Lake Champion

LAKE CHAMPION — 1986

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17).

Glen Spey, New York

What do you think might connect a wire tapper for gangster Mickey Cohen, Billy Graham, a chairman of the board for Chase Manhattan Bank and Young Life? The answer is two-fold ... Jesus and Lake Champion! As told in Made For This, “In 1949, Jim Vaus, a wire tapper for noted gangster Mickey Cohen, met Christ at Billy Graham’s Los Angeles crusades. In the 1950s, he set up a ministry for troubled teens called Youth Development International, aimed at helping the kids in New York City’s Spanish Harlem. Vaus wanted a camp where he could take these kids, and in 1961, along with the financial assistance of George Champion, chairman of the board of Chase Manhattan Bank, they bought a 365-acre property in the Catskill Mountains.” Eleven years later, in 1972, Vaus sold the camp to another ministry designed for kids, Teen Challenge. Thirteen years later, Teen Challenge decided to sell the property. At a time when Young Life was again in desperate need of an additional camp on the East Coast, God, in his perfect timing, orchestrated events that would bring Lake Champion to Young Life. In the words of Doug Burleigh, “I couldn’t believe that here was a place that with only a few months of work, we could bring 250 young people in, tell them about Jesus, and they’d have the best week of their lives. God had in mind for us to have that place and to use it to tell kids about Jesus. One thing that’s particularly special about Lake Champion is that it’s so close to New York City, to Newark, to Philadelphia, to all the urban centers in the East, and we so desperately needed a place to take kids to tell them about Him.” (MFT, p. 108)

Do you ever find yourself wondering if God is really in control; if everything is knit together and is held together in Him? The story of Lake Champion shouts “Yes!” Now, consider your own life, the seemingly coincidental occurrences that were actually God-ordained appointments. He has knit things together for your best and His incomparable glory. Reflect on this today and move forward looking for His divine appointments.