This year we piloted a new program of day camps on reserve. I made arrangements ahead of time with the leadership of the various communities and we were granted permission to come to each community and operate a 3 hour day camp at each location. Our team remained at ANBC foloowing our training weekend and on Monday we met to plan, practice and prepare for the week. Each volunteer was given a task and had to prepare to do that task when we got to the community.
The afternoon program included, games & activities, puppets & music, drama, snacks, bouncy castle and a Bible Lesson. Each group on our team did an excellent job of doing their part and connecting with the children and teens as well as parents. I really feel that it was a wonderful and beneficial week and that the Lord was honoured by the ministry that we all shared in together.
Lil' Squirts week was something new we wanted to pilot this year! Last year we tightened up the age ranges for our camps, making the youngest campers 8-12 year olds. There still seemed to be a great deal of interest in camp for 5-7 year olds. With that in mind we developed a three day camp for the youngest group. Unsure of just how this would fly, we plowed ahead, undaunted by having only received four registrations prior to camp.
When Monday arrived, the afternoon came and went without the arrival of a single camper. Although discouraging, we looked at it as an opportunity to think outside the box. The Lord led us to prepare for some outdoor clubs in St. Mary's and Oromocto. So, on Monday evening we met with all of the volunteers and devised a game plan for Tuesday.
It was an immense blessing to see the Lord work out the details and to go with everyone and minister to children right in their own communities. We packed up the bouncy castle, the puppets, instruments, tuck and games and headed out. How encouraging it was to see all of our volunteers dedicate themselves to the ministry for the afternoon and engage with those who came along, children and parents alike. The Lord had a plan, and it wasn't for us to have camp how we had planned it, and it was good.
Some games...
Music & Puppets...
Preaching the Gospel...
Our God is so BIG...
Yay... Bouncy Castle!
Gathering in the gazebo in Oromocto...
Todd & Eve & Ben (and puppets) with some camp music!
And let's not forget about the games!
This past Sunday we were blessed to have Cumberland Bay Baptist church hold several Baptisms at the ANBC waterfront. Two of our summer volunteers from this summer were Baptized, it was a wonderful blessing.
This week marked a sad loss for our family, as my grandmother (Ruth Hyslop) passed away early Friday morning, having recently celebrated her 94th birthday. God is sovereign in all things, and for this we are thankful.
It is alarming just how quickly the time passes during summer camp season! This was our first junior camp of 2012 and we welcomed campers from St. Mary's reserve near Fredericton. God was at work at ANBC this week, often in unexpected ways. Kirk Hubick, an open air preacher with Going and Sowing Ministries was our guest speaker. Using a New Tribes Mission model of evangelism, he presented with a sketch board, the gospel of Jesus Christ chronologically. Throughout the week he challenged the campers with the person of God and taught of His Personhood and Deity and our separation from Him in our sins. It is our prayer that what the campers heard will have a lasting impact on their lives and they will seek the acceptance of Almighty God!
This week we had a large team from Forest Hills Baptist Church in St. John, with us serving in various roles. It was encouraging to see many of them grow and be challenged through the week. This ministry was new to some of them and we watched those submitted to Christ and the ministry flourish and have rich opportunities in ministry. I don't think there was anyone on the team who left un-impacted in some way.
This week wasn't without it's physical challenges as well. Today as we returned from Chipman picking up the weeks groceries the water pump in the camp truck exploded (apparently... probably not actually) and spewed it's green lifeblood all over Cox Point Road. I left the guys with the truck and took a ride with a neighbour to the camp. After collecting some water I returned to the truck and we dumped in a bunch of water and hoofed it the final mile and a half back to camp. So, I will have the challenge of having that repaired this coming week. But, we got all of the food to camp before any was spoiled, which was a blessing!
On Friday evening, after the campers had left, Sasha Cheprasov, the
Forest Hills team leader, led us in a time of reflection and prayer for
the campers and other volunteers. It was a valuable time and helped to
galvanize in our hearts and minds the young lives that were touched this
week.
Kayla and Justus did a little commercial for the ANBC Tuck Shop.
This week we tried out a new afternoon activity and gave the campers
an opportunity to try out puppeteering... it seemed to be a success...this is one of the complete puppet sketches.
This week we tried out "water gun" variation to "Underground Church"... an active game of tag and hide & go seek.
Waterfront = always awesome
This is an example of one of Kirk Hubick's story boards from gathering time. It is a hugely engaging tool and certainly helped keep the campers attention.
Our new friends from Forest Hills Church in St. John.
Kirk preaching the Gospel during one of our gathering times.
Audrey Small leading our craft time. It has been such a huge blessing and encouragement to have so many folks from our home church serving alongside us at camp this year. Both on property, off property and in prayer!
It was a fabulous week at camp! With only 20 campers we had a smaller group than usual, but it provided the staff with some unique opportunities to minister to the campers one on one! We all took note of the overall atmosphere of the camp, it was positive and fun. The camp ran smoothly and we were blessed by each and every chapel time with Pastor Gary Countway. We saw two young fellows make professions of faith during the week and have been delighted to see a young girl come to the Lord as well. Her cabin leader is here for the weekend and received several phone calls from her after she returned home. She expressed deep interest in knowing the Lord and her cabin leader has been guiding her to passages of scripture to read on her own. Hopefully this will be a relationship that can continue as there is opportunity for discipleship.
We were also blessed this week by staff devotion times with Jamie Weber from Gorrie, Ontario. He challenged each one of us every morning and our times of prayer and Bible reading set a wonderful tone for the day.
We had a very rainy day on Thursday, but it didn't dampen spirits, the campers enjoyed the opportunity to play board games and spend time one on one with the staff! Please keep all of the kids in prayer as they return home, that the things they have seen and heard and learned might dramatically impact their lives!
We've had a nice restful Saturday and are looking forward to another great week. Some new staff have already begun to arrive, hopefully their enthusiasm will be contagious...
Hi all! It's about an hour until staff devotions, so I thought I'd take a minute or two for a quick update! We're in the midst of week one of Children's camp. This week we have kids here from Saint Mary's, a community near Fredericton. We had a wonderful staff training on Monday, Kevin gave an excellent challenge to the staff and we encouraged them about the importance of the work we are doing this week. The kids arrived shortly after lunch and the camp was once again full of the wonderful sound of kids!
There is so much to be thankful for to have this opportunity to serve the Lord, and these summer camps are always such a huge blessing to us. It is always impressed upon me just how richly the Lord can work through each and every staff member, not only in the lives of the campers, but in our own lives as well!
Keep us in prayer, campers, staff and missionaries!
Staff Training on Monday morning.
A huge thank you to Devon Park Baptist Church for their donation of cereal to camp, and thanks to Micah Hiltz for delivering it to us!
Well, we've completed the courses. We have received certificates for the 27 hour course in Basic Counseling Skills. It was a pretty fantastic week, and to a person, everyone in attendance was blessed to their boots by the entire week. The fellowship, the biblical teaching, the new friends and resources were all a wonderful part of the week.
Another fantastic day of classes. Not only are we learning about some basic counseling techniques... how to listen properly. but our instructors are taking the time to help each of us work through any issues we ourselves may struggle with. It has been a hugely encouraging week and I have been very grateful for all that I've been learning! This course is both timely and exceptionally valuable to our ministry here. Liz will have opportunity to take it in January when the Schnupp's return to give a more intensive three week course.
It has been another fabulous day in St. Mary's. I've been finding that the seminars have turned out to be so much more than just learning Basic Counseling Skills. It has been a huge blessing and encouragement to be a part of this weeks meetings!
Today was the first of a week of meetings in St. Mary's, just outside of Fredericton. The seminars were organized by some of the local Christians here, Kevin, Venus and I were asked to take part this week as a benefit to our roles with NCEM. The courses are being presented by Dr. Clair and Clara Schnupp of NYM (Northern Youth Ministries). Today's sessions were very informative and well presented, we are looking forward to a great week. I'll be posting a short vlog for those of you who wish to keep up with the progress of the week. You can check back here for the updates or visit our YouTube channel by following the link at the lower right of this page. If you have received this update via eMail, you will likely need to view the video here ... see ya on the interwebs.
On Tuesday Kevin and I had the opportunity to have some meetings in Fredericton. We met Venus Coté for lunch, she accompanied us for the afternoon as we did some camp errands. After lunch, our first order of business was to relieve ourselves of over 70,000 pennies and $300 in other coins. The grand total of the 'Plethora of Pennies' was $1,012.77, we have also received a great deal more in other donations for training. A big thank you is in order for all those of you who have contributed to our training expenses in this way!
Each of the grocery pails had almost 200 lbs worth of pennies... it was an interesting waddle to the bank... the tellers looked... stricken.
We met with Sue Bear at St. Mary's and chatted with her a bit about this summers upcoming camps. It was encouraging to see her excitement in the programs, we are pleased to be able to do a bit of planning ahead with respect to camper registrations etc.
Tuesday evening Kevin and I enjoyed fellowship with some of the believers at the St. Mary's Bible Study.
On Wednesday Kevin and I headed to Shediac. My mother has donated some furniture to Arrowhead for the new office and directors quarters so we took the truck to bring the items back to camp. It was a whirlwind trip in the rain, but we had no problems and nothing got wet. It is a big help to have some new shelves, a bed and chair, dresser and tables.
Thursday brought my friend Ben Lawson for a visit. Ben works as a teacher in Akulevik, Quebec and is home for a weeks break. He worked with us as a cabin leader last year during camp and his ministry has been much appreciated. We're hopeful he'll be able to minister with us again this year! It was great to be able to spend a couple of days catching up with him!
Liz has gone to NS for a couple of days to visit with her folks before we head out West for training. It will be her last real opportunity to see them until after Eastern Field conference in the Fall.
