Senior Girls Camp
“I would rather go on 5 GPs in a row than ever go to camp.”
I’ll be honest, when I first joined staff with Inter-Varsity, I prayed that I would never be sent to work at one of IV’s Pioneer Camps. I remember once boldly saying, “I would rather go on 5 GPs in a row than ever go to camp.” That changed this summer. I not only went and volunteered my time with one of IV’s summer camps, but chose to do so at the Rocky Mountain House site in Alberta at their Senior Girls Camp in July.
In addition to being a significant site for LIT, and Senior Boys and Girls camps; this camp is where MarkWEST is often hosted (a week-long scripture conference that is the Western field’s equivalent of City/Script). Many of my friends have worked and spent significant portions of their year at this camp, and I was struck by how familiar the site was based on their photos. I distinctly remember having feelings of having memories of a place at which I hadn’t spent time.
As a campus minister to University students, I was more than a little concerned that I would have difficulties working with girls aged 13-17. But, what ended up being the case was far from true! I was amazed that even in my support staff role at camp just how much time I got to interact and spend time with the campers.
My days were very full! I would start the day at 7:15 with a leaders meeting, then begin my day helping prepare and serve breakfast and lunch for the campers, then in the afternoon I would spend leading program blocks and following dinner I would help with technology needed for our evening program. In the midst of very busy days I got to have great points to connect and bond with fellow camp staff and campers.
Some of the highlights of my time at camp included:
- Reuniting with many of my friends who participated in the Global Partnership to Zambia in 2008, especially in their “home-turf” and getting to grow deeper in relationship with this common experience
- Working in the kitchen with an eclectic kitchen crew that consisted of men and women ranging from aged 14 to 77!
- Spending time with a group of welcoming, empowering, and affirming women of many generations!
I was inspired to go to camp after a conversation with my good friend Jenna, who impressed upon me the importance of the camp and campus connection, and instilled in me vision and excitement to be at camp. As an immigrant child of Asian descent, I’ve never experienced a “Canadian” sleepover camp, and so parts of camp were a little culture shocking for me, but I was struck by how many people kept checking in on me and making sure I was settling in well.
I didn’t expect to love camp as much as I did. By the second day, I already began brainstorming how I could come back next summer. I loved the staff, the campers, and the vision of camp, and really was excited to pursue further partnership between camp and campus ministry!
Summer Road Trip
6 Provinces, 2 States and 6 weeks of travel…all via Greyhound
6 weeks of this summer, I hit the road via Greyhound and travelled from Toronto to Sault Ste Marie, Winnipeg, Davidson, Elbow, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Coquitlam, Burnaby, Rocky Mountain House, Lethbridge, New York, Boston, and Ottawa; with a stop for 4 days in Toronto to move at the end of July. To say that I have had my fill of Greyhound travel would be an understatement!
As I look back on the adventures I’ve had and all the people I’ve spent time with, I am full of gratitude. In many ways, God showed me His abundant grace and redeeming love as I was homeless for 6 weeks. In His perfect timing, I was able to meet with friends, supporters and colleagues and be showered in their love and hospitality. New friendships were formed and deeper relationships developed.
I hope to add more highlight stories in upcoming posts, as I continue to marvel at the ways God spoke to me during these weeks and its continued impact even to this day.
Summer Visioning with students
“What followed was an explosion of creative ministry ideas…”
Following City/Script, my student leaders were excited to be begin visioning for the upcoming school year and explore creative ministries ideas.
During the last weekend of June, we debriefed the year and began to prayerfully make plans for the upcoming year. We studied the building of the tabernacle passage of Exodus 35, and asked God to show us how and where to use the gifts He had given us.
What followed was an explosion of creative ministry ideas, as we discovered using our passions as a way to engage in ministry.
- Jenna: running ministry, to offer a place to worship God while honouring and taking care of the bodies He has blessed us with!
- Elizabeth: movie ministry, to offer a place to use popular culture as a way to engage non-Christian friends in spiritual discussions!
- Bethany: Worship, to lead and serve the community in a ministry that has needed new vision and life for the past years!
- Lauren: Cooking Classes, to serve as places where her friends from her program could meet her friends from her faith community and discuss spiritual things while cooking!
God convicted us of the places where He wanted us to be more invitational to the people He was calling on campus. So we set forth to study a gospel to get people in Scripture and interacting and discovering the fullness of Jesus; and what His life and ministry mean and model for us. We chose to spend time this fall studying the Gospel of John in a manuscript study on Thursday evenings.
We also realized that as we engage in a lot of new forms of ministry, that we really needed to set aside time to pray with God, and see what He is inviting us into on campus.
As we took account for the ways our fellowship had not pursued students in the past, we began to brainstorm ways to reach new students. One of the ideas we had for orientation week and the first week of school was to provide a map for students of the campus and the surrounding areas, noting the places to eat, make copies and buy supplies and find entertainment. We would also point out on the map where our fellowship gathers and offer the map to students free of charge.
The Arch 