To those coming to January Winter Camp

Hello Friends!!
I am so excited for camp TOMORROW!! I have a little bit of information for you:

1. Drop off is 7pm Friday, pick up is 2pm on Sunday. Please remember that the normal driveway is closed because of our construction site so you have to enter off the bottom road down by Shelley's house and the beachfront. Please feel free to be in touch if you need more info on that!

2. We will be outside playing in the cold this weekend!! There is potential to get wet SO please be sure you bring a change of clothes and WARM WINTER CLOTHING!!! I hate to tell you but you are indeed human and as are prone to frostbite and cold weather exposure!!

3. We have an opportunity to help a member of our CLTD family this weekend who has been struggling financially. We will be collecting money on Friday to purchase grocery cards to help out. Please mention this to your families and if you are able and feel called to help out one of our own please bring funds on Friday. We can accept cash or cheques (made out to Camp Chestermere).

Stuff to bring to camp: Bedding, towel, extra clothing, WARM CLOTHING (ie Winter jacket!!), toiletries, towel, notebook, pen and Bible, money for Pumba's, work ethic, sense of humor, desire to learn and grow!

As always, please feel free to be in touch if you have any questions!!

Blessings all!!

- shelley

Happy Monday! 
I do believe it is a snow day for many of you - at least in Chestermere!! The Trans-Canada highway was closed for awhile there (trust me - I was stranded in the city on Saturday night!). The drifting snow was too much to contend with. The joy of living in Alberta! Really, we have become wimps though. We live in heated houses (most of the time! I keep losing my heat) and drive in heated cars and busses. We have warm brand name winter clothing to guard us against the cold and go about life largely unconcerned with the cold - not a lot changes because it is winter besides out hobbies and outdoor activities. We have actually made winter into a tourist destination with our skiing and winter activities. I suggest we are wimps because we whine about the cold but do we really know cold? Even in the past few years winters have been tamer than they were even 10 years ago. Consider what it was when the first settlers came and planted themselves here: no running water, no indoor plumbing, no heat source besides a fire, no big houses, no parkas or Sorel® boots to protect their bodies from the cold! Heaven forbid - no pizza delivery or even a Safeway® for convenience!! 


Okay, enough about the cold! On to some God talk!!


I was reading from Galatians this morning and decided it was worth sharing. Today's reading comes from the Message (which is considered a paraphrased version of the Bible. A guy named Eugene Peterson took the Greek and Hebrew Bible and translated it into the language we most commonly use today).
The book of Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul (who has a really cool story! He started as someone sent out to kill Christ followers because they 'were trying to destroy God' [at least that's how the Pharisees saw it] and God struck him blind [for awhile] and showed him a better path, so to speak! Paul was one of the forefathers of the Christian church - he went around and told people about Christ and started churches all over the place. This guy walked distances you'd never dream!!). This book is a letter to one of the churches he founded and this is one of the chapters in that book (letter). The italics are my thoughts to you.


Galatians 6
Live creatively, friends. (I love that call!!) If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out. (We are all dirty, rotten sinners, are we not? Who are we to judge??) Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. (You know - 'Love your neighbor as yourself') If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

 ^4-5Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. (We need to look at ourselves and consider where we need to grow - "An unexamined life is not worth living" - Socrates)

 ⁶Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.

 ^7-8Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. (How can you fool someone who knows your thoughts before you even think them??) What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. (Luke 12:2-3 says, "The time is coming when everything that is covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be made known to all. Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!" (NLT) Even if you live one way on the surface, the 'secret' life will come into light. I have seen it happen over and over again!!) All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

 ^9-10So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued (tired) doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

 ^11-13Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision (A certain religious act that God called Abraham and his people to perform. It was a physical action that showed their dedication to the Lord) on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don't keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible! (The book of Acts shares a debate about whether people needed to become Jewish before they could become Christian. The prayerful decision was 'no'. Christianity is about a relationship with Christ, not religious acts. God's people became more concerned with the acts and forgot the relationship. That was what Jesus was fighting with the religious leaders of his day).

 ^14-16For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. (Paul is suggesting that if we accept a life following Christ we have been crucified as well. Christ was hung on the cross for all to see - crucifixion was meant to be humiliating and to put people on display. Living as Christ followers can make us stand out as different, which can be humiliating when you're a teenager but is a rather small price to play for what Christ did for us!!) Can't you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them! (Yay!!)

 ¹⁷Quite frankly, I don't want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.

 ¹⁸May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!

AMEN!! Now, Go live it!

Hello friends!!

Please forgive me for not updating this blog sooner. It is amazing how life can get away on you, isn’t it?

I hope you all had a great Christmas vacation and that going back to school has not been too terrible an experience!! I loved seeing many of you at the mall on New Year’s Day! I love that you all continue to get together support one another! Keep it up!

So, as we start a new year allow me to outline a few things for you:

CLTD Winter Weekends – the following are the remaining dates:

·      January 28-30

·      February 25-27

·      March 25-27

·      April 29 - May 1

inFuze – January 15^th. A one-day conference with keynote speaker Justin Bills (Eldon will also be teaching a break-out session!). All Mentorship participants and those over the age of 15 are welcome to attend this event. Please feel free to invite your friends! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=179276152083894&index=1

The 2011 CLTD brochure will be mailed out soon! (I just need to get the printed!) The following are the dates for this summer:

·      Apprenticeship – June 26 – July 15 (The first week is staff training!)

·      Mentorship – July 17 – 29

·      Sojourn – July 31 – August 12

·      Sojourn – August 14 – 26

Youth Volunteers – Last summer Camp Chestermere decided to start up a program called Youth Volunteers. Some of you may have participated in it! It is the idea of a work crew made up of those who have finished Sojourn who would like to return to camp to help out and learn more about the background work of camp. More information will be made available to you as it is organized. Something to think about!!

Alright, all! As usual, people feel free to be in touch! We leaders are here for you, praying for you and love the chance to get together with you if you wanna chat about life, any issues or just hang out!

Blessings all! I hope to see each of you this month!

- shelley