Click the link to read the PDF version of September 29th On Mission Together.

Redberry Bible Camp – Summer 2021

We are so blessed by how God was at work at Redberry Bible Camp this summer.

Our theme for 2021 was “Above All Else”. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33 (NLT)

When we were allowed to run overnight camps on May 27th, we as a staff realized that this was an opportunity to exercise faith. I used Hebrews 11 as a devotional at the staff meeting when we started planning for overnight camps. We knew that we would really, really need to rely on God. We also knew that God owns this camp and that He is more concerned about its success than we are.

So, we thought about our theme verse and claimed the promise that God would give us everything we need – and He did. At the start of camps, we still needed male cabin leaders. God provided in incredible ways. We were able to see God at work all summer.

We were blessed we excellent speakers who clearly shared the Gospel message. Everyone had their own style – some used many props and object lessons, others simply shared from their hearts. The message of salvation was very clearly presented and 51 campers, that we know of, made commitments to Jesus. What excitement there was when cabin leaders shared how one or more campers in their cabins made a commitment to Jesus. We had 376 campers attend this summer. This is less than half as many campers as in 2019, when 86 campers made commitments to Jesus.

Family camp was well attended, with 14 families enjoying the event.

We were also blessed by several sets of grandparents who came to volunteer in maintenance and the kitchen.

We enjoyed health and safety all summer with no major injuries and good health for campers and staff. During the off season, we will be working on many projects around camp and planning ahead for what we pray will be a full camp season in 2022.

Ronald Thiessen

Camp Director

West Bank Bible Camp

This summer was something that I would not have expected one year ago. God has provided in so many ways this year. It was a busy summer of day camps and projects. There were three significant changes made this year to our
camps. In February the decision was made to offer a product we could guarantee to deliver no matter happened with restrictions. We offered transportation from Swift Current, had a dedicated chapel time, and made changes to our scheduling. We implemented two options for camps, 1- day camps and 5-day camps. In the end we had just over 700 spots sell. We were very excited about how well the summer went.

Part of the success of our summer was the amazing team that we had. They had an attitude to serve, and they loved on the kid’s day after day.

During the day camps, we also had two major projects happening. The first project was renovating the outside of the director’s house. We ripped all the siding and roof off then starting again from plywood. This was a project that we could not do alone so we reached out to MDS to help and oversee the project. They were amazing to work with. They also had hearts that wanted to serve and willingness to do the job the best they could. This was very encouraging. We were also able to replace all the windows and doors with the help from MDS. The second major project was moving a 30’x30’ cabin that was donated. As MDS was finishing up the director’s house in July, we starting to prep the grounds. This cabin is going to become the new cook’s cabin during the summer and in the winter, we are hoping that the spiritual leaders in our churches and community will be able to use it as a retreat centre. A place for them to just get away to rest and recharge.

As you can see there was a lot going on here this summer and it was great to see how God has provided and is taking care of the camp through this time of uncertainty.

Jeffery Penner

Executive Director