The Adventurous Christians Fundraising Banquet has been canceled for 2020. After considering all of the regulations regarding large group gatherings and  COVID-19 as well as church openings we’ve decided it would be best to put the banquet on pause for this year. It also gives us a natural time to reevaluate this event and our fundraising practices for Adventurous Christians. We look forward to providing engaging fundraising opportunities in 2021! In the meantime, if you are interested in donating to Adventurous Christians, the best way to do so will be to donate to our Seeing the Big Picture Campaign. This fundraising effort will aim to cover expenses and lost revenue from COVID-19 for all of Covenant Pines Ministries. To donate to this campaign, visit here.

It would be an understatement to say that 2020 has been a unique year.  It seems like forever ago that Covenant Pines Bible Camp made the difficult decision to cancel our summer youth camps. Although we continue to mourn the fact that we were unable to welcome hundreds of kids to camp this summer, we rejoice in the impact that our summer getaways have had. It has been wonderful to welcome first time families to camp and watch them find rest and joy in the midst of a difficult year. It has been equally as wonderful to watch summer youth campers invite their families to experience camp for the first time and invite them into a place that has had a significant impact on their own lives. It is as if the roles are reversed and the kids are inviting their parents into an experience that has shaped and formed them and now they are so excited to share it with them. I have enjoyed walking our grounds on a quiet evening and watching families interact at their own personal campfires, just enjoying one another’s presence, or leading them on a sunset pontoon cruise around the lake to once again soak up the beauty of God’s creation. It has been encouraging to hear the testimonies of families who have experienced Christ at camp this summer, many have even decided to sign up for an additional week and do to the popularity we have decided to extend our summer getaway schedule so that more families could experience Christ here at camp.

Camp is different this summer, but our mission hasn’t changed, God hasn’t changed. The pace is slower, the dining hall is quieter, but the same God who has invited people into relationship with him is still here, inviting people to experience him in the beauty of a sunset, the quietness and still of a sunrise and even the kind listening ear of a family  or staff member. I will confess that as we looked at the prospect of not having youth camp this summer at Covenant Pines, I didn’t know what our summer would hold, but I have been wonderfully surprised. God has remained faithful, shame on me for thinking it would be any other way. In the midst of a global pandemic, God continues to invite people into communion with Him, he continues to use these sacred grounds for his purpose of drawing people to Himself and we are grateful to be a small part of it.

A while back, our Executive Director, Dave Cairns, met with Kevin Farmer. Kevin is the Head of Family Ministry at Hope Academy, a Christian school in Minneapolis. Dave called the meeting because he wanted to explore partnership opportunities with Hope. The conversation was very positive and both left with a desire to think of some good ways to work together.

Last year, Kevin approached the Covenant Pines leadership with an interesting idea. Hope Academy runs 4 weeks of summer school for all students in grades K-8. Their summer school only runs in the morning, but many parents have jobs and are unable to come pick up their kids when the school day is over. Kevin thought that Covenant Pines could help with this need. After a few conversations with Dave and Natalie the decision was made to run a Day Camp during one of the weeks of summer school.

We are very excited to partner with this amazing ministry. The mission of Hope Academy is to “foster hope in God within the inner-city neighborhoods of Minneapolis by providing youth with a remarkable, God-centered education.” Since our inception, Covenant Pines has existed to serve the youth of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. We are honored to come alongside the amazing work HA is doing in Minneapolis by bringing a little camp to the city.

God is good. We are so excited for what He has in store for the many groups going up to AC this summer. We have 40 groups scheduled to experience God and His creation in the BWCAW. That’s a 16 year high. Not only that, 35 of those groups were already booked in November. AC used to be referred to as hidden gem. Now it seems that the gem has been found and we are very thankful for that.

The majority of these groups are Covenant groups. These youth leaders work tirelessly all year for their students. They show up time and time again. It’s truly an honor to be a part of the ministry plan for their students. Covenant Pines Ministries is a ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church. We also have a Father Son trip and a Women’s trip from Covenant churches. It brings us a lot of joy to partner with our churches in such a unique way.

We will be hosting groups from the following Covenant Churches:

• Linwood Covenant Church (MN)
• First Covenant Church of St. Paul (MN)
• Maple Grove Covenant Church (MN)
• Bethlehem Covenant Church (MN)
• Bloomington Covenant Church (MN)
• Roseville Covenant Church (MN)
• Anoka Covenant Church (MN)
• City of Lakes (MN)
• Harbert Covenant Church (MI)
• Libertyville Covenant Church (IL)
• Northwest Covenant (IL)
• Batavia Covenant Church (IL)
• Hinsdale Covenant Church (IL)

In addition to those groups, the Northwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church is again utilizing AC for it’s Adventures in Leadership program.

But the Covenant Church is not the only denomination that’s coming to AC. This summer we are also hosting a few non-covenant churches from Wisconsin, North Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota. People are willing to travel from all over the Midwest to experience the unique ministry offered by AC. Join us in prayer for these groups. We pray for safety, deepened relationships, and life changing moments.

Tate Randall has been involved with Covenant Pines Ministries for many years. In 1997, he boarded the bus at Crosstown Covenant Church with his two brothers for his first trip to camp. Tate came back almost every summer and attended several Fall & Winter Retreats. In 2009, he joined the CPBC summer staff as counselor. For the next 6 summers he continued to serve in a variety of roles including Audio Visual Tech. In that role, he gained skills in photography, video production, and social media.

After graduating, Tate was hired to be on the CPBC Ministry Staff team and then was brought on as the CPBC Marketing Director the next year. In 2015 the role expanded to encompass all of Covenant Pines Ministries and Tate was eventually relocated to the Twin Cities. In his time with CPM Tate has: evolved the ministry’s branding, created new relationships with churches, developed our new website, taken thousands of photos, edited hours of video,  interviewed dozens of campers, put on the Egg Man costume a few times, and led an 80s-themed aerobics class for Women’s Retreat. Ultimately, Tate has helped us tell the story of God’s work through our camps.

Tate’s original calling was the classroom. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse with a degree in Social Studies Education. It was toward the end of his college career when he felt God calling him to camping ministry. After 10 summers and 6 retreat seasons, Tate felt a strong tug back to the classroom. He has accepted a position as a 7th & 8th Grade Social Studies Teacher at Hope Academy. We are very sad to see him go, but joyfully celebrate with him as he enters this next chapter.

Below are a few words from Tate about his time with Covenant Pines Ministries.

“I love that the mission of Covenant Pines is to ‘encourage campers to take a next step in Christian faith.’ When I reflect on my own journey with Christ and the steps I’ve taken in my faith, it’s kind of ridiculous how many of those steps have taken place at Covenant Pines. In 7th grade, I remember walking out of Chapel reflecting on the lyrics of the song ‘Sanctuary’ and deciding that I wanted those words to be true about my life. On summer staff, I felt an inexpressible freedom when a time of extended prayer compelled me to surrender parts of my life that were holding me back from all that God had for me. In 2014, I led the Day Camp program and God taught me that servant leadership is not the same as trying to do everything yourself. After the CPM camera drone flew away at AC and I couldn’t find it, God led me right to it after I finally remembered to pray…about 6 hours later. 

I fell in love with scripture at CPBC. I played guitar in front of people for the first time in Chapel. As a counselor, God taught me how to engage with young people and how to be patient with them too. In McGregor I cried about a hundred times and laughed about a hundred times more. It’s where I made life-long friends and it’s where I met my soon-to-be wife.

I would not be the man I am today without the impact of Covenant Pines. I have taken hundred of steps in my faith because of the people who give selflessly and because of the God who gives them the strength to do so. This is not goodbye, this is simply a page turn. I have enjoyed this chapter as a full-time staff member. I look forward to the next chapter as a volunteer, family-camper and whatever else God has in store. I also look forward to what God does through the next Marketing Director. May she or he fully embrace the good works that He has planned for them.”

-Tate Randall