Our mission at Covenant Pines Ministries is to encourage campers to take a next step in Christian faith. At our four ministry centers, we get the privilege of interacting with students, families, individuals and groups who share ways that they are taking their own next steps. After another full summer of ministry, we are excited to share with you the ways campers at Covenant Pines Ministries have taken some next steps.
Covenant Pines Bible Camp
This summer we had a little over 1300 campers attend camp at Covenant Pines Bible Camp. After two summers of either canceled or limited capacity camps, it felt great to be back in action at CPBC. As campers returned to play big games, have fun as a cabin and enjoy all the camp activities – the highlight of camp continues to be worship in Big Chapel. One camper shared, “on Next Steps night, my counselor helped me through the best way to start reading scripture and journaling on a regular basis.”
Adventurous Christians
One of our highlights every summer at Adventurous Christians is our Adventures In Leadership Canoe Group. This group of high school students are nominated by their youth pastors as students who have shown leadership potential within their youth groups. Nothing puts that leadership to the test like a week on trail! After leadership training with conference leaders, the students head out on trail. While out in the BWCAW, one student reflected that “Sometimes I need to slow down and think about the people I’m leading rather than the task at hand.” This is a valuable lesson in life and leadership that takes many people years to figure out! We trust that this lesson in leadership will impact this young man’s faith in tears to come.
Silver Beach Family Camp
A week at Silver Beach is a highlight for many families. Not only is the week rooted in tradition and fun, but it presents an opportunity to grow as a family together. Time around the fire, watching the sunset, an evening out fishing on the dock…all of these moments lend themselves to opportunities for rich conversation. One family reflected on their time at Silver Beach by saying, “We turned off the outside world to focus on time together and time with God, which is so valuable to us as a busy family.”
Covenant Pines Off Site
With the relaunch of the Next Steps Campaign, a lot of the focus of Covenant Pines Off Site has been on fundraising. In the past few months, it has been very encouraging to see donors take a next step by giving generously to build a new worship center at CPBC. Not only that, but we know these gifts will allow us to continue to encourage campers to take their next step in Christian faith for years to come!
On Sunday July 3rd, Covenant Pines Bible Camp hosted a Summer Staff Reunion for all former summer staff members. It was a joy to worship, share stories and enjoy being at camp together! We had roughly 50 staff members spanning over 60 years of summer staff! It was a great day of fellowship and connection.
Though the weather was rainy, it did not damper the camp spirit of these former staff members. Former staff enjoyed a chapel service, complete with a message from former staff member Dave Nesburg, which immediately kicked off the walk down memory lane. The smell of the chapel, the walk up to the craft hall, eating burgers outside – these moments instantly bring back the best memories and reminders of years at camp together. Seeing the current summer staff do dishes, lead worship and engage with campers filled these former staffers with a sense of pride and nostalgia – it is so fun to see the “torch passed on.” Families enjoyed participating in all the camp activities, but truly the highlight was all of these staff members being together at a place that has had such a spiritual impact on them. People lingered in conversation around camp reflecting back on the years spent together at this special place.
While staffers were there, they had the opportunity to hear about the plans for the New Worship Center. Former staff were able to do a Q & A with Executive Director, Dave Cairns, while also walking around the site of where the New Worship Center will be. Click here to learn more about this project!
We had summer staffers present from 1960-2019. The generational impact of Covenant Pines Bible Camp is amazing and continues to live on. If you missed the reunion, don’t worry! We will plan to invite all former staff to the dedication of the New Worship Center and hope to do more staff alumni events in the future.
Below are some photos of the summer staff that were at the reunion. What a great day!
Photo 1: All Summer Staff and families in attendance
Photo 2: Summer Staff from 2010s and 2020s
Photo 3: Summer Staff from 1990s and 2000s
Photo 4: Summer Staff From 1960s, 1970s and 1980s
The Big and Small of Adventurous Christians
Camp is a sacred place – a place that has been set apart by God for spiritual growth and nourishment. Many people feel a wash of calm and security when they first step foot onto camp grounds. All around camp though, there are little spaces that have become sacred to people. Spaces that have had profound spiritual impact, where people have encountered God and made next steps in their Christian faith. Today we will be highlighting why Adventurous Christians in and of itself, is a sacred space.
Lauren Berens, who was a trail guide at AC in 2011 had no previous connection to camp. The impact, however, that AC had on her spiritual life was significant. She says her summer at AC was truly the most impactful and formational experience she had in her life up to that point.
Throughout her time at Adventurous Christians, she lists a few spaces that felt especially sacred to her which include “trail leading back to boreal, the rocker next to the fireplace, the trail room and the dock to name a few, but a sacred space is a space in which we encounter God’s presence and I have felt and relied on God in every space at AC.” She goes on to reflect on these big and small space at Adventurous Christians to say, “When I think of AC I think of wilderness, open air, big water and hard work, but I also think of the smallest things – my favorite mug, the wooden rocker, specific trees on the trail back to boreal, which screen doors slam, I could go on with these details forever.”. These memories are so deeply ingrained in Lauren’s mind because AC is a place where you get to slow down enough to notice God, listen for Him and let Him change you. Whether it’s packing out, doing dishes, splitting wood or time on trail, God uses AC to reveal Himself in incredible ways.
While reflecting on the summer spent at AC, Lauren goes on to share, “During my summer guiding at AC I was challenged in ways I had never been before. I experienced the greatest fear and humility I had ever felt in my life up to that point and, for the first time in my life, found myself relying solely on God. I also experienced the purest and most powerful provision and joy and my faith grew in ways it never would have without that experience.” For those of who have been on trail at AC know this feeling intimately. The dependence on God is so powerful – and these moments, and places become sacred memories ingrained into the spiritual formation of our lives.
This is the impact of Adventurous Christians – the big moments on trail when we are faced with challenges and humility, but also the small, slow moments on a rocking chair in the lodge or the deep breath in the trail room. Both of these things exist within each other at AC, making the experiences significant and so meaningful. The strength and the reliance but also the serene and slow…these are the reasons we love AC.
We are thankful for the place of camp that God has set aside for these moments, and the spaces within it that allow people to experience Christ fully. If you have a sacred space story to share at Covenant Pines Bible Camp, Adventurous Christians or Silver Beach Family Camp, we would love to hear from you! You can email holly@covenantpines.org to share and learn more.
Read the first piece on Sacred Spaces here.
Each spring as the weather (supposedly) warms up, there is a sweep of anticipation around camp as we prepare for the summer. Not only with the excitement of having campers and canoe groups, but every summer our community expands as we welcome our summer staff. Our year round staff is joined by college students and young adults who commit their summer to serving our campers, families and canoe groups at both Covenant Pines Bible Camp and Adventurous Christians.
As you pray for our summer at camp, pray for our summer staff! These young adults join us and spend the summer at camp doing all sorts of things. When you think about spending a summer at camp, you might picture a summer full of big games and swimming in the lake, which is definitely part of it! But these summer staffers also spend the summer developing as leaders, being stretched physically, and having guiding spiritual conversations with our campers. Our summer staff are the ones carrying out our mission in the summer as they encourage campers to take their next step in Christian faith. Working at camp for the summer is fun, but it is also life changing.
One former staff member shares that, “Working on summer staff will stretch you and give you valuable new experiences – professionally, relationally and (especially) spiritually. You can’t ask for a more rewarding summer job.”
Staff are trained for their summer of ministry, but when the summer is over they head back to their schools, homes and local church contexts. These young people take what they have learned, the ways they’ve grown and their new leadership skills and apply them to their everyday lives. Some of them end up working in ministry like us, while some go on to be teachers, doctors, accountants and general contractors. What they experience at camp for the summer will stick with them in whatever their future holds.
Please be in prayer for these young people as they lead this summer. Pray that our full time staff would train and lead well, but that God would also be the one leading all summer long. Pray for wisdom, energy, and joy for our summer staff!
We are still looking to hire a cook for the summer. Our Kitchen Supervisor from last summer, Audri shares her thoughts below on what the experience is like and why you should consider applying for it!
Looking back on the time I have spent serving in the AC kitchen, it is difficult to pick one good memory or lesson to share. There are too many wonderful things I have learned through my time as Kitchen Supervisor. I won’t deny it; t here have been incredibly challenging parts to this position as well. However, it was only because of the challenges that I grew. My time spent in the kitchen, overall, has taught me some incredibly practical life skills, deepened my character and taught me what ownership means in a deeper way, and ultimately has led me closer to the Father in ways I never expected when I initially applied. It has been worth it in more than one way!
Since I started working in the kitchen, I have made leaps and bounds in my confidence in cooking skills! I mean, that should be the case, shouldn’t it? But no kidding, I have felt so blessed to have the experience of cooking for large groups. Not only has my ability to crank out meals and breads and desserts improved in quality, they’ve also increased in quantity….and speed. I was thinking about it the other day and realized that I never would have pictured myself in the position of providing meals for groups of twenty. Those groups later increased to groups of forty…then seventy…which would have seemed like an impossibility before this experience. It’s a good feeling to feel comfortable baking everything from scratch and to provide for many others in that way as well. It’s a skill I will continue to use for the rest of my life.
Second of all: my time in the kitchen has provided great opportunities for my own personal growth. There were many times last summer that I was a few minutes away from dinnertime, had tons of loose ends to tie down, it was 80 plus degrees outside with all ovens roaring, and the group that had just come off trail was hungrily waiting in anticipation. In those moments, I felt as if everything was relying on me and my “world” inside those four walls. Admittedly, I am a bit of a perfectionist, and so I tended to put too much pressure on myself. I had a hard time asking for help and whenever someone offered it I tended to deny my need for it. However, because this was my tendency long before I entered the kitchen, I all the more needed that stretch! Since coming to AC, I have learned to ask for help and accept it when a need and an offer for help arises. These stressing points taught me to become less self-reliant and more dependent on others, all the while teaching me all that I truly was capable of on my own with the help of organization and time-management. It was truly empowering.
Lastly, through my time cooking at AC, I learned to be sensitive to the Father’s Voice. Although a lot of hustle and bustle tends to hang around the kitchen, there were also times of quietness and aloneness with Him. I heard once that the difference between isolation and seclusion is that in the first, you are entirely self-dependent and alone. In the other, you are away from others but you are alone with God. I’d say that in any kind of job, one can either choose to isolate themselves from all other sources, or one can seclude themselves with God for a period of time and find refreshment in His presence. My time in the kitchen has definitely had its swings from one to the other. However, in the spaces of quiet and solitude, whenever I chose to hear it, His Voice was always incredibly present. Honestly, I have never experienced the power of His Voice in quite that way before! Together, we built new memories as He taught me the value of my own voice and heart-song. I wouldn’t trade that time with Him for a thing.
All the lessons I learned in the kitchen have followed me into the rest of my life since. I often think back on the many memories of new skills learned that now come as naturally as breathing, the stretching of owning my experience and letting others help me, and the tender whispers of God’s voice. These are only three of many reasons I am so glad I took the opportunity to cook at AC. The friendships made here have been some of the sweetest I have ever experienced have carried on since. I am so grateful that God led me to AC. I can’t wait to see who God has next for this position and all the ways He will grow and stretch you into the person He wants you to be, too. There is so much good in store!