"A Wintry Fairy Land"

from Sleigh Ride

..

No doubt the writer of the song Sleigh Ride (Leroy Anderson) was looking at landscapes similar to these here in Dickson. These pics are from between January 16th to 18th. It was beautiful!

When I wake up each day, I am so thankful for the beauty of God's creation on display. Part of our Mission Statement is for CGC to be a "beautiful" place of refuge. God did a great job with the decorations!

JOHNSON LODGE

From west side of campus looking over Garner Creek at the playground (far right) to the new Maplewood Cabin (far left)

Garner Creek looking up stream from the bridge

MITCHELL TABERNACLE

We Have

Open Dates in 2024

Let's have a retreat?

If you are interested in beginning a retreat ministry at your church, the staff at CGC will help you get it started.

If you've ever led a group or class, you have a feel for what can be accomplished as the people faithfully participate each week. If they do participate each week. What's more realistic is some come each week and some come once a month! It's difficult to move a group along the same timeline if not everyone attends all the time.

Retreats uniquely leverage time spent together focusing on God and spiritual growth. From a Friday night to a Sunday morning, your entire group will participate together. As a leader, you can bring everyone along through the common experiences.

As weekly church attendance falters, retreats are a great way to nurture cohesiveness in your group.

Check out the dates below. Would any of these work for your group?

February 23-25

April 12-14

April 22-24

August 16-19

September 6-8

September 20-22

November 8-10

December 6-8

December 13-15 

Do You Know Bob?

Camp Garner Creek has a Chaplain. His name is Bob McKenzie. Before Bob became chaplain, he would stop staff people when he was on campus and say something like, "I prayed for you by name today!"

What better person could CGC have than Bob?

Would you like to be part of a group that receives a monthly email about the opportunities and needs at CGC? It's easy.

Sign up for Prayer Email

Things We Are Praying

Our Father in Heaven, we never tire of making our requests known to you. Help us to approach you boldly as heirs and not in fear as strangers. Regardless of the words that pass through my lips, Your will be done always.

• December and January are the leanest months at CGC. Pray that God will lay it on receptive hearts to share a special offering over these months to help with operations.
• Gary Rhodes continues to improve from the snake bite he experienced in the Fall. Pray for his continued healing.
• The Small Business Administration has approached CGC again about the possibility of us receiving funds to help with our flood relocations. Pray they will shoot straight with us and give us no false hope.
• Continue to pray for the family of Talmadge Johnson in the wake of his abrupt passing in December.
• Pray for the staff of CGC. We have 7 full time employees and another couple dozen part time employees. Working in a ministry has unique challenges. Please pray that Satan will not distract them from keeping their eyes on God in their daily work.
• Fall retreats continue once we are past the Christmas season. Thank God for the wonderful groups who include CGC as part of their discipleship ministries. It is also through these groups God provides for our financial needs.

   by Finley Knowles, Executive Director

Have you ever had a blind spot? You know, one of those things that is staring you in the face, yet you don't see it? I've read that one of the best ways to help you see your blind spots is to do something new. The idea is if we repeat the same routines, the mind is less prone to see new things. Do something new, and the mind is scanning every angle figuring out how to catalog it.

I found a blind spot this week. Oh, this is embarrassing. For so long now I've been asking God to supply the funds for the many needs of CGC. We only have two sources of income. We either host more and larger groups, or people make donations. I was at least attuned enough to know that without God, there was no way to accomplish all the necessary things on my list for our beloved campground.

But I was so consumed with what I wanted...what I thought was needed, that I was only giving God lip service when more groups came to CGC (read: more income) or we had donations that gave us fiscal breathing room. Of course I was thanking God along the way, but my thanks were on the surface...perfunctory...whereas my worry was core. No matter how much money we received, I was still focused on what we yet needed.

The new thing I did that allowed me to recognize my blind spot was give a campus tour to a friend who is also an Executive Director at a Christian campground. I had been to his campground, and I thought they had an enviable set up.

But as I was showing him around we made stops at the Tabernacle, the new Maplewood, the new Springfield renovation (formerly Redbud), the zipline, swimming pool... all the things, and God made me aware of all He has done while I was worrying!

Well, of course, I scolded myself. "What kind of leader are you?" But quickly I became overwhelmed with all the ways God had provided. God showed me a parade of how He supplied since our first flood in 2019.

Camp Garner Creek is overflowing with blessings.

Bullet Points from 2023

• Served 9,529 people in calendar year 2023
• Hosted 71 groups over 33 weeks
• Welcomed 2,616 students for Summer Camps
• 133 people interceding for God's work at CGC via the Prayer eMAIL.
• Began construction of new Maplewood Cabin thanks to the generosity of Erin Church of the Nazarene
• Began renovation of new Springfield Cabin (formerly Redbud) thanks to the generosity of the Springfield Church of the Nazarene
• Began flood restoration of the Youth Chapel thanks to a gift from Family Camp!
• Completed 5 remodeled rooms in Johnson Lodge thanks to 5 individual $5K donations
• Due to a storm, insurance paid us to totally reroof Johnson Lodge and Springfield (formerly Redbud), and we also partially replaced the roof over the swimming pool. No one wishes to have storm damage, but when it happens, we are thankful for the long-term facility stewardship that took place.

     GOD provides for His purposes in

             a variety of ways.

                    It is IMPOSSIBLE to

          pin GOD down and say,                                "This is how it's done."

• Set up your TBAM giving account to automatically pay each month or annually. www.tenbucksamonthclub.com
• Paper checks still work, and billpay with your bank is a great choice too.

TBAM donors are making a big difference!

BULLET POINTS

NEWSLETTER ALERT

Would you like to receive an e-mail notification when our newsletter issues?

Click HERE to register for the newsletter alert.

Ways to Support CGC Financially