Inner City Camp

A couple weeks ago a group students from the inner cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Compton arrived at Quaker Meadow Camp. This was my first experience with Inner City Camp, even though Inner City Camp has had a rich history at Quaker Meadow Camp.

For over forty years youth and adults from these cities have been given the opportunity to experience camp. Many of these young people live in poverty, there is no way that the families of these young people could afford the camp fees. Thankfully through the support of many generous people these young people are able to come to camp. These sponsors know there is a benefit to coming to camp and experiencing God in a safe place. This is a true mission field.

Just in the past year, many of these campers have had friends and family members shot, many of these victims have died. One young man’s mother was shot and killed the month prior to coming to camp. As he shared the story I couldn’t help but hurt for him. What would I do in a similar situation? This young man was willing to forgive.

Many of the campers do not have a father living in their home and some do not even know their father. Many of the young women in attendance have also sexually molested. Some of these high school aged young women have children but the father is out of the picture. They do not know what a healthy relationship looks like. Imagine explaining to this group that they have a father in heaven who loves them.

These campers get off the buses, many not wanting to be there. A friendly greeting is returned with a stare down. Most of these campers were forced to come to camp. But after a week seeing the Gospel lived out these campers do not want to leave. Most are looking forward to returning next year. Addresses, emails and tears are shared with one another and the staff.

But most importantly hearts have been softened. Many students make the walk forward at the altar call but I am told few live it out when they return to the streets. But we pray that this week at camp, where these young people encountered Jesus and where they felt loved, will never be forgotten. And we pray that God will allow the seeds that were planted to grow to be strong and healthy lives for Jesus.

Do you know these guys?

This picture was taken in 1965 while on one of the many hikes to Maggie Lakes, see post below.

Do you know any of the young people in the picture?

Trail Trips

Starting in 1962 a number of leaders observed that some other church camps were working fruitfully with trial camp programs. It was felt that some of our older youth needed something new, different and challenging after perhaps many consecutive summers in our regular Quaker Meadow program. It seemed probable that the casual atmosphere would provide unique opportunities for the development of close relationships between youth people and older counselor-leaders and that these relationships might be used of God in stimulating spiritual maturity.

In August of 1962 a seven-man party of explorers embarked on a survey-hike to see what part of the country around camp looked best for a pack trip program. The "expedition" hiked from camp into Maggie Lakes, then to the headwaters of the Little Kern River, then to Coyote Lakes and back to camp. The total trip covered over 50 miles. The resulting decision was that that a pack trip should be organized the next year into Maggie Lakes, taking two days to hike in, staying four days, then using two days to hike out.

In August of 1963, Lawrence Gunner Payne led the first trip with 15 high school and college youth. 1n 1964 two such trips were organized and this was the case for numerous years. Sometimes burros ere used to carry in heavier food stuffs, but always young people carried 24-45 pound packs on their backs. the round trip is approximately 30 miles, with opportunities at Maggie Lakes for swimming, hiking, fishing, relaxing, etc. Quaker Meadow bought and furnished packsacks and supplies, food and cooking gear. Campers were asked to bring sleeping bags and personal effects.

From the booklet Quaker Meadow, 1939-1975

Art of the Prank

Every year we have students that think they can come up with the best pranks, but most of the time these pranks don't work. Every so often someone does an amazing prank that is worthy of enlisting it into the Prank Hall of Fame.

Now I am not a love of pranks, really I hate them! The best and the worst prank is always answered with another prank, the retaliation prank. These retaliation pranks are even worse than the original pranks. When the dust finally settles, there is always someone whose feelings have gotten hurt.

So I cautiously submit to you a post by Phil Williams who worked at QM as a groundsman and camp assistant manager from 1988-1993. I do not endorse any of the pranks listed and warn everyone reading this not to try these at home or at camp.

Jell-O water balloons:

Smart & Final ketchup & mustard used to come in 1-gallon pump containers. I kept the empty containers, rinsed them out, and filled them with water. This allowed the groundsmen to pump water into water balloons in remote locations where there was no faucet or hose. We then used a water balloon launcher to launch water balloons long-distance at kitchen gals that were on break, couples that were making out, etc. One day I made up a batch of Jell-O, poured the hot mixture into a ketchup pump, pumped the mixture into water balloons, and let them set on a high shelf in the walk-in fridge for a few hours where nobody would notice them. Later on we had Jell-O- filled water balloons to use in the launcher. Our laundress was not too happy, as Jell-O stains don't come out of clothes very easily.

Toilet gelatin:

Late at night while on bear patrol, I made a couple gallons of clear Knox gelatin and hauled the mixture (still warm, not set) to the camper bathrooms. I turned off the water supply, flushed, poured the gelatin mix into each bowl to fill up to the proper water level, then turned the water supply back on. It was cold enough that the gelatin set up overnight. I had enough to do this in the girls bathroom, but not the boys. The next morning, things were a mess. At the time, we had to do bear patrol the night before our day off, so I was sleeping in and didn't have to do johnny run. Best of all was that since only the girls' bathrooms were full of gelatin, everyone assumed that the boy campers pulled the prank.

Squirting toilets:

We had a copy of "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" in the guy's bathroom in Lewis Lodge. The book had a little nugget of trivia that said that most people flush the toilet while still sitting on it. We wanted to test the theory. So while on johnny run, we took the toilet tank lid off of each toilet tank and unclipped the bowl fill hose from the top of the tank fill pipe. We propped the hose over the edge of the toilet tank, just to the side of the lid. Then we replaced the toilet tank lid. If somebody flushed the toilet while still sitting on it, the bowl fill hose would squirt them on the back, just below the shoulder. This is a great trick to try at your next family gathering (best if it's at somebody else's house).

Blue shower water:

One summer, McDonald's was giving out water conservation kits, and I picked up several for use at QM. Each kit had a low flow/high pressure shower head, a screw-on faucet aerator, a water displacement bag for toilet tanks, a pamphlet about water conservation, and a couple blue dye tablets to detect leakage in toilets (put the tablets into the tank, if you see blue in the bowl, the valve is leaking and wasting water). We put the new shower heads into the showers in Lewis Lodge and Ruby's to save water. One day we put the dye tablets into the shower heads on the girl's floor of Lewis Lodge. A couple of kitchen gals that took showers during the afternoon break came in for dinner duty a little bit blue.

Phil Williams

Former Quaker Meadow Staff

Groundsman & Assistant Manager 1988-1993

Camp Evaluations

At each camp we ask for an honest appraisal from the campers on how well Quaker Meadow met their spiritual and physical needs.

✔ We want to know how the food tastes; we never want to be known as serving “camp food.” We have pulled many menu items because the campers were overwhelmingly unhappy with a meal, oatmeal is history!

✔ We want to know about the cabins. One of our plans for 2009 is to get cabins 3 and 4 up to the standards that cabins 1 and 2 are currently.

✔ We want to know if our staff was helpful and courteous.

But the most important piece of information we pull from the evaluations is, “Did God use Quaker Meadow to bring you closer to Him?” The next couple posts will be some of the comments we received.


From Nazarene High School Camp:

I was able to get away and come to a Christian environment with a lot of great friends.

I just felt myself drawing closer to God more and more each day. I could feel His presence more than ever. Best of all I found peers that I could talk to, pray with and bond.

I felt like He was always in the same room with us. I loved worship. It was amazing.

He kind of spoke to me in a way and told me to chill for a bit. Like, He helped me calm down with bad things.

It helped me follow the path of righteousness.

The worship just made me give my full attention to God and it lifted everything off my shoulders. I felt wonderful.

He made me even more confused, for the better.

Being up here away from everything. Being real, sharing with our youth group as one without anything else going on around.

This was my first senior high camp with my youth group. It brought me much closer to the Lord and to them. What a great experience! Now I need some sleep!

I felt empty for so long and worthless. But God let me know that I am everything in His eyes and that He will always love me.

I had fallen so far away from Him and it was good to come back and get away.

The environment is really nice and you have serenity as well as bonding experiences. It is nice to get away and focus on God.

Camp always helps me to push my troubles away and give my full attention to God.

God taught me that He will always be there, even in the hardest times and He is always listening, you just have to be patient for His answer.

I feel that I have become closer to Him, which is great because for the longest time my mind been everywhere else. It feels great to be back in Christ Jesus.

I experienced family, love and laughter. I learned more about myself and learned how to be who I am, not what people want me to be.

I’ve been going through a lot recently and being up here God spoke to me and let me know I am not alone and I’m going to get through it.

The worship really got me closer to God. I felt really connected through it. Plus, being in the mountains and seeing all His creation is great.

The surrounding nature and peaceful atmosphere calmed my mind and I was able to concentrate on the now and on God.

I am learning to let go and move on.

I feel that He wants me to more active in my community and help with poverty in any little difference that I can.

I realized how selfish I really was and I need to do more to help others.

Before this week I had been doing stuff God wouldn’t have wanted me to do and through this my eyes were opened.

Camp is a great place to worship God, this camp and the staff is awesome!

I have just started going to church and this experience will change my life forever. I feel like a better person and want to do more to help.

I really felt a call to music and ministry through the band! Also, I renewed my relationship with Christ!

I learned to trust God with all my heart. I worry too much about everything. I just need to give my worries to Gog and have faith.

Felt a renewed passion in my life to serve Christ.

It’s an amazing place to get away from the chaos of everyday life and it gives you a chance to slow down and listen to God.

3 years ago God called me into ministry at this camp. Every day I spend in this place God draws me to Him. Being both a camper and a counselor for 3 years I really see God moving in the hearts of everyone who comes to this place.


Finally written on the back of one evaluation:

I started coming to church a month ago not knowing what God had in store for me. Church brought me closer to my family. I feel that God brought me to Quaker Meadow so I can change my life around. Now when I leave here I will not be doing the things that I was doing before I came to Quaker Meadow. I just wanted to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to come and realize that the life I was living was not a very good life. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Forgotten Names

Many memories are created when one goes to Quaker Meadow Camp. Unfortunately we sometimes forget the people that went into making camp what it is today.

In 1939 Blaine Bronner, pastor of Denair Friends, helped find the location of camp, then called Wheel Meadow. It was an ideal place and centrally located for the Northern Friends Churches and the Southern Friends Churches to gather together. The lake at camp is named Bronner Lake.

Cabin one was one of the first structures built at camp. The lumber for the original building came from trees that were felled at camp. The building was first used as a kitchen until the first dining hall was constructed. Cabin one is called Brown Lodge, named after Clayton Brown. Clayton Brown was pastor at the Friends Church in Los Angeles and instrumental in helping lay out camp.

Cabin 2 is named Lamb Lodge. Ernest Lamb was the superintendent of the Friends churches in California, then called California Yearly Meeting.

Cabin 4 is named Burt Lodge. Charles Burt was a pastor at North Holtville Friends and drove the supplies and campers into camp.


In 1975 a booklet was published retelling the early history of Quaker Meadow Camp (ask for a copy when you are at camp). It is good to look back at the men and women who struggled up the mountain in the 1940’s to build what we enjoy today. God used some incredible people with some incredible skills. Although their names may be forgotten, their impact lives on today.

Spiritual Impact

By Jennifer Prickett

Former Camper

Camp Counselor

Youth Leader

If you were to ask me some of the places where God became real to me when I was young, without a doubt I would point to Quaker Meadow Christian Camp. I vividly remember summers as both a student and a counselor when I spent hours in conversation wrestling with questions of how to love God, love others and follow Jesus. It’s the same questions all believers are forced to confront at some point in their lives, yet there is something about the combination of these conversations and Quaker Meadow Camp as things which made a lifelong impact on my spiritual journey. I know I am not alone in meeting with God at Quaker Meadow, and I’m unsure whether it’s the location, people or some other factor that makes this possible. But I do know that God works through this faithful vessel of Quaker Meadow and His Spirit is very much present and active in the life of this camp.

I can point to multiple instances when separating away from the normal pace of Southern California life helped me to discern God’s place for me in my journey. At different points throughout my life with Him that has taken different shape, be it ending an unhealthy dating relationship to actively pursuing full-time pastoral ministry as a career. If I review my journals and think back to different seasons throughout my preteen and teenage years, God was faithful to shape me when I was faithful to return to Quaker Meadow Camp. The incredible thing that happens at Quaker Meadow is that somewhere in the quiet times perched on a rock in the Garden of Prayer or in the midst of rambunctious laughter during a night game God meets with me and teaches me new truths about Him. I can distinctly think back to one example of an ongoing conversation with another counselor throughout a week when I was a counselor which led to me reading a few books when I returned home which in turn led to an entire paradigm shift about how I looked at studying Scripture and relating to God through the Bible. That is just one story of many from a lifetime of moments at camp. I believe so strongly in the ministry of Quaker Meadow Christian Camp and I know that God will change you and speak into your life if you spend some time up on the mountain.

How is your vision?

Someone once asked Helen Keller, who had been blind since the age of nineteen months, if blindness were the worst thing that could happen to a person. She answered that the worst thing that could happen to a person was not to lose their sight but to lose their vision.

The worst thing that could happen to a person was not to lose their sight but to lose their dream.

The worst thing that could happen to a person was not to lose their sight but to lose their reason to live.


Many of us look at life around us with a worldview. Our world view is shaped and formed by the things that happen around us. Our view of the world and things around us are shaped by culture and by people we surround ourselves with. For many of us we have compartmentalized our lives, we live Christian lives on Sundays and around other Christians and we live our private lives the rest of the time. It is a sacred time and a secular time. How do we draw these two separate lives back together again?

Camp becomes that place where these two lives can be drawn together. Alone in the mountains we are away from the distractions that separate our lives. We are not allowing ourselves to be shaped by culture but we are being transformed by the power of the presence of the Holy Spirit living in us.

In John 9 we read of the miracle of the man born blind. Jesus’ disciples ask, “Who has sinned, this man or his parents?” The view at that time would have been that his affliction was caused because of sin. He might have sinned in the womb and his blindness was a consequence or penalty for the sin he committed.

But Jesus approaches the man, spits, mixes the spit with dirt and rubs the mixture on the man’s eyes. But he still cannot see! He is told to wash, and after washing he sees, for the first time. What has cured this man? It is his obedience to follow Jesus’ instructions.

Blind people have vision. Vision is the way we see the world around us. Vision is knowledge and wisdom. Jesus is the light of the world. Light helps us to see better, light helps our vision. How do you see the world? How do you see Jesus?

Think about Jesus for a minute. He doesn’t do the expected. He turns our world upside down and does the opposite of what is expected. He blesses the poor rather the rich. Jesus said to the greatest you had to be the least.

This man lived a life that depended on the kindness of others. Maybe he was used to hearing people spit, sometimes they probably spit on him. But Jesus went out of his way to stop and pay attention. This man’s life was changed not just on the outside but from the inside. God opened the eyes to his heart.

Consider the man’s testimony: I was blind but now I see!

The truth is that each and every one of us is born spiritually blind. We need to see Jesus for who he really is. We need to be obedient and follow his directions like the blind man who went and washed. It takes trust. It becomes faith and ultimately it becomes a life redeemed. Our lives are not our own. Our plans are not our own. Our dreams are not our own. We owe everything we are about because we were bought with a price.



Remember what Helen Keller said?

The worst thing that could happen to a person was not to lose their sight but to lose their dream.

The worst thing that could happen to a person was not to lose their sight but to lose their reason to live.


Who, or what are you living for?

Mountain Top Experiences

I love Quaker Meadow Camp!. I get very excited each year to see what will happen in the lives of students at camp. Quaker Meadow has been an effective tool for changing young people lives for Jesus for almost 70 years.

Camp is surrounded by thousands of acres of forest with numerous hikes to enjoy while at Quaker Meadow. Each hike leads to a different adventure. Sometimes just getting there is the adventure other times the destination is the adventure. Every hike at Quaker Meadow is filled with the beauty of God’s creation.

Some of my favorite hikes are the ones that I have been able to experience God while on the hike or at the destination.

In Exodus we read about Moses’ face to face encounter with God’s glory on a mountain. Like Moses, we have an opportunity to catch a vision of God's glory. Most likely God is not going to reveal himself to us in His brightness and splendor unless we are open to it.

If we have been with the Lord, and have caught a vision of His glory, it will be obvious to others. It will be obvious in our facial expression. It will be obvious in our attitudes. It will be obvious in our conversation. It will be obvious in our manner of living.

Many of the students come home with a radiance that can only be explained by being in personal contact with God. God gives them clear instructions on how to live their lives for Christ instead of for themselves. I have heard many stories from students that made changes in their lives and have charted the course for their entire live because of their encounter with God at Quaker Meadow Camp.

Please pray for the students coming to camp this summer and that they may sense God’s presence there on the mountain with them.

Rick Ellis

Director of Advancement