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