A Place of Happiness and Holiness

A PLACE OF HAPPINESS AND HOLINESS

It’s Friday night at Bay Shore Camp. The Family Camp evangelist has concluded his preaching series. The musicians have packed up their instruments. Here and there, small groups continue to gather for a last conversation, one more round of carpetball, or a hot dog at the bonfire before calling out, “See you next year!”

Along the center road, across from the dining hall, a single light brightens the screened porch where family members gather with Paul and Barbie Brooks at the cottage they own jointly with Jodie O’Brien. This is Barbie Brooks’ happy place – the place where she was introduced to Bay Shore thirty-four years ago.

Dale and Debbie Ackerman owned the cottage then. As members of Elkton United Methodist Church, they had recently befriended Barbie, then a newcomer to the community. Barbie had grown up with strong Christian role models in her grandparents, but she had fallen away from church after her marriage to Paul because he was not a believer. With the couple’s recent move from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to the Thumb, Barbie was looking for peace and fellowship.

“I knew I needed to get back to what was missing in my life,” she said.

The Ackerman’s invited Barbie to attend Family Camp, and that’s where she found what was missing. She also found the courage to kneel in the Tabernacle to lay Paul’s lack of belief before the Lord. Within six months or so, that prayer was answered. Paul gave his life to Christ, right there at Bay Shore Camp. Eventually, so did the couple’s two daughters, Beckie and Sarah.

By then, Barbie had found a calling in camp ministry, first as a volunteer and then as a camp employee in two very different roles. Former Executive Director Lew Tibbitts hired her to manage the kitchen and to help him dream about special ministries the camp might offer – things like quilting retreats.

As the ministries grew, so did Barbie’s two jobs. When they began to collide, she had to make a choice. She ended up in the camp office, coordinating special ministries and guest services until 2007, when she felt the Lord leading her to retire and start a quilt business.

Her commitment to the camp remained strong, however, keeping her active as a volunteer on the Family Camp and Gospel committees, as well as leading multiple quilting retreats each year. She continues to volunteer today, as do Paul and their daughters. Three of the couple’s six grandchildren have worked as camp staff.

Barbie has seen many changes over the past three-plus decades. Change is inevitable as the camp ages. The original structures are more than 100 years old. Foundations have crumbled. Walls have settled. Building codes have evolved. And costs have risen.

For many years, camp policy was that a building project would not begin until at least 90 percent of the funding was in place. Projects were often developed in phases, each phase to be implemented as funding became available.

One might expect such projects to take years to come to fruition. But that has not always been the case. Through the faithfulness of God and the camp’s supporters, phases were and are sometimes completed simultaneously. Ground might be broken on the first phase one year and the entire project dedicated for use the following summer. Barbie saw it happen with the Youth Center.

As the camp has changed, so has Barbie herself.

“My faith is deeper because of the lessons I’ve learned,” she said.

Those lessons have come over the course of years through speakers and pastors, through working with Lew, and through friendship with members of the Bay Shore Evangelical Association, including Clare Patton, who was president for 19 years.

As Barbie’s faith has grown, so has her practice of spiritual disciplines and her use of her spiritual gifts – one of which is prayer. And prayer is foundational to Bay Shore Camp.

“This place has been prayed over for so many years,” she said.

Bay Shore is more than just a “happy place” for Barbie. It is a holy place. And one thing never changes – the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Barbie has deep faith in the power of invitation and personal contact.

“I believe in this ministry so passionately, and I love the holiness of this place that I want others to experience these holy grounds,” she said.