News - BIBLE CAMP IOWA - BRIGHTON, IA

What's New from MWBC's November Board Meeting?

Midwest Bible Camp's Board of Directors held a quick meeting on November 10, 2012 before the start of the Marshalltown Youth Rally. We got off to a great start with devotional thoughts, singing (there's a pretty good group of singers on the board), and a prayer. We broke into committees quickly to get going with planning. We got back together and found out the following interesting news from the committee reports...

-The Scheduling, Staffing, and Curriculum committee reported that they have set the theme for next summer. The theme will be "Seriously...?!?". And yes, we are serious about that. The theme comes from Philippians 2:5 ("Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" KJV). Watch for an article in the upcoming Christian Camper for some more details on the theme.
-The Food, Facilities, and Finance committee reported that they have a meeting scheduled with the Lake Darling Youth Center to discuss a variety of potential facility improvements, including preparing the swimming area in the lake for next summer.
-The Promotions committee is busy getting ready to issue a newsletter in the December timeframe and a letter describing various financial needs of the camp. They're also discussing an MWBC Day for March and the Annual Friends Brunch in April (potentially in Muscatine this year in combination with their youth rally). And now that we have a theme, we'll get busy designing next summer's t-shirts.

We would appreciate you keeping the board in your prayers throughout the year as we seek to provide the most spiritually enriching and fun camp experience possible for our campers. You, our past/present/potential campers, staff, and supporters, are continually in our prayers as well.

What's New from MWBC's October Board Meeting?

The Midwest Bible Camp 2013 Board of Directors met for the first time on October 20, 2012. After a short devotional and spending some time getting to know our new board members, the board elected new officers and got down to work, planning and organizing for the summer of 2013. Board members volunteered to serve on either the Food, Facilities, and Finance (FFF), Scheduling, Staffing, Curriculum (SSC), or Promotion committees.

-The FFF committee seems to have a real interest this year in general upkeep and maintenance of our facilities, keeping what we have in tip top condition, not necessarily adding anything new this year. From a finance perspective, there's some concern about last year's loss and seeking donations to prevent a possible rate increase.

-The SSC committee already has some great ideas for a theme for next year's sessions. They also settled on their preferences for next year's schedule, but will need to lock the dates in with LDYC before it's final. There was some talk about possibly bringing Guys Retreat back (tentatively from 6/1-6/4). If you have thoughts, please let the SSC committee know.

-The Promo committee hopes to beef up communication this year with campers, staff, corporation members, and friends of MWBC in general. That means more use of our website and facebook page as well as additional editions of the Christian Camper newsletter, development of a camp video, and other regular communications through email and church announcements. They'll also be working on communication of the camp's financial needs so we can try to prevent rates from increasing. And we're going to look at possible additional MWBC promotional sale items like sweat pants, water bottles, bracelets, etc. that we might get for next summer. If you have an idea for an MWBC item you'd be interested in purchasing, please let the Promo Committee know.

What's New from MWBC's 2012 Annual Meeting?

Midwest Bible Camp just had its annual corporation meeting on September 29th to review results of the 2012 camping season. Here are a few highlights you might find interesting...
-370 campers attended MWBC this summer, that's a 7.5% increase over our 3 year average. We pray that each and every one was blessed by their experience and was able to draw closer to God and other Christians.
-We have been informed that LAKE DARLING WILL BE BACK next summer. Work is complete and as long as God sends rain, we will have a lake. A new beach area will also be needed. The Lake Darling Youth Center would welcome donations to help with this effort. For more information, go to our Building Projects page.
-Session Directors reported that all of the sessions were fabulous! No surprise there.
-Operating expenses exceeded income by quite a bit this year. So we'll be talking to everyone more about helping us out with donations so we can keep the cost of camp low so that everyone who wants to can afford to come. If you'd like to go ahead and make a donation to help with this, please go to our Support page for information on where and how to send donations.
-We unfortunately said good-bye to four board members who had completed 2 terms of service and must sit off the board for at least a year. Thanks to Mary (Beth) Potter, Clyde Evans, Colby Clapp, and Hal James for your service to MWBC.
-Hal and Doloris James also informed us that after many, many years of service to camp and Senior Week in particular, they will be stepping down from day-to-day involvement with MWBC. God bless you both for your service to MWBC and the impact you have had on sooooo many youth over the years.
-A new co-director for Senior Week will be named soon.
-Finally, we welcome new board members from the election--Tricia Miller (CR), Dave Smith (Cedarloo), Travis Pierson (Muscatine), Jeremy Widner (Independence), Mike
Miles (Ames), Jimmy DeSisso (Marshalltown), and Darin Thompson (Des Moines). If you have any camp suggestions, please feel free to let any board member know. We
also thank the other board candidates for their continuing service to MWBC and willingness to serve on the board.

In other news...
-You've probably noticed that we're in the process of updating our website. We've made quite a few changes and have quite a few more to make. We hope to add more content than we've had in the past including more pictures and fun. If you have suggestions for changes to the website, a picture you'd like to see posted or a testimonial we can add, please feel free to post your comments on facebook or email us.

Building Projects

A lot has been done around the camp in the last few years to improve the facilities for our campers and staff. Check out our Building Projects page to find out what's been done and what plans we have for future work.

Christian Camper

Midwest Bible Camp issues a newsletter each year with information about what's going on at camp. Please go to the home page read the latest version of the Christian Camper.