the green spot

Third Annual Pond Hockey Tournament

2012-02-09T10:42:00.017-07:00

We had the great pleasure of hosting our third annual Three-on-Three Pond Hockey Tournament on January 14, 2012. We had nine teams, up from eight in 2011 and six in 2010, and we also finally had perfect pond hockey weather! We also had The Golden Skates: an actual, kissable trophy. (We know it's kissable because that's what Eric and Kyle did when they won, see?)

You may recall that Pond Hockey Day 2010 boasted a high of 8C and melty ice, while Pond Hockey Day 2011 was a frozen affair: -24C for the better part of the day and the kind of cold that chills you right to the bone. This year though? 2012? It was heavenly. Cold enough for good ice, warm enough that it was fun to watch the games. Yeah! And we had super awesome volunteers, like Jason and Carissa (below), Leanne (who cooked) and Trenton (who took fantastic photos).

We have to shout out to our amazing, friendly, competitive players, who came from far and wide across Alberta this year: you raised an amazing $18,114.46. THAT'S INCREDIBLE. We are wild with gratitude, seriously. (Our teams raised about $13,000 in 2010 and about $15,000 in 2011.)

The players ...
Baerg (left, as Oilers and Canuck) and Coaldale Giraffes (right, in yellow and brown)

District 5 Slugs (left) and Enns (right, in black-red-and-grey)

Lendrum (left) and Linden (right, in the red, but not the Flames jersey)

Precht & Jones (left ... at least, one player) and Russia (right)

Southern Alberta Pastors (in the dark jerseys)

Wanna see more pictures? This link will take you to our facebook album of photos.

summer tales

2012-02-08T14:19:00.004-07:00

Somewhere along the line here, summer 2012 started creeping up on us! It's seriously right around the corner. We're well into staff recruitment and camper registrations are rolling along nicely ... we had more registrations in January than we ever have before!

In anticipation of the coming summer, I have a tale to share with you, submitted by Alyssa. It's her take on her experience as an ARISE camper in summer 2011. ARISE is our learn-to-be-staff camp and it's three weeks of lots of fun, lots of hard work, and lots of relationship and community building. ARISE campers spent one of their weeks in a cabin, working alongside one of our veteran cabin leaders, and they help with games and dishes and cleaning. They also do lots of intensive Bible study time and more!

Here's what Alyssa has to say:

Before summer, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do ARISE but looking back, I wonder why I ever doubted it. It was the best 3 weeks of my year.

One of the biggest things that I learned during those 3 weeks was that God will use the hard stuff that has happened in my life. I saw this through being able to connect with another camper who had experienced hard things. I never thought that the hard stuff in my life would do anything except for make me a stronger person. I had never really believed that God was going to use the hurt that I'd had.

I also realized how hard I had been on my cabin leaders when I sometimes acted up, when I was younger. I gained a better understanding of how hard that is on a cabin leader. I was a camper for Impact later in the summer, and that lesson helped me get on better!

I also realized that being staff is almost better then being a camper ... almost! I was very nervous to be in a cabin full time. I learned a great deal about being patient. My Explorer cabin was great.

Other highlights included when I learned how to do a T-rescue in canoeing ... I would be on canoeing on a day when we had tippers! (I am slightly afraid of canoeing. Still working on that.) I joined my cabin during an off-block when they wanted me to come horse back riding with them. They were elated! My knee didn't like it, but I still had fun. They talked about it for the rest of the week. I am so glad that I choose to give up my off-block....I had way more fun doing something I am slightly scared of. Yes I know that sounds odd but it is so true! As a cabin leader, you are supposed to be there for your campers and sometimes that means doing things that are challenging. But the reward is great, you get to see them happy and smiling and laughing. I think that is pretty great, a memory was made!

saying goodbye to Duke.

2012-01-06T09:17:00.004-07:00

Over the holiday season one of our camp horses passed away. Duke, one of our Clydesdale horses, died on Christmas Eve due to an unexpected and sudden illness.

Duke was always a hard worker and a good friend to everyone and especially to his teammate Diamond. When the team pulled the wagon or sled Duke consistently showed his desire for hard work by pulling those aboard without complaint (and often with greater effort than Diamond, whose primary contribution was usually more aesthetic!).

Fond memories of Duke consist of countless wagon rides in the summer, using the team to pull the sled in the winter to feed the other horses, when he was saddle broke, as well as the Sundre parade where Jon (our Head Wrangler) rode him carrying the camp flag. Duke was an extraordinary Clydesdale being both versatile with work and gentle by nature. He will no doubt be dearly missed and not easily forgotten. From all of those lucky enough to work with and have the opportunity to be pulled by him, I imagine we can all agree in saying "thank you and rest in peace, friend."

Practicing for the parade with Jon and Kristy.

Offering a hoof, to show off his shoes.

Pulling the wagon.

text contributed by kim g.; photos contributed by kristy h.

cabins & community spirit.

2011-11-17T10:49:00.003-07:00

As I noted in my last Cabin Fever! post, our new cabins are costing about $50,000 each. That means the Cabin Fever! project, when all is said and done, will come in at about $600,000: a lot of money.

We've been so blessed by businesses who have worked with us to give us the best possible prices (e.g., Wild's Home Hardware in Sundre). We have a great contractor (Dale Erickson Carpentry). We have great donors ... like you, perhaps!

We also want to acknowledge the generous support of the Government of Alberta, through its Community Spirit Program. We were thrilled to receive a $25,000 Community Spirit Program Donation Grant in 2011. From the CSP website:

The donation grant provides an opportunity for eligible non-profit and/or charitable organizations to receive a provincial grant. The grant is based on total annual cash donations from individual Albertans that have been received by an eligible organization over a 12-month fiscal period. The grant can be used to support an organization's operations, programs and/or capital projects. The maximum grant available is $25,000 up to a maximum of $50,000 over three years. A minimum total of $1,000 in eligible cash donations needs to be received prior to applying for a grant.

So, we're eligible because of your generousity. (And we're applying for another grant for 2012.) Thank you for supporting us -- both to our individual donors and the Community Spirit Program!

cabins, cabins, cabins: insulation and interior walls

2011-11-15T16:29:00.005-07:00

The cabins are progressing nicely, guys! As you may recall, we're working on two of the new cabins right now. We're still on track to have them finished by Christmas time. Wouldn't that be amazing?

Today, I'm going to show you pictures (by Colter) of the insides of cabin 1. The insulation went in a bit ago, then Dave, Ken and Emily painted the ceilings. Now Robert and Colter are finishing up on the tongue-in-groove inside walls. It looks amazing! (And amazing is our word of the day.) With all that insulation and thick, sealed, insulated floors without cracks or crevices or peepholes to the dirt beneath the cabin ... man, these are going to be cozy cabins!

INSULATE!

The walls are in, around the sleeping area. That doorway on the left of the picture is a sliding door that locks in an open or closed position (as in, the maintenance crew will have keys, but kids, cabin leaders and guests won't be able to open or close the door), making the cabin more flexible for use in summer, or by guests or families.

The big opening, through which you can see the framed but not finished wall, is the sliding door again from a different angle. The white door leads to the outdoors. This picture is taken from the back corner of the sleeping area.

Walls in, lights on seating area (with benches yet-to-be-built):

And, bonus, the new cabins mean the old cabins are starting to move. Cabin 13 is, for now, holding building supplies. Jasper and Emily took down the bunks the week before last and the cabin has been shifted some what. Ultimately, it's going to be torn down (it's one of the ones that is in REALLY REALLY bad shape).

Change is afoot! Good change! Yeah!

We'd like to invite you to partner with us in this cabin building project: each cabin costs about $50,000 and in order to get going on the next two cabins, we're going to need your financial support. Our plan is to build 12 cabins in total, to replace the 16 cabins we're currently using. Please contact the camp at director@camp-evergreen.com or 403-638-4230 if you'd like more information about the Cabin Fever! project or if you'd like to donate! Remember that your donations are tax receipt-able, because Camp Evergreen is a registered not-for-profit organization.

dinner in calgary!

2011-10-25T11:41:00.007-06:00

We held a super fun dinner in Calgary on October 15, raising funds for Camp Evergreen. It was a great night. Our host, Don Cherry (also known as Gery Schubert, the man of a thousand voices, a hundred faces and at least 12 wigs ... www.geryschubert.com), took us on a great hockey adventure. We feasted on a sumptuous meal, prepared by Ken and Lacey, of pork, roasted potatoes, green beans, homemade cherry chutney and blondies.

We raised $15,901!

... which is fantastic, and it marks growth from last year's event!

A gigantic thank you to everyone who joined us for dinner, participated by sending people to the penalty box, and everyone who donated. We are so grateful to you!

Our silent auction donors:
Andrew & Lisa Baerg * Carla Brown (Signature Homestyles)
Gery Schubert * Ken & Esther Epp * Natasha Lawyer
Olds Golf Course * Rayna & Maddison
Richard Baerg (Richard's Signature Picture Framing)
Ron Evans * Rosebud Theatre
Sharon Evans * Slaves for a Day: Jasper & Emily
Starbucks Northland Plaza (Aimee Bontje)
and our anonymous donors!

I should also note that we had some amazing volunteers. I think Joel D. washed dishes for six straight hours. Thank you to Bradley J., Carissa E., Erin D., Evan C., Graham D., Joel D., Rachel S., Rachel U., Reilly M., and Sho O.: you guys were fantastic and we appreciate you!

And, we'll leave you with the Frozen River Dance, featuring Richard, Dennis, Mel, Don Cherry and I don't know the fifth dancer's name (sorry!):

impact 2011

2011-10-17T15:01:00.006-06:00

It's been two months since Impact (that's our grade 9-12 camp, which caps off the summer season each year), so really, it's about time for a blog post, isn't it?

Well, I thought Impact was pretty great. We had real reindeer on site for Homemade Jam! Does it get better than real reindeer? I think not.

Our speaker was Edmonton's Mike Perschon. We spent the whole week focused on the story of Christmas, considering both the birth of Christ and value of traditions, and delving into the Christmas story as its told in the books of Matthew and Luke. Do I have any Impact campers out there who can tell us something they learned during the week, in the comments section?

Homemade Jam was snappy and funny. Bacon (pictured below) was the funniest, in my humble opinion. (It was Christmas themed this year, Homemade Jam.) We played late night Collector's Choice (Graham D.'s team won, of course) and had a coffee house and good weather and fun times.

There was also some quality pranking underway, led by Gina and Stacy's cabins. They had people fully fooled all week ... till Jasper and Dylan camped out all night, clad in fatigues, to identify the pranking pranksters.

Thanks for your extreme patience with this ... and you can share your favourite Impact moments in the comments!

To your left: a male camper climbs.

To your right: Amy, Jamie, Selena, and other campers watch the climbing (well, Amy's watching the photographer).

To your left: Vicky Berg plays during coffee house.

To your right: Bacon takes his camp crush prevention practices to the next level, by adding a terrible to expression to his super cool mullet.

To your left: a game with a tire and Corin and Paul.

To your right: is Boy Cam picking his nose? Girl Cam, it's too bad you're looking away! You could have told us!

To your left: Scott and Lindsay are soooooo glad it's Alyssa getting watered on, not them.

To your right: I'm not really sure what's happening. Evan is making the cabin one girls balance on something? Maybe?

pond hockey 2012 promo!

2011-09-21T10:33:00.004-06:00

With the trees turning yellow and the leaves about to fall, it's time to start thinking about ... POND HOCKEY!

That's right, team. Our third annual 3-on-3 Pond Hockey Tournament is just around the corner, coming up on Saturday, January 14, 2012.

The deadline for teams to register is December 15, 2011 and you can find out more information about the tournament on our website: www.camp-evergreen.com.

We have space for 12 teams this year ... don't miss your chance to participate in this crazy fun, ultra-Canadian, day-long event, in support of Camp Evergreen's ministry! You can contact Kerry at director@camp-evergreen.com if you have any questions.

Here are some of the comments last year's participants left us, and a couple pictures:

"My favourite fundraiser of the year. A throwback to old school hockey. Well done!"

"[I appreciated the] atmosphere of the outdoors. Fresh air. Friends & fellowship."

"[I enjoyed] having old time hockey with the guys – and some girls too."

"[It was great] being at Camp Evergreen and playing hockey in the great outdoors."

"It's always great to get out here and enjoy the beautiful surroundings."

the cabin project is progressing nicely!

2011-09-19T12:27:00.003-06:00

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know where things are at with Cabin Fever!, our never-ending cabin replacement project. Last time we talked, the first new cabin was well underway. The building inspector has visited since then and he was happy with the cabin in progress and the future sites we showed him. Yeah!

We paused on the first cabin once it was completely weather sealed. The indoor walls are framed, but we haven't done any drywalling or anything, because first we need to do the electrical rough-ins. So, our building crew moved on and started on the second cabin. The pictures below are all of the second cabin and they were taken by Colter. This week, they'll be working on getting the sheeting and such up on the roof of the second cabin and then, the tin.

Our friends Harley and Esther are here from Coaldale right now. Harley is a master electrician and he'll be doing all the electrical rough in work on both of the first two cabins (how nice that we can get them done at one time, right?). Thank you for being here, Harley!

So, things are moving along! Besides electrical work, we still have to do the inside walls, the outside finishing work, utility hook ups plus all the furnishings before things are finished. It's still a bit of work.

We're expecting that these first two cabins (we need to work out a numbering system!) will be operational by the end of the calendar year. Exciting, right?

We have the money in the bank for these first two cabins through to completion, which is excellent. We hope to start the next two in January, with the goal of having four new cabins "in the system" for summer 2012. But, to get to the next two, we are going to need more money. Please consider supporting our cabin replacement project! (And feel free to contact the camp if you have questions!)

IN PICTURES roughin' it girls

2011-09-16T11:23:00.000-06:00

roughin' it girls: the statistics
dates: july 17-22 or august 7-12
age group: grades 4-6 or 6-8
number of campers: 11 in the first crew, 7 in the second
general awesome rating: heaps o' fun!

Here's a link to a Roughin' It profile from a couple years ago. In addition to two weeks of Roughin' It Girls, we ran three weeks of Roughin' It Boys. We had twelve campers in each of the Roughin' It Boys camps, and they were led by Dylan, Scott and Ben. Our leaders for the first Roughin' It Girls camp this year were Kim, Chelsea and Jena. Josie, Steph and Laurie led the second group. I don't have pictures of the Roughin' It Boys groups. BUT! I have a whole bunch of great photos from the second Roughin' It Girls crew. Yeah! Here they are ...

Mmmm, juice.

2011-09-14T12:17:00.000-06:00

This summer, we received a very generous donation of Oasis juice boxes, from Lassonde Industries, in Calgary. We are so thankful!

The juice boxes accompanied our Adventure Classic, Roughin' It and Trails Away campers on their out trips and they helped us (as a not-for-profit organization) keep our grocery bill down a bit!

The Adventure kids demonstrated their gratitude with excessive photos of them enjoying their Oasis beverages.

IN PICTURES more adventure classic!

2011-09-13T10:43:00.010-06:00

We run three weeks of Adventure Classic each summer: it's an forgettable week in the Ya Ha Tinda, with rafting, hiking, climbing and all sorts of fun. Jasper wrote about Adventure here and we included just a few pictures with that post. Well, Josie, one of our excellent Adventure leaders, gave me a whole stack of photos (thanks, Josie!) and I'm going to share some of them with you. Sadly, I can't figure out how to rotate the portrait pictures. You'll have to bend your neck. (Sorry.)

Hiking to Eagle Lake

(I really like how the camper on the left side of the left-hand photo just above is stepping on Jasper. Tee hee.)

White Water Rafting with Mukwah

Rock Climbing

Waterfall Day

cabin buildin': an august update

2011-08-17T14:18:00.006-06:00

Cabin Fever! News
So much is happening! The first cabin, which will be a wheelchair accessible cabin, is well underway. By the end of this week, it will be entirely weather sealed and water proof. Next steps include electrical work, so the contractors can come back in to do the interior finishing, and the exterior finishing. Things are moving along at a nice clip.

The pilings are in for three more cabins after this first one, already.

Dave and his team are also making plans for building bunks, setting up the boot rooms and building benches. With the future cabins, after this first one is complete, we will be engaging volunteers in the furnishing aspect of the cabin process. More information about becoming involved with the furnishing aspect will be released later this fall.

Coming Up ...
Once this first cabin is complete in the fall, we will be releasing final price on the cabins. Stay tuned!

Prayer Requests

Please pray for safety as work continues, especially since work is happening at the same time as we have many, many kids running around.
Please pray that God will provide the funds we need – whether through donors or grants.

Thank you for walking with us!

Cabin #1 with its pretty tin roof and all its doors and windows!

Looking toward the front of the cabin. On your left, the bootroom. On your right, the bench room.

Looking into the sleeping space. Bunk beds will be in there, eventually!

IN PICTURES sparks & explorers (times two!)

2011-08-05T09:58:00.000-06:00

we ran our sparks & explorers camps in two consecutive weeks of great! i'm going to post them both at once because all the pictures are in one folder and i'm not 100 per cent confident i'll post the right pictures with each week. so, we'll just do everything all together, all right?

i've always loved sparks & explorers because they are so fun and full of great observations and adorableness. these two weeks of cuties did not disappoint! they were lots of fun (and i think they had lots of fun!) and had some great observations about life ("wait, God is BIGGER THAN MY HOUSE???").

sparks & explorers 1: the statistics
dates: july 24-29
age group: grades one through four
number of campers: 63
other camps underway at the same time: ARISE, Roughin' It Boys, Adventure Classic
speaker: Becca Mabbett
general awesome rating: seventy-three gold stars, out of a possible sixty-one

sparks & explorers 2: the statistics
dates: august 2-5
age group: grades one through four
number of campers: 70
other camps underway at the same time: Trails Away
speaker: Michael Willems
general awesome rating: sooooooooooooo great!

adventure classic, according to jasper.

2011-08-04T13:39:00.004-06:00

So I have successfully avoided writing on the blog for this long but no longer. My name is Jasper and I have worked at camp for 5 summers and 3 springs. I come from a small farming community called Gem and I really enjoy the outdoors.

This summer, I have been leading a program called Adventure Classic and it has been a fantastic part of this summer for me, so I am going to tell you a little bit about it.

So here is a rundown of how the week works: Sunday afternoon, everyone arrives at camp. Once everyone has arrived, we drive out to the Ya Ha Tinda, where we tent for the week at Eagle Lake campground. While there, we hike out to Eagle Lake, we go white water rafting with Mukwah rafting tours, we rock climb and (if the water is not too high) go to some natural waterslides. If the water's too high for the waterslides, we hike out to Bighorn Falls. Back at the camp site we cook excellent meals, play some capture the flag, or just chill around the fire and have some great talks about God, and about life.

Over the course of each week, my goal is to show campers Christ through everything they do whether they are throwing themselves 25 feet off a cliff into the Red Deer River, looking at beautiful waterfalls, or at the top of a rock climb that they never thought they could make it up.

Pictures from Adventure Classic 1, July 10-15, 2011. Taken by Kim P.

IN PICTURES ignite 1 (july 17-22)

2011-07-22T20:35:00.003-06:00

ignite 1: the statistics
dates: july 17-22
age group: grades seven to nine
number of campers: 95 (yeah, there wasn't a single extra bed on site)
other camps underway at the same time: ARISE, PUSH, Roughin' It Girls, Trails Away
speaker: Travis Padgham
general awesome rating: explosionsofstarsflowersandrainbows

IN PICTURES trail blazers 1 (july 10-15)

2011-07-15T18:44:00.003-06:00

trail blazers 1: the statistics

dates: july 10-15
age group: grades five and six
number of campers: 72
other camps underway at the same time: ARISE, PUSH, Roughin' It Boys, Adventure Classic
speaker: Alison Springer
general awesome rating: nine hundred and fifty million

family camp in july.

2011-07-07T20:10:00.002-06:00

Reilly has reprimanded me for not blogging: I'm sorry! It's busy around here, and that's a good thing. We finish summer staff training tomorrow and our first gang of campers arrives on Sunday: wow. We're excited!

Last weekend was family camp: it was packed out. We had so many families here! Two large extended family groups joined us, plus a bunch of smaller family groups. It was so much fun! Our speaker was Shawn Hubert, who shared a meaningful message. Some of the families commented that his talks were very real and practical. While Shawn shared with the parents, our staff took the kidlets out for activities: they spent a bunch of time learning about the armour of God. It was really really really fun to have Becca M. back, leading worship through music. Yeah! She had a great team playing with her, too.

Family camp was also a major learning extravaganza for our staff, because it came at the beginning of staff training. We had six staff supervising our wee little archery range all at once, for example (I think that's kind of funny). Our staff team this summer is a good mix of oldies and newbies. We're super excited to have with us ...

... Abby, Alana, Alyne, Ashley, Becca, Becca, Ben, Brad, Bradley, Cam, Carey, Cassandra, Celeste, Chelsea, Christine, Cody, Cody, Colter, Dylan, Elisa, Emily, Erin, Evan, Felicity, Gina, Graham, Jasper, Jena, Joel, Joel, Josie, Josy, Julia, Kathrin, Kim, Krista, Lacey, Loreea, Maddy, Marc, Matthew, Michael, Mitch, Moody, Nate, Nicole, Rachel, Rachel, Reilly, Reilly, Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, Scott, Shauna, Sho, Stacy, Stephanie, Sydney, Taylor and Zina.

father & son retreat: it's a wrap!

2011-06-14T10:03:00.000-06:00

Father & Son Retreat, two weekends ago, was super fun! Our speaker was Rob Holland and everyone really enjoyed him. I know this because I read the evaluations and the fathers who evaluated shared resounding appreciation of the message Rob shared. (As I am neither a father nor a son, I didn't attend chapel ... so I can't report in further details. Maybe someone will leave a comment?)

The fathers and sons also reported that they appreciated the time they were able to spend to together, and the opportunity to "get back to the basics".

Our staff had lots of fun too. We're already looking forward to next year (you can mark it in your calendars: June 8-10, 2012).

Bottle rockets!

Bottle rockets were the funnnnnnest. Hiiiiyah!

Jasper is now a wrangler. Sometimes. Contrary to tale told by the full out wrangler jacket (slicker? is that what they're called?), it was very nice day on Saturday!

We're 64% sure Owen has a future as a jockey. Good form, right?

The Challenge Course is always challengingly amazingly fun.

Fathers & sons rocked it at the climbing wall.

The one downer? Mosquitos. So. Many. Mosquitos. Eli shows off his "the mosquitos are coming! the mosquitos are coming" response.

and the building begins ...

2011-06-08T14:26:00.006-06:00

Waaay back in 2009, we started on the Cabin Fever! project. Our cabins, if you've stayed in them, are kind of ... old. It was time to do something about that! Move into the modern age!

It's taken a while to get to the place where we can start building, but now, as the proud owners of a Development Permit and a Building Permit, and cabin plans that have been blessed* by our Health Inspector, we are ready to roll!

You'll be hearing fundraising requests from us in the coming weeks and months; we currently have just over $90,000 in the bank and in commitments to the project.

In the past couple of weeks, Dave has prepped the sites for the first four cabins -- clearing trees, leveling the sites and having the pilings put in. We'll be building in three phases, or four cabins at a time.

The cabins won't be ready for this summer. Now that we're actually building, and as long as the funding we require keeps flowing in, we expect that to finish all twelve cabins, it will take us about two years. So, some of you will stay in new cabins in 2012. Everyone should be in the new cabins in 2013 (but I reserve the right to revise my timelines!

I'm going to try really hard to blog the progress, and to post pictures on Camp Evergreen's facebook page regularly (become a fan of us on facebook!)

So, to begin ...

Here's the site for the first cabin. It's right by the outdoor washrooms and the Activity Centre and it will be one of our wheelchair accessible cabins:

In among the trees (I'm sorry ... it's really hard to take exciting photos of empty spots in the forest) is where the second, third and fourth cabins will go in (behind the outdoor bathrooms, sort of facing cabins 8-11).

And, a gravel delivery to help level the sites:

* "Blessing" might not be the technical term for a Health Inspector's role in the building planning process, but you know what I mean, right?

it's really wet out there.

2011-05-28T11:49:00.003-06:00

Weird spring, right? First the wildfires (our hearts ache for the people of Slave Lake) and now ridiculous amounts of rain?

Back in 2005*, Camp Evergreen (and region) experienced a crazy huge flood: we haven't used the lower playing field for anything but rocketry since, and we very nearly lost our canoe pond. Chunks of the old minigolf course turned up in distant woods for ages and ages. (Next time you canoe here, see if you can find hole 4, embedded in the woods by the lagoon.)

It's highly unlikely we'll see a flood like that again anytime soon. Nonetheless, some kind of flooding is happening as we speak. Emily and I drove the gator down to check out the action (we kept a very safe distance from the actual water: we would not want to risk being swept away). You can't get to the teepees right now (the road to the teepees has been replaces with a rushing river) and we're about one foot away from the creek overflowing into the canoe lagoon.

It's Rain 'n Jog with our guest groups these days (still very fun, especially since Jasper has taken to doing jumping jacks up and down the centre line: very entertaining):

Sometimes we trail ride along here. Not for now, though! Do you see how the water is about to burst over the shoulder?

Emily points to where the road to the teepees was ... and where our new waterway now resides (temporarily named The Oilers Are Cody's Favourite Hockey Team creek). Usually, the whole direction Emily is facing is road. The creek runs parallel to her. TOACFHT creek is the part running in front of her.

*Thanks to Alyssa N. for pointing out that the big flood was 2005, not 2004 like I'd originally posted. OOPS!

father & son retreat

2011-05-27T11:30:00.002-06:00

So, our Father & Son retreat is coming up so so so soon! June 3-5. Maybe we'll have less rain by then? Yikes, we've got lots of water around here right now!

This will be our second Father & Son retreat: last year was super fun (look how much fun Eli's having in the picture to your left). We are definitely looking forward to this retreat returning for another year!

We have crazy fun ziplining, climbing the wall and shooting bow & arrows! Hopefully the pond survives the huge amounts of water flowing in from the creek right now ... I'll post pictures of our almost-a-flood conditions later on.

We still have space for registrations so you should consider joining us for the weekend ... Dads, it's a great time to play with your sons and build foundations and memories that will last a life time!

Our speaker for Father & Son Retreat is Rob Holland. Rob is one of our neighbours, and a popular speaker at Bergen Evangelical Missionary Church, just down the road from Camp Evergreen. I've heard that he's a funny, engaging, sound speaker, so we're excited to have him with us.

Rob & his wife Naomi are expecting their second child this summer. Introducing himself, Rob says, "I have spent a lot of years packing and riding through the foothills and Rocky Mountains of Alberta. I enjoy spending time outdoors listening to the wind in the pines and if I am fishing while doing this that is even better. I have recently returned from Kathmandu, Nepal after spending 18 months there with my wife and daughter (serving with Servants Anonymous). I enjoy spending time with God, reading the bible, and trying to walk as one of his disciples."

spring staff: the team!

2011-05-06T14:45:00.001-06:00

We're finishing up spring staff training as I write this and I think it's been a pretty good week! Okay, so a couple of brains nearly exploded with all the information we try to cram into them, but in the end, everyone survived. Everyone is ready to roll with outdoor education. We're super excited to use our hosting skills. We're anxious to start arching. Our newly trained and certified Challenge Course facilitators are looking forward to challenge-by-choice adventures on the Balance Beam, Leap of Faith and zipline. We're all experts in the dishpit. We can mop with the best of them. Yes, it's been a good week!

They don't all look it in the picture above, but everyone is loving Courtney's explanation of the Program Team (aka, Courtney, Becca, Becca and Evan). Reilly looks worried, actually. Hmm. That's probably because I'm taking pictures. But you can see the smiles on Sarah (blue sweater) and Stephanie's (tan sweatshirt, on the far right) faces, right?

When I wrote the "spring staff are about to arrive" post a week and a bit ago, we were still a little short - especially in the kitchen. But then, miracle of miracles, we got last-post-second applications from Joel and Evan. Such a blessing! We were able to process their applications, references and record checks over the weekend and during training. That's Joel with the dashing hairnet. For May and June, he and Luke will be working in the kitchen with Ken. Does that make this Camp Evergreen's first all-male kitchen team? Evan's going to be joining Courtney and the Beccas on the Program Team.

Abby, Becca, Becca, Chelsea, Cody, Colter, Emily, Erin, Evan, Jasper, Joel, Julia, Kathrin, Luke, Reilly, Sarah, Stephanie and Taylor are ready to go: we're super excited for our Guest Groups to start pulling in!

May 2011 Update

2011-05-04T17:34:00.003-06:00

Prayer Requests & Praise Items

It came down to the wire, but as is his way, God provided the staff we need for our May and June team! We're looking forward to a great spring, having lots of fun as we serve together! If you'd pray for Abby, Becca L., Becca M., Chelsea, Cody, Colter, Emily, Erin, Evan, Jasper, Joel, Julia, Kathrin, Luke, Reilly, Sarah, Stephanie and Taylor as they serve here at Evergreen over the next four months, we'd be most grateful!
Please pray for us as we seek to raise the funds we need to operate successfully – and that God will guide our financial decision-making.
We have guest groups on site almost every single day in May and June. Please pray with us that we can be salt and light in the lives of every student and guest who steps on our site in the next two months.

Upcoming Events
Fundraising Concert, Edmonton – 7PM, May 13, 2011
With Vicky Berg & Simon Hoskyn, at Sunrise Church (map). Tickets are $10 at the door.

Fundraising Concert, Calgary – 7PM, May 14, 2011
With Alexander McInnes & Vicky Berg, at Dalhousie Church (map). Tickets are $10 at the door.

Father & Sons' Retreat – June 3-5, 2011

Financial Update

March 1 - April 30, 2011	Budget	Actual
General Donations	$9,500.00	$16,564.40

The United Way of Central Alberta is no longer able to provide funding for our Campership Aid program due to a realignment of their funding priorities. That means we're going to need your support for Campership Aid more than ever this year! Campership Aid subsidizes the cost of camp for families who find camp fees unaffordable. Our goal is to never turn away a potential camper because they can't afford the cost of camp.

If you have questions about our finances, would like a copy of our 2011/12 budget, or would like a more complete financial update, please contact Kerry at 403.638.4230 or director@camp-evergreen.com. We're always happy to answer your questions!

Cabin Fever! Update
We've been clearing the sites for the first four cabins and the screwpilings for these first four will be going in, in mid-May! We'll be sure to post pictures on the blog as this work gets underway ... stay tuned!

You can also check out our April 2011 Green Space Newsletter for more information about what's going on at Evergreen.

Ladies' Retreat 2011

2011-05-03T16:31:00.005-06:00

Our annual Ladies' Retreat was three weeks ago, and it was wonderful! I have to apologize for how long it's taken me to write about it; we've been super busy getting ready for spring and I let blogging get away on me. Apologies.

Our speaker at Ladies' Retreat was Heather Boersma, from Winnipeg. Heather was fantastic! Here's some of what the ladies at the retreat had to say:

"Heather was awesome: would love to have her back!"
"Heather was excellent; she shared a personal and Biblically-sound message."
"I wish there were more speaker sessions."
"Heather was great. I enjoyed the theme and her honesty."
"Heather was amazing! And she really spoke to me; I'm excited to go forth and make changes in my life with what she talked about!"
"The speaker was exceptional. Heather was very real and the message very impactful."

So what did Heather speak about that impacted our guests so greatly? She spoke from Ephesians 3:14-21, which is, incidentally, our summer 2011 theme:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Heather talked about dreaming big in our lives and about discovering God’s purpose for each of our lives. She spoke about what it means to give into how much more God has for us: he has a future in mind for each of us, that goes beyond all we can ask or imagine.

In addition to great times listening to and learning from Heather, we enjoyed worship-through-music with Colleen, Connie, Karen and Sydney (thanks, ladies!). We also enjoyed camp activities ... some of them were the usual fun (the zipline, trail rides), some of them were our traditional Ladies' Retreat fare (our ever popular cooking-with-Ken class), and some of them were totally unique to this year!

Sydney treated us to manicures, Karen led a group of women through making authentic pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) and Ten Thousand Villages visited with some of their fantastic fair trade goods!

We're already looking forward to next year ... and we're hoping we'll see Heather as one of our summer speakers in 2012.

spring staff are about to arrive!

2011-04-28T13:57:00.006-06:00

It's April 28. That means it's almost May 1 (duh) and May 1 is when our Spring Staff arrive. Seriously: how did the last year pass by so quickly?

In 2010, we had just ONE new staff member on our spring staff team (pictured); everyone else had been around Evergreen for at least a couple of years. (We're super excited that that one new staff member will be back as an old hand this year. Yeah, Becca!) I bring that up because our spring staff team in 2011 features a whole bunch of new faces: it's always fun when our family grows, right?

Some of our team is totally new to Evergreen (Abby, Kathrin and Taylor). Some of the team is new to spring at Evergreen (Chelsea, Erin, Reilly and Stephanie). And we have still have solid representation from the old hands (Becca L., Becca M., Cody, Colter, Emily, Jasper, Julia, Luke and Sarah).

We are super excited for everyone to arrive on Sunday & Monday. We'll spend a week together, training: some people will be trained on the Challenge Course and we'll all go through Camp Evergreen's Safe Place Policy & Procedures, Code of Conduct, Crisis Management Plan (okay, it's not the most exciting stuff, but it's really, really important!). We'll also go through the practical stuff ... how to keep things fun on rainy days, how to operate the radios, how to keep the camp clean & tidy. And team building. We'll do some team building.

Then, on May 8, spring session starts in earnest. We have a very busy May and June ahead of us: school groups, Girl Guides & Boy Scouts, youth groups, men's retreats & ladies' retreats and our very own Father & Son Retreat (there's still space, if you'd like to register).

We look forward to introducing our spring team to you if you're coming out for a retreat or event and if we're not going to see you here, we'd love it if you'd pray for our team -- for fun, safety and great & growing relationships with God, with each other and with our guests.

See you soon!

Ken's Granola Bars

2011-04-20T08:24:00.001-06:00

Ahh, the swhoosh, swish of skates on ice, the crack of the stick against the puck, the pass, the tip, he shots he scores!!! The spectators go crazy!! What a game, what an event, what a granola bar!!! Whoa, back up here, weren't we just talking about hockey? A little. Recently, like back in January, we at Camp Evergreen hosted our Second Annual 3-on-3 Pond Hockey Tournament. It was a roaring success. Especially the granola bars. From a kitchen perspective, events are a success when people like the food. And the granola bars were well received.

“Granola Bars ROCK!!” and “Granola bars rocked” [Kerry has to enter the dialogue here to apologize for the fact that we didn't take even one picture of the granola bars. Ooooops. I'll include a picture of Dave being a human zamboni instead. But if we had a picture of the granola bars, you'd be saying ...] It just makes you want to run to the kitchen and make a batch. Ok, team, lets do it!!

Camp Evergreen's Secret Recipe Granola Bar
Ingredients

½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup corn syrup
1 cup mini marshmallows
1 tsp real vanilla
2 tsp cinnamon
4 cups vector cereal
1 cup oats
1 cup coconut
1 cup graham graham crumbs
¼ cup sesame seeds
½ cup raisins
½ dried cranberries
1 cup butterscotch chips/chocolate chips

Method

In a large mixing bowl, mix all of your dry ingredients together.
In a double bottomed sauce pan, bring the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup to a roiling boil. Remove from the heat as soon as it hits this stage. Add in the marshmallows and the vanilla. Mix until all of the marshmallows are melted in.
Pour hot syrup mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well. Everything needs to be well coated.
Press into a well greased 9x13 pan. Cool and cut to the size that you like.

At this stage in the game, you can either let them set and enjoy or you can bake them in the oven at 325C, until they just start to brown around the edges for about 12 minutes. They will be a little more chewey, but the should hold up better and not be crumbly. I did this with the last batch that I had made. They are more chewey, but when stored in an airtight container, they seem to retain some moistness.

Another trick to develop more flavour if you have time and patience would be to toast your oats, coconut and sesame seeds together on a cookie sheet in the oven at 325C for about 15 minutes, making sure to stir the mixture every five minutes or so to ensure that the outside edges do not burn. This will help to develop a more nutty like flavour.

I had told a participant at the Pond Hockey Tournament when he had asked for the recipe, that it was a secret recipe, so secret that it was even a secret from myself. Haha, now here it is in print, so not much of a secret. And to be honest with you, these kind of “secrets” are best when they are shared.

Ken the Cook

tee-shirt time

2011-03-20T16:40:00.004-06:00

Cody and Emily spent the better part of two and a half days last week rolling tee shirts ... and not just any tee-shirts ... our 2011 camper tee-shirts!

Apparently they have some kind of multi-media extravaganza planned to present their labour to you all, but in the meantime, we're going to be rocking the jewel tones in 2011.

March 2011 Update

2011-03-17T16:23:00.003-06:00

Prayer Requests
☆ Please pray for our 2011 staff team. We don't have quite enough May-June staff just yet – please pray God will provide us with the right number of mature, energetic young adults who have an unquenchable drive to share the love of Christ with everyone they meet. A staff of sixteen for May and June is ideal.
☆ We had 646 campers in 2008 and 2009, 664 campers in 2010, and we're praying that we'll see about 690 campers in 2011.

Upcoming Events
Ladies' Retreat – April 15-17, 2011
Fundraising Concert, Edmonton – 7PM, May 13, 2011
With Vicky Berg & Simon Hoskyn, at Sunrise Church. Tickets are $10 at the door.
Fundraising Concert, Calgary – 7PM, May 14, 2011
With Alexander McInnes & Vicky Berg, at Dalhousie Church. Tickets are $10 at the door.
Father & Sons' Retreat – June 3-5, 2011

Financial Update
We entered our 2011/12 fiscal year on March 1. To keep maintain our operations well, we have numerous projects to complete this year – we need a few new saddles; the Activity Centre furnace is in its dying days; we continue to raise funds to replace the lodge furnaces; and more. We strive to be good stewards of our resources, while accomplishing the tasks we need to, so that we can be a ministry that blesses kids' and families' lives in a safe, fun and warm environment. And we are going to need your help again this year. Please consider supporting us as a financial donor!

If you have questions about our finances, please contact Kerry at 403.638.4230 or
director@camp-evergreen.com. We're always happy to answer your questions!

Cabin Fever! Update
Our Development Permit was conditionally approved last week, pending the appeal period, which closes on March 29. Please pray that the appeal period passes without a hitch! Once the Development Permit is finalized, we'll begin site preparations and we'll have more news about the building process. Thank you for your patience and your prayers!

Board News
We would love to have 10-12 members on our board by the end of 2011. Right now, we have six members. We're particularly looking for members from Edmonton, Highland, New Hope, Sunwest, Gem and one of our Southern Alberta churches.

Rise 'n Shine, CCI and Awesome, according to Emily

2011-03-09T16:11:00.009-07:00

This year, for the first time, we ran two Rise 'n Shine junior high retreats: one at the end of January and one at the end of February. Mike Perschon spoke for both retreats, and Jasmin, Jeremy and Josh, from Dalhousie, led music through worship for both weekends. The pictures are from the first Rise 'n Shine. We don't have much for photos from round two ... although I heard rumours that Rachel from River West was wandering around with a camera. Rachel, can you hook me up with some photos? In addition to Rise 'n Shine, our staff packed up and headed down the road to another camp for our annual CCI / Alberta Conference. CCI stands for Christian Camping International, and it's one of the camping organizations we're part of. It's great to get together with camp staff from across the province to exchange stories, ideas and encouragement! Emily is our new blog queen -- I'm loving that she has lots to say. Thanks, Emily! Here's Emily's perspective on Rise 'n Shine and the CCI / Alberta Conference.

A hundred and twenty people are packed into the dining room, and over the microphone, the words “I have a joke for you” are said. Everyone gets quiet for announcements and jokes. Plates filled with wonderful food pass in people's hands as then gingerly balanced passing others by, the room buzzes with light conversation and laughter as the first meal is under way.

Rise and Shine #2 has officially happened and it was AWESOME. The staff had as much as fun as the participants in activities and during the sessions. The weekends sessions were centered on Colossians and the idea of “slaying the dragon and rescuing the princess”, in the sense that each of us as believers has a challenge and that is to live with God as our #1. Setting our sights on something that requires commitment, not just a “maybe I’ll try it out”.

Overall the weekend was great. Night game was fantastic and as always all had fun running around playing Jug 'n Jog: even knee deep snow didn’t slow anyone down too much.

Now almost two weeks have passed since the retreat so let me bring you all up to speed on what has been going here for us. This past week, all of us packed into the camp van and headed to the CCI conference held at River's Edge. Overall it was a good time and we all came away with things to think about, including, “I wish we had a hot chocolate machine”. However now we are back in the swing of things getting ready for things to come, guest groups, Ladies' Retreat (April 15-17) and so much more.

In other news SUMMER is coming…and I will now leave you with that thought.

February 2011 Update

2011-02-16T12:15:00.002-07:00

Prayer Requests
❄ We're in the midst of hiring our 2011 staff team. Pray that God provides a team of young adults who have surprising amounts of maturity, crazy amounts of energy, and an unquenchable drive to share the love of Christ with everyone they meet.

❄ We had 646 campers in 2008 and 2009, 664 campers in 2010, and we're praying that we'll see about 690 campers in 2011.

❄ Please pray for safety at the February Rise 'n Shine retreat, lots of fun and great bonding times for the participating youth groups. Thank God for a fantastic January Rise 'n Shine, where speaker Mike Perschon (who will be back for Round 2) challenged the kids to seek out how God wants to use their lives.

Upcoming Events
Rise 'n Shine (Junior High Retreat) Round 2 – February 25-27, 2011
Ladies' Retreat – April 15-17, 2011
Father & Sons' Retreat – June 3-5, 2011

for details, costs & registration on retreats and events: www.camp-evergreen.com

Pond Hockey Tournament
Our second annual Pond Hockey Tournament, held in January, was HEAPS of fun! A super cold day (about -24) meant we were frosty from our eyelashes to our toes, but it also made things extra Canadian and adventurous! The eight participating teams raised just over $13,000. You can find pictures on our blog and our facebook page.

Financial Update
Can you help us end in the year in the black? Contact Kerry if you have questions about Camp Evergreen's finances: we're always happy to answer your questions.

Board News
We would love to have 10-12 members on our board by the end of 2011. Right now, we have six members. We're particularly looking for members from Edmonton, Highland, New Hope, Sunwest, Gem and one of our Southern Alberta churches.

Contact Us
snail mail: Box 492 // Sundre, Alberta // T0M 1X0
online: www.camp-evergreen.com // blog: www.camp-evergreen.blogspot.com
telephone: 403.638.4230

Emily in the Winter.

2011-02-04T08:12:00.002-07:00

As the frost shimmers in the sunlight and the wind picks up blowing the -30 temperature at my face, I lower the plow and head down the driveway cleaning up the snow from the day before.

For some reason I think that may be the best introduction to who I am and to one of the many things I love doing here at camp during the winter season. My name is Emily and I love working outside. Temperatures don’t seem to slow me down much and weather conditions mean nothing to me. Now I’m not saying I’m invincible or untouchable. Rather, having rosy pink cheeks and feeling the pure exhaustion of hard work and walking with heavy winter boots and all the layers all day is somehow comforting and reassuring that hard work pays off in the end.

Working on maintenance during the winter is such a beautiful thing. In the winter, we have time to accomplish the tasks and repair jobs that have been waiting months for even a quick assessment glance. So far this winter has been very busy, from the very first snowfall to just a few weeks ago when I spending hours flooding our 2 rinks nonstop just to get them up to par for our annual pond hockey tournament. Along with working on the rinks, the transformation of the upper brown house section had begun. The upper brown house used to be Kerry's most awesome house and now the front half is our “new” staff lounge and the back half will be housing for male staff … that’s AWESOME.

Also this year I was able to accompany Becca and Courtney on the camp days tour to Saskatchewan. We went from Briercrest to Millar and last but not least Bethany. It was such a sweet experience for me, mostly because it was a sweet chance to connect with students and just laugh about whatever. The trip came to a finish in Edmonton after we set up the booth for the Breakforth weekend that Kerry, Julia and Cody represented camp for.

Now, I'm back at camp safe and sound and working outside. But, my mind has already begun to think of summer and all the possibilities of our Mountain Biking chosen skill. I have lots of planning to do and I'm stoked and ready to continue working hard and seeing camp's chosen skills get beefed up.

A note from Kerry about the above video. The first half of the video features Emily and Jyle, biking in their spare time and without campers around. In that part of the video, they're not wearing helmets and that's not okay. We're all on the same page now: Emily and Jyle wear their helmets all the time when they're biking on site -- even when there aren't campers with them and even if it's on an off day or an off block. I'm glad because choosing not to wear a helmet is unwise and Camp Evergreen has a strict policy when it comes to helmets and mountain biking: in a nutshell, "anyone on a bicycle, regardless of their age or destination, is required to wear a bicycle helmet while they ride". So, if you're bringing a bike to camp ... don't forget your helmet.

Winter Life at Camp Evergreen’s Barn.

2011-02-02T08:27:00.002-07:00

Hey all, it’s Julia again! Living here at camp is a treat in the winter time. It isn’t always easy to work at the barn in the middle of winter though. When it gets super cold outside, one doesn’t always feel like going outside and doing their work in the cold. However, some of the most exciting part of my job happens in winter. As people who come to the barn often know, horses don’t train themselves, and Camp Evergreen does have some horses that haven’t been broke to ride yet. We also have some horses that just need some riding time. When the weather isn’t too bone chillingly cold, you can find Jon and I out in the round pens and out on the trails working with these horses.

Currently we are working on three horses that haven’t had official rides on them, and we have one who has had only a couple rides. We also have a couple of horses that were started last winter that are mostly just getting time put on them. Munchkin, and Liberty are four year old sisters who are two of the horses we are just starting. We are also putting in some time with my three year old, Freedom. Finnegan is a horse who was started last year, but he still hasn’t been out on the trails. We are hoping to work with him again soon. Wolf and Stormie are our two horses that we are just putting lots of trail time on that we started last winter. It is interesting how different each horse is, and the different ways we have to adapt our training program to accommodate the needs of each individual horse. Each horse has their own character and set of traits that makes them different from the others. Even Munchkin and Liberty who were born the same year, and have had about the same amount of training, need their training programs adapted differently.

It is really cool sitting on the edge of the round pen as Jon is working with any of these horses. The round pen is a place where I tend to see lots of parallels between the relationship of horse and handler, and the relationship between us and God. The handler represents God, and the horse represents us as individuals. Sometimes Jon will be moving a horse in a round pen trying to get them to pay attention to him. For the most part, our horses are pretty willing to give Jon their attention. However, every once in a while a horse will decide that it doesn’t want to give him all its attention and will either stop or turn in the wrong direction. This causes Jon to have to either push the horse harder, or turn them back around. The horse chooses to make things difficult for it, when it could easily just do what Jon wants it to do. In our own lives, we choose to give God our attention, but every once in a while, we get distracted and we tend to make life more difficult for ourselves than it has to be.

pond hockey day!

2011-01-17T13:59:00.003-07:00

For now, I'm just going to post a couple of pictures of our SUPER FUN, completely freezing cold Second Annual Pond Hockey Tournament. Saturday was a cold day but our eight teams stuck it out and had a lot of frozen fun. I think it was around -24 for the better part of the day. During the games first thing in the morning, we had players with ridiculously long, white, frost-coated eyelashes.

Team Enns won the day for the second year running; they didn't lose a game all day.

We raised about $13,000 (final figures to be determined shortly), which is an increase from last year. Team Linden raised over $3000! Way to go, guys!

I've also started a photo album on our Facebook page. Check it out here. (You should be able to view the album whether or not you have a facebook profile.) The photos posted here are credit to Trenton. We also have photos from resident photographer Julia on their way ...

Second Annual Pond Hockey Tournament

2011-01-09T15:24:00.001-07:00

It's almost here! January 15 and Camp Evergreen's Second Annual Three-on-Three Pond Hockey Tournament are just around the corner. Last year, we had tonnes of fun and we raised $11,507 for Camp Evergreen's summer camp programs and retreats ... we're looking forward to another fantastic day this year!

We have nine teams registered to play (three more than last year!).

Dave and Emily are getting the rinks all ready. We'll be playing on the main ice rink, and a second rink we've set up in RV sites, next to the main rink. The pictures are of the two rinks, and they were taken on January 6.

If you're going to be here for the tournament, there's a couple things you need to remember!

Registration starts at 9AM and the puck will drop for the first game at 9:30AM!
The forecast for January 15 is a high of -10C and a low of -24C ... let's pray for the warmer end of that spectrum while you're all playing! We now have an indoor skate shack attached to the ice rink and we'll have a covered area by our second rink, as well. Coffee, tea and hot chocolate will be going all day. But you're still going to want the warm clothes.
Acknowledgment of Risk forms. As part of the Pond Hockey Handbook (attached to this email), there is an Acknowledgment of Risk form. We'll need a signed copy of this form from each player on your team before play commences.
We'll have a continental breakfast available on site until 9:30AM, but we need to know if you plan to eat here!
LUNCH and DINNER will be served here on site. It'll be yummy. We'll also hand out some prizes at dinner time.

For the Spectators!

We would be thrilled to see spectators out to support the teams! For spectators aged 10+, there is a $15 entrance fee that can be paid upon arrival (the day is free for spectators aged 9 and under) -- the fee covers off the cost of lunch and dinner. So that we know how much food to prepare, it's CRUCIAL that you RSVP by Wednesday, January 12 at 11:59PM.
Spectator RSVPs can be emailed to director@camp-evergreen.com, or called into 403.638.4230.
We'll have wagon rides, games and movies available during the day for spectators.
The toboggan hill will also be open, but people will need to bring their own sleds and we ask that kids wear helmets on the sledding hill, too.

January 2011 Update

2011-01-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

January 2011 Update

Prayer Requests
❄ Registrations for summer camp are coming in! Pray with us that God will be preparing the hearts and minds of each future campers. Pray that He'd provide the finances families need to send their kids to camp (including through our Campership Aid program) and that we are inspired by the Holy Spirit as we plan for summer 2011.

❄ We had 646 campers in 2008 and 2009, 664 campers in 2010, and we're praying that we'll see about 690 campers in 2011.

❄ We have two junior high retreats coming up, one in January and one in February – please pray for safety at each event, lots of fun and great bonding times for the participating youth groups.

❄ We will be on the road in January and February, recruiting staff at Bible College camps days across Alberta and Saskatchewan, and recruiting guest groups and campers at Teachers' Conventions and conferences like Breakforth. Please pray for safety on the road as we travel and that we're able to make great connections!

Upcoming Events
Rise 'n Shine (Junior High Retreat) Round 1 – January 21-23, 2011
Mid-Winter Meltdown (Family Camp) – February 18-20, 2011
Rise 'n Shine (Junior High Retreat) Round 2 – February 25-27, 2011

Pond Hockey Tournament – January 15, 2011
We have nine fantastic teams registered for our second annual pond hockey tournament this coming Saturday, January 15. We're looking forward to a great day, some friendly rivalries and some fundraising fun! If you'd like to support a team in the tournament, you can donate via Canada Helps (follow the link on our website).

If you'd like to come out to cheer for your family or friends, you must RSVP to the office (director@camp-evergreen.com or 403.638.4230). To cover the cost of food, spectator tickets are $15 per person (unless you're nine years old or younger ... then you're in for free!).

Current Needs
We've received $6,300 toward replacing the water heater and furnaces in our lodge – we can go ahead with replacement of the water heater! Thank you so much. The furnaces remain on the replacement list; we still need about $14,000. Can you help us? For more details, follow this link.

a tale of two staffers.

2011-01-06T14:41:00.009-07:00

LIKE I PROMISED, it's time for some who-works-at-Evergreen fun! We'll start with something super camp related.

You've met Emily before. And once before that, too. (Those sentences are links to previous Emily posts, just in case you weren't sure.)

Emily has been kicking around at Evergreen for a while now - this is her second winter. She's been here, if I counted correctly, for one year and nine months. Wowza. As I type this, Emily is at the skating rink, flooding. She's working with our Site Manager, Dave, this winter and so one of her biggest orders of business right now is preparing for the Pond Hockey Tournament on January 15.

Asked what her favourite skills to lead are, Emily says the "zipline, wall and ITCs [initiative tasks course]. I like these three the most because I love seeing people challenge themselves as individuals and also in a group setting. Watching the 'light' go on for people even when it takes time is cool." That means Emily is evolving as a camp staffer, because she used to tout "Fires, because there are so many ways, and fun ways, to [safely!] light them and rock climbing because it's such a good analogy for how my faith looks" as her favourites. Well, the rock climbing is the same.

You haven't met Becca before. I take that back. If you've been on site, you've probably met Becca. If you've been an Adventure Classic camper in the past five years, the chances that you've met Becca are even higher. She just hasn't been on the blog before.

Becca has also been at Evergreen for ages, but not consecutive ages. She worked as summer staff in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 ... and when summer 2010 drew to a close, she decided to stay on as Assistant Program Director. We're pretty darn glad she stuck around. As I type this, she's ... okay, weird. She just walked into my office to ask a question ... working on schedules for Rise 'n Shine and Mid-Winter Meltdown.

Becca's favourite skills to lead & why: "I like canoeing, because water sports are fun BUT I also love climbing, because it's a skill which is sometimes just as much as mental challenge as a physical one. It's sweet being able to encourage folks to try for just 'one more step' and break through the struggle."

Ooooh, fondness for wall climbing. A trend develops! We like climbing here at Evergreen. I (Kerry) am definitely a canoeing fan; it was always my chosen skill when I was a camper and it was the skill I taught most when I was spring and summer staff. I used to belay, too, back when I was spring staff in 1999 and 2000, but I'm happy to leave the wall stuff to Emily, Becca and other who love it these days.

Furnaces & Water Heater: An Update

2011-01-05T13:34:00.001-07:00

Hello, friends. We're back from the holidays and getting back into the blogging habit! We hope you had lovely Christmases and New Year's celebrations, with family and friends!

Way back in October, I posted about how we need to replace the water heater and the furnace in our lodge. You can read that post here. I just wanted to update you on how that's going.

We've received $6300 in donations toward the project -- we are so grateful to each of the donors who have responded to this need! The funding means we can proceed with replacing the water heater, so that's where we're starting. We're still looking for about $14,000 (or, exactly $13,844.25), so that we can also replace the furnaces.

If you're able to help us with this important replacement project, you can donate via cheque (Box 492 / Sundre, AB / T0M 1X0) or credit card (call our office at 403.638.4230). Please designate any donations as "capital". Any funds raised beyond what is required for the furnaces will go toward capital projects. Please see our "wishlist" for what those capital projects might include!

our staff team.

2010-12-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

When a week or a weekend or a retreat at camp is over, kids will chatter all the way home about the horses or the challenge course or Ken's amazing food. But, really, it's the people, the community, that makes camp a great place to be. The zipline might be sweet and horses mights be amazing and the food might be mouth-watering goodness, but if the belayers aren't (safely) crazy and encouraging or the wranglers aren't friendly and fun or the meals aren't served by enthusiastic staffers ... well, it kind of takes something really important away from the experience. It sounds super cliché, but seriously team! Our people are our greatest asset.

We're going to spend sometime this winter introducing you to our staff team. We don't get a lot of comments on our blog (Alyssa, Reilly, Lisa, Bethany ... 16 points each for commenting every so often) but I've still heard from a surprising number of people that our spring time posts about our spring staff team are their favourites.

I gave our staff a ridiculously long questionnaire. Emily wins seventy-nine points for being the first person to return a completed questionnaire to my office; Becca comes in second with eight points. No points for anyone else, yet. I'm not going to post the responses to the questionnaires (which feature gems like, "have you ever met a famous person?") all at once. You have so much to look forward to!

In summary:
1st place: Emily (79pts)
2nd place: Alyssa, Reilly, Lisa Bethany (16pts each)
3rd place: Becca (8pts)

(Pictured above is Camp Evergreen's first year-round director, Walt Loewen, at our June 2010 All-Staff Reunion.)

Christmas Banquet 2010

2010-12-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

A week and a bit ago, we had our annual Christmas Banquet. It was great fun to be joined for the evening by supporters, local friends and board members. We had a fun night! We were also pleased that our Christmas Banquet plans weren't mostly derailed by a snow storm, like they were last year!

In the kitchen, Ken had help from Jyle and Emily: making a delicious Christmas dinner, from the turkey to the stuffing to the carrots and the salad and fancy-pants homemade chutney! Jyle also devote great attention to the preparation of tasty Christmas baking!

Colleen did a lovely job, decorating the dining hall in the manner of a Winter Wonderland. Kiah, Sydney, an armload of toque-clad teddy bears and our Evergreen moose all helped out.

And our guests had a lovely evening (we think! we hope!) visiting, eating, playing Christmas games, carolling and playing board games.

December 2010 Update

2010-12-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

Six months ago, we started sending out monthly updates to our supporting churches. It's probably time to start posting them online, too, isn't it? I'm going to post it as a .jpg file, although I'm not sure if this is the best way to go. I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out how to attach a .pdf file to a blog post. Anyone want to tell me how to do that? Leave a comment ...

summer stories: PUSH, Impact and what Koda's really thinking.

2010-12-10T11:53:00.001-07:00

A. is a lifer here at Evergreen. This summer, she spent three weeks at camp, for PUSH and Impact and she says they were the best three weeks of her summer! Here's A.'s story, in her own words:

PUSH was almost more fun than Impact for a few reasons. With PUSH, you got to know and work with everyone and your group became pretty tight. Despite the fact that we did a ton of cleaning, it was all in how you looked at that made it fun. If you went into it thinking it was going to suck then it did, but if you went in looking for all the fun you could have then you would have fun. I even had fun cleaning urinals. There was one time were we got this idea to go into the outdoor bathrooms like the FBI, so we grabbed our spray bottles and rags and brushes and that good stuff. We would have one person leading and one crouched with someone else holding a spray bottle over their head ready to fight the grime.

One morning our PUSH crew decided on what Koda would say if he could speak, it would go something like this [Kerry's note: Koda is Courtney's unusually faithful dog -- he's a bit of fixture around here and he's pretty obsessed with our squirrel population. And yes, that's a really old picture.]:

"MOM MOM MOM, SQUIRREL, MOM MOM SQUIRRREL!"
or
"WHERE ARE WE GOING NOW? WHAT ARE WE DOING? SQUIRREL! WAIT UP!"

The craziness aside, God really spoke to me this summer. While I was at chosen skill, I had my camera so I started taking pictures and they turned out really nice so really it was God showing Himself through creation. He is all around and when we don't feel like He is there sometimes we need to look for Him instead of Him looking for us. I learned that I can't do anything on my own but that I need God, without Him our life will feel like it has no purpose, He gives us purpose. I started relying on God more and not on myself. He does have my best interests in mind. Camp for me is were a lot of my growing has happened, it is easier to make friends and just be myself. I have learned so much in my nine years at camp and a lot of it has stuck with me! Without it would have taken me longer to give my life to Christ! Everything makes more sense at Camp.

That pretty much summarizes what I learned or realized this summer! In order to trust someone, sometimes you need to go out on a limb and try!

A. also wrote a song this summer:

We Need You
When life get tough
Were can we turn?
I'm falling
Spinning out of control

We can't do this without you
We Need You
You are there even when we can't feel it
You are everything we need!

Life Keeps going
A roller coaster
Seeming to never end
This is life!

We can't do this without you
We need you
You are there even when we can't feel it
You are everything we need!

When you don't want to live
When you want to self harm
When you want to run away
Run to Him!

We can't do this without you
We need you
You are there even when we can't feel it
You are everything we need

This is life, not something we can do alone
There is pain
There is suffering
There is sin!

We can't do this without you
We need you
You are there even when we can't feel it
You are everything we need!

When you have no were else to go
Run to Jesus
He is there
Run, run, run
To Him!

We can't do this without you
We need you
You are there even when we can't feel it
You are everything we need!

We need you
We need you
You are everything
Everything we need!

We can't do this without you
We need you (x3)
I love you (x3)

summer stories: learning to ask for help.

2010-12-04T11:32:00.006-07:00

Allison (on the left) was a FANTASTIC addition to our staff team this summer. She was a stellar kitchen staffer and a great cabin leader. She also responded promptly and graciously when I asked for summer stories. So, without further ado, this is Allison's story:

Hi! Hi!
Something that I learned at camp. Should be an easy task, right? You would think so. This entire summer was a learning process for me. Some things were significant, like hot oil will literally disintegrate plastic containers and melt the cupboard doors in the kitchen. (Sorry, Ken!) Some things were not so significant, like no matter how fast you go in, how hot the day is, or how long you stay in for, the water in the creek is always cold. Always. But that’s not the kind of thing you’re looking for now, is it?

I guess one of the most important things that I learned at camp, the thing I will remember the most, is that it’s okay to ask for help. No matter what you’re going through, no matter what you’re dealing with, God can help you. You may want to do it on your own, you think that you’ve got it all covered. Maybe you think that your situation is too petty and, quite frankly, God has a lot to deal with. But he is never too busy. He may speak to you directly, or he may send another person, maybe a co-worker, to help you. He will never leave you alone. He will never abandon you in a time of need, He will never desert you. In fact, He wants you to ask for help. He expects it. He knows it’s rough out here on earth, He knows it’s a far cry from being as awesome as Heaven. It’s okay if you have to lean on someone else, if you can’t do something on your own. God made you in His image; He did not make you to be Him. I’m not someone who likes to ask others for help, I do not enjoy being vulnerable. But this summer taught me that sometimes, you have to suck it up, put yourself out there, and beg for help on your hands and knees. Help might come from the least expected places, and it might be just what you need.

become a fan on facebook!

2010-11-27T11:23:00.002-07:00

I know, I know. Facebook is old news. Camp Evergreen has had a group for a while, but these days, fan pages are all the rage. So, we're catching up to the times with a fan page that we promise* to keep updated!

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A FAN!

Courtney has started a bunch of conversations ... favourite camp games of all time? Should jug 'n jog become a chosen skill? Orange Yak or Ekklesia (my vote is for "Evening Chapel", but that's going to have to be a write in ballot, I guess)?

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A FAN!

We'll be posting about retreats and events and maybe the weather from our fan page ... it'll be exciting times!

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A FAN!

*Things aren't being updated frequently enough? Look up "Courtney Bear Armstrong" on the fb. She'll get things going again.

pond hockey prep!

2010-11-25T13:45:00.004-07:00

At last year's Pond Hockey tournament, we used just our usual rink. With six teams, we really only needed one ice surface and it worked out a-okay, even with the unseasonably warm weather (read last year's blog post to find out more about all that fun, if you'd like). But this year, we're expecting more than six teams, and that means that one ice surface totally isn't going to cut it!

Dave and Emily, I think with some help from Cody, have been building a surface in the middle of our RV Sites. Here are some photos, to give you an idea of the work that's underway. (Also, it's been soooo winter wonderland here - so gorgeous ... and cold!)

If you would like to enter a team into the Pond Hockey Tournament, on January 15, 2011, first check out all the information on our website by following this link. Then, give us a call at 403.638.4230 or email Kerry at director@camp-evergreen.com. It's a fun, fun day!

rise up 2010

2010-11-11T14:51:00.007-07:00

Four score and twenty years ago (or, five weeks ago, actually), we had our 2010 Rise Up! What is Rise Up? It's our annual Senior High retreat, of course! It was lotslotslots of fun: so much fun that I've only now recovered enough to blog about it! We had 96 youth here, along 30 youth leaders, from nine churches (I think nine? Gem, Linden, River West, New Hope, Highland, Dalhousie, Bergen, Southwood, Crestwood. Am I missing anyone?)

Our speaker was Seth Franco. Seth is an old friend here at Evergreen, having spoken at previous Rise Up retreats -- last in 2007. Seth talked about what it means to give all that we are and all that we have to Christ. It was good stuff ... challenging!

Jill Hagen and her band came out to lead the worship through music.

And we had lots of fun hanging out, doing activities, playing Bomb the Burning, eating bacon, getting to know folks from other churches and communities. Good times, good times!

Tales of a Cowgirl

2010-11-08T10:13:00.008-07:00

Okay, so this is Julia Dunbar. Kerry has asked me to write a blog post today, and so here goes...

First off, I will tell you a little bit about myself therefore answering some of Kerry's list of questions for all the winter staff... (She told me I don't have to answer all of them because I'm going to share about summer too).
I'm from Red Deer, AB but Evergreen has been my home since May 2006. I work at the barn as Assistant Wrangler and therefore like to lead trail rides, but I also love to lead climbing wall or help at the zipline. I am also currently a student at SAIT in the evenings, taking photography. In my spare time, I go climbing (on the rocks, and indoors), take lots of pictures, play my guitar, ride horses, and work on training my 2 year old horse. I have a younger brother who is getting married next summer, which is very exciting for me.
Those are some of the basic questions, and I guess I will answer a couple of the more interesting questions....
Morning or night person? Total morning person... You know the person who you want to stuff a sock in their mouth because they are so perky in the morning??? That's me!
What do you think you will be doing five years from now? Hopefully using my schooling and working as a photographer.
Do you like pets? Have pets? I like most animals but am allergic to anything with hair. However, I do own two horses Daisey and Freedom (but they are too big to count as pets).
Tell us a unique or quirky habit of yours... I squeak when I yawn or sneeze.
How many times did you move as a child? Once, when I was in grade one dad built the house that my parents still live in today.

For the summer, I was given the job of Trails Away Coordinator. All winter last year, I was given the responsibility of re-designing Trails Away to be on our site across the creek, and to come up with chapel material. This proved to be challenging, but very rewarding.

This summer, there were two different groups of Trails Away campers, and each group learned different things and taught me different things.
Some of the things we did with horses were horseback games (Simon Says, Pirate Ship, Tag), rode lots of trails (as long as the weather permitted), learned how to herd horses, and learned how to ride a horse bareback. Not everything that we did was horse related though... Campers got to experience the climbing wall and zipline too. The second group even got to come over to main site to watch the Camp Evergreen teen week tradition, Home Made Jam. In the evenings after supper, we had our chapels (usually around the fire), and then we often played games around the fire at snack time.

One chapel night really sticks out in my mind. It was the last night with our first group. I had decided when I put the chapel stuff together, that the last night of chapel would be left open to what God wanted. We started by singing a few songs that the campers requested. When I opened the discussion up to the campers, we had one girl speak up and ask if we could do something she called Positive Rounds. What this involved, was we went around the circle, and everyone said something positive about one person, and we repeated for every single person. It was so cool to hear the campers building each other up. They also wanted to say it for the staff, which was amazing! I personally was really touched by what the campers had to say. Seeing the way that God was working in each of the campers was so cool.

Pictures (Top: One of our many campfires that we had, Middle: Trails Away 1 Crew getting ready to head home, Bottom: Trails Away 2 Crew learning to bareback)

aerials in edmonton!

2010-11-03T14:46:00.006-06:00

We followed up our successful and spytastic Calgary fundraiser with a Dessert Night & Silent Auction in Edmonton, at River West Christian Church, on October 29. I was a little nervous: we have fewer MBs in Edmonton and fewer campers, too. How many people would show up? Well. I was totally blown away by the support of all the great, friendly people who came out and amount of money we raised!

$7540!

It was lots of fun to see campers from the summer with their families, staff members from years gone by and all sorts of other great friends!

We had a lot of help in Edmonton, which meant we ended up with a really fun program.

Michalene and Kim put their amazing aerial talents to use. Michalene did a beautiful trapeze act. Ben, infamous for many reasons including being the most fanatical climber Camp Evergreen has had on staff ever, was ridiculously impressed by how strong Michalene was. Kim did her Spidergirl routine on the rope: it's a little bit interpretive, a little bit funny and a lot entertaining. You can see more of their amazing feats through Firefly Theatre, an Edmonton-based aerial arts theatre.

Trenton, Trina and Rachel each shared a story from their experiences here in the summer as either campers or staff (or both): thank you all! Clare Peters jumped in at the very, very last second to take care of sound for us: hugest of thank yous, Clare!

Chanda Cooper played five songs for us to close the evening and she was fantastic. She also came through last minute -- and we found out that she went to school with Ken (Food Services Manager of Awesome) and Jon (Head Wrangler of Greatness) at Peace River Bible Institute! So cool. Check out Chanda's myspace page. She's really great!

We also need to send out a special thanks to all the kind folks who donated to our Silent Auction:
Aimee Bontje
Andrew & Lisa Baerg
Barry & Breana Langendoen
Culina Highland

Firefly Theatre
Nadia Schenk
Planet Organic
Peel Monkey
Shauna Dunbar
Track 'n Trail

signs, they are a-changin'.

2010-10-29T08:53:00.000-06:00

So exciting! We got a new sign for the end of the driveway. It features our new logo, which you probably recognize, since it's been the logo on our tee-shirts and hoodies since 2008. But this fall, we bought the logo outright and you'll be seeing a lot of it on our website*, registration materials, newsletters and all the rest! The sign is also on a reflective background, which means it's impossible to miss when you're pulling in at night, as many of our weekend guest groups do this time of year.

Many thanks to the kind donors who made our new sign possible!

*It's about time for a website redesign, don't you think? We're looking at the spring for a new online look.

Furnace & Water Heater

2010-10-28T14:42:00.004-06:00

UPDATED (January 5, 2011) information available here.

We have a project for the remainder of this calendar year: we need to pull together $15,225 (including GST) for new furnaces plus $4919.25 (including GST) for a new water heater, to replace the furnaces and water heater in our lodge. The current units are aging and our objective is to replace them pro-actively, so we don't end up in a situation where we have to shut our doors for repairs while groups are supposed to be on site!

Can you help us raise the $20,144.25 required for the new furnaces and water heater, by December 15, 2010?

We've done our research and will be choose high efficiency units to replace the furnaces -- units that will not only pay for themselves in gas savings, but will be transplantable when we reach the point where we can replace our lodge*. As for the water heater, we will again be purchasing a high efficiency unit from the same line as is used in our outdoor bathrooms. Again, we anticipate that the replacement water heater will lead to savings in gas bills and we have confirmed it's a unit we will be able to move to a new home when we do reach the new lodge stage in our capital planning.

You can donate via cheque (Box 492 / Sundre, AB / T0M 1X0) or credit card (call our office at 403.638.4230). Please designate any donations as "capital". Any funds raised beyond what is required for the furnaces and water heater will go toward capital projects. Please see our "wishlist" for what those capital projects might include!

*Yup, that says "new lodge". But don't get too excited yet! We're several years off from a new lodge building, but are considering the move-ability of furnaces and water heaters because we want to be good stewards of your gifts and our resources both now and into the future! Plus, we need to finish the cabin project before we start working toward a new lodge.

Spy-tastic Times in Calgary (Fundraiser in Review)

2010-10-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

Last Friday (October 22), Highland Church generously loaned us their youth group and their fellowship hall, so we could have a funny and fun night raising funds for Camp Evergreen's capital projects (of which there are many ... you can take a peek at our Wish List if you don't believe me!). It was a huge blessing to spend the evening with friends and supporters of our ministry here at Evergreen. We thank God often for all of you, including those of you who couldn't make it out on Friday, of course!

Step One for the evening was a wildly tasty dinner, featuring a CRAZY salad dressing that Ken spent over an hour perfecting, along with time to visit at the tables and to check out the sweet Silent Auction opportunities! Thanks to the Highland youth for serving, washing dishes and helping with both set up and take down!

Step Two involved general silliness, zany costumes, headstands and a visit from the Three Tenors. Our host for the evening was Austin Powers (sometimes known as Gery Schubert). Austin had us dancing and dressing up as secret agents ... all part of our training as super secret spies, of course.

We raised $10,920 at the event!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support, love and generousity
to our Calgary-area and Linden friends!
We'll see you next October, right?

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE GENEROUS FOLKS
WHO DONATED FOR THE AUCTION, including:
Andrew & Lisa Baerg
Alyssa N. & Maddison B.
Birchwood Furniture
Calgary Police Service
Cardel Place
Carla Brown
Eunice Schmidt
Georgina
Glen Bontje
Good Earth Cafe
Gumdrop Photography & Design
Harry from Dalhousie
Jonathan Dueck
Julia Dunbar
Richard's Signature Picture Framing
Ron & Sharon Evans
Shakers Fun Centre
Slaves for a Day, Becca L. and Cody H.Carla Brown
SOLE
Wendy Niemetz

summer stories: walking humbly.

2010-10-26T11:10:00.003-06:00

Every summer at Camp Evergreen I learn new lessons from God. This past summer was no different for me. While I was leading a cabin I encountered a camper who came from a particularly difficult living situation. Being from a group home and having little contact with family, the camper had a difficult time accepting that God loved him because he had so few experiences of love in his life. While he was enjoying the week, it was clear that the camper had set up a wall between him and God.

One night, the camper uncharacteristically refused to go to chapel. He was visibly upset, so I followed him through the woods, listened to his story, thoughts and feelings, and eventually calmed him down enough to sit outside of the chapel. It seemed like the walls he had built would never come down!

After my encounter with this camper, I was quite exhausted but for some reason, I was compelled to walk. I didn't know why but leaving my co-cabin leader with our campers, I had to keep walking. Before I knew it, I was walking in a circular pattern and it must have looked ridiculous as I walked laps around the camp. Just as I started my final lap (possibly my seventh) God spoke a word into my head: "Jericho". Upon hearing that word I knew why God wanted me to walk. With the word, God reminded me of Joshua 6 where the walls of Jericho fell down and through the spontaneous walking circuit God gave me comfort in knowing that the walls my camper had built were coming down.

I wish I could say my camper became a Christian later that week, but I know that the seed has been planted and that the "walls are coming down". Pray that this camper will come to know and accept the unfailing love of God. As for me I guess you could say that I learned how to walk humbly: by walking in circles and by simply planting a seed.

Submitted by Eric S.

oh. man. we've been non-bloggers!

2010-10-22T10:43:00.003-06:00

It's been a while since I've blogged here at the green spot. To the few of you who check regularly (for example, Reilly, Alyssa ...): I'm sorry! I'm sorry to the rest of you too.

So, get back into the swing of things, I'm going to give you a bit of a preview of what's coming up on the blogging front (although posts may not appear in exactly the order listed):

Rise Up!, aka Senior High Retreat, was the first weekend in October. Our speaker was Seth Franco and we had the biggest Rise Up! crowd we've had several years -- 126 youth and sponsors! Huzzah! There are teaser photos below (props to the Ben in Benton).
Summer stories! I've been calling out for tales of summer to share with you all and have a nice little stack of great stories from campers and staff that I'll start posting shortly.
Fundraising Fun! Tonight, we're hosting a Spy-tastic Dinner & Auction in Calgary and next Friday, we're hosting a Dessert Night & Silent Auction of Aerial Proportions in Edmonton. You'll want to at least see pictures, right?
Winter Staff! I've had requests for profiles of our fall and winter staff, like we do in the spring time. I didn't pull it off for the fall, despite the fact that we've had a STELLAR fall team, but Becca, Cody, Emily and Julia will all volun-told-ily submit a blog entry in the coming weeks.
Pond Hockey Preview! Our second annual Three-on-Three Pond Hockey Tournament is coming up on January 15, 2011 and I am going to preview the event.

What else should I blog about? What do you want to hear about? Leave a comment and let me know!

teen camp. oh, teen camp.

2010-09-07T15:55:00.010-06:00

Impact (teen camp) was great. It was fantastic. It was legit. It was epic. It was ... a really long time ago already! We played a great, week-long game of Settlers of Alethia. We had surprisingly fantastic weather. Homemade Jam, which took place during Hockey Night in Alethia, was totally legit. Mike talked all about the life of Jesus, which was a completely epic life.

Like I said, our speaker Mike Perschon focused on the life of Jesus in his talks during Impact. It's a little bit revolutionary ... of course, we talk about Jesus all the time, but it's usually in the context of some specific aspect of the Bible, like Micah 6:8 or Colossians 1:17 or 2 Timothy 1:7. We spent a whole week just talking about what Jesus did during his life and why it matters to us and why it matters in general. It was great!

[The whole Jesus of Nazareth movie is available on YouTube, kids! That's the one with the Jesus actor who came across as a little on the ... intense (scary) side. The embed code is disabled, so if you want to look it up, you'll have to do that yourself or follow this link to get to the first clip.]

Much from Masqarade Night

There aren't often photos of the handcrafts crews, but handcrafts is one of our chosen skills. Kayla, Reilly and Jung-En led handcrafts this summer and made all sorts of things ... soap, tie-dye, magnets. It was fun.

The other activities also ran ... archery, zipline, you know. Fun stuff!

The Bunkhouse girls were very effortful when it came to Cabin Clean-Up. They had a different party theme every single day, with treats and party hats for the nurse. This was birthday party day.

(Please note that yes, I know, most of the pictures are of Bunkhouse girls ... I have to express gratitude to Sydney for sharing her photos with me, since the AV team was understaffed and over-committed during Impact. I would also like to acknowledge, though, that we had nine amazing cabins of lovely, fun, joyful, ridiculous campers, in addition to the Bunkhouse girls.)

Ignite 2, some summary and a photo essay.

2010-08-26T15:44:00.013-06:00

Our Ignite 2 speaker was Travis Padgham, from Edmonton. Travis talked about what is truth? How do we know what's truth? And how do we know what's true? He talked about how what we choose matters and how placing the emphasis differently gives a person a different perspective on Micah 6:8. Remember this, campers?

Walk humbly with your God

I think it was a week when a lot of people learned a lot of big things, and thought about a lot of big things. Who is Jesus? Why does He matter? What do I believe about Him? One of the biggest questions I was asked was, "what does it mean when the Bible says that God is a jealous God?" I love that all you all (campers) are asking big questions! May you find the answers, and the community who will walk with you as you learn to walk with God!

As for the photo essay,

Mountain biking is one of our chosen skills; Jyle and Emily (not pictured) have been working on our mountain biking courses all summer.

We played the Lost Tribe. Bacon (pictured below left) evoked Tom Hanks as the guy on the island in the plane crash as he awaits teams on the island. Jaymie (below, right) played the helpful pirate.

Oh, horses. Aren't you hilarious?

On the left, during Jug 'n Jog, Bacon (with the alarming mullet) frees Hyacinth (with the fins) and they skip happily back to their side. On the right, Jyle shows off his mad b-ball skillz.

Rock! Paper! Scissors! Becky and Robin face off.

Water fights! We had some good weather for Ignite 2.

Jamie, Amy and Reilly figured there was no better way to spend SWAT time than to have an all-out mud fight at the creek.

trail blazers 2, belatedly

2010-08-25T11:01:00.018-06:00

Trail Blazers 2 was a really, really long time ago. August 8-13, to be exact. It was a great week. Like, Tony the Tiger great. That's how great it was.

Our speaker was J Janzen. J is from Abbotsford, BC and he is a storyteller. One of the staff came into my office after the first chapel and said, "did you know you'd brought Stuart McLean as the speaker this week?" That's the kind of story teller that J is.

So what kinds of stories did J tell? He told the story of how God is created us and has plans for us and how Jesus loves us and lived for us and conquered death for us. He told us about his own life and how God designed him and each of his three brothers with their own skills and gifts. He talked about how God wants to use our lives to further His kingdom.

It was a fun week!

Sweet spotting on the low ropes course.

The trailriders had lots of fun!

L: Michael and Koda drive Buffalo Becca to skill or from skill or something.
R: Courtney prepares an Adventure Programming crew for some balance beam awesomeness.

Zipline time!

Backwards Day is always a hit. It's also a little odd.

Crazy times at Yodel 'n Hum.

And, some funny, funny cabin pictures to finish things off.

sp&ex2 (august 3-6): fun in the sun!

2010-08-10T09:53:00.012-06:00

Sparks & Explorers 2 (for students entering grades 1-4) was a super fun week. How glad am I that we've had four consecutive super fun weeks? It's amazing!

Michael, who is one of our Assistant Program Directors, was our speaker for Sp&Ex2. It was his first time ever speaking and he did so great! He strapped on his gigantic backpacking backpack and broke out his walking stick. He talked about God is good, God is faithful and God is love.

To tell us about how God is good, Michael talked about how God used bad circumstances (his brothers selling him into slavery!) in Joseph's life to do something amazing. To tell us about how God is faithful, Michael talked about how even after the Prodigal Son had left home and hurt his father a lot, his father welcomed him home when he chose to return. To tell us about how God is love, Michael talked about how Jesus came to earth to die for our sins and he was raised again by God after three days. (You can read the whole book of John to learn about Jesus's life, death and resurrection, or any of the gospels!) Michael also talked about how he's learned about how each of those things - God being good, faithful and love - are true in his own life, while walking on something called a Camino, across Spain. That's why he wore a backpack and had a walking stick while he spoke!

We had lots of fun playing games, singing songs, doing skills and being crazy during camp, and here are some pictures to prove it!

Silly songs at the fire pit (technically called "Yodel 'n Hum", not silly songs).

Climbing wall adventures.

Creature Feature! What kinds of gross/cool/spectacular/icky/wacky insects and pond life can we find?

Field games (or dance parties?) are always a fun time.

s'more sparks & explorers 1 (july 25 or 27-30)

2010-08-08T16:21:00.014-06:00

More from Sparks & Explorers 1! (Pictures and tales from #2 are on their way ...)

Sparks & Explorers 1 was a sunshine-y kind of week ... till Friday, when the parents arrived at the same time as a tornado warning! We had some small hail and some scary thunder and scarier clouds, but God protected us from the actual tornado. Thank you, Lord!

Our speaker, Jenny Chell, is a big fan of listening to God and talking to God (maybe an easier way of saying that would be, "being in conversation with God") and as a result, we got to spend lots of chapel time writing and drawing about what we were learning from or about God! Jenny talked about God is with us A LOT. We learned about how God created the whole earth and how the same God who spoke all things into existence created us in His image. We talked a lot about how God loves us so much that He gives us the choice to love Him, instead of just forcing us to love Him. And, we learned that He loves us SO MUCH that He sent His only son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins ... and that He raised Jesus from the dead after three days all so that He can be near his children. And that's us: His children!

And, some photos:

Becca leads the pack to back to main site after games at the field.

No week of camp is complete without games at the field! Much running and jumping and diving and drip-drip-dropping of water occurred.

And hockey! How can we be Canadian without a bit of hockey?

Pony riding and horse care? Serious business, people. Serious business.

Sparks&Explorers1: An Overview

2010-07-30T18:47:00.004-06:00

Sparks&Explorers1 is over and it was a week of cuteness, profundity, God's good grace and crazy fun times. I will have to post more later, because I am SUPER tired! But it's a good tired: the kind that follows a good week!

Ignite 1 rocks the poetry. And canoes.

2010-07-24T12:20:00.000-06:00

Ignite 1! We were exactly maxed out this week, with 96 Ignite campers on site. (We also had 7 ARISE campers, 6 PUSH campers, 9 Roughin' It girls and 9 Adventure Classic campers.) Funnest week ever (well, at least till next week comes around!).

Our speaker, Sid Koop, has been excellent! [I will update this part right here with a week-ending summary of Sid's talks.]

In other Ignite 1 news, cabins across the camp are using ... unique ... acrostics and poetry to score (like, we know that Jenny is the nurse/cabin clean up marker, but Jennylp?). For example, Cabin 7 pulled this gem out the other day:

Justin Bieber
Encuriging
Not
Negative
Yes you
Like our
Pick up lines

Settlers of Alethia

2010-07-22T11:19:00.012-06:00

Our BIG game this year is Settlers of Alethia. That's right: you're not coming to Camp Evergreen this summer, you're coming to Alethia (which, ps, means "truth" in Greek). Originally, we were thinking about how we could play Settlers of Cataan as a wide game and then things just exploded.

The story behind Alethia is that the campers have entered into a Narnia-esque world where they must help the locals settle the land. They do this by earning tokens, which they can use to buy resources at the local market, which go toward cities and roads. The cabins are split up into tribes and they do things like playing games, cleaning their cabins, and memorizing verses to earn the most tokens as a tribe. The tribe with the most cities and roads by the end of the entire week is rewarded with a huge prize.

For the older kids (Ignite and Impact), Mike, who is both Assistant Program Director and Governor of Alethia, invented the craziest game. One of the campers, after playing The Lost Tribe of Alethia earlier this week, said Mike had a "broad imagination". Kind of a great compliment, right?

In "The Lost Tribe", the Governor explains he needs the campers' help: Alethia used to be settled by a small but proud tribe. One fateful day, a group of mercenaries came along and took over Alethia, throwing the tribe and other locals into the jungle and exploiting their resources. Since then, all communications with the tribe of Alethia have been lost and it is up to the campers to find the Lost Tribe and restore their dignity. They do this by talking with the locals, uncovering map pieces, digging up treasure, and completing obstacle courses, all the while avoiding the mercenaries.

The ARISE campers (our cabin leaders in training) were the Lost Tribe this week. They were amazing. (Also, I feel the pictures of them as the Lost Tribe could totally be from an America's Next Top Model shoot. Seriously.)

A little more Thunder Blazers (Trail Blazers 1)

2010-07-22T11:12:00.008-06:00

Okay! A few more pictures of Trail Blazers 1 plus a summary from speaker Jenny about what all we talked about during Trail Blazers 1!

To get the summary, I made Jenny sit down in my office (she's the nurse right now; it's Ignite 1 camp). This is what she said, "essentially it was about choosing to walk wisely. We have the choice to either walk with God or not with God. And he takes what we choose on this earth (walking with or not with) very seriously! But ... big important point: he loves us regardless of whether we walk with him or not." So ... I guess the question is, who are you walking with?

Upcoming posts: Roughin' It Boys in review; Settlers of Alethia featuring The Lost Tribe.

THUNDERBLAZERS (Trail Blazers 1)

2010-07-16T21:07:00.005-06:00

So! Week number 1 is over! How the heck did that happen? It was so quick! The kids were so great! At times, the rain was so ... intense! We had a great first week of camp here at Evergreen.

We were amazed and awed and infinitely thankful that even though we had intense rain, the crazy hail that struck Sundre (just 16km away from us) and Calgary skirted our property entirely. Trenton, one of the leaders at our first Boys' Roughin' It camp, said that on Sunday night, he was watching the black clouds come toward them ... but that all of a sudden, they just changed directions, like they'd bounced up against a wall. I definitely think that God was looking out for us.

Cabin 2 parties in a puddle.

Our speaker was the lovely Jenny. Our verse for the summer, of course, is Micah 6:8. Actually ... I'm going to have to finish this later ... there's crazy lightning outside my window. Stay tuned!

All Staff Reunion!

2010-07-05T11:46:00.001-06:00

So, as I type this, Team Benton is working frantically to finish their video summary of the All Staff Reunion to share with you. I'll post it soon! We have some sweet stories and songs and battles with folding chairs to share. In additional to all that, staff training is underway (yeah!), and our first family camp is already over! Where is the time going? I'm so far behind on blogging about everything that's going on out here!

The All Staff Reunion, which ran June 11-13, 2010, was pretty amazing. We had about 50 people out for Saturday, which was the key day. When you think about the number of people who have worked here over the years, perhaps 50 isn't the hugest turn out, but it didn't really matter because the 50 of us who were here had a great weekend. Staff from the 1960s through to the 2000s were here. We ran activities, exchanged stories, strolled the property, broke out our old photos, played games, drank crazy amounts of coffee, bought out the tuck shop and had a phenomenal fireside on Saturday night. Plus, we're looking forward to seeing 150 next time we run a reunion!

We ran fireside like we do at the end of each week in the summer time: everyone had the opportunity to come up, grab a stick and share something. It really felt like the "older generation" (which I know they loved being called) of staff were commissioning our current staff in carrying on the ministry. Afterwards, the current staff have talked lots about how it was encouraging, uplifting, sweet, hopeful and other such positive traits. I love seeing how faithful God has been and being reminded of the fact that we are blessed to be here and part of something that is God's, not ours, and is so much bigger than we can ever imagine.

Finally: baaaaah! The interweb REFUSES to upload pictures! I've tried eight or nine times at this point, all day long, and it keeps timing out. Benton took some really great photos, so that makes it especially sad. Some day, friends. Some day.

Left: Walt (first full time director) and Wes (who wrangled in the 1970s).
Right: Alex's first Evergreen adventure included time on the lagoon.

Sarah the Stellar makes sure Walt makes it safely across the vertical ladder.

party quirks, 2009.

2010-06-26T11:37:00.001-06:00

We just found this video on YouTube. It's Party Quirks, starring Aimee, Jasper, Erin, Sandi, Jill and Rebecca from an Ignite skit night last summer. Ignite 1 is already full, but there a bit of space left in Ignite 2! Don't wait!

alexis is a spring staffer!

2010-06-25T10:13:00.005-06:00

Name: Alexis Smith

Hometown: Maple Ridge, BC.

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: Down by the creek (where the watermelons grow) and the pond, catching frogs and up to her neck in mud, for pond study. And at the teepees for Roughin' It Girls.

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: Four years.

Three favourites:
1. Hiking.
2. Being outside.
3. Smiling.
4. "Love Me Good" by Michael W. Smith (see below).

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Vegetables.
2. Cliques.
3. Being sick.

Best camp memory: I was in the brown house (girls' staff housing), feeling sick, and Courtney on over the radio to say, "Alexis. Be in the parking lot in two minutes because Kerry's on her way and she saw moose." I dragged my sick self out to the parking lot and we drove back to where Kerry had seen the moose (baby twins!) on the gravel road on the way into the camp, and we watched the moose for 15 minutes. It was pretty cool.

What she's most looking forward to this summer: Hangin' out at the teepees in the sun and rain and having sweet times around the camp fire at Roughin' It Girls. And dressing up crazy and being ridiculous as a cabin leader when I'm on the main site.

She can't make it through the day without: Listening to music and watching the trees sway in the wind.

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... it doesn't matter how many times we screw up. He'll always look at us and say, "you are mine and I love you".

Alexis would also like you to know that ... summer is going to be a fabutan time with a side of stellar!

review: garage sale in edmonton (or, good times in the sun).

2010-06-23T11:26:00.006-06:00

At the beginning of June, at the same time as the fantastical Fathers & Sons Retreat (I can't decide ... should it be "Father & Son Retreat"? "Fathers' & Sons' Retreat"? Fathers & Sons' Retreat"?), a couple of us (Kerry, Trenton, Jenny) headed up to Edmonton to run a garage sale as a fundraiser for the camp. We were joined by Bethany, an Edmonton-based friend of Evergreen, and we spend two days in the hot, hot sun at River West Christian Church (who had kindly donated its parking lot to our cause).

We had some great donations (an organ! a dog ramp! a dogloo! a turkey fryer! great outdoors stuff!) and we did okay. I have ideas for how to run more successful fundraising garage sales in the future. Anyway, some pictures:

Fathers & Sons: A Retreat of Epic Proportions

2010-06-18T08:32:00.005-06:00

I am way behind on my blogging! Two weekends ago, June 4-6, we hosted our first ever Fathers & Sons retreats. I'm hearing it was pretty epic. Our speaker was Kevin McInnes, from Sunwest Christian Fellowship in Calgary. Kevin is great friend of ours. He presented our grandfathers, fathers and sons with challenges and talked about what it means to be a Servant Warrior!

The grandfathers, fathers and sons roasted marshmallows, chilled at the creek, built and launched rockets, zipped, paddled and lots more. We already have lots of ideas for next year: June 3-5, 2011!

Guys who attended the retreat: do you have stories you want to share? Head to the comments section!

russell is a spring staffer.

2010-06-11T09:19:00.000-06:00

Name: Russell Dunkerly

Hometown: Calgary, Alberta

Where we'll find him this spring & summer: In the kitchen.

How many years he's been coming to Evergreen: Three.

Three favourites:
1. A good conversation.
2. Eating lunch.
3. Time with friends.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Early morning.
2. Sore feet.
3. Bad food.

Best camp(ing) memory: Learning to ride a bicycle in the Kananaskis.

What he's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Eating.

He can't make it through the day without: Eating.

In his opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... His unconditional love.

Russell would also like to share that you should eat great food all the time.

hawk rescue!

2010-06-09T10:32:00.003-06:00

Rolf (pictured above, holding the hawk) found an injured hawk on his property (which borders Camp Evergreen). Part of one of the hawk's wings was missing, so it couldn't fly (well, it "flew" like a chicken does). Rolf called the good people at the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation, who told us to catch it and then they'd come pick it up. So we did. And it was very exciting. The hawk was beautiful and terrifying all at once. Some of the grade six outdoor education kids who were here when we found the hawk were able to see it (from afar, of course), which is a neat addition to the nature study curriculum.

Hawky McHawkerson is now hanging out the Conservation people. They're going to fix his wing, which is broken, and once his bones are healed and his feathers have regrown, they'll bring him back to where we caught him, to release him back in the wild. A happy story, right?

colter is a spring staffer.

2010-06-07T11:09:00.000-06:00

Name: Colter Beam

Hometown: Calgary, Alberta

Where we'll find him this spring & summer: Assistance Maintenance, aka "helping Dave".

How many years he's been coming to Evergreen: Summer 2010 will be year 7.

Three favourites:
1. I absolutely LOVE pasta.
2. Working outdoors, with other people.
3. The colour blue.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Rice.
2. Goat cheese.
3. Travelling for long periods at a time.

Best camp memory: Playing leap frog from my cabin to the washrooms, where we ate chips and salsa for snack. [Kerry would like it to be known that the eating happened in the common area, not in the actual washrooms.]

What he's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Learning from Dave and working hard.

He can't make it through the day without: Smiling, having fun and laughing.

In his opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... how He uses people to do His will.

Colter would also like to share that: no one said being a Christian was easy; that's why we have God on our side!

allison is a spring staffer.

2010-06-06T10:37:00.000-06:00

Name: Allison Mary McKaig

Hometown: Calgary, Alberta

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: ITCs and the wall and CABIN LEADING.

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: Six or seven.

Three favourites:
1. The Black Pearl (my truck)
2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
3.Coldplay.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Meat.
2. Mosquitoes.
3. Zucchini.

Best camp memory: Howling at the moon as a camper; I think it was in 2006.

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Helping kids of the wall and at ITCs and other things. Plus dressing silly in the summer.

She can't make it through the day without: Reading a book!

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... That God gave us this amazing earth to live on where we can have friends and do amazing thing like go swimming and skydiving and other cool things.

julia is a spring staffer.

2010-06-05T16:56:00.000-06:00

Name: Julia Dunbar

Hometown: Red Deer, Alberta (at this point, it could be Camp Evergreen).

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: At the barn and coordinating Trails Away!

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: Four; this will be my fifth summer.

Three favourites:
1. Favourite hobbies are rock climbing and horse riding.
2. Favourite movie is Hidalgo.
3. Favourite verse is Proverbs 3:5-6.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Brussel sprouts.
2. The colour pink.
3. Screamo music.

Best camp memory: Taking the WTPs to the creek to swim with the horses.

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Getting to be on Trails Away and teaching the campers about riding and horses.

She can't make it through the day without: Music.

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... His creation, the animals and the mountains.

Julia would also like you to know that ... Trails Away is going to be a blast.

GARAGE SALE IN EDMONTON!

2010-06-04T08:54:00.000-06:00

We're going to be hosting a super awesome garage sale in Edmonton, today and tomorrow.

Friday, June 4 from 5PM - 9PM
Saturday, June 5 from 9AM - 5PM

River West Christian Church
19815-45 Avenue

elishia is a spring staffer (and today is her birthday!)

2010-06-03T09:25:00.002-06:00

Name: Elishia Sanche

Hometown: Calgary, Alberta

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: At the barn.

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: This will be summer #3.

Three favourites:
1. Horses.
2. Swimming.
3. Coffee.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Cleaning.
2. Snow.
3. Yellow.

Best camp memory: falling off of Alice, because she fell.

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: turning 18! (TODAY is Elishia's birthday!)

She can't make it through the day without: going outside.

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... His grace.

emily is a spring staffer.

2010-06-02T11:30:00.001-06:00

Name: Emily Poulin

Hometown: Lac Louisa, Quebec

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: Everywhere!

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: We're at 13 months, straight.

Three favourites:
1. Climbing.
2. Backpacking.
3. London fogs.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Not being able to look around every day ... at nature, of course.
2. Having to say "good-bye".
3. Laughing at something so hard that I cry and forget to breathe (at my roomie).

Best camp memory: Adventure Classic last summer (2009), the Pond Hockey tournament, cutting trees with the boys.

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Learning more about how faith looks when practiced in a community and I'm just stoked to see God work.

She can't make it through the day without: Laughter, music and new stickers ... heehee.

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... how he works not only in our lives but all around us.

Emily would also like to share ... that my roomate causes me to smile ... lots. Heehee.

benjamin is a spring staffer.

2010-06-01T11:47:00.000-06:00

Name: Benjamin Esau

Hometown: Calgary, Alberta

Where we'll find him this spring & summer: Camp Evergreen, as half of Team Benton -- he'll be in the A/V Office and cabin leading.

How many years he's been coming to Evergreen: 12

Three favourites:
1. Food
2. Jug 'n Jog.
3. Food.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Leaving.
2. Whining.

What he's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Team Benton Version 2.0.

He can't make it through the day without: Fresh socks.

In his opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... undeserved grace.

Ben would also like to share that: coffee makes me happier some days.

carey is a spring staffer.

2010-05-29T15:29:00.000-06:00

Name: Carey Viejou

Hometown: Rocky Mountain House, Alberta

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: In the kitchen, inevitably covered in cocoa powder.

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: Ten. Eight as a camper; two as staff.

Three favourites:
1. Nineteenth century literature.
2. Thunderstorms at night.
3. John Mayer.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Lint traps.
2. Spelling mistakes (the other Kerry takes advantage of this not-so-favourite when she has newsletters needing a proof-reader).
3. Large animals.

Best camp memory: I loved leading devotions and praying with campers during my first summer as a cabin leader. Those times showed me that God can take our incompetence and timidity and somehow use them to reach kids.

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Ridiculous days in the kitchen that, in turn, show us how much we need to rely on God for our strength.

She can't make it through the day without: The 3PM mocha.

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... that he'll never leave us. He's in it for the long haul.

michael is a spring staffer.

2010-05-28T09:03:00.002-06:00

Name: Michael Willems (aka, the former Michael Douglas Willems III)

Hometown: Calgary, Alberta

Where we'll find him this spring & summer: Camp Evergreen, assistant program directing!

How many years he's been coming to Evergreen: Fourth year as staff, 12th year attending.

Three favourites:
1. Spanish
2. Snow Patrol.
3. Dead Poets Society.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. French.
2. Ke$ha.
3. All About Steve.

Best camp memory: During my second year of cabin leading, I had a camper named Tyler* who barely spoke at all. I was having trouble connecting with him and didn't know what to do. On Wednesday night, I shared my testimony about how my parents were divorced. After I finished sharing, he ran to the middle of the cabin, giving me a big hug and saying, 'me too!' Not only did we really connect the rest of the week, the experience really affirmed my purpose for being at camp.

What he's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: I'm most looking forward to being challenged by God. I'm at camp for a longer time and in a new position this year, so I can't just coast. I'm looking forward to having to depend on God to get me through.

He can't make it through the day without: Singing or just listening to music.

In his opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... his role as an author. Nothing amazes me more than when the pieces and patterns and plot lines of my life are revealed to me.

Michael would also like to share that: Picking "not-so-favourites" off the top of your head is really hard.

*Tyler's name has been changed to protect his privacy.

becca is a spring staffer.

2010-05-26T11:50:00.000-06:00

Name: Becca Mabbett

Hometown: Kelowna, BC

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: In the chapel, leading worship.

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: This is #1!

Three favourites:
1. Listening to a CD all the way through, doing nothing else.
2. Dressing up silly (especially with capes).
3. Scavenger hunts.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Wet socks.
2. People going in the out door and vice versa.
3. The feeling of hot drinks rolling down your throat.

Best camp memory: Extreme running with my cabin leaders (I was a camper) in the woods at night at Gardom Lake Bible Camp. Maybe not the safest decision BUT super fun.

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: What the Lord is going to do this summer. Whether that is through him stretching me, or the relationships I make with campers and staff.

She can't make it through the day without: Music.

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... His faithfulness and patience toward me; I am continually in awe of this.

jasper is a spring staffer.

2010-05-25T13:10:00.002-06:00

Name: Jasper Berg

Hometown: Gem, Alberta

Where we'll find him this spring & summer: the Challenge Course, 24/7.

How many years he's been coming to Evergreen: 9

Three favourites:
1. Snowboarding
2. Shooting gophers.
3. Climbing.
4. Branding.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Filling out these questionnaires.
2. Telemark skiing.
3. Dark.

Best camp memory: The CIT Nalgene toss. [Yes. That's an inside joke. I (Kerry) would enlighten you, but I don't know what it means either.]

What he's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Challenging people on the Challenge Course! (We follow a Challenge by Choice philosophy here at Camp Evergreen.)

He can't make it through the day without: Meat.

In his opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... relationship.

Jasper would also like to say,
"What do you call two guys that hang above a window?"
"Curt and Rod."

sam is a spring staffer.

2010-05-24T11:58:00.000-06:00

Name: Sam Janzen

Hometown: Okotoks, Alberta

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: At Camp Evergreen, tending the grounds!

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: 4

Best camp memory: I was in youth at Sunwest Christian Fellowship and we came to Evergreen for a retreat. My brothers and brother-in-law were the worship team and they sang a song called "Friend of Sinners". That's when I gave my life to God, in the third row from the front on the right.

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Hearing, "Good job, Sam!"

kim is a spring staffer.

2010-05-23T09:56:00.003-06:00

Name: Kimberly Green

Hometown: Calgary

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: At the barn.

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: Seven!

Three favourites:
1. Blue pens.
2. Campfires.
3. Rugby.

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Cream cheese.
2. House coats
3. Grasshoppers.

Best camp memory: Last summer (2009), when we went swimming with the horses!

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: The people that come on site (guests and campers!), and the time spent with them, whether it's time at an activity or just a really good conversation!

She can't make it through the day without: Orange juice.

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... how He loves and takes the time and interest to know everyone individually.

GYM RIOT!! (May 16, Dalhousie)

2010-05-21T09:19:00.008-06:00

We miss our campers when they aren't here! We've been talking for a while now about how we want to plan gym riot again ... once upon a time, during Garth Epp's reign as program director, camp staff would hit the road during the school year to play crazy games with campers in their hometowns. Well friends, gym riots are back!

We hung out a Dalhousie Community Church, with a bunch of former and future campers, and Dalhousie and SunWest youth (including a couple guys we'll be seeing at ARISE this summer, a Trails Away lady and a few Ignite and Impact campers) and we had LOTS of fun. We're going to do this more next year ... stay tuned!

trenton is a spring staffer.

2010-05-19T11:41:00.000-06:00

Name: Trenton Gartke (in the yellow pinny)

Hometown: Edmonton, Alberta

Where we'll find him this spring & summer: In the A/V office and hopefully rockin' the wall. (Trenton is the genius behind the photoshopping in this profile.)

How many years he's been coming to Evergreen: Third year on staff, plus a year or two of family camp (please note that Kerry met Trenton here at Evergreen, at family camp, in 1999).

Three favourite cloud formations:
1. Cumulo-nimbus.
2. Cumulus.
3. Cirrus.

Three not-so-favourite hockey teams:
1. Manchester United.
2. Pittsburgh Steelers.
3. Chicago Cubs.

Best camp memory: Making french toast over the open fire, then playing football, during Roughin' It Boys in 2008.

What he's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Sharing God's love with campers by cabin leading and making sweet videos with Benjamin Esau.

He can't make it through the day without: Climbing a mountain, running a marathon, reciting the entire book of Isaiah, and writing a ten-page country ballad all at the same time.

In his opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... there's absolutely nothing that can separate us from His unconditional, merciful, abundant, always-and-forever kind of love.

jenny is a spring staffer.

2010-05-17T11:30:00.005-06:00

Name: Jenny Chell

Hometown: To be determined.

Where we'll find her this spring & summer: Outside, by the creek.

How many years she's been coming to Evergreen: This is #2!

Three favourites:
1. Nature.
2. Coffee before breakfast.
3. Lectio Divina (contemplation prayer).

Three not-so-favourites:
1. Pee on the seat.
2. Paper cuts.
3. Smelling like fire.

Best camp memory: Pretty much everyday is awesome!

What she's most looking forward to this spring and/or summer: Meal times with the kiddos ... eating with our hands, dessert first and Ken's great food!

She can't make it through the day without: Trying to make Dave choke on his coffee by saying something absurd.

In her opinion, the coolest thing about God is ... the way He speaks with His children through nature!