Each year the staff wives at camp have the opportunity to head up one if the ladies’ events.  This year I had the opportunity to coordinate Ladies’ Retreat.  Our theme was Savor Every Moment.  The entire weekend was based on the idea that God gives us all kinds of circumstances in our lives. Good and bad. And we should learn to trust Him and thank Him for all circumstances. Not just the ones that make us comfortable.  The speaker ( Ann Sullivan) was wonderful.  The ladies were really able to connect with her and appreciated her transparency.  It was encouraging to read on many of the evaluations that her speaking allowed the ladies to open up more with each other and their groups were strengthened because of it.  Through out the weekend we offered a variet of activities geared towards ladies including an evening banquet with a special men’s quartet “seranade”.  It was such a wonderful opportunity to be more closely involved with the ministry than I am usually able to be.  I truly enjoyed my weekend, and continue to pray that the effects of it will be far reaching, and God will continue to use it in the lives of the ladies who attended to strengthen their walk with Him.

This is the Ladies’ Retreat Committee.  Jenn Scott, Joan Points, Ann Sullivan (speaker), and myself

On Friday night before youth camp starts, all the staff of Camp Forest Springs, go over to the Angelo’s house for a barbeque, staff introductions and a time of worship up in the barn.  Tonight was the official kick off that staff training is completed, counselors are ready for campers to arrive and youth camps are officially ready to begin.  This Sunday will be the first youth camp of 2009 with nearly two hundred 8 through 10 year olds coming to camp for the week. 

The social each year is a lot of fun and relaxing for a lot of our staff. It is also a great time to be able to connect with summer staff and meet new staff that will be here for a couple weeks for some and the whole summer for others.  It is always great food and the Summer Staff Counselors always do a lot of hard work getting ready for it. 

Look at all them dogs and brat’s

Hudson hanging out with his favorite girl Sarah

June 14th 2008 marked the 6th Annual Golf Classic for Camp Forest Springs.  This years classic was held at Lake Arrowhead in Nekoosa, Wisconsin.  We had been at Sentry World in Stevens Point for the last three years but decided we needed a new venue.  The weather was beautiful despite all the rain we had been getting the week before and with 30 golfers on the course we had a great day.  We only had one casualty of someone who wasn’t able to make it because of bad roads.  From Madison Wisconsin and South/South West a lot of high ways and roads were closed due to all the flooding. 

Matt was able to golf all 18 holes this year and had a great day with the Executive Director of CFS Pat Petkau(second from left), Missionary Staff Candidate Larry Hoffert (third from left) and Ryan Angelo (son of the President of CFS Dick Angelo and first from right). 

Lots of lessons learned on the course and lots of fun. 
7 staff members from camp were able to golf this year which always makes the day a lot more fun. 

Jenn Scott was the one to add excitement to the day.  I think she just told Will that she was going to beat his pant off that day but I am not sure.

Last weekend was the 50th Anniversary Open House at camp. From 1-5pm camp was open to the public. Program areas were open for people to enjoy. There were hay ride tours, train rides for the kiddies, and burgers and hot dogs with chips and a drink for sale. (not to mention the free popcorn). The stores were open, and a registration table was set up for Youth Camps. To round out the festivities Matt Hoffland did live music on the patio for people to enjoy while they meandered. Unfortunately the weather was less than ideal and the turnout was not a good as expected. It was cold and windy and rainy for the first half of the day. And while we were planning for 500, a little less than 200 showed. But we know that God had those people come who He wanted there. And we will never know what impact it may have had on one life for eternity, which makes all the work worth it. This next weekend the festivities will be repeated for the official 50th Celebration. We’ll update you on that after it has occurred, and hopefully we will have lots of good pictures to share.
On a personal side, we really enjoyed the day. Simon had a “monkey on his back” all day, which helped me keep a handle on him. We walked up to the mini-farm and enjoyed the animals. Simon loved having the goat nibble on his fingers, and begged to go in by the turkey. I didn’t think that was such a good idea, so I distracted him with the cow. Simon will be sure to tell you that a cow says “mooooooo”. Then we returned to Main Street Cafe for some refreshments.

Many people outside of camp have not heard that Matt’s responsibilities are changing.  He will still be involved with the Gift-In-Kind element of Development but has already begun to take on new responsibilities in the area of Program and Stores Management.  A few weeks ago, he was approached by camp to take the lead role in overseeing the family oriented retreats and summer family camps.  It means working with the whole program team on setting a theme and a corresponding program (or overall purpose of what that summers activities will be in relationship to what the summers theme is going to be).  It also means he will be involved in the oversight of specialty weekends like Father/Son and Couples retreats in the fall, overseeing the spring ladies retreats and winter family camp. 

A secondary responsibility will be giving the general oversight and management to the three camp stores, Main Street Cafe, General Store and Coffee Shop.  These responsibilites will include overseeing budgets, inventories, training, sales and anything else that fits into the existing mold of stores responsibilities.

Combining these two new responsibilities with his work on the 50th Anniverary (this year) and still maintaining the normal work load of making trips to pick up donations will keep him busier than he has probably ever been.  He’s excited about the challenge and has already begun the task of bringing all these things together to make them work.