Dear Friends,
I am, along with you, both excited and concerned with the challenges and opportunities for ministry that are upon us this summer season. To begin with I would ask you to pray for each of our summer camps.
Alberta:
Gull Lake Camp & Retreat Centre 
Mill Creek Baptist Camp
Camp Wapiti
British Columbia:
Keats Camp
ZAO Ministries
Saskatchewan:
The Quest at Christopher Lake Baptist Camp
Katepwa Lake Kamp
Please pray for:
- Safety.
- That those who are new to a Christian experience and faith might belong to the camps they attend as feeling welcomed and belonging is the first step towards a living and growing relationship with Christ.
- Please pray that those who do not have a personal relationship with Christ would begin one for the very first time and become Christians (as many of you know, I came to faith at Gull Lake Camp, my wife at Pioneer Pacific Camp)
- Finally, that those who have belonged to a community and come to faith might grow in that faith and be more and more like Jesus. You will recognize these 3 stages and our oft-used expressions of ‘belong, believe and become’. I swiped the ‘belong/believe’ from Rodney Stark and Ryan Sato from First Baptist Edmonton contributed to the ‘become’ aspect, lo these many years ago…
While what we have just touched on is important we often forget the thousands of volunteer and staff hours that go into the keeping-up of camps. So to you who have volunteered, nailed, glued and otherwise enhanced and built up camps over this last year in preparation for this season. I thank God for you and this season’s campers thank God for you…
To give an example of the logistical challenges and excitement of this work, I had the privilege of preaching at Keats at their dedication service this past Sunday. If you included everyone in the chapel service that were on staff, never mind counsellors and cottagers who were also there in great number, there were perhaps 150 individuals that had spent a week praying, training and working in preparation for the next days camper invasion. Take roughly 150 folk and add to it, 54 councillors and leadership training personnel and add approximately 225 campers then you realize that you had between 350-400 people for lunch on Monday. In praise of bosuns, quarter-masters, any and all of the logistic folk you may wish to remember.
Three other events are occurring in our midst. One of the most significant is BC Region meetings in Penticton. Thanks to Callum Jones and First Baptist Penticton for hosting this year’s event. Please pray for Rob Ogilvie and Dawn Johannesson as they help, encourage and facilitate this event along with the BC Region Executive. And especially a thank you to Nora Walker who is the BC Region President and has been a tireless worker and a great encourager to many of us, including me. My understanding is that we are close to, if not more than, 200 folk.
Many of our Baptist international family, including Sam Chaise, CBM Executive Director, will be heading to Izmir in Turkey for the Annual Baptist World Alliance meetings. Maureen Sharp, North American Baptist Women’s Union President, Harry Gardner, President of Acadia Divinity School and Garry Nelson, former General Secretary of CBM and now President of Tyndale will all be present. I will also be going and am encouraged about some of the possibilities. We (CBM and the CBWC) are hosting the North American Baptist Fellowship next year in Vancouver. I will also be attending the BWA meetings. Please pray for health in travel. Izmir is almost 24 hours from Vancouver. Please also pray for faithful support of those who are hosting us. And pray for the General Secretary of BWA, Neville Callum, and the President of the BWA, John Upton.
Lastly, but not least, this week I know many of you will be praying for SERVE in Duncan, particularly on Sunday night when they begin.
Please find the charred old tree stump with new life growing out of it. Part of the original symbol of the New Life Church in Duncan, Norm Sowden tells me. Part of an actual stump and new tree on the site of the newly purchased land of the Mill Bay Baptist church… One of the sites the SERVE team will be working at this next week.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy