About Us :: Staff Profiles

Les & Val Klassen, Directors of Campfire Ministries & Camp Bob

Les & Val have recently returned from 4 years of missionary service in Mexico to take on the directorship of Campfire Ministries and Camp Bob. As part of International Discipleship Training in Vicente Guerrero, Baja Mexico, they directed the house building program that provided housing for impoverished indigenous Mexican people.

Prior to going to Mexico, Les was employed as a professional driver, hauling bulk milk from the Comox Valley to Island Farms in Victoria. Val worked as the Administrative Assistant at Puntledge Park Elementary School in the Comox Valley.

Both Les and Val volunteered in youth ministry much of their married life, and their passion for camp ministry began early on.

In 1976, Les was one of the first, along with several of his peers, to pioneer a "Day Camp" program out of the Black Creek MB Church. They would meet in the church parking lot and pile into whatever vehicles were available and head out into God's spectacular playground. Out-tripping became a way through which kids could experience God in nature and have fun while getting to know who God is and how much He loves them.

In 1995, Pastors of the Black Creek MB Church, Barry & Sandy Falk, began a similar Day Camp program called Campfire Ministries. Les & Val came alongside for several summers to help them. Once again, out-tripping became the way to experience God in nature. By 2001, Campfire Ministries had grown to the point where it became necessary to look for a base site for the expanding summer program. A Board of Directors was formed, and together, Campfire Ministries established Camp Bob on Roberts Lake. Les became the first Chair of the Board of Campfire Ministries, and remained in that position until the summer of 2005 when he and Val left for Mexico.

In 2004, Les & Val pioneered the first Adult Campfire Adventure Challenge, taking 5 couples on a 5 day canoe trip on the Sayward Forest Lake chain. In 2005 they ran a second Adventure Challenge canoe trip and added a separate 5 day hike into Cape Scott. They have a passion to see the Adventure Challenge program expand, offering many more backcountry experiences to adults wishing to experience camp at a whole new level.

They are excited to have been asked to take on the position of Directors of Campfire Ministries and Camp Bob, and while their heart for missions has not changed, their location has. The North Island is another mission field … and with Camp Bob already established on Roberts Lake, it will become the springboard to take them and Campfire Ministries into another frontier.