Twenty-five years ago, a woman from Long Prairie challenged her Camp to organize a quilt retreat in the then brand new Cedar Bay Lodge. My wife Lisa’s first reaction: “I didn’t know that many old ladies who quilted.” But she couldn’t say no and we’re glad she didn’t!
To populate that first retreat, stitchers and stampers were invited to join the fun. In all, thirty-four ladies came and the rest, they say, is history. And a great one at that! From those humble beginnings back in 1990, a new outreach grew as God pieced and sewed together an elaborate and beautiful experience for women of ages.
This fall, over 650 women are expected in for the 25th Anniversary celebration, filling all five weekends and populating early birds and mid-week sessions. There are also four retreats in the spring and now even one in the summer!
“It’s all God,” Lisa explains of the growth. “We really thought after a few years the fad would die out.” Instead, an amazing team of quilt instructors emerged. Forced to choose whether they were going to invite women to a quilt retreat with a little Bible or to a Bible camp with some quilting, the team chose the latter. The result: a sweet, high quality event encouraging women to “run to the Word.”
All these years later, the team is going strong and so is the ministry. In fact, Camp Lebanon offers nothing like it. God only knows what the future holds, but the past is definitely something worth woohooing about! All glory to God!
