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ANOTHER YEAR IS OVER ~ Wow,
can you believe that another year has gone by so quickly and that we are now
in the fast-paced season commonly referred to as ‘the
holidays’? At Lake
Yale Baptist Conference
Center we’re all decked out
in our Christmas décor and ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord with
great anticipation and excitement. As
the season unfolds and we get closer to the actual day of our observance, the
entire staff of LYBCC extends our most heartfelt wishes for a wonderful
celebration to each and every one of you who have been so faithful in your
support of our ministry. We value your
steadfastness of keeping Lake Yale
in your prayers and for your genuine commitment, along with us, to help us
‘keep on keeping on’. As
we look back on 2004, we remember numerous events that were held on our
campus; and as we recall those events, we think of the people who were
responsible for bringing their groups to Lake
Yale and to making their special
time here a keepsake to remember in the years ahead. To each one of you, we say a sincere thank
you and look ahead to 2005 with a vision of Lake
Yale being even more than it has
been this year. We truly wish our
extended Lake Yale
family and friends a most blessed Christmas celebration and pray that your
cup will overflow in the New Year with even more treasured memories for you
and your loved ones.
WHEN WAS YOUR LAST VISIT TO OUR
CAMPUS? ~ If it was before
the Thanksgiving holiday, then you didn’t see the changes that are
going on in the Maguire Educational
Center. Volunteers have been hard at work with our
own staff on the North Wing classrooms. This is the last area of Maguire
needing renovation and they are doing a tremendous job. The new electrical fixtures are in place,
the portable partitions have been removed, the drywall material and textures
have been applied, and the walls and ceilings are being painted. The next time you’re here, take a
minute to stop by and check out the improvements in these rooms. We’re sure you will not only be
pleased with the visible changes, but also with the ‘little
things’ that have been done to provide all our guests with more
convenient and comfortable accommodations at Lake Yale. So, after you’ve given it your undivided
inspection, let us know what you think ~ and keep looking ahead to what area
of our campus may be next on our list of improvements.
HURRICANE RECOVERY UPDATE ~ We have had many inquiries
from concerned guests concerning what, if any, damage Lake
Yale Baptist Conference
Center incurred from the
hurricanes of 2004. In response, we
were not hit as hard as some in our area were, but we did sustain a lot of
damage overall. If you’ve been
on our campus since the storms, you already know that we lost most of the
huge old oaks that shaded our main offices in the Administration
Building. They have since been replaced with a
beautiful new concrete sidewalk and flower bed to adorn our main entrance
door. In all, we actually lost
approximately one hundred trees on the main areas of our campus, and many more
were lost throughout the wooded areas of the property. We found ourselves enveloped in a cobweb of
electrical, telephone, and cable wires after Hurricane Frances.
We had reached a point of repair where we could almost see ‘the light
at the end of the tunnel’ when Hurricane Jeanne paid us a visit and
entangled everything again. Some of
our staff stayed in boarded up hotel rooms with their families during the
storms, only to emerge from their darkened abodes to find the devastation of
such fierce wind and rain that only a hurricane could leave in its path. Upon closer examination of the Lake
Yale property, it was found that
probably the most severe structural damage was that to the brick house that
sets at the front entrance to our grounds where our Director of Operations
(Lance Graham) lives with his family.
A tree had fallen on the north end of this building, not only leaving
a gaping hole in the roof, but also allowing a tremendous amount of water to
rain into the interior causing extensive interior damage as well. Praise God that Lance and his loved ones
were safely nestled in one of the hotel rooms at this time and that no one
was physically hurt. Other less
serious structural losses were suffered as well, but we had nothing that was
not repairable and no one was hurt in the process. God was very gracious to us in His watch
care over Lake Yale
at this time. We did not actually lose
even one building and we only experienced a few actual days when we could not
remain open during the entire process.
We have made all necessary repairs to this point and anyone who was
not here at the time would probably not even realize we had ever suffered
from any of the storms at all. Our
entire staff, as well as dozens of volunteers from all over the country,
worked countless hours to get us back to where we are today ~ and for this we
are without words to express our thanks and gratitude to each one who came to
our aid. We heard so many stories of
areas and people who were certainly hit harder than our campus was ~ even of
some people who left their storm-torn homes to come help us at Lake Yale ~
and this, we know, is not only heartfelt to us who live and work here, but
more importantly to our God who oversees every aspect of our ministry. To you who were here in our time of need,
we realize that to say ‘Thanks’ does not even begin to cover our
gratitude. We are more appreciative of
your sacrifices on our behalf than we can ever tell you, as we realize that
without your help, we would not be as fit as we are today. May you be richly blessed for your
commitment and willingness to come when needed – even to your own
sacrifices in your own communities and homes.
You are very special to us and we will not soon forget your concern;
but, more importantly, our Lord will NEVER forget what you did to further our
ministry in His name. THANK YOU.
From all of our staff and volunteers, we wish all of you a
very merry Christmas! We look forward to seeing you again at lake Yale in
2005!
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(Approved by Steve
Baumgardner)
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