A gift from God

A gift from God:
Carolina summer camp
moves to higher ground

By Shane Bazer
Assistant camp director

CARY, North Carolina—Last summer at our North Carolina summer camp at Campbell University I got a strong prompting that I should look for more camplike facilities for 2003.

Our summer camp was good, but being housed on a college campus in a place where temperatures usually reach 100 degrees wasn’t ideal.

In discussion with Greg Williams, camp director, we decided to ask the campers and staff to dedicate a day of prayer and maybe fasting during the second week of August, for God to lead the efforts and to put us where we could best serve him.

I spent nearly 75 hours searching the Internet for camp facilities, calling conference and retreat centers and searching high and low for potential facilities. The Carolinas have great camp facilities, but they are in high demand. Of the 200 or so camps I found, about a dozen might have an open week and the facilities we needed. My family packed our bags and headed off on a three day, 700 mile journey across the state.

We saw several facilities, although none were overly impressive. When looking for a particular camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I took a wrong turn and saw a sign for Look-Up Lodge, a nondenominational Christian retreat facility.

The large lodge sits on a bluff, overlooking a gorgeous, expansive lake. This was a full camp facility on 230 acres with rooms and cabins (all air conditioned) that can house more than 300. It has a double zip line over the lake, paddle boats and canoes, a three person harness swing, volleyball, tennis and basketball courts, miniature golf, a soccer field, low ropes, a game room and even paint ball. A chapel sits on the bluff on the opposite side of the lake. I don’t think I could design a better summer camp if I tried.

The camp manager said they run a full summer camp program, but do rent out the facility during the Fourth of July week to give their counseling staff a break. She had just received word that the church group that had rented that week for several years would not be returning in 2003. But, she was quick to note that at least 10 other groups had asked to be put on the waiting list.

When we arrived home I gave Greg a glowing report about Look-Up. I quickly sent an e-mail to my list of 150 youths and youth workers in the region telling them what I had found and asked them to pray specifically for this one possibility. I have experienced the power of prayer many times, so I still had hope.

It turned out that Greg grew up in Hendersonville, North Carolina, which is only 20 miles away from this facility, and he had taken his preteen group to one of Look-Up’s weekend camps on two occasions. Greg had contacted Look-Up for our 2002 camp but they told him it was full and that an opening in the near future would be unlikely.

A couple of weeks after my initial visit, Greg and I went back to Look-Up to have another meeting with their staff. Their camp director recognized Greg and we spent a couple of hours talking about camp ministry and other details. At the end of our meeting it was apparent that both of our visions for youth ministry were the same.

When we were leaving, Kathy, the booking manager, said that she would know in about four weeks whether any of the other groups would want the facility.

Surprisingly, the next morning Kathy called me and offered us the camp for that week. She said their staff prayed about it and just felt right about having us there. She said they wanted a group with whom they could build a long-term relationship and could see us being there and growing with them for many years.

Because of the size of the facility we will be able to lower the camper age to 10 years and will probably be able to accommodate parents and drivers (for a fee) who would like to spend the holiday week worshiping and growing with us on higher ground.

For more details, see www.carolinacamp.com

LOOK-UP LODGE—Site of SEP Carolina 2003.

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