Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Dining Hall Update

Some people noticed that although we promised a Dining Hall update with pictures last week, last week’s article did not deliver. We apologize for the delay, and to make up for it, we have a ton of pictures here in a slideshow for you below this article! Don’t worry if you miss the first few pictures, as at the end of the slideshow it will offer you the opportunity to replay the show.

The workers have done quite a bit of work since the last update. About half of the Dining Hall’s exterior has siding on it, and the interior has drywall. Right now, our maintenance guys are painting the inside of the building, and it is really starting to look good! They are pouring new sidewalks as well, since the building is bigger and the doors are in different places now. It is so exciting to see how the whole project is coming together, and we are looking forward to a facility that will be comfortable and inviting for both our guests and our food service staff.



We would also like to share one prayer request with you. We are headed into two weeks of Youth Camp. We have a very creative program planned, but it will take a lot of energy to pull it off. Please pray that our staff will receive extra strength and energy during these two weeks, and that many Junior High and High School students will make life-changing decisions as a result of the ministry. Thank you for your prayers!

Monday, July 12, 2010

1 Mountain Top Experience

16,000 Guests

305 Beds

86 Acres

34 Recreation options

23 Staff Members

6 Weeks of Summer

1 mountain top experience!

The mission of Prescott Pines is to provide a place away from the distractions of this world, where you can hear the Word of God and encounter Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Midway Through

It is the halfway point of the summer, and the days are flying by! Two remarkable camps that happen each year around this time challenge us to renew our focus for the rest of the summer.

The first camp group is the Riviera Baptist Church Youth Group. This year, twenty-five youth and adult counselors left the heat of Bullhead City to work and sweat in the cool pines instead! They have a number of projects on their list, including painting the Maintenance Shop and a portion of the Kitchen that we are remodeling as a part of the Dining Hall construction project. Both the Kitchen and the Dining Hall will match – a minor miracle in the camping world! The Riviera group always does an impressive amount of work during their visit to camp, and inspires us with their energy.

The second camp is our annual Angel Tree camp ministry, a program where we partner with Calvary Chapel in Phoenix to give the children of inmates a chance to go to camp. As you may already know, the Angel Tree program is a part of Prison Fellowship’s ministry. This program connects the families of inmates with churches who can help them. Dan and Susan Olney, the faithful leaders of the camping program at Calvary, say that the ultimate goal of the program is reconciliation – reconciling the inmates to Christ and the families to each other upon the inmate’s release.


Angel Tree camper Chyann with her new friends

Prescott Pines has the honor of having 46 Angel Tree campers with us this week, supporting Calvary Chapel’s valuable ministry. In many ways, this is the most difficult week of the summer. These kids are some of the toughest, neediest kids we will encounter all season long. However, in many ways, this is the best week of the summer. There are always a number of salvation decisions, and that is just the encouragement we need to keep on serving.

As we enter the second half of our summer, please pray for our staff and campers to remain healthy and uninjured. A few bumps and bruises are inevitable during the course of a summer, and we are grateful that we have not had any significant injuries thus far. However, some of the summer staffers are starting to get sore throats and we do not want illnesses to develop that would take our staff away from the ministry opportunities before them. Thank you for your prayers!


Friday, July 2, 2010

Surprised?

Prescott Pines Camp was surprised recently to receive a donation of $500 from the men’s group at Calvary Chapel in Surprise, AZ. This is the first time in recent history that a non-SWCBA church donated to the camp! We enjoy hosting this great group of guys annually, and greatly appreciate their investment in "their" camp.

Our second week of Frontier Village Camp saw ten children make first-time decisions for Christ! While we are very excited for these new believers, these decisions are not a surprise. We have designed the Frontier Village program very carefully to help kids hear the voice of God, and every child who attends camp has an opportunity to respond. Year after year, God has used the ministry of Frontier Village to speak to children and draw them to Himself. We are humbled and grateful to be a part of His work in these children’s lives, and while we expect to see God work, we never take it for granted.

Surprise! There are no pictures of the dining hall again this week! Rest assured, we are making progress on the project. Workers are putting up drywall on the inside of the building and applying wood siding to the outside. Stay tuned next week for new pictures – we think you will be surprised at what you see!

Sometimes it seems like all of the good surprises only happen at camp, but we know that God has special blessings for each of us, even in our everyday lives. We challenge you to watch for God’s surprises this week as you serve Him faithfully. Please feel free to post your surprise as a comment on this blog - we would love to hear from you!