Groundbreaking for new building, June 23, 2020
GOD’S PLAN & PURPOSE UNFOLD AT PINE RIDGE BIBLE CAMP
“I am the LORD, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King. I am the LORD, who opened a way through the waters, making a dry path through the sea…. But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Isaiah 43:15-19 NLT
This year has been a year like no other! Cancelling camp for the summer of 2020 was probably the hardest decision we’ve had to make. When the door slams shut on something you’ve always done, it requires a person to get creative and look at alternative ideas for how to connect.
Our interns, Marcie and Janelle, have been expanding our online presence through Facebook, Instagram, and now YouTube. The girls have also had unique opportunities to take plates of goodies into some communities a few times through the year – spreading cheer to campers, LITs, and random people they met. While expanding our online presence has been good, connecting with campers and staff only online comes nowhere close to the in-person connections you get at camp.
However, God does indeed make pathways in the wilderness and rivers in the dry wasteland. When camp shut down in the spring of 2020, God threw the doors wide open for construction on our new dining hall/chapel building to begin. We had been working on the floor plans for almost a year – hoping to start building as soon as the frost went out and having the project completed in about two years. As I write this, we are one year into building and aiming to be in the upper level (kitchen/dining) by August 2021 (if funds keep coming in)!
When construction began in June 2020, there was a huge hole in the ground, mountains of sand on the playing field, and giant machines driving around. One day, our contractor said to me – “I’m trying to picture this with kids around,” to which I replied, “about 40 of them?!” Looking back, God knew that there was no way we could have run summer camp while construction was going on.
Construction is well under way!
We also realized recently that God’s timing could not have been better in another way — since we started building, lumber costs have skyrocketed to unbelievable prices. God timed our build so that we had all our lumber, plywood, trusses, etc., before the prices jumped. Even our pine ceiling came in just before the orders were so backed up that no one could get it anymore.
Talking with our supplier (Rob) recently, we figured that if we had started building this year rather than last year, our material costs would have tripled in price. Rob keeps reminding me that God was faithful in His timing for this building. We have been blessed and blown away by God’s provision for this much-needed new dining hall! Everything from amazing contractors and tradesmen to work with, continued funding from supporters, wisdom in all the details, and protection for all involved in building. Watching the building go up reminds me each day that God’s timing is perfect, and He has a plan and purpose in all things.
Completed siding
Another river in the wasteland has been the way God is bringing a team together here at PRBC. Each person God has brought fills another role and helps ease the load as we can now carry it together. Going through this last year and into another summer of unknowns, I am so thankful to have a fantastic team to work with – I can’t imagine going into this without them.
With the summer of 2021 rolling in, we have been brainstorming for alternative camp ideas. Some ideas have exciting potential, but also a few bumps to work around. We are aiming to run day camps during July. However, with many of our campers being from far away, we have decided to go to the communities rather than have the kids come to us each day. This is a whole new way of doing camp for us, so it will take the entire team to pull this off! Lord willing, we will run our Jr. Teen and Teen camp weeks as overnight camps in mid-August. We thank God for His faithfulness and trust Him for His guidance. We trust in His name, serve through His power, and give all the glory to Him alone. •
“‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts…. It is the same with My word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it…. These events will bring great honor to the LORD’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of His power and love.’”
Isaiah 55:8-13
Tabitha Wahlstrom joined NCEM in 2015 and in recent years has been directing Pine Ridge Bible Camp near Beauval, SK.