the green spot blog

I have more Rise 'n Shine pictures for you! Rise 'n Shine was a great weekend (as it always is!). As I mentioned in my previous R 'n S post , we had 130 kids and sponsors here, from nine different churches. Brody Jespersen, our speaker, was great. He spoke from 2 Timothy 1:7, "for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline." When we realize we've been given a spirit of power, love and self-discipline, it's going to change how we live our lives! Brody challenged the students to follow God intentionally and to serve him where ever they are -- on missions trips, but also in their schools and at home. Trail rides in the setting sun. Jug 'n Jog: Snow Edition. (Or, fantastic networking opportunity for Calgary youth pastors -- see middle right; or, not really snow at all since Mitch is wearing SHORTS -- see bottom.) Snow Sculptures (Left: a gigantic shoe; Right: Amy and Julie's magic school bus.)

Winter is always an interesting season out here at Evergreen. First of all, when the snow comes and stays it is SO PRETTY out here. Secondly, our lives move in waves of quiet and busy-busy. You hear a lot about retreats (busy-busy!) and you know we do guest groups, but I thought I'd give you a quick overview of how we keep the seasonal staff busy here on the quieter days. Colter and Julia have been sorting through the thousands of slides, that include pictures encompassing 1963-1999, that have been living in the Nurse's Station for the last several years. They're putting the slides in order, tossing fuzzy ones, and we're going to be scanning them ... we'll be showing the pictures at our upcoming (June 11-13, 2010) All Staff Reunion, and posting some of them in our "Camp Evergreen - History in Photos" Facebook group. Colter also works with Dave frequently (fixing, building, maintaining) and Julia is planning Trails Away and working at the barn. Alexis ...

Melissa Friesen recently emailed the following photos to me ... and when I saw them, I knew I had to share them with all you in the blog-o-sphere. In the summer of 1997, Russ Friesen and Jared Epp [Russ, Melissa's husband was Head Wrangler at the time; Jared was Assistant Wrangler] delivered tuck to the boys down at Roughin' It in the most dramatic, old west fashion. Jared played the role of trader, riding in with his "illegal" goods (tuck) to trade with the kids. Russ played the role of North West Mounted Police (NWMP) officer (this is the old west!), chasing and arresting Jared. Jared Epp rides in on "Danny", with pack horse "Bert". Jared trading with Andy Marten, Mark Bergmann and campers. Russ on "Pepper", makin' the bust. After chasing the fugitive through the bush, the Mountie gets his man.

rise 'n shine 2010 is underway. ten churches. 130 kids. we started with chapel. our speaker is brody jespersen from lethbridge; our band is a crew from gem MB, led b y kyle dyck. then, coffee house (which was really a browniesandicecream house). theme: famous pairs. arlen and jackson interpret the sedin twins while nathan and graham bring us spock and kirk. rachel and trina are salty; eric and chelsey are a pair of runners (get it? get it?); aimee and jyle are mario and luigi. cheese & crackers from southwood united (crazed expressions seemed to be a key feature of the evening -- see the sundin twins for further proof). how many balloons can you stuff in YOUR longjohns?

We hosted our first ever 3-on-3 Pond Hockey Tournament on Saturday, January 9. As the weather reports predicted warmer and warmer weather in the week leading up the tournament, and as the creek flooded over and the lagoon caved in, we became more and more concerned. How was it going to work?? Well, it worked all right. IT WAS AMAZING! (It was so amazing that all capital letters are mandatory!) We played all the games on our rink (which is on a cement pad), since the creek was out of the question, and I'm confident that the all-day survival of the ice is a bonafide miracle. I mean, 16 games in seven hours, with a high of 8C? Miracle. Thank you, Lord! In addition to being a super fun day, we are honoured, encouraged and grateful to our six teams for (a) being our pond hockey guinea pigs; and (b) for raising an amazing $11,507.50 -- almost twice what we'd expected! Thank you, thank you: to the players, spectators and donors! Pictures can tell a far better story about the...

I'll post more about the Pond Hockey tomorrow but I need you to know that yesterday, our first annual 3-on-3 Pond Hockey Tournament, was AMAZING. And, dare I say, miraculous?? I have to get all the pictures from our Official Event Photographer yet, but we had six amazing teams, a very long day of hockey, hockey, hockey and (miraculously) ... we had ice all day! So to whet your appetite, a photo from my blackberry ...

We're hosting our first ever 3-on-3 Pond Hockey Tournament this weekend: it's going to be amazing! Dave, Colter, Emily and Rolf have been hard at work prepping the ice and the weather is promising to be great (I'm praying a lot about that one). Six teams and a stack of spectators will be showing up here at Evergreen to play the day away. Check back next week to see photos of the Tournament, to find out who won the day, how much money the teams raised and to whet your appetites for next year!

Hi all, Just wanted to let you know that we've encountered a small technical difficulty with our online registration. We're 99% sure that it'll be ready to go on Monday, January 11 ... we'll keep you up to date, though if that's not the case! Staff applications will go online next week as well -- but if you're super anxious to work on your application NOW, email me (Kerry) at director@camp-evergreen.com and I can email the application to you. kerry