You’re Invited!! to

Widji Snow Camp 2015

January 30 to February 1

Widjiitiwin Snow Camp is the winter retreat for Widji staff, SALTers, Sizzle & Blast campers and their friends. We have rooms and meals booked at MBC. We’ll head down to Widji on Saturday afternoon for some outdoor activities and a fire in the Longhouse including Widjiitiwin Basketball in the snow. Other activities will include tubing, chapel, games, campfire, hang out with staff and friends plus as much more as we can fit into one weekend.

To book complete this application form: Widji_Snow_Camp_Application_Health_Form_2015 & mail it back to Camp Widjiitiwin, Box 10020, Huntsville, ON P1H 2K1 OR fax it to 705-789-6668 OR scan & email it to  mike@mycamp.ca. What to Bring to Widji Snow Camp.

Cost: $111.87 ($99 + HST) if you register before December 31^st or $123.17 ($109.00 + HST) if you register on January 1^st or later

Weekend Schedule:
FRIDAY
8:00 pm. Registration Opens
9:00 p.m. Session one
10:30 p.m. Snack, hang out with friends & staff, tubing

SATURDAY
8:30 a.m. Breakfast
9:15 a.m. Group Prayer
9:30 a.m. Session two
11:00 a.m. Free Time
12:00 a.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. Free Time & Games @ Widji
5:00 p.m. Supper
6:30 p.m. Game – Capture the Flag
8:00 p.m. Session Three
9:30 p.m. Snack, hang out with friends & staff, movie, tubing
SUNDAY
8:30 a.m. Breakfast
9:15 a.m. Group Prayer
9:30 a.m. Session Four
11:00 a.m. Pack up, final tubing time
12:00 noon Lunch
Have a safe trip home!
Check out at 1:30 p.m.

December 2, 2014

Today is Giving Tuesday. This year we’ve been raising funds for our sponsorship camps (Fresh Air Camp – Toronto, Escape Camp – Hamilton & Royal City Camp – Guelph). We brought 200 kids to Widjiitiwin who couldn’t get there in their own. Why not be a part of our team with a year end gift today? We still need a few thousand in donations to meet our year end target! you can donate at www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/muskoka-bible-foundation-mbc-muskoka-bible-centrecamp-widjiitiwin/

Want to know more about Giving Tuesday? In response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, today is set aside to consider how to give back. You are encouraged to support your favourite charities today! Please consider supporting Camp Widjiitiwin. More about Giving Tuesday in Canada at www.givingtuesday.ca.

Thank you very much for your financial partnership with Camp Widjiitiwin and the investment you have made in the lives of campers and staff. Relationships have always been at the heart of the success of Christian camping ministry and that is what most campers talk about when they get home – the friends they made. That, plus the FUN, games, food, campfires, activities and of course the Tuck Shop.

While I wasn’t looking for a new fundraising partnership, God has led us to start one with Church of the Ward in Guelph, a new church plant under FEB Central. Their pastor, Matt Naismith, is one of our Widjiitiwin camp pastors. Our new partnership week, The Royal City Camp was a wonderful success with 30 campers attending from the high needs neighbourhood of the Ward in Guelph. Campers came to Muskoka, heard about Jesus, had great meals and tried SO many new activities.

Our partnership with Toronto Police, 42 Division the Fresh Air Camp, in its seventh summer, reached the target of 115 campers, making it our largest week of 2014. Hard to believe we started with just 30 campers in 2008. A goal of the expanded campers is to show the kids that people from other neighbourhoods are good people too. We are hearing about change happening back in the community from the kids’ experiences at camp. We In addition to the 115 sponsored campers this week we had seven sponsored for our second SALT session. Six were from our Fresh Air camp and one from our Escape camp. It was amazing to see these young people get more into their faith. One of them became a Christian during SALT 2. Very exciting times!

Escape Camp, our partnership week with Hughson Street Church in Hamilton, in its third summer, reached 44 campers from inner-city Hamilton this summer. Not only do we offer them new experience outside of Hamilton, but the gospel is presented to each one and Hughson is in their neighbourhood for follow-up. We added several new activities for this week including rowing and water-skiing. What a good time was had by all.

When I started directing Camp Widjiitiwin in 2008, I recall annual donations being about $6,000 to $8,000. We have increased this amount every year since we started doing the partnership with Toronto Police in 2008 and expanding our ministry outreach. Last year our donations ask was for $99,000 and it was exceeded by the generous giving of individuals and foundations. This year our donations ask is $119,000. As God has led us into these partnerships He has generously provided the gifts to fulfill the ministry. While there is a ways to go, all things are possible with our God!

You can help send campers to Widji to experience life changing ministry. For every $425 in donations toward ministry programs, the full cost of non-ministry programs (meals, accommodations, recreation) for one camper will be contributed by MBC.

Our themes for 2015 are: Space Camp, Destination: Egypt, Cartoons & Comics and Pirates vs. Ninjas. I’m thinking about a 30 foot pyramid for Egypt week and turning the tower into a rocket ship for space camp. Anyone own a giant Sphinx or a pirate schooner?

We need you to stand with us so that Camp Widjiitiwin is a place where lives are changed in 2014 and for eternity. Won’t you join in making Camp Widjiitiwin the best place for campers to meet Jesus and grow in Him? Remember that all donations are tax deductible. Receipts will be mailed out in the new year. Donations can be made through the Muskoka Bible Foundation, making a note to designate to Camp Widjiitiwin.  Click here to donate now!

Thanks for all you can do to help!!

Mike (Moose) Greenfield
Director
Camp Widjiitiwin

www.widjiitiwin.ca
www.facebook.com/CampWidjiitiwin
@WidjiMoose
www.vimeo.com/campwidjiitiwin

Being ambassadors for Christ to children and youth

Widjiitiwin – the way camp was meant to be… relational, central, natural, reaching out to campers, a loving community focused on Christ. It’s like coming home, it’s my camp!

There are lots of reasons to work at Camp Widjiitiwin. Some of them are good and some are not so good.

Bob Kobielush, retired camp director of 38 years puts it this way, “Here are two amazing verses of Scripture from the Gospel of John. Jesus said, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:23)  We are Christ’s agents of forgiveness! Jesus also said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Jesus as the only Way, while considering His followers as critical to the process of knowing Him, caused me to embrace Christian camping. 

In this beautiful 24/7 outdoor setting, the Gospel is taught and caught. Here, campers and guests are surrounded by those who model what it is to be a Christian, both in word and deed. The environment becomes pregnant with spiritual birth, growth, and new discoveries. 

God uses people to carry out His plan, so your daily activities and encounters with people are critical. They are sacred acts. Today and every day we are God’s hands, feet, eyes, and personality to thousands who need to know Him. Redeemed flesh and blood is God’s preferred way of communicating the Gospel. Don’t pray for opportunities-seize the privileges we already have!”

Our Mission: Camp Widjiitiwin exists to be an ambassador for Christ to children and youth through compelling camp community experiences focused on demonstrating the gospel message through the Word of God, positive relationships and creative interactions. Because of this mission, the spiritual growth of our staff is central to how we structure every day at Widji.

• Pre-breakfast prayer with all Widjiitiwin staff
• Morning devotions with the camp pastor
• Personal and cabin-wide Bible studies & prayer times
• Leading or helping with cabin devotions
• One-on-one mentorship with chief cabin leaders
• Chapel services Sunday through Friday evenings
• A focus on God’s beautiful creation!

Top ten ways to KNOW that YOU belong at CAMP WIDJIITIWIN!!

1. You are a fun person and/or enjoy having fun in life.
2. You love God and want to help others love Him too.
3. You want to make a positive change in this world.
4. You are fearless.
5. You like people and making awesome friends.
6. Costumes and campfires make your life a better place.
7. You know what a figure-eight-follow-through is.
8. 80% of your clothing has “Widji” on it somewhere.
9. You’re “on the ball! Sing-a-long, sing-a-long, sing-a-long!”
10. Homesickness? Not a problem. Campsickness? Brutal!!

So, now you know you BELONG here. How do you GET here? Staff applications for #Widji15 are now open online!! Follow this link to start yours today – http://widjiitiwin.ca/work-widji/. Interviews will start in January. Who will have the first complete application submitted? Ready, set, GO!

Our associate pastor, Terry Dorey, started a message series about following Christ. He said, “to be a Christian you need to see Jesus’ uniqueness and be active in following Him.” This made a lot of sense to me and he had a a number of good points to back it up. The part that really got to me was the idea of the contrast between a traveler & a tourist and correspondingly the contrast between a disciple & a believer.

• Traveler: someone who travails, has a purpose in their travels
• Tourist: someone who goes around in circles, a consumer
• Disciple:someone who follow Christ and brings others to Christ
• Believer: someone who believes

Are we following hard after Christ? Following = change

#HowDoYouFollow @faithmuskoka

More from Mark Buchanan from his book, Your Church Is Too Safe: Why Following Christ Turns the World Upside-Down

Historian Daniel Boorstin documents a momentous shift that occurred in North America in the nineteenth century: we stopped calling people who went on trips travelers and started calling them tourists.

Traveler literally means “one who travails.” He labors, suffers, endures. A traveler—a travailer—gets impregnated with a new and strange reality, grows huge and awkward trying to carry it, and finally, in agony, births something new and beautiful. To get there, he immerses himself in a culture, learns the language and customs, lives with the locals, imitates the dress, eats what’s set before him. He takes risks, some enormous, and makes sacrifices, some extravagant. He has tight scrapes and narrow escapes. He is gone a long time. If ever he returns, he returns forever altered…

A tourist, not so. Tourist means, literally, “one who goes in circles.” He’s just taking an exotic detour home. He’s only passing through, sampling wares, acquiring souvenirs. He tastes more than eats what’s put before him. He retreats each night to what’s safe and familiar. He picks up a word here, a phrase there, but the language, and the world it’s embedded in, remains opaque and cryptic, and vaguely menacing. He spectates and consumes. He returns to where he’s come from with an album of photos, a few mementos, a cheap hat. He’s happy to be back. He declares there’s no place like home.

We’ve made a similar shift in the church. At some point we stopped calling Christians disciples and started calling them believers. A disciple is one who follows and imitates Jesus. She loses her life in order to find it. She steeps in the language and culture of Christ until his Word and his world reshape hers, redefine her, change inside out how she sees and thinks and dreams and, finally, lives…

A believer, not so. She holds certain beliefs, but how deep down these go depends on the weather or her mood. She can get defensive, sometimes bristlingly so, about her beliefs, but in her honest moments she wonders why they’ve made such scant difference…

You can’t be a disciple without being a believer. But—here’s the rub—you can be a believer and not a disciple. You can say all the right things, think all the right things, believe all the right things, do all the right things, and still not follow and imitate Jesus.

@dancathy: The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. G. K. Chesterton. Let’s be travelers with wide, opportunistic eyes.

The kingdom of God is made up of travailers, but our churches are largely populated with tourists. The kingdom is full of disciples, but our churches are filled with believers.

I get asked many times each year what I do in the off season. Most often I explain that I spend nine and a half months preparing for the blur of a summer at camp. I suppose people assume that what they see in the summer is all there is to camp ministry. Well, it’s not. This fall has lots of outdoor projects to finish up, plus I had 100 men for a retreat the first weekend of October. The meetings and planning for next year have already begun. There was clean up to do and discovering the stuff that wasn’t cleaned up by summer staff, evaluations, maintenance, finding all the supplies that went missing during the summer and more.

One camp director explained it like this, “It’s like planning a wedding. A wedding doesn’t happen over night either. Now try planning a nine week wedding… yeah there is a little prep to be done“.

Last fall in a Facebook group called, Summer Camp Professionals, Stephanie Ruby Compton posed the following question and got some great responses including a couple from me:

I was working on a blog post this afternoon and realized that there really are so many hats/jobs/skills that camp directors fill at work. Just a few that I brainstormed: boss, maker of fun, writer, accountant, garbage man, bathroom cleaner, cook, bus driver, social media guru, mom/dad, health care professional, photographer… What others can you think of?
• computer programmer / IT expert, story teller, psychologist, educator, HR, grounds keeper, student of the world
• copy writer, trainer, graphic designer, mentor, sales person, programmer, coach, janitor, security guard, advertiser, therapist, comedian, handyman, visionary, fundraiser, safety manager, team builder, inspector, disciplinarian, detective, storyteller, and mediator
• psychiatrist
• Barista, recovery diver, videographer
• Judge & Jury
• Teacher, Risk Assessment Advisor, Public Relations Coordinator, Banker, Referee, Construction Manager, Contractor
• Peacemaker
• Nurse, fill in counselor, fundraiser
• Head camper, grant writer, maintenance, cook, dishwasher, store manager,
• Mentor, friend, bad cop, night shift worker, mower, fundraiser, accountant, volunteer coordinator, alumni relations director, programmer, policy writer, scholar, social media guru, and ultimate source of awesomeness
• Zoo keeper/camp pet care provider
• Life coach, cheerleader, weather forecaster.
• Plumber
• Waste remover
• Hero
• Themeing guru, props builder, leadership developer, instructor of all things camp, risk manager, budget creator, chief purchasing officer, and people wonder what we do the rest of the year
• Grant Writer, Project Manager and Electrician

Not sure if that clears it up, but there you go. OH, and I do take a few weeks vacation and catch up on my sleep and hang out with my wife!

Moose

The Camp Widjiitiwin 2015 program themes are… Space Camp, Destination: Egypt, Cartoons & Comics and Pirates vs. Ninjas.

Space Camp: Not too long from now, at a camp not so far, far away… you arrive at Widji Mission Control for a week of space training camp. Step out of the cold vacuum of space and kick off your moonboots in Mission Control or float up to “Astronaut Supply Depot for some refreshments. While we haven’t yet worked out the weightlessness training we will have Widji basketball and that’s pretty close.

Destination: Egypt: Campers will travel back to the days of the Pharaohs to discover the wonders of Ancient Egypt. Create a pharaoh self-portrait, participate in the flooding of the “Nile” River, make a mummy competition and dig for artifacts. Travel the “desert” by “camel”, check out the 30′ pyramid and try our version of manna!

Cartoons & Comics: Who is your favourite cartoon or comic character? You could choose to come as anyone from Calvin (or Hobbes) to Garfield or Archie to Captain America and Scooby Do.

Pirates vs. Ninjas: Who will win this epic battle? Pirates are awesome! and tough! They have hooks for hands and cannons and swords and names like “One Eyed Sam” and “Peg Leg Pete.” According to folklore, Giggz is a pirate! …But then there are Ninjas. Ninjas don’t care if you think they are tough plus they have swords and nunchucks. Ninjas taught Chuck Norris how to fight. As legend has it, Tumnus is a ninja.

What week will you join us for next summer?

Band of Brothers @ Camp Widjiitiwin                                                                                                       October 2nd to 5th

The Band of Brothers Bootcamps are not an event about the seven things a man ought to do to be a nicer guy. It is a four-day quest into the recovery of a man’s masculine soul, the release of a mans heart – his passions, and his true nature – all of which has been given him by God. It’s an invitation to rush the fields at Bannockburn, to go West, to leap from the falls and save the beauty. For if a man is going to know who he truly is as a man, if he is going to find a life worth living, love a woman deeply, and not pass on his confusion to his children, he simply must get his heart back.

Based on John Eldredge’s book, Wild at Heart, the event is hosted in a setting of beauty and adventure, and includes teaching sessions, films, guided periods of reflection and journaling. We have designed something far more than an event – it’s an expedition of the heart. The men attending will never be the same.

The website to register is www.bootcampdetails.com and then click on the Toronto link to get registered!!

COST: $285 CDN
TWO WAYS TO REGISTER AND PAY:
1. Pay $285 in full now
2. Pay $185 deposit NOW and pay $100 balance at the door (cash only)
Deposit is non-refundable and non-transferable

YOU REGISTRATION FEE INCLUDES:

• meals and lodging
• free time activities
• all resources (bring a notepad)
• T-shirt

Retreat location: 80 Widjiitiwin Road, Huntsville, Ontario P1H 2K1

It’s the end of another season of camp at Widjiitiwin. This past Saturday was the end of Sizzle and there were tears and hugs when the campers went home. The staff cleaned up and we did our banquet and staff awards. On Sunday we had chapel and shared what God has taught is this summer, then the staff went home amongst many tears and hugs. It was a privilege to work with such a great team of summer staff.

This picture is what the Longhouse looks like today. Quiet. Peaceful. A little eerie at times. Quite probably too quiet. We’re not a quiet camp usually. Sounds I miss today.

1. The sound of “OOOOOHHHH” (with arms in a circle) at the beginning of a meal and campers cheering to go first for a meal are missed.
2. The sound of many campers excitedly talking all at once.
3. The sound of staff praying for campers at 7:00 a.m. each morning.
4. The sound of, “we’ve got some mmmmaaaaaiiiillll!”
5. The sound of, “a wise man/woman once said”.
6. The sound of, “Seconds”
7. The sound of one of our camp pastors preaching God’s Word
8. The sound of the chaos of Widjiitiwin basketball
9. And many more sounds…

Although camp is quiet there is much to do. Stuff like cleaning up, maintenance & inventory are not a lot of fun, but planning has started for next summer. More on that in another post.

Have a great year at school!

Moose

It’s through sponsorship that so many children are able to attend camp when they wouldn’t otherwise be able to take part in such a life-changing experience. Camp Widjiitiwin is impacting the world by introducing campers to the gospel for perhaps the first time. The Malvern, Hamilton and Guelph communities will be changed this year as campers return to their neighbourhoods changed by the work of Jesus Christ in their lives. We’re offering these specialized partnership weeks where our staff demonstrate a positive lifestyle and share their personal relationship with Christ with the campers.

We can’t do this without the support of our friends. We have a goal for 2014 to raise a total sponsorship of $113,000 to allow us to bring over 200 kids to Camp Widjiitiwin this summer.

It’s amazing the number of campers we teach to ride a bike, do archery, swim in the river, learn cooperation, climb up the rock wall, go canoeing and much more. Many get to see stars for the first time, experience a real forest, see deer as they play along our field, get three full meals a day, learn about Jesus, be loved and so much more.

Our partnership with Toronto Police 42 Division is going into its sixth summer, running July 20-26. Starting from 30 campers 2009, our 2014 the target is 110 campers, making it our largest week of the summer. We are hearing about change happening back in the community from the kids’ experiences at camp. We are now drawing from more neighbourhoods than Malvern, so we have changed the name to the Fresh Air Camp. A goal of the expanded campers is to show the kids that people from other neighbourhoods are good people too.

The partnership week with Toronto Police for youth at risk in the Malvern community and other neighborhoods within 42 Division will take place July 20-26, 2014. This is the program for which we are seeking funding. This will be the sixth year of the program and the target number of campers is 115, up from 107 in 2013, 87 in 2012, 63 in 2011, 47 in 2010 and 30 in 2009. The target age group is 11-14 years. This program is fully funded through donations, although the participants are asked to help pay for busing if they can afford it.

Escape Camp is our partnership week with Hughson Street Church in downtown Hamilton is entering its third summer, running August 17-23. Not only do we offer them new experience outside of Hamilton, but the gospel is presented to each one and Hughson is in their neighbourhood for follow-up.

God has led us to start a new partnership with Church of the Ward in Guelph, a church plant under FEB Central Ministries. Their pastor, Matt Naismith, is one of our Widjiitiwin camp pastors. We’re bringing 30 kids from that high needs neighbourhood. We’re calling it The Royal City Camp week. We will welcome them for week one, June 29-July 5.

Matthew 10:42 – And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” & Matthew 25:40 – ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Camp Widjiitiwin – the way camp was meant to be… relational, central, natural, reaching out, a loving community focused on Christ. It’s like coming home, it’s my camp!