Many of you have memorized Psalm 100 and have sung it around a campfire or in the Tabernacle at Baptist Park. The song shares how we are to worship with gladness, know that He is Lord, praise His name, and know that His love endures forever. Love is at the heart of the gospel message. It is essential to the work we do at Baptist Park and the mission we share.
It is out of this deep abiding love for one another that we come to you with this message.
• Love for our campers, who return summer after summer to make lifelong memories with us.
• Love for our partner congregations who graciously support and pray for us, investing in our ministry on all levels.
• Love for our donors who give generously to see that this work continues.
• Love for our summer staff!
• Love for Aroostook County and all the communities from which our campers all come.
• Love for our world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is out of this love that we share this message.
The Baptist Park Board of Directors came together and decided to cancel our traditional summer program for this season only! This difficult decision was made with heavy hearts. Like many of you, our summer doesn’t feel complete without camp and campers! We never envisioned this scenario. We trust that when we take action out of love for others, Christ’s love flows through us.
As soon as we can safely do so, Baptist Park will reopen. The board’s decision leaves room for creative onsite and offsite options later in the summer, options that more easily support social distancing.
• We will continue to seek ways to support you and offer experiences to grow in faith.
• We hope to proceed with the Apologetics Conference and Labor Day Family Camp.
• We will continue to stay up-to-date on regional, state, and national recommendations; we will update our site and programs within those guidelines.
• We hope to do some community outreach activities, and we encourage you to follow our Facebook page and make sure we have your current email address to keep families informed of these special activities.
We ask you to pray for us. Pray for our new director as he leads during these unprecedented times. Pray for the staff who have been working so hard for the past nine months to get ready for campers this summer. Pray for the event leaders and counselors who just want to encourage and challenge kids at our camp. Pray for the board as they focus on what’s next, ensuring that we emerge from this crisis stronger than ever and ready to serve.
We also ask for your financial support. In the coming weeks, we will communicate a plan for outreach activities. We are confident that God is not calling us to put our head in the sand and wait for this all to be over. We are going to keep working, catching up on maintenance projects and facility improvements, such as lining the swimming pool and adding new activities, and working on curriculum to enhance the spiritual program, knowing that our efforts will result in a more ambitious ministry when this crisis is over.
It’s okay to grieve the loss of Summer 2020 at Baptist Park as we’ve known it. We grieve with you. But, we serve a resurrected Saviour. With that same hope, we live in a present day with new opportunities, and await a future that is brighter and more beautiful than anything we can imagine.
“His faithfulness continues through all generations.” The world needs us now more than ever. How glorious that day will be when we can again worship around the fire at Baptist Park!
We want you to know that we are grateful for each and everyone of you. So many have reached out to us with encouraging action and words. We will do our part to keep working behind the scenes so that when this is over, you will again have the opportunity to come together and experience adventure, wonder, connection, rest, and spiritual growth at Baptist Park.