Merry Christmas & A Very Happy New Year from all of us at Kellogg Springs Camp!
We had an early Christmas present given to the camp by the Roseburg Church on the Rise. They donated $12,000 toward the building of a new cabin. The total cost of a cabin is $35,000 & Church on the Rise is putting out the challenge for others to give & make a new cabin happen this year. Are you up to the challenge? They also offered the labor to help make it happen.
The Nurse's Station is progressing along, hampered a little by weather. The foundation is in & the walls are up. In January we hope to get the trusses & roofing ordered.
The kitchen project is coming along & we have to finish it by the 30th of January. As any remodel goes we hit some unexpected bumps along the road. So glad the Lord nudged us to start a couple of months early.
Ray & Laurine are watching the camp & working the month of December while Connie & I are watching the grandkidos Christmas plays, cantatas, & etc. in MO. We are enjoying a much needed rest. I will assist at a funeral of one of our former parishioner's who passed away unexpectedly Monday morning Dec. 14.
We had an opportunity to speak at the Creswell Church of the Nazarene Nov 29. We had a great service.
November 30 just before we left, we found that a large oak tree had fallen on the gym activity room & caused considerable damage. Our insurance is taking care of us.
December 2-4 we attended the NCA [Nazarene Camping Association] meeting at Camp Golden Bell in Divide, CO. Very informative & we learned several things about the camping ministry in today's world. We also learned how cold it can get in Divide: -10.
December 5-9 fridged cold weather hit the camp. Fortunately we lost only one water valve & a small section of pipe. A big limb fell on the camp truck breaking our new windshield & causing some damage to the roof. We do not have comprehensive insurance on the truck.
As soon as the kitchen is completed we will begin on harvesting spring water for the camp. Please be praying for us that it will go well. Also be in prayer that the Lord will provide the finances for a water storage system.
God is blessing the camp and new groups are signing up to come. The calendar is beginning to fill up. We are expecting great things this year.
We look forward to returning to camp December 29 & kick into high gear again.
May Our Lord truly bless you through the Christmas Season & give you a Blessed New Year.
Rev. Chip Rudin, Director
Missourians, Ohioans, & Oregonians Working Together To Make A Difference
Since my last entrance on the Blog, many good things & changes have taken place.
Connie’s brother & Sister in law, from Ohio, came for a visit & “insisted” on working at the camp. They washed & started the painting on the outside of the director’s house. Right after they left 2 couples from Pinecrest Camp in MO, came & spent 3 weeks. They put in 400’ of 18” culvert pipe in the “meadow” from the service road to the pond. This will allow us to clear that entire field [approx 10 acres] for a ball field & soccer field.
Two weeks into their coming 4 more folks from MO came to help us. They power washed the pool, scrubbed it with special chemicals, scraped the paint, power washed again, taped & applied two coats of epoxy paint. While the paint was drying they finished painting the director’s house & trimmed all the trees around the house.
Now, while all of that was going on, 3 guys from the Roseburg, OR, Church on the Rise & one from Molalla, OR, Church of the Nazarene, were running a dozer & back hoe to dig the foundation for the new Nurse’s Station.
The footers, basement walls and basement floor have been poured. Ray has started the framing for the basement & 2 guys, Lee & Dustin, from Roseburg Church on the Rise sealed the outside walls.
A couple from Oregon stopped by one day to look at the camp, liked what they saw, especially the Stake Garden, & donated the funds to purchase 9 Queen Beds for the Staff House, Ashland, & the New Nurse’s Station. We have already purchased them & now have the Staff House ready for couples. Ashland should be ready by Spring. That will give us 13 rooms for a couples retreat.
Ray & I attended a Water Treatment Seminar to learn more about harvesting spring water. The Camp Board has appointed a committee to work on the plan for harvesting the spring water. Part of the plan will be a water storage tank to hold the supply for summer camps.
The Camp Board voted to put a new floor in the kitchen & we have gutted the kitchen – what a mess! Some contractors from the Springwater Church of the Nazarene, Gresham, OR “beefed up” the Kitchen floor in preparation for the tile. We have our quarry tile & painting has begun. Merle, from the Albany Nazarene Church is building the cabinets. I “thought” we could do all of that the month of January but I felt the Lord telling us to start now. I am so glad we did.
God is so Good! – All the time! He has blessed us with just the right workers for just the right jobs.
Click here for a slide show of all the work & workers.
GREAT THINGS GOD IS DOING!
We are in our final 2 weeks of summer camps. 263 stakes have been driven in the Stake Garden! All of the camps have been very enjoyable & children have found new life in Christ.
We have had our share of challenges over the past 2 weeks. We found 4 water leaks & our wells have struggled to keep up – But God kept them going! Our convection oven decided to celebrate a late 4th of July, But; God helped us get it back in operation in just 2 days. We only missed one meal w/o it [had to cook the old fashion way]. The motor on the dishwasher & the motor in the commercial vent hood decided they were tired so they retired. It has been amazing to watch how God has provided & to see His timing in it all.
We will shift gears in a couple of weeks to weekend retreats & the building of our new Nurse’s Station. We took the plans into the building division today, August 19, & we are waiting for final approval.
Let me share with you how the Nurse’s Station came about. It is paid for! Another Miracle!
Lavira Pearson & her husband, adopted a son by the name of Jimmy. One day Jimmy came home & found his dad lying on the floor deceased. Jimmy was very young & deeply troubled by this incident. Lavira thought it might be good to send Jimmy to children’s camp – just to get away for awhile. He dearly loved camp & went each year there after. Lavira credited the camp with helping Jimmy through the difficult days of his life.
After Jimmy graduated from high school, he was killed in a motorcycle accident. As Lavira was nearing the end of her life she wanted to do something for the camp in memory of her son. She willed $135,000 to Kellogg Springs Camp.
The Camp Board decided to build a Nurse’s Station with $54,000 of the funds. At the time we did not know that Lavira had cancer & was working with other people who had cancer. Camp Millennium, a camp for children with cancer or dealing with a family member with cancer, have held their camp at Kellogg Springs for the past 9 years. Many times they, as well as several other camps, have had to treat sick children on the deck because we did not have proper nursing facilities. The family was thrilled when we informed them of our decision.
We will build the Nurse’s Station in Lavira’s memory & debt free! We will hold a dedication of the facility sometime in the Spring of 2010, probably during Work Week. Her gift will live on for years to come & make a difference in the lives of children.
We have not yet made a decision on the rest of the funds but will probably use them toward a water storage tank. There are not enough funds to do the whole system but we are praying & believing God for a miracle.
We would love to have you be a part of that miracle & make a difference in the lives of children for years to come.
Over The Goal!
God is Good - All the Time! We had a goal to see 200 new stakes driven in the Stake Garden this summer of 2009 - each stake representing a new commitment to Christ. To date 207 new stakes have been driven with 5 weeks of camps yet to go!
How important is camp? It is making a difference in the lives of boys & girls. These children will never forget camp & I trust they will never forget their commitment to Christ. Any funds you contribute to help us keep the water system up & improve or build facilities allows us to bring more children to camp & ultimately to Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. To invest in Kellogg Springs Camp is "An Investment in Life"!
Thank you for your prayers & gifts. Who knows? We could possibly drive 400 stakes in the Garden yet this summer!
Summer Camps are Upon Us!
We had a wonderful time with Camp Millennium. The kids & counselors truly enjoyed themselves. It seemed like the camp had just started when it was all over. KEZI Channel 9 news from Eugene came & interviewed the children & staff. They did a real nice report on the camp.
LaPine girls basketball camp is with us this week. For our staff it is a breather between Camp Millennium & our Nazarene camps.
The Church of the Nazarene Primary Camps 1 & 2 just ended with 105 new stakes driven in the stake garden. We are believing God for 200 boys & girls to give their life to Christ or rededicate their life to Christ this summer & we are well on our way!
Summers are filled with life & excitement. We are excited about what God is doing.
One month before camping season we lost two of our 3 wells. The best producing well decided to call it quits & went completely dry. The old original well is now dry. Our second well is producing 1100 gallons a day. We had to drill a new well that is producing 11,500 gallons a day. A camp the size of Camp Millennium & our Nazarene camps will use an average of 8,500 gallons a day.
God has been so good to us. The wells could have gone down in the middle of the camping season putting us in a great deal of stress & panic. But instead we had plenty of time to find & drill a new well. Ray & I, along with our former camp director, Wayne are going to see what we can do to harvest spring water. We have several good springs that run year around. If you have some good experience in this field your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Please pray for us this summer that God will cause water to flow into our wells & pray that the Lord will bless us with the finances we need to put in a water storage system.
Please pray for children to have a wonderful experience at camp & that over 200 will make decisions for Christ.
People Make A Difference
We had a great work week May 18-22. We were able to accomplish a lot of work. We appreciate everyone who came for each one made a difference in the appearance of our camp. We had 2 groups from Church on the Rise & one from Bay Area Nazarene along with several individuals, 2 from as far away as Seattle, WA.
Last week [June 8-9] Ruth Smith came down from the Beaverton Church. She & her husband are exterminators. Ruth stayed a couple of days & sprayed all the buildings inside & out. Plus she did several other jobs for us.
Yesterday [June 13] a group of 7 young men from the Albany Church came & cleaned up the entrance to the camp, painted, mowed, & weed-eated. What a difference in the appearance of the grounds.
Our goal is to have a group or groups come in once a month to help keep the camp looking good. If your Men's, Youth, or Ladies Ministries is looking for a project please contact Chip at Kellogg Springs Camp.
People really do make a difference whether it is one at a time or a whole group.
Thank you to everyone who has come for......You Indeed Made a Hugh Difference!
Water Storage System
Kellogg Camp has been in need of a much larger water storage tank for many years. Our current tank holds 9,000 gallon. We are looking to upgrade to 110,000 gallons. If for some reason a pump would fail, a larger tank will provide us with a 4 week water supply - plenty of time to have the pump or any other problem in the system repaired.
Water storage systems come at a cost.We are only in the talking stage at the time & it will take a good year or two, to gather info, permits, engineer drawings, etc.Just in the talking stage it appears that an adequate system for Kellogg Camp will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $200—$250,000. In order for us to continue to grow the camp and add a new lodge in the future we will have to upgrade the system.
Please pray with us that the Lord will provide funds for this much needed project. Haggi 2:8 states: “The silver is mine & the gold is mine, saith the Lord God Almighty.” Our trust and confidence is in the Lord who will supply our every need. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that comes to God must believe that He Is & that He is a rewarder of those who deligently seek Him."
Great Donations from Missouri
Fred Yates, Camp Director at Pinecrest Camp & Conference Center, Fredericktown, MO, Wayne & Karen Riggs, volunteers at Pinecrest, drove 42 continuous hours one way to deliver 4 steam tables [2 are pictured], & tools to Kellogg Springs Camp. They arrived April 2nd.
We put the tables into operation Friday, April 3. It was wonderful to serve the food & 1 ½ hours later to still see steam rising from the food.
What a blessing. Connie, myself, Ray & Laurine, were like 4 kids at Christmas.
Fred, Wayne, & Karen all pitched in & helped us in the kitchen. We had a wonderful time together not only with them but with the ORPAC Hispanic Ministries directed by Mario Zani.
All the Pinecrest group arrived home safely Monday, April 6, at noon.
Fred & Wayne are in the process of putting a work-n-witness group together to come back to Kellogg Springs at the end of this summer.
Many, many, Thanks to Fred, Wayne, Karen, for giving of their time to make that long trip out here & donate the much needed steam tables along with several other items.
Check out their website: pinecrestcamp.org. Click on “Contact Us” & let them know how much you appreciate them & their gifts to Kellogg Springs.
Would You Like To Help?
There are a couple of things that we need to accomplish so as to make our camp even more enjoyable for the children who attend:
1.The roads are in much need of new gravel - will keep the dust down in the camp area. Cost of $2,000
2. Right after Labor Day the pool will need to drained, cleaned & repainted. Cost of $5,500.00
Would you consider making a financial contribution to help us fix these four problem areas? You can donate on line by going to our “Home Page” [lower right hand corner] & click “Donate” OR send a contribution via USPS to: Kellogg Springs Camp, 1111 Kellogg Camp Ln, Oakland, OR 97462.
Thank you for making a contribution to Kellogg Springs Camp. We are looking forward to a wonderful summer!
Creswell Men "Ger-R-Done"
Pastor Stacy Hansen, about 12 men & a couple of ladies from the Creswell Church of the Nazarene came in the weekend of March 6 & 7 & literally did a ton of work. They took down 4 danger trees, cut it all up for firewood, cleaned up the mess & hauled it all away. A couple of electricians added 6 circuits to the Dinning Hall. One of the men installed a new windshield on the camp truck. We had a great time working with & getting to know the people from Creswell. We hope several other groups will come in to help us.
The young man in the red jacket was saved at Kellogg Camp & drove a stake in the stake garden. [Click on "Facilities" then Stake Garden for more info.] He took his dad up to the garden & showed him where his stake was. When I heard the story it brought tears of thanksgiving & praise to my eyes for the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross for each one of us. That makes all the work at Kellogg Springs Camp worth every moment!
Thank you Pastor Stacy & the Creswell Group for leading the way. You are a blessing!
Prayer Request for Kellogg Springs Camp
Amid all the financial woes that many in Oregon & across our nation are facing, I ambelieving God for the best year Kellogg Springs Camp has ever had.I am asking you to pray with me about several things:
1.That many boys & girls will be saved this summer & hundreds of new stakes will be driven in the stake garden. [For more info on the stake garden go to our new website: kelloggsprings.com]
2.That our camps & retreats will be better attended than ever!
3.That many financial gifts will come in to help us improve the camp & add to our ability to host more groups.
4.That all the staff will exemplify the beautiful spirit of Jesus to those using our facilities.
5.That God will keep water flowing from our wells.[See Water Storage System below.]
If you have a prayer request, please send it in so we can also pray for you.
