Report from La Crete

Our busy week has arrived!! Our team of support staff arrived ahead of time. It started with Oliver and Amanda arriving in Calgary and traveling up together with Harold, Sandra and Crystal. Eddie and Maria and family arrived shortly after. That put the finishing touches on our long-term team.  We started out with setting up a tent and cleaning the camp – a lot of hard work!! We have been blessed by an incredibly generous community of volunteers. Each time we need something, it’s there. God is leading the way. His promise of ask and it shall be given is quite something to experience so readily and quickly. Peter, our local MDS board member, had made many arrangements and set up the camp trailers for us. Before we arrived, many volunteers from the La Crete area were busy bringing in logging camp trailers for sleeping, washroom and kitchen use.  Our cement pad (which serves as our meeting room and dining room) is covered with a huge canvas tent which kept us dry several days this week. 

Now a bit about La Crete – This is a rural Mennonite community which has tripled in population in the last ten years. For many years the population stayed at approx. 6,000 people. An influx of Mennonite families returning to Canada from Bolivia and Paraguay has changed all that. The terrain is forest; on our way up we had the adventure of crossing the “mighty” Peace River by ferry. One beautiful feature of this area is the gorgeous sky; the cloud formations and colors are amazing. We are blessed with very long days and short nights (darkness averages about four hours). Makes going to bed difficult.  

Our first week of 24 volunteers arrived Sunday morning just in time to join us for worship at the La Crete Evangelical Mennonite Church. Their arrival at the camp for lunch was a welcome relief from their three day journey out from Kalona, Iowa. This group comes to us from Fairview Mennonite church. Our week started off being a bit wet and cool; but the tide has turned and it’s sunshine all the way. We start our day by packing lunches and filling our tummies. After that it’s off to the challenge.

Our goal is to help Pine Lodge Bible Camp become more equipped as they glorify God. Our plan for this youth project is to complete seven new cabins, railings and deck screen roof for the Camp kitchen, and hiking trails. Some teams dug in foundations, some built floors, some built walls, some built railings for the Camp lodge, and some worked on clearing hiking trails. By the end of the week much has been accomplished. The railing and deck screen roof for the lodge were completed. Five cabins have walls and rafters framed, three have roof ply on, one has the metal roofing, two more cabins have floors completed, and much clearing had been completed on the trails and surrounding wooded area. 

The crews worked very hard and their trip up to the North West Territories on Thursday was a good break for them. Most of the long term team joined the Iowa group in their bus and enjoyed their day as well.

On Monday morning the Camp director came over and asked if we might have a person interested in being the counselor for the grade four’s. We asked the question and Amy volunteered to do it. She was really appreciated by the children and the camp staff - another way of serving and glorifying God.

Fellowship and worship happens wherever we go - we start our day with singing and devotions after breakfast and two evenings our volunteers were hosted by youth groups from Mennonite churches in La Crete. These sports and games followed by a devotional used up most of the youthful energy.

We have had many fun times; we have formed many friendships. Saying good-bye was sad as we watched the bus disappear into the woods. We are thankful for this precious group of young people who worked so hard to make a difference for the children of La Crete and area. May God’s blessings continue to follow them! Thank you Fairview Mennonite Church for sending your youth all the way up to La Crete, Alberta, Canada.

Blessings to all of you,

Sandra and Harold (for Oliver, Amanda, Crystal, Eddie, Maria, Reynaldo, James, Caroline, Michael, and Jolene)