Thank you so very much for your gift to the camp ministry! Together, we are providing a Christian camping environment that challenges youth and adults to love and serve Christ, and we simply can’t do it without you. Like loaves and fishes, God multiplies your gifts to bless 1,000 campers and hundreds of adults each year.

April and May are a couple of our busiest months as we prepare for the camping season. We have trees to plant, lawns to roll, cabins to clean, trees to cut, wood to split, mulch to grind, sports equipment to prepare, a sand volleyball court to build, gravel to spread, rooms to paint, buildings to clear, picnic tables to move, roofs to paint, septic systems to clean, trails to clear, Open House to prepare for, a pool to clean and fill, and the list goes on!  It could be overwhelming! But God is blessing us with some 45 congregations who will be bringing volunteers to help with these projects and more. What a joy it is to work together with brothers and sisters in the Lord’s work!

In such a busy season, it would be easy to focus so much on lists and projects that we lose sight of the goal. So please pray for us and with us that we will do it all for the glory of the Lord and that we’ll remember that we are working to make LaMoine Christian Service Camp and Retreat Center a place “Where Friends Meet Jesus”.

Serving Our Savior Together,

Jon Gillespie, Facilities Manager

Is the February weather giving you the “winter blues”? Well, let me share with you some exciting news from the camp that is sure to have you experiencing “spring fever” in no time. We just completed our new and improved 2008 Summer Camp registration brochure and it is ready to go to the printer. Later this week, I will be meeting with our T-shirt distributor to pick out colors and to order this year’s summer camp T-shirts. Jon is working on the list of Spring Cleaning Projects for our churches in order to prepare the buildings and grounds for the summer camp season. Before you know it, on March 13th, we will be kicking off our summer youth camp promotion season with a dessert meeting at the camp.

The camp’s theme for 2008 is “Where Friends Meet Jesus”. Along with the theme we will be using the promise of Jesus from Matt.18:20, “Where 2 or 3 are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.” We really want to emphasize for kids and their parents that LaMoine Christian Service Camp is a place where friends can come to hear about and personally experience Jesus. The presence of Jesus is such a reality at camp every summer and our kids are searching for what can make a difference in their lives. Let’s do everything we can to direct them to the camp this summer so that they can meet the One who died for them that they might live a truly abundant life.

We appreciate your gift so much and I hope that it warms your soul to know that you have chosen to support a ministry that is so very effective in reaching youth and adults for Christ. Christian camping and retreat experiences provide opportunities for youth and adults to cultivate a love for God like nothing else can. We are so blessed to have this camp in our own back yard. May we always be thankful for this blessing and may we continue to give our best to this ministry.

Thank you for your financial gift to the camp. The year of 2007 is behind us, a new year has begun, and you continue to give to this ministry. What a blessing our Christian camping ministry partners are. It is because of the regular and generous support of so many that the camp has been and continues to be such a vibrant ministry.

It is also because of your continued financial, volunteer, and prayer support that we can confidently make plans for the future of the camp. I believe in Ephesians we are given a glimpse of what the camp’s potential is, and what it will take for us to reach it.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we ask or think.
Eph. 3:20 (NLT)

The potential for this ministry is even greater than you or I can imagine. That is exciting! What is equally exciting is that God would choose to work through us to reach this unfathomable potential. I believe that by claiming this promise from God and allowing His mighty power to work through us, we can be confident that tremendous blessings are in the camp’s future. I thank you again for your willingness to join God, me, and so many others in the life-changing work of the camp. May God bless you all in 2008 and may God continue to bless LaMoine Christian Service Camp.

Dear Friends of LaMoine Christian Camp,

Once again December finds me delivering to you “Good News”. It was last year at this time that I reported to you the camp’s hiring of Jon Gillespie as our Facilities Manager. What a joy it has been getting to know Jon and Laurel this past year, and what a fantastic job Jon has been doing around the camp. This December, the “Good News” is that we will be making our last loan payment to the bank this month. What a tremendous blessing and what a great accomplishment we have all been a part of. I thank you for your prayers and for giving toward the camp’s goal of once again being debt free.

Certainly, our job is not yet done and the physical and financial needs of the camp are not complete. There is still much we can do to make LaMoine Christian Service Camp the best summer youth camp and year-round retreat destination it can be in order to reach as many young people for Christ as possible. Even now, we are working on plans for Phase II of our Stewardship Program; plans to improve some of the camp’s current buildings (bath domes, chapel, old dining hall, etc.). But for now, let us celebrate this most recent blessing. Let us be thankful to God, and let us be humbled by the care that He displays to the ministry work of the camp.

As always, I thank you for your financial gift to the camp. The camp staff also wishes you a Merry Christmas and a blessed Holiday Season with your family and friends, and may we all pray for God’s hand of grace and care to be continually over our children.

Thank you for your financial gift to the camp. The financial support of our ministry partners has allowed us to continue growing and making camp improvements for more than 60 years. Your sacrificial giving has also reduced the camp debt to less than $5,000.00. What a blessing it is to serve in an area where so many are committed to the local camp ministry; a ministry that has a direct positive impact in both our churches and in the lives of our youth.

Over the next couple of months, Jon and I will be taking part in several growth opportunities. On November 12th & 13th, we will be at the IL State Minister’s retreat in Lincoln, IL. Here we will promote the camp as a retreat destination for Illinois churches. In December, we will go to the IL Camp Worker’s Gathering at Lake Springfield Christian Assembly. Here we will connect with other IL camp workers to share ideas and discuss Christian camping trends in Illinois. We will also piggyback onto these conferences visits to other Christian camps in Illinois to see their buildings and grounds and to gather ideas that may transfer to our work here at LaMoine. Toward the end of January, we will go to the Christian Camp Leader’s Conference in Ashville, NC. This conference will be filled with training opportunities in all facets of Christian camping as well as worship and fellowship with Christian camping professionals from all over the nation. Please pray for Jon and me as we seek additional knowledge, insight, and inspiration in order to serve God and you more fully here at LaMoine Christian Service Camp. Thank you and may you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving time with family and friends.

Thank you for your financial contribution to the camp. We just completed the 2006-07 Fiscal Year and once again our financial partners contributed significantly toward funding our ministry work. Throughout the year we received financial gifts from churches and individuals, from Area Fellowship Meetings, from Memorial and “In honor of” gifts, as well as receiving financial gifts for new mattresses and to pay down our debt.

Let me briefly update you on some of our fiscal year-end financials:

• 2006-07 Income budget was $284,500, we received $291,361
• 2006-07 Expense Budget was $294,500, we spent $275,567
• Combined we ended the 2006-07 Fiscal Year more than $25,000 to the good
• Ending cash balance on September 30, 2007 was $34,324
• The Camp debt October 1, 2006 was $137,500+, the Camp debt September 30, 2007 was $20,600+, nearly $117,000 less

I thank you again for your faithful support of this ministry. The blessings from the past year are exciting and encouraging to me as well as to the Camp Board and other camp staff. With the fullness of joy, we will all continue to serve God, you, and the campers and guests of LaMoine Christian Service Camp & Retreat Center in the next year.

The summer camp season has come to a close and once again we were witnesses to God’s special care and the work of His Spirit. Here are just a few of our blessings to share:

• Great weather (although the last week was very hot)
• 1000 youth campers, 337 faculty, and numerous other volunteers
• 46 Baptisms, 61 Rededications and requests for special prayer
• $8,552.20 given towards Missions
• No major mechanical breakdowns or facility repairs required
• No major camper injuries
• 1 newborn baby delivered on-site

What a great summer! All made possible by the Grace of God and your prayers, gifts, and volunteer efforts. Thank you so much for being such a vital part of this ministry work. Please mark your calendar for Thursday night, October 11th when we will be having our Pancake Supper and Annual Meeting. All you can eat pancakes and sausages will be served from 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The Annual Meeting will start promptly at 7:00 p.m. and last about 1 hour. Hope to see you then.

What a beautiful day it is today! We have clear skies, a cool morning breeze, and a forecast of temperatures in the mid 80’s. Today we are also blessed with 88 soon to be 4th graders, and the volunteer Dean and faculty needed to teach our campers about Jesus and His love for them.

Summer youth camp is continuing to go great. After the 4th, we will have finished the first half of our season and we have already witnessed many blessings: several baptisms in our swimming pool, spectacular Missions offerings, kids receiving their first Bible and others hearing of Jesus for the very first time. It’s still too early to tell, but it looks like we will be near 1000 campers once again this year.

I thank you for helping to make the blessings of this camp season possible. I know God produces the growth of His Kingdom, but you are one of many who help to provide this place where He does so much work each and every summer. I also ask you to continue to pray for our campers, staff, and faculty as we all work together to glorify God this summer at LaMoine Christian Service Camp.