What Did You Do This Summer?
Camps, Conferences, and Life Change
May 27, 2025
Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guest: Jeff Niklaus
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 5/26/25. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Jamie Mitchell:
Hello, friends. We’re so glad you’ve joined us again for Standing in the Gap today. I am your host, Jamie Mitchell, the director of Church culture at the American Pastors Network. One of the aspects of what we do at Stand In the Gap is to provide you with information that will encourage your faith and hopefully strength in every family, church and community that listens in regards to your family, we’ve had programs focusing on fathers and mothers marriage, children, youth culture. Today we want to put before you an idea about how to spend your vacation as a family in a world that has become very segregated and isolated. Most families do not plan times to do a lot together. Most families will see of each other as riding at a car from soccer games or dance recitals. A study was done a number of years ago over looking at families eating habits, and sadly, it was less than 20% who could say that they have dinner together two to three times a week.
Families are not spending time together and certainly not making memories. And most concerning, there’s little spiritual input happening on the family front. Now, we’re not going to be able to solve that problem in an hour, but we are going to discuss a viable option for stoking the fires of family relationships and the spiritual memory making that is so vital to every family. I’ve invited on the program today. Two longtime friends that have given their lives and ministry to helping families maximize their vacation time that can lead to spiritual impact. Jon Oldham is the director of Harvey Cedar’s Bible Conference, which is located on Long Beach Island, New Jersey among the million dollar summer homes there on Long Beach Island since the 1940s. This conference has offered a week at the beach, but also time in God’s word among God’s people. Jon grew up at Harvey Cedars as a kid where his father was executive director for decades and then took the mantle of leadership.
He’s been seen a lot over these years and watched the long-term effect on families that intentionally and purposely planned vacations where learning about the Lord and feeding their spiritual lives has reaped much fruit. My second guest and Graeme Wilson, he’s the newly installed president of America’s Keswick, which both is an addiction recovery ministry, but also a historical Bible conference. Over the years, Keswick pulpit has been graced by some of evangelical Christianity’s greatest preachers. Like Harvey Cedars Keswick has provided a destination for families to sanctify their week of vacation to recreate both body and soul men. Thank you so much for joining us.
Graeme Wilson:
Hey, it’s an honor to be here. I’m so grateful for the American Pastors Network and standing the gap in the work you all do. And Jamie, it’s an honor to just sit down and have a conversation about what Summer Bible Conference can do for the family, and I’m excited to have this conversation.
Jon Oldham:
Yeah, this is Jon Oldham from Harvey Cedars, and again, Jamie, thank you so much for having us on the program. It’s a great thing to talk about because most times people when they go on vacation, they go on vacation away from God, and one of the things here is to have vacation with God. And I think that’s an I important distinction.
Jamie Mitchell:
Well, Jon, let’s start with you as the senior statesman here about Bible conferences. You’ve been around Harvey Cedars for decades. Matter of fact, as we have spoken, you are witnessing generations of families making their way to Long Beach Island and to be with you. As you have spoken to your guests over the years. How significant has it been for families to take a week and go to a Bible camp or a conference, and why do they do it?
Jon Oldham:
Well, you know what? There’s an interesting thing years ago, and I’ve said there was this little bit of a shift that used to be that you would go to a Bible conference and oh, by the way, there’s a beach today. I think it’s more, there’s a beach and oh, by the way, there’s a Bible conference. But I think one of the distinction things that people choose to vacation with God, they say that the average believer in a Bible believing church goes to church 2.4 Sundays a month. And so most people when they go on vacation, they don’t go to church. They kind of go away from that. But families have chosen to come to America, like a place like Keswick or Harvey Cedars to vacation with God to bring him along in their spiritual life. And Bible conferences are places like in the Old Testament, when God worked in your life, when the God worked in your life, you build an altar that as you went around your everyday life, you would look back and see and remember what God has done in your life. Big decisions, big turning points, big things where God has confronted you. And Bible conferences like Harvey, seniors are places like that for families where God has worked in their lives. And we have families that come for three to four generations and it’s kind of amazing, amazing to see. Right? And we have programs like Keswick does for all ages, right? It’s not just for the adults. We have the kids programs, the teenage programs, and for the adults as well. And so to see God work over the generations has been an amazing thing to do
Jamie Mitchell:
New in your role. You like Jon, you grew up at Keswick because your family worked there and you’ve watched families attend conference year after year. I mean, it’s kind of funny, my son and you used to be friends at the Bible conference growing up there. What is it about being at a Bible conference with your family where you’re worshiping and learning fellowshipping around the Lord? Why does that make such a difference?
Graeme Wilson:
Well, like what Jon was saying, I think that concept in our culture is becoming more and more rare. If you look throughout history, the idea of the family gathering around the table, family devotions, that is a foreign concept to most. And so I think the gift of Summer Bible conferences is it provides a focused time where families come together, all generations get saturated by the word of God. And like Jon said, we get to see generational impact by the word of God. Like Jon stated, that statistic of the average American is going to church twice a month. Sometimes that’s about an hour a week of being with family, being with believers, being under the teaching of God’s word. When you come to a weeklong Bible conference, you’re really in a pressure cooker, in a good way of being saturated and surrounded by God’s people, by families, by your family, and then being under the teaching of God’s word, which truly transforms lives. And we get to see that every summer throughout the year when families come together, spend time together. And under the teaching of God’s word, things change.
Jamie Mitchell:
And one of the things, both being a person who attended a Bible conference, both as a young person all the way through and raising my family, but also as a speaker, these things rub off of each other. You get to be around some mature Christians and young Christians get to come and you get to put your arm around them. The dynamic is very unique. You eat with people, you encourage to have fun with people. So I hope that if you haven’t planned your time away as a family this summer, you’re going to listen to this program, be motivated when we return. I want to take a trip back in history. You may not know how important the Bible conference movement has been here in America. We’re talking today, what did you do this summer camps, conferences, and life change here at Stand in the Gap today?
Well, welcome back. We’re discussing with Jon Oldham from Harvey Cedar’s Bible Conference and Graeme Wilson from America’s Keswick Bible Conference, both of them in the garden state of New Jersey. And we’re talking about the importance of planning a week away. I like what Jon said with God and your family at a Bible conference or a camp and start to make some spiritual investment and spiritual memories on your vacation. Now, I’m not sure if our audience is fully aware of the historical significance that Bible conferences have played in the development of the evangelical movement here in America. Now, Jon, you’re my age, so we’re old. We’re not ancient yet. You have a unique perspective on this. Your father Al had early involvement in the Bible conference movement. Jon, what should people know? Not just about Harvey Cedars, but really that’s really behind the gathering of people together in the summer to study God’s word.
Jon Oldham:
Well, that’s really interesting, Jamie. So much has changed in the church over time. Jack Murray started Harvey Cedars in 1941, and Awana actually grew out of the church that Jack came from. And Jack used to always say is that you can’t grow good Christians with four sessions a week where you talk about Sunday school church Sunday night and Wednesday night. Now, most churches don’t even have that at all. But one of the significant things of the Bible conference movement was like most of them started in the thirties and forties and it was about deeper spiritual life and getting away and learning more about God’s word. And then there were other things that came upon that. There was a separatist movement. There was all this study on eschatology and all of those things that would go in, but it was learning about God’s word and growing deeper Christians.
And so that’s the thing that people I think really missed today because I think we miss so much in learning about God’s word. The other thing is that Bible conferences used to be, I’m going to call the circuit where the big time speakers used to travel and speak at. Now people, they rent stadiums and they do things that civic centers and things like that, the really big speakers. But places like Harvey Cedars, Camp of the Woods, Keswick, Word of Life, Sandy Cove, Pine Brook, they were the places where all of the people that were of significant speaking would travel and people would then come to hear them speak. And one of the other things too was very, very common was that they used to have week of meetings at churches too. It was about the deeper spiritual things in life that people wanted and craved and desired to be closer to God and know more about him. And that’s a lot of the history from where Bible conferences started and our church culture has changed drastically over time. But so then to come to place a Bible conference in the summertime is a time to then get away and to spend time with God and spend more time that in our hustle and bustle of life that we live in today, we are rushed from one thing to the other to the next. And so we don’t spend that downtime with God
Jamie Mitchell:
Just was doing some reading guys on this. And do you know that the Bible conference movement and camps were used to address issues when the whole evolution creationism issue came up? They would gather people together because they needed people who were experts on how to answer that. And then the whole prophecy movement, Bible prophecy became one of the major topics that the conference ministry answered. Graeme, in many respects, a place like America’s held summer Bible conferences as a tent maker because the heart of the mission of Keswick is its recovery, ministry, addiction, recovery. However, some unusual things throughout evangelical Christianity took place at places like historically speaking. What kinds of things flowed out of the conference ministry?
Graeme Wilson:
Well, I love that question, and I think about our ministry has been around for 127 years, and I love hearing the stories of how God has used this ministry, but also others like Harvey Cedars and all the other Bible conferences of how God has used it over years to really fawn so many amazing movements and ministries. And one story for us that I just love telling is back in the 1920s, a man that some may know his name was William Townsend, who had a passion in Guatemala to give out Spanish Bibles and came back. And like Jon was saying, so much of summer Bible conference is a safe place where someone can get out of the hustle and bustle of life and really hear from the Lord. And so that’s what William did. He was at a summer Bible conference here at America’s Keswick back in the twenties and held a prayer meeting and a Bible study.
And it was at that Bible study that spawned the future vision that led to the Summer Institute of Linguistics that has had such a tremendous impact and then led to a Wycliffe Bible translation. And that ministry has had such a global impact for Bible translation around the world. And that all started in a small room with a prayer meeting and a Bible study at a summer Bible conference. So I mean, that’s just one small example that’s had a huge impact. But every year, every summer, there are for us stories of how God will use a moment of a quiet time with the Lord. We have beautiful lakes here, and we always say that God speaks around still waters here, finding quiet moments where being in the word of God, being in prayer and how God will foster that to plant vision in men and women’s hearts to do incredible things for his kingdom. And I love that about the summer season and just getting away to be with the Lord.
Jamie Mitchell:
Guys, one of the things, especially having association with your two conferences, I’ve gone back and looked at mission organizations, seminaries, church planting movements, rescue missions. There’s even a connection with the early part of the Promise Keeper movement that has flowed out of Bible conference settings that God has used. It’s amazing, whether it’s Harvey Cedars or Keswick or the Methodist Camp meeting movement across the nation, God’s used these conferences in unique ways. Jon, why is that? What are some of the unique features in a conference ministry that still happens today? Give people a little glimpse when they come. What do they experience that they might not experience anywhere else?
Jon Oldham:
Well, that’s a really good question, Jamie, and it’s very interesting to me. There isn’t a week that goes by here that someone says to me, when I make the left over that little bridge to come down your street, I feel something different. And it’s the Holy Spirit. And you know what? That doesn’t matter if it’s the postman or the UPS driver. And I think that there is something about a place like Harvey Cedars or Keswick. I think that God is there. And I think that one of the things that’s really important is time. We don’t spend time. One of the things that I talk to my staff is I want to create an environment that everything that I can control to create an environment for God to speak. And so you even remembered that Jesus had to get away from the hustle and bustle the people that are pressing upon him for I need to be healed from this or need these demons cast out.
I need to be fed. I need that even the fighting of the disciples, I want to be first in the kingdom. Jesus had to get away from that and spend time with his father. And I think time and a way are some of the very crucial things that happen at a Bible conference today. And there’s also then, if you’re around like-minded people, there is networking that happens. And God, I believe speaks to people and plants thoughts and vision into them to say, Hey, let’s start this program. Let’s start this mission. Let’s do this thing. And I think that’s another element that takes place at a Bible conference. And you’re talking about people, one of the things that’s great about a Bible conference, but it’s not anyone like denomination. The people that come to Harvey Cedars come to Keswick. They’re very diverse. And we focus on the main things here, not the things that have separated the church, but the things that are non-negotiable in our faith. And so it’s very interesting to see people then from multiple denominations get together to put things together to further the gospel.
Jamie Mitchell:
Amen. Amen. Listen, when you’re in a setting and a couple of hundred people gathered together, number one, they sing. And I think that’s one of the things that I’ve talked to people who have gone to different Bible conferences. There’s a missing element of that singing and that spirit filled worship that takes place. They get to hear God’s word. They literally, here’s an interesting observation I I’ve made guys, is that people watch people actually open up a copy of God’s word, the Bible, they carry their Bibles together and they open them together. Friends, if you’ve never attended a summer Bible conference and been exposed to the unique spiritual experiences it brings, I can tell you firsthand, God does something special when you gather with a whole bunch of God’s people who hunger for God’s word, who desired growth. As both said at both of these conferences where we can hear from God, well, when we come back, I want to discuss the importance of traditions.
We’re talking about how to impact our families. We’re lacking some good traditions, and a week away can facilitate that in your family. Your family needs to start establishing some beach heads. So when we come back, Jon and Graeme are going to share some ways at the Bible conference to build some godly traditions. Well, this is such a fun program today, not just because I know these two guests well and I have been both to their conferences as intend with my family, but also as a speaker over the years. But I believe if you take our encouragement and make the move and get your family to some Bible conference in the future, it will change your family forever. Graeme, one of the missing pieces that I see in this generation, is an appreciation for traditions. Not all traditions are good, and we can get caught up with that, but because of the fragmentation of the family, many don’t have any established traditions. Can you take a moment, Graeme, and speak to this issue of why traditions and building them is a valuable and important thing for families to do?
Graeme Wilson:
That’s a really interesting question. I think particularly in evangelical circles, there’s been over the years an overcorrection on tradition. And the verse that comes to mind is from two Thessalonians that says, therefore brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or by the epistle. And I think traditions, like you said, can be really healthy. And I even know recent statistics, I think it was the New York Post that posted an article that particularly young men are turning to the Orthodox church in droves because there is a search for tradition. There is a church for when we think about our faith, we don’t have a new faith, we have ancient faith, and there’s a beauty in that that I think sometimes gets lost. And so tradition is important. Yes, we need to have an appropriate view on that and things, but tradition is really healthy.
And so when I think about the summer Bible conference and the work that we do for a lot of the people that come, it is a tradition. It is a time that really for generations, a family or a group of families have come to get away, to have fun together, to eat meals together, to fellowship together, to spend time in God’s word together. And holding that tradition has been a grounding point for these families. And so tradition’s good, tradition’s healthy, and when I talk with these families that come year, after year after year, they have such an appreciation that like’s been said so many times even on this radio program, when you think about the family, the idea of families eating together, man, that is a fading tradition. Families praying together, families reading their Bible together, those things have drifted so far that holding fast standing firm to some traditions of even getting together for a vacation in the summer that’s rooted in God’s word instead of rooted in just getting away or rooted in something like going to Disney World. But spending time as a family together, going to Bible sessions and spending time in prayer and having fun along the way, I think is such a beautiful thing to help grow the family unit, not just the person.
Jamie Mitchell:
Jon, I love the tradition of a Christmas Eve service holding a candle, singing silent night. I have a tradition that Kris and I always go to a baseball game on my birthday because baseball has been a big part of my life and I don’t want anything else. I don’t need a cake, just take me to a baseball game. But along with all of that, I like doing it with people. And one of the things about the conference ministry is you get to do the other believers and gives opportunities for friendships. Jon, how over the years, how does vacationing together with other believers give rise to some of these lifelong friendships that I have heard about when I have been at some of your conferences?
Jon Oldham:
Yeah, it’s very interesting to look at and to study and to really think deep down into that, to some degree, we are creatures of habit, so there is some of that that goes on. But one of the things that I’ve found is that we are creatures that need community. And one of the things that we need in the church is community, not just a show, but one of the things that happens at a Bible conference is there’s a community and people come back kind of week after week, they come a certain week each summer because they know so-and-so is coming that week, and it’s the community that develops that’s there. And it’s very interesting. It’s like I’m coming home to a place that this has become part of my home. It’s a tradition, but it’s part of my home. And I never understood that until we started to find a place where we started to vacation.
And it’s like, I’m coming home. I feel comfortable here. I know how it functions. I know what to expect. But then one of the neat things to do is that then your kids grow up with kids that they know and they go through the different children’s ministries where they play games together, they look forward to seeing each other. They actually, we find that they do other events throughout the year. Maybe they get together at holidays with people that they’ve met here at the conference. And it’s a very, very interesting thing. And sometimes, Jamie, we’ve even found kids that have kind of grown up here for certain during the conference ministry that they’ve even gotten married. It is really kind of amazing to see because it’s become part of your home and it becomes part of your family. And it’s a very unique thing. And it is amazing to see.
Jamie Mitchell:
And again, we live in this fragmented world and we don’t get to have the kind of community and the friendships and the meaningful relationships that we so need. Graeme, one of the things that I’ve observed at conferences over the years is that families from same church will plan to go together, 2, 3, 4 families say, Hey, let’s go together to a conference. Why is this beneficial? And again, what kind of unique fruit have you heard that comes from church families doing a summer vacation together?
Graeme Wilson:
Well, I love that, and I’ll take it even a step further for at least for us, there are a couple of our family weeks throughout the summer where whole churches come together and spend a summer week together. And the feedback that I get from their pastors is spending time like that together again, even the word togetherness is such a lost word. I think in our culture today. If you again look at statistics about just friendships, particularly in men, men struggle with building lasting friendships. And it’s been a detriment, I think, to the health of the believer. And when church families come together, it really becomes a launching pad where these pastors are excited to bring their people here because they get to spend time developing those deep relationships, having fun together, praying together, being in God’s word for an extended period of time, where then when they go back to their churches, their communities, there’s an on fire that happens where people are even more engaged with sharing the gospel with their friends and just diving deeper into the word of God together. And I think that’s such a beautiful thing. And even taking a step back, I think there’s just a joy in, like Jon was saying, of just developing those friendships. We have just such a, Hey, I sent a quick text message. I had a 15 minute phone call. But to spend a week with someone having those deep conversations, breaking bread, having a meal, you grow in such a deeper way together. And there is just so much fruit that comes from that in just such a powerful way.
Jamie Mitchell:
If you’re listening today, let me just give you a couple of ideas, things that both I have done as a pastor to encourage this. If you’re a Sunday school class, you could talk to your Sunday school class together and pick a Bible conference wherever you are. I mean, they’re Bible conferences across the nation. We’re not just here. These two are here on the east coast, but they’re across the nation. Great bible conferences, campgrounds, but take your Sunday school class together, take your small group together and go, Jon. One of the things I remember we did years ago is that we did a day at the beach where we were close enough to Harvey Cedars that we encouraged some of our people to come down and just spend a day at the beach and then take advantage some of the things at the Bible conference so they could actually see and experience. So things like that. Jon, you would be open, I would gather Graeme would be too, but you would be open to anything like that. You just have to ask, isn’t that right?
Jon Oldham:
Yeah. Because I think that in our culture today, I think about if people say, oh, I want to spend a week at a Bible conversation, people might be a little skeptical of that. Like, Ooh, I’m not so sure I want to spend a whole week of vacation. But what you can do is just come, like we did, Jamie, is that people came down for the day. We can have meals. You can go to a couple sessions, get a little feel for what it’s really like, and that’d be a great way to do that. We’re very open for that kind of stuff.
Jamie Mitchell:
And then both of these conferences, but again, conferences across the country, listeners, they offer retreats on weekends. They have their own standalone programs for men, women. But if you’re hesitant, as Jon said, they may be hesitant to give up your whole week for vacation. You need to go see the location, see the place, experience it in maybe the simplest way to open up the door for you to say, as your family man, Whit would be a great time to take our family and go away, man. I know that there are people listening today whose brains are in overdrive thinking of ways that they could use a week at a Christian conference and possibly change the direction of their family and churches. When we come back. I want to discuss how you can serve at a Bible conference at a camp. It makes a huge difference. I was a camp counselor, really got my taste in ministry years ago, serving in a summer camp. Do not go away here at Stand in the Gap today. Well, it has been great to have Graeme Wilson and Jon Oldham who oversee two of America’s leading Christian conference ministries men. The summer season is around the corner, but families can still sign up for a week away. Graeme. And then Jon, would you share how listeners can find out about your respective ministries and plan to join you this summer?
Graeme Wilson:
Absolutely. So for us, you can visit our website, Americas Keswick.org. Simply Google, Americas Keswick. The information will pop up, but we would love to host you as a family, same as Jon, but we run from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, weekend, weekends, and week conferences. Again, we would love to be able to host you as a family this summer.
Jon Oldham:
Yeah, Jamie, one of the things that I was thinking about that I didn’t share is that one of the things, another thing about when you talk about a vacation is that going to a Bible conference is a vacation for mom, which lots of times when you pack up and you do all this stuff and you go on vacation, it’s still, there’s a ton of work, the feeding and the cleaning and the stuff. And one of the things about a Bible conference is that we do the cooking and we do the cleaning. And so I’ve had so many moms come to me and thank me over the years about this has been a great vacation for me. So anyway, the way that you can get in touch with us at Harvey Cedars again is go to the web and it’s hc bible.org, HC bible.org.
Jamie Mitchell:
And for both your conferences every week, you have a great speaker, Bible teachers, you have worship, you have children’s programs. It is a full week. And Jon, you speak to the heart of the family when you touch the mom and tell her she gets the week off. Now, Jon, I have a question for you. One of the special aspects of attending a Bible conference, especially if you bring your family, your kids there, and he kind of grows up there, they may realize that they might be able to work at the conference as they get older. What are summer staff opportunities and what might be the benefit?
Jon Oldham:
Yeah, that’s a great question because I believe that that is one of our, actually even a very big part of our ministry is to the kids that work here for us. And I always say it’s not just a job, it’s an experience. Because our goal really during that time is the spiritual development. It’s about starting to transition your faith from your parents’ faith to your faith. Lots of times that doesn’t happen until you get to college, and this is a safe environment to start doing that and getting a secure foundation in your faith. That’s really that. But then also you get to learn. You get to learn about work a little bit, which it’s interesting. It’s interesting to find out that kids don’t know what side of the plate to put the fork or the spoon or where the cup goes because they don’t eat at home, don’t eat.
We go to do takeout. So they learn a lot about that kind of stuff, but they learn about leadership as well. And so a time at a summer Bible conference working on their staff is a great opportunity to grow. And you’ve also spend time with like-minded people. When I was young, there were the kids in the youth group that were in trouble or that sat in the back that were kind of messed up. And then there were the kids that were a little nerdy that sat up front and I didn’t fit. But when I came and worked at a Bible conference, I found people that were serious about the things of the Lord. And I’ve made lifelong friends that I’ve walked through difficult challenges in life when working here at a Bible conference on summer staff ministry. And we also have Jamie, we didn’t talk about this, but we’ve also started a gap year program where it’s a year program where it’s about the faith formation, it’s about getting a solid Bible background. We work with the Karen University, and then it’s about then how are you gifted, and then where are you going to go? Right? So that’s another opportunity that we have here at Harvey Cedars.
Jamie Mitchell:
And like Harvey Cedars Graeme Keswick is a year-round ministry, but during the summer, your summer staff, they can be involved with the children’s ministry and tech ministry and serving in the kitchen and the dining room. There’s various opportunities. But Graeme, as we come to the end of this program, you were a pastor, you just became the executive director, but you were a pastor and there’s a lot of ministry to pastors at both your conferences. But would you take a moment here, why should pastors encourage their flocks to get away and take advantage of the Bible conference ministry? What word do you have for a pastor listening today?
Graeme Wilson:
Sure. So yeah, in pastoring and leading in the local church, I think of this, and I say this often even at our Bible conferences, we’re not here to compete with the local church. We’re here to come alongside the local church. And so when I think of as a pastor sending my people to a place where I know they’re going to be against saturated by the word of God, our hope and prayer is that we send these families back to you in your churches, in your communities, to be on fire for the Lord, and to really have a tremendous impact within your church. That they’re refreshed, that they’re renewed. Sometimes in church ministry, you get a sense as a pastor that your people are tired, that they need a sense of being restored and just refreshing in the Lord. That’s what we can do. We can provide that safe place for the whole family.
Like Jon said, we have kids programming, we have teen programming, we have places for the adults, and it’s a time where you can come away, get restored and trust that your people are getting taken care of, that when they come back to you, they’re ready to go. They’re ready to serve, they’re ready to be on mission, to have a tremendous impact in your local churches. And so I believe in the local church, I’m excited what God does through the local church. And so I love always the opportunity to partner with pastors and churches to see God do amazing things through them.
Jamie Mitchell:
Guys, you know this to be the case, because I worked with both you guys over the years on this kind of thing, is as a pastor, if I had a family that was in crisis, they were maybe struggling in their marriage or the kids were having some issues, or maybe even the dad lost his job. And as a church, we would go and I would get some benevolence money and I would call Jon , I’ve called you up over the years. I used to call Bill Wealthy when he was the director at Keswick. And I would say, I got this family. Do you have the room? Do you have a space? What week is available? And then we as a church would pay for them to go away for the week. And I knew as a pastor that I was making a major investment in that family and maybe even saving the marriage or saving the family by doing that. And so as a pastor today, let me just speak to you. Say, take advantage. Whatever Bible conference is around, don’t ask the Bible conference for a free week. You take some money out of your benevolence and help your families and send them to a Bible conference. Jon Oldham, thank you brother for being with us. And God bless you this summer at Harvey Cedars, we’re so glad to have you with us.
Jon Oldham:
Great, Jamie, it great to thank you for thinking of us here and putting this program together because one that it, it’s about, it’s about the families and they desperately need help today. And a Bible conference is a great place to get that to build your family.
Jamie Mitchell:
And Graeme, have a great summer at Keswick. Thank you so much for being with us.
Graeme Wilson:
Hey, it was an honor to be here. I want to thank you again for the opportunity. And again, I love this program because you talked to pastors and I have such a heart for pastors, the work they do, the struggles they face. And so again, if we can be a resource for you this summer for your families, we would love to do so. Whether it be Keswick, Harvey Cedars, or any Bible conference, please use that resource for your people.
Jamie Mitchell:
Listen friends, find a camp or a conference near your home. Call them up today. Just do it. Your family will grow spiritually. They will grow together. You’ll grow and love in the Lord Until tomorrow live and lead with courage is Jamie Mitchell for Stand in the Gap Today.
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