In 2018, Steinbach Mennonite Brethren Church (SMBC) was given the rare opportunity to rent the Whiteshell Keswick Fellowship Camp on the shores of Star Lake for one week each summer. This agreement assumed an ongoing rental on an annual basis. The dreaming began for what this week could be for our congregation. Trevor Paton took on this leadership and began to envision running a kid’s camp. For two years, that is precisely what happened. Our congregation became cooks, dishwashers, cabin leaders, and activity coordinators for our kids. It was an impressive undertaking, requiring the help and input of many volunteers.
And then 2020 came, and while we maintained our rental, nothing happened on the campsite that year. The Star Lake planning team was determined to make something happen the following year, but many different protocols were still in place during the pandemic, and a kid’s camp was not feasible. SMBC dreamed up a different approach, offering the cabins to individual families. They could come and enjoy the lakefront property and hang out at the beach with other church families. Here, a new idea was born.
Our focus has shifted to serving families uniquely each summer, growing and moving our planning each year to make it as intentional as possible for the families that come. This summer, we offered the camp in two and three-day slots in order to allow more families to come. It only took us one Sunday to complete the registration! Needless to say, our families value this week! Highlights of the week include separate Mom and Dad times, women and men having moments together to chat about the highs and lows of parenting, and spending time praying for and encouraging each other as sisters and brothers in Christ. This year, we invited our Interim Student Ministries Coordinator, Sofia Epp, to be our speaker for the week, and she taught from the theme of “Upside Down Treasure,” emphasizing the gift of Jesus that we (as fragile clay jars) can hold within us.
The highlights continue with seeing different generations come together in beautiful ways. At family camp, one can find a teenage boy rocking someone else’s baby, seniors from church praising the sandcastles of toddlers and measuring the depth of holes dug by children (and their dads, if we are being honest), and all of these generations coming together at the end of each day for a meal and worship. While we are familiar with coming together on Sunday mornings, this is an all-day family celebration culminating with us praising our God. It truly becomes a beautiful picture of the family of God.
Our Star Lake Camp is a stark reminder that God has plans for us, which sometimes means ours has to change. Star Lake Family Camp has become a large part of our summer ministry and is anticipated annually by many. We are hoping this ministry can take family units and help them grow their relationship with Christ together. We hope the times of worship and family devotion time produce renewed healthy habits of family time in Scripture, and we hope that we will continue to seek God as we continue with our Star Lake ministry, wherever he would have us take it.
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