Winter Fest Success!!

This past weekend was the annual Junior High Winter Fest. It was a little different than other years because we expanded it to include grades 6-10. We had over 50 kids there and had a great time!! Luke Leichty was the speaker for the weekend and the IMS Praise Band led us in worship. Here's a picture of the awesome band!

Over the course of the weekend, Luke challenged us to rethink our image of God. Is He just a big guy in a throne with a long flowing beard and white robes to match? Or is he more than that? Luke encouraged us to think of God as our Daddy, not just some father-figure far away, but Daddy. It was a great reminder that no matter how big we get, we are still God's little children and we can run and hide in Him when things get too rough.

In addition to worship times, we had all types of activities going on. There were times to choose between crafts and games outside. The craft people made candles, cookie creations and many other things. The outdoor game people played classic camp games like 23 Skidoo, Steal the Bacon and a new favorite, Flying Porkchop. They also went over to the Frog Pond to play Broom Ball. And when all else failed, we went tubing! We also had time to take advantage of new Activity Center and had a chance to climb and just run around playing all types of games.

On Saturday evening, we all gathered together to play Ultimate Capture the Flag. However, I underestimated the mad skills of the campers and both flags were found in less than 30 minutes. So we just went to the Activity Center to play other games.

Here are the Top Ten Favorite Things about Winter Fest

10. Broomball

9. Games

8. Seeing Old Friends

7. Music!

6. Free time

5. Activities

4. Food

3. Tube Run (on the way down . . . the way back up is one of the LEAST favorite things!)

2. Capture the Flag

and the number one favorite thing about Winter Fest . . . .

1. The Activity Center!!

My Job

After hearing that I'm a Program Director, the most common question asked is, "So what do you do all day at work?" My most common answer is just a smile. =) Either my job is still too new to have an 'average day of work' or there simply is no such thing. Some days I put up/take down Christmas trees, other days I sit at my computer and send emails all day. Today, I kicked up my feet, sipped my hot chocolate, watched the snow fall outside and read a book. To be fair, it was a book about using the Prayer Labyrinth and it was a very helpful resource for an upcoming program! Sometimes my work isn't even done at work! As every good activity leader knows, it's important to have actually done the activity before trying to lead it. Soooo, sometimes in the evening, I practice my programs! I've made Rice Krispy Monsters, Candles and others from the comfort of my own home. And this all is just the tip of the iceberg of my daily work.

Every now and then I'll work on weekends too. Sometimes that means belaying for a group that wants to use our climbing wall, sometimes it means greeting groups and making sure they have everything they need. On hosting weekends I get to make a welcome speech and carry my cell phone with me 24/7. But mostly I get to eat the meals. =)

And then there are Program Days/Weekends. These are my favorites. This is why I sit at my desk and email people all day long. This is why I plan, print, edit, daydream and practice. This is where the fun comes in. No matter what type of program it is, I enjoy it! I love seeing a group of people come together for a common reason and enjoy God's play ground, if even for the weekend. It's great fun. My most favorite types of programs are those for youth. Ok, I don't actually know that about me yet. I haven't had a youth event as a Program Director. But that's going to change on FRIDAY!! Friday begins Winter Fest and boy am I excited!!

Here's my prayer request of the week: snow! Ok, maybe a little more than just snow. But please pray for Winter Fest, for the speaker and musicians, for the sponsors who make this possible and for the staff who don't get nearly enough credit. But most importantly, pray for the youth that are coming. This is a great chance to get God into their hearts' and souls'. This is a great chance to give their spiritual lives a good kick in the pants. This is a big weekend!!

A wonderful change!

Greetings!

My name is Johanna Bontrager and I'm the Program Director at Crooked Creek Christian Camp. Did you see it? Did you see the change?! I'm no longer the new Program Director, I'm just the Program Director! It's such a wonderful upgrade in my life. I no longer feel like I'm just visiting the office, but rather I'm going to MY office! (Not to be confused with the TV show, "The Office".) For the first time in 8 months, I feel like I'm home and not just visiting. It's a good thing!

Last night I was driving around camp, locking up after hosting for the weekend, and I got to enjoy the most peaceful snow. It was well below freezing outside, but it didn't feel all that cold. The snow was floating down from the heavens with not a care in the world. Sometimes I imagine that camp looks like a snow globe from God's perspective. The neat thing about snow globes is that the residents of Snow Globe Land have everything they need, right in their little world. They may not have much, but they are more than content in their Snow Globe World. I might be a slow learner, but I think I'm starting to learn how to be content with what God has given me in my own Snow Globe World.

Personalized Paintings

Baby, it's COLD outside!!

The other morning I woke up to hear the radio DJ saying, "It's 1 degree on the square, clear skies and and a north, northwest wind." I was convinced it was just a bad dream until I heard him say that it was still only 1 degree outside. ONE DEGREE!! Baby, THAT's cold!!

The cold weather means warmer socks, sweaters and turtlenecks and electric blankets, but it also means that Jack Frost is busy at work. I've been treated to very detailed artwork all over the place in the last week! My south office window had a great pattern of snowflakes in the corner that lasted for 2 days. My west window was covered tiny little snowflakes that sparkled in the sunlight. This morning my sliding glass door was covered in what looked like an aerial view of a mighty mountain range covered in snow. I love finding beautiful artwork covering my windows every morning. Thanks God. :)

Footprints in the snow

Here's a blurb from the poem, "Footprints in the Sand"
The LORD replied:
"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

I grew up in Iowa, which is over 1,000 miles from the beach. To me, a walk on the beach is a vacation! A rare treat! It's often bothered me that when the man in the poem saw only one set of footprints, he automatically assumed that God had abandoned him. Has my faith become spoiled so much that when something goes wrong, I automatically assume that it is God that has left me and not that it was I who wandered away? Do I think of my faith like a walk on the beach? Something that is supposed to be easy, relaxing and fun? I like to think my Iowa upbringing has made me a little tougher than that! It's hard to imagine my faith journey as a walk on the beach.

I like to think of it as a walk through the snow. Sometimes it's a whole bunch of fun. However, sometimes your faith gets hit with an unexpected, icy snowball. Do I have a faith that can brush off the snow and keep going? It doesn't take many Iowa winters to learn to look for a set of footprints in the snow. One set of footprints does not automatically inspire the fear of abandoment, in fact, it's quite the opposite. One set of footprints becomes a clear path through the challenging terrain. It means that someone bigger and stronger has gone before you and made a difficult journey a little bit easier to manage. When my faith journey leads me along a snow covered hill, I am grateful to see a set of footprints. It's a reminder that God has gone before me to prepare the way. It means that God knows my struggles and has found a way for me to get to the other side.

I give thanks for the set of footprints in the snow.

Winter Fest is stressing me out!

High School Winter Fest is December 30, 2007 to January 1, 2008. It's over New Year's Eve and I have a pretty amazing party planned. We will have a square dance (which in spite of it's old time reputation is a barrel of fun!) and party games, like "Pin the Cross on the Bible" and hula hoop contests and the limbo. Plus, we'll be in the Activity Center so we can play basketball, volleyball, floor hockey, pickle ball or any other game we come up with. There's also a whole floor of "table games" like air hockey, pool, ping pong, carpetball and others. It will be so much fun. Having High School Winter Fest over New Year's Eve was a great idea. High Schoolers can come and be themselves, be loud and wild and crazy and be encouraged to do so! Parents can enjoy their New Year's Eve without worrying about their teenager driving home late at night in possible bad weather, they know it will be well supervised. It's a great idea . . . on paper.

However, no one wants to come. Registration is at an all time low. Because it's over a holiday, high schoolers look at me like, "Are you really that old to think we'd want to go to CAMP for New Year's Eve??" (No, I am NOT that old!) I don't know how to get people here! The party is really just a ploy to convince people it will be fun and to just kick back and have fun! The whole point of Winter Fest is to give your spiritual life a nice kick in the pants. It's been a while since the Mennonite Youth Convention and our spiritual enthusiasm begins to look as dreary as the winter sky. God is constantly working through people here at camp. It's hard for youth to hear God in the midst of homework, peer pressure and hormones. Camp acts as an amplifier for God's voice. If they aren't here, it's harder to hear what God has to say.

Through this situation, I've often thought of the parable from Luke 14: 15-24.

When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.' Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can't come.’ The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’

Now, I only wish that I had servants who knew where to find the youth in town that needed a safe place to be for New Year's Eve. Even if I knew where to find the youth that needed to be at camp. My biggest prayer is God would somehow bring the youth to camp. My table IS set, open the doors and fill this house!

Not Ready for Christmas

Christmas is a week away. In 7 days from now, it is Christmas. Oh dang.

I have my Christmas shopping done, I have my tree up and decorated and I even have my Christmas cards ready to put in the mail.

But I am not ready for Christmas.

I've been to church and followed our Advent story. I've sung the Christmas hymns and even sat down and played them myself. I've made Christmas cookies and wrapped presents.

But I am not ready for Christmas.

I'm not quite at the bah-humbug stage, but I was yet to catch the Christmas magic. Until Sunday. In church we talked about Mary, the mother of Jesus. And no matter how much of a Scrooge or a Grinch I'm being, she always gets me. And to be fair, Mary had 9 months to get ready for Christmas, we only get 4 weeks of Advent. But when I stop and think about Mary, the bah-humbug's go away. She was probably no more than 16 years old. She and Joseph were so in love, I'm sure you could see them giggling and holding hands anytime they were together. She was ready to get married and be a wife, but then the Angel Gabriel shared a change of plans with her. And now this teenager's biggest concern was not whether or not to have chicken or beef at the wedding, but how in the world she is going to raise the SON OF GOD! I mean, the Messiah, the One they've been waiting for! The one they've been expecting!! SHE would be the mother of their Savior. Wow.

I imagine in the moment when she was talking to the Angel Gabriel, her faith in God was not just a belief or a hope, it was absolute fact. As real as the ground she walked on and the air she breathed. But then, the Angel left. And she still remained, and now had to share this good news with the people she loved. I know that Mary was highly favored by God, otherwise how do you share that news without sounding crazy? "Hey, Joseph-honey. I'm pregnant with the Messiah." or "Guess what Mom and Dad! You remember the Messiah that we've been waiting for all these years? I'm going to give birth to him in 9 months!" Unless you are truly favored by God, there is just no way to say that and have anyone believe you!

She understood the magic of Christmas, the outpouring of God's love into a form so real that no one could deny it, but yet in the form of a tiny little baby. Now, I've lost my chance to be an unwed pregnant teenager like Mary, and I'm not really that sad to see it go, but just thinking about her fills me with the awe and wonder that is God's love. She didn't just believe in God, she knew God.

Now, I'm ready for Christmas.


And just for a fun little Christmas anecdote. Hymn #210, Good Christian Friends, Rejoice can be a bit tricky. The last line of the first verse is, "Christ is born today" and the last line of the last verse is "Christ was born to save." When most of the choir sings the right verse and says, "Christ is born today" but a couple alto's sing the wrong verse and say, "Christ was born to save" it ends up sounding like "Christ was born Tuesday." And well, this year, the alto's were right.