the green spot blog

The staff dressed up for a carnival that we hosted in Sundre It's the time of year again that we want to say a big thank-you to our 2017 Fall Staff! The busy season is just winding down here at Camp Evergreen and we are ready for a much needed rest from the business. Our seasonal fall staff are the people who take on a lot of that business and boy are we grateful for the work they do. Each day they would start before breakfast preparing for the guest groups, facilitate activities and clean during the mornings and afternoons (while also fitting in time to serve meals), and finish off the day by leading evening programming for our groups. They do so much and without their hard work we could not run the quality program that we have right now. Although it is a lot of work out here at camp in the fall we do still manage to have a lot of fun. Our fall staff were on the crazier side and loved to have a lot of fun together. There was a lot of ball hockey that happened this year an...

I think sometimes September is the month of "don't forgets". Don't forget your notebook. Don't forget your lunch. Don't forget your gym clothes. Don't forget to check your class schedule. Don't forget your locker code. I was watching the staff this last weekend as we served a large Guest Group. Each week seems little more busy than the last.  There's a lot of things to remind the staff as we welcome a new group on-site. There's a lot of... Don't forget to check your schedule. Don't forget to turn off the dishwasher. Don't forget to grab the activity binder. Don't forget the keys to the challenge course. Don't forget the code to the Playing Field Shed. Don't forget to check in with the Kitchen. That's a lot of remembering. It doesn't matter if you're a student at high school, college, or university - it doesn't matter if you're a staff member at Camp Evergreen. September is full of...

Would you believe that ALL of these jerseys belong to only two of our staff members? This weekend marks the end of our Fall Season and really, the end of what we consider our "high season" here at camp. On Monday, our staff team shrinks to about twelve seasonal staff. Some of these staff have been with us since the beginning of May and as you can see from some of the pictures - we become quite the family. Whether it's playing Spikeball, late night campfires at the creek, Survivor Parties, or board games nearly every night of the week - there really isn't anything like Fall Staff. These young people are up by 8am getting the Dining Hall ready to serve guests, do dishes, and ready our activity areas for the next eight hours. There are more dishes to do, custodial work, and maintenance to take care of. Once supper is done, often it's leading campfire songs and Jug 'n' Jog and going above and beyond for our groups. One of the biggest reasons why our Gu...

Now...who does this remind you of? Usain Bolt's grin perhaps? It was another great weekend at camp for our annual Sr. High retreat. The small but mighty retreat saw youth from Linden and Calgary get challenged from the Word by Brennen Dyck (Dalhousie Church, Calgary). The weather behaved...mostly. It rained while we were inside and the sun actually came out while we were outside. Basically - if it doesn't snow on Rise Up weekend we're pretty happy. As always, Jug 'n' Jog seemed to be the highlight of the weekend as students battled for the Kings of the Field. I still don't know how people can play barefooted in single digit weather. :S We did our best to incorporate Puzzles (our new donkey) into the game by calling a prison break when he would make his donkey sounds. We're not sure if this will continue to be the case but it certainly worked on Saturday. Chapels were challenging and busy with conversation. Brennen spoke to us...

Don't worry! This hasn't happened...yet. Isn't that the truth! As we see pictures of Lake Louise or Banff getting inches of the white stuff - most of us east of the Foothills are just waiting with bated (or cringing) breath for the onslaught of winter. Whether that excites you or causes that ball of dreaded disappointment deep inside (can you tell which one I am?), it doesn't change the fact that winter is coming and regardless of how each of us feels - it means a lot of change. Changing tires on our cars. Changing wardrobes (winter jackets and pants out - tanks and shorts away). Changing shoes (I get to pull out my snowshoes). Changing decorations. Changing those cute little mini-hidey socks in Toms and Sanuks to thick wool ones. Changing furnace filters (our Maintenance guys are always on top of this one). Changing basketball pads (to HOCKEY RINKS!). Changing porch brooms to shovels. Changing clocks back. This is quite "normal" for this Fal...

Foundations. Everything I've been doing lately has me thinking about foundations. Foundations, anchors, bases, footing, bedrock. A bunch of us staff went climbing at Wasooch creek two weeks ago on a day off and were instructed on the importance of finding a good place to build an anchor. If you're going to put all of your weight on a bolt, you want to make sure it's bolted into solid rock that will hold it. Last week we started setting up our second rink for pond hockey (coming January 8, 2016!), which involved spreading a lot of gravel to make a good base for the ice surface. If you read our plan for Reaching Higher, our fundraising campaign for upgrading our lodge, kitchen, and activity spaces, you'll see references to work that will “lay a foundation for growth and sustainability”. Even thinking back to this summer, I find that much of the work we do here can be analogized by the building of a foundation. Every time we share the gospel of Jesus Chri...

We love retreat weekends! Camp has four different annual retreats and Rise Up is the first to happen after summer ends. It ends up being a bit of a reunion and a good reminder to keep pressing down the path towards a closer relationship with God. Friday started with a lot of rain and a bit of snow which didn't slow any of our retreaters down. Joined by youth groups from Gem, Linden, and Dalhousie - we rocked out the Willsonball and giant Dutch Blitz late into the night. On Saturday night, we rolled out one of my all time favourites, Collector's Choice. Tom Mulhern brought a band out from Dalhousie Church (plus a little help from Fender, Sunshine, and Yoshi) which kept us rocking all weekend long. Jonathan Klein from First Alliance Church in Calgary. One of the things that really stuck with me was the phrase that Jonathan used: "Feed our faith and doubt our doubts". He shared how God has a purpose for us and not only that - He's rooting for us. We have a re...

Hasn't fall just been absolutely amazing this year? I feel like we're being spoiled with the colours. I don't know if we have had the kind of colours that we have had this year in years. It's almost unbelievable to walk out to the barn and see the array of yellows, oranges, and greens. We're just starting our second month of fall groups. By the time October finishes, we will have seen over 2000 people come through Evergreen in just two months. Isn't that crazy? I love Guest Groups. The variety and personalities of the group. One day we might have a group of Beaver Scouts and the next could be a quilting group. Today we have a huge Home Schoolers group and tomorrow will be Edge School of Athletics. It's always an adventure here. This last weekend was a special one though. It was our Heart Transplant Group. Families from across Western Canada who have a son or daughter who has been through one or more heart transplant. This group has been coming for a f...

We love fall around here. The changing leaves and the way the air is so crispy in the mornings. Yes - it's a haunting reminder that winter is coming but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. One of the things that fall means is Rise Up. It's our High School Retreat. It's so much fun and a great reminder of camp...which fades so quickly from our minds when school starts. So the most perfect way to solve that is to come to Rise Up! A perfectly packed weekend of fun, games, evening programming, and chapels. We're joined this year by Tom and Malora Mulhern from Dalhousie Community Church : And Jonathan Klein from First Alliance in Calgary (don't you just love what you can find on the internet?):   So if you're thinking to yourself - oh boy, I really, like, REALLY miss camp. Pack your bags because it's going to be a great weekend you won't want to miss! This retreat isn't just for youth groups! If you're a student enter grades 9-12 a...

Our fall season here at Evergreen is coming to a end but it has been jam packed with all sorts of groups and awesomeness. From youth groups on the weekend to school band camps during the week, it has been two months full of fun and enthusiasm as we continue to zip kids down the zipline and jog the jugs across the playing field. With a scare of snow in September we were not sure what fall had for us however it turned out to be a beautiful season with clear skies and sunshine. This year we were even able to keep our canoe pond open until late October! Wahoo! We had twenty-one seasonal staff stay on to serve with us this fall. Adam, John, Josh, Julia, Kailee, Maddie and Mitch have been here with us since May (6 months). Ashley, Bekah, Daniel, Harold, Joseph, Katrina, Marcel, Mirjana, Paul and Toshi started out in Summer (4 months). We even had some awesome new people come and join us for just the fall season, Jonah, Judith, Kendra and Nina. They have all been such a blessing to cam...

We just finished an amazing weekend here at camp. Rise Up 2014 started on Friday with a bang and I don't know if many of us stopped moving until after lunch on Sunday. We were joined by Mulhern and Sons, who led us in worship and this guy: Danny Mackay Danny came to us from Winnipeg, Manitoba and who works with an organization called I am Second . It was an amazing weekend filled with hilarious stories and moments from Danny's life. He Good News'd us (remember - it's a verb), reminded us about what we have to hope for, who God is, and as the weekend wrapped up on Sunday - we learned how to Gospel (remember - verb!) people we come in contact with...like Carl . Danny reading through who God is through the books of the Bible The day was full of adventures and fun. Almost 90% of our retreaters played Paintball for the first time ever at Rise Up and it was a huge hit. We had a chariot race that Highland MB Youth won (shown below)...it was a race of very epi...

Get ready... Here comes a long blog post. BUT, it will be worth the read for sure!  Here at Camp Evergreen we love our Germans! The past three years we have been working along side an awesome missions organization WEC and they send us Germanys finest. We have seriously been blessed by the volunteers that have came to camp the past few years. They do preparation in Germany before they come and that makes them come sort of in a group. They all have different Generations and actually have numbered themselves from 1 - 14 (I think we are at 14 already!). They are pretty ridiculously awesome and a lot of fun. We can't wait for you to come to camp to meet them so here we go... I introduce to you Generation Three! What is your name, age and origin? JS: Judith Sorger. 24. Deutschland. MH: Marcel Hecker. 19. Deutschland. MS: Mirjana Stilz. 19. Deutschland. DP: Daniel Pfau. 18. Gambia + Deutschland Describe your family in one sentence! JS: Amazing an...

It seems so far away now...summer camp 2014. It has not quite yet been a month since our Impact Campers were here conquering Mission Impossible at night, having a late night BBQ with our very own hipster spin on it or laughing until our sides hurt and tears were running down our faces in Homemade Jam. It's been not quite a month. Seems like forever though - as snow covered us last week (we still have piles of it around today), one could just imagine it being winter and Christmas. Legal Bunny Trail: We even had a Christmas themed meal with our groups Potential Place, Prairie Winds, and Rising Sun clubhouses to "celebrate" the snow. With everything seeming so wintery here...a person could begin to imagine that Summer 2015 is just around the corner. Such a cruel thing...because when the snow melted and we hit 25 degrees again - we remembered that it's just September and Summer 2015 is still 10 months...wait! 9.5 months away. We don't want to forget Summer Camp 2...

Name: Russell Hometown: Calgary Hobbies/Loves: Handbells, Magic: The Gathering Age: 31 Why are you at camp? An opportunity arose for me to work at camp for the summer and fall. What do you do at camp? Cook's assistant What did you do before you were at camp? Worked in financial retail If people were to describe you in one or two words, what would they be? Mustachioed geek When you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up? A paleontologist If you were a plant, what would you be? Rosemary What would your ultimate care package contain? Nong Shim Hot and Spicy Noodle Bowl

Name: Mouayid "Moody" Hometown: Burnaby, BC Age: 18 Hobbies/Loves: Snowboarding, longboarding, gliding, driving the Gator Why are you at camp? "I felt like it was where God wanted me to be." What do you do at camp? Wrangling and maintenance. Favourite Bible Verse: Acts 6:4 "But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to ministry of the Word." If people were to describe you in one or two words, what would they be? Outgoing, positive When you were five years old, what did you want to be when you grew up? A pilot If you were a plant, what would you be? A sunflower What would your ultimate care package contain? Cookies, sour candy, socks, chocolate, mittens

Rise Up, our annual youth retreat for senior high students, was a blast! The cabins and lodge rooms were all filled with students and youth leaders from nine different churches. It was packed! Worship was led by Steve  from Prairie Bible Institute and his team, which included a few Evergreen staff. We again welcomed Sid Koop from Lethbridge as our speaker, and he certainly gave the students lots to think about over the weekend. As usual, it was a very busy weekend, with sessions, activities, and night programming. For the first night, we brought back the extremely popular Cirque de la Groove, but with a few extra circus acts! On Saturday night, campers were once again transported to the South Moscovian airport, and became involved in a Bible smuggling mission to North Moscovia.  Rise Up is a highlight on Camp Evergreen's calendar, and our staff really love it! Now we have to wait another year for it, but in the meantime, here are some photos from Cirque de la Groove. ...