Summer Season 2016 Update

Dear Friends,

Wow, what a summer! Over the past 2 months we have welcomed over 250 children and highschoolers onto this camp. We have worshipped with them, fed them, led them through team building exercises, challenged them, taugh t them, told them stories, sung campfire songs with them, worked with them to find answers to hard questions, and watched them make life-changing decisions. We have seen lifelong relationships built, lives be turned over to Jesus’ transforming Love, and hearts offered up in prayer.

Before the summer began, we asked you, our partners, to pray with us for: (1) male counselors, (2) harmony and Christ-like love for our full-time staff during the hectic summer season, (3) continued leading and provision toward the goal of housing for our family, (4) God’s preparation in the hearts and minds of all who would serve here this summer, and (5) God’s preparation in the hearts and minds of the kids who would come through our doors this summer.

We can say with confidence that we saw all of those prayers answered! Thank you SO MUCH for your partnership in prayer! We absolutely believe that those prayers make all the difference.

At the beginning of the summer, we did not know how we were going to meet the need for male counselors. God, of course, kept us in need of faith until the last minute, but in the end we had incredible counselors for every single cabin of guys, for every week of the summer. It was a privilege to serve alongside the young men who stepped up and gave of their time, energy, and hearts to pour into the lives of the boys who came to camp this summer.

Throughout this hectic summer season, through living, working, eating, praying, serving, and walking together, we have definitely seen the hand of God in the love and unity He gracefully has given our full-time staff. We are imperfect humans working together in close quarters – but in end we have come out of the summer with confidence in the Love of Christ in each other through it all.

            We have indeed seen God’s hand in moving forward on a housing solution for our family. During the very busy summer, we moved into a small apartment on camp, which was a good temporary fix that allowed us to be right here and very involved in the summer work – much more than our rental house half an hour away would have allowed. However, this apartment is actually the basement of our director’s house, and obviously not a permanent housing solution. We have continued to look for houses for sale in the area, and believe we are making significant progress. There are still some details to be worked out – look for an update in this area soon!

These answered prayers also extended to the rest of our team here this summer – counselors, both guys and girls, dishwashers, speakers, cooks, worship leaders – we felt the presence of God and His peace in the entire staff these last two months. There was an amazing unity and love for each other, a blessed lack of drama or issues, and a humbling testimony to how God can work through and within a group of people who are dedicated to serving Him.

As for the kids … wow. There are as many stories as there are people who pass through our doors, but a few highlights from our summer were:

Gathering with the entire camp staff and campers around one child to pray for his home situation

Working with a counselor to find scriptural answers to the questions his group of campers were asking

Worshipping with abandon alongside energetic highschoolers

Serving alongside the Senior High Mission Trip at the headquarters of the Child Evangelism Fellowship.

Another way we have seen the hand of God this summer has been in our support. We had no time during the busy summer season to send out newsletters and ask for support as we usually do, and yet June was the first month since we have been here in which we actually hit our support goal! Through several one-time gifts, and a couple of new ongoing pledges, we received the full $500 support for June – what an immense blessing!

As we move forward into the fall season, we will be serving guest groups: family reunions, women’s retreats, and many other kinds of groups that come here looking for a place to connect with God and with each other. Our goal is to provide them that place, to serve them well, and to show them God’s love in our every action.

We continually covet your support in prayer, and ask that you join us as partners in this way, and, if you are so led, financially as well. This month, please join us specifically in praying for:

1.      Continued financial support sufficient to meet our family’s needs and allow us to serve to the best of our ability.

2.      Please pray for ongoing love and unity among our full-time staff: our family; our Kitchen Director, Kristine Detweiler; and our Directors, Bill and Carol Anderson. We do not take this for granted, and believe that one of our greatest witnesses to the world is the love and unity we have among ourselves.

3.      Our directors, Bill and Carol, are going on sabbatical for the month of August. Please pray that this time would be deeply refreshing and restful for them, spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

4.     
Please continue to pray for the ongoing health of our family – again, spiritually, physically, and emotionally, that we would be able to serve God well in this ministry.

We are so incredibly thankful for you, our supporters, partners, and friends. Thank you for praying for us, giving to our ministry, and allowing God to use you in our lives.

Serving Him with You,

The Stephensons.

Support for our family can be given online at this link:

http://lifechangecamp.org/get-involved/giving

Or can be sent as checks with the appropriate memo (Stephenson support) to:

LifeChange Camp

351 NE 831 Rd

Clinton, MO 64735

April/May Update

Dear Friends,

This month we want to take some time to tell you about the ministry we are a part of, and the place it holds in our hearts.

This year specifically, I have become aware of how deep within our hearts camping ministry runs. My (Danielle) grandparents served for 12 years at a camp ground in New Mexico, and this year they will have a building dedicated to them on Bonita Park Camp Ground: the Thornton Aquatic Center. I know that my grandfather, Joe, is cheering it on from heaven!

I spent seven years of my childhood at Bonita Park -- my dad always said that a Christian Camp ground was the closest thing he’d ever found to a mission station! Having lived on both a mission station and on three camp grounds, including now LifeChange Camp, I would agree! Both mission stations and camp grounds are small, close-knit communities of people who are dedicated to living their lives all about the ministry they are involved in. They both are places set apart for the glory of God, a “city on a hill,” for the purpose of showing the world the light and love of the Gospel. In both a mission station and a camp ground, the team of people we serve with becomes our family -- through the good and the bad! We learn lessons together about teamwork, Christlike love, sacrificial service, uplifting conversation, and fearless faith.

What is this “camping” ministry we are all so crazy about? Well, it is certainly not just about a bunch of cabins in the woods! It is about creating space for God to work in the lives of those who come: children, teens, families, women, men. The Christian Camping Association (of which we are a member) reports that the average US child spends less than 40 minutes a week in meaningful conversation with their parents. These same children watch, on average, 270 minutes of day of television, and 7.5 hours a day on electronics. (powerofcamp.com) Some studies have indicated that the action- and stress- packed world in which our children now live is a major factor in the rising rates of depression, ADHD, and other mental disorders. (http://raisedgood.com/extraordinary-things-happen-when-we-simplify-childhood)  

While we cannot fix the entire world for these children and families, we CAN provide one entire week out of the year in which these kids can get away. Can we show you where we work and what we do? (note: this video was uploaded using YouTube, so it gives you an option to watch other, unrelated videos by other users once this video is over. Just a heads up.) 

One aspect of LifeChange Camp is that it is a partner-supported ministry. This means that we rely on people like to you to be a part of our team: either financially, through volunteer work, or through prayer. In order for us (the Stephensons) to serve here, we need an average of $2000/month, 75% of which is provided by LifeChange. Of the $500/month left for us to raise, we are currently averaging 25% support.

We would love for you to prayerfully consider joining our team: eight $50/month or sixteen $25/month partnerships would allow us to reach our goal!  You can give online here: http://lifechangecamp.org/get-involved/giving

We also want to invite you to join us in prayer this summer, especially for these requests:

1. We NEED male counselors for this summer! Please pray with us that God would lead some young men to come pour their lives into these kids this summer.
2. For our full-time team here to continue to work together in harmony and exhibit Christ-like love throughout this busy, hectic season.
3. For continued leading and provision toward the goal of housing on camp for our family.
4. That God would be preparing the hearts and minds of all those who will be joining our team for this summer: counselors, assistant counselors, dishwashers, lawn mowers, garden weeders, song singers -- every person who will be ministering here.
5. That God also would be preparing the hearts and minds of the kids who will be passing through our doors. That the words we will say to them and the songs we will sing with them and the lessons we will teach to them would fall on “good soil” … that they will be able to absorb the love of Jesus during their week here, and would leave renewed, refreshed, and with Lives that have been Changed.

Finally, if you think you would like to volunteer here for a portion of the summer: woohoo! Write me and let’s talk about it!

Thank you guys so much for being a part of our lives. We couldn’t do what we do without you!

Morgan, Danielle, Theron, and Lula Stephenson

March update

Dear Friends,

Well, we have now been at LifeChange Camp for four months! Crazy, isn’t it, how time flies? We continue to be astonished every day at God’s incredible leading, bringing us here to a place so perfect for our family. It is a real joy to work alongside the team we have here, and to invest our time and energy into the people we minister to.

This last month, we had a group of 80 ladies come for a retreat weekend, on the most beautiful, warm weekend: it was in the 70s! The ladies had small group times around the lake in the sunshine… when we walked by, we got to see so many women worshipping God, praying, and enjoying the lake and the sun and the birds. There was even a turtle sitting beside the lake -- he must have thought spring was already here! The women loved it here -- they all commented on the good food and clean cabins. I guess that means we have done our job!

Lula and Morgan had a shared birthday party the last weekend of February, and Morgan’s family came up to celebrate. It was so warm, again, that we broke out the kayaks! Not bad for February!

Morgan is currently working on developing a couple of low ropes challenge course elements to introduce this summer, as well as setting up rappelling down one of our ravines here on camp. He is so excited to be using his talent and passion in this area!

Danielle is working in the office, learning the ropes of the website, and doing graphic design of posters and a new brochure for the camp. Follow LifeChange Camp on facebook to see her posters! … Oh, and also to keep updated on our daily camp life, we guess.

For you, our prayer and financial partners, we are eternally grateful. We see the hand of God in our daily lives, interactions with others, health for our family, and wisdom in day-to-day decisions, and we know that your prayers are a huge part of that.

We are continuing to pray and search together with Bill and Carol, our camp directors, for the best housing location for our family, whether it be a new house on-camp or a  piece of land close by. The goal is to complete that housing project with no debt to LifeChange, so please continue to pray with us for wisdom in that decision, as well as the funding to do so. We hope to make the move by the end of this year.

Please also pray with us as we here at camp search for the summer staff to be a part of our team this summer. We are still looking for a few more  counselors for all the campers who will begin coming through our doors in only three months! We have a couple of recruiting trips still ahead of us, so please be in prayer with us for God’s best plan for the members of our summer team.

Financially, God continues to amaze us. Every month thus far, we have received exactly $500 in support -- the exact amount we need! We are now at $175/month in “recurring” donations -- it was reported to us that due to a glitch on paypal, some “recurring” donations were only processed as “one-time” donations, so if you believe you set up a recurring donation, you might check to make sure it is still coming out of your account and didn’t just come out one time. If you want to parter with us financially, you can do so at http://www.lifechangecamp.org/get-involved/giving, tagging your donation for Morgan and Danielle Stephenson.

Remember, there is plenty of opportunity here for volunteers in the kitchen, housekeeping, maintenance, or just space in our RV/ tent campground, so feel free to come see us! We would love to serve you dinner.

Serving Him with you,

Morgan, Danielle, Theron, and Lula Stephenson