It’s the most wonderful time of the year! As the holidays approach, we’ve compiled a few things that you could give as Christmas Gifts to the camp lover in your life. Maybe someone you love is heading up to AC for a canoe trip or Covenant Pines Bible Camp holds a special place in their heart – consider these gifts this year!

Covenant Pines Bible Camp:

  • Covenant Pines Chapel Print: This print of the handmade collage by Nathan Stromberg Art is the perfect gift for anyone who loves Covenant Pines. The chapel holds so many significant memories and moments, this print is a way for people to cherish those forever. Prints are $100 and $50 of it is a donation to our Next Steps Campaign.
  • A week of camp: Maybe you have a grandchild, niece or nephew or neighbor who you know would love to spend a week at Covenant Pines this summer – you can gift them a week of camp! If you are interested in this, email our Camp Office to figure out how we can make this a reality. Many of our churches partner with us to make camp a reality for all students, so speaking to them about this could also be a great idea!
  • Money in their camper wallet to buy something at the camp store: Allowing your camper to pick out a sweatshirt or blanket while they are at camp could be a great gift too! Read more about our camper wallet system here.
  • Scholarship Donation: Maybe you have that person in your life who has everything they want and need and asks for charitable donations for Christmas. Consider donating to our scholarship fund in their name! This allows for campers to experience Covenant Pines Bible Camp where we can encourage them to take a next step in their Christian faith.

Adventurous Christians:

  • Gear for their canoe trip: Do you have someone who is going on an Adventurous Christians Canoe Trip this summer? Consider taking care of a few items off of the Canoe Trip Packing List! Below are some suggestions of gifts!
  • FIKA Coffee Beans: We serve FIKA Coffee Beans at AC…a cup of this coffee of these will instantly put you in the coziness of the lodge at AC! You can order these online on their website!
  • Donation to Portage Partners: We are in the midst of our Fall Portage Partner Appeal! Consider donating to AC to improve our winter program equipment in honor of a loved one.

Silver Beach Family Camp:

  • A weekend away at Silver Beach this winter or spring: Could your in-laws or parents use a nice weekend getaway at Silver Beach? We have availability this winter and spring for our Lakeside and White Pine Cabins. If you are interested in gifting a stay at one of these cabins, email the Camp Office.
  • Memorial Gift: Memorial Gifts in honor of loved ones go towards the construction of a new cabin at Silver Beach!

Covenant Pines Off Site:

  • Golf Tournament Participation: Do you have golfers in your family? Consider gifting participation in our 2022 CPM Golf Tournament! This is a great day of golf and fellowship and nothing makes a great foursome like a family of golfers!

You can also give gifts to Pines Ministries by purchasing something off of our Wish List. We are wishing you so much joy this holiday season as we celebrate with our families and anticipate the arrival of our Savior!

 

Summer 2021 was one like no other. Each of our ministries had to adjust and pivot our approach to programming to stay as safe as possible. Executive Director, Dave Cairns shares some reflections on the summer as we look to fall ministry at CPM.

 

 

 

 

 

Grateful! As I reflect on the past summer of ministry, the word Grateful has been on the lips of many full-time staff members. We entered June with a sense of anticipation that was unique to any previous summer. It is typical that I experience the “first day of school” stomach flutters as the summer staff arrive. What was different this year was that there were fewer staff and they were younger than normal. Similar to the news reports on employee shortages, we also felt the crunch. Natalie Swanson, CPBC Program Director and Matt White, AC Camp Director did a phenomenal job of recruiting high school and college students to serve this summer. They were creative in structuring staffing configurations to ensure we would serve well and provide a God honoring experience. And the staff were excellent! They came together as ministry teams to love campers, support each other and be used by God. I am grateful for our 2021 summer staff.

Last winter, while we were still in the midst of uncertainty regarding summer of 2021, staff and board members worked to project what our summer attendance would be. In a normal year, our CPBC camp session attendance ranges from 150 to 200. With the information available at the time and with the knowledge that 2020 was zero attendance, we conservatively set out goals (and a budget) to serve 100 campers per week. We continued to revise this number and increased to 150 campers as the summer approached. In the end, we exceeded the initial number of campers projected with over 1100 youth campers at CPBC. It was also obvious that families and youth groups were looking for opportunities to explore the Boundary Waters. Adventurous Christians served a full summer of paddle groups composed of youth groups and families as well as neighborhood friends and adult groups. Campers arrived via cars, bus and van from Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan. I am grateful for the parents who entrusted their campers into our care for a week.

The only ministry center in 2020 that remained full was Silver Beach Family Camp. The summer of 2021 was no different with nearly every week and every cabin being utilized. What joy it was to have two, three and four generations of families gather at Silver Beach. Memories were made while tie-dying shirts, fishing with grandpas, swimming with cousins (and new friends), as well as conversations about God around the campfire. I am grateful for the legacy of God’s faithfulness expressed through families.

As I reflect on all that was the summer of 2021, I am grateful that God was present and campers took a Next Step in Christian Faith. As one camper shared, “I’m the best of who God made me when I’m at camp.” Even as we transition into our Fall ministry season, we look forward in anticipation of what God will do next Summer. We hope to see you at camp in 2022!

 

The mission at Covenant Pines Ministries is to encourage campers to take a next step in Christian faith. After a summer full of ministry, here are some highlights from each of our ministry centers where our mission is being met!

Covenant Pines Bible Camp: 

“While speaking at Covenant Pines during Trailblazer 2, I had one camper come up to me and tell me he accepted Jesus for the first time and it was an incredible feeling! He had talked with his counselor and was just so excited. You could see the joy of Christ just permeate through – I remember the same feeling – knowing the eternity of love and joy for the rest of your life and beyond. Not only was that moment so special, but I heard other conversations with campers saying they wanted to learn all the books of the Bible or talk to their neighbors about God.” – Danny Bjorlin, Trailblazer 2 Speaker.

Adventurous Christians: 

After a canoe trip with a youth group, a high schooler reflected on spiritual growth or change that occurred in your life this week – here was their response “I really had to focus on relying on God for strength and it allowed me to really understand how it’s easier to go through life with him.”

 

Silver Beach Family Camp:

This summer we had an infant baptism at Silver Beach Family Camp. What a beautiful step in the life of this family. We feel honored that this family chose to have their baby baptized at Covenant Pines!

 

Covenant Pines Off Site 

At this year’s golf tournament, one of our sponsors brought along his business partners to golf with him. At the end of the banquet, he came up to the staff and mentioned that one golfer wasn’t a Christian, and this was his first exposure to God, camp, etc. He was eager to learn more about Covenant Pines and getting campers to camp through scholarships!

 

Adventurous Christians hosts and guides groups through the Boundary Waters every summer. Often times, these are youth groups, groups of friends or families looking for a challenging, but rewarding experience in the wilderness. However, AC also has a long history of providing leadership specific experiences for teenagers and young adults. So what is it about the wilderness that inspires leadership and transformation in an individual? After wrapping up two specific leadership canoe trips in June, here are some of our thoughts.

Jon Kramka, Director of Congregational Vitality for the Northwest Conference heads up the Adventures in Leadership trip through the Northwest Conference, where youth pastors nominate students to go on this trip. David Hoffner, Executive Director of Faith Formation at Minnehaha Academy, brought a group of students who just finished up their first year in the Minnehaha Leadership Fellows Program up to AC for the first time for a Minnehaha Academy Leadership Adventure. Here are both of their thoughts on their experiences.

 

What is the purpose of your trip? 

Kramka: Adventures in Leadership (AIL) is a leadership camp for high school students facilitated by the Northwest Conference to develop and strengthen their leadership skills. The purpose of this event is to provide student leaders with a Biblical foundation and leadership framework that challenges and enables them to discover an effective lifestyle of Christian leadership, unique to their own abilities and giftedness.

 

Hoffner:MALA is a capstone experience to engage in hard work and build trust with your peers, while going into the wilderness – a formative place! It’s the perfect bridge between year one which focuses on knowledge of God, and year two which focuses on knowledge of self.

 

What is the value in holding this trip at Adventurous Christians? 

Kramka: AIL has been a historic partnership between the NWC and AC that leverages the relational capitol & established constituency of the NWC with the leadership  and expertise of both organizations and the profound contextual learning laboratory of the BWCA.

So what is it about the wilderness that uniquely stages the potential transformation of a person? This space that is primarily uninhabited, uncontrollable, unpredictable, desolate, wild, removed from the “normal”, and yet remains under the steady care and presence of God.

 

How will this trip impact these student leaders in the future?: 

Hoffner: The first ever MALA experience was a huge success in forming whole and holy servant leaders. The students gained deep experiential insights into the practice of leadership, who Jesus is, and going deeper as a community. The lessons learned by our students will be cherished for their lifetimes, and I’m excited to see the ways that the Lord will use this experience for his glory and the good of others. We’re grateful for the partnership of the NWC and AC in making this possible.

 

Trip Highlights: 

AIL: 

“I spent a little over a week learning who I am, who I can be, and who God wants me to be. Then I was challenged in all of this by being thrown into the wilderness, and it was a perfect way for me to try out everything I had learned and find out actually what it is to lead.” – Lydia

MALA: 

“No students complained! The leaders at both MA and AC were astounded by this, especially because they had rough weather for the first two days! Cheerful endurance through challenge.” – David Hoffner 

Final Thoughts: 

Matt White, Camp Director at AC believes that the social, physical and mental adversity of a canoe trip truly proves to ourselves who we actually are. While in the wilderness, you figure out how you respond to things when things aren’t perfect. In doing so, you gain confidence in your ability to solve problems and also feel a sense of belonging to contributing to the needs of the group as a whole. A week on trail is hard – and how you respond to those challenges shows you a lot about who you are.

 

We are so proud of the students that participate in these trips.

After having to cancel much of our traditional programming in summer 2020, we are excited to finally welcome campers back to Covenant Pines Bible Camp and Adventurous Christians! We are looking forward to having some fresh updates around our properties for our campers to help enhance their experience. Below is a list of things we are working on around AC, CPBC and Silver Beach as we prepare for campers this summer! 

Adventurous Christians

  • New Wood Benches for the Outdoor Chapel
  • Completing our new office and sauna building (see photo!) after the fire in summer 2019.
  • Getting ready for trail by packing trail food and preparing equipment, which includes our new lifejackets and paddles thanks to our Portage Partners! 

Covenant Pines Bible Camp 

  • Ampitheater Upgrades for our Outdoor Worship Space – including lighting and additional seating.
  • Cabin 19 Renovation
  • Outdoor Health Center
  • Regrading and improving roads around camp

Silver Beach Family Camp

  • We’ve added a new fire pit by Cabin 3! (See photo). It’s a beautiful space we know families will enjoy this summer.

We can’t wait to serve our campers this summer and for them to experience these new improvements and additions at camp!

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