What a great weekend at Briercrest College in Saskatchewan! Their “Youth Quake” event we attended was a BIG success. Not only was the school packed but the schedule was packed too! Late night concerts, great workshops, awesome opening night drama, giant remote racecar track, deep worship and Sid Koop who often speaks at Qwanoes did a great job in the main sessions!

Over the weekend we ran a Rocky Mountain Bike and HO Sports wakeboard giveaway contest! That’s right – two people received some very nice prices! We had over 225 entries for the contest, and the winners were Ian Andvaag from Regina and Jo Bird from Manitoba! When we announced the winners we had past Kaleo students and summer staffers – Josh Whincup & Keerstin Giesbrecht come up on the stage and share all about their Qwanoes experience while showing an exciting video in the background – over two thousand people had the opportunity to hear about Qwanoes! Did I mention we took the Mountain Bike and Wakeboard down the screamer to promote the contest? What fun!

Our Qwanoes AGM (Annual General Meeting) was a big success as well. There was a great spirit of unity and excitement among all those who attended. A key decision was made that will make a big difference in the Qwanoes ministry. We will soon be launching a new capital campaign that involves a lot of important building projects. These building projects are going to be key in making sure we can accommodate even more campers who want to come to camp in the future! More details will be coming soon!

The Kaleo mission trip to the Olympics is going really well! There have been lots of opportunities for the Kaleo students to ministry to people. Here is a great believe it or not! One of our very own Kaleo students was manning the entry gate that the Vice President of the United States passed through! She even asked for his identification, but the Secret Service kindly informed her that he was cleared for entry!

More info coming soon! Spring Juniors Retreat is one month away – March 26-28 – we look forward to seeing our Junior Campers soon!

Exciting things are happening at Qwanoes all the time and life at Qwanoes can move quite quickly! Stay connected with Q-Life – You can always come right here every week to stay in the loop on what just happened, what is going to happen or what is happening right now!

Big weekend coming up!

QWANOES AGM – Is happening on Saturday, Feb 20 at Qwanoes! What is anAGM? It stands for “Annual General Meeting” and it is a great time to come and hear the pulse of Qwanoes and be in on ground level information. It will be on Saturday from 1:30 – 4:30 pm right here at camp and all are welcome to attend! Members who have been chosen as delegates by their church can be part of the voting process. We look forward to having you all here!

Qwanoes goes to Saskatchewan and Alberta this weekend! That’s right – we will be at both places at once! Why are we going? This is the season where we connect with students about all the different opportunities there are at Qwanoes, from being on summer staff to being a student with our Kaleo program!

Saskatchewan! Briercrest Bible College is putting on an event called Youth Quake

and there are estimating that there will be 2000 people in attendance. The Qwanoes booth will be set up and we will be running a contest all weekend to give a brand new Rocky Mountain Bike away and an HO Sports wakeboard. As a part of the promotion a video was made of taking a bike and a wakeboard down our very own SCREAMER!! Qwanoes and Briercrest partner together to bring you the Kaleoprogram, which is an 8-month foundational training program for developing young Christian leaders.

Alberta! Missions Fest Alberta will be happening right in Edmonton and Qwanoes will be there! We are looking forward to having our 2nd camp booth set up and talking with lots and lots of people about what’s happening at Qwanoes and how they can get involved!

Vancouver and Mexico! Our Kaleo students are still at the Olympics and in Mexico for their mission trips – last report everyone is doing well and enjoying their very unique once in a lifetime missions trip!

Whether it’s in Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Mexico or right here at camp we hope to say a big hello to you this weekend!

The Winter Olympics are starting this FRIDAY!!!! Will you be there? Our Kaleo students are heading out on their missions trips soon! One team will be heading to Mexico and another will be heading to Vancouver to be a part of the Olympics. There will be 23 students and 4 leaders volunteering in various areas and staying at one of our supporting churches, Squamish Baptist for 18 days – Maybe you’ll see them there!

Have you checked out our new Shine Out Loud site? More videos will be coming soon! Grab a video camera, shine out loud by singing a Q-Town song and upload it today! Here’s an idea…sing a Q-Town song with an Olympic athlete or someone from another country, now that would be cool!

LiftOff ‘Island-Style’ went off great last Friday! There were over 225 people who reunited together to help kick-off the summer, sing some songs, play games and be challenged by a great speaker. Just spoke with Stevie-G and he said, “My favorite part of the night was when the girls fed the boys baby bottles!”

The next day a lot of campers from LIftOff headed up Mt. Washington for a great day of snowboarding and skiing! Everyone had a blast carving it up – some may have even seen some Olympic athletes as there are a few who are practicing on the mountain!

Coming up this week! The Squirrel “Russ” is back in the studio cranking out some new songs for our new full-length all-original “OUT OF THIS WORLD” album. Here is a way you can stay connected with Q-Town music all winter long…tune into qrok.ca every week to hear the latest show!

The new Shine Out Loud site is LIVE and ready for action. Russ Smith – creator of Q-TOWN music was the first one to upload his video. Russ said “I love the site, it was so easy to upload my video and I’m looking forward to hearing from all the campers!” Have a listen to Russ singing from his basement!

I was just on the new shineoutloud.ca site and it is so cool! You can do so many things on the site – uploading your video is easy, you can listen to other people shine out loud, vote on your favorite songs and the site even has quick links to share videos with friends! We can’t wait to hear from all our campers! Check out the contest information link and let’s get started!

Last Friday we hosted a Cowichan Valley Youth Event right at the camp. It was a great event with music, friends, All Star games, a challenge from God’s word and of course mug up! There were over 250 who came to this event and Club Coco was definitely rocking!

Join the LiftOff of fun! I can’t believe it’s already time! Coming up this Friday campers far and wide from the Island will be coming together to kick off the summer! It’s your time and we can’t wait to see you! All Island LIFT OFF? (Feb 5th)
Have you tuned into the new qrok.ca show? I just listened to the latest show and my favorite song is “City On Our Knees” by Toby Mac – what’s yours? Let the squirrel know at the nest.