I believe the first time I went to camp was in 1968. My family was part of the congregation of Harmony OPC in Harmony, New Jersey, where French Creek cofounder Lewis Grotenhuis pastored and my father, Peter, was a ruling elder. I was going into fourth grade, and my mother, Flora, counseled that week. I remember OPC pastor John Mitchell preaching one Sunday afternoon from John 15 at a very challenging time in my life, and that day was very memorable for me in the working of the Holy Spirit in my own life.

Maybe one of the most memorable years was 1976, when Margie Schnitzel, along with some of her family from Calvary OPC, Glenside, Pennsylvania, came to visit on a Sunday afternoon. A year and a half later we were married.

I volunteered in many areas of the ministry and was a director for eleven years before getting cancer. One of my greatest mentors was Marian Stevenson, wife of Boardwalk Chapel director Jon Stevenson, who was camp nurse during the week that I directed. There were four units in the camp and each unit held twenty-eight campers. After lights out, Marian and I would walk through camp, and stop at each unit to pray.

One of the fun things that took place after lights were out and campers went to their cabins was the dictionary game played around the table in the kitchen with head cook Grace Mullen, kitchen helpers Dick and Jean Gaffin, Betty and Doug Watson, and other pastors and staff. Someone would pick a word out of the dictionary, and that person would ask everybody sitting at the table if they knew the word. If no one knew it, then that was the word that everyone had to come up with a definition for. The person who picked the word wrote the correct definition. Once they were all compiled, we would go around the room and guess.

My son, Seth, and his wife, Amy, met at French Creek. Together, they have returned many years to serve at French Creek, Seth as a director and Amy in charge of the activities. Their children Josh and Emma have served as campers, counselors, and kitchen staff; Amelia and Moriah have come as campers; and Jonah and Luca are campers-in-waiting.

I have served as the president of the French Creek Bible Conference Board for around ten years, and it’s been an honor. God has used this ministry as a taste of glory.

The author is president of the board of the French Creek Bible Conference and an elder at Trinity OPC in Easton, Pennsylvania. New Horizons, May 2025.