A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Camp – 7c -- NEW DIRECTION AND OLD ROAD

     In 1963 Ted Lyons was called to be the Executive Director of Calvin Crest.

Richard and I were active as volunteers.  Richard on the Board and I helped out

as secretary and the Camp Registrar.   I set in motion the accounting and book-

keeping procedures for recruiting and registering campers and counselors.

     The following couple of years the Board hired me as the Program Director

beginning with part time and then full time to include Personnel Director.  After

a year or two of research and walking around the grounds, praying, talking, and

praying, (literally), the Board presented the Presbytery with a Mission Statement

for the camp: “To guide persons to Jesus Christ, so that through Him they may

come to a true knowledge of God, to a living faith and through the power of the

Holy Spirit live as Christ’s disciples through the fellowship of the Church.” 

This was taken from the Denomination’s Confession of 1967. 

      The Road:  Even after moving from Coalinga to Modesto we would go up to

camp several weekends a month.  We went in and out on the seven mile narrow dirt

road--summer and winter.   Through the years we discovered that many Presbyterian

camps had a dirt roads for its entrance.

     Calvin Crest is about 5,000 feet in elevation and it would snow a lot during the

winter.   Our first winter was the beginning of adventurous rides into camp on snowy

roads.  We would be met at the bottom of the hill to be taken into the camp in a

4-wheel drive truck.  Our children, Mark, Nancy and Paul, (ages around 11, 8 and 5

years) and I were in the back of a camp truck while the three men, Ted, Richard and

the Camp Manager were in the front cab.  I am not sure why the women and children

were in the back of the truck?  Maybe it was because in the middle 60’s women’s

liberation was making it’s mark on the American scene and the back of the truck

meant equal opportunity!?

            It had just snowed and the road was getting quite muddy.  The potholes were deep

and wide.  Sometimes, the driver would get stuck in one of the ruts.  We would pray –

at least I would pray-- the rut stayed on the flat top of the road instead of veering off the

side of the mountain.  The kids and I would look over the side of the truck and there

were sheer drops into nothingness.  The kids thought this was better than Disneyland. 

Somehow I did not share the same excitement!