Cascades Camp Blog

Recruiting is one of my favorite parts of my job!  The photograph above is from my visit to Whitworth University – after spending the day in the HUB, Kimono and I met up with camp staff and friends from Whitworth and Gonzaga for dinner.  We also celebrated Sammie “Mushu” Trestik’s 20th birthday – and made sure to embarrass her with loud singing in the restaurant!  It was a great trip – as always it is wonderful to touch base with summer staff and hear about how their year is going – and I think I may have made a few new friends at Whitworth too – bring on the summer staff applications!!!

-Dirt

Mike Bothman, Food Service Extraordinaire, works wonders in the Cascades kitchen…but he couldn’t make things happen without the help of some very talented individuals.  Thanks Carolyn, Isabel, Allivia, and all our kitchen staff for your hard work!

If you haven’t already seen this video floating around on the Cascades website, its a breakdown of some of the new features and activities coming to Camp Timber Rock, Sunrise Ranch, and Brightwood Station in the upcoming summer!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (25.7MB)

Ahh, life at camp…  Living in out here in amongst all the beautiful, peaceful, serenity… Working for The Lord, nonetheless!  There’s nothing better, right?  Who could ask for anything more?  Don’t you want to come and work here too?  Why not sign up to be a Cascades Intern!  Despite all the hype, our interns go way beyond themselves in serving here… and they do it out of a love for camp and most importantly, a love for Jesus.

Thomas “Godfather” Kenyon and John “Suplex” Brooks are our interns and we couldn’t have asked for two finer guys.  Much of their time is spent definitely “Behind The Scenes,” serving in the kitchen, working the horses, fixing our computers, or helping out with other miscellaneous needs.  The place that you can find these two most often though is cleaning…every building at camp!  That’s right, these guys get down and dirty with the lodges and when they finish, “Voila,” the buildings are clean, fresh, and ready for ministry.  What’s really truly amazing, is to compare these two guys working our big buildings with our summer operations team staff of 15 that cleans these buildings!  It takes alot of humility to scrub dirty toilets week after week, but these guys do it, and they do it all the while with a smile on their face.  One might attribute it to the occasional lunch out with the boss, but I think it’s really a love for camp and wanting to serve Christ, even in the littlest of ways.  These guys are champions and we really appreciate them.

Next time you’re out at camp, give these guys a high five and a pat on the back!

PS – Thomas & John both REALLY love homemade cookies… we’ve found it keeps them smiling!

One of the main purposes of our blog is to give you the reader (and hopefully camper/guest) a unique look at life here at camp “behind the scenes.”  What we experience week-to-week, the funny/great/sad experiences we live that we would like you to share and live with us as well.  After all, we truly feel that Cascades is YOUR camp and we want you to be and feel as much a part of your camp as we do!  With that, it’s my goal to post weekly updates about life at camp behind the scenes which will allow you to join in to our fun & zany world here at Cascades Camp and Conference Center.

A little less than a month ago Cascades hosted the NPC annual High School M.U.D. Retreat.  Students had a great time:  worship was amazing, the messages were insightful, the activities were off-the-hook, and God worked in mighty ways!

We had just over 50 S.A.L.T.s and staff out to Cascades for the 3rd Annual SALT Reunion Christmas Retreat last Monday and Tuesday.

We really had a great time together and enjoyed some fun activities including the Rubicon Northwest off-road challenge, sugar cookie decorating, hiking, ultimate frisbee, worship, and in general hanging out as we reconnected with one another and with God!

For more pictures taken at this retreat, click here.

We ended the retreat with an exciting announcement that we will be adding a Spring SALT Retreat – more details to come later!  Praise to God for blessing us with an amazing time spent together!

It has been mighty cold at Cascades for the past week or so…IN FACT, it is so cold the lake froze…

Don’t believe me?  See for yourself!

**Please don’t attempt this at home – these men are trained professionals.**

Rob “Trane” Mohrweis, Cean “Torque” Williard and Josh “Miles” Rogers were brave enough to walk out into the middle of the frozen Elbow Lake (that’s right – past the seal, dolphin, AND shark sections of the swim area)!  And although the frozen lake is fun, we wouldn’t mind the temperatures warming up a bit.  Feel free to join us as we pray for those who don’t have homes to keep them warm and for protection over our facilities in this winter weather!