|
Judson Baptist Retreat Center
10330 Peterson Road
St. Francisville,
LA 70775
225.634.7225
www.judsonretreat.org
Retreat
Center E-Mail Address:
retreat@bagbr.org
If you would like information on the Judson
Baptist Retreat Center facilities, availability, camps, etc., please visit their
web site at:
www.judsonretreat.org.
2008-2009 ANNUAL REPORT
Eugene
Morris, Coordinator
“Our mission is to raise up a
generation passionate for Jesus Christ by providing opportunities for
life-changing experiences.”
Our mission continues to remain the same as we seek to minister to all who enter
our gates. This year has seen many changes in our personal lives as well as in
the life of the Retreat Center. One constant is that our God is sufficient and
is at work in our lives daily. He continues to answer prayer and to provide
everything we need.
Our newest activity at JBRC is the addition of our quarterly Senior Adult Fish
Fry! We have now experienced two of these events and will soon host our third
one! One-hundred-sixty senior adults attended our first Fish Fry in May and over
one hundred attended our August event! The Tero Family brought inspiration as we
experienced worship as a family of thirteen shared their love of gospel music
with us! What an uplifting experience! Our Senior Adult event in November will
feature Becky Brown with music and “Stories from Grandmother”! Make plans now
for your church to attend!
Along with our Senior Adult Fish Fry, we will be hosting our Mother/Daughter
Horse Retreat again this fall and spring. These retreats continue to be one of
the highlights of our year! We continue to be amazed at how God uses our horses
to teach these mothers and daughters how to better communicate with each other
and with our God.
In
November, we will host our Teens In Action Horse Camp, which is always a
favorite with our “horse-loving” teen girls! We get to ride when it’s cool
instead of the heat of the summer and also learn more about God’s principals and
precepts through Bible Study!
Women’s Silent Retreat sounds like a dichotomy! But, in January 2010, we will
have our 2nd experience with this retreat! God commands us to “be
still and know that I am God”! When was the last time that you spent three days
alone with your God.
In
September, 2008, once again we experienced an inland hurricane, Gustav! That
experience netted us 49 downed trees on the Retreat Center grounds! Once again
our faithful “Tuesday Crew” enabled us to utilize the downed trees so as not to
waste this precious wood! We brought in a one-man sawmill and over the course of
this year have milled all of those trees into useable lumber. The lumber has
already been used to build several new projects and will continue to be used to
save money as we build future projects!
One of the projects that was made possible with this lumber, was the decorating
of our new JBRC Gift Shop! Located behind our concessions stand under the
covered basketball court, JBRC now boasts many items that will help us promote
our Retreat Center! We opened the Gift Shop after much research and hard work by
Missy Myers! On your next trip to JBRC, you will need to come shop with us! The
Gift Shop carries JBRC t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, bandanas, writing pens,
autograph pillows and the list goes on! In the future, we hope that the profits
from the Gift Shop will help to fund improvements at JBRC!
Two additions for this year have been the construction of our beverage area in
our cafeteria and pedal cars! Constructed from the lumber from the hurricane and
boasting a granite countertop, the new beverage area has streamlined our serving
and also enhanced the beauty of our cafeteria. Our pedals cars have been a hit
with ALL ages from our first-graders through our senior adults! What great fun
to have pedal car races around the basketball court!
This past year we have hosted fifteen ladies’ retreats, twenty adult groups,
eleven children’s retreats, two college groups, five family retreats, six men’s
groups, seventeen youth groups and two senior adults retreats for a total of
seventy-nine groups. Our summer was wonderfully busy with the following rental
camps: Victory Harvest Children, Istrouma Baptist Church Children, Healing Place
– St. Francisville Children, Woodlawn Kids’ Camp, Cornerstone Kids’ Camp, Grace
Ministries Camp out of Houston, Texas and Woodlawn Middle School Camp.
Our summer camp theme for 2009 was “To Infinity and Beyond” as we taught our
boys and girls that our God is with us in all things and forever. Our Scripture
was “The heavens declare the glory of God; The skies proclaim the work of His
hands. Sing to the Lord, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day.”
Psalm 19:1, 96:2. Boys’ Missions Camp was completely FULL with all beds filled!
Girls’ Missions Camp had three full weeks with many excited young ladies! God
has truly blessed Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge with an anointed
place to come away, rest, retreat and know God.
Our future plans include re-modeling of our two oldest cabins in order to update
their appearance and their functionality. None of this year’s accomplishments
would have been possible without the help of hundreds of volunteer hours both
from our Tuesday Crew and others. Please pray about your ability to come
volunteer at YOUR retreat center.
In
closing, Debi and I would like to express our appreciation to all of you who
have come along side us over the last thirty years. On October 1, 1979, we drove
onto these hallowed grounds for the first time as a very young, green couple
with an eleven-month old little boy. We have learned so very much from all of
you and from the experiences that God has sent our way at JBRC.
Continue to pray for Steve and Missy and their family, Debi and I and all the
staff here as we continue to strive to provide you with a place to come away. |
