the green spot blog

remember when it was thirty degrees... above zero? and camp was packed with a hundred little evergreeners? remember when... ...dorothy and all her friends from the land of OZ showed up to banquet on friday? ...the amazing race came to camp evergreen and SARDINES was on the menu? ...peanut butter and jam made an appearance (we had to explain to PB that we're a nut free camp)? ... you thought your cabin leaders were totally, absolutely, COMPLETELY crazy? (you were right) can't wait to see you all again! (maybe at rise'n shine - the jr. high retreat in january! check out the website for details). but until then... lovin' snowball fights and hot chocolate. j-bee

kristy and julia and i spent yesterday helping out at a Habitat for Humanity house - painting closets, ceilings, the furnace room, and each other. the furnace room was the most brilliant pastel purple i have ever seen! thought you might like some of our pictures. we've been doing a lot of classroom stuff with the Pillar team, so it was really good to go and get our hands dirty because "faith by itself, if it is not accompanies by action, is dead" (james 2:17). we can't really say that we love Jesus if we're not out there loving people. so today - act out your love for Jesus by loving somebody around you. maybe that means doing the dishes for your mom and dad. or encouraging a friend who's down. or giving some of your money to an organization like the Mustard Seed that's trying to help people who are cold and hungry in your area. or volunteering to help out in a sunday school class. but somehow, someway - get involved somewhere. and i think you'll have...

toque season is upon us! things i love about winter... hot chocolate frolicking in the snow with koda snow angels and snowball fights going with my family to find the perfect Christmas tree warming up my feet in front of the fire after finding the not-quite-perfect Christmas tree snowpants curling up on the sofa with a blanket and a good book wearing a tea cozy as a toque i have a hard time staying positive about winter... icy roads, cold feet, dark evenings. i just look forward to summer (and seeing you all!) so much. but hey... since winter is here to stay for at least a few months, why don't you fill me in on some of your winter favorites. looking forward to warmer days when i see you all again! j-bee psalm 51:7

i want to tell you about something that's been stewing here for a few years. we call it PILLAR, and we kicked it off this september. we're studying God's Word. we're taking an "urban plunge" in calgary in november. we're taking on some outdoor challenges. we're trying to figure out what it looks like to know Christ and enjoy Him. what does it mean to pursue Christ? and to bring glory to Him? that's us on our first mountain day - on the summit of mount yamnuska. staff, pillar-ites, and rolf - our trusty austrian guide. who? anyone age 18-25 who is passionate about pursuing Jesus Christ what? PILLAR when? september-december and/or january-april where? camp evergreen and beyond why? because i want to live with passion and purpose. because i'm hungry to be molded into the person God created me to be. marshmallow roasts. serving camp evergreen's guests. horseback riding. a fondue party. devos together. team building. family nights at j-bee...

hi y'all. jenni here. for those of you who haven't heard, courtney is off dump-tackling people on a rugby field, so i'm here... holding the fort. doing the dishes. updating the blog. etc. jenni's favorite things: playing on rocks/mountains (that's me in the picture) doing dishes drinking tea with jordan laughing and crying at the same time driving the quad with koda fall is here. which means rise up is here! september 21-23... about 70 people came out for rise up. the highlights... seth franco came out again. i'd love to hear your thoughts on his talks. dale friesen and vicky berg and the band. breaking chairs during icebreakers... "i have never" became a full-contact sport NO SNOW! all-nighters (ugh! i bet you slept all of sunday afternoon) mission impossible if you want to get in touch with seth or see what he's up to, you can find him at http://www.sethfranco.com/ . everybody went home tired and happy. but while you were sleeping... just before ...

hey evergreeners, here's a bit of what's going on this week. we've got ignite II happenin' right now and it's totally awesome. but that also means that there's only 1 week of camp left. THAT'S CRAZY!! totally crazy. but we've had some truly awesome things going on like we had Sheree Plett and Eisenhauer who were awesome and rocked our socks off for coffee house. check them out and buy their music - it was totally sweet. we had floats and it was cool. anyways, i totally just wanted to leave reminders why camp is so darn fun. talk to you soon, c-bear

hey evergreeners, camp is going great - it's busy out here...currently we have 112 campers in Sparky and Explorer camps, 10 out on Roughin' it and 9 out on Trails Away. it's awesome. I just wanted to drop in and say that we're loving life out here. this next weekend out welcome center gets dedicated and our fundraising events take place (Ride a thon and our golf tournement). pretty exciting times if you ask me. keep praying for us as the camp moves forward. we've got two weeks of summer left so please pray for the kids coming and the staff that work here. they're starting to think about what their fall looks like and school and whatever else is going on for them so please pray that they will continue to focus and shine Christ to our campers. see you later! cort

hey camp evergreen! sorry that it's been so long since i've written. camp has starting and time has just been flying. we've all ready had a family camp, trail blazer I camp and we're just finishing our first sparky/explorer camp. it's been a great start to the summer. forgive me if my updates are few and far between this summer as things keep busy here at camp. i will try to do what i can to post some pictures of what's been up here at camp. kids are coming to know Jesus Christ our Lord and their personal savior and learning tons about God. thanks for sticking with me. in the meantime here's a picture of our wrangling team for the summer. happy trails wherever you are! c-bear

something tall and cool to satisfy our bellies it's not to much to ask for us two handsome fellies they make our hearts dance to jump and sing for joy they make me oh so happy just like a small schoolboy (SMALL SCHOOLBOY) the straws they are so neat i need to get one soon not only can you suck through them but you can use them as a spoon my paco he is a chubby man he likes to eat the cheese and when he drinks the slurpees fast his brain it gets the freezes (SLURP! SLURP! SLURP!) red, brown green, and yellow when i drink the slurpees i'm a happy fellow small to big they're all so good let's go get some i think we should (THINK WE SHOULD) i like the little icicles sliding down my throat if only i could have one now i would share it with a goat my friend he is a simple man when he drinks he gets the burpees it is so hot in this place i wish we had a slurpees (NEED SOME SLURPEES) this song was song almost every day of almost every week in 2001. it was brought to camp everg...

greetings. gosh i love the sun. camp is going great and we're buzzing with school groups, volunteers, and staff. we're starting to gear up for camp. outtrips coordinators are planning menus and chapels for trails away and adventure, AIM coordinators are planning CIT and PUSH. jenni, vicky, and i are planning hard for summer and trying to keep up with our work as all of our activities steam ahead. and for my anonymous commentor....walk and talk is the nickname our staff had given mission impossible. and as far as i know...we're still planning on playing mission impossible. AIM...CIT AIM stands for Adventures in Ministry. CIT stands for Counsellors in Training. unfortunately this camp is for our older campers...specifically those going into grade 11 or 12. this 3 week program trains you in leadership, devotional leading, and how to become that camp evergreen counsellor you loved as a kid. you will engage in sessions during the day with your group, have evaluations several ti...

ha! two in one week. i'm doing good...but probably not making up much ground considering that i missed a whole chunk of time in there. well, i am officially working out of my new office. the new building is called the "Welcome Centre". it's our new office building located right at the parking lot. it's got a covered boardwalk so that when you're registering for camps you don't have to stand in the rain and Esther doesn't have to leave her office. i've got a pretty big office now but it's simply because there's so much traffic through it every day. i'm loving it. there will be a grand opening in the summer some time so i'll let you know when that date has been decided on. for right now why don't we feature another camp... TRAILS AWAY... holy cow...i mean cowboy...this is a crazy awesome camp. i had the privelege to lead it a bunch of years in a row from 1999-2002. basically we truck you and a bunch of horses out west of camp ever...

hey mein little evergreeners. we're in the process of moving and having tons of people onsite. i'm really not trying to ignore you. this weekend i will give you a very cool update with pictures of the new building with us in it and pictures of the awesome chandelier that rolf built us. until then...i've got to go lead a trail ride. c-bear

my goodness! i sure have been everywhere but here in the last couple of weeks. i am so sorry for not updating this but hopefully you will understand in a couple of minutes. we got our spring staff last sunday and they're fantastic. we've got brittney (from saskatchewan), jannalee (from manitoba), dusten (calgary), brendan (calgary), omiunu (nigeria), steph (nevada), vicky (coaldale), sugar (from...well...here), luke (lethbridge), sam (turner valley), julia (red deer), bethanna (irricana)...and eric is still coming (calgary). they're awesome and i hopefully will get some pictures up so that you can put some names to faces. it's been a busy week of training and rain....lots and lots of rain that even turned to snow sometimes. and we all know how I feel about snow. and...drumroll please. ken and rachel had their baby last saturday. they had a beautiful baby boy and named him Daniel Jacob. Awesome! we're so excited for them. that's my update about camp right now. we...

i took this picture from my office window. it makes me want to cry. are we not supposed to be having RAIN showers? so that we can have may FLOWERS? isn't that how the rhyme goes? ugh! things...other than the snow - are going great. we're getting busier all the time...thanks to those who came forward and said that they would volunteer this weekend. I really, really appreciate it. we're doing pretty good out here. i can't wait to get into the new building. it should be about a month now until we're in it. That's super exciting. It's getting some of the finishing touches on it and soon - very soon we will be in it. as far as Ken the Cook goes...yes, he and rachel are pregnant and no they have not had their baby yet. i will keep everyone updated. that should happen within the next two weeks but we expect sooner rather than later. i was a lazy bum last week and did not update the blog. so i'm two camps behind. So let's get caught up! IGNITE CAMPS better k...

hey everybody, this may only effect a few of you. but we desperately need volunteers for April 20-22nd (this coming weekend) and April 27-29th. we can use anybody from dishwashers to kitchen help and maintenance. our chef (Ken) and his wife are due to have a baby anytime now and it's crunch time for us. if you could come out and help us that would be awesome. if you are under 18 years old, make sure you ask your parents...maybe they can come help too. email me at: program@camp-evergreen.com or call me at 403-638-4230 on monday or tuesday if you can help us out. thanks everybody and i'll talk to you next week, c-bear ps: if you didn't know what i really look like...here's a pic of me and my kid (dog) koda.

just kidding about the llama. we do have one...actually two. sprocket and spigget (as in the thing that a water tape attaches to). here's sprocket (very attractive, i know): well - the building is getting close to done. i think we're going to be moving in at the end of May. The doors are on, the floors are done, the walls are painted...just lights, window cills, interior furniture (mill work), toilets and sinks (can't forget those!), and last little touches like that. The building looks AWESOME. there's been a guy working hard for the last month or so putting the outside trim on the building - makin' it look pretty. see for yourself: new baby - that's right...tasha (one of our mares) has had a baby! our first 2007 foal!! she's so cute. jon and julia have yet to name her but i'm sure it will be a good one. i'll keep you up to date on the naming of the foal in the next couple of days. that's all for now...let's hope that it just keeps on meltin...

thanks for the comments. i always love hearing from campers and staff...heh heh ojo! this week has been very hard for me because of the snow. it doesn't even feel like it's the beginning of april. it actually feels like it's the beginning of march. this is the kind of weather that i normally get on my birthday. boourhns. but hopefully, with the weather getting nicer this coming weekend all the snow will disappear and spring will arrive. isn't the rhyme supposed to go april showers bring may flowers? last time i checked april snowfall does not produce pretty flowers. * sniff sniff * since i will be gone until next wednesday i am going to feature another camp this week. so hear comes trail blazers: Trail Blazers this camp is new this year. it's for grades 5 and 6. this week will be a little bit of a taste of our ignite camps. campers will get an opportunity to chose two special skills in the week. skills like mountain biking, horsemanship, marksmanship (arrows, air ri...

hey hey hey! here's our first featured camp update. i'm gonna start with the little kids cuz they're so cute. SPARKY CAMP sparky camps are for our youngest campers (grades 1-3) and they always start on a wednesday and go to saturday. you get to spend 3 nights and 4 days making new friends, playing games (like capture the flag, counsellor hunt, and jug 'n' jog), singing songs (YODEL 'n' HUM), and doing activities. activities range from the climbing wall, pony rides, wagon rides, archery, high ropes, canoeing, crafts...and so much more. we have super cool speakers and lots of music. EXPLORER CAMP this camp is the next step up from sparky. grades 3-5 own the land! the week either starts on a monday or tuesday (depends which month you come in). have a chance to conquer the wall, scale our high ropes, ride a bucking bronco (just kidding - our horses don't know how to buck), and games...oh the games! capture the flag, jug 'n 'jog (cuz it just wouldn...

greetings. c-bear reporting. the snow is melting and everything is getting muddy out here. unfortunately it's just part of the story. i don't think that we could have spring without mud out here. it's supposed to be something beautiful like 14 degrees today and 15 tomorrow. awesome. but i hear that we're in for a bit of cooler weather and more snow. but it always happens. we're just about in april and that means the trees will start budding and the mud will start drying and SPRING will be right on it's way to ... way for it ... SUMMER! over the next few weeks, i'll be updating this twice a week. once will be to feature a camp and the other will just to say hello. i'll have some updated pictures of the building next week - i just don't have my camera with me right now. ah man! summer. hundreds of excited screaming kids and camps...lots of camps - and camp staff! hey, i'd love to hear about what your favorite part of camp is! i'm starting to pl...

well, we thought it was going to warm up, and it did...for a while. then, overnight we got about 3 or 4-ish (i'm a bad estimator :p) inches of snow. however, it is warmer again, so it's starting to melt all over again. talk about a lot of mud and ice! not a whole lot has been going on lately, ken (our own resident chef) has been doing the sanding for us in the welcome center, and is just about done. a great big thanks to him! the painters are coming in on thursday (i think anyway, don't quote me on that!) and that is really exciting. as cool as the snow is though, i'm ready for some warmer weather. i can just imagine how amazing summer is going to be with the sun shining and warmness that happens that time of the year! i love it. we also have another member of our staff that joined us two weeks ago. his name is omiunu, but most of us just call him johnson. it's a lot easier to pronounce for us less phonetically gifted :). he is from south africa, which i think is a...

hello, hello. well i just thought i would dedicate this update to horses. not much has been going on here this last week. we're just working here to prepare for summer and such. our office building is getting sanded (the step right before we do the floor and then paint). we should be occupying the building by the second last weekend of april...that's totally exciting. dave is working really hard to make sure that our buildings all get a little tlc before this place comes alive in april. our camp brochures are out and if you haven't received one yet or are looking to go to camp for the first time or try us out for something different make sure that you contact us at 403-638-4230 or email me at: program@camp-evergreen.com so that i can send you a camp brochure. we're going to be starting to feature one of our camps each week with pictures and information on top of our regular post so that you can learn a little more about each camp. HORSES. our beautiful beautiful horses...

k - so i don't even know if i spelt that correctly...i'm not german - i'm scottish and in gaelic...we'd probably throw some silent q paired with a couple of "lls" that make a "ch" sound. was that confusing to anybody else? there has been a "thing" brought to my attention (it's not serious...well - it might be...heh heh) that the band that provided the most excellent music at our Family Meltdown was missed in last week's credits. so - they get their own post. their VERY own post. not just because vicky (featured beside me...vicky has the blond hair) mentioned that they weren't mentioned but also because they did an amazing job. the music was cool but i always enjoy watching dale use all his percussion stuff (like a rain stick! and something that resembles a giant gourd). the picture here is of the band. dale friesen is in the orange, vicky in the white, andrew is on drums, krista quapp is wielding the violin (she's a long sta...

well, it's steph again and i am here with loads of info on many things :). first off, despite popular opinion, I am not courtney's sister nor any other relation to her. i am merley her intern. in other words, i am the person that does all courtney's work (just kidding!) i am actually learning to do her job, and all that she does all year long. it's pretty interesting. i also have news on the Family Meltdown last weekend. it was a great weekend filled with fun in the...snow. the weather was beautiful (i love the snow!), and the activites were a blast. there were trail rides led by our fearle ss head wrangler, Jon. (he's the guy in the front with the hat in the picture on the left) he does an incredible job with the horses and helping out around the camp. i'm pretty sure everyone had a good time, i mean who couldn't, riding a horse on a nice, warm winter day surrounded by loads and loads of snow? well a close second would be the sleigh ride that happened in t...

i love this weather. it's fabulous. the temperature went from like -25 (or something like that) to -3 today. lovely lovely lovely. I'm very, very excited about it. and guess what - this weekend which is our FAMILY DAY MELTDOWN (feb. 16-19) it's going to actually be melty...a balmy +8 degrees. AWESOME. there's still room if you want to get your family out here !! there's going to be tons of skating, tobogganing, snowman making, sleigh rides, a sweet speaker from Highland MB in Calgary, and an amazing band from Coaldale MB (yahoo!). so don't miss out...if your family doesn't have anything planned for the family day long weekend get yourselves out here for a great time of fellowship, family time, great food, music, speakers, and more fun than we could wrap up and send to you. And probably the best weather a person could ask for in winter. WAHOO! other than that...i'm a couple steps closer to having all the speakers in the summer booked. this is who we have ...

hey - here's the new digs at camp evergreen. the building is getting its face put on. it's lookin' so very very good. i think it's been snowing for about 5 days straight. so what we've been lacking in snow for the last three months is definetely back with a vengence. i get emails from one of our campers alyssa, and she's started a countdown of days until camp starts. i think we're on 186 days. wow. that's only about 4.5 months. AHHHH! I'm pretty pumped. almost all the speakers are found and we're starting to hire staff. it's all starting to feel like summer...minus the snow...and cold weather...and well - okay it's not feeling like summer but maybe i can start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. rock on my little evergreeners, rock on. cort

i really have to say that i dislike snow. but i'm sure you've all heard that song before. it's cort reporting here. i'll try and get steph and maybe a couple of the other staff to update so that you can get to know more than just me. it's currently snowing. i'm looking out of the program window ( i have to look over and beyone this weird plant in my office that sits ontop of my computer tower...i can't seem to figure out if it's dying or thriving...). the snow is really light and wispy (as much as snow can be wispy) but the really beautiful thing is that the trees are all coated with this thick blanket of snow. they seem to droop with the weight of it all. and even if it's not actually quiet...it seems that way. silent...maybe even peaceful. i hope that you're all doing well. life is starting to pick up again here. retreats are the flavour of the season. we have a ladies retreat on feb. 9-11 (tell you mom), a family camp on feb. 16-19 (get your ...

hello all! this is stephanie, courney's intern, updating today. this is me in case any of you don't know me (very likely). i came to work here in august and decided to stay for the year, which has been amazing so far. it's really great getting to know the people who work here and learning all that goes on. ummm...ya, that's about all about me that i can think of now, so on to rise 'n' shine! so about a week and a half ago was rise 'n' shine which was a lot of fun. the games and activites were fun and the food (as usual) was amazing. we had a wonderful game of snug 'n' snog, the climbing wall, trail rides, wagon rides, skating, taboggoning, and we can't forget the game of mission impossible. that was a blast! the coffee house was a good time just to relax and hang out with friends, both old and new. and the games at the coffee house, very fun. i love chubby bunny :). nathan arkell was the speaker and he did an awesome job. i don't know abo...

hey hey hey, well we're like 3 days away from rise 'n' shine 2007. wow 2007. that means we're 6 months (actually it's like 5.5 months) away from summer. NUTS! but not only is rise 'n' shine coming up but jennibee and i are heading out on the road to bible colleges to recruit our friendly neighborhood staff for the summer. so you can be praying for us while we're on the road (it snowed today...of course the day that we're going to be driving). anyways, we're going to take you with us and hopefully we can update this a few times so that you can come along for the ride. our first stop is Three Hills (i know i know, you're probably asking...where is that?) for Prairie Bible Institute. Then we're coming back to camp for Rise 'n' Shine (jr. high retreat) with nathan arkell and gem youth band, a little MI, and snug 'n' snog! then here's the schedule: briercrest (sun-tuesday) millar college of the bible (wednesday) bethany (th...

greetings my little apple dumplings! well it's 2007 and things are already buzzing around here. it always seems to me that when january 1st hits every year, life is just an avalanche into july. can you believe it? it's only 6 months until july. that's nuts!! four months until may which means if you're a staffy type person...you'd better be contacting me or jenni in the office so that we can get you a staff pac. our lovely friends from gem, ab. have been out working on the building. the windows are in and they've started framing...we've even got heat!! it's very exciting to walk past that building every morning. my office will be the square that is on the floor in the above picture that Kyle is standing in. the lower picture is from the SE corner of the building (i'm standing in the parking lot). i can't believe that we're only about 4 months away from may! ahhhh! that's crazy. we've got 8 retreats coming up...starting with (drumroll...