When
I think about camping trips, I think of tents, sleeping bags and
cooking over a campfire. Well, I can’t write about that kind of camping
trip because I have never been on one of those. But I have a story
about a very memorable campgrounds where I spent a week sleeping in a
tent each summer when I was between the ages of 10 - 18 in 1955-1963.
My conditions at this camp included outdoor bathrooms, outdoor cold
water only sinks where we washed up and brushed our teeth, dirt floors
in our tents for the first years and then board floors after that,
mosquitoes, heat, some storms and lots of walking - just like the boy
scouts enjoyed because my experiences happened at a Boy Scout Camp.
Walt
Reschlein was a successful Christian business man in La Crosse, WI
during the years I mentioned. He had a vision for a week of Bible Camp
for children ages 10 - 18. He made arrangements with the Boy Scouts who
owned a campground for their summer camps to use their grounds for a
week following their camping season for a week of Bible Camp. Mr.
Reschlein partnered with churches in the area in order to provide all
the necessary planning, advertising, registering, programming and
staffing for the camp.
Lakeside
Evangelical Free Church in Winona, MN (pictured above) was where I and
my family attended at that time. My church partnered with Mr. Reschlein
for the Bible Camp week in August which was held at Camp Decorah near
Holman, WI. A number of youth from our church attended each summer. My
first year for this camp was 1955 when I was 10 years old. My close
friend at church was a year older than I so she had attended her first
year in 1954 and invited me to go with her and her family as they drove
both of us to camp that year.
