Counting Our Blessings
There’s an old hymn that goes: “Count your blessings, name them one by one; Count your many blessings, see what God has done!” As we come to the end of 2024, Echo Ranch is counting our blessings, not only from this year, but also reflecting on decades of blessings, tracing back to our founding in 1964 – sixty years of God working in and through His people at camp! For some, Echo Ranch Bible Camp is the place where they heard about the offer of salvation that is found in Jesus Christ for the very first time. That message took root, and faith was established as the Word penetrated their heart. For others who came to camp with the seeds of faith already planted, that faith was watered and nurtured at Echo Ranch by God’s people. The body of Christ saw increase year after year as the miracle of new birth happened time after time through the preaching of the Gospel by our counselors, speakers, and staff.
For another group of people over the last six decades, the blessings came as they walked by faith and responded to an opportunity to go and serve in a faraway place. They discovered the joy of obedience, and many left families, friends, and finances to come serve the Lord in Alaska. They discovered a passion for watching God at work as they served on our team, and they realized that not only were they a part of evangelizing a culture who desperately needed hope, but that they, too, were being changed and molded into the image of God as they served! Some of these folks went home from camp ready to serve and share in a new way with their neighbors. Some didn’t go home, but instead realized a call on their life to the mission field, and they entered into a dedicated life of serving God in a missionary context!
And just as often, the blessings have come in witnessing radical transformation in those who serve – both here at Echo Ranch, and far beyond. What a testament to God’s faithful leading to see a college-age young person who obeys the call to go serve in a completely foreign context – scared to death of what they have committed to, but going. Meanwhile, many people who have never even set foot in Alaska have gotten the blessing of encouraging and being encouraged by a missionary from our team who has come and shared about what God is doing at Echo Ranch. Many of you have experienced the blessing of partnering with one of our staff to make God’s calling to ministry a reality in their life, and then they get the blessing of seeing and sharing how God provides for their needs. Then there’s the blessing of our work teams, each made up of a mix of talents and life callings, but joining together to serve on the field in southeast Alaska as the hands and feet of Jesus. The volunteers on these teams fly up to Juneau to serve alongside us, but so often by the time they’re packing up to return home, they say that feel like they are bringing more home in what they experienced at camp than what they gave!
Where God is present, there are blessings! All the blessings that God has poured out over the years at Echo Ranch would fill books. As we pause at the end of this year to count all these blessings, we include you as one of them! Whatever your role has been in God’s work at Echo Ranch Bible Camp, big or small, we thank you for being a blessing to us. As you pray, partner and serve with all of us here at Echo Ranch, and as we all serve together in the greater context of the body of Christ, we know we will continue to see God’s blessings poured out on us.