THE LANDIS NEWSLETTER
FALL 2014
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” 1 John 3:1
Summer Update ( Jamy)
O
nce again, Big Sky was truly blessed with a full, busy and successful summer.
Although people often deine success in terms of worldly achievements, Big
Sky’s success has to do with lives being changed through the power of Christ. While
challenges always exist, they were far outshadowed by the outstanding efort of our
staf, both permanent and summer staf. Lisa and I feel so blessed to work with the
folks that we do and have especially been enjoying the addition of Ryan and Amanda
Nice to the Big Sky staf. While we wish you
Our staf this summer
could all see camp in action, we will have to settle
for sharing a few of the many stories with you from the summer. We rejoice in the work the
Lord is accomplishing in the lives of many young campers here at camp and in the community
as our staf continues to reach out to these kids throughout the school year.
Sarah (not her real name) is a high school camper who has come to camp
for several years. She comes from a diicult background which has caused
her to be somewhat
antagonistic and hard toward the gospel. he Holy Spirit was obviously
working in Sarah’s
heart this summer as she had numerous deep spiritual conversations with
her counselor during
her week of camp. She came to camp not even believing God existed, but she placed her faith in Christ during her week at camp.
John previously attended Big Sky in 2011 and is from a non- Christian background. John was
very confused about spiritual things and it was evident truth was lacking in his life. He talked
endlessly with his counselor about the gospel and the Bible and ended up placing his faith in
Christ during his week of camp.
Continued on back...
New Facility Update
Thanks to all who helped! ( Jamy)
Many of you have thoughtfully inquired as to the progress of Big Sky’s new facility project. At this point, we
are working on contacting contractors for an accurate cost
estimate which is
required for many
of the grant applications which are
being
prepared
to send of. Our
goal is to raise
$300,000 before
we break ground, but there is much to do both in fundraising and in legwork before we reach that point. If you
would like to learn more, you can go to www.bigskybiblecamp.org/expansionproject.
We are pleased to share that
the addition to our house is
oicially inished! We are so
thankful for the extra space and
are enjoying living it after all
the hard work! We are grateful
to all those who helped us with
this project and to those who came out and contributed their
hard work and time. We could never have inished it without the hard work of countless
volunteers. We continually
feel so blessed by the support
of our friends and family from
all over the country!
Family News (Lisa)
With the arrival of fall and the beginning of a new school year, our family has much
to be thankful for as we reminiscence over yet another summer of friends, ministry,
long hours and time spent together as family. Life for our girls is always illed with
activity during the summer months as well, and some of their memories include:
Lots of smiles over their homemade
Mexican pinata!
Joella: “I like playing with the counselors, going camping, and I liked that Ryan and
Amanda [our new staf couple] moved here. I also liked going to camp and making
new friends and playing with the kids that came to help work on our house.”
Aleyah: “I liked going swimming in the lake and going camping. I liked going down
the slip-in-slide at camp and playing games in the big ield. I liked being a camper at camp and
going to chapel and singing songs. I liked doing bible drills and learning about Paul, especially
when people dressed up like him and did skits.”
Dinah: “I liked swimming in the lake at day camp and doing crafts at day camp and singing songs
at chapel. I liked when Emma and Blaine [friends from PA that came and helped work on our
house] came over.”
Eva: “I like going tubing at camp and swimming in the lake and watching the kids come to camp.
I like piggy backs with Isaac [one of our summer staf members] and playing with counselors at
the playground.”
Hannah: I liked being as close to mommy as possible with all the people around!
Displaying our “balloon”
solar system
One immense blessing this summer was the addition of a school room in our house, made possible through our new addition. As the school year progresses, we have thoroughly enjoyed having
desks, bookshelves, whiteboards, maps and room to “spread out” all of our school supplies! We have enjoyed
the opportunity to study some subjects together with grade appropriate work, and the girls favorite areas
include Exploring Creation through Astronomy, music classes together and learning about Mexico and how
to speak (very limited!) Spanish. We have lots of fun together in our schoolroom, and I continue to thank
God for the opportunity to teach our children at home and witness them growing in their knowledge of
God, His Word and the world He created. Home schooling continues to be one of the biggest blessings of
Hannah and her motherhood thus far!
new kitty
I have also truly appreciated the addition of Ryan and Amanda Nice on staf here at camp, and Amanda
has been a tremendous blessing to me both as a friend and in relieving me of sometimes overwhelming camp kitchen responsibilities. She has deinitely been an answer to my prayers! I really enjoyed having more time this summer for our girls and being
able to do things together with them that time has not allowed for in previous summers. As they continue to grow and change
I feel a deepening commitment and responsibility to them as my irst priority, and it has been a blessing to be able to lay aside
some of the extra duties at camp and focus more on the primary job God has given me as a mother!
Continued from front...
Mary irst came to camp as a third grader. hat was her irst exposure to anything biblical as she had not
even heard of Adam and Eve. Mary placed her faith in Christ several years ago at camp, and is excited to
come back every year and grow. his is her only exposure to anything spiritual and every year it is
evident that she is growing in her faith.
Jamy, Lisa, Joella, Aleyah, Dinah, Eva and Hannah Landis serving with BCM Int’l at Big Sky Bible Camp
501 McCafery Rd * Bigfork * MT * 59911 * [email protected]