Closing of Camp Hope, December 1

Those of you who have seen the movie “You’ve Got Mail” will remember the scene in which Meg Ryan’s character is faced with closing her children’s book store and with dealing with the flood of memories that that sad event brings to her mind. Well, in one sense, closing Camp Hope has produced something similar in myself and in many of those to whom I have spoken lately. True, it was only a part of our lives for a relatively short period of time (not quite 2 ½ years). But it was such a huge encouragement for so many of us during those 2 ½ years, especially in the months that immediately followed the hurricane. Camp Hope helped many of us to go on putting one foot in front of the other. It helped others of us to refocus our priorities away from the things of this world and onto serving Christ and His Church (after all, what will continue to bear fruit when we are dead and gone? the activities we were involved in? our résumé? the money we made? the possessions we accumulated? Or, will it be the work we have done for the sake of Christ?). Camp Hope reminded all of us that God is real, that His Church is real, and that His Church is alive and well and is FAR bigger than Gulfport, Mississippi.

It is always a sad occasion when we are forced to say goodbye to those things that have played important parts in our lives. And such events do bring back a flood of memories. For me, Camp Hope’s closing has brought back memories of the early days, before there ever was such a thing as “Camp Hope;” of the very first crews from Woodruff Road Presbyterian Church in Greer, SC, who came down to build the bath house; of the many Wednesday nights early on that we spent together (outside, mind you!) to eat dinner, to enjoy rich fellowship, and to praise our Great God and Savior; and of the many, many faces that I can still see in my mind’s eye and that I hope I will continue to see for some time to come.

Closing Camp Hope will be a sad occasion. But if we neglect to finish what Camp Hope has started in our midst and fail to refocus our efforts as a congregation on reaching out and serving our community in new and different ways, then Camp Hope’s closing really will be sad. It will then mark not just the end of one chapter of our lives and the beginning of a new one but the end of our attempts to reach and impact our community, a turning of our backs on what we have learned after Katrina.

Please continue to pray for us here on the Gulf Coast, that we will never forget the lessons of Camp Hope. Pray for us as we now start the process of building our new church facility. And thank you for everything you have done to encourage us and to stand by our sides during these most difficult of times. You have been a fulfillment of Galatians 6:2, bearing our burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ.