Windy Gap

WINDY GAP — 1964

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Imagine for a moment a pebble being dropped into the very center of a still pond. Picture the ripples extending out from this single impact. Now, Weaverville, North Carolina consider the impact that the life of a transformed teenager can have. The ripple effects of a life impacted by Christ, reverberating out into the world, into eternity. Ilene Douglas grew up in Florida and was the daughter of Lawrence and Sara. Ilene’s parents were friends with a member of Young Life’s board, Bouton McDougal, who suggested that Ilene serve on work crew at Frontier Ranch, which she did. Ilene returned from her time at Frontier excited about everything she had witnessed and told her family all about her experience. At the same time that Ilene was telling her family about her experience at Frontier, Young Life was searching for a property in the Southeast. The Douglas family owned a dairy farm outside Weaverville, North Carolina, and wondered if it might not be the answer to Young Life’s search. Roy Riviere, Southwest regional director for Young Life at the time, along with Mal McSwain and Bill Starr, went to visit the Douglas’ property and found it to be magnificent and massive, at over 2,000 acres. They also found it to be cost-prohibitive with so much land and no existing structures. The asking price was sure to be too much. “Then,” in the words of Riviere, “in one of the most humble-spirited ways I have ever seen in any man I respected, Lawrence asked kind of politely, is there any chance we could use it? I assumed he wanted us to buy it. And when he realized that, he laughed and said, ‘Oh, no, we’d like to give it to you.’” (MFT, p. 56)

It is amazing to think that God used a young Florida girl’s work crew experience in Colorado to influence the building of a brand-new Young Life camp in North Carolina. The impact of a life transformed by Christ truly has no limits! Can you think of other examples of God using individuals to impact their families, communities or even the world? Have you considered the ripple effects of your life as well?