Amigo Centre and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) care deeply about the formation of your youth.  MCC is working to find new opportunities to offer resources for peace education with children, youth and young adults and we believe that fits perfectly with Amigo’s vision of connecting people to God, creation and each other.  We have decided to partner together for a Winter Youth Retreat (WYR) and we are so excited.
​
This retreat will be February 1-3, 2019, and the title is “Weaving our story with God’s story”.  In an era where the US context finds young people struggling with depression, addiction to technology and a lack of authentic, vulnerable relationships, we believe it is important to reflect on the importance and validity of each person’s unique story and how that is part of God’s community.  We will be using stories from the book of Luke to learn about what God’s community looks like.

Steve Wiebe-Johnson, Director for Africa for Mennonite Mission Network, will lead the sessions for our weekend and Nathan Grieser, Director of The Shalom Project in Lancaster, PA, will lead our worship.  Jes Stoltzfus Buller, Peace Education Coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee, will also be with us during the weekend, helping with input, workshops and activities.  

Here are a few of the key differences that might interest you:
-Youth from Middle School through High School are welcome, so you can bring ALL your youth to this one retreat!
-We are hoping to get a larger diversity of participants to this retreat.  Stipends will be offered for youth groups that needs financial support to bring their youth, especially congregations that come from further distances away.  
-Throughout the weekend we will have hands-on workshops that engage youth in creative ways on topics related to community building.  
-We will have materials and give-a-ways for youth to remember their learnings with.

We hope you will consider joining us for this exciting weekend of growing.  E Come weave your story with God’s story at Winter Youth Retreat, February 1-3, 2019.

As we have celebrated Thanksgiving we want to thank all of our supporters for their generosity and support of our ministry. We could not provide children with a camp experience without their support. We asked a few of our volunteers and donors why they give their time and resources to Amigo Centre. All have different ways they've given in the past but all point to the relationships between God, his creation and each other as reasons they give. 

We hope these stories inspire you to consider making a donation
​
"We give to Amigo because of all Amigo has given to us. I found both a community and a home at Amigo during my seven years on summer staff. When I interned after college and helped with Outdoor Education, Women's Retreats, and Summer Camp, I recognized the belonging felt by each child, young adult, and adult who came through Amigo's various programs.  Now that I've moved away from Sturgis, every visit to Amigo is like coming home.  My husband and I enjoy spending weekends at Amigo as volunteer hosts, catching up with old friends and basking in the beauty of the marsh.  We know how much of a blessing Amigo has been to us, and we continue to donate time and money so that others can receive that blessing, too."

-Emily & Micah Hunsberger

​Oh, We're from Amigo, And we're on the best team, We do the watusi, We're 7 feet tall....Amigo is my home away from home and it has been that since I first stepped onto camp property when I was 8 years old.  Ever since that first week of camp, I haven't stopped coming to Amigo.  Amigo is where I have learned so much about God, nature, others, and myself and that is priceless to me.  I donate to Amigo because I want others, especially children, to be able to learn about the same things I did and more. Amigo has and will continue to be a place I support both through donating my time and money and I hope others will consider Amigo as a place to donate what they are able to....Mosquitos may eat us, But they'll never beat us, Cuz we're from Amigo, And we're on the ball!
-Alisha Snyder

"It is so peaceful out here, I could stay out here all day”, I think that often, but these words spoken from the stern of our canoe, came from a 6th grade boy who just twenty minutes before this was so fearful, he wasn’t sure he wanted to canoe.  After practicing his steering skills in the lagoon, as our group paddled out onto the placid waters of Perrin Lake, he experienced the transformation from fear to confidence and from trepidation to elation.  This is the power of providing Outdoor / Environmental Education experiences for students in today’s culture.

Other highlights from the fall O/EE program include…

… an overnight Wilderness Experience for the Bethany Christian 8th graders on Beaver Island that included cooking meals over a campfire and an intentional session of learning and practicing canoe rescue skills.

…having two groups achieve Zero Waste at a meal time. The 28 fifth graders, staff and chaperones from St John the Evangelist Catholic School in Goshen had zero food waste at one meal.  Then the 27 sixth graders from St Vincent DePaul Catholic School from Elkhart set the bar high by achieving zero food waste at all three of their meals!  Impressive!

…an overnighter with our Homeschool Nature Study Program 6th-8th graders on Beaver Island in October that involved finishing construction of debris shelters that eight of the students slept in, even though the overnight temperatures dipped into the low 40’s.  Exciting to have the five breakfast groups all accomplish starting their cooking fires using flint and steel, rather than matches.  An amazing accomplishment!

So blessed to have wrapped up a safe and memorable fall O/EE season!
​
Written by Cheryl K. Mast, Coordinator of Outdoor / Environmental Education