Sarah Herman – Happily Ever After (cover)

by Matt Ralph on Jan 16, 2012 in Friends, Music | 0 comments

Camp regular Sarah Herman covers He Is We’s song “Happily Ever After” in this video she posted to YouTube today. The original is HERE. We’re of course partial to Sarah’s version.

Annual Dinner | March 31

by Matt Ralph on Jan 15, 2012 in Upcoming Events | 0 comments

The Delanco Camp Annual Dinner will be held on Saturday, March 31, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at Villa Manor in Winslow. Admission is $40 per person ($16 of which will be considered tax deductible). Tickets are first come, first serve.

There will be dinner, fellowship, a program and a silent auction. For more information contact Linda Dugan at R2bgtboys@aol.com or 609-709-5243

2012 Summer Schedule

by Matt Ralph on Jan 12, 2012 in Upcoming Events | 0 comments

Camp Meeting, July 1-7 – Dean: Eric Ulrich Speaker: Rev. Doug Smith

Junior Camp, July 8-14 –  Deans: Linda Dugan and CJ Caufield

Junior High 1, July 22-28 - Deans: Mike Ralph and Sarah Lee

Teen Camp, July 29-August 4 – Deans:  Jen and Julio Nieves

Junior High 2, August 5-11 – Deans: Mike Bill and Emily Heckman

Middler Camp, August 12-18 – Deans: Becky Wrentzel and Brandon Cobb

Please Note: When this schedule was originally posted, the dates for Junior High 1 were incorrect.

South Jersey Christian Favorites

by Matt Ralph on Jan 8, 2012 in News | 0 comments

We were nominated in three categories of the South Jersey Christian Events 2011 Reader Favorites poll this year, including favorite blog, favorite camp and conference center and favorite 2011 concert (Tenth Avenue North).

You can vote once in every category every 24 hours through Jan. 22. Obviously, we’d like you to vote for the three categories we were nominated in but really it’s up to you to decide. We are privileged to be included with so many wonderful ministries from South Jersey who are working to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and build His kingdom here in the lower half of the state.

To vote, you need to first register and use the username and password to log in so that your vote can be recorded. One lucky voter is going to win a drawing for a prize pack so every vote gets you another entry for that as well.

Go to www.sjchristianevents.com/2011-voting for all the info.

Polar Bear Plunge | Feb. 4

by Matt Ralph on Jan 2, 2012 in Past Events | 2 comments

Take a dip in the cool waters of Lake Agape on Saturday, Feb. 4, at 2 p.m. and you’ll officially become a member of the Delanco Camp Polar Bear Club. Don’t want to take the plunge? Come and cheer on the ones who are.

Prizes – including free admission to the Spring Retreat (April 20-22) – will be awarded to the top fundraisers for the event and for the best costume. Don’t miss this chance to experience Lake Agape history.

The registration fee is $20, but we encourage all participants to get sponsors so we can raise money for camp. You must be 12 years of age or older to participate. The first 20 to register will get a free T-shirt.

Click HERE to register.

Turn on the light

by Daniel Ulrich on Dec 23, 2011 in Devotion | 0 comments

One of the staples of Christmas décor is the Christmas light. Some like to wrap every inch of their yard in multicolored lights, while others are more reserved with candles in their windows. Whatever you fancy is in the realm of advent luminosities, we can all agree that lights make Christmas time much brighter. As Christians and the church we are called to be lights illuminating Christ. As the body of Christ our utmost goal throughout our lives should be to show the world who Jesus is.

The role of the church is to turn on a light. If we read through Revelation we see an interesting concept. In the first chapter John calls churches lampstands. Now we as hip north americans on the cusp of 2012 [the future] may not totally understand what he is talking about with the lampstand. We have lights and lamps, but the people of the early church would have gotten what he was talking about better.

If we research a little bit we can find that in Exodus the lampstand was one of the pieces of furniture that God instructed them to build and place in the Tabernacle. God gave specific instructions about how the lampstand was to be built, the kind of oil it should burn, where it was to be placed, and what it was to illuminate.

We can read this in Exodus 25:31-40. The lampstand was the only source of light inside the tabernacle besides the presence of God. A job of the priest was to just make sure the light never went out on the lampstand. The most interesting details about the lampstand is what its purpose was. Its purpose was to cast its light on the bread of presence or the showbread.

Now you are pretty intrigued huh.. A menorah that lights up a loaf of bread. But there is meaning behind this bread. It represented a bread offering given to the Lord to show that Israel was giving Him their bounty and also stated that God is the one who gave them the bread in the first place.

So this gold lampstand was made to sit next to a table and kept watch over to make sure it was lit so that it could shine and show the nation that God will always provide for them and He is always present. This is also the object that Jesus would use to symbolize his own body broken for us.

So we as the Church are called to be this lampstand. The church exists to shine a light into the darkness. A light that highlights God’s goodness and reveals Jesus in order that the world might know him. The soul purpose of the lampstand was to focus its beam on the bread of presence.

The same is true for the church, our purpose is to showing others who God is. He in turn can show the world. During this time of year with lights around us all the time we must be on our watch. It is our calling to keep the light burning bright, the wicks trimmed, the lampstand in the right place. If we begin to dim than we must take immediate action. Let us keep our light burning bright into the next year and the future to proclaim that Christ is Lord.

Today’s Readings – Psalm 93, 96, 148, 150, Isa 59:1-15a, Gal 3:15-22, Luke 1:67-80

Dan Ulrich is the director of youth and young adults at Sicklerville UMC. He is a former camper and has served in a variety of roles in the camp including his current position as vice president.

Waiting and Anticipating

by Steve LaMotte on Dec 22, 2011 in Devotion | 0 comments

Waiting is never easy. Waiting for Christmas is tortuous as a kid. My sister and I would agonize over our advent countdown and would take every opportunity to snoop through the house to see if we could find our gifts. We never did, until one year.

One Christmas morning- when my sister and I were about eight or nine years old, my sister just wasn’t very excited about her gifts. She opened them, smiled, and said thank-you to mom and dad. There was no paper throwing. No shrieks of joy. What we found out later was that my sister had found our parent’s super secret hiding place a week before Christmas and had opened all her gifts ahead of time before carefully re-wrapping each one so mom and dad wouldn’t find out. My sister’s impatience with Christmas backfired and sapped the joy out of Christmas morning.

Waiting is never easy.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the parable of Ten Virgins. Some were wise and had plenty of oil for their lamps and would be prepared when the bridegroom came to pick them up. The others were foolish and did not have enough oil. The foolish virgins went out to buy more oil and, consequently, missed the arrival of the bridegroom and were shut out of the wedding banquet. Jesus says, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour (Matthew 25:13).”

Advent is a season of waiting and anticipation. We anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and, we wait for and anticipate when Christ will return. Let’s be honest, people have been waiting for the return of Jesus for nearly 2000 years. Waiting is tough! But we have promises from God that Jesus will return- and when he does that creation will be redeemed and restored. Salvation will be fully realized.

Who are we in the parable? Are we the foolish virgins who were not prepared for the arrival of the bridegroom- therefore missing the wedding banquet? Or are we more like the wise virgins who were prepared and waiting for the bridegroom and welcomed into the wedding banquet?

This Advent and Christmas season, we must consider how we are waiting and anticipating the coming of Christ. Are we living a life that makes the most of our waiting? Will we be ready when Jesus returns? Are we telling others so that they, too, can be ready when Jesus the Bridegroom comes to take his bride, the Church, to the Heavenly banquet?

In Revelation 22:20- Jesus says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

“Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.”

Today’s Readings – Psalm 50, 59, 60, 33, Zech 4:1-14, Rev 4:9-5:5, Matt 25:1-13

Steve LaMotte is the pastor of Hope UMC in Dover, Del., and has served as a dean, speaker and several other capacities at camp. He blogs at stevelamotte.blogspot.com.