How is COVID-19 affecting ABK's programs this Summer? See the latest updates

2018in review

Jennifer Sarlo

President's Message

Jennifer Sarlo
Board President

Our vision to be a parent trusted, community valued, completely church/believer supported organization, where the gospel is clearly proclaimed and the children, adults, staff and volunteers enjoy a unique Northern Ontario Christian camp experience, is a rather audacious statement if you fully grasp what the board is envisioning for Camp ABK. It is a faith-based vision, where we look to God in his Sovereign grace and mighty power to work through the church and individuals to continue the good work that was started over 58 years ago.

The camping season of 2018 was another great year with waiting lists for our school trips and many of our summer camps.

With minimal investment in advertising, we are thankful to see school trip kids returning to our summer camps and campers from across our area choosing ABK as their preferred choice of summer camp.

This positive growth and sustained registrations increased the need for volunteers throughout June and the summer months, which lead to some challenges finding strong, committed volunteers to run safe, fun programs and maintain our facilities. Each year, we faithfully look to God to provide the workers. Matthew 9 reminds us that Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion on them. He reminded his disciples that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers few. We pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. We are grateful for the many volunteers who use their precious vacation time and for the many young people who sacrifice higher wages to invest in the work of Camp ABK.

After deciding to focus on upgrading our existing facilities in 2018, rather than building an additional new staff cabin, we are committing to a large faith-based capital budget of $75,000 in the summer of 2019 and we look forward to the Lord providing, through His people, the needed funds and the skilled workers to see these plans come to fruition.

We are humbled once again by the consistent financial support of our supporting churches and the many individuals who sacrificially give to camp. We recognize that this year, in particular, through tragic loss, families generously raised funds for camp in honour of their loved ones and we are eternally grateful that we became their beneficiary in this time of great sorrow.

This work has Kingdom building impact and we ask that you pray for protection and freedom so we can continue to present the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the lives of children and adults through the camping experience. As you review our annual report, won’t you partner with us by praying, donating, volunteering and promoting Camp ABK?

Together, in His Service,
Jennifer Sarlo

IMG_0037

Managing Director's Report

Ryan Lidstone
Managing Director

God is so good to us at ABK! We had another very successful camping season in 2019. It is truly an honor and a privilege to serve our Saviour in this ministry.

My grandfather was able to attend the Forever Young Retreat this year - he was very involved with Camp for many years, especially in the early years. As he was looking over Camp, and discussing all that has changed I realized that so much of what we enjoy today at ABK is because of the faithfulness in how so many served before us. I am thankful for him, and so many like him, who trust God and were faithful to His calling.

I am also thankful for God's provision of safety during this season, the great weather we enjoyed, the full camps, and of course, the staff that served so diligently.

We are especially thankful to our Leadership Staff: Our Kitchen Coordinators - Trevor and Jess Childs; Our Maintenance Family - Alex and Cheryl Schmitz; Our June Program Coordinators - Jared and Jenn Ayton, and our awesome Summer Staff.

We look forward to another awesome season in 2019!

In Him

Ryan Lidstone

staff positions
staff members
  • 41 leadership
  • 118 counsellors
  • 9 nurses
  • 45 cooks
  • 46 servers
  • 15 chore people
  • 61 others

Where our Staff are coming from?

  • Sault Ste. Marie
  • Local Area
  • Sudbury
  • North Bay
  • Other (10%)
  • Summer Staff (12%)

School Trips

June is a busy place at Camp – there is always a lot going on. We had 481 Students come to camp on a school trip from 16 different schools. We were busy enough that we needed to book into the last week of May. Our June Staff did an excellent job, as always, running a fun, educational, and entertaining program which resulted in 95 students returning for a week of Summer Camp (42 first-time campers). Our Staff do an excellent job at connecting with students, and showing them their faith in how they willingly and diligently serve. One school from Sault Ste. Marie even invited us to come back for their Grade 8 graduation. We are very grateful for the opportunity School Trips is for the overall ministry of ABK.


Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded in /home/forge/campabk.com/public/wp-includes/class-wp-image-editor-imagick.php on line 427