By Jeremiah Harder – An Article from the Camp Connection Volume I, Issue I
You’ve just finished up in the registration line for summer camp and now know you will be staying in cabin Lydda for the week. As you make your way to the cabin to meet your counselor you can’t help but notice the lake right out your front doorstep. What a view! Your counselor, who introduces herself as Sierra, comes out to greet you and helps carry one of your bags inside. “Wow this cabin has three different rooms to choose from. Which one should I take? Hey, it even has a bathroom.” You set your stuff down on one of the bunks and know you’re in for a great week here in cabin Lydda.
One night during the week right before bed Sierra shares an evening devotion with the cabin about knowing for sure whether or not you will go to heaven when your time here on earth is done. It raises a lot questions in your head. The next day during flat on bunk time Sierra lets you know its time for your one on one with her. You and Sierra sit down just outside Lydda on the front stoop. Sierra begins by asking how your week is going. You, of course, are having the time of your life and share many of the things you have done this week with Sierra, especially the bulls-eye you hit in your archery skills class this morning. Before you know it the conversation has arrived at the evening devotion from last night and Sierra asks what you thought about it. As she answers your questions it all starts making sense. You get this overwhelming feeling of surrender and next thing you know you are praying to the creator of the universe who has also created you! Who loves you! Who has always wanted to have a relationship with you and with whom you have just discovered you want too!
Many campers have had memories like this at cabin Lydda or Emmaus over the past 31 years and maybe you are one of them. Praise God for how he has used these two little cabins. Literally thousands of campers have made one of these two cabins home for a week of summer camp during the last 31 years. If you are one of them we would love to hear your story.
The time has now come to replace these two cabins with something that can be used year round to better fit the needs of Arrowhead today. As we plan for these new buildings we remember how God has been faithful to so many that have stayed in Lydda and Emmaus and thank Him for that. Also as we plan for these new buildings we invite you to be a part of making them happen. You will be receiving a letter in the next few months with more details about what we are doing and how you can be involved. Let the memories continue!
I will definitely miss the old Lydda after having been both a camper and counselor of the cabin and experiencing both sides of the “Memories” described above, but I’m very excited to see the plans for these two new cabins come to life and watch God at work in them!
The first time I stayed at Lydda, there were only 16 total campers for the senior high week. Oh the pranks we pulled! Even a mouse sighting! LOL! You can imagine the noise in the girls cabin! It was probably the most intense week I have ever been to because it was a small group.
I worked there every summer after that through high school, and a few random ones beyond, but those old cabins were BY FAR my favorite! I will miss those wonderful old cabins!
My daughter was looking for a camp to go to this summer so, of course, I looked into the camp I had so much fun at. When we arived at Arrowhead Bible Camp on Sunday I was excited to see she was placed in Lydda – the same cabin I was in, many times, as a kid. I am glad she will be able to experience this building too.
I have many wonderful memories of Arrowhead Bible Camp, it will always be my home. One of my strongest memories is talking to Becca. She is such a beautiful women. She helped me break down the walls around my heart and rebuild what was left of it. I will never forget all of the wonderful souls i encountered. (my heart breaks being away in oregon, I miss driving to arrowhead and forgetting the world outside)