Castaway Club

CASTAWAY CLUB — 1963

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Corinthians 9:6).

“Generosity: Readiness or liberality in giving.”

Jim Rayburn met Sidney Smith in 1945, when he spoke at Smith’s Elim Chapel in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Thirty years earlier Smith and his wife had built a summer home on a piece of property on Pelican Lake in Minnesota. After Sid’s passing, and over time, the Smith family spent less and less time at the summer home. C. Gordon Smith, one of Sidney’s sons was on Young Life’s Canadian Board of Trustees and had helped with the acquisition of Malibu. Phil McDonald, on staff in Minneapolis, Minnesota, recalled that in September 1963, “Bill [Starr] and I returned along with Jim Rayburn, and C. Gordon Smith met us at the property. We had a meal together and talked about what we would do to make it into a camp. After a while, Mr. Smith had to leave, so he tossed keys onto the table, shook hands with us, and walked out. The three of us just looked at each other. We owned a new camp.” Smith and his wife believed that the property was “too valuable to sell.” That “giving the property to Young Life would allow it to be used in ways similar to how Sidney Smith and the rest of their family had used it.” Today, this property on Pelican Lake is known as Young Life’s Castaway Club, and countless young people have experienced “the best week of their lives” thanks to their generosity in response to God. (MFT, p. 55)

Detroit Lakes, Minnesota

When you consider C. Gordon Smith simply tossing the keys to Castaway on a table and walking away, what kind of response do you have? Are you baffled? Amazed? Inspired? What are the “keys” in your life? Where is God calling you to be generous today?