October Newsletter 2023

BREAKING NEWS!!

Dear Partners & Friends of HYC,

potential [puh-ten-shuhl] - having the capacity to become or develop into something in the future.

If you're a Detroit Lions fan, you hear a lot about potential at this time of the season. There is "potential" for the Lions to do great things this year.

That's what this letter is all about - "potential."

I need you to understand this clearly from the beginning. NOTHING you are about to read is "for sure." NOTHING is certain. NOTHING has been signed, certified or transferred. It's al "potential."

The Baptist State Convention of Michigan (BSCM) owns the Bambi Lake Retreat and Conference Center where HYC ran our summer ministries this year. It was an obvious and clear blessing from the Lord that He so quickly opened the doors at Bambi Lake and allowed us to minister to young people this summer just as we've done for the prior 60+ years at our previous location in the Upper Peninsula.

Now, we believe the Lord may be opening yet another door for the continuation, growth, and reach of HYC to go beyond anything we imagined. The BSCM has talked with us about the "potential" purchase of Bambi Lake by BWEA/HYC.

The BSCM Executive Committee that oversees the Bambi Lake facilities voted unanimously to offer the property to HYC. There are many more details to follow, but please know that the proposed price for the entire property and all its contents is miraculously and generously fair.

This proposed sale still needs final approval at the statewide level of BSCM so it will be brought to their entire group of pastors, representing over 300 churches, on November 2nd. It is the belief from the leader of the Executive Committee that the voting on this will pass and the offer to HYC will become official.

Because of these discussions and the "potential" for HYC to call Bambi Lake our permanent ministry home, our Board has agreed ot the "potential" purchase of Bambi Lake. We have begun to seek out a "potential" loan for the property and have discussed possible fundraising strategies. If this were to go through it would open the door for a much larger ministry base for HYC to be a part of, filled with al sorts of "potential."

Instead of running just two months out of the year, our ministry would begin to run a minimum of 9 months, offering an expanded schedule of activities for al ages. HYC would become a primary, centrally located gathering place for Adult Retreats, Pastor Conferences, Reunions, Leadership Training, Group Rentals, Church Staff Retreats, and so much more.

While some months I ask you for help financially for certain projects or building improvements, this month I ask first and foremost for your prayers...specifically for the following:

1. The BSCM meeting scheduled for early November. Some of those gathered that day will have a hard time relinquishing a property into which they've personally invested so much. We certainly know (and are extra sensitive to) that feeling. We didn't expect (or initiate) the discussions that have led to this point and want to be sure we lovingly and graciously take whatever the next steps may be.

2. Following what God wants, not what we want - if God's not in it, we really want no part of it. The past year l've lived under the motto of "Go until God says no." Honestly, I've prayed in the past year and a half that God would say "no." Last Labor Day weekend at our previous location, Ileft a meeting and thought as I left, "Well, God...that was a good run."

Less than a month later He said "no" to my no, which was very disturbing to me at the time. And while ti may appear that this is the direction God wants us to go currently, He may still say "no" to this opportunity. If He were to say that, keep in mind we've been blessed with more than we ever deserved the past 60 years at HYC.

3. The part you might be able to play in "potentially" making a second Miracle happen. If God did it before, He can doit again. In I Samuel 17 David says to Saul before he is to go fight Goliath, "the same God who delivered me from the lion and the bear will deliver me from this Philistine."

The same God who directed us in 1973 to fund and construct a Miracle Building worth over 3 million dollars in the middle of the Hiawatha National Forest can and wil direct us as needed in 2023 to launch the next generation of ministry in Roscommon..."potentially"!!!

Please pray!

Sincerely,

Craig

August Newsletter 2023

Dear Partners & Friends of HYC,

We just wrapped up an amazing, mind-blowing, fully blessed, “only-God-could-do-this” kind of summer. There’s no way we could have planned or prepared for the great things He did through the staff, speakers, and young people who came to be with us.

Next month, I’ll be sharing a lot of the highlights as we thank the Lord for making it abundantly clear that there is still a need for HYC. Scores of lives were changed this summer and only eternity will know the full impact of the last several weeks of camp.

This month, I need to address a question I’ve been asked countless times by many who have generously supported HYC through the years – “Why did HYC leave Piatt Lake after 60 years?” Well, there are a LOT of elements to the answer...so here we go...

Let me be clear from the outset that the Piatt Lake Bible Conference Association (PLBCA) has done nothing legally out of bounds. There are so many friends from around the lake that continue to be huge supporters of HYC and for them I am grateful.

I am not looking to blame any one person for the separation of HYC and PLBCA, however if I were going to lay blame, it would be first on me for not suggesting that more HYC supporters who also have cottages at Piatt serve on the PLBCA Board. I would then blame the two men I look up to the most, my Dad and Grandpa. They should have known that much of the goodwill that came with the signing of that first 50 year lease in the 50's may not always be present with future Boards.

Changes to the lease structure should have been started by them years ago. Unfortunately, that was never done and as more and more money was put into the construction of cabins, dining hall, fellowship center, and ultimately the Miracle Building with zero dollars from PLBCA for the building or maintenance of the facilities and all money being raised through HYC support, more and more concern over the lease and its wording became evident.

When I took over as director over ten years ago a host of people told me I needed to work on building relationships with folks from around the lake. One of the very real reasons for this suggestion was concern over the lease and the future of HYC and PLBCA. 

So my wife and I, along with the staff and Board of HYC, hosted Thursday evening dessert nights throughout the summer, opened our waterfront and beach toys to the PLBCA community, had multiple ladies brunches, hosted Bible conferences, offered the use of facilities to members of the lake for little to no charge and had at least one dinner each summer for the cabin owners.

I enjoyed this opportunity and tried to expand it each year but some really wanted no part of HYC, the opportunities for fellowship or appreciated the ministry it provided. To give evidence of this let me simply give you two quotes from PLBCA Board meetings this past year. During a meeting in the HYC Sweet Shop last Labor Day weekend, one PLBCA Board stood and addressed me directly with an amazing amount of disdain as he said, "I wonder if Hiawatha is even a Christian ministry anymore. It seems all you care about at Hiawatha are winning souls to Jesus." He somehow intended that statement to be a critique of our ministry. This was met with complete silence from other PLBCA Board members as I sat wondering how exactly to respond to that kind of accusation.

A couple months later as I read through the PLBCA budget update I came across this comment from their fundraising committee - "there has been contact with a long time member who said he would participate (donate) since HYC was gone." I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep over either comment but it was clearly a growing sentiment on the Board and one felt by everyone at HYC.

 Let me also share another pretty big shift that took place. Prior to the Miracle Building collapsing there was talk at PLBCA Board  meetings about them "coming alongside" HYC in helping with the maintenance of buildings on the grounds. Following the collapse of the Miracle Building that talk then morphed into "a collaborative effort" with HYC and PLBCA when it came to the construction of the new building. This was a huge red flag for me as nothing up to this point and time had been collaborative with HYC and PLBCA financially. We had literally paid for everything, even though PLBCA claimed to “own” everything.

The carefully crafted language in their communications then moved to "we're in charge of all the buildings and grounds." While I understand the lease agreement, this was a pretty big leap from "coming alongside" to "we're in charge." This also made little business sense to me as they hadn't paid for any upkeep on the buildings, the construction of the buildings or anything in the buildings. 


Then in late September the PLBCA Board sent us a proposed lease agreement in which they would be in complete control of grounds and buildings and we would be charged $6,000 per week to use the campground. For 60 years we had been paying “rent” of $10 per year. Again, this made little business sense to me as we paid for the facilities we would now be paying again to rent and was really rather insulting considering we had just spent over $100,000 to put up a pavilion, put lighting in the sweet shop with new ceiling tiles, put new exterior doors in and paid for several other improvements from the last year alone. 

At the conclusion of this years Annual Meeting for the PLBCA community it was stated that "every decision has been made based on what they felt was best for the PLBCA association." I agree with that statement 100%.                          

The current Board saw an opportunity to take possession of the property and the buildings with a head start of $3,000,000 from the insurance company and based on what was best for the PLBC, they took it. Perhaps it will prove to be a shrewd business move but one in which I, and the entire HYC Board could no longer work with.  We unanimously agreed that the Lord was moving HYC elsewhere. We didn’t know where...but we knew it could no longer be at Piatt Lake. 

That's why I chose not to re-sign a lease agreement with them. I hope that gives some clarity as to why HYC is no longer in Eckerman MI. 

This past summer has been 8 weeks of constant action. The staff has worked unbelievably hard to make camp happen this year and we've seen 23 kids get saved. Last week we had over 75 kids on Board with us. We saw a service where a young man got saved and the group responded as if the Lions had just won the Super Bowl. 

God has blessed us and we're grateful. We're currently living under the mantra of "Go until God says no," so we're making plans to be here at Bambi Lake again next summer. We are eager to see what God has in store. 

There is a story I need to share in a future letter of a Pastor who came in to eat with us and sat with me for ten minutes then asked if he could pray for me. He had no idea who I was, half way through the prayer he had to ask what my name was again, had never been to HYC yet prayed over HYC past, present and future in such a way that made you think he knew absolutely everything and that made my arm hair stand up. 

Looking forward to what God has in store the next few months and grateful for everything He's blessed us with this summer. Thank you for helping make it all happen.

Please feel free to reach out if there are any other questions I can answer for you. This ministry needs you, appreciates you, and our staff will be praying for you in the coming days. I hope you’ll do the same for us.

Craig