Seeds Planted in Alaska
(This is a guest story written by a 2021 ERBC summer volunteer, Cameron.)
In the summer of 2021, I had the privilege of serving on a mission trip to Echo Ranch Bible Camp. I was just 18 years old at the time – eager to serve, grow in my faith, and step out of my comfort zone. It was a transformative experience for me, but I had no idea that what started as one summer of service at camp would echo far beyond my time there – quite literally.
Later that same year, back home in Missouri, I met a man and ended up starting a men’s Bible study group with him. Over the years, as we grew closer over Scripture and fellowship, we started swapping stories about our lives and our journeys in growing in our faiths. One day, he shared about a place in Alaska that had changed everything for him, a place where he truly encountered Jesus for the first time. It was even the place that led him to pursue the woman who would later become his wife. The place in question? Echo Ranch Bible Camp.
I was floored. Of all the possible corners of the world, we two Missouri guys had both been fundamentally shaped by the same little patch of land with a cluster of cabins tucked into the forests north of Juneau, Alaska... and just a handful of years apart. The odds are infinitesimal, but for God. This crazy “coincidence” reminded me not just of how small the world is, but more importantly, how big God is.
Since then, this man in my Bible study group isn’t the only one I’ve met who has been deeply impacted by Echo Ranch. I’ve met at least two other people in recent years, thousands of miles away from Alaska, who have different stories but with the same thread: Jesus met them in a life-altering way at Echo Ranch Bible Camp. Whether it happens through serving, teaching, being a camper, or just sharing stories around the fire pit, Echo Ranch seems to have a pattern of planting seeds in its visitors’ hearts that grow long after we leave.
And that’s something truly beautiful about a ministry like Echo Ranch: it plants seeds, not always knowing when or where they’ll bloom. Sometimes, the fruit of that labor goes completely unseen. But I’ve gotten to witness some of the fruit. I’ve been blessed to see how God took seeds that were planted years ago at Echo Ranch and brought them to life, drawing people into deeper faith, into Christ-centered marriages, and into godly community. It reminds me of the quiet, patient power of God’s timing. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Every person has a story that, like so many threads, are woven by God Most High into a tapestry that reveals His perfect design. It will be a wonder to see one day in eternity, as we gaze in awe at the masterpiece of God’s redemptive plan that unfolded across humanity, just how many of those stories had their origin or their turning point at Echo Ranch Bible Camp.