Seeking God in a 'thin place'
I grew up attending a relatively small Mennonite church—Foothills Mennonite in Calgary—with my family. My family was fairly involved in my church, and I grew up with a typical Mennonite faith.
I grew up attending a relatively small Mennonite church—Foothills Mennonite in Calgary—with my family. My family was fairly involved in my church, and I grew up with a typical Mennonite faith.
Ethan Willms
Foothills Mennonite Church, Calgary
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend Amplify! at Camp Valaqua. This was an amazing experience for me, and it left me wanting more.
Edmonton First Mennonite Church has a long-standing tradition of holding its fall retreat every Labour Day long weekend at Camp Valaqua. For the first time in two years, members were once again able to come together and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and spend time in each other’s company.
This summer, Alberta supporters of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Camp Valaqua got physical to raise funds.
Camp Valaqua welcomed approximately 30 enthusiastic volunteers at its spring work day on April 30. Volunteers and staff focused on cleaning up brush and splitting wood.
“Our woodshed went from a few sad sticks to full in just a day!” says Jon Olfert, Valaqua’s camp director.
Volunteers also repaired the siding on one of the buildings and cleaned the eavestroughs.
George Heidebrecht fiddled with the knobs of his slide projector in anticipation of a morning of storytelling.
(Photo courtesy of Levi Klassen)
In March, my friend and I were fulfilling our duty of cleaning out the Canadian Mennonite University Student Council room when we came across a filing cabinet of school newspapers from the 1960s. Being rather loosely committed to our cleaning assignment, we soon found ourselves leafing through submissions sent in by students during the summer, and lo and behold, I came across a letter written by someone working at Camp Valaqua (Water Valley, Alta.).
In this year of so many disappointments, it is easy to lose track of the good things. Even when summer camp is cancelled and so many major events are postponed, God brings us joy.
Carol McNaughton hikes the Wasootch Ridge as a participant in the 2020 Camp Valaqua hike-a-thon fundraiser. (Photo by Hossein Talebi)
Lethbridge Mennonite Church and Springridge Mennonite Church in Pincher Creek, Alta., join forces to raise money for this year’s Camp Valaqua hike-a-thon. (Photo by Elaine Klassen)
Camp Valaqua received great news recently. As of Aug. 26, its annual hike-a-thon raised a record amount of $34,456, nearly double the previous record of $18,000.
Ron Janzen, who is often the biggest fundraiser, beat his own record, raising more than $10,000 this year.
Why was so much raised in 2020?
The sun is shining through the tall trees today at Camp Valaqua near Water Valley, Alta., and the a hint of spring is in the air. This time of year brings hiring, planning and anticipation into our little corner of the camp world. Sometimes it is tough to keep track of why we work at this all year long and so I tell myself stories to remember. Here is one of my favourites: