History
The Dream
campusfire began with one student's passion to communicate hope and life to his peers. In 1998, Darian Kovacs [then in Grade 11] looked at his school and saw a growing number of students wrestling to find hope and real life. With this growing awareness and concern for his friends, Darian started a prayer group in his school, inviting Christians to pray for the school and their peers. The response was overwhelming, and the prayer group grew and thrived through his last two years in high school.
From his experience, Darian began to dream about Christian students across Canada leading prayer groups and building relationships with the un-churched in their schools. Without tangible resources, a plan, a web site or a team, this dream began to unfold into a reality when Darian connected with Josh Weidmann, a student from Columbine, Colorado. Also a student, Josh had founded Revival Generation, an American ministry with a similar vision for prayer in his nation's schools. Over the next year, through their new friendship and shared vision, God created, blessed, and began to build the new Canadian ministry, canadafire.
The Reality
As Darian began his first year at the University of Victoria, canadafire was growing rapidly. He used the phone in his basement suite to talk with contacts and take orders; he used the university computer lab to email contacts, the 7-11 post office to mail out booklets and videos, and his student loan money to fund the ministry. That year, someone in Darian's church bought and built the web site, canadafire.org, carrying the cost and giving the ministry a new face and a new nation-wide presence.
Next came the tools to equip canadafire's student leaders. Darian met with Mark Dowds, an experienced youth leader and founder of Freshresource, a ministry committed to developing and producing resources for the emerging generation. Freshresource had what canadafire was looking for: resources relevant to Canadians and geared towards helping youth communicate effectively and authentically with their peers. Mark also helped equip Darian to build up his core team to share canadafire's vision and train others.
With a solid foundation, canadafire continued to grow. Through another divine appointment, Darian met with businessman Ed Becker for pie during the summer of 2000. During their conversation, Ed told Darian that he believed in the mission of canadafire, and that he would help fund its growth and expansion. And so it was that canadafire had tangible resources, a plan, a web site and a team.
Since 2000 canadafire branched out into hosting a Youth Workers conference, partnering with Christian Info Society to produce a magazine, leading See You at the Pole Canada, launching Challenge Sunday in Canada and producing some quality resources and a yearly training weekend called campusfire.
July of 2008 the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada partnered with canadafire by absorbing all the student and campus ministries of canadafire. canadafire now focuses on Youth Worker training and resources while campusfire focuses on campus ministry and student resources and training.
Today, campusfire consists of a core team of experienced student leaders, a board of directors, and hundreds of students within schools across Canada, part of the campusfire network. The dream continues to come to life, as many students are being trained, resourced, and supported to impact their schools.