Winchester—Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers spent May 19-20 cutting down 45 trees at Boone’s Creek Baptist Camp, effectively saving the camp as much as $100,000 and preparing the campground for ministry this summer.
“Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief chainsaw volunteers were glad to assist Boone’s Creek Baptist Camp in needed tree removal on their camp property,” said Coy Webb, state Disaster Relief director.
“This ministry project was able to save the camp thousands of kingdom dollars that can be used for ministry at the camp,” Webb said. “We saw this as an opportunity to assist a partnering Kentucky Baptist ministry in reaching our world for Christ.”
The work request came from Paul Atchison, 72 year-old volunteer with disaster relief and member of Central Baptist Church in Winchester. Boone’s Creek Baptist Camp is dear to Atchison’s heart as he is on the board of directors for the association and helped build many of the camp cabins. He worked alongside the relief crew as they fell the trees (see related story).
Boone’s Creek Camp has been a part of Boone’s Creek Association since 1954. During its years of operation, more than 21,200 campers have been through and over 2,700 children and teens have made decisions for Christ.
Activities enjoyed by campers include swimming, canoeing, hiking and roller skating, as well as a campfire service, chapel, Bible study and music.
Many of the trees in need of removal were becoming a threat to structures around camp. By saving the camp the cost of a professional tree service, volunteers have enabled the camp to focus this summer on investing in underprivileged children.
“We view this as a good opportunity to apply skills learned in our chainsaw and storm cleanup training while helping a local ministry meet a need,” Keith Stinson, a DR project leader, said.
The project was not only a blessing to the camp, but was also a blessing to disaster relief workers, as it provided further hands-on training in a more controlled environment than their usual storm cleanup.
“It was a good opportunity for folks to come in and apply the skills they had learned from the training we provided. If they ran into something that was a little more difficult than they felt like handling, the trainers were there on site and they could go and ask for advice and consult with them,” Stinson said. Generally on a site, teams are much more spread out, he noted.
Two of the nearly 40 volunteers even brought their tractors to assist in hauling and put their training to use removing trees.
Although typically disaster relief crews only cut trees down if storm damage causes them to be a threat to a home. “It’s a ministry for kingdom work, and they had a (safety) issue there. DR personnel had the training and equipment, and we were able to help them out,” Stinson said.
“Our prayer is that our work will be used by God to reach and disciple young people for Christ who will come to camp at Boone’s Creek,” Webb added. (WR)
Myriah Snyder