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im,
knowH Camp To f o rs e n lson, ow gs. Ginny Ne cie the camp do ra Roy and G (left) and with Lily
Between the large and sm a facilities, the camp can acc ll group ommodate up to 200 ca mpers.
8 Connected - May/June 2012
Son, J.T. Nelson designed and created all of the metalwork that is seen throughout the camp.
By Kerry Scott
hen husband and wife Roy and Ginny Nelson moved from Orlando, Fla., in the late 1990s, they envisioned a life of travel and volunteer work. But what God had in store for them was greater than either could have imagined. “When we left Orlando, we wanted to see more of God alive and at work,” says Roy. Years before, Roy had purchased a vacation home nestled on a wooded 10-acre lot in a most unlikely place — Pisgah, Ala. In 1996, Roy and Ginny decided to make it their permanent residence and moved. Soon after, a neighbor asked if they wanted to buy 40 acres that included a portion of their driveway. They did. When a later survey revealed they still didn’t own all of their drive, they bought 20 more acres. “We didn’t need 70 acres of land,” Roy says. “We had no idea what we were going to do with it.” It was about that same time that a friend, Rob Mann, asked a question that helped them figure it out. “Have you ever thought of building a camp here?” their friend asked. They loved the idea and soon formed a board including Roy, Rob and Gordon Oliphant. Construction began on Camp ToknowHim in 2000. “We started out with the idea of creating a traditional Christian youth camp,” says Roy. They constructed a large group facility with eight cabins that accommodate 18 campers in each. A chance encounter with a man from the Buckeye Baptist Builders brought a group of volunteers down to help get the assembly/dining facility underway. “They came in,” says Roy, “stayed two weeks and when they left it was under roof.” Before the walls, plumbing or electricity were ready, a church from Scottsboro asked to use it for a retreat. “They told us that if we could get electricity into one end of the building, they would bring everything they needed to make it work,” says Roy. Over the next three years they hosted groups while construction continued. And it seemed that each person or group that came provided an idea or inspiration for something else. “The camp is so different than we imagined it would be,” says Roy. “A youth pastor would suggest something, then we would see how