This past year we had 3 amazing young people come live on site with us at Pioneer Camp Alberta to join in our LEAD program. (LEAD stands for Leadership Experience And Discipleship and is an 8 month gap year program at Pioneer Lodge). We are so thankful to have had the opportunity to get to know them and grow alongside them. When we asked them this spring what they had learned over that last 8 months, this is what they had to say:

Jackie (Edmonton):
• I have learned that I am more capable of accomplishing things then I think, such as when we made it to the top of the Colosseum Mountain. I felt so tired but I was so proud of myself.
• I learned how to use different power tools for different maintenance projects that I will hopefully get to use in the future.
• I learned to enjoy the small unplanned moments when everyone is just hanging out and talking about life, it was then we became a family. They were simple, but some of my favorite memories were made. Also, when we would just spontaneously decide to do something fun like play games until midnight.

David (Quebec):
• I learned to step outside of my comfort zone. For example, when we were rappelling down the climbing wall and we had to make the first step off. It was really scary but so fun once I made the leap. Another time was when I was invited to hike up the Ya Ha Tinda and didn’t have much time to prepare but it turned out to be one of my favorite moments of LEAD.
• I learned how to look at nature with a better perspective of God’s beauty and design and the impact we have on creation and how to take care of it.
• I learned how to be more forgiving. We learned in bible study that even when it doesn’t make sense to forgive someone, it is the right thing to do because God is always loving and forgiving when we don’t deserve it.

Flora (Toronto):
• I learned how to be disciplined and have more self control, some examples are fasting from sweets, getting off social media so I could spend time with people, and living more independently.
• On my favorite day of LEAD when we went to the mountain hike, I really was reminded of how big and beautiful God is and how insignificant and unworthy we are. This tied with our study of the book, “Unoffendable” really just reminded me that we all fall short of the glory of God and I have nothing to fear or worry about.
• My favorite thing about living here was definitely the people I got to know. I learned how to live in community with them even when it was not always easy, it really feels like a big family that I have been welcomed into and I will never forget the love/support and adventures we had together.

David, Jackie and Flora will be starting new Adventures when the LEAD 2021-22 year wraps up on April 29th.