A group of older Girls in Action (GAs) lounged around the cabin. The girls had worked all day on a missions project in upstate New York, and now they gathered for a devotional. The leader asked each girl to share when she accepted Jesus Christ as personal Savior.
“It was at Bambi,” recalled the first to speak. “I was 10 years old and was attending GA camp.”
Bambi is Bambi Lake Baptist Retreat & Conference Center near Roscommon, Mich., owned and operated by the Baptist State Convention of Michigan.
To the surprise of all, every girl in the room had been saved during a camp or retreat at Bambi Lake. Then the girls asked their leader when she was saved.
“It was at Bambi and it was during a GA camp,” she said.
That story, told in May 2009 during the 50th anniversary celebration of the Baptist camp, illustrated the value of the retreat and conference center for most of the nearly 250 guests attending the celebration.
To attend a Baptist camp is to step out of time to a place where God speaks today as He spoke to past generations and as He will speak to future generations. At these camps, life-changing decisions are made — decisions that save souls and lead some into Christian service.
As anniversary celebrants enjoyed hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon and other traditional holiday foods, they found time to share stories about the site most called “holy ground.”
Some remembered the difficulty in getting the 20-acre, spring-fed lake renamed from its original Sinkhole Lake to Bambi Lake.
Others told of building the first cabins, of attending the first Royal Ambassador retreat, of decisions made during special services. One related how he had been to the retreat and conference center more than 300 times during its 50 years of ministry.
When Baptists purchased the 240 acres from a local hunting club, only three buildings stood on the property. The main cabin was used for a manager’s home. A second cabin and nearby building were converted into the first dining hall. Before the first events could be held in 1959, volunteer construction teams from Michigan Baptist churches had to build a dormitory and bath facilities.
Today Bambi Lake can house about 270 guests in motel-style rooms located in the Hubbs Lodge or in cabins or dormitory-style facilities. The dining hall seats up to 300, the same capacity as the chapel.
In addition, the retreat and conference center offers a campground complete with hookups and a bathhouse.
Also available are a concrete-floor gym that is flooded in the winter for ice skating and a large pavilion and amphitheater together with a complete waterfront of boating and swimming activities.
The center operates year-round, offering a complete program of summer camps, retreats, facilities for church use and a variety of Christian sportsman activities. Hunting and fishing are popular in the area. So are snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and ice fishing.
As in the beginning, Bambi Lake still relies on volunteer labor to help care for the facilities and expand its recreational offerings. Manager Cary Shinn said volunteers are needed in every area from food service to general handyman work. Some volunteers bring their campers and stay at the campground, Shinn said. He especially appealed to Alabama Baptists who are willing to share their skills and labor in a beautiful outdoors-oriented area. A video directed to Alabama Baptists has been placed on the camp Web site at http://bambilake.org under Ministry Opportunities.
The daylong celebration ended as night fell with participants gathered around a bonfire roasting marshmallows. But the ministry of Bambi Lake will live on in the lives that are changed by the Holy Spirit during time spent on the “holy ground” of Michigan Southern Baptists.
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