Pizza and Games night. Whoot!!!

 This past Saturday, Calvin once again had some fun eating pizza and playing games. 

Enjoy the pics.  

We were supposed to start at 6 p.m. on Saturday, but some late arrivals got us going at 6:15 : )  People waited semi-patiently for the pizza. 

We had several varieties of pizza, 

along with healthy veggies. 

We had juuuusssstttt enough. 

And then, well, it was 

GAME TIME!!!!  

I'm not sure what this one was.  

Catan here

Neanderthals??? 

Banana Grams! 

Apples to Apples! 

Mexican Train? 

A traditional game of Scrabble. 

Even Chess!!! 

All in all, another great intergenerational night of food and fun.  Until next year D.V. 

Calvin's GEMS and CADET Cub Car Construction and Races!

 Welcome back to my blog. 

Today, we focus on another annual tradition at Calvin.  Something that requires skill, ingenuity, and a bit of luck : ) 

CUB CARS!!!! 

Once again, the GEMS and Cadets took a Thursday evening to make their coveted Cub Car that would hopefully bring notoriety and fame to the builder : ) 

The next Thursday the races happened with the results bringing joy and some sadness as well.  But all in all, it was another fun event.  Enjoy the pictures and short video clips below.  

Construction begins.  

Lots of cutting and sanding take place.  

A quick way to dry the paint : ) 

Parents participated as well 

Weights need to be added to give the cars a bit of a push.  But there are stringent weight guidelines. 

Construction continues.  

The next week were the races. 

Cars were weighed, registered, and given a number. 

The infamous track is set up. 

I think this thing is like 30 years old or more!! : ) 

The registration line is getting long : ) 

Some of the finished cars. 

Nice work. 

Let the races begin. 

There were some close races.  

The trophies. 

Fastest Car

Best Looking Car

and one other thing. hhmmm 

That can be found in last year's blog entry :) 

Time to give out the trophies.  

Shawn gave the Cadets a special trophy for coming in 3rd place at the snow derby this year.  

Great effort boys.  

The trophies have been awarded. 

Below are some quick videos of the races to give you an idea of how close some were. 

Calvin's Annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser - February 2026

 

Welcome back to my Blog. 

We continue our ministry year with yet another regularly scheduled fellowship/ministry event.  Our Youth and others held our annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser. 

It has become a well-liked annual event here, and this one was no exception. 

We are not doing a Learning Opportunity this March Break, so this year I decided we would raise funds for our youth for other ministry events they could go to, as well as for two ministries in Ottawa:

1. The Ottawa Mission 

2. Ottawa Innercity Ministries (OIM) 

This year, we held the event on Saturday, February 7th.  

We had two sittings again at 8 and 9:15 a.m.  

If you want to know stats about all the breakfasts we have done to date, please check out last year's blog entry.   

This Saturday morning was bitterly cold and windy, but people still came out, which was nice to see. 

We started at 6 a.m. on Saturday morning.   Setting up the fellowship hall for 45 persons in the first sitting and 84 in the second. 

This year we decided to prepare the fruit in the morning, and it seemed to work out quite well.   We did that from 6 to 7 a.m. more or less.  

Phil was in charge of the kitchen crew once again and I took charge of the fellowship hall and servers.  

It takes a while to get things set up every year, but eventually things get done.  

This year we involved our youth, as well as some young adults and adults.  A total of about 17 people helped make the breakfast happen. Everyone always works hard and I really appreciate the effort put in to put on a quality breakfast.  

Everyone is still working hard on the fruit. 

I always like the end result.  

The colours are nice.  : )

The fellowship hall is pretty much ready to accept our guests. 

The fruit is ready, and placed in the fridge and now it's time to get the stoves and griddles going. 

Oh, and yes, we forgot to put coffee mugs out, so Rohan and Alex did that for us. 

Here's a fun video of Rohan and Alex getting the mugs onto the cart : ).  

Uhhhhh, soooooo Rohan, you can tell you were pretty tired today as you arrived : ).  Nice parking job.  It was fun to see people block you in and not know what to do about your car : ).  

Ola and Emily are discussing batter preparation : ) 

Freya is getting the fruit ready for the tables. 

A row of cooks.  I like this picture : ) 

Megan and Chelsey are getting syrup,  butter and jam ready for the tables.   

Emma and Anika start making batter and whipped cream.  

And our FIRST guest of the morning. 

Phil M.  Whoot! 

Yes, Nathan and Margaret and family did show up, but a few minutes too late : ) 

Our first shift is well underway.  

We had a special guest this morning.  Pastor Ji and family were visiting for the weekend.   Pastor Ji is getting to know us, and we him, to discern if our paths will merge as we are looking for another Pastor to round out our ministry staff.  

They all enjoyed the breakfast quite well and got to meet many Calvin"ites".  : ) 

The food is always good, as is the fellowship.  

This year the menu was Pannekoeken, Fruit, Blueberry Pancakes as well as just plain regular pancakes, real and not so real syrup : ), and Orange Juice, coffee and tea (well not really tea as I tried to cheat and warm water in a smaller coffee urn.  NOT recommended :) )   

I always love the way our church community comes together in events like this and just spends time socializing and having fun.   This year we had people from several other churches show up, having been invited by others.   Even some who have found fellowship in other churches over the past year or so.  

Fellowship, fellowship, fellowship  : ) 

Ola making sure we have lots of regular pancakes.  

Matt came with Anika and stuck around to help us out.  THANK YOU very much.  

Holden becoming a master Pannekoeken maker : ) 

Our second sitting filled up the fellowship hall.  

It was wonderful : ) 

Fellowship, fellowship, fellowship : )

And before we knew it, it was time to start cleaning up.  All in all, another successful breakfast. 

We even had some younger folk and families help out in the cleanup.  It was nice to watch the intergenerational relationships happen.  

Those who came out enjoyed it. 

Those who helped cook and serve were amazing!!

We managed to raise just under $3800 before expenses and $3310 after expenses.

These funds will be used to bless youth as well as the ministries mentioned above.  

Thank you to ALLLLLLL who came out to support, to fellowship, and to enjoy good food : ) 

Until next year D.V.