|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
To Make a Happier Camper
That is why the missionaries of Encouragement Link, who have been running the camp for six years, want to update the facilities and bump it up to the next category. Then, they can schedule more and longer camps.
Sheila Mott, a missionary with Encouragement Link who helps run camp, says most families who send their kids to Elijah Bible Camp could not afford the cost of other camps.
The next nearest camp, about a 50-minute drive away, charged more than $200 for seven days of camp last summer. Elijah Bible Camp’s rate was $65 for five days.
“I would say that most families are probably struggling financially,” Mott said.
Sara Sauve, 18, remembers when she attended Elijah Bible Camp as a child. Back then, she slept in tents and had a hotdog supper over the fire.
“We just pretty much sat around the campfire and whoever was the pastor at the time just kind of gave us a lesson,” she said.
Sauve says she is concerned that improvements will make the place look too nice. “Coming from where it has (been) to where it is now, it’s like luxury,” she said.
Reaching the Unreached
Elijah Bible Camp attracts kids like Sara who like the rustic style. Many come from families who do not regularly attend church.
Last summer, a group of junior-high schoolgirls came as a service team. It was at camp that some of these girls learned of God’s design for sexual purity for the first time. Many lacked a sturdy foundation on which to base their decisions about male-female relationships—a situation that became evident in their interactions with some of the boys at camp.
One night a counselor came to their cabin to present God’s plan of purity and marriage. The girls hung their heads over their bunks or sat helter-skelter on boxes as they listened and asked questions. The next day, they decided that the boys their age were not worth pursuing and made “purity” rings of aluminum foil.
That fall, all but one of these girls returned for a weekend retreat. Again, they gathered in a bunkhouse with flashlights and talked about what they had learned from that summer. Someone who heard their story donated the money to give them each a sturdier purity ring.
“We’ve had several students that come basically with little or no knowledge of who God is, in general or personally to them,” Mott said. “It forces us as a staff then to really make our presentation of spiritual truths very relevant and non-traditional.”
She said teaching occurs all day, through activities, conversations, and seeing real faith lived out in a variety of settings. In the past, staff members have taken campers for walks in the forest to teach them how to praise God. They’ve also taught wilderness survival skills, pointing out that Jesus points true north, and about the need for Him to be their compass even though other forces may draw them away.
She said ministry also takes place in the stillness.
At the end of the day, the generator is turned off and the campers gather around a blazing campfire to review what they learned that day.
Before they leave for bed, they are often told to look up at the dark sky, dazzled with zillions of stars. A few might even declare the same as the psalmist, “The heavens declare the glory of God.”
To make a happier camper
Elijah Bible Camp looks to update itself to serve local community
By Tia Johnson
 | |
|
Elijah Bible Camp leans in a decidedly rural direction in the Upper Midwestern United States
|
Editor's Note: Encouragement Link is a ministry serving the communities surrounding Felch, Mich. Its mission is to carry out a ministry of encouragement and discipleship through nurturing people in their relationships with Christ and others.
When the iron bell outside rings, kids hurry to line up along a tin-covered shelter.
After a prayer, they hustle across the wood-chip floor, douse their palms with hand sanitizer and eagerly hold their plates for hot food concocted in a makeshift cooking area.
When the campers finish, they throw their disposable plates and cups away to be burned at the end of the week. No need to sweep the floor– the squirrels will clean the crumbs up overnight.
This place, Elijah Bible Camp, stands in Michigan’s upper peninsula – an area that contains about 33 percent of Michigan’s land but barely 3 percent of its population.
The communities surrounding the camp were built by loggers and miners in the early 1900s. These industries have diminished severely, leaving behind literal ghost towns that are now marked only by a sign or a single convenience stop.
Many parents here commute 45 minutes to their jobs. Others have continued logging in the woods. Despite the economic struggles, the people here prefer the solitude of the woods to the bustle of the city.
Elijah Bible Camp stands deep in the woods-- what the locals call God’s Country -- about two miles by car from paved streets and electrical poles. To reach it, campers must cross a set of idle railroad tracks and heave down an old rutted logging road, looking out for deer, wild turkeys and the occasional black bear.
Cell phone reception? Have to climb a tree or hill for that.
Rustic Appeal, Updates Needed
Elijah Bible Camp’s natural style makes it unique, but its facilities need to be updated for the staff to make full use of them. For now, the camp operates under the state’s category of “day camp,” meaning campers can stay four nights out of a two-week period. Proposed state codes may cut that down to three nights.
That is why the missionaries of Encouragement Link, who have been running the camp for six years, want to update the facilities and bump it up to the next category. Then, they can schedule more and longer camps.
All improvements made on the camp are funded by donations, and the staff members are volunteers or self-supporting missionaries. Currently the staff is working on a new kitchen. This project was halted for lack of funds after the roof and a few windows were put in last fall.
Right now the kitchen’s dirt floor has a wood platform, where a 30-plus-year-old fridge, freezer and oven stand. A microwave sits with a warning to turn off the lights before use, lest a fuse on the generator blow.The new kitchen lies just north of the current one and may include a walk-in freezer, new appliances and fewer places that squirrels can break in.
These are just a few of the improvements that need to be made. Future projects include a septic system and quieter, non-intrusive source of electricity to replace the noisy generator.
Sheila Mott, a missionary with Encouragement Link who helps run camp, says most families who send their kids to Elijah Bible Camp could not afford the cost of other camps.
The next nearest camp, about a 50-minute drive away, charged more than $200 for seven days of camp last summer. Elijah Bible Camp’s rate was $65 for five days.
“I would say that most families are probably struggling financially,” Mott said.
Sara Sauve, 18, remembers when she attended Elijah Bible Camp as a child. Back then, she slept in tents and had a hotdog supper over the fire.
“We just pretty much sat around the campfire and whoever was the pastor at the time just kind of gave us a lesson,” she said.
Sauve says she is concerned that improvements will make the place look too nice. “Coming from where it has (been) to where it is now, it’s like luxury,” she said.
Reaching the Unreached
Elijah Bible Camp attracts kids like Sara who like the rustic style. Many come from families who do not regularly attend church.
Last summer, a group of junior-high schoolgirls came as a service team. It was at camp that some of these girls learned of God’s design for sexual purity for the first time. Many lacked a sturdy foundation on which to base their decisions about male-female relationships—a situation that became evident in their interactions with some of the boys at camp.
One night a counselor came to their cabin to present God’s plan of purity and marriage. The girls hung their heads over their bunks or sat helter-skelter on boxes as they listened and asked questions. The next day, they decided that the boys their age were not worth pursuing and made “purity” rings of aluminum foil.
That fall, all but one of these girls returned for a weekend retreat. Again, they gathered in a bunkhouse with flashlights and talked about what they had learned from that summer. Someone who heard their story donated the money to give them each a sturdier purity ring.
“We’ve had several students that come basically with little or no knowledge of who God is, in general or personally to them,” Mott said. “It forces us as a staff then to really make our presentation of spiritual truths very relevant and non-traditional.”
She said teaching occurs all day, through activities, conversations, and seeing real faith lived out in a variety of settings. In the past, staff members have taken campers for walks in the forest to teach them how to praise God. They’ve also taught wilderness survival skills, pointing out that Jesus points true north, and about the need for Him to be their compass even though other forces may draw them away.
She said ministry also takes place in the stillness.
At the end of the day, the generator is turned off and the campers gather around a blazing campfire to review what they learned that day.
Before they leave for bed, they are often told to look up at the dark sky, dazzled with zillions of stars. A few might even declare the same as the psalmist, “The heavens declare the glory of God.”
© 2007 Called and Sent Magazine. All international rights reserved.