The Camp Luther Log

Every summer approximately 60 high school youth give two weeks of their summer in service at Camp Luther. They assist our counselors and act as "big brothers and sisters" to our campers, making sure they are safe and have a great time. Their duties also include behind-the-scenes tasks like keeping camp clean for all our visitors. The time they spend here and service they provide is priceless, but if we were to put some numbers to it, here's a glimpse of the summer. 150 times cleaning the Dining Hall in a summer  93 Junior Counselor applicants 62 high school Junior Counselors who volunteered at Camp Luther this summer 34 female JCs 28 male JCs 24 fires built for weekend programming cookouts 15 cottages cleaned every Saturday 10 weeks of summer camp 5 sessions of JCs 4 trips to Lick-A-Dee Splitz after cottage cleaning 2 weeks volunteered at a time 1 incredible summer! Thank you, Junior Counselors, for your servant heart...

Over 1,600 children and youth will attend Camp Luther this summer. Many of these will be coming for the first time. Over 200 of these first-timers will experience the Christ-centered community, build positive relationships with their counselors and fellow campers, and grow in their faith because of the Every Kid to Camp program.  Every Kid to Camp allows kids who have never experienced a Camp Luther summer program to come to camp at no expense to their parents. Generous supporters who know that camp changes lives make this possible, and we are so grateful! When you give to the Every Kid to Camp program, you are helping kids have new experiences, learn life skills, get unplugged, make lasting friendships, and most of all learn about Jesus and His incredible love for us.  We love opening the mail and seeing thank you notes from Every Kids to Camp recipients! Although they are addressed to Camp Luther, they are really thanking everyone who supports Camp and the Every Kid...

Heavy rains poured on the day before Camp Luther’s 13th Annual Golf Challenge in Rhinelander, delaying the start time for one hour to allow the Northwoods Golf Course to dry out.  With an extra hour of rest golfers came ready to play on a beautiful 70° sunny day! With 15 teams competing for multiple awards in the Competitor and Hackers Division it was game on! For the first time in many years the Volm Team edged out the Strasser Team by one stroke in the Competitor Division. Tim Strasser made up for the loss by winning the Longest Putt on #7. MCL Team 3 took the honors in the Hackers Division by four strokes. Meanwhile, members from MCL and BayTek Teams dominated the Hacker Awards with Terry Hansteadt winning the Most Balls in the Water Honor and Todd Louthain and Carl Treankler tying for Most Lost Balls, with Jane Hunter breaking up the monopoly by winning the Least Used Tee Shot. John Zimdars showed everyone how to hole-in-one the Closest Chip Shot, while Nate Reichle brought i...

This summer, our 45 member Summer Staff joins the legacy of 71 years of Camp Luther summer staffs! These young adults have come to camp to be caring, Christian role models in a number of different capacities. Some are sharing the love of Christ by serving as counselors, others as coordinators for programs such as IMPACT and Junior Counselors. Still others are serving as specialty staff in the maintenance and kitchen departments. Each person, each personality, each skill set has been specifically selected by God himself to be here at Camp Luther this summer, and we couldn’t be more excited! After two weeks of staff training, we can proudly say that we have one of the best trained groups of young adults to serve families, care for children, keep camp safe and maintained, and make sure everyone is fed! During their time of orientation, our staff grew together in their faith, gained countless practical skills, and bonded to form the strong team that is out across camp right now, servi...

Summer is just around the corner, and here are 10 signs to prove it! 1.    The Waterfront is in!  Thank you to the hard working volunteers who helped! Quik, Java,  Skipper,  Snack-Shack, Djembe, and Paul braved the cold and rain, and we are so grateful.  Follow Camp Luther on Instagram 2.     Summer Staff have arrived!  Our Program Coordinators move in today and Counselors and Support Staff join us next Tuesday. Meyer, Surge, and Band-Aid are ready for summer! 3.  The cottages are open! During winter, some of our cottages are closed to save on energy costs. Workbee volunteers in April and May made sure they are open and ready to be lived in! 4.    The fish are biting. Our Men’s Fishing and Golf Retreat was last week, and all who attended had a great time. 5.  Canteen is full of snacks, ice cream, drinks, and new merchandise! 6.    Baby geese have been spotted having lunch at...

Submitted by Jim & Kathy Wiebel  “Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old.” (Mary H. Waldrip) “Surely, two of the most satisfying experiences in life must be those of being a grandchild or a grandparent.” (Donald A. Norberg) These quotations certainly summarize well some of our own feelings about the joys of being grandparents. To be blessed, first, with two wonderful sons and their lovely wives, and now to have been gifted by them with six beautiful grandchildren in the past 11 years has made our hearts and our lives full, indeed! Not only that, but to have received a call to serve as one of the pastors at Faith Lutheran Church, Appleton, at precisely the same time as our first grandchild was born (bringing us back to Wisconsin from Florida) has been one of God’s great blessings in our lives. Living only 30 miles from each family (who reside in Green Bay & Oshkosh) has allowed us to share in their lives from infancy on by providing childca...

For we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.  (Hebrews 6:19) Water is unpredictable. This is a truth you learn very quickly working at camp. I remember taking a group out onto Rangeline Lake for a fun afternoon of canoeing during my first summer as a counselor. And it was fun—until it was time to head back in and I realized that the wind had picked up. It was blowing us away from the safety of the channel where we had launched our canoes and out across the open lake. I, an experienced college student, struggled to even get my canoe turned around against the force of the wind. I looked behind me to see my campers’ boats scattered across the lake. All I could think was that staff training did not prepare me for this! as I watched the canoes get tossed around by the wind. In the end, I had to paddle up to each boat individually and help tow them to the nearest shoreline. Once everyone was finally safely on shore, we walked back to main camp leaving a sca...