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“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who built it labor in vain…” Psalm 127:1 has been used to many times to encourage families to keep the Lord as the foundational center piece of their lives, family, and home. That is a wonderful application of this verse but the same principle applies to all of the Christian life. We are to bring glory and honor to Jesus Christ in everything we do, even eating and drinking says the Apostle Paul.
That is our goal at Cedar Lake Camp. We want to point people to God and set their feet on “paths of righteousness for His namesake.” Many people have embraced the forgiveness and salvation offered through Christ while at camp. To accomplish this goal there some essentials needed. First of all, our staff is amazing. Most summer staff were campers then transitioned into staff life at CITs on up to Counselor. Secondly, our program has barely changed over the last 77 years…and that’s a good thing. Brother Geiger, who founded camp, did not need fancy high-tech gadgets to offer children an exceedingly fun and spiritually impactful week. We still operate with a simple modus operandi: safe, fun, and Christ-centered. And of course we need funds to facilitate these functions (thank you donors!).
The last practical item of camp’s success I wish to highlight are facilities. We can have all the lofty goals in the world but without a place to carry them out we are stuck. I praise the Lord for our 84 acres and all the buildings and structures on it. Over these last few years we have added to those facilities. In 2014 we introduced Woolly Mammoth– a brand new cabin with all the bells and whistles (literally)! Last year Cabin 10 (A.K.A Bobcat) received a renovation and was used to house young people, not just bunk bed ladders. This year, we are pleased to announce Cabin 9 (Marsh Beaver) also received a face-lift and is very close to completion.
I hope you saw our social media post about breaking ground on ANOTHER brand new cabin just a few weeks ago. This one will live right beside the Mammoth and is almost as big. The cabin’s shell, made of kiln-dried cedar logs, was donated as a kit through a friend from Maine. Footers and foundation are completed along with the subfloor. This newest gem is named Behemoth (read Job 40…).
Two more items for which we have longed are a gym and new pool. These, by far, are the biggest projects we’ve ever tackled. After years of praying and planning we now have the first step complete- professional plans! I’m saving most of the details for a later reveal but I’ll tell you the gym alone is almost 12,000 sq. ft and the pool is connected to the outside of it. Like most of our projects, this will require fundraising and a lot of it. We’re talking mucho dinero. Please pray about how you may be a part of any of these projects. As I’ve always said, for excellent camps we need excellent facilities.
Buildings may not be the most fun thing in the world to talk about but they are necessary tools. They’re not for us anyways. They’re for the children and guests who enjoy Cedar Lake Camp. Psalm 127:3 tells us “children are a heritage from the Lord.” As we enter our 77th year, we look forward to continuing the legacy of passing the gospel of Jesus to the next generation and building on this heritage. We should never seek to build empires in ministry but rather we add to the Kingdom.
Summer is just around the corner and we are gearing up to meet it head on. However, Cedar Lake Camp does so much more than summer camp. From mid-January to Spring Break we hosted After School Adventures at a local church to reach out to children in our community with the gospel. Each week was infused with games, snacks, homework, and Bible lessons all leading up to Spring Camp over the break.
Each camp that we do is different, whether it’s spring, summer, fall, or international. With Spring Camp the weather is usually cold, the grass is brown, the swimming pool is empty, but some things never change; Campers are still campers, the staff is still close knit, activities are still fun, and the Bible is always taught.
This year was no different. Carley, our fabulous intern, lead the charge with the Bible teaching. Leading the campers from Egypt to Sinai, she expounded God’s word from the second half of the book of Exodus. Spring Camp obviously has smaller numbers for campers and staff, but the impact can be just as great as we go into it with the intent to love on our campers as Christ has loved us. As for the cold weather, it really seemed to only bother me because the campers were more than excited to get out and enjoy the activities of camp, including splashing in a canoe and even searching for crawfish in the creek.
One unique thing about our fall and spring camps is that they are day camps only, so in the evening we get the opportunity to invest in the staff a little bit more. This year my wife, Megan, led the staff through a study to help them learn to be wise in their interactions with our culture. In a culture that seems to be shifting more and more away from Biblical values, it is important that we learn to interact with the culture without letting it shake us from the solid rock of Biblical truth. As we move into the summer we intend to continue to stand firm on that foundation of truth, teaching it and reinforcing it among our staff and all the campers that God sends our way.