New Land

December 16^th, 2010 was an epic day as God allowed us to add 109 acres that surrounds the camp to the North and East. The camp had been praying for this opportunity for over 40 years.

The images at the left show our current 40 acres in yellow and the new 109 acres in orange.

Camp Ray Bird has been using the original 40 acres since 1919 to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and give lower income kids a chance to go to camp. Our building, activities, and camper housing were within feet of the current property line. The new land is about half old growth forest and half re-planted farmland. It has a great mixture of pine forest, hardwood forest, hills, flat areas, and a couple swampy areas. This land will allow us to have some rustic camping, nature hiking/biking, new activities areas, and have a buffer to any neighbors.

In order to close we borrowed $57,600 from a fund that the board had designated for lodge renovations and we have a mortgage for $200,000. We have been given a $100,000 matching gift if we can raise $100,000. This would eliminate the mortgage and allow us to keep all the trees on the property. (All of the timber was appraised at just over $200,000 and thus could in theory be sold to pay off the load. We sure hope that won't be necessary.)

If you would like to make a donation to repay the lodge fund or pay off the mortgage and save these very special trees, you can send a check payable to Ray Bird Ministries to:

Or you can donate on line

Below are some pictures of the new property: