Squeah summer camp season uncertain
After last year’s cancellation of summer camp due to the pandemic, staff at Mennonite Church B.C.’s Camp Squeah are hopeful that a regular camping season can resume in summer 2021. Gatherings such as group camps are currently prohibited in B.C. A decision on overnight camping is conditional on restrictions being lifted and operational plans approved…
Keeping the excitement of camping alive
Last year marked Camp Elim’s 75th anniversary, but it was a challenging year for us. Our plans for running camp as normal were quickly thwarted with the looming pandemic. By mid-May, it became apparent that we would not be able to operate our camper program due to government restrictions forcing the closure of overnight summer-camp…
A chance to try new ideas
As I reflect on a year of “being camp” during COVID-19, I hear Psalm 32: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” We have seen the waters of uncertainty surging. We have experienced fear, loss, disorientation and anger. At…
‘Love thy neighbour’
Innovation, creativity and pivoting were key strengths that non-profit organizations used in 2020, especially if their main revenue streams involved gathering people together in large groups. At Youth Farm Bible Camp, we quickly adapted in the middle of our fundraising season to be a safe place from which to deliver groceries and meals. We cancelled…
Two-week music camp being planned
Ontario Mennonite Music Camp (OMMC) is a two-week camp hosted at Conrad Grebel University College, offering teenagers aged 12 to 16 an opportunity to explore both music and faith. Much of a typical day at camp is spent making music together in choir, small ensembles or around evening campfires. Everyone arrives at camp playing a…
Silver Lake marks 60th anniversary in 2021
Camp can make such a difference in the life of a camper, even over Zoom. That was the great discovery of the summer of 2020. We were very happy to see so many faces in this online experience! The theme of the summer was “Seek, love, walk,” based on Micah 6:8. Seeking justice, loving mercy…
Camping with a purpose
Last year, Fraser Lake Camp’s cabins, which magically turn groups of kids into little families each summer, went empty. There were no echoes of rambunctious camp songs to rattle across the lake. No one reached the top of the climbing wall to the cheers of their counsellors and fellow campers below. No one shared a…
Many hands make the work doable
At Shekinah we struggle to sit still. When we decided to shut our doors in March 2020, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, it not only felt foreign, it also felt wrong. It is much easier to work harder to try to solve a problem than it is to wait, watch and be still. What…
Churches helping camps helping churches
After a week of non-stop activities soundtracked by endless cheering and screaming kids, you might think the staff of Camp Koinonia would sleep in. Instead, every Sunday morning they put on their Birkenstocks and cleanest clothes and head to Whitewater Mennonite Church in nearby Boissevain. Many Mennonite Church Manitoba congregations are involved in Camps with…
Camps ‘pop up’ around Manitoba
Summer Camp 2020 was full of innovations. Almost everything needed adjustments. We held staff Zoom parties in the spring to begin to build the camp community feeling that usually happens naturally at our staff training week. When at camp, staff were outside almost all of the time, eating, meeting and hanging out in large circles…
