Halloween! First Post this Month!

I officially haven't blogged in a whole month! Do I get an award? No? Really? Well it's my bad so sorry team for officially dropping the ball! What can I say?

Well how about the fact that my life has been compared to craziness and utter destruction of Hurricane Sandy, let's just say it's been intense and also quite terrifying. I am praying that everyone on the East Coast continues to stay safe as Sandy continues to reek havoc. My schedule for classes at Lethbridge College is completely stacked here let me show you my school schedule.

Day/Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
8:00AM	CAP-165L-L01 Media Technology Visual I Lab G. Gallant 08:30AM - 09:50AM TE TE3219	WRI-154L-L01 Media Research and Writing P. Gingras 08:30AM - 09:50AM TE TE2209	WRI-154L-L01 Media Research and Writing P. Gingras 08:30AM - 09:50AM TE TE3222
9:00AM	CAP-165L-L01 08:30AM - 09:50AM	WRI-154L-L01 08:30AM - 09:50AM	WRI-154L-L01 08:30AM - 09:50AM
10:00AM	CPU-170-C01 Production Software I D. Hadley 10:00AM - 11:50AM TE TE3222	CAP-165L-L01 Media Technology Visual I Lab G. Gallant 10:00AM - 11:20AM TE TE3240	MKT-158-C01 Media Marketing Fundamentals M. Emard 10:00AM - 11:20AM CE CE1365		MKT-158-C01 Media Marketing Fundamentals M. Emard 10:00AM - 11:20AM CE CE1365
11:00AM	CPU-170-C01 10:00AM - 11:50AM	CAP-165L-L01 10:00AM - 11:20AM	MKT-158-C01 10:00AM - 11:20AM		MKT-158-C01 10:00AM - 11:20AM
12:00PM		PRS-173-C01 Announcing/Public Speaking A. Deys 12:30PM - 01:50PM TE TE3223		PRS-173-C01 Announcing/Public Speaking A. Deys 12:30PM - 01:50PM TE TE3223	PSC-150-C01 Local Government M. Schindeler 12:30PM - 01:50PM AN AN1719
1:00PM	WRI-154-C01 Media Research and Writing I K. Hodgson 01:00PM - 01:50PM CE CE1365	PRS-173-C01 12:30PM - 01:50PM	CAP-165-C01 Media Tech Visual I D. Hadley 01:00PM - 01:50PM TE TE3222	PRS-173-C01 12:30PM - 01:50PM	PSC-150-C01 12:30PM - 01:50PM
2:00PM	PSC-150-C01 Local Government M. Schindeler 02:00PM - 03:20PM AN AN1719	CAP-152-C01 Mass Communication K. Hodgson 02:00PM - 03:20PM CE CE1365	CAP-171-C01 Media Tech Audio P. Gingras 02:00PM - 03:50PM TE TE3222 CAP-171-C01 Media Tech Audio P. Gingras 02:00PM - 03:50PM TE TE3245	CAP-152-C01 Mass Communication K. Hodgson 02:00PM - 03:20PM CE CE1365
3:00PM	PSC-150-C01 02:00PM - 03:20PM	CAP-152-C01 02:00PM - 03:20PM	CAP-171-C01 02:00PM - 03:50PM CAP-171-C01 02:00PM - 03:50PM	CAP-152-C01 02:00PM - 03:20PM

So as you can see some crazy schedule and tons of class for my first year towards my Broadcast Journalism diploma. Half way through the semester my class average is 92% so an A-, that makes me quite happy even with all the business.

I am also helping lead a grade 11 small group of boys at E-free Church in Lethbridge on Tuesday nights! It's such a blast and my other leader just so happens to be Ian Lawson, the senior pastor of E-free. I haven't even attended the church for a full year and I already have Ian Lawson, Sid Koop, and Brody Jespersen's personal phone numbers, haha I guess I have friends in high places, better watch out.

Other then that life has been swell! Felicity Vanderlist is coming down this weekend and that makes me quite excited as well as the fact that my parents got a new dog named Isaac! He is about twice the size of what Lacey was and is definitely as playful as Lacey was when she was younger, I still miss Lacey a lot but I am happy that we now have a new member of the family! Welcome Isaac.

And now on a final note, not stoked about the fact that Seahawks lost to the Lions this past week. Super disappointing as we should have crushed them considering how they had been playing up to Sunday's contest and how our defence has established itself as one the best in football. Hopefully we can recharge and get back into the race for a division title as we face a stingy Minnesota Vikings team that pulled of some crazy wins over the past couple weeks. Hopefully Century Link is rocking as our 5th ranked defence gives Christian Ponder and the Vikings a ton of issues! I predict 2 interceptions from the Legion of Boom, 3 sacks from our d-line, and a couple of Marshawn Lynch touchdowns for a 28-17 win for the Seahawks! Bold but beautiful!

Busy

I am so busy that I don't really ever know when I will be able to blog. But I will....soon.

Stress, Anxiety, and Grief

Hey guys! It's Brad here. Let me start off by apologizing for not blogging recently but my house in Airdrie has been emotionally filled with stress, anxiety, and grief. The stress ensued from getting all of my Airdrie things and moving them down to Lethbridge where they are now situated in my fantastic room. Anxiety was achieved when we realized how fast I was moving out of town and how we had to strategize moving all of my stuff and my new Ikea furniture to Lethbridge in my car, my Dad's car, and my Mom's vehicle. We were all quite anxious and quite stressed trying to figure out all of those arrangements.

Grief was shed on Wednesday evening as our family dog Lacey unexpectedly died in our home. Now for most families dealing with a dead dog is not the biggest ordeal in the world but there is something that you have to know about Lacey to understand our family's grief. The first thing is that we as a family got Lacey when I was 6; I am now turning 19 in two weeks. So this puppy has been in my life for almost 13 years, she had been there for every single one of my hockey tryouts, every morning she said goodbye to me as I stepped on the bus, and lastly she was there every day after school and after work to welcome me back home. She was a phenomenal dog that not only invested her time into our family but also her love for us, and we got to see that love daily. Thus we as a family are so sad that she passed away on Wednesday as we grieve the loss of not only our family dog but our little daughter, and our little sister. I don't think that this grief would have been as bad if it wasn't for the fact that my Mom was not only saying goodbye to her daughter Nicole on Friday, but also saying goodbye to me this weekend, and then having to say goodbye forever to her best buddy on Wednesday night. This definitely didn't help her to cope with the fact that she was saying goodbye to everyone in the home except for Dad. Hence the grief stacked with the sadness of being an "empty nester" and having to let her kids go and finish their degree, and in my case start my degree.

So with that being said here is to Lacey and the awesome times we had with her. Thanks for the memories and we hope to see you soon once again puppy. Thank you.

Lacey Jane Jones

Goodbye Camp Evergreen, Hello Lethbridge College!

Well here is my last blog post about Camp Evergreen this year. As the the spring/summer work term ends, I can definitely reflect on all the fun times I had at camp this year. So let's dive into the last couple of days.

Day 4 was super solid as the evening program consisted of a camp wide game of Bible Smugglers. Now I use the word game when referring to Bible Smugglers lightly because of, well, it isn't really a game. Bible Smugglers is more of an experience or a simulation that we set up for the campers. We take them into North Moskovia a fake fascist/communist nation that bans the Bible and the Christian faith. We set up the game so that kids have to acquire a visa in South Moskovia to then be allowed acceptance into North Moskovia where they try to smuggle Bibles across the border and into the country. They have a lot of checkpoints that they must go to and numerous stations that involve picking up Bibles, choosing to either buy legitimate visas or fake ones, etc. As soon as the campers reach the border crossing they are met by guards on horseback who will then search them for any Bibles or any other "illegal" material. Once across the border they must drop off the Bibles to a secret contact without being caught by the North Moskovian spies. After the campers give away the Bibles they must sneak to an underground church meeting to partake in prayer and worship. Altogether the experience for the campers is intense but also very eye opening as it gives kids a wider perspective about Christ and the lengths/dangers that Christians will go in order to spread the Word of God, it's actually quite phenomenal.

Day 5 was also legit. Camp Evergreen's big finale of the summer; Homemade Jam, a compilation of skits, talent shows, and improv that make the campers not only laugh but also have a great time. Our theme this year was a Narnian newscast that include the main news anchors Aslan and King Peter. The White Witch was the weather women, Mr. Tumnus was the on scene reporter, and the Minotaur was the news stations sports analyst. Altogether it was an awesome night and the kids loved it! I was so pleased because of the hours I put into the project to make sure that the set, the lighting, and the skits, were all in order, and the fact that the whole night ran rather smoothly was a major relief for me.

Staff Wind Up was sad to plainly put things. All of the friends that you made over the past 17 weeks leave and then you maybe/probably won't see them again. It's quite an emotional time. But Ashley had a great idea of giving each staff member a sheet of paper where fellow staff could write encouragements and praise for all of the hard work that each staff member put in this spring/summer. It was a genius idea and I can't wait to see/hear of all the things that people have written down on each others papers.

Anyways that pretty much wraps up my summer at Camp Evergreen, and so the packing begins as I move down to Lethbridge to start school; and really start a new chapter of my life. It's not only exciting but also quite nerve wracking as I don't necessarily know what lies next or what will happen in the next two years that follow my diploma. Well here is my props and my goodbye to Camp Evergreen this year but I hope that in the future I will get to visit her one last time. Goodbye Camp Evergreen and hello Lethbridge College!

Impact: Day 2/3

The last couple days of camp have definitely been tiring but altogether it has been a pretty rad experience so far. Day 2 consisted of Jug n' Jog, Slip n' Slide, and the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie night. Day 3 was packed full of Creek time, Capture the Flag, and an extended chapel/worship time.

So Day 2's main claim to fame was the Movie Night. Mike has been getting in depth with the Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe. His main point on Day 2 was that we need to read the books and watch the movies with childlike eyes. We need to visualize and picture the story as if we were children so as to fully become encompassed in the plot, conflict, characters, and the story as a whole. As soon as we begin to read or watch the Narnia series through adult eyes we see that the books don't seem to make sense or they don't fit properly with the rest of the series, in simple terms we try to rationalize books that have Centaurs in them. We get to serious or we dig to deep into the technicalities, rather C.S Lewis intended for the books to be read as a story just like a child, so that our imagination takes over rather then our intellectual criticisms. Those were some of Mike's points to help us, and prepare us to watch the movie that night.

Day 3 was also quite exciting. We had over 8 people get pied in the face yesterday which was quite hilarious to see. For Game On the kids got to go down to the creek and hangout as the day was gorgeous, hot, and glorious. The Mayhem block consisted of a solid quality game of Capture the Flag, and the campers seemed to really enjoy it. But now for the most important part; extended chapel. Mike went on to develop his points on the book and how Christians like use allegorize the Narnia series. There are tons of archetypes and general themes in the books that everyone can attest to, but it is us Christians who seem to squeeze the sponge and try to pull out as many Christian allegories from the books as possible, when all that Lewis intended was to right a child's story. A fairytale about Narnia and a story about if Jesus incarnated himself in that secondary world, and if the Jesus in Narnia was actually a represented as a lion. That was the cornerstone of Lewis' writings of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he didn't intend to allegorize the books but when people read them that is what became of the series; a massive allegory of the Christian faith. After Mike spoke everyone stuck around to sing some more songs, and have a chance to just reflect on what God has been doing in their lives this week. I know that I had a solid conversation with three campers, who have been coming to Camp Evergreen for a while now, and our conversation was solid beyond belief. I am so thankful that God allowed me to be able to speak into those kids lives last night, it was phenomenal.

So that wraps up days 2/3, here comes days 4/5 two of the longest days of camp this year. Day 4 = Bible Smugglers night game that probably won't be done until 2/3 o'clock in the morning, and of course day 5 = Homemade Jam which also probably won't end until 12/1 o'clock in the morning. It's going to be a long couple of days. God please provide me with the energy to carry on!

Impact: Day 1

What an eventful first day of camp! Not only did I get pied in the face during kick-off chapel...again, but I also have an absolutely disgusting set of utensils to use for the my meals this week, and I am in a never-ending game of blow dart. Last but definitely not least was Cirque du la Groove las night which was out of this world! What a crazy first day, let me break it down for you.

So during opening chapel I explain to all the campers the premise of the week-long game, and I also intro the rules that should be followed at Camp Evergreen. So just like last week as I was explaining the week-long game to the campers, Ashely comes up behind me and pies me in the face. I guess she pied me in the face to emphasize my point that when the cabin has the cleanest living space they are allowed to choose a specific staff member to pie in the face. I guess I was the first victim to get everything off the ground, you know?

For those of you who don't know I actually have been on a meal challenge all summer. Now this challenge doesn't involve weight loss or any special diet but it did include a set of rather unique utensils. For example, the past 6 weeks I have been eating all of my meals with the following; a melon baller, a lemon zester, and an apple corer. But my fellow staff, mainly Bacon and the program team saw that I was rather efficient at using said utensils and thus offered me with another tougher utensil challenge. The gave me three pairs of extravagant utensils, such as an industry sized soup ladle and an industry sized whisk, a piping bag and a lifter, and lastly a meat tenderizer and a giant serving spoon. Now all of these options weren't to bad, and I was allowed to veto one of the choices. So I vetoed the ladle and the whisk, simply because of their size and how impatient I would be at the end of week trying to eat with Goliath sized cutlery. Then all 78 something Impact campers voted on the pair of utensils for me to use. The score was 7 to 6 in favour of the piping bag. But since we need a 2/3 majority when voting on any "official" matters at Camp Evergreen, they combined the two options. Therefore leaving me with the PIPING BAG and the MEAT TENDERIZER. Should be a solid week! Thumbs up!

Now to explain the epic game of blow dart. First you must swear yourself into the game, and then swear to not back out of the game for any reason. So the rules are as follows. When you make eye contact with someone else who is playing the game, one of you may blow dart the other person. This is done by raising your fist to your mouth and making a blow dart/spitting noise. Once hit by the blow dart, the person smacks their neck where the blow dart hit them and then falls to the ground and lays there for 30 seconds unless another person comes over and pulls the "dart" out of the victims neck. The only way to protect yourself is to a) not look anyone in the eye or b) have your hands up crossing your chest, this is your "shield of amazon", thus protecting you from all poisonous or life-threatening blow darts. This game is ridiculously fun as you never now when you may get blow darted.

And lastly I have to blog about Cirque du la Groove. Cirque du la Groove entitled a Mennonite "dance" party to disney dubstep tracks and the following. But it was more then just that as we had Colter (6'7') walk around on stilts, Kim Precht do her Cirque du Soleil rope routine for the campers, and it was awesome!! Here are some pictures of the night!

Cirque du la Groove

Reilly and Fritzi

Colter and Moody 

Emily "Rodeo Clown" Poulin 

Emily and Courtney 

Kim and her rope routine

Ashley and "Casual Clown" Taylor 

Deanna, Katie, Felicity, and Fritzi

This week is going to continue to be action packed and I can't wait to see what happens next! Movie Night tonight as Mike (our speaker) expands on his book study of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, super stoked! Here comes day 2!

Last Week of Summer

Here we go! The last week of summer is about to commence in under 48 hours times and let's just say that it's going to be an action packed week! This is going to be my 17th week of camp this year and it's sure to be an epic finale!

Homemade Jam planning is a go! Cirque du la Groove, Movie Night, and Bible Smugglers are also on the evening programming schedule. On the menu for games this week we have Jug and Jog, Steal the Bacon, Capture the Flag, Counsellor Hunt, etc.

God has definitely used us Staff this year to not only grow as a community but also grow together in our spiritual walks. Some of the staff left on Friday rather then stay the last week due to varying reasons. I know my spring staff roommate Braydon grew this spring/summer as God used his inadequacy in the outdoors. Braydon was never inadequate but in his mind he was and Christ used him in extraordinary ways over the past 17 weeks and he is walking away from camp this summer a changed man, not only spiritually but also emotionally. It was awesome to see his growth over the spring/summer season!

And so the last week begins! I will post again once the week is done to wrap up the summer at Camp Evergreen as I prepare for Lethbridge College and a completely different life experience!

The Last 2 Weeks of Summer

So those Explorers. Well they were a handful, but we absolutely loved their enthusiasm and their high energy! It definitely was a non-stop week, but it was also a week filled with extreme growth and God's presence.

The week following was our second group of Trailblazers. My absolute favourite age group as they are neither outrageously immature, nor "to cool for school", hence making them a group of campers that ceases to say "no!" and is always willing to participate in games and activities! Some of the quotes from the Grad 4-6 kids were quite extraordinary. Here's a small tidbit;
 
"even ordinary people can do extraordinary things."
"God made us who we are so we shouldn't try to change."
"I want to go home and teach the lessons I've learned here to other people and have a heart for my enemies."

This past week was the youngest age group of the summer. Over 68 screaming Grades 1-3 kids invaded main site, and boy were they a blast! The Sparkies required a ton of attention as to not lose the wandering campers with their curiousity. But we loved them and they brought a ton of joy to the staff with their huge smiles and radiating enthusiasm, they were awesome. One of the highlights of this past Sparky week was definitely rocking out with Daign and Cam to Son of the Morning by Oh, Sleeper (best band ever).

Now for the last 2 weeks of summer; Part 1: Ignite 2 and Part 2: Impact. Should be a ton of fun, but also a ton of effort to plan the crazy night games and evening programming; such as the climactic summer ending Homemade Jam! Should be a blast, should require lots of rest. Please pray that we as a camp staff would have the energy to persevere until the end of summer!

On one last side note, I went to see the Bourne Legacy this weekend with some camp staff, and let's just say that it did not disappoint. Jeremy Renner was phenomenal and the plot for the Bourne Ultimatum carried right over to become the main conflict of Legacy. Awesome movie, I think you should go see it if you have seen the three Matt Damon Bourne movies that precede the Bourne Legacy. Check it out!

Sunset at the Canoe Pond

Up the Zipline

Down the Zipline

Week 3

We here at Camp Evergreen are already diving into our 3rd week of summer camp. But I am going to recap the last two weeks to help give you an better understanding of the past 14 days here at Evergreen.

The first week was eventful as over 80 Trailblazers (Grades 5-7) stormed through our main site. They frantically searched for the moof (stuffed animal hidden around site), went screaming down the zipline, and trotted away on horseback. The kids loved the week and so did the staff. We introduced some new morning water activities such as having a huge slip and slide, and also taking the kids for a venture down to the creek. It was an action packed week, and sometimes difficult, but all in all it was a very smooth first week of camp as a staff team.

This past week was pretty hectic as well. We had about over 60 Ignite campers (Grades 6-9) come for another action-packed time at Camp Evergreen. There were a couple of aches and pains throughout the week but again God was with us through it all. Specifically we had a lot of homesick campers. Which was actually quite surprising to me since these kids were going into junior high, if not high school. We tried to comfort them as best we could, but unfortunately we had two campers go home because of it. On top of the homesick campers we also had two boys who were very disinterested with everything that camp stood for. We offered them absolutely everything we could to try and convince them to have fun and enjoy there time at Evergreen. They didn't go home but they really didn't want to engage or "buy-in" to what camp  had to offer. Hence I was a little bit discouraged about how their week turned out, almost feeling as if I was to blame for their camp experience that lacked what they were looking for. My only prayer now is that we planted a seed for those two boys and that they would want to strive and pursue Christ in the future.

Here goes week 3. Over 50 screaming Explorers (Grades 3-4) are on site this week and all I can do is pray for patience and energy. This age group of kids always seems to be non-stop, go go go, and thus I pray for strength and endurance this coming week.

"No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." Philippians 3: 13-14


"Dear bothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is sully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do no waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do." James 1: 2-8

Felicity and Sarah giving the thumbs up at the Wall

Cassandra leading Horsemanship

A camper jumping at the "Leap of Faith"

The guys down at Roughin' it made a sick raft. No risk no fun right?

Summer Staff Training

So it's been a while since I last updated my blog and I thought that maybe this would be my opportune moment. Over 20-30 new summer staff arrived and immediate adjustment was needed. In a good way of course! 

Our spring staff team was super close and each of us had completely adjusted to each others work styles, and serving habits. But as soon as the summer staff arrived we all needed to adjust. Re-establish boundaries, work habits, social habits, and even our own relationships with one another. But in all honesty, it's for the better. Who are we to not welcome, share, and invite others into our pre-existing relationships and work environments because it, "isn't comfortable" for us. We are called as a community of believers in Christ to treat each other in brotherly and sisterly love. Not to scorn, exclude, or put down, but be inclusive, exhort, and love one another just as Christ loved us. 

Even though at times it is hard to jump out of the so-called "spring staff bubble," I love the fact that now we can grow together as an even bigger body of believers and that just thrills me. If the summer staff can gel like the spring staff did, then we will be an unstoppable force for Christ this summer. Through the activities, games, creation, chapel, and through our personal stories Christ will transform lives and also be glorified for the magnificent, brilliant, omniscient God that He is. Holy is He. 

As you can tell I am pretty stoked for the Summer and am hoping/praying that Christ will make the rest of this week a success and a time for the spring/summer staff to unite and grow in fellowship and in faith.

New Blog

Hey guys, Brad here. Just thought I should give you a quick update. Recently I decided to re-energize my blog, and actually post something about my life (with a little pestering from my fellow Evergreen Staff)

Dude, life has been awesome. My time at camp has definitely stretched me and taught me about my abilities as a leader and what I personally need to sacrifice to become an effective steward for Christ. Sometimes sacrifice is hard. I mean like really hard. It is so easy for us as Christians to just walk through life and not actually take our faith seriously.

I have definitely been pushed by my best-friend Felicity in this certain area of my Christian walk. Bless her heart, for pushing me to be a better me.

I have been called to live a radical life for Jesus, and nothing short of radical. If I don't drastically change my walk with God and don't sacrifice for him as Jesus sacrificed for me, then how can I say that I lived out my faith?  "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven." (Matthew 7:21 ESV)

I know that as a believer I need to step up to the plate; God expects me to not just watch the pitches pass by but to hit the Grand Slam and be proud that I did so! God is good, and he is definitely helping me change my outlook on my Christian walk, and what I need to do to live a radical life for Christ.