The Mississippi Conference (SEJ) — 2018
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for her three children. Had we not received mission shares, we would not have been able to provide her childcare while she looked for employment which didn’t take but two weeks. The three children are still enrolled at the center.” Our mission share dollars will be used to continue to provide quality education to the children we serve and being able to open new programs within the center to be more attractive to other that may become a part of us. There is a lot of valuable information and resource the Annual Conference provide to us. Bethlehem Center welcome that partnership.
Camp Lake Stephens Camp Lake Stephens, a United Methodist Camp and Retreat Center, is committed to being a place where children, youth, and adults can encounter God and respond in faith to God’s call to transform the world. Since 1946 Camp Lake Stephens has provided summer camp experiences for children and youth. In addition to our traditional summer camp options at Main Camp, our summer camp program has expanded to include Adventure Camp, Day Camp, Traveling Day Camp, LIT (Leader-In-Training), and Stephens Sessions (for campers with special needs) opportunities. Participating in any of our summer camp opportunities provides campers with the ability to live in Christian community, to experience God in the midst of creation, to learn about God’s love for them, to learn new skills, to develop independence, and much more. Although our Summer Camp program is the primary thrust of our ministry, Camp Lake Stephens is involved in ministry in many other areas. In the fall Camp Lake Stephens provides Spiritual Life Retreats for children, Jr. High youth, and Sr. High youth. In January the camp sponsors “Overflow” and Confirmation Retreats. Camp Lake Stephens is involved in ministry to our older adults. Every spring we sponsor “Spring Fling”, which is a day for older adults to come to camp and have fellowship with one another. Participants attend workshops, have lunch together, and participate in a variety of programs in the afternoon. Camp Lake Stephens also provides an older adult trip every fall. We have had trips to Natchez, Lake Junaluska, the Passion Play in Eureka Springs, Nashville, Mobile, New Orleans, and our most recent trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It is our goal to be in ministry year round to the children, youth, and adults of the Mississippi Conference. Our Operating Budget is currently a little over $1 million. Mission Shares provide about 10% of our revenue. Mission Shares are not used for any one specific purpose, but rather used to support the overall ministry of Camp Lake Stephens. Camp Lake Stephens achieves our mission through all our various ministries (i.e. summer camp, fall retreats, older adult programs, community events, environmental education). In all our ministries we stress the importance of community and loving and accepting everyone that is a part of that community. Our summer staff models this loving community to our summer campers. Our LIT (Leader-In-Training) program has helped us greatly in our desire to build spiritual leaders. Participants must have completed the 9th or 10th grade and they come to camp for 3 weeks. During this time we teach them about discerning God’s call for their life, being spiritual leaders, and we give them hands on opportunities to lead children and youth at camp. Most or our LIT campers go on to be counselors where we continue to develop their leadership ability. We currently have several young men and women who have heard a call to ministry through these programs and are in seminary preparing for vocational ministry. We continue to seek ways to connect with our local churches and help to meet the needs they have. We will be hosting our first Women’s Retreat in January of 2017 as a result of women in a local UM church expressing a need for such an event. So far this year we have successfully completed our 72nd season of summer camp, “Overflow” and Confirmation retreats in January, Spring Fling for our older adults, older adult trip to the Mississippi Gulf