So many great things have been happening all around camp that we are excited to share this year. God provided 23 first-time staff members to help us grow this year! 23 people! With football season around the corner, that’s more than the entire field of players. Some of those keys positions were a bus driver on staff for Performing Arts Camp, a head cook all summer, a new maintenance staff member, and almost ½ of our male staff for boys camp. These new staff members were not just on staff for the sake of joining our team, but they were hand picked by God for the work that He had for us to accomplish. Not only that, but God has stirred the greater camp family to have many stop by to visit camp this year. Almost 50 visits were logged in our visitor book this year. One of our staff Bible studies this summer was through the book of Nehemiah where God called the nation of Israel back to rebuild the wall. At times it felt like a similar situation here at camp with the reunion of so many past camp friends. Our greater camp family is stirring and reuniting to continue to build camp. This is so critical for the success of camp as we build for continued growth in 2018.

The next area God truly blessed us was campers. Forty percent of our campers this year were first-time campers! This is a huge opportunity as we look forward to next year and keep hearing the feedback from our campers about the experiences they had at camp. Part of this growth was in Girls camp with an entire additional cabin registering for camp in the last 10 days before check-in. God provided and our Dining Hall was a boisterous and joyful gathering at every meal. This year was the largest single camper registration week of Girls Camp that we have seen in several years. We pray for God’s continued blessing with new campers who haven’t yet heard about Camp CedarRidge or haven’t been here to experience the intentional way we do things differently.

Finally, God provided for several projects around camp to be completed this spring. The addition of our four trailer sites with water, sewer, and electric just past the Cedars Bathhouse was a huge blessing and challenge to complete in our short time frame. The drainage field was replaced to handle the addition of the four full trailer sites. Two of the sites were utilized as all summer-long housing for our new-to-us director's trailer as well as additional staff members. Many projects were done as beautification and upkeep projects around camp that you might not recognize individually, but add to the general feeling around camp. Through a generous donation, we now have over 250 railroad ties to be used in re-building our retaining walls. One of our first projects will be to widen the path behind the pool against the hill. This will allow our new riding mower access to the commons area, and future work on the Dining Hall, Rec Hall, and Bird Sanctuary. So many things happening at camp right now to be thankful for!

God is great. He does have a continuing work for us here at Camp CedarRidge planned out in advance. As we plan for 2018, we look forward to sharing more details about our renewed commitment to our four core values: Christ in all we do, Individual development, Intentional community, and Outdoor appreciation. We are so thankful that you are a part of this journey and we look forward to seeing all that God will continue to do in the future. This year He has richly blessed us in staff, campers, and projects around camp. Please continue to pray for the lives that were impacted at camp and that campers would continue to grow at home while influencing those around them.

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In Him,

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Devon "Maverick" Roberts

Executive Director