Yesterday we began tapping maple trees, officially opening maple syrup making season at Camp Deerpark! Last year, the transition kept us from producing syrup, so it feels great to be back to it. Starting off, however, has been a bit of a challenge since things are pretty arctic around here. The entire ground is covered in at least a quarter-inch layer of ice on top of compacted snow. Walking on the surface doesn’t leave a single foot print, and any slope at all means you’ll soon by traveling on your back or bottom. To get around, we’re wearing spikes on our boots like mountain climbers!
As things slow down during a few months here at Camp, it gives me a chance to meditate on what I’m tapped into. Sometimes, it’s not the easiest thing to “abide in the vine” like Jesus instructed in John 15. Just like our arctic struggle to get tapped into our maple trees, tapping into God can come with long delays and sometimes — when we’re trying our hardest to get there — we find ourselves slipping and falling all over the place.
But like the spikes on our boots, Jesus provides an anchor for our souls because he has already done the work to enter “behind the curtain” and connect us to God (Hebrews 6:19-20). When we realize this, we find that the problem is not that God is far away or inaccessible. Rather, we need our eyes and ears to open in faith to see what He’s been doing and hear what He’s been saying all along. If we start from this point of anchor in knowing Him, we can move with confidence in any landscape of life.
Please join us in prayer as we seek to make Camp a place where people can find or renew their connection to Jesus, the hope and anchor of their souls. Ask the Lord to break through the noise of our times that many find confusing and disillusioning. Pray that the Lord will send us many slipping and sliding and give us the grace to help them tap in to the one who has already finished the work of their redemption.
Join us in special prayer as we re-develop our Summer Camp ministry to help young adults and children tap into their Father in life transforming ways that will spread from life to life both at Camp and when they go home.
Praise God With Us:
- Thanks for our new board members who volunteered to join Camp’s leadership: Anita Castle, Brian Murray, and Lowell Jantzi.
- Praise God for the timely completion of our Twin Birch 5&6 remodel by our Facilities staff: Gino and Eivy Rodriguez and Michael Zahaykevich.
- Our hard working office staff just sent our Winter Newsletter to the printers (or by email) — if you don’t see your copy, please let us know.
Please Pray For:
- Inter-generational connection and reconciliation — our theme for Peace Camp this year.
- Camp’s re-development of our ministry, training, and discipleship model and methods and our work with NYC Leaders and LMC Leaders on every-member missions, church multiplication, and movement dynamics.
- Recruitment for next year’s Summer Camp staff, especially Camp Pastor and Head Counselors.
Upcoming Guests:
- Garifuna Manhattan Youth
- Garifuna Bronx Leadership
- Kingdom Life Global (Uniondale, NY)
- St .Catherine CYO (Glen Rock, NJ)
- College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA)
- Messiah University Track Team (Mechanicsburg, PA)
- Iglesia Mundial (Spring Valley, NY)
Get Regular Prayer Updates In Your Inbox: Sign Up for Kneemail!
Share:
Come and Pray Lunch & Retreat
Come and PrayPrayer Day with Lunch March 14, 9am-3pm~$30~ Overnight Prayer RetreatMarch 13-14includes March 14 Lunch~$120~ Come seek the Lord’s face with your faith family from all over the Tristate region for a relaxing time of prayer and discussion. We know God is doing amazing things — and he will continue to do more as…
Time to Pray
As followers of Jesus, he is our example in everything. When Camp says in our mission statement that we are “a community of Christ” – this is what we’re saying: we’re a group of people dedicated to the purpose of following and being like Jesus. So the question is, how do we follow Jesus as…
A Place of Prayer
Prayer — especially “vertical prayer” for specific God-revealed mission set apart from the concerns of our life and ministry — is a major theme for Camp in 2026. Maybe you read about this in the Winter Newsletter article “Time to Pray“? We want to extend the invitation to the entire Camp community and beyond —…
Living Abundantly Retreat
Jesus promised his followers an abundant life. Is that just an abstract idea to distract us from earthly misery, or is there real power in Christ to live a full and rich life in the here and now? Young adults are navigating a challenging landscape as they start “adulting” and building a life, so we’ll…
Forgiving Debts: 2025 Woodcutting Season
When Jesus taught his disciples to pray (Mt 6:9-15), he described two big realities where “thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” are realized in the human world: First, he said “give us this day our daily bread”, acknowledging that God’s provision for human need is a central…
“How Do I Donate?”
Recently, a thirteen-year-old guest at Camp asked Operations Director Kevin Smith, “how do I donate?” Kevin was honestly a little surprised, but was happy to see this young member – who was on retreat with one of our owning churches — taking some initiative. Kevin directed him to the website Donate page, and the young…
The Discipleship Down-Low
Defining Discipleship 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded…
The Virtuous Wife
This past weekend, Camp hosted three women’s retreats at Camp. Though the retreat groups were very diverse in background – one was from an urban church plant in Philadelphia, one was from a Garifuna Mennonite church in Brooklyn (an Afro-Caribbean Culture), and one was from a multi-ethnic faith community reaching out in North Jersey. Though…
A Life of Service
I believe the most important thing to God is not our personality, knowledge, or talents, but our availability. How willing and ready are we to respond when He calls, and how ready are we to do what He says? What use to the Lord are people who could do what he wants with excellence and…
Building Belonging
At our February NYC LMC District meeting, we’re discussing the Belonging phase of The Journey Map. In this first phase on the map, individuals and groups on a spiritual journey begin the process of connecting to each other and evaluating the place they may have in each other’s lives. Have you ever been an outsider…