'Cool to see the growth here'

Lutherhaven Ministries celebrated 70 years Sunday afternoon with prayer, song and so many fun activities.

Families from all over came to the gathering to celebrate the place they hold so closely to their hearts. Little kids ran around playing with bubbles and face paint, teenage camp counselors led games and activities, parents sang along to live music and many more people appreciated the growth of Lutherhaven since they had been there.

Bob Newcomb, the executive director of Lutherhaven from 1972 to 1980, spoke about how the place has changed. While he was in charge, the camp became a year-round operation, more buildings were put in and there were more activities for campers.

“We are here to share with families and individuals what it means to live and be a Christian,” Newcomb said to the crowd of over 700 people that came to celebrate. “Thank you all for being part of this ministry and this camp. I am just thrilled to see all the progress you have made. Thank you.”

Looking down on the crowd from the balcony of one of the dorm buildings were a group of women who had been camp counselors in the 1970s and had now returned. Mary Carlson worked for two summers and created life-long friendships at Lutherhaven. One of her memories of camp was when she helped paint “Lutherhaven” on one of the camp trucks.

“But that’s long gone now,” she said.

Sitting next to her was Colleen Lura, who lives in Washington now. From 1973 to 1978 she was the assistant program director for the leadership program and sometimes filled in as a nurse.

“I grew up in a Christian household so my faith is so deep, but being here just expanded and opened me up and helped me explore my faith,” she said. “Cool to see the growth here, but I came back for the connection to some of the staff just knowing it would be a joyful reunion.”

After the celebratory mass and live performances from the local Coeur d’Alene band, The Powers, everyone was treated to lunch and could go enjoy camp activities.

Kids rushed to the climbing wall and ropes course while their parents and grandparents wandered the property, looking at the newer buildings and growth of their beloved camp.

Janell Wigen, who lives in Pennsylvania now, was a camp counselor at Lutherhaven for three years in the 1970s. Sunday was her first time back at the camp since then.

She said she was amazed at how much the camp has grown.

“It didn’t look this nice back then, everything’s been upgraded,” she said. “I’m actually amazed at how good it looks.”

Her camp experiences, she said, are what led her to become a lutheran pastor.

“I was pretty insecure at that time of my life and Bob Newcomb, the executive director at the time, saw in me what I couldn’t see in myself,” she said. “So he was a very pivotal person. He helped me to see my potential and gave me direction.”

Lutherhaven was created in 1946 when the Lutheran churches of the Inland Northwest purchased 16 acres of land overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene as a summer camp for servicemen returning from World War II and for Lutheran families from the Spokane area. Its first summer hosted 650 campers.

Now, the camp sits on 60 acres of land and serves more than 12,000 campers each year from every denomination. The camp also bought the former Shoshone Work Center up the Coeur d’Alene River in 2009. The 35-acre Shoshone camp is home to the ministry’s Idaho Servant Adventures and Shoshone Creek Ranch.

Bob Baker, the current executive director of Lutherhaven, is in his 23rd year of leading the camp.

“Ultimately I want more kids to have a relationship with God, that’s what camp is all about, telling kids about Jesus,” he said. “So that’s the legacy, it’s generations of people coming together to tell each other about God.”