At our annual dinner-auction on November 19th, we sold a week at a Naples Condo for $800. This vacation has since been returned to us because the winning bidder could not use the week at the time they desired. So we are now trying to re-auction this week. The value of the rental was set at $700. The minimum bid is $350. We will take the highest bid we receive by midnight on December 20, 2011 or the first person that bids the winning bid of $800.

The Condo Week has sold for $800

Here is a description of the week as it appeared in our auction catalog: “One week stay in a condominium in the southern part of Naples, Florida, located 15 minutes from Marco Island Beach, 15 minutes from downtown Naples and Naples Beach. Condo has a pool, but is not on the beach. The condo has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a sofa bed in the living room for extra sleeping space. Can be used any week between May 1-October 31, 2012. Winner is responsible for washing all sheets, towels, etc. before leaving to restore condo for next use or can pay for cleaning service.”

This is a great chance for you to get a wonderful vacation and support Lakeview Ministries at the same time. Send your bid today to lakeview@hsonline.net

Workers are finishing up the final details of the new “Main Lodge” at Lakeview Villages. Once completed, this structure will be the visual and programmatic centerpiece of the new campsite and will allow Lakeview to expand our year-round ministry to families, youth and adults.

This building will include a 180-seat dining room, commercial kitchen, retreat housing for up to 44 guests, restrooms with showers, meeting room/craft room, game room, snack bar with six serving windows, a first-aid station with two sickrooms, shirt shack, two offices, storage, an elevator for handicapped accessibility, and a long exterior deck overlooking our 10-acre lake.

Not only will the Main Lodge be the hub of summer activities, it will also provide a beautiful and functional setting for a wide variety of spiritual retreats, family reunions, conferences, and even weddings!

What an exciting chapter in our history! We praise God for continuing to bless us with enthusiastic campers, tremendous volunteers, strong leadership, and generous supporters. To Him be all the glory.

A worship service to dedicate the Lakeview Villages “Main Lodge” will be held March 4, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. in the new building’s dining room. Rev. Daniel May, President of the Indiana District of the LCMS, will be the guest speaker. Everyone is invited to attend, tour the new facilities, and celebrate this momentous occasion. Light refreshments will be served. Please join us as we praise God for blessing this capital expansion project and dedicate its future use to His glory!

Thanks to many supporters, the “Let the Children Come” Capital Campaign has been able to take full advantage of a $300,000 matching opportunity provided by a local family. They agreed to match, dollar-for-dollar, any new gifts or pledges to the campaign made in 2011. Well, we reached that goal by the end of September, and they came through with the match, providing a huge boost for our expansion program!

As of November 29th, gifts and pledges to the capital campaign total $2,345,146, which is just under 94% of our original campaign goal of $2.5 million. With the finish line in sight, we’ll continue our campaign efforts through personal visits, direct mail, and evening phone-a-thons. There is still plenty of work to do, but with God’s blessing, and the help of a tremendous circle of supporters, we can do it!

Like many building programs, the Lakeview Villages expansion project is running over budget. In our case, by about 10%. This is due to some unforeseen items, as well as not being able to start the building process while construction costs were at their lowest (which is when we received our original estimates). When the Main Lodge and final bathhouse are completed, the total cost of the entire expansion will be closer to $2,750,000 than the $2.5 million originally budgeted.

The camp’s Board of Directors has decided to keep the fund-raising goal at $2.5 million and to go slightly into debt for the difference. But to keep this debt as low as possible, it is imperative that we continue to strive for the campaign goal and that our supporters do everything they can to fulfill their campaign pledges.

Throughout the spring, summer, and fall, the villages at Lakeview Villages are available to rent. While any group is welcome to use them, we are really trying to reach out to families because we think the village experience can provide a more-secluded alternative to the state parks.

For the low flat fee of $300 per weekend, you and your friends can rent an entire village, including four air-conditioned cabins sleeping 6-7 each, your own personal bathhouse, picnic shelter, a fully-equipped kitchen, and outdoor firepit.

Take a swim, go canoeing or kayaking, play in the game room of the Main Lodge, explore the woods, visit the quaint shopping areas in nearby Nashville, or just sit back and enjoy the starry evenings and the rest of God’s wonderful creation. Whatever you do, you’ll be spending quality time with those you love!

How about a family reunion? You’ll enjoy it so much that it will become a family tradition.

To reserve your weekend or get more information, just call the camp office at 812-342-4815. This is a new offering and we believe these weekends will fill fast once the word gets out. So act now!

The 2012 Summer Program Schedule looks pretty similar to 2011, except for two additional programs. First, we will try our first ever “Night Owl” program, designed for those 7th-10th grade campers who are used to staying up late and sleeping in all summer. During this week, our entire program will be shifted about four hours, allowing the campers to eat breakfast at noon and go to bed at 2:00 a.m. We’ll take advantage of the darkness by exploring nature at night and playing games in dark!

We’re also adding two Servant Events for high-school youth. “Servants” will grow in their faith through serving God and others, while still enjoying most of their favorite camp activities. The first Servant Event will have a “construction” emphasis — participants will help build a low-element challenge course at Lakeview Villages. The second week will be focused on “human needs” — participants will go out into the community each day to help at the local nursing homes, Boys & Girls Club, etc.

Of course, most of the changes for 2012 will be in the facilities. Not only will we open the new Dining Hall at Lakeview Villages, we’ll also be adding Great Plains Village at the new camp. Back on main camp, the newest attraction will be a 9-hole miniature golf course!

Get excited! The summer of 2012 brings a new dining hall, new options, and new opportunities for ministry!

Lakeview Ministries held its seventh annual dinner/auction November 19^st at the Holiday Inn Crystal Ballroom in Columbus.  Lots of good food, fellowship, excitement, and some surprising bargains were enjoyed by each of the 475 people who attended the event.

The highlight of the evening was when many attendees joined together to contribute the funds needed to purchase the furniture for the Lakeview Villages Main Lodge. Auction guests were challenged with the goal of donating enough to purchase 22 bunk beds with 44 mattresses, 32 dining tables, 8 dressers, 160 dining chairs, 60 conference chairs, and 24 craft chairs — at a total cost of $25,700. They responded by donating $30,200, enough to buy all the targeted furniture and have $4,500 leftover for other smaller necessary items such as linens, mirrors, wastebaskets, etc. That was a tremendous show of support!

Receipts for the evening totaled $63,085! And that total will be boosted by the Indiana Region of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, who have pledged $3,000 in supplemental funds. After adding in pre-event ticket sales, sponsor donations, and supplementary funds, then subtracting the bill from Holiday Inn, printing, and other expenses, the net income should end up right around $65,000. The funds not designated toward the Main Lodge furnishings will go into our general operating fund, providing the help needed so that we can continue to offer a quality Christian camping experience at a reasonable price.

Our extreme gratitude goes out to our auctioneers, Fred Pollert and Mike Mensendiek, and to all of the  committee members, congregational representatives and event volunteers who did their part to make the evening a success.  And we appreciate the continued support provided by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.  Finally, we thank the attendees for their generosity – you did a whole lot of good in a very short time.

We praise God for these blessings, and we pray that the evening was a blessing to all involved.

The new Lakeview Villages campsite opened this past summer, giving older campers (Grades 5-12) an adventurous alternative to the main camp experience. Village activities included a zipline, four other high-ropes challenge elements, mountain biking, kayaks, air rifles, a water trampoline, and lots of other “classic” camp programming.

Because the new dining hall at Lakeview Villages is still under construction (see page 2), the campers ate all their meals at the picnic shelters located in each village. One camper wrote that the eating arrangement and the smaller cabin size made the Villages “the best, because it is so homey and comfortable.”

The new expansion allows us to meet our overwhelming demand and gives us opportunities for future growth, which means more opportunities to share the Gospel message and to impact lives for Christ.

The additional bed space at Lakeview Villages allowed 2011 to be the biggest year ever, with 2,074 campers coming to one of our summer programs. That’s 170 more than last year and more than three times the number from 1996! And we’re not done yet. If we can get a fourth village finished by 2012, we have the potential to have 2,450 campers next year with room to grow in the future! Thanks to God and all our campers for making 2011 the best ever.