Vol 3 No. 28 The Annual Camping Letter

Every year about this time we bring to each others attention, thoughts and prayers the work of our camps in the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada.

Some of you may remember (and some of you may be tired of hearing – only teasing) that camps are very important to me on so very many levels. I became a Christian at Gull Lake at the age of nine (1964, you do the math) under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and some prompting by Ken Hillmer and Reg Bibby. My wife Kerry and our children Jessica and Andrew have all been profoundly influenced by camps and have their own stories to tell.

The following contains:

  1. The name of the camp
  2. The names of the senior staff / directors as given by the camps
  3. Any web link that might be
  4. A prayer request for the summer (we’ll update when we get news) as given to us by the camps

Please pray in general for safety and good organization. Please pray for attentiveness to the Holy Spirit. Please pray for campers, staff and families that they would feel a sense of belonging to the camping community, that they might come to a personal relationship with Christ and that all of us would mature into belonging in a deeper way to this wonderful God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I give thanks for the camping committee and for the generous financial support of individuals, churches, the BUDF, camp boards and Area Executives.

Warmly,

In great expectation,

Jeremy Bell

 

Gull Lake Camp

Contact Person: Executive Director: Jeff Dyer

Program Director: Steve Roadhouse
Address: Site 1 Box 6 RR3, Lacombe, AB  T4L 2N3
Phone # Office: 403-782-2495

http://www.gulllakecamp.net/

Our prayer requests really are for unity and for depth. Let me explain. To be honest, we feel a really clear call to connect campers to Christ and to offer real life ministry to 700 campers and 150 leaders, but we’re short a wee bit on experience and run pretty ragged from a season of ‘transformation’. We’ve redeveloped our entire campus at Gull Lake since the last day of last summer until now. As we speak, we’re in a building that is 9/10 main lodge and 1/10 construction site. We’re in an amazing facility with enormous possibility, but we’ll need a unified vision and a clarity of focus – while being intentionally flexible so as to respond to the nature of construction and the obvious unknowns along the way. Further, we are doing this with 4/6 full time staff being in their first summer of ministry at Gull. They are really excellent people, but we’ve had limited time to form a cohesive team (unity) and are therefore working out of inexperience (lack of depth). That said, we’re full of optimism, hope, wild imaginations and dream filled vision – so again, unity and depth. It really comes back again and again to the need to be one in focus and in vision and in mysterious and miraculous depth.

We’re a rest stop for so many people who are thirsty along the journey and we hope to provide living water. May it come from a people drawing from One, Deep well.

Jeff Dyer

 

Keats Camp

Contact Person: Interim Director: Pauline Sanderson

Program Director: Jeff VanderKuip
Program Coordinator: Andrew Miller
Address: 234 Brooksbank Ave, North Vancouver, BC  V7J 2C1
Phone # Office: 604-980-6799
Phone # Summer: 604-886-7612
Email: admin@keatscamps.com

http://www.keatscamps.com/

 

 

captain Michelle Cuthbert
captain Danielle Bingham
Captain Benji Wagler
Activities Captain Graham Miller
Adventure Camp Director Brent Reimer
Yeoman Becca Robertson
Summer Caretaker Rick Friesen
Waterfront Director Willa Neustaedter
Waterfront Director Theo Birkner
Crew Director Alison Kidd
Crew Director Matt Kidd
Deckhand Director Jon Wright
Deckhand Director Lindsie Bristow
Head Cook Elvera Corben
Program Director Jeff VanderKuip
Program Coordinator Andrew Miller
Interim Executive Director Pauline Sanderson
Head Caretaker Mike Scott
Office Admin – Vancouver Brenda Sachse
   
   

 

Thank you asking for prayer requests as we prepare for our first week of campers on Monday!!  We are thankful to the Lord for providing a very committed staff this year.  As we work, talk, study and pray together we are learning how to live together in community.  As will happen at the beginning of the summer, things have gone wrong,  but we are working and praying through them.  Our barge sank at the dock 10 days ago, and this has put a significant glitch in our ability to transport the goods necessary for life on an island (food, building materials etc). We have also waited until almost the last moment for some crucial systems to come together in order to function well.  The first two weeks may be challenging as we wait on the delivery of some important kitchen equipment and also some very important sound system components. This sound system was funded by a grant from the Trinity Fund of the Baptist Union, and as we have tried to be diligent and cost conscious in ordering, we have also had to be patient in waiting to have confirmation of our major order.

For the summer we request prayer for the safety and health of all the campers and staff in our care.  We ask that you pray that the name of the Lord Jesus be glorified at this camp; that campers would meet Him, and that they will desire to come into relationship with Him.  Pray also for the staff that their relationship with Him would be deepened, and that they will come away at the end of the summer with the knowledge that Jesus was very present at Keats Camps.

Thanks for being willing to partner in prayer with us.

In Service,

Pauline Sanderson

 

Mill Creek Camp

Contact Person: Director:  Calley Erickson

Address: Box 132, Pincher Creek, AB  T0K 1W0
Phone #: 403-627-4400
email: info@millcreekcamp.org

http://www.millcreekcamp.org/

To our friends and partners in the CBWC:

Thank you for taking the time to learn about Mill Creek Baptist Camp, sharing in our excitement, and supporting us through prayer!  Our camp is dedicated to 5 purposes:

1) To provide a safe, fun and uplifting environment where God is worshipped, the Bible proclaimed as the word of God, relationships are built, and people feel loved.

2) To provide an avenue of outreach of challenging individuals to begin a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

3) To challenge and provide nurturing to individuals as they walk in faith.

4) To provide opportunities for leadership, training, and service.

5) To provide a facility that, first, our churches, and second, other organizations can use to further their ministries.

At camp we have three main topics we rely on prayer for:

1) Pray for the board as we struggle to establish the vision for camp.

a. Camp is going through a time right now of listening to God and where He wants us to take camp – I ask that you pray for our board that they would be unified and committed to camp and that they would have the courage to follow God’s leading.  The vision that this board sets will affect the camp for its foreseeable future.

2) Pray for our staff this summer as they bring the kingdom of God to here and now.

a. Even as we look to the future – we have opportunities to be living the Kingdom life here and now.  We ask that the Holy Spirit would be teaching and inspiring our staff, and that as they walk this journey, that they would be inviting and showing others how to walk with God as well.

3) Pray for our summer campers

a. Campers come from such a variety of backgrounds and from all different points on their journey with God.  We are excited about making every single one of them feel welcomed and loved.  We ask that God would make camp a place that they would be able to reflect on life and their life with God, and that we would be able to ask the questions and explore the topics they need to in order to discover this life abundantly that Jesus speaks of.

Finally, continue to remember us, Calley & Carrie Erickson, as we direct this camp.  We feel really blessed to be involved with this camp at this time and couldn’t think of a better place to be.  Think of us as we start our family with Riley and look for balance between life, camp, and family.

Sincerely,

Calley & Carrie Erickson

Director & Program Director

 

The Quest at Christopher Lake Baptist Camp and Retreat Centre
Phone # : (306) 934-0591
Fax #: (306) 934-0059
Address: 1351 – 28 St E, Prince Albert, SK  S6V 6T4
Email: info@questnet.ca
Website: http://www.questnet.ca/
Director – Jeff George

Summer:
Box 314
Christopher Lake, SK  S0J 0N0
Phone & Fax # (306) 982-4413

 

Katepwa Baptist Kamp

Contact Person: Board Chairman: Neil Sundeen
Address: Box 37, Fort Qu’Appelle, SK  S0G 1S0
Phone # Office: 306-332-4727
Phone # Home: 306-332-6111 (off-season office)
Website: http://www.kbk.ca/
Email: info@kbk.ca

Program/Leader In Training Coordinator-Jeremy Sundeen

Program Assistants-Lindsay Kriger and Tim Hutton
Leader In Training Assistant- Kristen Belous
Media Coordinator- Ben Josephson
Water Front Director- Scott Milton
Water Front Assitants- Sara Bellamy and Kayla Monnette
Boat Driver- Mark Dean
Senior Cabin Leader- Neal Adolf, David Ong, Thomas Lowen, Alysia Sundeen, Natasha Bellows, Alexis Graas and Kallie Josephson
This is our senior staff for the KBK summer 2007.

 

Dear Baptist Union,

Things are swinging well into full gear here at Katepwa Baptist Kamp (KBK), and we are very excited for what God has in store this summer. KBK is located North east of Regina, Saskatchewan on Katepwa Lake in the Qu’appelle Valley. We offer 100 acres of land; nine of these are beach front. We run a variety of activities focusing a lot on our waterfront.

This summer we had a lot of trouble staffing some senior positions. As always, God’s faithfulness often tests our trust and obedience and a week before staff training the final spot was filled. A special thanks to the Quest at Christopher Lake and Dallas Valley Ranch Camp for their many resources and willingness to share.

As a staff we are very young. We have three twenty year old directors with a senior staff which are even younger. Out of all of our staff only one is returning in his or her original position and out of 17 cabin leaders only seven have cabin leading experience. This may seem to be a huge dilemma, but knowing the staff personally there is no doubt that their hearts are in the right place and serving God in this ministry is their passion this summer. We trust that God will be teaching the staff new things daily, challenging them both mentally, physically and spiritually and that they will grow and mature to become more Christ-like this summer.

We would ask that people pray for more personnel this summer. We are short on speakers, kitchen helpers and nurses. We trust God to be faithful in this matter just as he has been so far this summer. I guess you could say we are running on God’s clock now. We would also like prayer for overall safety of the camp. There have been a number of large storms so far this year and quite a few funnel clouds in the area. In years past God has protected us in amazing ways and we would ask for that type of prayer again.

In closing we would like to thank you for your faithfulness to us, ask for your continual prayer support and wish you all the best of summers.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always,

Jeremy Sundeen

Program Director
Katepwa Baptist Kamp

 

Sylvan Acres Ministries

Contact Person:
Pat MacDonald, Ministries Director
2230 Mallory Drive
Port Alberni, B.C.
V9Y 1A1
(250) 382-5272
Email: sylvanacres@gmail.com
Website: www.sylvanacres.org

 

Camp Wapiti

Contact Person: Director: Darren Andres
Address: McLaurin Baptist Church, 10315-114 Ave, Grand Prairie, AB  T8V 1X2
Phone # Office: 780-532-2823
Fax #: 780-532-2821
Email: darren@homewardjourney.ca
Website: http://www.campwapiti.ca/

 

Pelican Lake Baptist Camp

Contact Person: Tom Wenham
Co-Administrators: Tom and Karen Wenham
Address Camp: Box 95, Ninette, MB  R0K 1R0
Address Home: 905 Lorne Ave East, Brandon, MB  R7A 1W5
Phone # Home: 204-726-5005
Phone # Camp: 204-528-3246
Email: camp@plbc.ca
Website: http://www.plbc.ca/

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