Hockey was last Saturday, January 12.  As most of you know we have been experiencing a warmer than usual winter - which is making everyone happy right?  Well, mostly right.  The down side of warm weather?  Difficult ice making conditions!  However, the hard work of our staff paid off.  With only two weeks to go, the ice was in great shape - even though the warmer days meant we couldn't make ice after lunch.

Then with about a week to go before the big day I made the mistake of looking at the forecast for Saturday.  Plus 5!  Plus 5 is almost summer here in Alberta.  Plus 5 is a cause for celebration for most of us...but...ice melts at plus 5!  As we all know there is not much we can do about the forecast - except pray.  And pray I did!  The forecast for Saturday continued to look bleak (albeit wonderful at the same time) as the week moved on.  Wednesday - plus 7!  Thursday - plus 5 - OK I thought, we are moving in the right direction.  And then on Friday the forecast for Saturday was...wait for it...plus 9!  Are you kidding?  PLUS 9!  (Capitals were added for dramatic effect!)  I prayed, "Lord this is your Pond Hockey and your camp.  I pray for colder weather, but leave tomorrow in your hands."

Saturday morning dawned cloudy and cool.  Not super cold, but below freezing.  As players and guests arrived from the north, south, and east, they commented about the temperatures they encountered on the way to camp.  Many hit plus temperatures somewhere on their journey to Evergreen in those early morning hours!  What were we in for I wondered?  But the day continued to be cloudy and cool.  The ice was near perfect.  Was that chance or was that our awesome God allowing us to have perfect weather for Pond Hockey?  I'm going with our Awesome God!

It was a great day.  Ken and the kitchen gang put out the usual fare of savoury cuisine and we had about 260 people join us for sloppy joes at lunch.  Supper was this incredible BBQ chicken (thanks Fred!) and the dining hall was full with 175 people.  Don Cherry (who surprisingly enough looks a lot like Gery Schubert) was our special guest and guess who went home (the second year in a row) with the silent auctions world famous peanut butter pie from Linden!  Oh my lanta that pie schmeckt gut!

We had the largest number of kids join us for their "skills" competition, our wagon rides were full, and the District 5 Slugs (ask our board chair where the name came from) won the tournament for a record breaking fourth time!  Our top sponsored team, the Gem Generals, raised just over $6,000!  This is the second year in a row for the Generals.  Our total so far is in the $33,000 neighbourhood.  Funds are still trickling in and if you want to join the trickle helping us reach the goal of $40,000 that would be awesome!  Thanks so much for your participation as a donor, player, guest, staff member, or volunteer.

I invite you to join us this year as we continue to reach higher bringing the life changing Good News of Jesus Christ to the children, youth, and families of Alberta.  Join us in prayer.  Join us on site as a volunteer.  Join us by becoming a monthly donor.  God is truly at work in and through us!

Thanks for your continued support.

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

Thanksgiving

I trust that many of you had a great Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends.  We were blessed to see two of our children from the west coast.  Samara, her husband Samuel, and their rescue dog Echo (named after Star Wars) made the long trek from Burnaby to Camp Evergreen.  We were thankful to be able to spend the weekend together.  On a side note I've been picking out turkey's that are too big for the roaster for couple of years in a row now so I'm officially banned from picking the next turkey!

Bev and I are off to Gem MB Church on Sunday to celebrate Thanksgiving.  There will be a thanksgiving lunch after the service so my message will be competing with the aroma permeating the sanctuary from downstairs!

My message is based on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 where Paul exhorts us to be joyful always, pray continually, and in everything give thanks.  That's a tall order!  Not too many of us (read no one!) are able to live those commands out every moment of every day.

It often comes down to a choice, the choice to be grateful.  We sometimes think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that is is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy.  Becoming grateful will make us much happier people.  As we develop a habit of trusting God each day, especially when life is challenging, we will be able to give thanks.

The last few weeks have not been difficult for me to be thankful.

- I was able to celebrate another birthday and I'm thankful for my family!  (I didn't celebrate in Cars Land, I just really like this family picture!)

- I'm thankful for my nieces who - many years ago - taught my kids, who taught me, that salt and vinegar chips in turkey buns taste great!

- I was encouraged again with the volunteers that we've had over summer and the beginning of fall.  Volunteers who re-arrange their schedules so they can work hard here at camp on their day off.  Volunteers who drive 3 hours each way to volunteer.  Volunteers who wash 493 loads of laundry between May and the end of September.  (For perspective that's 493 loads of laundry and drying.  By my calculations it's 41.08 days of laundry!  That's why I'm thankful for Doris! :))

 - I was encouraged by the large number of youth and sponsors who joined us for our Lead Retreat - 148.  Add our staff and volunteers and we were very full that weekend!

 - I was thankful for one of our fall guest groups writing on their evaluation - "we have found this is the best staff team we have worked with to date!"  I'm thankful for an amazing staff.

 - I'm thankful that Reaching Higher continues to move forward.  (Let's not forget about our general fund!)

 - I'm thankful when I hear stories of God continuing to work in our campers hearts and lives.

 - I'm thankful for your continued support of Camp Evergreen!

What are you thankful for today?


Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director

PS  Today's blog is brought to you by the underline button!

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

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

Extra Curricular

Can we talk pancakes for a second?  Who doesn't like pancakes?  Well I know some of you don't like pancakes, but I'm pretty much a pancake lover.  Breakfast, lunch or supper it doesn't really matter.  Denny's Grand Slam with pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon along with a glass of ice and a glass of milk.  I'm getting hungry just blogging about it!

I'm not super big on crepes or what we would call German pancakes as a kid.  (Entschuldigung, meine deutschen Freunde!)  Thin pancakes do taste pretty good when you spread lemon juice, sugar and whip cream on them.  (Especially with the whip cream in a can that you accidentally spray directly into your mouth - hypothetically speaking of course!)

I'm also not big on adding extra curricular activity to pancakes - blueberries, chocolate chips, bananas, whole wheat etc.  I'm a firm believer in the "pure" pancake, swimming in syrup, and if there's any left over whip cream from the crepes...

Why am I going on about pancakes today?  This coming Sunday - June 3, we are having two pancake breakfasts at lunch.  (Just saying pancake lunch felt a little awkward.)  A crew of us will be at Dalhousie Church after the morning service and a second crew will be up in Edmonton at Bob and Marianne Thiessen's starting at 12 noon.  A third pancake breakfast (this time at breakfast) will be on Saturday June 16 in Linden.

Photo Credit Tammy Hanratty

The purpose of these three meals is to raise money for our campership aid.  In 2018 we have already designated $24,000 to help campers who otherwise could not come to camp - come to camp!  The board has said that we will not turn any camper away due to finances.  How cool is that!  We are looking for your help to make sure these campers can come.  Don't like pancakes?  Can't make the dates or locations above?  You can easily skip the pancakes and send your cheque directly to camp marked "campership aid!"

We have just heard back officially from Canada Summer Jobs that we will not be getting any funding this year because of our beliefs.  While the result is not surprising it is still disheartening.  In some ways I feel that our Prime Minister is more supportive of faith and religion in other countries than here in his own country with the people he was elected to serve.  Sorry for the rant!  :)

Currently we have students on staff who really need the extra income the grants provide to get them back to Bible college and university in fall.  Last year we received $30,000 from the Canada Summer Job grant program and we would like to raise that again this year.  It would be very encouraging if as an Evergreen community we could rally around our seasonal staff and support them better than their own government.  Bev and I will dig a little deeper.  Will you join us?  Please mark your cheques "CSJ."

Thanks for your continued support and I hope to see you at our AGM on Saturday June 23rd!

Bob "Ranger" Kroeker
Executive Director