It's time to get your calendar out!

If you see the value of retreats and summer camps, you should be making your spring/summer lists, checking them twice, and getting signed up before we run out of space! We believe that there's nothing quite like the experience of spending time away with good friends, having fun and hearing about Jesus!

In May, we'll finish up our retreat season and then head straight into June-through-August summer camps. You have only a few weeks left to get your kids signed up for camp! If you get them here, we'll happily and carefully take care of the rest!

APRIL was full!

We had sunny days, a foot of snow, two work groups, two men's retreats, one women's retreat, one church promotion day, one Christian school chapel, and our annual spring women's Scrapbooking Getaway! The work groups from Central Bible and Eden Bible helped us organize the craft room, chop wood, rake needles, and do general clean-up from the trees blown down on our challenge course last December.

The women from Life in Christ Centerput on a fantastic, creative, relational, God-honoring retreat. The men from Vineyard Church in Hood River and First Christian Church in The Dalles pulled great retreats together very well in very little time. It's been fun hosting these adults-feeding them great food, telling our Jonah story, entertaining them with caving, the challenge course, and whatever story Jeff dreams up. We LOVE helping to tailor-make great, godly, life-changing retreats, and we get blessed by the people we meet!

MAY began on Saturday!

How can it be? This weekend the Dining Hall project resumed. The sheet rocking and framing is finished and ready for tape and texturing. Our goal is to have the painting, flooring, serve-through window, tables, and counters done by June 12th! We have two weekend and one mid-week retreat in May, leaving us one weekend to celebrate Mother's Day with our kids and another weekend to give back to our community by giving them May 22nd as a free day to use our Challenge Course! (Call 509-395-2900 to sign up.)

And last, but NOT least, our three staff leaders arrive: Sherri "Daisy" (Duke) Wilson, Sammi "Flutterby" Vestal and Ellie "Ish" Vawser. And when they arrive, it brings reality to the knowledge that it's time to finalize summer camp details and give full attention to our excitement and passion for the camp season!

JUNE, oh, June, oh, June!

When June arrives, so does our marathon season! The first weekend in June, we host an all-night graduation party for Rainier High School. The second weekend in June is our first annual Jonah Family Reunion* AND the day that our summer staff come in. The third weekend in June, campers arrive! And all the dates in between are crammed (happily) with camper registrations, camp details, ordering t-shirts, shopping, planning, praying, singing, finishing projects, fund-raising, communication with staff, parents, employees, volunteers, and sometimes each other! Oh, and we also have a wedding reception here. Can you see that the list is pretty much never-ending?

*Jonah Family Reunion

Paul writes, in the first chapter of Philippians, "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this: that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." What a joy it is to share the Christian journey with our brothers and sisters, partnering in the gospel throughout the years!

Back in March, a handful of girls (now women) who had worked on staff together from 2003 to 2005 got together for a few days to catch up, celebrate a birthday, and snap a few photos. All of us were so encouraged to see each other pursuing the Lord, serving Him in different ways and different cities, and to look back to our days at Jonah as the beginning of these lifelong friendships.

The Jonah Family Reunion is your chance to do the same thing! Whether you were on staff in 2007, a camper in 1998, a donor in 2003, a retreat guest in 2001, or a volunteer for years, come join us for a day of celebrating what God has done through Jonah and what He's still doing in the lives of the people who have come in and out of our doors through the years. There will be field games, memorabilia and photos from the fourteen years of camp, the famous Jonah BBQ, opportunities to share and hear testimonies, tours of our updated (and still in-progress) facilities, and plenty of time to connect with old friends and new!

It's free, it's guaranteed to be a blast for the whole family, and it's coming up soon... June 12, from 1-6 p.m! Please RSVP to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by calling 509-395-2900 by June 1 if at all possible... but if not, come anyway! We'll be waiting to welcome you home.

JULY is 100% summer camps.

In July, every hour of every day is filled with the blissful details of camp. We love and anticipate camps- kind of like the grandkids coming to visit. It's so wonderful and life-changing and precious (and tiring), and we are still awestruck that God allows us to be a part of his camp. Nothing is quite like this experience. We hope your kids can join us this summer! Click here for all our camp information or give us a call at the office. We'd love to answer your questions and tell you all about the great camps being planned for this summer!

Do Hard Things is our theme and 2 Timothy 2:22 is our verse for the summer. Fun + spiritual challenges + great friends + great counselors = Jonah Ministries Summer Camps!

AUGUST is kind of like a false summit.

When you reach the afternoon of the last day of camp, Friday, August 7th, you think you've reached the top, BUT IT KEEPS GOING! In the evening of the same day, set-up begins for the annual Trout Lake Community Fair. The whole town (just a very, very slight exaggeration) shows up on Saturday, there's a community church service on Sunday, and our next group shows up on Thursday. In August, we host groups 26 out of 31 days! And then
it's fall. Whew. It made me tired just to type this!

The worst part of August for me is saying good-bye to the summer staff as soon as the fair is over. It is heart-wrenching to see them go. We spend all summer working together and then in an abrupt instance, they're gone. Ministry naturally lends itself to ups-and-downs, but it's full of innumerable blessings- for which we are so grateful.

A few things we think you should consider:

• Bringing a retreat group to Jonah!
• Sending your kids to Jonah summer camps!
• Bringing your whole family to our Jonah Family Reunion on June 12th!
• Attending our first True North Family Weekend, May 28-31!
• Bringing your 1st-4th grade grandkids to our Grandparent Camp!

Praises:

1. We're grateful for a very full retreat season!
2. We're grateful for all that the two work groups accomplished!
3. We're grateful for two new men's retreat groups this month!
4. We're grateful for the twenty-eight women who attended the Scrapbooking Getaway this weekend and for summer camp registrations. We're also grateful for so many re-bookings from our retreat groups!
5. We're grateful for the new cargo trailer donated from Trailer City for our new Mudd Creek Paintball Course. Thank you, Don & Karen!
6. We're also so grateful to Austin & Denise Bell for building and equipping this paintball course- so that we can use it with our campers and guests! What a great addition to our ministry!

Prayer Requests:

1. Please pray often for the kids that will come to our summer camps- for bulging camps, for kids to make decisions to follow Jesus, and for safety.
2. Please pray for our summer staff- that God would bless them financially, that they could finish this school year strong, that this will be a life-changing summer for them.
3. Please pray for the gaps left in our summer camp program- for God to choose who and whatin His time and in His way, and that we won't be impatient.
4. Please pray for safety and for good health.
5. Please pray for finances to finish the Dining Hall and pour asphalt so we can put up the Igloo before June 12th.
6. Please pray for gifts to come in toward our summer staff scholarship fund.
7. Please pray often for wisdom for our board of directors.
8. Please pray for us to spend quality time with our families, while still doing a good job with our ministry.
9. Please pray for us to spend quality time with Jesus and to listen to and obey Him.