The Hockey Source Live

Our director, Tim Stevens, was on the radio recently being interviewed by the Hockey Source about our summer schools.

Listen HERE.

Mother Daughter Equestrian Retreat

Bring your mothers out for Mothers Day for a fun relaxing weekend full of good food, new friends and a great time on horse back.

Lessons and trail rides available throughout the weekend, as well as nature hikes, crafts, games, yoga and lots of relaxing!

$200 + HST

Call Britt for more information 519 941 4501 or email at britt@teenranch.on.ca

REGISTER HERE! or email Britt at britt@teenranch.on.ca

Carriage House Update

The heat is on in the Carriage House! Hallelujah!! Bryan's Fuels along with EJ Walsh have hooked up the modern and very efficient boiler that heats the upper and lower levels with the in floor heating system.

Sean Coll and his crew have finished the drywall, priming and first coat of paint on the lower level walls and some of the ceilings...it looks really good! The stairs have been installed between the two levels.

The stairs, porches and entrances on the north and south ends are operational and looking really good. These are made with lumber from Terry Kell's property and finished under John Hayward's expertise and direction.

Jeff Schneyderberg and Darryl Schenk have worked long and hard to mill, sand, stain and spray all the trim that is scheduled to be installed by Dave Black this week.

All available staff hands were on deck to experience the raising of the first "beam" in The Great Room. This was orchestrated by John Hayward.

Mike Markquardt who comes all the way from Michigan, is coming to build the fireplace inside The Great Room. God bless you Mike!

In the near future we are looking forward to the return of our dear Irene Dunn from Australia. She is a master hand for tiling.

We are getting there. By God's grace, The Carriage House will be completed and fully operational. Bunkhouses 3 through 4b will be history!! Glory to God!!

Nico Koeslag is always friendly, supportive and smiling...and also happens to have been responsible for building Maintenance here at the Ranch since 2003. Thanks for all you do Nico!

Eleven Years!

I find myself writing this on March 8th, 2011, eleven

years to the day of when I started working for the Lord at Teen Ranch Canada. What a blessing these last eleven years have been to my family and I. From my standpoint, I feel that working day by day in a Christian ministry has helped me to grow in my walk with God, as I`ve seen many people‘s lives' change here as they come to the realization that God is real and that he has a plan for each of our lives.

As far as my family is concerned, they have all been impacted. Jon and Josh both found their spouses here and Nicole and Katie have both been impacted by the Ranch as well. Thank you Lord for allowing me to serve you the last eleven years at Teen Ranch Canada.

Brian Smith continues to be a tremendous blessing to all or us—and if you come to Teen Ranch and he’s on -site, he’ll likely be the first one to welcome you. We have appreciated Brian’s of humour, steadfast faith and encouraging words over the years. We know you won’t mind if we wish you yet another ...

“Happy 11th Anniversary Brian!”

Property News!

We have had a very busy and productive winter season caring for the facilities here at the Ranch. Fresh coats of paint and touch ups have been done in a few much needed places.

Thanks go to Mr. Darryl, Luke Murray, Nikki Scott, Sarah Fabok as well as Brian Smith and Jackie Wilson for their team effort in completing the work - especially with all that smelly fire code paint.

Some of the other projects that were completed were a new games room; a new fireside room; trim paint and touch ups in the Coach House as well as new feature wall on lower level.

We also saw new fire doors, Darryl has been doing a wonderful job keeping on top of these items.

The lobby in the Ice Corral has a fresh coat of paint. As well, work on the bathrooms is being done with the help of Randy Reeso who works at the Ice Corral.

Bev Marshall has been a star these past few months in monitoring and encouraging all the staff to help refresh the Ranch. Way to go Bev!

Certified Horsemanship Association

Each May long weekend, Teen Ranch hosts an invaluable clinic that trains and certifies Horseback Riding Instructors. We use this for training and preparation for our own staff, and also certify about 20 others from all over Canada. Each participant is required to teach at least four lessons. They are evaluated by their group members as well as their Clinic Instructors with a huge emphasis on safety, education and fun on horses. This clinic drastically improves teaching ability, even within the five days of the clinic. 

While participants aren‘t teaching, they are role playing for other instructors. This allows the instructors to have something to teach, but it also creates an understanding of where those beginner riders are coming from. Having our own riding instructors take part in the CHA Clinic has allowed us to provide well-trained, confident instructors for our guests.

Corrie Ensom is well-recognized as an excellent riding instructor and has taught our intensive program for many years. She is certified as a Master Instructor for CHA.

Basecamp

Our brand new registration program is coming along very nicely. Every day brings us a little bit closer to the final product.

This weekend (March 18-20, 2011) was the testing of a module for the Snack Bar POS system. This module implements a full product database which is searchable via a barcode scanning system. Each item scanned gets added to a live shopping cart that automatically calculates totals and is payable by cash or credit/debit card. All payment information is instantly sent to our accountant, Anne Burzese, negating the job of an employee running the snack bar to pass the information on to Anne at the end of their shift.

The next module to be implemented will be a mass mailing project. This mass mailer makes it extremely easy to filter through our database full of contacts and send the appropriate, personalized emails. The database can be filtered by anything from campers and golfers all the way down to all males that play in our Men‘s League and like Mars Bars.

Dane Stevens has been a bless- ing to Teen Ranch. Using his knowledge and skills of web language and graphic design, he has created a new media outlook for the Ranch.

Hockey Programs

Pond Hockey was great this season. We worked hard and finished

strong with the end of the season party. We look forward to Spring Hockey starting up April 10th and we also have 3 sessions left of skills and skating Wednesday nights.

A pre-rep tryout clinic will be held at Teen Ranch April 11th to the 15th. This is one of our new programs, designed to attract players to fine tune their skills before tryouts.

Of course, we can't forget the Three on Three summer hockey for all ages. We had a great turnout for Bring a Friend Weekend with 55 campers in our hockey program. Can't wait until summer camp – we‘ll see you on the ice!

-Jay Pagett

As head hockey instructor since January, Jay has fantastic ideas and the energy to further develop and fill Teen Ranch hockey programs. Jay was the Head Hockey Coach at University of Florida from Sept 2008, leading the Gators into battle. Jay studied Sports Management at Liberty University and has served as an on-ice instructor at Teen Ranch summer camp many summers.

Upcoming Events - April

Spring is coming! (And I didn‘t receive that information from the 

groundhog.) So how do I know? Because we at Teen Ranch have started to plan the Easter Open House! What does that mean for you? Chocolate, trail rides, giant swing, pony rides and lots more! The best part is...it‘s FREE! Come bring your whole family and join us on April 23, 2011. The Open House will be followed by a Teen Ranch VIP Reunion for all Teen Ranch alumni!

Attention all you great husbands and daughters out there - I am sure you are aware that Mother‘s Day is on May 8th. Instead of buying her the traditional vacuum cleaner or dish- washer (which I am sure she loved), how about giving her the opportunity to take a whole weekend off? This year we are introducing our first Mother/Daughter Equine Retreat. What better way to bond than over riding lessons, trail rides, spa night, chocolate fountains and campfires? Mom doesn‘t  have to ride if she doesn‘t want to. Give her a weekend she deserves May 13-15th..

Full of amazing energy and enthusiasm, Britt is doing a fantastic job of keeping things humming here at Teen Ranch.

For more information on these events and others, please contact Britt at britt@teenranch.on.ca or visit our website www.teenranch.on.ca.

Program Fun

It's interesting how much planning goes into getting a camp program ready to run, and it's rewarding to see things come together as that planning gets more and more underway, but more rewarding still is to be able to look back on the program after it has run its course and to be able to see where the planning paid off! 

As a ground work of planning and preparation being built layer upon layer toward next summer, I am excited to see how it will all pan out! In the mean time, Bring a Friend weekend camps and March Break Day Camp was a great time of fun and outreach - both to kids who have been to Teen Ranch before and to kids who came for the very first time. 

-Joshua Menzies

Josh joined the ranks of full-time staff as year-round Program Coordinator this past September. Having hosted weekday groups and run programs for school groups, day camps and camp weekends, he’s proven himself to be dedicated, orga- nized, creative, and more than capable of putting together and running a well-balanced program!. Thank you Josh!

Super Summer Staff

Wow – what a line-up of gifted, mature staff God is bringing our way this summer to care for the campers and guests that He also brings along! 

Daily inquiries about volunteering weekends and throughout the summer come in. For me, it‘s always amazing to see how God fits all the puzzle pieces in to put a team together who are eager to accomplish the mission He‘s given us to love Christ and radiate His love.

Positions are quickly filling with returning staff and new staff applying. As well as being blessed with great Canadian staff, there are also a number of international staff applying once again. These applicants hail from Australia, Scotland, France and Germany. We are excited to join together for a concentrated week of Staff Train- ing at the end of June in our effort to train future world leaders and then...

bring on the summer!

-Ann 

Director's News

The first thing that comes to mind is to mention what a wonderful staff we have here and to point out what a great job they are doing. Teen Ranch really is blessed to have some of the most dedicated and en- couraging and supportive people to be found! This is so much more evident when we consider what a difficult and trying year we have faced.

Canada Revenue Agency followed through on their opinion that Teen Ranch does not meet their test of what it means to advance the gospel and officially annulled our charity status in July 2010 removing our ability to issue tax receipts for donations made to Teen Ranch. Teen Ranch now operates as Not for Profit. Tax receipts can still be issued for donations made to the Teen Ranch Foundation, but there are many restrictions as to how this money can be directed to Teen Ranch for it‘s use. We are continuing to work on the details with our lawyers.

We have had to spend approximately $80,000 in fire department upgrades so far this year and have a considerable amount of work still to do.

The economy has been bad, summer camp and weekend group numbers have been down. It could be easy to become discouraged at times, but we hold on to the knowledge that we are in God‘s hands and He is a very big God! 

For over 43 years God has lead us, cared for us and provided for the Ranch‘s needs just at the right time: His time. In the midst of everything, God continues to do His work and we have been very blessed to be able to share the message of Jesus with many people, of different ages, from different backgrounds and situations and even different countries. Being aware of what‘s happening in Japan at the moment, certainly helps put things into perspective for many of us in the midst of our trials. 

Thank you to all of you who continue to support the Ranch in prayer, physical help and finances. God has done a great work here for more than 43 years, touching and changing the lives of many, many people, bringing so many into the Kingdom. Please pray with us that we will continue to walk by faith and be faithful to Him and the awesome work He is doing here.

Blessings, Tim

Let It Shine!

My verse in the Bible is Galatians 2:20. It says, ―I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. This is my favourite verse because it tells us that when we live it shouldn‘t really be us living at all but Christ living in us! When people see Christians walk, talk, and just live in general they should be able to tell that this is Christ living in them. There should be a real differ- ence between Christians and those of the world. How do we make our lives look different? Read Micah 6:8 (another of my favourites) ―And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Alyssa Jansen has been a wonderful addition to our staff letting Christ shine through her everyday!