Camp Areté 2023 in Pictures

Click to view a slideshow of campers having fun in the beautiful Tennessee Smoky Mountains while receiving solid biblical teaching at 2023 Camp Areté.… Read more

Servant Leader Program – Whitewater Rafting (2022)

Eric & Audrey Atwood took Ginger Schiffmayer, Riven Thomas, Becky Leija, Christopher Freels, & Luke Atwood to Ocoee River whitewater rafting. It was a 5-mile trip, with 26 rapids, half of which were level 3 or 4. 

Then we enjoyed lunch at a local mom’s sandwich shop.

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Friday, July 22

During breakfast we serenaded the kitchen crew with our camp song:
Love one another, walk in Him; Imitate the love of Christ to men.
Be filled with the Spirit and, seek His face;
Stand firm and Abide, reflect His grace.

One of the lunch workers was tearing up because we thanked them in such a personal way. They wanted the words on the poster and expressed thanks to us.

The 3D program of DM2 was introduced and explained to campers … Read more

Thursday, July 21

The power went off first thing this morning and our staff meeting was by flashlight. Luckily the coffee was made before that occurred. Staff prayer sets the tone for the day and is extremely important.

We are getting seminary level information this week! We are thankful! We want to be able to read the Bible and draw conclusions and protect against the world, flesh, and devil. We are learning how to find answers in the Word of God! The more … Read more

Wednesday, July 20

Early this morning in the staff meeting a counselor reported that her girls told her their down time with her for discussion was their favorite part of the day; they really looked forward to it. Also, another said the campers were yearning for more Pastor Panel time because they really appreciated hearing things that usually come from dads, from a Pastoral point of view.

Morning class—correlating 1 Corinthians 13 with Genesis. We are trying to build categories according to what … Read more

Tuesday, July 19

At the morning brief, counselors reported that their campers were definitely talking through some of their issues and questions. One of the Nurses said that on one of her med calls, she waited more than she expected on the group of girls to quit praying! How refreshing to have to wait to wait on kids to finish prayers! A counselor reported that the guys were participating in discussion and prayers. Counselors were excited at the summaries of the day’s lessons … Read more

Areté Monday, July 18

Each day before dawn (6:15 am) the adults and counselors meet for a review of the day’s agenda and specifically for prayer. After the counselors are released to awaken their campers, we all trek to breakfast.
Areté in total converge for the most important activity of the week—the Bible classes; three per day plus personal devotional time for further study.

This morning began with a lesson from Pastor Brad Maston (designed by Clay Ward) on Inductive Study Methods. The main … Read more

Areté 2022 Sunday Beginnings

What a wonderful feeling to be able to finally meet again in person after two years of quarantine! Everybody arrived safely, and all campers and adults surrendered to temperatures and COVID screening by our Nurses. Little by little the campers became greater in number. Although no activities were scheduled, a few girls, on their own, elected to have an initial Bible study and prayer time. What an amazing way to spend their time instead of being idle! They were surely … Read more

Servant Leader Program – Whitewater Rafting

As a reward for their week of hard work, the Servant Leaders enjoyed a whitewater rafting trip on the Ocoee River!

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Servant Leader Program

We had seven Servant Leaders this year in our two-year leadership program which was designed to develop future counselors and staff.

Pictured from left to right are Matt Lawson, Servant Leader Director,  Emma Arbuckle, Ashley Devereux, Matt Lewis, Sara Lyon, Isabella Thomas, Elaine Ezernack, Ben Williams, and Trina Lawson.

We focused daily on leadership examples from Scripture.

On Sunday evening our Servant Leaders were introduced to their duties.

The main focus of our Servant Leaders was to assist Camp Arete … Read more