Church guide

“Obedience is a doorway to your future!” -Scott McNamara

“If you have the Spirit without the Word, you’ll blow up, if you have the Word without the Spirit, you’ll dry up, if you have the SPIRIT AND THE WORD, you’ll grow up!” -William Haldeman (quoting his mother) 💙

Chris Ivey now at the kids community fun day! Not to late to come join the fun!

Today's FREE Kids' Community Fun Day is on! RAIN OR SHINE! Come on out! http://www.landisvillecampmeeting.org/uploads/6/8/7/7/6877349/sights_on_summer_flyer.jpg

11 more days until our FREE kids fun day here at Landisville Camp Meeting. Bring the neighborhood!

My heart is tied to the things that I love and that means a lot to me. Over the last winter, there have been many people from our camp meeting that have touched my heart. Just last week I found a package similar to the one in this picture on the front porch of my cottage. It had a note attached to the front with some words of love. It also said that they thought I could use this gift with all the grandchildren that visit. I was excited. It was heavy and my mind was racing to imagine what was inside. Laughter bubbled up inside me as I discovered a half-full gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. The deed holder was leaving for a couple of weeks and didn't want it to go to waste. It was definitely a brown paper package gift. Proverbs 11:25 states that "The generous will prosper, those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed". Let us all look forward to a refreshing 2018 camp meeting season.

I woke up this morning with this song in my heart. Over and over again it played in my head. Finally, I googled it. It was written by Elton Roth in the twenties. He was walking back from a cotton mill on a hot summer day in Indiana. He paused on a corner to notice a church with the door open. "I went in and there were no people in the pews", he wrote. "Everything was quiet with a lingering presence". The words and music to this song flowed out of him. It took a little over an hour to write the words and music. "My whole being was transformed into this song." During the winter season at Landisville Camp Meeting , the gates are open during the day but the cottages are empty. Just as in the empty church Mr. Roth entered, our little camp meeting is quiet but it also is filled with a lingering sacred presence. In this quietness, there is a whole network of deed holders busy praying and tending to the needs of our community. It is definitely "A Melody of Love". A labor of restoration. A promise that our 2018 season will be a blessing to all.

We are only a few short days away from Camp Meeting Week! Our VBS volunteers are working hard to prepare for an amazing week for our children! Please register as soon as possible so they are sure to have enough supplies! http://www.landisvillecampmeeting.org/vacation-bible-school.html

LOOK AGAIN! With permission I am sharing a beautiful photograph from last night's covered dish dinner here at Landisville Camp Meeting. Friday night is a time of great food, laughter, love and fellowship. This week we had a special guest. She was the grandmother of the sweet young lady who is featured in this picture. Her grandmother is also an avid reader and donated boxes of wonderful books for our reading pleasure. They are currently on display on a table in the Tea Room. Eventually those not taken will be placed in our library. Now look again at this picture. The day before, her much loved grandfather went home to Jesus. Her family chose to work through their grief by spending the evening with our unique circle of friends. It was our blessing to extend sympathy and christian love to this grieving wife. As a community, we prayed over 100 days for the head of this family. With his entrance into Heaven and complete healing, we will continue to surround the remaining family in intercessory prayer.

This Saturday! Please join us!

ANTICIPATION! Only 3 more days until the gates of Landisville Camp Meeting will swing open wide. How did you spend those 5 months of winter? Waiting or wasting? The Bible speaks much about waiting. We are not to confuse waiting with wasting. God says that waiting is not a passive activity in which we do nothing. It is meant to be a time of prayer or taking a step out in faith. In the beginning of winter, I was asked to pray for LCMA every Thursday. I have been faithful in doing that. As the winter progressed, so did my prayers. This month the Lord changed my direction in an awesome way. We currently have 12 cottages for sale on our grounds. 10 of them are no longer being used. The Lord brought my family to our little community by a small ad on Craigslist. We had been praying for a combination of requests and one little rundown cottage was the answer. One empty building completely changed our lives. While not every deed holder in our community agrees on everything, they all agree that owning a cottage is a blessing. Have you given thought to the fact that God knew when he created the earth, who was going to live in our cottages? How awesome is that? So my prayers now include individual numbers of empty buildings. I ask the Lord to help us connect that empty cottage with an unknown prayer request. Challenge yourself to pray for just one or two. Yes, even believers are longing for change in their humdrum lives. This is a humble way for believers in Christ to bless each other.

A few weeks ago I volunteered to pray every Thursday for Landisville Camp Meeting. Of coarse I pray for prayer requests of our members and specific needs throughout the week, but Thursday is my day to pray boldly. Who we are is determined by how we pray. And in this process I am learning a valuable lesson! My prayers have not changed God, they are changing me! I am not good at conflict. It makes me nervous and I either hide inside or run in the other direction. I ask God each Thursday morning what it is that He wants me to do for Him? I ask the Holy Spirit to show me how to be humble and encouraging. I ask God to move so incredibly in our camp meeting community that people on the outside of the gates will take notice. Throughout the past weeks, he keeps bringing to my mind the painted words at the side of the tabernacle. "Jesus Saves." I left my cottage in the fall, full of anxiety. So much that I forgot what part I play in our little community. To tell the lost about Jesus, one person at a time. If the unsaved cannot see Jesus in me, than I am failing. I had to apologize to my Lord and Savior. He has renewed my spirit and given me joyful anticipation for our 2017 camp meeting season. It is definitely not what LCMA can do for me, it is what I can do for Christ.

We have exactly two weeks until the official close of the 2016 Landisville Camp Meeting season. Allow me to take this opportunity to share with you a very special friend. The first time I met this woman, I knew she was different. I look forward to visits from her. Not to talk, but to listen. Hearing her life story is like listening to the pages of a favorite book. I do not need to share her name, but what I will tell you is that she is our camp Matriarch of Prayer. She hears God's voice clearly and when she prays she believes. A few weeks ago I asked her what her prayer is for our camp meeting. She gave it some thought and in her peaceful and quiet tone, told me this. "I pray for the wrinkles to be ironed out." She went on the explain that when she was a young girl, it was her responsibility to iron her father's white dress shirts. "There was a method taught to me by my mother, she said. First the collar and the cuffs, the sleeves had to have a sharp crease, then the back. The front was last as I carefully took the tip of the iron to smooth between each button. It was a tedious process." She asked me to think of our camp meeting as an article of clothing that is in need of ironing. "Every day we should rely on the Lord to apply His holy heat to the wrinkles in our lives. Just as it took hard work and time to transform and restore the beauty to my father's white shirts, God doesn't use quick and easy methods to get the wrinkles out of our lives. He desires the work He does to last and to be noticed by others." I don't know about you, but I have plenty of wrinkles to work on over the winter season. See you in the spring!

Gathering Up God's Promises. Plunk...plunk...plunk. One by one I hear those mischievous squirrels dropping nuts onto the roof of our cottage. Squirrels know that they would starve if they did not prepare for winter. That sound creates sadness in my heart. Just as the squirrels must prepare for the deep freeze, we must wind down our camp meeting year and make plans for closing our much loved cottage. In Proverbs 12:11 we learn that God gives us seasons of plenty so that we can prepare for seasons of need. As I take time to remember our 2016 season, I realize how much I stock piled this summer. I learned all these things from members who blessed my life this year. Selflessness, generosity, leadership, discipline, steadfastness, how to cherish your spouse, fervent prayer, grace, humility, discipleship, hospitality, hard work, mentoring, Godly parenting, serving until Christ takes you home, and unending love. By the way, I went down the directory to make this list. So like the squirrels who will be prepared, so am I. I thank God and my treasured friends who so faithfully served the Lord and each other thoughout this year.

I am sharing this photo with permission. It was taken by Kristie Marz DelFico of Kristi Marz Photography. In a world where I do not believe in coincidences, I know finding this on facebook was a treasure I needed to share. It has left me with a desire to hear the personal memories of Landisville Camp Meeting from this talented young woman. Thank you!

Landisville Camp Meeting Annual Corn Roast. Labor Day 2016 Nourishment for the body and soul. The food was delicious and plentiful but the fellowship was true spiritual refreshment. The Tea Room was a haven of love and laughter and a time of generous hospitality. It was a sanctuary for our souls.

Thoughts from inside on a dreary day. The focal point of our cottage is our ceiling. It is the first thing people comment about when they walk through the front door. Do you think that the men who constructed that roof and ceiling knew it would bless others for years to come? That is the gift of craftmanship. It is a spiritual gift that I certainly was not given. I do appreciate the beauty of this masterpiece though. Often when I am stressed or in need of relaxation, I will lay on my sofa and just admire the intricateness and quality. The stain has aged and the brown color varies in intensity. It would cost a great deal to try and build a ceiling like this today. Unfortunately in the kitchen and bedroom, the ceiling has been painted. The beauty of the wood has been covered and hidden. A simple coat of paint was enough to hide the real wood. That doesn't mean there is no beauty to be found. There are days when I paint on layers of doubt and self-pity. 1 Peter 3:1 states, "Clothe yourself with the beauty that comes from within."We were created by the true craftman. Our inner beauty needs to bless others just like the wooden ceiling still blesses me.