The Ministries

Lakeside exists to share the gospel and to train people up toward lifelong service in the Kingdom. We still provide 8-10 weeks of camps during the Summer, and during the Winter and Spring, LBC offers a wide variety of retreats. (Check out all the retreats coming up in 2025.  And registration is open right now at our website at www.LakesideBibleCamp.org.  Make a great Christmas gift if you’re looking for something unique and special!). These retreats have great fellowship, sacred reflection, and sound teaching and for many, they offer an important break during the school year people to recommit their lives to the Lord.  

Over the course of 65 years, the 60+ acres of LBC have also become an important resource to the churches in our region who rent it out for small group outings, Women’s ministry retreats, pastoral and church staff training, Christian Schools events, Christian College Groups, Men’s retreat’s, etc. etc.  We’ve also expanded our ministry to church leaders by having LBC host a Leadership and Management seminar for church leaders (The next Leadership Summit is June 2-3, 2025). Bottom Line: many ministries and churches use LBC as a significant element for their ministry. What started many years ago, continues today and has expanded!  

The Past and Future

LBC’s past is filled with experiences that have changed lives for eternity. Much of it has come from the creative involvement of our many volunteers and through the dedication of godly supporters who wanted to elevate the importance of worship and the teaching of God’s Word in this mixed up world while still providing for a rich and fun camping experience for all. LBC has been used as a place where people find the Lord, reconnect with their Savior, or move forward in their walk of faith. The past has thousands of people who have their own individual stories of how God intervened in their lives on shores of Deer Lake. 

As we look forward, we see a great need to connect the programs with more youth groups and children’s ministries. We’re thinking about offering youth groups “contracts” where they can guarantee a certain number of spaces for their kids and give them a group discount of some sort. Camps like Hume Lake and Mount Herman do this to great success. Another item, we’re probably going to do is to keep our camp prices for next summer exactly the same as last year.  However, one needs to sign up for the early bird pricing (which would be about 2 months before the start of each camp) in order to mainthain that price from 2024. Obviously, our prices are set based 100% on the overall cost of the camp (food, speakers, insurance, etc.), repair-maintenance-capital of the facility overall and replacements of things like boats, golf-carts, sound equipment. That said, we’re want to keep the pricing as low as possible even though the whole world, including LBC, has experienced a wild ride with inflation (Especially our food costs! You should see the food bills on the Island for the camp!  Sheesh!). 

So, if you belong to a church that needs a camp to attach itself to, please share LBC to your Children’s Ministry Leader or Youth Leader, etc. We’d love to get postcards in the hands of those who can help us fill this space each and every week. You can make a big difference in the future of LBC by helping us make these connections. Please think that through and email me or Daniel Jensen (dcm@lakesidebiblecamp.org) with a name of someone for us to pursue in this regard.  

Just a few weeks ago we gave an announcement about at Christ’s Church in Federal Way during their mission’s moment on a Sunday. We’re always available to have one of our staff come to your church to give a 2–5 minute blurb about the camp and how to get involved. Some of our best connections to various church are through you, our supporters. You can help us get connected to your church leadership. We can connect through Youth Group nights, Sunday mornings, Men’s breakfasts...all sorts of presentations, but we do need you to help us get us to the right person. 

Needs of Camp 

Serve as a Volunteer. 

Cabin Lead for a week or a weekend.  Soooo important and impactful! Significant adults involved in ministry with kids make all the difference! 

• Lead worship for a week. 

• Help answer phones for a week. 

• Help lead TCL or be a utility person helping wherever needed.  The options are endless when it comes to serving at camp.  Even on retreat weekends, there are lots of needs. 

• Nurses.  Be the camp nurse for a week.  EMT’s, Paramedics, ARNP’s, all work for this important part of camp life. (email Daniel Jensen at dcm@lakesidebiblecamp.org to discuss the possibilities). 

Donate

$30 a month subsidizes a kid for summer camp.  Simple.  Essential. 

• Getting your church to support Lakeside Bible Camp as a missionary for the gospel.  Having your church donate to our mission on a monthly basis is really key to keeping our budget in the black!! 

• Make a one-time year end Christmas gift to the camp. LBC is the best mission’s donation one can make; we know LBC is effective and you can be hands-on involved as well...so please remember us during this cultural giving season. 

• Other projects you may want to give to camp? (Computers, chapel sound equipment, remodel of the ski dock, etc.).  This last September a supporter of LBC wanted to improve the basketball rims.  He bought them and then came with a friend and installed them!!  New Hoops! 

• We have several people whose corporations have matching charity gift programs.  Check that out and designate LBC as your charity! 

Join a Work Party

Organize your men’s group or a few friends to come up for a day and help Hiram on the many projects we must do at the camp. He can ALWAYS use someone for an afternoon or a weekend to help with some of the two- and three-man jobs he has pending. 

• Save the date: the next official Work Party is February 7-8. The purpose of this weekend is to get ready for our program retreat season.  

New this Summer

FOUR Family Camps! Due to the demand for family camps we’ve added a Family Camp 3 toward the end of August.  It’s one day shorter and will have two speakers, one in the AM and one in the PM.  I, personally, will be teaching the AM sessions and a local pastor we know (waiting for confirmation) will be teaching the PM session.   

Directly after FC3 will be “FAMILY TEAMS CAMP”.  In association with Jeremy Pryor (from Cincinnati) we will be offering a family camp where the emphasis will be on all things Israel.  Jeremy is an expert in the Israeli/Middle East issues and will be teaching about how the Jewish people see things including the Old Testament during our evening sessions.  We did a one-hour seminar together last year and it was very well received.  This camp will also be shorter by one day and we expect, that due to Jeremy’s podcast and media presence, this will be full very quickly.  In the AM sessions, I’ll be teaching through NT texts that all tie the Israel theme together with the New Testament.  Jeremy has lived in Jerusalem and I’ve led Holy Land tours multiple times...this should be a great camp as we have some special surprises planned. Please check the website for more registration details. 

Footsteps of Paul (April-May 2025) 

As an indirect celebration point of LBC, which has always been a big supporter of learning the Scripture and the importance of the Bible in our life, Dan and I decided we’d offer a special trip to follow in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul.  It’s a once in a lifetime trip that anyone who is a believer can come on.  We will be teaching the group in places like Ephesus, Corinth, Mars Hill, Mykonos, Athens.  Right on the place where Paul walked, lived, and spoke.  See the website if you’d like to join the group and for more information on this all-inclusive special tour. Please sign up ASAP however, as we have a lot of planning to do depending on how many sign up!  I’ve led this tour before and it’s an amazing, amazing, time. 

Whew.  That’s a long update!  We are blessed to have Lakeside be a part of all of our lives.  It’s not perfect, but it sure is special!  We hope that you will not only attend the camp more and more but that you’ll get involved wherever possible!   

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas if I don’t see you before then. 

God Bless, 

Executive Director | Lakeside Bible Camp | ed@lakesidebiblecamp.org