From Snow to Fire

Gord and Beckie Klassen
Jul 14
4 min read

Winnipeg, Manitoba – Thank you to all of you for praying, supporting and encouraging us this winter at Gem Lake Wilderness Camp. We ran five winter camps and had two work trips. The youth enjoyed God’s creation while snowshoeing and skating, sitting around a bonfire, or participating in the Gem Lake Winter Olympics. We had many opportunities to sit and talk with campers and hear their joys and struggles. It was tough to hear of the challenges that our youth and their families are facing. We have earned their trust, allowing them to be vulnerable with us. That is rewarding!

ICYA has been renovating our main floor over the past year which will allow our Community Ministers to have offices, meeting rooms and a gathering space at street level. The construction is nearing its completion, and we are excited about the possibilities that the new space will give the Community Ministers. The downside is this has taken away the space we use for camp preparation and storage in the city. We have been given use of additional space in the Step-Up construction building about 1 km away, but it is challenging to divide our camp preparations between two facilities, both of which are still under construction. Pray that things can be completed quickly and for patience as we figure out how to work efficiently in our new spaces.

When I first started working for Inner City Youth Alive 17 years ago, new staff had to raise 80% of their financial support before they could start, and then the remaining 20% after. Over the years I have been blessed to have a support team that has caught the vision and carried me through. I have also seen many staff have to walk away because of unmet support goals. This last year the funding structure has changed. We now have the “Unity Fund” where all the support funding goes into a common pot. This allows us to hire gifted staff quickly and help those who are not able to reach their full support on their own. Don’t worry, the financial support you have designated to me is still coming to me; it’s just taking a slightly different route now.

To find out more about the Unity Fund, visit Inner City Youth Alive’s website at https://www.icya.ca/unity-fund

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July 13th Update

It’s been 2 full months since the forest fire near Gem Lake Wilderness Camp started here in Manitoba. This past month there really hasn't been much new news to report.

For over 3 weeks we had small rains each 5-7 days, which was just enough to keep the forest fire hot spots from flaring up again with force. Because of the risk of flare-ups still exists, the Wild Fire Service continues to keep Nopiming Provincial Park (250 km North of Winnipeg) closed which also means they will not issue a travel permit allowing us to get to Gem Lake. This last week and a half were again very hot and dry with no rain in the Gem Lake area and stronger winds. A number of areas around Gem Lake have flared up again and are burning off pockets of forest that weren't burned when the original fire came through. The nearest flare-ups are roughly 4-10 Kms away from our camp and don't seem to be putting our camp facility in immediate danger, but they do mean that the travel restrictions will likely continue for some time yet. There are so many other fires in the province and resources are being stretched so thin that in the grand picture our area is not viewed by the province as high priority.

We began our camp staff orientation in Winnipeg and completed as much training as we could off-site in hopes that rain would come and we would be able to begin running camp soon. When it became clear that that wasn't happening in the time frame, we hoped I began exploring other options. Camp Arnes (about 19 km north of Gimli located on Lake Winnipeg) graciously offered us space at their camp site. Our camp staff team spent 3 days last week setting up a camp site where we can run mostly our own camp program with our own staff and our own campers. We should be able to jump into some of their programing and use their dining hall services for our food, but other than that we are running Gem Lake off-site. We are still hoping for permits to be able to access our camp but until that happens, we will continue to run our program at Camp

Arnes. They have been very gracious in helping us set up a situation that should work with our campers.

Things that you can pray for:

Our first camp starts on July 14 and there are still lots of unknowns, so pray with us that all the details will come together.
Pray for our staff team as we will be doing camp in a very different way than we are used to.
Pray that our campers will still have a ton of fun as we figure things out.
Pray for our campers to catch the vision and make big steps in their personal journeys towards Christ.
Pray for continued protection for our camp facilities at Gem Lake.
Pray for not too much rain at Camp Arnes, but a ton of rain on Gem Lake and the surrounding area so we can get back to our regular setting very soon.