We’re welcoming guests all through fall, winter, and spring!

It’s been six weeks since summer camp ended, but did you know that we have already hosted more than 1400 guests at Pioneer this fall? With school groups during the week and church retreats every weekend, we have hardly had time to catch our breath. But that’s okay! We love welcoming people here in every season!

The Leadership Centre: A Tool for Church Partnership

A beautiful, spacious and multi-functional new building is one of the big reasons we can now host so many guests in the fall, winter and spring.

In past years, large groups couldn’t eat together at meals, even though they were comfortably housed and accommodated for activities. This year, the Clearwater Leadership Centre allows these groups to strengthen relationships around the table as one community.

This is just one of the many ways this building is proving to be a useful resource year-round; the meeting room fits a youth group and their worship team comfortably, and the space has a natural flow for school groups who come for our excellent leadership and recreational programs (and return for the incredible social benefits they observe after students are immersed in such a positive community experience!). The building works almost as hard as our staff to empower an exceptional ministry of partnership, allowing us to host a full overnight program for up to three groups at a time. That means that we have the potential to partner with up to three churches every weekend, or 126 groups every year!

Click here to empower and revitalize your church community with a retreat at Pioneer!!

Taking the LEAD on 365 Days of Ministry

At the forefront of our year-round ministry is the LEAD crew: 10 young leaders from around the world who have set aside time to serve and be discipled by our experienced, faithful year-round ministry team. These young leaders host and serve teachers and pastors and provide programming for group participants. They encourage young people to face their fears in high ropes. They chat with kids about what nature means to them in night hikes. As they serve, our LEAD crew is learning what it means to be salt and light in every moment, even when a toilet needs to be scrubbed at 7p.m.

“I love [the LEAD program] because I get these young people who are very high quality, the potential is huge with them, and we get to pour into them, and we get to see them grow in their leadership,” says  Darren Patterson, our Director of Administration and Year-Round Ministry “And we are always looking for more people to join the LEAD crew.”

LEAD, says Darren, provides a year of life-giving conversations. Sometimes these conversations happen spontaneously between members of the LEAD crew and the kids they are working with. Sometimes, the conversations are between our full-time staff and the LEAD participants. Either way, the conversations function as a training ground  for interacting meaningfully with a world that needs Jesus.

Grounded and Growing

There are still all kinds of ways to take part in the exciting ministry happening right now at Pioneer! Pray for the outreach, leadership, and partnering opportunities that are taking place every day of the year at camp.

And don’t forget to keep an eye on our Facebook page! That’s where you’ll be the first to hear updates on projects like the Boys Camp Dining Hall and events like Urbana. We’ve also got highlights on even more year-round ministry coming up; stay tuned to hear more about Radiate, our exciting retreat solution for small youth groups!