Green Lake, A Place for Renewal, A Place for a Closer Walk with God

As I spend my last few weeks here in Green Lake this summer, I've been reflecting on how God has worked through this place to impact my life.  My roots here run way back to my great grandparents - Reverend George Greely and Pearl Louise Kimsey (grandpa's parents) and Harold and Bernes Edwards (grandma's parents).  They would come up to the American Baptist Assembly to vacation with family and attend conferences.  Then, during their young adulthood, my grandparents would visit Green Lake to attend conferences.

Fast forward several decades - God had a plan for the summer of 1983.  Quite a few years before that, my father, age 14, moved from Chicago up to Green Lake, Wisconsin with his family.  He spent his summers up through his college years working on the Assembly grounds.  When my mother began college, she and her twin sister spent their summers working at Green Lake.  To most it would seem like a coincidence, but I believe God used Green Lake to bring my parents into each others' lives.  A year later, He would do the same thing for my aunt and uncle.

I was first brought to Green Lake late in the summer of the year I was born (1992).  I spent childhood years at the Children's center, progressing through each color of door.  I spent summer vacations with family in Barbour House, Hobley Cottage, Oncken-Crum House, and finally our very own home, the Kimsey House.  I spent many summers attending Quest as a camper where my simple belief in God started to transform into a relationship with God.  For the past two summers I have been blessed to be on staff for Quest, and God has allowed our relationship to grow while also bringing new relationships into my life. 

Stepping onto the grounds, it is easy to be enthralled by God's beautiful creation.  But there is more going on here.  Looking at Green Lake's history and God's truth in scripture I find that Green Lake is alive with the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

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"See, I am doing a new thing!

It springs forth; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

And streams in the wasteland."

Isaiah 43:19

When the Green Lake property was first bought, it was meant to be an upper end, country club type establishment.  People could buy and develop property which followed specific aesthetic requirements.  This was in the midst of the great depression.  As people were struggling to put food on their tables, they were also being urged to keep up with the Joneses. 

Then, in 1943, the grounds were purchased by the American Baptist church.  Dr. Kraft, the founder of Kraft Cheese was a forerunner in that purchase and re-purposing of the grounds.  Last year at Quest, Isaiah 43:19 was our theme verse.  We talked about how God can take things that are broken, or even things that are still whole, and make them into something new for His glory.  He can reach in to the driest, most desolate situations and bring something wonderful out of them.

He took a place that was all about worldly image and the drive to be defined by property and monetary value and made it into a place that reflects His image and His purpose.

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My Father's house has many, many rooms;
If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you with me
That you also may be where I am.

John 14:2-3

 

This passage is Jesus describing the place that He is planning on bringing us one day.  Heaven.  It is not just that He is bringing us to some place to be with Him.  He has put care, and thought, and intentionality into this place.  He has made a room especially for each of His children, and He has made it clear that there are many rooms - no specific number - just as many as there need to be.

The intentionality that went into the founding of the American Baptist Assembly is reflective of the Heaven-like intentionality.  Green Lake is a place where people can come for conferences and camps that focus on strengthening and growing a relationship with God.  It is a place where people can come with their families and friends to share time in fellowship with one another and with God.  

For me, Green Lake has been a glimpse of that heaven community - a place where a relationship with God is at the center, and His community grows out from there.

~SP