My whole world fell apart when I was in third grade and my parents got divorced … in the 1960s when divorce was still shameful.

A few years later, in 1971, I was thirteen, trying to be cool during my first summer at camp, but inside I was still that same tiny, buck-toothed, desperate little 8-year-old girl. Those were the days when you could call your mom from camp and ask to stay another session. To have the chance to come and be surrounded by such glorious physical beauty and so much love and fellowship and good, clean fun was like a balm to my soul. It lifted me up and out of the pain that I was in, and I met Christ.

Simply put, LLYC was an oasis for me.

I have so many memories of LLYC—walking down to Blue Hole back in the day when you had to slither down the side of the cliff to get in, washing our hair at the second Dam, swooshing down the rock slide, and hiking to the Devil’s Bathtub.

Even today, when I picture Heaven, it looks a lot like LLYC. Peaceful. Beautiful.

My favorite memory would have to be Roundup at Echo Valley. Frog made the scriptures come alive; I was absolutely mesmerized. My first summer, when he asked us to raise our hands if we wanted to know Christ as our personal Savior, I couldn’t raise mine fast enough. Some camp friends gave me my first groovy Reach Out Bible. The music at Roundup, too, was phenomenal. In those days, all the cool kids from Corpus sat around playing the guitar all the time; that’s what inspired me to learn to play. I used a lot of those camp songs throughout my years in ministry.

That ministry began at LLYC. I worked my way up from a camper at Echo to Work Crew in 1975, Counselor in 1976, and Work Crew Boss in 1977, all three positions at Singing Hills.

Years later, I’m still meeting new friends and connecting with old friends through the LLYC Alumni Group.

We are a family and can bear one another’s burdens, share each other’s joys, and encourage one another, as the writer says in Hebrews 10:25 “all the more, as we see the day drawing near.” Maranatha!

These days, I am the proud grandmother of six beautiful grandchildren—three girls and three boys! After almost 40 years of ministry together, I now mostly serve as head cheerleader for my husband’s equipping ministry in Southeast Asia. John is the Executive Director of Mobilization Ministries which trains and mobilizes leaders to reach their own people in Southeast Asia. He travels, and I hold down the fort here in San Antonio.