the green spot blog

Today we received 10 camper registrations. That may not seem like a lot but when you're 89% full - 10 campers make a big difference. We only have 126 spots left in our summer camps. We truly are down to the last stretch. We're wanting to see every. single. spot. filled. We want 1041 campers and 43 families hear the Gospel this summer - we want to see Lives Transformed by the Power of Jesus . To do this, we need staff. We need volunteers. Each May and June, we bring in about 30 staff to work our Outdoor Education and Guest Group ministry. During this time - our discipleship programs and summer games are being written and designed - summer magic is being crated. At the end of June, 30 staff becomes 70 and we are joined by nearly 100 volunteers in the following two months. These are not youth, young adults, lesser young adults, and grandparents who are wasting their summer or finding something to do to fill their time...they're building the Kingdom of God. They are using...

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...

As we draw VERY near to Summer Camp there's been a lot of work done to prepare for our summer campers. Programs to be built, menus to be planned, skits to be written... These are things that are all done by our phenomenal staff. We really, REALLY couldn't do our summer ministry without them. As our Summer Staff Training Week approaches (2 WEEKS) - I thought I would write about some things that our staff would really get. Sometimes I think that only "camp people" will understand why we do what we do. I'm pretty sure that only half of my family get it. The long hours/weeks, hundreds of screaming and excited kids, low pay, the shaving cream games, and smuggling watermelons...it's really hard to put into words what a camp staff gets out of working at camp. Nobody will really understand that you can, in fact, survive two months on Oreos and Juice and that severe tan lines, bad hair cuts, and make believe Moofs can be sort of cool. I mean - I still have two M...

This last weekend we hit 600 registered campers. How fantastic is that?! We're pretty pumped. It's over halfway, it's nearly 2/3rds full and registrations keep coming in. As we continue to prepare for summer (submarine construction is still going on) - there's a lot to do and a lot to be thankful for. 615 campers is a really good place to start being thankful. Our staff is another consistent thing that I thank God for. These crazy, fun-loving young adults who are easily motivated to build a submarine for a wide game, dream of fun themes for summer camp, and work tirelessly to find chapel music that will teach kids about God. You might be thinking... "Jogee...you literally JUST wrote a blog about staff..." . That's true - but here's the thing - I don't think I will ever get sick of talking about the staff here. I'm blown away by them each day. We just had a meeting with our winter staff about how to make our guest's experience here like ...

There are a few things that can be heard at the barn on any given day. These include calling the horses in, Prince meowing at you becuase he wants his food, or Puzzles, the donkey braying at you because you clearly forgot to give him the rest of the hay bale. Something else you can often hear at the barn is something that sounds like this...”No, you’re okay. It’s just a tarp, it won’t eat you, I promise. You can walk past it, it’s okay.” If you’ve ever worked with horses before, you very quickly realized that they can be scared of the strangest things. From a squirrel jumping in the trees, to a tarp blowing in the wind, the yoga ball in the catch pen, and even their own shadow following them. While we see all of those things and know that they are not scary, when a horse sees them they think that they are a scary monster that will jump out and eat them. It takes a lot of encouragement and patience from th...

11 hours in a van with these three. Oh. My. Lanta. I'm writing this to you from the west coast where Ranger, Beaver, and myself have traveled to Abbotsford to connect with our staff at Columbia Bible College and to see if there might be some new students that may be interested in coming to camp to work for the spring and summer. It's always so much fun to watch these young people grow as adults and in their relationship with God. To watch them dig deeper into what it means to be a Christian in a world that is rapidly changing. Each of these staff members mean so much to us at camp - whether they started attending when they were five years old, worked one summer or seven (right Sho and Sarah?), each one, in their own way, becomes one of my kids. From attending weddings, graduations, to farewells at the airport as they leave on full-time missions - we love having them be part of our Evergreen family. I always enjoy meeting one of our alumnus and listening to their ow...

"After dishes I'm building the submarine. What are you scheduled on today?" I think there's a lot of things that make camp a unique place. One of them might be the funny things that you hear on a day to day basis. Oh, camp.  Where would we be without you? I've been at a number of different Bible Colleges over the last week and head out to Abbotsford to spend some time at Columbia Bible College next week. We're looking for students who are willing to do something life changing with their summer. When I was at Prairie Bible Institute last week, one of the Professors allowed the camp directors into his Youth Ministry class to share some stories about life transformation at camp. It's always very exciting this to sit around and share how God is moving, not only at Evergreen, but at camps from Vancouver Island to Manitoba. Thousands upon thousands of kids are hearing the Gospel and turning towards Jesus. There are studies ( Hemorrhaging Faith, 2...

With Summer Camp Registrations launching this last week, there's one other thing on our minds. Staff. We are looking for some crazy (in a good way), ridiculous, fun, Christ-loving staff to love on and hang out with kids this Spring and Summer. I started working at camp back in 1999. But I knew YEARS before, when I was still a camper, that I wanted to work at camp. I wanted to be a camp counselor. I wanted to be crazy and fun and dress up ridiculously. I had a deep desire to tell every kid at camp that they were special and that God loved them. People always ask me why I work (or keep working) at camp. Not much has changed since I was that young kid. I still find myself being crazy, getting excited to lead campfire songs, and finding costumes for theme meals. More than that - and more than EVER, I want to make sure every person that comes through Evergreen knows that they are loved and that God loves them. I'm a pretty firm believer in every person spending AT LEAST one summ...

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...

This week is a little bit different of a blog post than our regular-scheduled ones. Today we want to take some time to say thanks to one of our Permanent Staff members who has moved on from camp this fall. Taylor Jenkins came to Evergreen five and a half years ago from Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island. I picked her up at the end of April 2011. I don't think either of us really thought that season would turn into five and a half years. It was pitch black and even when it's light out - driving to camp can seem like you're driving into the middle of no where. It took some time to get Taylor settled at camp. The Foothills of Alberta is a very different landscape than the Georgia Strait and large ocean of BC. Probably the hardest thing for Taylor to get used to was our freezing temperatures...which weren't necessarily freezing all the time but I don't think her winter jackets ever got packed away. It was only recently when she saw me pull two rubbermaids out of my sh...