Our History
In late 1981 God led my wife, Ermeda, and our two sons, Justin and Sloan, and I to donate our land, home, barns, cattle, horses, and equipment to establish Lighthouse Christian Camp, Inc. The camp is a non-profit, 501C3, corporation ruled by a board of directors and a faith ministry dependent primarily upon donations from individuals who have a heart for fatherless, helpless, abused and neglected children.
In those early days, God had not revealed His complete vision and plan for the ministry. In 1982, the camp began very primitively with our converting two barns into sleeping cabins, setting out tables under the trees and food brought out of the house and served. Restrooms consisted of two outhouses that I had constructed of rough sawed timber obtained from the property. Our activities consisted of horseback riding, field games, hiking, boating, and swimming on the shore of Center Hill Lake. We had two chapels each day and the Gospel was preached. The campers where church kids.
In 1983, as the summer camp season was underway, with a full complement of approximately 50 church campers each week, God spoke to my heart about the children that would never have the opportunity to attend camp because parents could not afford the cost or they wouldn’t send them because they just didn’t care and would not spend the money.
God put this question in my mind “What about those children that would never otherwise have the opportunity to attend camp and participate in all the great activities and hear the gospel preached unless we brought them free of charge?” Over and over in my mind God kept pressing me with questions, “What are you doing about all those children that nobody cares about, the forgotten, fatherless, the abused and neglected?”
Following God’s command, I organized a camp at the end of the summer in 1983 the needy children. With the help of volunteers, I walked the streets in low income housing areas in Nashville and offered parents and guardians the opportunity to send their children to camp free of charge.
We brought over 50 disadvantaged, abused, and neglected children to that first camp in 1983 and God did His supernatural work as He brought conviction and there was a heart cry in camp for forgiveness of sin. Children and teens found hope, purpose and direction for their lives. Bitterness, anger, and hopelessness were changed to peace and joy as they gained a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. When they got on the bus to go back to Nashville, they were weeping and begging us to let them stay at camp. When the bus pulled out at the end of summer in 1983, God said “You know now why I have called you to start this camp. You will fill this camp in 1984 with needy children not only from Nashville area but from throughout middle Tennessee and the Upper Cumberland area.”
Following God’s command, as I prayed, He led me to organize free camps for needy children in the middle Tennessee counties and in the summer of 1984 hundreds of children attended the camp to come to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Now, thousands and thousands of disadvantage children have had the opportunity to attend camp through the years. In 2002, the camp expanded to include a second camp, also on the property, now increasing the weekly number of children to 120.
In 2006 God established the Sing for Joy Widows Home. In 2008, the Lighthouse Boy’s and Girl’s Ranch was established for children needing a stable, loving family home.