May - Mennonite Camping Association

Mennonite Camping Association
NATURAL LINKS
TRANSITIONS
CAMP UPDATES
Laurelville
Mennonite
Church Center, Mt. Pleasant,
PA.:
• THANKS Michael Yoder for
his years of service as Executive
Director • WELCOMES Jeanette Lahm as
Executive Director and • WELCOMES Janetta Hampton,
Business Administrator
• CONGRATULATES Katie Cline
in her promotion to Program
Director
Spruce Lake Retreat, Canadensis, PA, www.sprucelake.org
The planting of a tall spruce tree May 16th moved Spruce Lake’s Center Circle
upgrades further toward completion by Memorial Day Weekend. A hub for fellowship,
worship and fun family times, the Circle is receiving new paving, improved traffic flow,
effective nighttime lighting, new landscaping and fire ring. A donor has put forward a
$50,000 challenge to match every $1 given toward this project by Open House June
5th. (www.sprucelake.org/support/donate/circle-match).
CAMPING EFFECT
Laurelville invites you to their open house! Saturday, June 11th 1:00-4:00 p.m. Lots of
camp fun is being planned. Bring your swimsuit and come for the afternoon! The community is invited to Spruce Lake’s Open House Sunday, June 5, 2:00-6:00
p.m. rain or shine, with music, food and fun for everyone – and it’s free! This is an
opportunity to explore summer camps and accommodations, ride the zip line, register
for prizes and helicopter rides, and more! An R.S.V.P. is requested at www.sprucelake.
org
Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, Mt. Pleasant, PA, www.laurelville.org
Each week during April The
Gathering Place hosted a series of
blog posts by a variety of current
and former Mennonite camp
directors exploring “The Camping
Effect”. Why does attending a
Mennonite camp matter? How
does camp form young people
to grow in their faith and equip
them for leadership? Visit http://
thegatheringplace.us/blog/
to
catch up on all of the entries and
podcasts.
FACEBOOK
Join the conversation! “Like” us
on Facebook and be part of the
community online: “Mennonite
Camping Association - MCA”
group.
DEEP FAITH
‘Deep faith’
Online conversations of new Faith Formation Cohort result
in conference at AMBS this fall
By Beth Downey Sawatzky
Manitoba Correspondent
Canadian Mennonite, April 25, 2016
Once again the age-old wisdom is proved: Camping leads to all the best conversations.
Two years ago, Elsie Rempel, formerly of Mennonite Church Canada, met up with
Rachel Springer Gerber of MC USA and Shana Peachey Boshart of the Central Plains
Mennonite Conference at a Mennonite camping convention and got to talking. Rather
unexpectedly, their conversations germinated a big idea, and the Faith Formation
Cohort was founded.
Since the beginning, the team, which has now grown to include Andy Brubacher
Kaethler of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) , Elkhart, Ind., and others,
has been meeting regularly online to discuss common concerns in the realms of
church, daily discipleship, Christian education and faith formation, and how to address
them.
Come this fall, the first fruits of the Cohort’s passionate dreaming will be ripe for the
picking.
“Deep faith: Anabaptist faith formation for all ages” is a conference designed to
“promote deep faith by embracing faith formation as practical theology,” according
to the event’s Facebook page. The goal of the conference is to empower “pastors,
teachers and leaders in the church to develop and express a robust understanding of
life with Jesus,” whereby they can “embrace and nurture people of different ages and
stages, different races, ethnicities and cultures, different classes and different genders.”
“This group and event are a most inspiring example of how, with some initiate
and boundary-crossing friendships, we can work together across geographic and
organizational boundaries that often separate us,” Rempel says in an e-mail.
“Deep faith” will be hosted at AMBS from October 6 to 8. It will feature
roughly 30 workshops on a range of faith formation subjects, and keynote speaker will
include Canadian Brian Quan, John Roberto and Rachel Miller Jacobs.
MAY 2016
WWW.MENNONITECAMPING.ORG
Mennonite Camping Association
NATURAL LINKS
BLESSINGS TO ALL THOSE STARTING SUMMER ACTIVITIES!
MAY 2016
WWW.MENNONITECAMPING.ORG