Triple Celebration for BCM Canada
Overcast skies did not dampen the enthusiasm of crowds pouring into Mill Stream Bible Camp and Retreat Centre Saturday, June 4, 2011, in Omeemee, Ontario, for a triple celebration: Mill Stream’s 65th Anniversary, BCM Canada’s 70th, and BCM International’s Diamond Jubilee.
BCM International’s ministry in Canada began just five years after the Bible Club Movement’s own birth in 1936 when BCM missionaries Jim and Nellie Hutchinson pioneered evangelistic outreach among children in Ontario. In 1942 the first Bible Clubs were founded in London, Ontario. By spring of that year, nearly 2000 children and parents packed a school auditorium for BCM Canada’s first Bible Club Rally. Bible Clubs and school religious education classes taught by BCM missionaries and volunteers spread over the following years across Canada from Nova Scotia to the western prairies.
First Crusaders Bible Club Camp in 1946
Originally named Crusaders Bible Club Camp, Mill Stream held its first camp at Greenwood, Ontario in 1946. Accommodations that first summer were just canvas tents pitched in an open field. In 1963, Mill Stream’s current property among the beautiful Kawartha Lakes in south central Ontario became available. Area churches and volunteers worked together to build a dining hall, kitchen, chapel, cabins, and outhouses. A river flowing through the property added swimming, fishing, and boating to the camping program. On July 11, 1964, Mill Stream kicked off its first week of camp at the new Omeemee site.
Since then Mill Stream has grown to a full-service Christian camping and retreat centre covering almost forty acres with motel accommodations, spacious lodge housing, “chapeltorium,” gym, dining and kitchen facilities, in-ground pool, office, infirmary, maintenance buildings, and horse barn. Hundreds of children and teens attend a full summer program of camps, while church groups and retreats make use of facilities during winter months.
Jubilee Celebration in the “Chapeltorium”
For BCM Canada’s triple anniversary, more than 300 children, teens, and adults braved an unseasonal downpour to enjoy a full day of activities, including many of their favorite camp experiences from canoeing to fishing and archery. Historic displays and photo montages allowed guests to explore the legacy of Mill Stream and BCM Canada ministries. By lunch time fervent prayers had been answered with sunshine, permitting younger participants to gather at 2 PM under a pagoda for a campfire celebration that included skits, music, games, and a special speaker.
Meanwhile adults congregated in the camp auditorium for a commemoration of God’s faithfulness over the last decades of BCM ministry around the globe, in Canada, and through Mill Stream Bible Camp. BCM Canada Executive Director Bill Ricketts gave recognition to several generations of BCM missionaries and volunteers. Present among them was Miss Chloe Chamberlain (see article on page 17), who from her appointment in 1967 as Executive Secretary of the Bible Club Movement in Canada had given leadership to BCM’s ministry there for almost four decades until passing on the baton to Bill Ricketts in 2005.
BCM President Dr. Martin Windle challenged the group to look to the future with the same vision and commitment that has characterized BCM Canada ministry over the last seven decades. “The extent of BCM Canada’s ministry cannot only be measured by the passage of seventy years, but in the immeasurable number of lives impacted for Christ over that time.”
Mill Stream Director Larry Chupa shared a visual overview of Mill Stream’s own sixty-five year history from those first pitched canvas tents to today’s commodious camp and retreat accommodations. He summed up, “Today we are at the receiving end of the faithfulness of so many who have gone before us, who poured their time, effort, commitment into this place. We want to give heartfelt thanks that they accepted God’s call. Whether as missionaries, staff, counselors, volunteers, they have made a difference in the lives of thousands of men and women, boys and girls here at Mill Stream.”
Among those honored were Len and Jean Manning, who had both been campers at that very first Crusaders Bible Club Camp in 1946. Many others in the audience were second and third generation campers. Jennifer Wilson, who led the worship team, shared how she began attending Mill Stream at age 8. She met her husband at camp. They have now been married 26 years and have been involved at Mill Stream ever since. Now a new generation of the Wilson family is contributing to Mill Stream as all three of their children have graduated from the camp program and gone on to work as camp volunteers and staff.
The Wilsons aren’t unique. Many of today’s Mill Stream leadership and volunteers are products themselves of camp. Twenty-year-old Christine O’Boyle relates how she and her siblings grew up attending Mill Stream summer camps all through childhood and adolescence. Once old enough, Christine began working as volunteer and counselor. Now attending Word of Life Bible Institute in Owen Sound, Ontario, Christine is back for the summer at Mill Stream as assistant program director. Her goal is to go into full-time camp ministry.
“Mill Stream Bible Camp gave me my beginning foundation in my walk with God,” she explains. “Now I want to do the same in the lives of younger generations, giving back what I received.”
A goal that sums up well the vision of BCM Canada in its past and for its future.
