Celebrating 10 years in Elbow Lake

From Hope for the First Nations Secretary Amanda Edwards: This summer we celebrated 10 years of Hope Camp in the village of Elbow Lake. More than 100 children came to our week-long camp in June at the Boys & Girls Club rec center. Our team from the Evanston Vineyard Church in Evanston, Ill., and Mercy Vineyard in Minneapolis partnered again with the Lakes Area Vineyard church from nearby Detroit Lakes, Minn., to put on skits, songs, sports and crafts all about the Anishinaabe story of the seven grandfathers. Each day, an Anishinaabe grandfather would give our kid hero a different gift from Creator God: love, courage, truth and more, all aligned with the beatitudes. We went swimming in Big Elbow Lake every day and had a really fun time serving and loving the kids and families in Elbow Lake. In our small breakout groups with the kids each day, or clan time, several of the older campers – 10-, 11- and 12-year-old boys – expressed a real and meaningful desire to commit their lives to Christ in the face of difficult times they and their families had experienced in the last few years. Our leaders prayed with them to receive the love of Jesus in their hearts. Please join us in praying for discipleship for all of our kids.

On the Thursday during camp, we traditionally partner with the village council to throw a community dinner down by the lake. This year, we had more than 200 people attend for an Indian Taco dinner prepared by the best frybread makers in Elbow, plus face painting, a huge raffle of gifts and a giveaway of donated clothes and accessories. The bounce house is always a hit, and the kids went swimming again for the second time that day. We celebrated 10 years at Elbow Lake and 20 years of Hope Camp on the White Earth Reservation with two big boards filled with pictures of campers, families and team members over the years. A great time was had by all! For more photos from all of this summer’s camps, visit our Facebook page.