Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY015002A
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00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:18 Removing pain 00:23 Lord, let my words 00:29 Heal a heart that hurts 00:34 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:45 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:07 Hello, and welcome to 3ABN Today. 01:09 My name is C.A. Murray, 01:10 and allow me to thank you once again 01:12 for sharing just a little bit of your day with us, 01:15 to thank you for your love, your prayers, 01:17 your support of Three Angels Broadcasting Network. 01:19 And for spending a little time with us today, 01:22 in a discussion of something, that is exciting me, 01:25 and I think it's gonna excite you too. 01:27 One of the things, that impress me, 01:29 is that Jesus has many, many ways to touch hearts, 01:33 change lives, and rearrange destinies. 01:36 There are so many ministries 01:38 each of which can be used to save souls. 01:41 And so today we're gonna talk about something, 01:43 that may not be something 01:45 that's on your own particular radar, 01:48 but is really from what I gather a great, 01:52 an ongoing ministry 01:54 and I think you're gonna fall in love with it too 01:55 as we sort of discuss and unpackaged our story. 01:58 I've got three handsome gentlemen 02:00 from the Minnesota Conference 02:01 and I think I'll start with the farthest away from me, 02:04 because he's a conference president, 02:06 and you got to do that, he's conference president. 02:08 This is Justin Lyons. Justin, good to have you here. 02:11 Thank you, CA. It's good to be here. 02:13 In the middle is David Wilson, who is a test case, 02:17 an example of the goodness of the Lord 02:20 and, David, good to have you here. 02:21 Thank you, CA. 02:22 And then a youth director for the North Star Camp 02:26 and that's the camp in the Minnesota Conference, 02:28 that we're gonna be highlighting today. 02:29 This is Jeff Wines. Good to be here. 02:31 Jeff, good to have you here. 02:32 Thank you Yeah. 02:33 Good looking group of men with much to say 02:36 about the North Star Camp. 02:38 I remember my days back at Victory Lake Camp, 02:40 in the Northeastern Conference, I was the camp electrician. 02:44 So once camp meeting started and camp and summertime started 02:47 we're busy all the time doing, 02:48 you know, doing different kinds of things, 02:50 but evidently North Star Camp has a great history 02:54 from what I can understand 02:56 and God has used that camp in a particular way, 02:58 is that right, Jeff? 02:59 Yes, He has. Amazing ways actually. 03:02 There's miracle after miracle that's happened. 03:05 Even in starting, 03:06 being able to buy the property at the beginning. 03:08 It's just, it's continued to happen over the years. 03:11 Great, great, before we unpackaged that story, 03:13 I want to go and just talk to you each a little bit 03:16 about your collective fixtures, then we will go to our music, 03:18 then we will launch right into ministry. 03:19 But I want to start with the president. 03:22 Justin, I'm told you're still kind of a new guy 03:25 as far as president is concerned. 03:27 That is correct. 03:28 You're not from Minnesota? 03:30 Not originally, no, I'm from Indiana. 03:32 Uh-huh. So not too far. No. 03:34 A day's drive, less than a day's drive. 03:37 When did you come to Minnesota Conference? 03:39 Oh, my, in 1986, I started as a pastor in Minnesota 03:45 and then in '98, I moved out west 03:50 but in 2006, Minnesota called me 03:53 back to do gift planning and trust service 03:56 and eventually moved me into the vice president's office 03:59 and then March, 20th, 2014, they elected me as president. 04:04 Very, very good. 04:06 Adventist home growing up? 04:08 No, sir, I grew up in the Lutheran home. 04:14 How did Adventism find you, or you find Adventism? 04:19 Well, that's a long story, but I'll try to keep it short. 04:22 I was a student at Purdue University 04:24 and it was there that I met 04:26 the Seventh-day Adventist young lady 04:29 and she tried to give me some Bible studies. 04:35 But it was, I would say, 04:38 I was loved into the church by a very friendly church 04:41 there in Lafayette, Indiana. 04:44 Did you marry that young lady? 04:46 No, sir. 04:49 I was just trying to connect with that, you know. 04:52 I met my wife at what is now called 04:54 Southern Adventist University. 04:57 Yes, after becoming a Seventh-day Adventist, 05:01 I chose to go to an Adventist School 05:03 and I had a whole new world view, 05:06 I have to tell you that. 05:08 By the time I was at Purdue, I was really an atheist, 05:11 and having a new experience at recognizing 05:16 that there is a creator God and so forth 05:20 that world view shift was difficult for me to handle 05:24 while I was at Purdue, and I wanted to find a place 05:28 where I could sort out my new faith. 05:32 And I first went to Andrews, 05:35 then I went as a student missionary, 05:37 when I got home, I sold books for summer 05:41 and went down to Southern for a couple of more years. 05:44 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 05:45 Yeah, we remember our son Kevin went to the Southern. 05:50 They do call that school the marriage magnet. 05:52 You can get a good education 05:54 and as a rule if you behave yourself 05:56 and keep your eyes open, come out of there 05:57 with a partner for your life too so. 06:01 I'm gonna jump over Dave and go to you, Jeff. 06:05 You are the youth director, 06:06 how long you've been serving in that capacity? 06:08 I've been serving there since 2010, so 5 years. 06:12 Now we know you're not a native Minnesotan. 06:14 No, I'm not. 06:15 Adventist home growing up? Yes, Adventist home growing up. 06:18 My father worked in Adventist Education 06:21 for the church most of his life and so I've lived on the South, 06:26 and the West Coast, and Midwest. 06:29 Yep, yep. 06:30 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 06:31 Now we, we're gonna talk about it, 06:33 you didn't come to your current position 06:35 sort of the traditional route, 06:37 when I say traditional, pasturing the whole 06:40 and all of that or back to the Seventh-day-- 06:41 Yours is a little bit of a circuitous dare I say route. 06:44 Right, right, kind of went around. 06:47 Yeah. 06:48 You know, as a young person I seem to have gifts 06:52 and talents in more of the arts 06:53 and so I went to school for photography 06:57 and upon graduating a year 06:59 before that as a student missionary, 07:01 given my heart to Christ and told Him I'd serve 07:05 wherever He wanted me to and little did 07:07 I know my first job out of college 07:10 would be as a youth pastor, 07:11 and so I started youth pastoring, and loved it. 07:16 It was a passion, got married 07:17 and my wife and I went back to seminarian, 07:20 I thought well this is what I am supposed to do 07:21 for the rest of my life 07:22 and God had other plans for the next few years. 07:25 I ended up teaching at Andrews University 07:28 and teaching photography and video and stuff like that 07:32 and I then I got call back into the ministry, been there since. 07:37 So the Lord sort of just gave you a resume, you know. 07:39 Basically. For what you're doing now. 07:41 I think so, something like that, exactly. 07:43 Yeah, yeah, David, we gonna go to you. 07:46 Adventist home growing up? 07:47 Yes, definitely. All right, good man. 07:49 Yeah, my dad was-- he was the youth director, 07:51 and his father was the pastor, his father was the pastor, 07:53 so he is down the line Adventist 07:56 and he is the pathfinder director always has been. 07:59 One of the church leaders he always 08:00 either starts it up at the general course 08:02 something pathfinder related. 08:05 Praise the Lord. 08:06 So that ministry thing is kind of in your DNA, 08:08 Yes, just a little bit. 08:10 You got any idea, what you want to do with your life. 08:13 I'm still looking, but I would like 08:15 to become an architectural engineer 08:17 and hopefully, work with the church 08:19 and I want to start up my own youth group 08:20 one day with the group-- it was a lot of fun. 08:23 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 08:24 Did your experience with the camp 08:26 have a lot to do with how you're thinking 08:29 and what your goals in life are now, 08:31 we are going to come back to that, 08:32 but I just want to touch on that for now. 08:33 It definitely changed my views a lot, so it helped. 08:37 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 08:39 We want to go to our music 08:40 just now, then we want to come back 08:42 and sort of dive into the story. 08:43 Because there's much to talk about here 08:46 and we'll go to our music now. 08:49 Our music is coming today from Valerie Shelton Walker. 08:53 She is the wife of our good friend 08:55 and director here Brad Walker, 08:57 beautiful person, beautiful singer. 08:59 She's going to be doing and singing My Tribute. 09:10 How can I say thanks 09:16 For the things 09:19 That You have done for me 09:24 Things so undeserved 09:30 Yet You gave to prove Your love for me 09:36 The voices of a millions angels 09:42 Could not express my gratitude 09:49 All that I am 09:51 And ever hope to be 09:57 I owe it all to Thee 10:03 To God be the glory 10:09 To God be the glory 10:17 To God be the glory 10:22 For the things He has done 10:29 With His blood He has saved me 10:35 With His power He has raised me 10:43 To God be the glory 10:48 For the things He has done. 10:54 Just let me live my life 11:01 Let it be pleasing, Lord, to Thee 11:08 And should I gain any praise 11:14 Let it go to Calvary 11:21 Calvary 11:24 With His blood He has saved me 11:31 With His power He has raised me 11:39 To God be the glory 11:44 For the things 11:50 For the things 11:56 For the things 12:00 That He has done 12:08 He has done 12:19 Valerie Shelton Walker, thank you so very, very much. 12:21 My guests are president of the conference, 12:23 Jeff Lyons, David Wilson, and Jeff--Justin Lyons, 12:29 David Wilson, Jeff Wines. 12:32 I want to get that right. 12:34 Gentlemen, we're talking about North Star Camp 12:38 and most conferences have, have camps, 12:41 you know I think it's in our history 12:44 as a church to have some place 12:45 where people can come out of the cities and get away. 12:47 This camp evidently has a very interesting history. 12:50 Walk me through the early days of North Star Camp 12:53 as you know it, Jeff? 12:54 All right, and Justin you can jump in here anytime. 13:00 In 1956, the brethren at the conference 13:05 put an announcement out saying we need a camp, 13:08 we need a place where young people can go out, go camping, 13:12 get to know God in nature, that kind of thing. 13:14 And so they started, you know, looking and asking people. 13:19 Well, that happened a couple times 13:22 putting a announcement out they weren't finding anything. 13:25 And then a gentleman by the name of Harris Jones, 13:29 a member in the church, 13:30 and he worked somewhere in the state 13:33 with land development and so forth. 13:36 He saw the announcement, 13:39 and kind of didn't want to do anything about it, 13:41 but his daughter said, "Dad you know all the land, 13:44 you should be the one that goes out and looks for this." 13:47 And so he said "Well, maybe I should." 13:49 So he started looking 13:51 and kind of checking things out, 13:53 he didn't find anything, 13:55 and one day after looking at an article about firefighting 14:00 and how they help you look at firefighting 14:02 from the air and direction. 14:04 He thought, "You know, we've all these aerial images." 14:08 I mean, I mean thousands of them 14:10 covering the entire state of Minnesota. 14:12 So he said, "Why don't I start looking there, 14:14 maybe I'll find something that way." 14:15 So he started looking through all that 14:17 and narrowed it down to the property 14:19 that we now have, that area, 14:21 and as he looked at that, he said, 14:23 "Man, this is some amazing opportunity for our camp, 14:27 this is a beautiful location." 14:31 And so with some of his colleagues at work 14:34 who were now trying to help him with his project. 14:37 He found out that they had a realtor 14:40 for a chunk of this property 14:42 and he went to talk to the realtor. 14:45 The realtor basically blew him off. 14:46 He said, "Sorry, this is not going happen." 14:50 Not only do they not want to sell the property, 14:52 but you could never afford at your church group. 14:55 And that was it, and he went home discouraged, 14:58 and he talked to his wife 15:00 and they prayed about it that night 15:03 and in the next day he went again to check things out 15:08 and he found out the people that own the property. 15:11 It was two elderly sisters, and he said, 15:14 okay, I'm gonna go talk to them. 15:16 So he drove over to their property, 15:18 walked in the house, 15:20 you know, they invited the man, and said what do you want? 15:24 He said, "I'm here to talk about 15:26 possibly buying the land that you have." 15:29 They were curt to be nice, 15:34 and basically want to throw him out. 15:36 They say, "Why, what, you know, 15:37 didn't you talk to our realtor?" 15:38 He said "Yeah." "So what'd she tell you." 15:40 She told me I couldn't buy the property 15:42 "Well, then why are you here." 15:43 Well, this is a camp for kids 15:46 and I thought maybe if I talk to you 15:48 maybe you'd be willing to sell us this property. 15:51 They said, "No." 15:52 So he started making his way slowly towards the door 15:55 and as the story is told 15:57 evidently one of the sisters was talking 15:59 and she was very loud 16:01 and he was getting a little concerned 16:04 and as they're leaving, 16:07 as he's beginning to leave they said to him, 16:10 "You know, this was our father's property, 16:11 he had thousands of acres around this whole area 16:14 and we are keeping this as a memorial. 16:18 We only have a little bit left about 80 acres or so, 16:22 we only have this left." 16:24 And he said, well, he said, 16:29 "You say you want it to be memorial, 16:31 what better memorial than to have this as a place for kids, 16:35 where they can come and they can connect with God 16:37 and so forth and be out in nature." 16:39 And they said really. 16:43 What really, you know what religion are you? 16:47 And he said "Seventh-day Adventist," 16:49 "So you're not they mentioned another religion" 16:51 and he said, "No, we're Seventh-day Adventist." 16:54 Then she said, well, let me go talk to my sister, 16:56 so she wheeled her sister into the other room 16:58 they talk she came back. 16:59 This whole time he's praying 17:01 and he has even starting to cry at this point 17:03 because he's so passionate about it 17:06 and she comes back in and she says, 17:09 "You really want this, don't you?" 17:11 He said "Yeah." "What about the price?" 17:14 "We're not worried about that, 17:15 God will work it out" and she's like 17:18 "All right, we'll do it as long as this mutual friend of theirs 17:22 says it's okay, we'll do it." 17:24 "So can I get that in writing?" she said "Absolutely." 17:27 So she puts in writing right there. 17:29 She gives him the piece of paper 17:31 and he's walking out of the door 17:33 and he's floating out of the door at this point. 17:35 And as he walks down step also and he runs into the realtor 17:39 and she is just furious. 17:43 She grabs his shirt or coat or whatever 17:45 she's just shaking him like a rag doll, 17:47 she's "What did you do?" 17:49 She's just angry and she lets him go 17:51 and she storms into the house. 17:53 He doesn't know what happens inside 17:55 and he quickly gets in his car and leaves. 17:57 Goes back to work and all his colleagues at work 18:00 are just like, "Yes, we can't believe you got this is. 18:04 This is fantastic." 18:05 Now, they weren't Seventh-day Adventist, 18:08 but they were all rooting for him 18:12 and but that's not where the story goes. 18:14 She basic, those two sisters basically 18:17 sold the property for hardly any money, 18:20 I mean, it was dirt, she, 18:22 and they could have made a lot of money on that. 18:25 But there was some other property 18:26 that was adjacent to it that the county owned 18:30 and so he went to the county with another buddy of his 18:34 and they started trying to get that land, 18:36 it was in a conservation which in Minnesota means 18:40 basically the water adjacent 18:42 or the land adjacent to the water 18:44 all that property you usually don't get it, 18:48 and so they went to the county offices 18:50 and they said, well, you're not going to get it, 18:53 but we understand what you're trying to do 18:55 and we think that's great, we'll even write a letter, 18:57 but you won't get it. 18:58 So they wrote a letter to Saint Paul, 19:00 which is the capital of Minnesota, 19:03 and they got a response that 19:05 actually we will put it up for sale, 19:06 it'll be an auction. 19:07 We'll put it up for sale, 19:09 so they did some more checking on, 19:10 there's a bunch of parcels, so it wasn't just one piece. 19:12 And all these different parcels, 19:14 they went down to the county and found out 19:18 that some of them were in tax problems, 19:21 major problems and, 19:23 so they might not get that either. 19:25 And so they started working to the process, 19:27 asked some people to help them and this is unheard of, 19:30 it usually takes six months to a year for something like 19:32 that get all worked through, 19:33 six weeks it was all taken care of. 19:35 Wow, wow. 19:36 And the day of the auction came up 19:39 and the brethren had already come up. 19:40 They checked the lake out, they checked the property out, 19:44 and they had one of them there to bid on the auction 19:47 and they weren't sure they were going to get it 19:50 because some officials, 19:52 some people that worked for the state 19:53 wanted to buy the property as well 19:55 and we're talking a lot of money. 19:57 And they had the money to spend 20:00 and they got there to the courthouse 20:02 and they said, "Sorry, you can't buy the property, 20:05 you work for the state." 20:07 And they said wait a second, 20:08 so they raced down to their attorney, 20:11 did some quick checking and found out yes they could, 20:13 but they had to buy in cash. 20:15 By the time they came back ready to go 20:18 they walked in the door 20:19 the gavel came down and judge said, 20:22 "Sold to the Seventh-day Adventist church" 20:23 and it was for pennies on the dollar. 20:25 Wow. 20:26 So, we ended up and over the next few years 20:29 there were little tiny pieces 20:30 that we continued to buy up so I'm told. 20:33 And we ended up with about 150 acres of land. 20:37 Praise the Lord. 20:38 Yes, all those pieces, 20:40 just one miracle after another should never have happened. 20:42 Yeah, I guess we'll never know what happened 20:44 when the realtor went back in their houses 20:46 of the two elderly ladies. 20:47 Well actually, 20:48 actually there is a little piece to the end of the story. 20:53 The ladies passed away and the church 20:56 built a memorial for them at the camp, it's there today. 21:01 The realtor she got ill health, later on in life, 21:06 and her mind and heart changed about what had happened there 21:09 and she ended up giving 21:10 and donating money for the camp. 21:13 Praise the God. Yeah. 21:14 Yeah, only the Lord can. 21:15 Yep, yep. Yeah, it's amazing. 21:18 That is a good, a great story. Oh, it is. 21:21 Yeah, so you got about 150 acres. 21:22 About that. 21:23 The obligatory lake, you've to you have a lake. 21:26 We actually have more than one lake, 21:28 we have its on, Rice lake is what most people would say, 21:32 but that's adjacent to the Mississippi River, 21:34 which also borders our property as well. 21:36 Oh, okay. 21:37 In addition, we have another small lake 21:40 in the center of the property 21:43 and then on the edge of the property 21:45 we own another part of one lake. 21:47 I mean its Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes. 21:49 Land of lakes, yeah, yeah. 21:51 We've over 2 miles of shoreline. 21:53 Oh, praise the Lord. It's a beautiful spot. 21:55 So boating, swimming the whole 9 yards. 21:57 Whole 9 yards, and we have a part of an island, actually. 22:01 Oh, you got to showing off now. 22:02 Yeah, it's amazing. You have an island. 22:04 I mean, what God did was amazing. 22:06 Praise the Lord. 22:07 It was a miracle. Yeah, praise the Lord. 22:11 Has, is it still out in the county, 22:12 it's away from city or is it city 22:16 kind of encroaching on it a little bit? 22:17 When you get there and drive into the camp property. 22:20 It feels like you're out in the country. 22:22 Right, David? Yeah, definitely, yeah. 22:24 But, it's actually in the city limits. 22:26 It's not a big town. Yeah. 22:28 Brainerd, Minnesota, is not big, 22:30 but it's just in city limits. 22:33 So we're actually part of the city, 22:34 and part of the county. 22:36 Yeah, we're next to an airport, so. 22:41 It's hard to keep the county away from you know. 22:42 It's right, pretty much. 22:44 When you, it starts out in the wilderness 22:45 and then the wilderness becomes part of the city. 22:49 Most as I said, most conferences have a camp 22:54 that have used ministries, 22:57 but this camp evidently is very special. 23:02 Walk me through some of that, what makes this camp special. 23:05 Lives have been changed, 23:06 a lot of good stuff is happening, obviously. 23:09 Give us some flavor of, of, of, that? 23:14 I would say that as I rub shoulders 23:18 with other camp directors around North America, 23:22 that each camp has a unique story. 23:25 I mean, I would not say that we're 23:28 that much more special than another camp. 23:31 I mean, I worked at another camp, 23:33 and college Timber Ridge Camp, in Indiana, 23:37 and helped at another camp at Manhattan 23:39 as well and each camp has their unique flavor 23:42 and God's given us one that's amazing. 23:45 I think the uniqueness is Minnesota has a very unique 23:50 and wonderful geography. 23:51 When you leave the cities and go north, 23:54 it's all Northern Minnesota, 23:56 at least that's what everybody there says, 23:58 and so we're in Northern Minnesota. 24:00 We have the Northwoods of Minnesota. 24:02 It gives it a very wonderful feel. 24:05 There's a large pine trees, 24:06 but there's also quite a few deciduous trees in that area 24:10 as well and like we mention a lot of lakes. 24:14 Minnesotans, in the winter, 24:16 in the summer time head north many, many Minnesotans. 24:21 They've cabins all over the Northern Minnesota. 24:25 You may have heard of boundary waters. 24:27 It's kind of "canoeing mecca" of canoeing 24:31 and I've taken my kids there and we've canoed. 24:34 My family, we canoed way into boundary waters, 24:37 and it's absolutely amazing places. 24:39 Its pristine, not touched by, 24:41 you know, a lot of manmade things, 24:44 so Northern Minnesota is kind of near and dear to Minnesotans 24:48 because of that. 24:50 In addition, many, many people put their heart and soul 24:53 into this camp in the original building of the property 24:57 and putting in roads and buildings and so forth 24:59 and so a lot of people just really love the camp 25:03 because of that. 25:04 So there's a lot of specialty, it's one of those gems 25:10 that isn't always talked about, but it's beautiful. 25:15 Justin, I wanted to ask you how many members does 25:19 Minnesota Conference have? 25:21 Just over 9,100 and I would say 25:26 mostly supportive of this great ministry. 25:31 I would say our kids go up there 25:32 because of the waterfront, because of the horses, 25:37 but they come away with a better experience with Jesus. 25:42 Give us some sense of the camp program 25:43 that you run in the summer, 25:45 then I want to go back to some other questions but. 25:47 You know as a youth director, I was very good friends 25:50 with most of youth directors at my conference 25:52 and I know the kind of summer that you guy spend. 25:54 But, just the flavor of the, of the program. 25:56 All right, so you have, we have, 25:59 we run six weeks of camp 26:00 and before that most camps have a staff preparation week. 26:04 So we have-- for what we do is 26:07 we have a week of that where we bring the staff 26:09 and do training 26:10 and certifications all that stuff 26:13 and then we run camp and we run a-- we call it abilities camp. 26:17 It's a camp for people that are disabled. 26:19 Have a lot of, people that come there 26:21 they have Down syndrome for example 26:24 and another disabilities, and they just love the place, 26:28 some of these people have been coming for years, 26:29 20 to 30 years. 26:31 And you know, I've been there 5 years. 26:34 "Oh, you're new you know, you, it's because you're here 26:36 I know what goes on here" 26:37 and you know and that kind of thing, 26:40 a lot of my staff, that's their favorite camp. 26:45 If you haven't worked for somebody that's disabled, 26:48 you have not seen anybody relish your love. 26:51 I mean these people just love you no matter what. 26:54 It's just amazing, anyway that's one week we do 26:56 and then we run a cub camp, junior camp, 27:00 what we call twin camp and a teen camp 27:03 and each of those are for, from ages from cub camp 27:07 8 years old all the way to 16 for teen camp. 27:10 Then we also run a family camp. 27:14 And those are the six weeks of camp that we run, 27:16 all of them week long overnight, 27:19 kids come on Sunday afternoon and leave Sunday morning 27:22 and we start immediately Sunday afternoon 27:24 with the next group of kids coming out. 27:25 Wow. So, yeah. 27:27 Yeah, you keep quite, quite, quite busy. 27:29 Do you have, Justin do you have camp meeting as far 27:33 as for the overall constituency of the, on those grounds? 27:36 No, we actually do that at Maplewood Academy. 27:39 Yeah, that works too. 27:42 Now, David you actually do get to talk, 27:46 because we need to find out how you play into this whole story 27:51 and what part of the puzzle, you fill into. 27:56 I was a camper for 3 years and I loved it there, 28:00 it was just a chance for me to escape from everything, 28:03 from just different like worldly temptations, 28:07 just from school from all during the summer time, 28:10 but different things like college visit and stuff. 28:13 It gives me time to relax and spend time with God 28:15 because at home I find myself too tired give him a prayer 28:19 or something, but I can't, 28:20 you kind of force into spending time with God. 28:23 There is literally activities everyday, 28:25 where you have to pray 28:26 and you have to do a Bible study 28:28 and it's great everyone needs it, 28:30 because everyone gets this in every now and then 28:33 and so being at high school 28:34 and going onto college I definitely need that too, 28:36 because I'm always doing a homework 28:38 or sports or some other activity, 28:40 so it's just great and I hopefully 28:43 I'll become counselor next year. 28:45 Okay. So that's my goals too. 28:49 Praise the Lord, I see on my notes here 28:51 that rebuilding of the camp, was there something 28:56 that happened that necessitated a kind of rebuilding 28:59 or walk me through that, that, that time? 29:01 Yeah, you know, Justin was here first before I was, won't you? 29:07 You want me to speak to that. Yeah, yeah, 29:11 The camp as Jeff's already mentioned was purchased in 1956 29:16 and I believe they held their first summer camp in 1957 29:21 and most of the buildings on the camp 29:23 were built over the next few years 29:26 and not a whole lot had changed up until like 2008 29:32 and in 2008 people started looking 29:34 around some group of lay people actually. 29:37 Church members got together, came to the Conference Office 29:41 and talked in terms of what we can do 29:43 to rebuild and revitalize the camp? 29:46 Because there is a lot of maintenance issues 29:51 and as you know in ministry 29:52 there are always competing calls for funding. 29:57 And people were saying we need to do 29:59 something different at the camp, 30:01 but it's gonna take some funding. 30:03 And so in 2008 this what we called a "Visioning Committee, 30:08 the North Star Camp Visioning Committee" got together 30:10 with the conference president at the time. 30:14 And they put together a plan and brought it 30:17 to the constituency session that year 30:20 and it was an overwhelming response 30:22 to move forward with a three phase plan 30:25 to basically replace every structure at the camp. 30:29 Wow. 30:30 And they started that the next fall 30:36 by tearing down the boy's village cabins 30:39 and I actually used the local fire department 30:43 to take care of some of those. 30:46 They had some practice building burned them down, but. 30:51 Few sad moments for some people. 30:54 But it was also a happy time 30:55 because we knew that God was working 30:57 and we were able to move forward 30:59 because we said, we're not going to build anything 31:02 unless there's money to do. 31:03 We're not going into debt at all for this project. 31:07 And so we replaced six cabins, 31:14 and then the next year six more, 31:17 and the funding just kept coming along, 31:21 the Lord was blessing us that way, we believe and... 31:25 And by the way, I want to mention 31:26 something about the funding. 31:28 You know, there's miracles that happened all over the place. 31:32 I think and part it's a miracle 31:33 that the conference kind of banded together 31:36 and said we're gonna rebuild this camp. 31:38 Amen. Yeah. 31:39 The second miracle that's awesome is 31:42 as we started raising funds we never have had, 31:46 oh, here you have an extra $100,000 to keep on going. 31:50 It was like, okay, do we have enough to make it, 31:53 and we would have just enough to make it 31:54 as we got through one section of building 31:58 just time and again 31:59 and you know the generosity of people 32:02 and God moving on their hearts to give. 32:04 It's amazing. Yeah, yeah, praise God. 32:06 We know that feeling around here, 32:08 Lord doesn't just have you pile in the corner, 32:10 so as you can go to when you needed it, 32:12 but when you need it there's some with something 32:14 that you can do, so you built in stages? 32:16 We built in stages, and we're still building. 32:19 We're in our third phase right now trying to replace 32:22 what we call the lodge, 32:24 some people would call it the cafeteria building. 32:27 It's the kitchen and a large meeting space 32:30 is the primary use of that structure 32:33 and I would say it's in the prime piece of realty 32:37 that we have there at the camp is the view 32:39 is the "million dollar view" kind of thing 32:43 and right on the edge of the lake 32:45 with a certain setback 32:47 you know it meets the state requirement. 32:49 But, we want to see a new lodge 32:54 as the-- the needs of the camp have changed since 1960. 32:59 That's the era in which that lodge was built 33:02 and health requirements for the kitchen 33:06 so forth there are number of issues with the structure 33:10 that we looked at remodeling and some people say 33:12 you know "you can save some money just remodel it." 33:16 There's so much remodeling that would have to take place 33:18 that it's probably less expensive 33:21 to take it down and start over. 33:23 And many times is that you just tear down 33:24 and start from scratch 33:25 because when you begin to remodel you find out that 33:27 "this is broken out, we got to change that 33:28 and we got to do that" that kind of thing. 33:30 Oh, one of the biggest issues with this was this that 33:34 oh, we live in Minnesota 33:36 and they say it gets cold in winter 33:38 and when that happens you know everything freezes. 33:42 Well, when they built some of these buildings, 33:45 which it was perfect for their time, 33:47 but we want to use them all season. 33:49 Minnesotans don't stay inside in the winter, we go do stuff. 33:52 Well this has no frost footings. 33:54 So if you were to rebuild it, 33:55 you couldn't use it for four seasons. 33:57 Yeah, yeah. 33:58 Right, right now, we've shuttered down 34:00 in usually the middle of October, 34:02 and don't open it again until the middle of April, 34:06 because it's frozen. 34:08 We want to built and use it year around. 34:10 Yeah, yeah, I think winter sports are, 34:13 just you know, on a lake or you know 34:16 you got lakes there you get. 34:17 This is a lot things you can do coming from Buffalo, New York. 34:20 We're born in Buffalo, New York 34:21 we're grew up Buffalo, New York, 34:23 well we know how to do snow. 34:24 Right. That's true. 34:26 Yeah, we didn't stay inside, 34:28 we had the fact that church sponsored for the young people, 34:32 you know snow parties, snow picnics kind of thing. 34:35 We went out and you know we came back 34:36 frozen like a popsicle, 34:37 but you had fun doing it, you know, 34:38 so yeah I could see that you'd want to use that. 34:42 How many children do you service young people, 34:44 do you service over the course of the year? 34:47 With a camp, I would just say campers 34:49 because that also includes family camp. 34:51 And some of are aren't disabled or older as well, 34:55 so we're right now, 34:56 we've grown the camp over the last 5 years 34:59 and right now we're averaging around 400 on summer camp. 35:02 For the summer camp. Yeah. 35:04 Just for the summer camp, 35:05 then you got the rest of the year 35:06 which you got other groups coming in, 35:08 for example, we'll have our pathfinder camporee there. 35:11 And how many 100 is that. 35:14 We've got about 250 to 300 somewhere in there 35:18 and we've got a quite a few Hispanic Churches in Minnesota 35:22 and they'll come up and do a big camporee 35:24 and they'll bring all their kids too. 35:25 And that's like 500 people and so you know 35:29 there's a lot of other things happening in the camp to. 35:31 You're inching up to a 1000. 35:33 You know, really a year or so constant years. 35:36 Yep. Yeah, that is great. 35:39 And I want all three of you to respond to this. 35:42 Talk to me about lives that are being changed there. 35:48 You know you get a young person out of the city, 35:50 get some good cleaned air in the young's 35:52 and you get Jesus hopefully into their heart, 35:54 but all three kind of weigh in on it for me. 35:57 Justin, you want to start? 35:58 Well, I'm excited when I see the children, 36:02 the youth, coming from the twin cities particularly, 36:06 but also several examples 36:09 I could think of that people are coming from homes 36:14 that are not what we would think of as traditional. 36:18 There's a lot of single parent homes, 36:21 a lot of children coming from the cities, 36:23 particularly that face some challenges that, 36:28 you know, I didn't have to face as I was growing up 36:32 and I look and see how the camp 36:34 is able to through the staff really to make connections, 36:39 let's say somebody cares about you. 36:42 Yeah, yeah. 36:44 And then they're able to show them, 36:45 God cares about you too, 36:48 and this picture just keeps getting 36:49 bigger and brighter for them. 36:53 It warms my heart when I see the kids at camp. 36:58 They really are, it's almost a refuge in some ways. 37:03 You know it's probably the highlight of their year 37:06 for many of these kids. 37:07 Great, great. 37:10 For me, I got baptized there, two summers ago. 37:14 And that was life changing moment 37:16 and not only like I did it and my parents weren't there 37:19 and most people want to baptized with their family, 37:21 but I was just so touched 37:23 and just caught up with Jesus in my heart I couldn't wait, 37:26 I just had to get baptized then and there and I loved it, 37:30 it was it really did touched me all the testimonies 37:33 and activities got me closer to God. 37:36 And you find yourself just thinking about 37:38 like how your life is at back home, 37:40 you're like I need to make changes 37:42 and things happened and things changed. 37:44 Let just hold it just a little bit, David, 37:46 because describe for me as best you can 37:49 what your experience was with the Lord prior, 37:52 running with the Lord, limping along, 37:54 wandering kind of treading water, 37:58 young person growing up. 38:01 Give me a little flavor of your Christian experience 38:03 prior to the camp? 38:04 Before the camp, like the closest 38:08 I was to God was probably when I was young age, 38:11 elementary school and that's because you know my parents 38:14 definitely had a lot more control over me, 38:15 and they were forcing me to do all the stuff 38:17 that you know I'd play church, I'd go to church, sit down 38:20 and be a good little kid and then like later on, 38:22 got to high school and middle school, 38:24 I kind of slipped because I had excuses like 38:26 homework or sports 38:27 so I didn't get my daily prayers in 38:29 or I forgot to say grace before dinner like the simple things. 38:33 Dave, listening to the language. 38:34 They were forcing me to go, I was kind of you know, 38:36 they had control you know. 38:38 I am listening, I'm passing the language here, yeah-- 38:40 And it's external. 38:41 Yeah, it's all external and nothing going on inside. 38:44 So obviously the camp experience 38:45 began to change things for your heart? 38:47 Definitely, it built in responsibility for me 38:51 to want to try to get close to the Jesus, 38:54 so I would before I would probably go to bed 38:58 and probably read one of my books for school 39:00 or just read for fun and now every now 39:02 and then I'll open my Bible and just read 39:04 or just look at Ellen G. White writing and stuff 39:07 and right before I go to bed did a devotional hymn 39:10 and it's, it's not that long it's 15 minutes, 39:12 but it helps because you're learning 39:14 something new everyday 39:15 and before that I didn't make any effort, 39:18 I was like I'll be fine when Jesus comes, 39:21 I'll be fine, you know, I go to church and everything, 39:23 but people don't realize that you had to actually try 39:26 and camp did that for me. 39:29 Yeah, Jeff same question. 39:31 I had the privilege of baptizing David, 39:36 and that was a little shock to myself, 39:39 he said, "Well, I wanted to be baptized." 39:40 I'm like well, let me talk with your dad, 39:43 so I did and his dad said, "Well, let me talk to David." 39:47 Two of them talked and then I talked to his dad again 39:50 and he said, "Well, you know, he really wants to be baptized, 39:53 I'm okay I can't be there because I got some, 39:55 I've got to run this afternoon at the church." 39:58 I said you sure, like we can do this later, 40:00 we can do it at your church. 40:01 No, he wants to make a decision. 40:03 It's his choice to follow Christ. 40:04 Yeah. 40:05 This is powerful, powerful. 40:08 Before I finish answering 40:09 can I show you some images that we have. 40:11 Yeah, so now we go to the pictures, yeah. 40:12 Because it has to do with some of what you're asking. 40:15 Okay. Okay. 40:16 So, you can see the first image is, 40:19 that's a picture of our lake from our beach. 40:21 It's beautiful location. 40:23 The next image I think we're gonna see David here. 40:29 One of his first summers there and you know 40:32 and David can speak to this more 40:33 but you know the activities engage you. 40:36 Yeah. 40:37 And they get excited, right? They really do. 40:40 At home I would never even set foot in the boat 40:42 like that's how my family is we're 40:44 not necessarily the outdoors type. 40:46 You know we go camping with pathfinders, 40:48 but I wouldn't call that camping 40:49 because you know you get bad houses. 40:51 You got cars right next to you and everything. 40:53 You go out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 40:55 But so, it really gets you in touch with the outdoors. 41:01 I finally got to ride a boat 41:03 and go tubing and that experiences. 41:05 Yeah, if I was in that boat I'd be praying. 41:07 I'll find the Lord. Right. 41:10 But, that's no problem. But you have fun extremely. 41:15 You find something new to do every day 41:17 from riding horses to archery to canoeing 41:20 going to a sunken island and just having fun, 41:22 meeting kids your age that are also Adventists 41:25 which you don't normally do. 41:26 So, it's just good times. Great, great. 41:29 Let's go back to those pictures, 41:30 there's some good stuff. 41:31 We mentioned some of the building. 41:33 This is one of the interiors of one of our staff cabins now, 41:36 so you can see this beautiful construction. 41:40 The next image I think is one of our cabins, 41:42 we have pictures of some of our new cabins for the campers 41:45 and we got 12 of these cabins around the camp 41:48 and they, you know, they are bunks inside them 41:52 and it's great. 41:54 Next to them they have bath houses 41:56 that we've also remodeled. 41:57 And you can see here we have, 41:59 this is an artist rendering of the proposed new lodge. 42:04 Wow, it's beautiful. 42:05 It is beautiful. It is very beautiful. 42:07 Lot of light open space. 42:08 Right. Yeah. 42:09 And this is the outside of that new lodge, 42:12 it's you know and we'll see what we can do 42:16 when the fundraisings all done 42:17 but its Lord's blessing there with that. 42:20 Praise the Lord. 42:21 So and you know this is the thing, 42:25 this picture right here I'll never forget one summer 42:27 when I said, you know, let's try something 42:31 you don't normally do this in school or other activities, 42:34 but this young lady right here, 42:37 she's studying the Bible outside. 42:39 I said, let's, let's, to my staff, 42:41 "Let's take these young people out as teen camp. 42:44 Let's take them outside and let's give them an hour 42:47 they can't talk to anybody, 42:48 let's just give them an hour to pray 42:49 and be in the word and we'll give some directions 42:51 if they want to read something specific 42:52 we can give them some directions 42:53 but otherwise they can read what they want." 42:55 And I can't tell how many kids came back to me 42:58 and said that was amazing, you know, 43:02 I've never had so much, I want to do that again 43:04 can you give us another hour, 43:06 I want to read the Bible more. 43:07 Yeah. 43:08 And there's just something about being outside 43:10 and give them permission to say I've got time to do this. 43:14 I've got time to connect with Jesus. 43:15 I got time to be in the word, I got time to pray, 43:18 you know, it's, it's amazing. 43:20 Yeah, yeah, Justin. 43:21 This past summer Jeff asked me to stand in 43:23 as sort of an emergency pastor for one week 43:27 and he asked me to share a Bible study 43:30 with each of the cabins. 43:33 So each day, I would've one hour with one cabin. 43:37 I've guess it, morning I did one group 43:38 and the afternoon I did another group 43:41 and so I shared the same Bible study 43:43 so they all got the same Bible study 43:45 and I wasn't sure what to expect, 43:47 but their first day the Bible study 43:49 I was sharing was on the origin of evil 43:53 and it culminates with showing how God loves us 43:57 and He's gracious towards us and gives us a redeemer 44:01 and we have salvation in Christ. 44:04 By faith, but the first group was a group of girls 44:11 and I wasn't sure how to proceed, 44:14 it's all girls here and I know I don't know 44:17 if they're going to want to read 44:18 the Bible out loud or not and I said 44:21 so we're going to have the Bible 44:22 and whoever like to read can read. 44:24 Well they all wanted to read the Bible. 44:26 And I so I said, okay, let's take turns 44:28 and we did and it was very interesting experience for me. 44:33 We went outside afterwards, I was showing them things 44:35 that God had created and asking them to find things 44:39 that they didn't think would be in the new earth 44:42 and some three things that would be 44:44 and showing them the variety of the mushrooms, 44:48 and the leaves, the blossoms, and they're all excited 44:52 and when it's all done can we do this again tomorrow. 44:55 Well, the second group was a group of boys 44:56 and that was a whole different experience. 45:00 None of them really wanted to read, 45:04 so I let them pass if they wanted to 45:07 and when it was all done we went outside 45:11 and I showed them the flowers and they whacked the flowers 45:13 and I'd show them mushrooms and they whacked the mushrooms. 45:15 They whacked the mushrooms. 45:18 And I showed them the leaves, 45:19 they rip them off the tree and went back 45:23 and we close with prayer and they said 45:25 can we do this again tomorrow 45:27 and it's a different response to Bible study, 45:31 but I was hopeful and I think they were seeing 45:35 that God does love them and for me, 45:38 Jeff, may be you want to share the mission statement 45:41 but it shows how the kids are seeing God 45:45 in this Northwoods environment. 45:46 It's awesome. 45:47 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. 45:50 There's a couple of more pictures 45:52 that I want to show. 45:53 Let's go through them. All right. 45:56 One of our activities, horseback riding 45:58 and then we have a waterfront. 45:59 Well, I think we'll have to show the waterfront picture, 46:02 but yeah there we go a young man wakeboarding 46:05 and it's pretty exciting, and fun, and intense. 46:10 And here are some of our young people 46:11 just amazing young people that come to camp. 46:15 And this is our staff, I wanted to talk about 46:17 that for a minute to your thoughts there. 46:20 I get staff from all over Minnesota, 46:23 come from Adventist colleges, universities, academies 46:26 and we've been talking the whole time about 46:31 how it changes people that go to camp. 46:33 It changes the staff. It changes them in a huge way. 46:37 I had some staff that stay years, 46:39 they come back year after year 46:41 because it's something where I'm serving, 46:44 I'm giving, I'm connecting kids to Jesus. 46:46 Did you realize in 2008, 46:49 they did a study for Adventist camps, 46:52 across North America and roughly 80-83% 46:57 of all staff are now leaders 47:00 in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 47:02 So, we're developing leaders through the staff, 47:05 that are there learning how to serve 47:06 and connect people to Christ. 47:08 Praise the Lord. 47:09 And one more picture, I think there's one more, 47:13 it's about-- It's my favorite picture here. 47:17 That's my oldest son and my youngest son, 47:19 they were both baptized that day 47:22 and, my youngest, my oldest son I'll never forget the day 47:25 I come in on a Sunday after the campers have left 47:28 and we do a debrief and get ready for the next camp 47:31 and one of the staff leans over to me 47:33 and says you might want to look at this, 47:34 this piece of paper and I said okay 47:37 I said what is this and I started reading 47:40 and my eyes starting welling up 47:42 and I'm starting to do that now again. 47:43 Yeah. 47:44 My son had said "I want to follow Jesus" 47:47 and he did that at an evening program, 47:49 he wasn't even part of that camp, 47:50 he was just watching 47:51 because he's there all summer with us. 47:52 Right. 47:53 Well, the next day, over the next few months 47:58 we started talking about having Bible studies 48:00 and to learn more so we did over the next year 48:02 we studied Bible and I'm studying the Bible 48:04 with my oldest son his name is Zack, 48:06 one day and my youngest son Elijah, 48:10 he comes up and he says 48:12 "hey dad, dad, I want to study the Bible too." 48:15 I said, okay. "I want to be baptized too. 48:18 I love Jesus." 48:20 I mean what father's heart can say no to that. 48:23 And so I started studying with him 48:26 and then their cousins and my kids all four of them 48:30 were baptized the same day. 48:31 Praise the God. 48:32 And people ask me what this camp mean, 48:36 it affects so many kids 48:37 and it has affected my personal family. 48:40 How old are your boys? Well they're 12 and 9 now. 48:45 When the older was baptized how old was he? 48:48 He was 11. 48:49 That's the age I got baptized at 11. 48:50 Yeah, only one in our family. Praise God. 48:53 You may have heard something that has intrigued you. 48:58 The camp sounds like a great place 48:59 that sets a table for salvation 49:01 for young men and women to know Jesus. 49:05 Should you liked to make contact 49:06 with Minnesota Conference or with the camp itself, 49:10 here is the contact information that you'll need. 49:15 North Star Camp is a key evangelistic 49:17 in nurturing outreach asset for the Minnesota Conference. 49:21 If you'd like to know more or learn how to support it, 49:24 then you can write to North Star Camp, 49:27 7384 Kirkwood Court, Maple Grove, MN 55369. 49:32 That's North Star Camp, 7384 Kirkwood Court, 49:38 Maple Grove, MN 55369. 49:41 You can call 763-424-9576. 49:45 That's 763-424-9576 49:50 or visit them online at mnsda.com, 49:54 that's mnsda.com. 50:01 So that's the information that you need 50:02 and we hope you will make contact. 50:04 Justin, you were telling me a story 50:05 just during a break there about a particular constituency 50:09 that the camp ministries do. 50:11 Relay that stuff if you will. 50:12 I was sharing with you 50:13 and hopefully with the audience here 50:15 that there are people who come to the camp from homes 50:21 that are no always the more solid. 50:25 This past summer, I was asked to be a pastor for a week 50:28 and there were some campers 50:31 from one of the reservations in Minnesota 50:35 that were in conflict with each other 50:37 and weren't fitting in real 50:39 well with the rest of the group. 50:40 And as a pastor, I want to focus on the kids 50:43 that aren't fitting in. 50:45 And I went over to some of these kids, 50:47 actually some had actually been in physical conflict 50:51 and I had a soccer ball and we started kicking the ball 50:55 back and forth and pretty soon three of the native Americans 51:01 and myself were playing soccer and we were having a blast, 51:06 they were having a blast and it was just a little 51:09 while earlier they could hardly get along with each other, 51:12 and it was exciting to me to see the smiles on their faces 51:18 and that an adult cares about them, 51:22 but that was evident. 51:23 Praise the Lord. 51:24 And we want them to see that people care 51:26 and that God cares and I believe 51:29 that the camp succeed in that week 51:31 in showing them the love of God. 51:34 And I'm impressed that the conference president 51:36 becomes the camp pastor. 51:38 You know, I've assumed during the summer 51:40 the conference work doesn't stop 51:41 so you're adding to your load, 51:43 but that's impressive 51:44 that you care enough about that to do that. 51:46 I was an emergency filled in and what I was. 51:49 Jeff had somebody cancel on him at the last minute, 51:52 I said my daughter is gonna be at camp, 51:54 I can be at camp, and so I went for the week 51:59 and I haven't been a camp pastor probably in two decades, 52:03 but I had a blast with kids. 52:04 Like ride a bike, you know, you'll never forget. 52:07 That's right. Praise the Lord. 52:08 Being with kids was fun. 52:09 Yeah, Jeff, is this a kind of thing 52:11 that you see every year, you know, periodically 52:14 whenever you see this reclamation of lives. 52:18 Absolutely. Yeah. 52:19 Absolutely, some kids come to camp 52:21 never given their hearts to Christ, 52:22 I mean every summer we've kids that come to camp 52:24 and say I'm recommitting my life to Jesus. 52:27 I remember one summer, 52:28 a young man comes running up at me 52:30 you know, this is teen camp, this very rarely happens. 52:34 I was a little shocked, he gives me a huge hug 52:37 and I am like "what's up man?" 52:39 and he's like "well, I'm just so happy to be here. 52:42 This is like my church." Wow. 52:45 And then he said and I need you to baptize me this week. 52:48 I said, well, let's talk with your parents, 52:50 and your pastor, and we'll work on that. 52:51 Yeah. 52:52 And he'd been thinking about for like last six months 52:56 and so yeah it connects kids to Christ 53:00 most importantly to nature, to the body of believers 53:06 that keeps them connected with the church. 53:07 Praise the Lord. And it's not just our camp. 53:09 Yeah. It happens all over. 53:10 All over, yeah, praise the Lord. 53:12 We're gonna go to a newsbreak then come back 53:14 and then sort of pull a little bow on this 53:15 with a closing thought just after this. |
Revised 2015-03-12