Covenant Pines Ministries has decided to reevaluate our fall schedule due to COVID-19 to make sure camp is as safe and healthy as possible for guests to attend. After a summer of ministry that looked very different, we have made a handful of changes to our calendar to reflect care for our churches and campers. These changes allow campers to be safe and healthy while at camp; while respecting churches reopening plans. We have made decisions for our fall calendar for the months of September and October, and will be deciding on November and December shortly. If you have questions about these changes, please feel free to email or call our Program Director, Natalie Swanson.
Fall Getaways
After such great success of our Summer Getaways, and with many churches cancelling their all church retreats this fall, we are pleased to offer Fall Getaways! These weekends will be programmed to a similar rhythm as our Summer Getaways – an opportunity to slow down and participate in as much or as little socially distant camp activity as you want. Sign up to attend a Fall Getaway here. We plan to offer three Fall Getaways the following weekends:
September 18-20
September 25-27
October 2-4
Women’s Retreat
We have rescheduled our Women’s Retreat from September 18-20, 2020 to March 19-21, 2020. Registration will open for this in late 2020.
Fall Youth Retreats:
This summer, we spent time discussing the best way to run a youth retreat this fall. We discussed many scenarios as a staff that included date changes, different capacities and youth group rotations. We invited our Twin Cities Youth Pastors into the conversation to help inform our decision. Our decisions for our Jr. High and Sr. High MEA Retreats, with the input from our Youth Pastors are listed below.
Jr. High MEA
Unfortunately, we have decided to cancel our Jr. High MEA Retreat this year. Given the dates this retreat falls on our calendar, and our COVID-19 cleaning procedures and turnaround time – this retreat does not seem feasible in 2020. This is of course, a disappointment for us and for our Jr. High campers – we will miss them tons! We will plan and host an awesome Jr. High Retreat as soon as we are able!
Sr. High MEA
We will offer a Senior High Fall Retreat October 16-18. We are shifting this retreat to be more a youth group centric experience – you will need to sign up and attend with your youth group. We will not provide transportation, and the programming will look different – a slower rhythm with no large group gatherings. We are hopeful this retreat gives students and leaders a well needed break to connect with God and with each other in the place they love dearly. If you want to attend this retreat, please talk with your youth pastor for more details. Please know that every church and ministry context is different. We have reached out to many of our youth pastors in the Twin Cities areas and found differing levels of comfortability with a retreat depending on what phase their church is in. Please respect your church and youth pastor’s decision regarding this retreat. Churches that have committed to attending this retreat as of now are: Bloomington Covenant, Excelsior Covenant and Plymouth Covenant. If your church isn’t listed and you are interested in attending, please talk to your church about what their plans are. When registration opens in early September, we will provide details and instructions to the Youth Pastors to pass on to students.
