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Redwood
Glen Newsletters
Go back to archives here.
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The
latest news and events at Redwood Glen
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February
2008
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WELCOME
OUR VISION:
"To
Reflect Christ through Serving Others"
A WORD FROM OUR
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Recently at a camp conference, I was in a
workshop on faith development for youth.
The speaker talked about
the significance of a youth's experience, which can
be summed up by this phrase, "It's not the stuff,
it's the staff."
It's an interesting and
easily understandable
learning in that campers who come to Redwood Glen don't return home
telling
their parents what a great week it was because their bunk was safe, or
that the
pool chemicals were well balanced, or that their meeting room was built
well.
Campers' comments are
seldom about buildings
and equipment.
They are almost always
about the people, the relationships, and how
they connected with God.
As the Executive Director,
I'm charged with
providing a safe, healthy place for children, youth, and adults so that
it
does not distract them from nurturing those memorable relationships
with staff, other
campers, and most importantly with Jesus Christ.
As I reflect back on my
early years at camp I
don't remember much about the facilities, but my memory is full of
faces of the
counselors and staff who modeled the unconditional love of Jesus Christ
to me
throughout the whole week.
It was these
special relationships with staff that made such an impact on my
spiritual life
and my call into ministry.
Currently over 500 campers
are registered for
our 50th anniversary summer camps!
This is more than double our total
attendance last year. We still have
spaces available in our children and junior high camps.
Who
do you know that needs to set aside the
"stuff" of the world and engage with our loving, caring, fun staff for
a camp
experience that will change their lives?
Register them today!
Jay E.
Nordgaard,
Executive
Director
(650)
879-0320 Ext. 12
exec@redwoodglen.com
Looking for a week at camp this
summer?
WE
HAVE OPENINGS
The camping needs of groups shift and change. We still have dates
available:
August 17-22
and August 24-27
If your church or youth organization is interested in any of the
above dates, email us at info@redwoodglen.com
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Hello Friend of Redwood Glen
WELCOME
to the monthly
on-line newsletter of Redwood Glen, your local Bay Area Christian Camp
and Conference
Center.
Redwood Glen turns 50 this year, and to celebrate, our gift to you is
$50 registration for all of our 2008 summer program camps. With
special events planned, we hope that you will make plans to join us as
we remember with thanksgiving all of God's blessings. Your
partnership through the years has made this ministry possible.
If you would like to assist in the planning of our jubilee celebrations
this summer or if you have pictures or a story to share about your
Redwood Glen experience, email us at news@redwoodglen.com.
We look forward to the excitement of this year as we anticipate all
that God will do during the next 50 years!
If
you would like to
subscribe and receive this monthly newsletter via email, please
register your
address via the link on our homepage (www.redwoodglen.com). |
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Remembering
50 years of ministry: A CAMPING WE WILL GO
While
Redwood Glen celebrates 50 years with $50 registration at all our
program camps this summer, the first camps were not held at this
location until the summer 1959.
With tremendous influx of people into the Bay Area and a rapid growth
of new churches during the 1950's, four weeks of summer camps at rented
facilities were inadequate as children and youth were turned
away. Thus in 1958, the vision of the Bay Cities Union to
purchase its own a camp site for its programs became a reality with the
initial 125 acres which would become Redwood Glen.
In 1945, camping for churches in the San Francisco Bay Cities Baptist
Union began with a week-long Junior High and Senior High program at
Mount
Hermon. The camps eventually relocated to the Oakland YMCA Camp
in Loma Mar in
1950. A Junior Week was added in 1953, with a second Junior Week
in 1956.
While four weeks of camp were held "next door" at the Oakland Y during
the summer of 1958, preparations at the newly aquired Loma Mar property
were being made for the anticipated increase of youth who would attend
the first camps at the site in the summer of 1959.
 "It was a forest
back then, with lots of overgrowth and brush," recalls Doug Siden, who in 1958 was a member
of the first camp committee. The church planting pastor of
Shoreview Baptist Church in San Mateo at the time, Doug (pictured right) was selected
chairperson of the 1959 camp program subcommittee and would help
develop the additional camp weeks for the new site.
On the property, volunteers from local churches helped to remodel the
old farm house into a lodge for weekend church use, and to construct
platform tents for youth. During the summer of 1959, a Fellowship
Builders Camp for Senior High and a Frontier Camp for Junior High were
the first camps held at "Loma Mar Baptist Camp," which would be renamed
"Redwood Glen Baptist Camp and Conference Center" in the coming year.
 Like Junior
Adventure Camp today, the first camps were organized in small single
gender groups. With platform tents as their "cabin" (see left), each group cooked its
own meals over an open fire, but would participate in activities and
lessons with other tent groups. Campers used the showers and the
facilities of the newly remodeled lodge, which would be named "Shepherd
Lodge" in 1960.
Along with the two weeks at Redwood Glen, the American Baptist Union
still sponsored four weeks of camp at the Oakland Y in 1959. By
1961, an old summer cabin at Redwood Glen was converted into a Dining
Room that could seat 65, and five weeks of Pioneer Junior Camp were
added to the Junior High Frontier Camp and Senior High Fellowship Camp
on site. The Oakland Y was still home for two weeks of Junior
High Adventure Camp and the large Senior High Conference, but by 1962,
all Junior High Camps were transitioned to Redwood Glen. Along
with a Senior High Lassen Pack Trip and a new BYF Conference in 1962,
the American Baptist Union sponsered 12 weeks of camping (a full
summer) for over 500 young people.
Not to be outdone, the summer of 1963 was a big year as the swimming
pool at Redwood Glen officially opened after a year of delays, and the
large Senior High Conference relocated from the Oakland Y Camp.
All program camps for the Union were now held at Redwood Glen, which
only had 10 platform tents, one cabin, and a small dining hall that
could only feed 65 at one time! Humble beginnings, but more was
on the way.
"Those early days we had very primitive facilities by comparison to
today's standards," recalls Doug, "but there was an enthusiasm for this
camp. It's one thing to be part of your church group, but at
camp, you're with a lot of young perople who all have an excitement for
Christ and it does something for your faith."
 Having walked
with Redwood Glen for 50 years, Doug has experienced it all. In
recognition of his service to the camp, the Conference Center was
dedicated to him in 1993. "In our kind of society where we
continue to look at watches and clocks,
we need to get away to hear God, to be in God's creative out of doors,
to be with others," says Doug. "The value of Christian camping is
it changes lives. You can't compare it to anything else."
EDITOR'S NOTE:
If you have more information, stories, or pictures from the first camps
at Redwood Glen, please email us at news@redwoodglen.com.
We would love to talk to you.
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SUMMER 2008: Rockin' on the Rock
With 526 already registered for Redwood Glen's six program camps, it is
going to be a "rockin'" summer as we celebrate 50 years of God's
blessings as a camp!
Though Youth Music And Drama camp is full, there are still over 150
spaces in our other camps for children and middle school youth.
Our $50 - 50th anniversary camp
fee still applies so click here to register on-line.
Joining the Redwood Glen staff this summer is Brandon Benzinger (pictured left), who will serve as
our new Summer Camp Program Director. Brandon, who was the
2007 Discovery Camp speaker, will be teamed with new Summer Camp
Program Assistants, Stephanie Knappe
of Waterford Community Baptist Church, and Jeffrey Rice of San Carlos First
Baptist Church.
A member of Waterford Community Baptist Church, Brandon is a senior who
will be graduating from Fresno Pacific University with a BA in Biblical
Studies. A member of the praise team, Brandon brings an
enthusiasm and contagious love for Jesus, which he will share with
campers who will be "Rockin' on the Rock"
at Redwood Glen this summer. We hope you will make plans for your
kids (or grandkids) to join us!
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 50th
ANNIVERSARY -
TRIVIA QUESTION
As we celebrate 50 years of ministry at Redwood Glen this year through
2008, we have created a monthly trivia contest to test your knowledge
of the camp's history. Answer correctly and you could win a
Redwood Glen 50th anniversary momento.
Our
January question:
Which came first, Smith Dining Hall or the
swimming pool?
The answer: THE SWIMMING POOL. With an official groundbreaking
on April 7, 1962 the pool was expected to open the summer of
1962. Though publicity
for the 1962 camping season promised a new pool, delays with the contractor over the
water source which would fill it prevented its opening to the
disappointment of all. The pool opened in 1963, with adjacent
bathhouses. In 1964, construction of the new Dining Hall began
over the bathhouse, with the balcony overlooking the pool. On June 19, 1965, just in time for the 1965 camping
season, Smith Dining Hall was dedicated and LeRoy Willard was installed as
Associate Minister of Christian Education for the newly established
American Baptist Churches of Northern California, a merging of the
American Baptist Union of the San Francisco Bay Citities and the
Northern California Baptist Convention. LeRoy, who succeeded Bryant Wright in overseeing the
ministry at Redwood Glen in its early years, was succeeded by Doug Siden in 1971, who would serve
as Director of Camping for American Baptist Churches of the West until
his retirement in 1999.
Thanks
for the various guesses, but congratulations again to Ray Miller, former Redwood
Glen Camp Manager, who was the only one
to answer correctly this month.
Our February
question:
What was the
first cabin built at Redwood Glen? To what is it dedicated?
Send guesses to news@redwoodglen.com.
The correct answer and winner will be featured in next month's
e-newsletter.
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STAFF
SPOTLIGHT: Chad Plantenberg
 "This is Chad speaking." For
guests who call the camp office, this familiar phone
greeting of Chad Plantenberg is
a welcomed sound.
Though a recent record of 27 voice mails and 147 emails is not
typically for Chad, who coordinates Guest Services for
Redwood Glen, it does reflect how popular he is.
Chad, who has been working with guest groups since 2005, strives to
provide a personal touch for every rental inquiry, each guest group
leader question, and every parent with concerns about summer camp
registration.
Some days it's easier than others, but for Chad, it is his love for
camping ministry that keeps him serving others. He says, "I love
the momentary pause camping imposes on people, making space for
reflection and introspection allowing the still soft voice of the Holy
Spirit to speak."
To balance the busyness of emails and phone messages in the office,
Chad appreciates the moments he has being outside among the
redwoods. He says his most memorable experience is "hiking up to
one of the corners of our property where no trail goes, and being
still."
Chad, who knows the 150 acres of the camp better than most, first moved
to Loma Mar 5 years ago with his wife Jen,
who served as Redwood Glen's Program Director before beginning at
Community Baptist Church in San Mateo, where she now ministers as the
Youth Pastor. They met and married at Sugar Pine
Christian Camps where they both were serving. They now make
their home in San Mateo with Memo,
their "mischevious cat" who followed them down from the mountains.
Born in Sacramento but raised in Coarsegold in the foothills of
Yosemite, Chad has always had a love for the outdoors, and believes in
the transforming power of camping. "I believe in the positive
role that it can play in people's lives," Chad says, "especially in a
country so enamored with 'doing.' It really doesn't matter what
you're doing, as long as you're doing something. When you're
doing, you are praised in this culture."
A renanissance man and vegetarian, Chad enjoys reading philosophy,
theology, and ancient literature (recently finishing Euclid), but he
also has interests as varied as woodwork, cars, backpacking,
engineering, football, and computers. Serving as the camp's "go
to guy" for all things wired, Chad also oversees Redwood Glen's third
year of on-line summer camp registration. "We have had a
wonderful response to our 50th anniversary discount," Chad says, "so
sign up fast!"
If you have questions about on-line registration, need to make a
reservation for your group, want to confirm details about an upcoming
event, learn about Euclidian geometry, or even chat about the
Superbowl, you can contact Chad at info@redwoodglen.com
or (650) 879-0320 ext 10, where he currently has no voicemails!
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UPCOMING
EVENTS
PASTORS CONFERENCE -- Monday to Wednesday, February 25-27,
2008
Make plans now to attend our second
annual Pastors Conference as we consider our EQ (emotional
intelligence) as leaders. Church staff teams are encouraged to
come and learn together. Big discounts are available if you
register this fall.
Click here for a downloadable
brochure.
ANNUAL CAMP WORK DAY -- Saturday, May 31, 2008
Youth groups, fellowship groups,
churches, and individuals of all shapes and sizes are invited to Work
Day at Redwood Glen as we officially prepare the grounds and facilities
for a summer of celebration. Groups have the option of spending
Friday night at camp, or joining us for the day. A great opportunity for a
service project or training for a summer mission.
Email us for more information or
to let us know of your interest.
2008 SUMMER CAMPS -- Check our
website for dates and more information.
OPEN HOUSE and 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS -- Saturday,
June 28th & July 12th
PASTORS SABBATH weeks -- June 15-20 and June 29-July 3,
2008
A time of rest and vacation for
pastors and their families. A limited number of rooms are
still available in our Siden Conference Center for $50 per room for the
entire week.
Email us to make your reservation.
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| For more information about our events
or facilities, email us at info@redwoodglen.com |
Redwood
Glen REFLECTIONS
This
monthly e-newsletter is being developed as a communication tool for the
supporters, friends, and guests of Redwood
Glen in Loma Mar, CA. We welcome your comments and suggestions. To ensure that you continue to receive our
e-newsletter, add info@redwoodglen.com
to your address book today. Redwood
Glen is located in the scenic coastal redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains,
between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz.
We are conveniently located one hour from both San Francisco and San Jose
airports.
For more
information, www.redwoodglen.com.
 
Redwood
Glen, a Bay Area Christian Camp and Conference Center,
is an
accedited member of the American
Camp Association
and a member of the Christian Camp and Conference Association.
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If you have
a Redwood Glen story or an idea for this email newsletter, contact...
Larry
Jay
(650) 879-0320 Ext. 11
news@redwoodglen.com
If you would
like to
subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter, please register your email via
the link
on our homepage (www.redwoodglen.com).
THANK YOU! (Our e-newsletter is supported by Constant
Contact.) |
Redwood Glen | 100 Wright Dr. | Loma Mar | CA | 94021 |
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