A Decade of Joy
Hey Folks!
Sorry if it's taken a few extra days to get the Green Spot up this week. We like to post about things that are happening at camp or to share from our heart about what God has been teaching us. This week was a little different for me because I had to actually write about me!
Last Friday - our Board of Directors and current Camp Staff surprised me with an undercover surprise party to celebrate my 10 years as a Director here at camp. I say 'undercover' because it was described as a Board/Staff social. But when the cake came out - it was obviously about me. What a blessing! People shared some very touching things about me and when I was asked to share - I found I was at a loss for words. Not because I didn't have anything to say but how do you fit a decade...TEN years of joy into a few sentences?
My time here started more than 10 years ago. I worked for 5 spring and summer seasons before I started full time. Summer 2015 actually marked my 15th summer here at Evergreen. I often can't even believe that when it comes out of my mouth but then I go back and count them and there it is: 15 summers.
If you estimate the number of lives transformed in those summers - it comes out to about 3500. Three thousand, five hundred lives that I've seen transformed at Evergreen. And that's just here! One of those would have been on the step of Cabin 4 in 1999 when I got to explain the Gospel to my first camper who said 'yes' to Jesus. We ran through the trees screaming for joy after.
You can add one more to that total. My life was (and still is) transformed at a camp. So camp has always been an important part of my life. I remember my cabin leader hand-writing me a letter when I was in grade seven encouraging me to keep pursuing God - that he had a plan for me. She also told me that I should work at camp when I was older - she figured I'd be good it. ;)
Camp was a place that God used to grow me. It was a place where I found friends who have become family and experiences that shaped me into the leader that I am today. It was here that I learned my first ITC (team building game) and that I really, really, don't like cilantro. It was at camp where I first preached my first sermons on out-trips, came face to face with wild horses, and jumped off a 25 ft. cliff into a river.
So many things have changed at Evergreen since my first summer in 1999. There was a set of monkey bars across from Cabin 6 where the main bathrooms now sit. Lendrum Lodge and Crestwood sit where the (first) mini-golf course was...the second was down on the 'old' playing field...which I watched float down a flooded creek in 2005. I was also a wrangler for four summers! Did you know that? My favourite horses were Harvey, Pete, Picante and Ruby. I remember the last five locations for the archery range and the storage area called the Home of the Forgotten.
You know what hasn't changed in 15 summers? Why we do what we do. To see lives transformed by the power of Jesus. That's what I love about camp and that is what has given me a decade of joy.
Love Jogee
Sorry if it's taken a few extra days to get the Green Spot up this week. We like to post about things that are happening at camp or to share from our heart about what God has been teaching us. This week was a little different for me because I had to actually write about me!
Last Friday - our Board of Directors and current Camp Staff surprised me with an undercover surprise party to celebrate my 10 years as a Director here at camp. I say 'undercover' because it was described as a Board/Staff social. But when the cake came out - it was obviously about me. What a blessing! People shared some very touching things about me and when I was asked to share - I found I was at a loss for words. Not because I didn't have anything to say but how do you fit a decade...TEN years of joy into a few sentences?My time here started more than 10 years ago. I worked for 5 spring and summer seasons before I started full time. Summer 2015 actually marked my 15th summer here at Evergreen. I often can't even believe that when it comes out of my mouth but then I go back and count them and there it is: 15 summers.
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| My first WTP Campers in 1999 |
You can add one more to that total. My life was (and still is) transformed at a camp. So camp has always been an important part of my life. I remember my cabin leader hand-writing me a letter when I was in grade seven encouraging me to keep pursuing God - that he had a plan for me. She also told me that I should work at camp when I was older - she figured I'd be good it. ;)
Camp was a place that God used to grow me. It was a place where I found friends who have become family and experiences that shaped me into the leader that I am today. It was here that I learned my first ITC (team building game) and that I really, really, don't like cilantro. It was at camp where I first preached my first sermons on out-trips, came face to face with wild horses, and jumped off a 25 ft. cliff into a river.
So many things have changed at Evergreen since my first summer in 1999. There was a set of monkey bars across from Cabin 6 where the main bathrooms now sit. Lendrum Lodge and Crestwood sit where the (first) mini-golf course was...the second was down on the 'old' playing field...which I watched float down a flooded creek in 2005. I was also a wrangler for four summers! Did you know that? My favourite horses were Harvey, Pete, Picante and Ruby. I remember the last five locations for the archery range and the storage area called the Home of the Forgotten.You know what hasn't changed in 15 summers? Why we do what we do. To see lives transformed by the power of Jesus. That's what I love about camp and that is what has given me a decade of joy.
Love Jogee
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