Hi Everyone!
Junior 4 is over and I can’t believe that the last full week of camp is done! Where did the summer go? It seems very quiet and slow around the camp today as most of the staff are gone and we’re just waiting for the 45 Stoney Extreme campers to arrive. A huge praise report is that we have had 86 campers that came to the Lord over the whole summer! Most of these are first time commitments.
Junior 4 went really well. Despite the smaller numbers, the campers still had just as much fun and God did some great things this week. We had a couple colder, rainy days but nothing that really affected the program. Anticipating the rain, Kaitlin Giddings (our program coordinator) planned the “Stoney Carnival” which included all the old time carnival games like bean bag toss, free throw, face painting, bowling, mini golf, and much more. The campers were given tickets for completing the games and then they could either turn them in for cabin points or to vote for a cabin leader to get pied in the face. Zakk Taylor was the lucky winner of a whipped cream pie!
Phil Houston, our speaker, did a great job. He used a lot of funny stories from his own life and illustrations to help connect what God has done for us to the camper’s lives. Despite concern that he sometimes spoke above the camper’s level, they all connected well with him and loved Phil as a speaker. We had 3 campers give their lives to the Lord this week!
I am currently uploading cabin pictures from this week on Facebook so if you want to see them, go the Stoney Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stoney-Lake-Bible-Camp/223713554325460. I will eventually get all the weeks’ cabin pics up so keep checking it out!
STONEY EXTREME:
Starting today in about 15 minutes, we begin a weekend college & career retreat. Pray for Michaelya Audette and Kaitlin Giddings as they lead this weekend and that it would be a refreshing time for those that attend. The cabin leading staff are now mostly campers this weekend if they chose to attend.
Our support staff for the weekend are:
Cooks: Rose Arbogast, Roberta Hardy
Maintenance: Brian Hardy
Our speaker this weekend is Joel Houston. This is Joel’s second time speaking at Stoney. Joel spoke at teen camp last summer and is a faculty member at Nipawin Bible College. He is here with his wife, Dani, and 2 children. Pray that God would use Joel to encourage, strengthen and even shake up the faith of the campers that attend this weekend.
CORN MAZE:
The corn is growing!!!! Once again, Stoney has planted and designed a corn maze. We are planning 2 family days on Sundays September 11 and 18. Keep watching our facebook page and the website for more details as well as posters that will be sent to churches soon. If your youth group or other groups would like to book a time to come use the corn maze, contact the camp. Check out facebook soon for our “commercial” advertising the corn maze. A few of the campers this week helped as actresses to show off the maze!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
Pray for the cabin leaders that will be leaving to go get ready for school. Pray they will be rested up and ready to go.
Pray for the campers who made commitments this summer, whether that is for the first time or a desire to make their faith real and lasting when they go home. Pray that God would bring people in their lives to help them continue to grow and that they would have opportunities to get to a church/kids club/youth group.
Pray for those campers whose hearts were still hard towards the Gospel message while they were here. Pray that God would bring other people in their lives to water the seeds that were planted here at Stoney and that they would remember what they heard and learned and turn to Jesus.
STAFF HIGHLIGHTS:
I thought I would include a few highlights from the staff from this summer. This post is a bit long because there were a few good memories to share:
A work crew camper came to the Lord not by persuasion or keen words but by the pure revelation of God. As Kolten and the camper were doing a slop/garbage run, Kolten asked the question of whether he wanted to come to Christ. The camper responded “Can we do it somewhere else? It smells here!” When then moved to a different spot Kolten asked “Do you want to ask Jesus into your life?” The camper yelled “Jesus come ino my life. I know I am a sinner, I want to feel your love!” He was pumped! They jumped on the gater and drove through the mud. The camper responded, “I’ve never been baptized like this!” It was a beautiful and dirty the day Jesus won this heart! (Kolten Zenner, Work Crew session 3)
“Honestly, just those small moments in devos, chapel, or one-on-ones where things click. Where Jesus finally makes sense to the campers and they want Him as much as possible. Those are the highlights, those are the moments that make this job so rewarding.” (Andrea McEwen, Cabin 1)
“Junior 3 was one amazing week. Wednesday night was definitely the worst planned devo ever but it was the best devo I had. That night God really used me and 8 out of 9 campers accepted Christ. The joy in the cabin that night was amazing. Working at camp was amazing. I’m so glad I came and influenced so many lives.” (Zakk Taylor, Cabin 8)
“There was a girl in my cabin at Junior Hi 2 who had the cutest, funniest laugh ever. That week we had a pretty quiet cabin, but as soon as all the girls got in the cabin, they would immediately start laughing. Once this camper started laughing, everyone started laughing. We would have a solid 5 minutes of laughing at least once every day!” (Katelyn Behiel, LIT)
“My highlight isn’t one camper or one moment, but the entire week of Junior Hi 2. The girls in my cabin came in separate groups but all became best friends in pretty much the first day. This group was so outgoing and so interested in learning. They had questions for every one of our devos and you could tell they wanted to grow in their faith. I feel so blessed to have ad this group of girls in my cabin and so encouraged by their constant wonder for God.” (Alison Behiel, LIT)
“For the first time, I led someone to Christ. It was incredible to experience God through the camper, and to feel His presence in such a real and tangible way!” (Caitlyn Waterhouse, LIT)
If you ever have questions or would like to come out to help out or visit, give us a call. Check out our website: www.stoneycamp.ca.
Once again, THANK YOU so much for your willingness to pray for the camp.
In His service,
Myra Schmidt
Associate Director
Stoney Lake Bible Camp