use camps and grow strong. You can plan a retreat, send your youth, your child, your young adult, or yourself to camp. Click the sign.
Camp Debt Reduction CHALLENGE
Together Pilgrim Hills and Templed Hills were $600,000 in debt in 2007. While this is a large sum, if divided equally among all the adult members of every Ohio UCC congregation, it ends up being only $ 5 each to retire the entire debt! That's pocket change! "It Makes Cents" is a special collection to put our camps back "in the black."
If every UCC church member in Ohio gave just $ 5 toward debt retirement, our camps would stay strong for another generation. So far NWOA congregations have contributed $ 16,779.75, much of it in small gifts. For example, St. Paul UCC in Wapakoneta raised $2,615.71 simply by putting out a collection box in the shape of a camp cabin, and drawing members attention to it. The first day the camp collection box was out, an 8-year-old girl dug into her baggie full of pennies to pick out the quarters only, giving the best she had. An 8th grade boy, on learning of the retire-the-debt challenge, chose to do his part all at once by putting in a $5 bill. Interestingly, neither youngster had attended one of our camps -- yet! Can their generous giving inspire each of us to do our share? Checks and bills in any denomination will be gratefully received, as well as change. Make your checks out to NWOA, denoting the gift is for camp debt retirement.
Rev. Alex Gondola; for The Witness and Proclamation Team
