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CAMP SHALOM
Camp Shalom is now under a new
administration!
(full story)
The Christian and Missionary Alliance Church "El
Batán" is going to develop the camp for:
retreats, theological training, an orphanage, and a church!
It now looks like this, but...
they plan to develop this!
Click for more
details
THE STORY ABOUT SELLING THE CAMP TO THE ALLIANCE CHURCH
After seven years of
ownership, and a lot of hard work to get it going, we sold
the camp. Wow! How did that happen?
We had never thought
about selling the camp. Once the church that had rented the
camp for 4 years moved out, (we had hoped they were going to
rent for another 2 years so I could finish my Ph.D., but
they found another place), we dedicated all our time to
fixing it up for retreats. We hired another couple to help
us, and cleaned and painted and fixed and renovated… Then we
bought beds, mattresses, sheets, pillows, blankets, and
after three months of work, the camp was ready to go. We
even made up a nice promotional pamphlet and began to visit
churches to let them know the camp was available for
retreats.
Then came the day
when we visited the largest, and wealthiest church in Quito,
the Christian and Missionary Alliance. We met with the
pastor and showed him our pamphlet (and website) about “Camp
Shalom.” He asked a lot of questions about the camp, and
mentioned that among their five churches in Quito, they held
around 45 retreats per year!
Then came the
surprise question: “Would you consider selling us the camp?”
He then explained to us that they were looking for place to
develop several projects: church retreats, a Bible
institute, and a rehabilitation center for street kids. That
very night he had convened a meeting to decide on several
options they were already considering to buy!
I said, “Yes, we’ll
consider selling it to you, since you will do exactly what
we were going to do, you will do more, and you have much
more resources to make it happen.” I had been frustrated the
past several months, because I realized that the camp would
take most if not all of our time, and I really wanted to get
more involved in theological education and teaching in the
seminaries here.
It took a good four
months to work out all the negotiating details about the
camp. We also had to move out all the beds and furniture,
and move ourselves as well, since we had been living at the
camp for eight months. So after all the negotiating and
legal work, we began settling into our house in El-Tingo,
and that required some more work to get the house in shape
again. Then I taught two courses in a local seminary. It
wasn’t a good time for me to teach, but I wanted to get my
foot in the door there, and the opportunity was “now or
never.”
We had mixed
feelings about selling the camp. We wouldn’t have sold it if
the new owners were not going to use it for the ministry.
But we realized that we couldn’t do it alone, and we were
alone. The church is going to use it and develop it far more
than we could, and so we are happy about that. And we will
have more time to work with the local churches here, and to
teach in the seminaries.
We are still part of
the camp because the church made us honorary members of
their Foundation. (Technically speaking, the Foundation
bought the camp, not the church. But the Foundation is run
by the church.) So we’ll get to see all that happens to the
camp, and how they’ll use it for ministry.
Right now they’re
trying to raise the funds for all the building projects they
have in mind. It’s a little slow, but soon they should start
renovating and building. Although we sold the camp, I like
to say that “it changed administration.” It will be used for
the same ministry, just different people are going to make
it happen.
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