Our mission at Covenant Pines Ministries is to encourage campers to take a next step in Christian faith. Our desire is to have as many campers as possible to make their way up to camp to have an opportunity to experience the love of Christ. There are many factors to consider while sending a camper to camp, but we work hard to make sure that financial hardship isn’t a reason for a camper to not attend. This summer, we provided $46,500 in scholarship funds to over 250 campers at Covenant Pines Bible Camp.
Our scholarship fund is supported throughout the year by generous donors, our scholarship endowment and the profits from our Annual Golf Tournament. We also partner with our Twin Cities Churches to provide assistance to families. This summer, over 200 campers also received over $50,000 in financial support from their church to be able to attend camp. We are grateful for the partnership of these local churches that recognize the importance of a week at camp for these students.
One parent wrote, “Covenant Pines not only has had a significant impact on my life, but now my son’s too. I want to be sure he can continue to grow spiritually and build lasting friendships in a Christian environment. His camp scholarship not only makes this possible for my son, but also contributes to his personal and spiritual growth in ways that will have lasting impact.”
Camp is an investment. We know it comes at a significant cost and sacrifice to many families as they support the faith formation of their child. We work hard and partner with our churches to ensure any camper who wants to attend camp is able to financially. This allows us more opportunity to live out our mission and encourage campers to take their next steps in Christian faith. We are thankful for our donors and churches for their generosity- and we are grateful for the 250+ campers we were able to have at camp this summer thanks to scholarships.
Summer is always such a good reminder to us of what a unique ministry we have at Adventurous Christians. As our staff spends weeks leading canoe groups through the BWCAW, lives are being transformed. Living in Minnesota, we can often forget how lucky we are to have such close access to something like the Boundary Waters – but it really is a destination for many groups across the country. This summer, we are serving groups from Indiana, Illinois and Iowa and are offering a Clergy trip at the end of the summer, where Covenant Pastors will be joining us from all across the country.
Southport Presbyterian Church traveled from Indianapolis, Indiana to AC earlier this summer to return for another canoe trip after going on one three years ago. This group of fathers and sons traveled nearly 12 hours to have this experience that brought challenges, rewards and great spiritual growth. Here are some reflections from their trip,
“This trip helped me let go of comforts and instant gratification and caused me to rely on God for his providence. I realized through this I have more mental strength, grit and drive than I thought.”
“Thank you Adventurous Christians for providing an experience focused on God through physical challenge and adventure. This was tremendous for my son and I, and the whole group.”
We just finished leading a canoe trip for Decorah Covenant Church in Decorah, Iowa and are currently out on trail with Hinsdale Covenant Church from Hinsdale, Illinois. These groups travel long distances for this unique ministry experience and we are grateful to be able to provide that for them! We work hard to provide an experience that is rooted in the wonder of Christ through leadership, hard work, and spiritual renewal that makes it a destination trip worth taking.
We encourage groups from all over the country to join us on a guided canoe trip through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. If you’re interested in planning your canoe trip, we’d love to work with you. You can start by checking our website, here or emailing us.
For the past two summers, Junior High and Senior High Campers at Covenant Pines Bible Camp have been invited to participate in a study about their camp experience. The “Power of Camp” study is conducted through a national camping organization – The Christian Camp and Conference Association. The study surveys campers and parents 2 weeks after their week at camp, and then again 2 months after their week of camp. As we look forward to the 2025 summer ministry season, we thought we would share a few of the encouraging results we found from our 2024 study.
In 2024,
- 12% increase in campers attending church multiple times a month
- 7% increase in campers reading the Bible by themselves
- 81% of campers feel more confident in themselves since returning from camp
- 87% of campers state the camp experience had a significant impact on their life
- 95% of campers indicate their questions about God and faith were taken seriously
- 12% of campers are thinking about becoming a pastor or other church leader someday
Our mission at Covenant Pines Ministries is to encourage campers to take a next step on Christian faith. As we processed the results of this study, we felt affirmed that we are indeed fulfilling our mission. Camp is a transformative experience that instills lifelong faith development. Camp is important to our young people and we are committed to being an integral part of their spiritual formation.
After completing another season of staff training, both our summer and full time staff are encouraged by these statistics. We hope you are too! As we kick off our summer ministry, we’d love your prayers for our campers, staff, volunteers, speakers, etc. We are hopeful and expectant for another great summer of ministry. We are planning to participate in the Power of Camp study again and are eager to learn more about our campers’ experience.
Big Chapel was a beloved space to many at Covenant Pines Bible Camp. A holy place where lives were transformed. It was hard to say goodbye at the end of 2024, but we knew that due to the structural issues of the building it wouldn’t last forever. Though the building won’t last forever – we’ve always had plans to keep the space sacred and let the memory of Big Chapel live on. We are excited to share these plans with you!
Later this month, we will begin construction on Chapel Point. In the architect rendering, you will notice the A-Frame – we will be using original Big Chapel beams for this. This space is a patio with a fire pit that we hope can be a place for solitude, cabin conversations, retreat reflections and more. Though the purpose for this space is different, we hope that the same birch trees, look over the lake and long walk around camp provides campers with a rich spiritual connection.
We are thankful for the many years we were able to use Big Chapel. We also know the Worship Center will serve us for years and years to come, allowing us to encourage campers to take a next step in Christian faith. We are looking forward to honoring and utilizing the Chapel Point space in this new way, only adding to our ministry impact and the camper experience. We hope you can check it out the next time you are at camp.
We have four pillars of our program ministry at Covenant Pines Ministries: Safe, Fun, Gospel and Experience. We take that first pillar very seriously and implement many practices to ensure campers have a safe week at camp. One those practices is having trained medical staff on site every week at camp caring for the safety and well being of our campers!
Our medical staff at CPBC is a group of volunteer, licensed medical professionals. Every week we have two “Camp Nurses” on site who provide care for campers. We have ER Doctors, night shift nurses, pediatric specialty nurses, school nurses, NPs and PAs throughout the summer who spend a week at Covenant Pines as the camp nurse. We have 2-3 medical staff at camp at all times to provide everyone with a break and to manage all the tasks. The team spends time getting to know each camper and spends the week administering medications, helping campers when they get hurt or aren’t feeling well, and often providing some emotional support to campers who are homesick or need some extra TLC.
One of our lead nurses, Jen Good describes a day as a nurse like this, “Grabbing a cup of coffee or tea and heading off for breakfast to pass morning medications to campers. Between meals we hang around the health center or watch camp activities to be available for any injured or ill campers. Heath center staff is welcome to participate in chapels and other camp activities during the day and that’s a fun way to get to know the campers. In the evening we reset all the medications for the next day, help prepare for the following week of camp, and often get a little time to relax before campers head off for bed. Sometimes there’s time for a little relaxing in a hammock, reading a book, or having a nice chat with campers.”
Being a camp nurse is a rewarding experience, as you get the unique opportunity to get to know and engage with every camper. You also get time to experience camp, enjoy the outdoors and witness campers taking their next step in Christian faith. It is a great way to spend a week of your summer! Not to mention, if you volunteer as a camp nurse, you get a credit for a free week of camp for a camper of your own. Jen adds this,
“The best perk is no cooking or doing dishes for an entire week (unless you enjoy it and want to pitch in to help the kitchen crew, which some of us do, but it’s never expected)! Just being at camp and enjoying the beauty and connections with God is a perk. Camp also gives one free camper registration for volunteers in the health center. If you have a child anxious about going to camp alone, this is a great way to “be there” and also give them a sense of independence in their camp experience. They love knowing their parent or grandparent is there if they need them. I also love coaching a camper who’s really missing home, or is away for the first time, through their fears and seeing the joy in their face when they make it through the week. I also LOVE connecting with the high school students and having some “real” life conversations. We are there to support the whole camper, and that often means caring for their minds and souls, as much as their bodies. We have a unique connection with campers, and a freezie pop or a hug always deepens it even more.”
We are looking for licensed medical professionals to join our 2025 medical staff at Covenant Pines. We’d love to have you join us! If you are interested or have questions, email Jen Good. She can be reached at nurse@covenantpines.org!