BONNYVILLE – The Moose Lake Gospel Camp is celebrating its 91st anniversary, and staff recently reflected on the camp’s history, celebrated what they’ve accomplished, and shared their dreams for the next 91 years and beyond.
“We’ve been here since 1934. It was originally started by local churches in all the little hamlets in the area and supported by those churches, but unfortunately, as those small hamlets and communities disappeared, so did those churches. And so now this camp is an independently operated and self-governed faith-based Christian Bible camp,” explained Steen Nicolajasen, chairman of the board for Moose Lake Gospel Camp.
Nicolajasen said the camp has alumni from Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia, and a lot of the campers come from across the Lakeland.
The camp runs different programs through the course of the summer for different age groups, as well as family camps.
“During the kids' camps, of course, we have counselors in cabins with kids, and they do all the normal camp activities. We have archery, beach games, water activities, tubing, and fishing off the dock - all those kinds of things. We also have a games room with Ping-Pong tables, foosball, all those old-fashioned games,” said Nicolajasen.
The camp runs a morning church service and teaching time, with free afternoons to play and explore the camp. They run horseshoe and golf tournaments, do crafts, and host old-fashioned Sunday picnics with traditional games like three-legged races, sack races, and tug of wars.
“I’m retired now, so these activities are all childhood memories of mine. The whole premise is to get kids off their screens and do something interactive,” said Nicolajasen.
He says he has noticed the declining social skills of kids and said that camp aims to get the kids and counselors socializing, so they can gain social skills in a supportive setting.
“My wife has been coming here since she was eight years old. I got involved with the camp when I started dating my wife 43 years ago, and we’ve been married 42 years . . . about 35 years ago, when my daughter was born, I got put onto the board of directors and basically have been on the board for 35 years, more or less,” said Nicolajasen.
Amber Machado, executive director of Moose Lake Gospel Camp, has been coming to the camp since she was about eight years old, and grew up loving her time at camp.
“As I got older, I volunteered as a cabin leader, then helped in the kitchen and just really helped out wherever I was needed. So I have been coming to this camp for most of my life,” said Mechado.
Mechado lives in Mexico doing mission work but returns every summer with her family. This is her third time spending the entire summer at the camp.
“I think for myself, and many other kids, this camp is just a safe place where you can have fun and be yourself. Where you can make friends and come back to friends that you've met before - and it’s a spiritual place where we seek God and his will in our lives, and we make that a priority,” said Mechado.
She said she has seen a lot of lives changed by their time at the camp, and said it had a big impact on her life as well.
Nicolajasen said the non-profit camp has “dreams and ambitions like you wouldn’t belive,” and aims to keep growing. Some of their ambitions include a new chapel, an RV park to generate revenue, and winterized buildings for year-round use.
“We've had numerous weddings over the years and sometimes it's kids who've grown up at this camp, who get married here - wanting to be married in the great outdoors. This year, we've had two weddings of local kids in the Bonnyville area, who've met at camp and decided that this is a special place, and they wanted to be married on the grounds,” said Nicolajasen.
He also spoke about expanding the camp so they can continue to support and make memories with future generations.
“We dream of having more kids and more teams come to our camp, and we dream of investing in them and creating leaders that will make an impact on their communities, wherever they come from,” said NicolaJasen.
