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Click on below links to read the articles featured in Below these links are annual report information continuing the
story
Youth Group Sheds Its Apathy to Become: A Summer Success Story Once out of their comfort zone and really serving God, the
youth were changed By Ann Towell with Rev. Jim Breen
By Marie Annett
By Amy Fisher
Hope Alvinston Ministries Report
2006 This past year 2006 we were
privileged to invite Amy Fisher Back as our Team Captain. She was working on her
Outdoor Education Internship for Laurention University. I (Rev Jim) got to
supervise her. The whole year was
probably our best yet with the over all strongest team to date.
We hired Amy as captian, Christina Annett, Karyn Ikert (experienced from
the United Church centre) Cheryl
Little and Jeremy Swoboda as experienced staff with Brittney Lucan and Noah
Towell as first Year staff. After
Training week Noah decided to work else where for the summer and though he was
missed the summer went very well. The
team worked excellently well as a team. After training week our staff ran
Dorchester Day camp, then due to a lack of regrations for the over night Bike
Camp at the Pinery we replaced it with a very successful Bike Day Camp where the
campers explored local places on bikes. We
then ran Alvinston Day Camp, the staff had a week off then we lead the Sydenham
Canoe Adventure and the Praise and Worship camp concurrently. This was followed
by Survivor Adventure Camp and then we helped with Choral Camp.
It was full summer and some of the staff were very tired by the end but
we had a very good year. There were
4 of the 5 leaders in training for up coming staffing from Alvinston were Ian
McGuire, Robbie Oleniuk, Jenny Little and Jennifer Ikert. We have hired all but Jenny for
for 2007. While these new staff are from neighboring churches they will
enable us to maintain the program for our youth coming up and will enable us to
broaden the base of support of this Christian leadership ministry.
As we seek to pass on the faith in
God Through Jesus Christ by
being a training ground in sharing our
gifts and talents for mission work & loving relationships with God and
neighbours for outreach. Our
Summer team while it does take much time money and energy, it also is one of our
key connections to the larger community and this emphasis on developing
Christian leaders is one of the reasons we keep having new younger families
checking us out on Sundays. While like farming we often have to plant seeds and
it time to reap the harvest this important ministry is getting the larger
community's attention. It is bearing fruit
now in the impact we are having on the leadership development of the staff now
and it is bearing fruit in getting our church and its name out in the community.
It is bearing fruit now in giving adults of all ages ways to use their gifts and
talents. But it will bear more as
we just stay the course for there is a kind of cumulative
impact of the camps on the campers and their families. For example when
people do look for a church are tending to contact us first, regardless of their
actual church back ground. The
whole community over the next 5 years will be effected even more by this
ministry of Christ just pray, participate and see. Submitted By Rev. Jim Breen
Summer
Youth Committee
2007 The
summer youth committee that supervises the Hope Alvinston Ministries (HAM)
had a good year with growth and some
growing pains. We ran 7 camps this year, Dorchester and Alvinston Day camps,
Science and Bike Day camp, Praise and Worship camp and the Sydenham Canoe
Adventure and Survivor (or Junior) Adventure Camp. We hired 6 staff Christina
Annett as senior staff who worked from May to August. The other staff were
Jeremy Swoboda, Brittney Lucan, as returning staff and as first year staff we
had Jennifer Ikert, Robbie Olenick and Ian McGuire our life guard. They worked
in July and August with 1 week of training, 5 weeks of Alvinston camps and 1
week at Choral camp.
Over this year we saw significant growth in the staff in organisational
skills, confidence speaking in front of people, improvement in confidence and
seeing what to do and doing it without being asked.
The number of campers was at a good number but with our population base
but one of the growth areas is that we need to break into other areas. we
will need to bring to bring people in from out side if we are to fill all the
camps. In 2008 we are planning Medieval camp in the Glencoe area to help grow
the base.
The biggest growing pains have been that will the increase in minimum
wage that our cost went up very significantly this year. As a result, we ended
the year about $1,700.00 over budget. The
committee is working hard to deal with this for next year. The other growing
pain is that we have been working at these camps for about 10 years now since
our first pilot project and after 10 years people who have been doing it want a
break and new people should come on
board. So another challenge is how
to better include and invite new and different adult volunteers to help.
This past year a few people were feeling some what over whelmed.
So we are exploring ways to spread out the work this year. We want to do God's will in developing strong Christian
Leaders for the 21st century and growing pains are a reality ... yet
there is also much for which to thank God. Already there have been offers of
some money and some help from adults connected with staff from outside our
church. In my experience when God
wants us to try new things and stretch a little he creates "the need",
the "opportunity" and then fulfills the need.
I believe one of our growth areas is to be more comfortable inviting
others to join us in servicing God and our neighbours. This helps others
experience the joy and blessings of loving and serving God and our
neighbours, and trains us to be even more open to inviting new people into our
congregation and church family. I
suspect dealing with these growing pains will make us a stronger healthier
congregation. Submitted By. Jim Breen
Hope
Alvinston Ministries 2009 H.A.M.
This year we hired Robbie Oleniuk as team captain, Ian McGuire as
lifeguard, along with Jennifer
Ikert & Jamie Charron as returning staff along with Graham Annett and Bethany Swoboda as first year staff. Holly Breen of Putnam Ontario
was our only Leader in Training. This
year was an excellent year. We got a $7920.00 Libro grant for equipment and we
bought 7 tents, 4 canoes along with life jackets and paddles. We also purchased
another propane tank, along with a set of safety glasses.
As we have hired people from other churches it should be noted that we
have spread out the mission and had both financial and volunteer support from
others. The other surprise was that this summer the YMCA came to see
me. Elise Ikert from the Watford Pentecostal church worked for us last year ...
but chose to do a YMCA French language exchange.
While she was in Quebec, Benedict Simard came and worked for us being
paid by a YMCA grant. She was a
great girl but it took some work to try and help her feel a part of the team
because she missed out on training week.
We had a week of joint training with Adullam, Lambton United Church
Centre & Norwich United church Summer team at the Lambton United church
Centre. Jackie Daley helped out in
the kitchen. This training week was large and challenging but a good experience.
During our first week of camp we rented out 2 of our staff Robbie Oleniuk
& Jamie Charron to Adullam Camp ministries to help with a Day Camp in Strathroy. The
rest of the staff including Benedict worked at out Praise and Worship Camp where they put on the musical It's Cool in
the Furnace. If you saw it at
church you know how well they all did. We even have a video made if anyone would
want one. Just see me (Jim Breen). At
this camp we also had help from some junior leaders who took 3 weeks of training
in the winter; they were Julianne
Breen, Kristina Vandamme & Carissa Smith.
Meanwhile, 3 other junior leaders, Kelsey Campbell, Andrew Haves and
Robyn Ikert, helped out at the Strathroy Day Camp. The following
week was a week off for the summer team, as the community churches held VBS. The
following week we had Science camp. Campers this year made air cars, kites, and ping pong
ball pop guns. Chapels this week were a real high light but the number of
campers was disappointing. This is frustrating since Beth Wilbur-Smith a vice principle and former teacher in our
local board tells us that her kids have attended the science camp at the University of Western Ontario,
and ours is much more interesting and educational.
After science camp we reintroduced our own day
camp after a year off out at Campbell's Park. We reduced the age to younger
campers and had a good turn out and great time. This was also a time for the Junior leaders to help out again
with the young kids as group leaders and they did a great job. This was a very
successful camp.
At this point we again split our staff into 2 groups. Bethany Swoboda and Robbie Oleniuk took on the Sydenham
Canoe adventure. This camp was to be lead by John Morwood and Grant Edwards;
however John hurt himself on a saw at home and so we thank Amy Fisher for coming
home and leading this camp for us. It
went very well as they canoed all the way to the St. Clair River. For a
lifeguard we had a volunteer Graham Avery a friend of Ian McGuire, who did a
great job.
Meanwhile Ian McGuire, Jen Ikert, Graham Annett, Jamie Charron and
Benedict Simard worked at our second year of Medieval
Camp held at the home of the Giles family of the Golden Gryphon Medieval
Entertainment and catering. It is located just outside of Glencoe at 21562 Tait's
Road. We had only 15 of the
possible 20 campers but this camp in its second year ran much smoother this
year. Campers had a chance to dress
up and have pictures taken in medieval clothing as well as armor; they
learned about chivalry and
how to be a Christian knight.
The following week we had our ever popular Junior Adventure Camp where
with 7 staff we were able to have 28 campers. They cooked over open fires,
learned fire building, orienteering, knot tying, shelter building, and basic
canoe skills. The staff worked
diligently at this camp and the
campers were excellent at participating. Our biggest challenge was the heavy
winds and rains on the first night but we survived under our shelter.
Chapels during this week
were received with interest and attention.
The creative ability of the staff to create a big final day game with an
amazing Robin Hood theme was impressive.
Thanks to Nathan Ikert who helped by carrying water and being a second
adult on site. This camp continues
to be one of our most popular camps.
The final week, all of our staff and LIT's went to Choral Camp.
This amazing camp gives our staff a chance to see everyone work together
with adults as we run a camp program for all ages from babies to seniors. Our
staff did a great job running a program that 133 people enjoyed, and we put on a
most amazing concert. Laura Breen as accompanist and section leader for the
Intermediate youth choir even called it our best ever.
This camp is a place where all the training comes together to create
something truly amazing and unique. A
big thanks to Karen Edwards who helped in the kitchen.
This year if you look over the financial report you will see we stayed
well within the $3000.00 budget and we have good community support to help
maintain this ministry. Thanks to
all who helped and volunteered in so many different ways:
Christa Sawyer as Registrar, Pat Copeland paying the staff, Patsy Ikert
& Laura Breen who helped direct Praise and Worship camp, Frank Swoboda for
leading science camp and Jill Oleniuk for helping out with snacks and as an
adult helper, Tara Haves and other adults for helping at the Junior adventure
camp, Karen Edwards as our snack co-ordinator, Grant Edwards and Amy Fisher for
the Sydenham Adventure camp, Jim
Breen and Nathan Ikert for leading the Junior adventure camp, Marilyn McKinlay
for doing very important paper work for all the various grants.
This has been a successful year as the staff really grew in life skills
and faith. They all had learning goals which they discussed with me (Rev, Jim) 3
times over the summer. This ministry does train strong Christian leaders for the 21st
century. It is great to see the
staff and volunteers grow and mature year after year. This community service also gives us important "street
cred" or credibility in the community.
It is an important part of helping people see that following Jesus is
exciting and fulfilling.
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