The following report is from Doug Johannsen
Snowblast 2012 was held January 14-16 at Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch near Rochester, MN. Twenty-eight youth and 24 adults participated with an additional 22 members of the Rochester congregation present for the Sunday morning worship service. The mix of people included some from other denominations, one woman who can only speak Spanish and a ten-year-old Russian boy who was just adopted from an orphanage in Kiev by a couple in the Rochester, MN congregation.
The overall theme of the camp was “New” and this was reflected in interactive messages from Todd Fox, Tom Kennebeck, Troy Meisner and Jeff Skrove. A newly formed youth band (Alter’d) from the Champlin, MN congregation led worship on Sunday. An adult Christian Living session was conducted by district pastor Doug Johannsen for adult staff and other adults who remained after the Sunday worship service. Questions and insights from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Ethics formed the basis for this discussion.
In contrast to 2011 when 80-100 inches of snow fell in Minnesota, our concern this year was the absence of snow and unseasonably warm temperatures, which threatened to eliminate the main outdoor activity of snow tubing. The tubing hill ends at the edge of a small river and the river was not frozen. However, two or three days before the event the temperatures dropped and a couple of inches of snow fell. By Friday evening the thermometer had dipped to -2 degrees and by Saturday afternoon the river was covered with ice thick enough to be safe.
Other camp activities included board games, using a pottery wheel to make pottery, arts andcrafts, making peanut brittle and making paracord bracelets.
