Greetings from Covenant Pines Ministries! 2026 is off to a busy start at camp. Since the New Year, we’ve been hosting groups on site—churches, youth groups, women’s retreats, and  Trailblazers – all coming together to enjoy winter fun and meaningful time at camp. Alongside these retreats, our staff is hard at work preparing for the months ahead. There is much to look forward to in 2026.

Before we look too far into the new year, we want to pause and reflect on the close of 2025. As you’ll see elsewhere in this newsletter, we ended the year in a strong financial position, exceeding our year end goal by more than $75,000. This milestone was only possible because of the faithfulness and generosity of people like you.

Entering a new fiscal year with this kind of support is a true gift for a nonprofit organization. In 2025, we welcomed more than 8,000 campers to our sites. While we did not fully meet our summer camp registration goals and experienced some unexpected costs associated with operating the new Worship Center year-round, the strength of our year-end campaign provides both relief and flexibility as we plan for 2026.

We are deeply grateful for your continued partnership. The theme of our 2025 year-end campaign, Camp Tells a Story, highlighted the vital role camp plays in the unfolding story of a person’s life. Because of your generosity, that story continues – one where campers are encouraged to take a next step in Christian faith.

So what’s ahead in 2026? A strong and dedicated summer staff at Covenant Pines, a full season of Canoe Trips at Adventurous Christians, and exciting plans across all our sites as we prepare for the future.

Thank you again for your support – and here’s to a great year of ministry ahead. Let’s do this, 2026!

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. 

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.

After a summer full of ministry, we have transitioned into our retreat ministry here at Covenant Pines Bible Camp. This summer was the first time we experienced worship in our New Worship Center. It was, of course, an adjustment – but it was amazing to see the Spirit of God so present in campers as they worshipped and had fun in this new space. Campers continued to take next Steps in Christian faith – it was a great introduction to what the future holds here for us at CPBC.

Now that retreat season has began, we have begun to see even more what the effect of the New Worship Center will be on our ministry. We have had a busy fall – hosting multiple midweek groups and large groups on weekends. The busyness is tiring, but the impact of ministry is worth it. Here are just a few examples of ways the new Worship Center has made a difference in our retreat groups this fall:

• We hosted the Minnehaha Academy Middle School Retreat which included almost 250 people. They were able to comfortably worship together in the Worship Center altogether.
• Emmanuel Covenant Church was able to open their Middle School Retreat to other Twin Cities Covenant Churches, allowing for more participation across youth groups of our owner churches.
• CPBC was able to host 160 Christian Camping Leaders from across the state to gather for worship and lunch at the beginning of October.

A year ago, we would have had to make major adjustments to accommodate groups like this. While raising money for the Next Steps Campaign, one of our goals shared for the New Worship Center was to increase our retreat ministry. Even in the short time we have been able to utilize this building, we’ve been able to begin to accomplish this goal. It is just a glimpse of what we hope is a flourishing retreat ministry for years to come.

One faculty member from Minnehaha, who is a former staff and board member, shared,

“Covenant Pines has an amazing new Worship Center but I was worried the singing wouldn’t feel the same. Nope…still impactful. I love CPBC.”

We are looking forward to continuing through our retreat season, and many more retreat seasons like this in the future. It is truly remarkable to see the plans and hopes of this space come to fruition, both in summer and retreat season. We can’t wait to see what God has in store next for us…including this weekend with 150 Senior Highers at our MEA Retreat!

Now that the Worship Center building project is complete, we are filled with excitement about the future of Covenant Pines Bible Camp. We have already felt the Spirit move and witnessed campers take next steps in their Christian faith in the few weeks we’ve been using the Worship Center. We are hopeful that the impact and legacy of this new space will continue for years and years to come! As we plan for the future, we invite you to as well, by considering including Covenant Pines in your estate plan.

Planning for your legacy is important. We are committed to establishing trust and transparency with donors so you know what camp’s intentions are with these gifts. If you are considering including Covenant Pines Ministries in your estate plans, know that estate gifts to Covenant Pines go directly to funds that will help with the longevity of our ministry.

Covenant Pines Ministries has two endowments – one Scholarship endowment and one Maintenance endowment. These two funds help build the future of CPM by continuing to support camper attendance and upgrade facilities to meet camper needs. We put 10% of every unrestricted estate gift into the Scholarship endowment, along with 20% into the Maintenance endowment. The remainder of the estate gift will be put into a board restricted fund to plan for the future. Estate gifts are a beautiful reminder to us at Covenant Pines of all the people that went before us and were impacted by this ministry. It is an honor to be able to use these gifts specifically to help us live our mission for years to come.

If you are interested in including Covenant Pines Ministries in your estate plan, talk to your personal financial advisor. If you’d like to get started, we recommend reaching out to Steve Allison at Covenant Trust Company. Click here to get in touch with Steve.