the green spot blog

In the last week I have been struck by something I want to call wild blessings of simple gifts. I'm calling them wild because they've just really encouraged me in what we do here at camp and in all honesty...it sounded good in my head. :) PC: Tammy Hanratty I'm going to tell about the two examples of these blessings and how regular people have decided to bless camp out of their own means. The first one was from a parent who called in to pay for their child's camp last week. As I wrapped up the details to do the payment - the parent stopped me and said that it wasn't just her child's camp that they wanted to submit payment for. The parent took a moment to explain that for the last couple of years they have had to apply for our Campership Aid Program so that their daughter could come to camp. They talked about how it was a Godsend that they were able to still send their child to camp even though the finances weren't available at the time. The parent s...

Our Spring Season has officially begun (along with snow) and with that came our entire Spring Staff Team who is busy learning the ropes and what it means to serve our Guest Groups here at Evergreen this May and June. Twenty-nine in all are being trained this week and along with it - Redberry Bible Camp from north of Saskatoon, SK, is joining us on-site for their Spring Training week. We're excited to learn and partner in ministry with our sister camp. If you have visited our Events Page on our website recently you will notice something right away. There's a lot going on with Evergreen in the next two months. One type of event that is now a tradition is our Hotcakes for Campers Breakfasts. This year we're even running one more in Calgary. What is Campership Aid? Campership Aid is our financial assistance programs for families so they can afford their son or daughter's camp fees. We're anticipating needing $22,000 for our Campership Aid Program this year. We...

Board Member, Keith Thiessen manning the grill. Saturday was an awesome day! Do you know why? Because we made a way for a bunch of campers to come to camp just by eating pancakes! How great is that?!? Tim was cooking sausages at 6am! Jogee joined folks from Linden MB as we served up an a.m.a.z.i.n.g. breakfast at the Linden Skating Rink. Cooking began around 6:30am (I may have snuck a couple of sausages...cooking pancakes is hard work!) and we started welcoming folks at 8am. 130 people came to eat pancakes, sausages, and farm fresh eggs (thanks Ratzlaffs!) with us. These folks generously donated $3,307.60 towards our Campership Aid program which provides financial aid to families who otherwise cannot afford camp for their children. You can read more about our Campership Aid Program here. It is so humbling to see our communities and partner churches band together to support families from across the province so that all kids can have a life transforming experience at camp. ...

Text says: "This is Sam riding Soren" It has been a whopper of a day. Yesterday we sent out an email to our members and 2015 campers and we got 40 registrations before the day was out! That's incredible! As I write this we're at 402 registrations which is just under half of our total capacity for summer campers. It's very, very exciting to see the registrations roll in. I get asked sometimes by folks if the economy ever impacts our summer registrations or if we ever get worried when we see the economy slow down. It's hard not to think about it - there's a lot of families out there that are hurting and affected by Alberta's economy. It easier to say than live out - but we trust in and serve a God that is bigger than our economy. When we get into years when finances threaten what we do - we have to practice looking up to God and saying, "We don't know how, but we believe that You will see this through". That wasn't meant to rhym...

This is the best day of my life - I love camp, I JUST LOVE CAMP!!  Those are familiar words at camp - kids living in the moment at camp. Each day is filled with new adventures - from rescuing princesses in towers (staff on top of the climbing wall) to stopping the cookie thieves on horseback or rounding up dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Camp creates a world like no other - opening doors of imagination and wonder. If that wasn't enough - the food is amazing (not as amazing as your mum's, of course) and the staff are like superheroes. For some campers, a week at camp represents more than the games and activities - one camper describes camp as their "home away from home. It's impossible to come to camp and not make friends". It also offers a place to learn about the Creator of the world in a safe place. To learn who Jesus is and how much each of us are loved by Him.  An application from one of our Interns this year said that every person should get to ex...