Our History
For 135 years, generation after generation, families have made their way to White River Camp. They have filled these grounds with laughter and tears, shouts and songs; for this is a place that has long and faithfully caused the incense of saintly prayers to waft toward the heavens crying, Maranatha!… Lord, come quickly!
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In the mid-1800's rustic camping sites were set up all over the country, in the tradition of the ancient Feast of Booths celebrated by the Hebrews as they wandered through the wilderness of Sinai. The men would take brush from the desert floor and fashion rude shelters apart from their tents and the camp of Israel. They would enter into these “booths” and there God would visit them and speak with them. They would inquire of the Lord for counsel and He would answer with encouragement, direction, and even direction. The book of Exodus describes Moses sitting in a simple tent on the edge of the camp as God would descend and stand before the tent and “speak to Moses as one speaks to a friend.”
For more than 100 years men and women along with their families traveled many miles to gather in rustic cabins and canvas-sided tents and for 8 days to seek the presence of God, and so many times, as He did in the wilderness with Moses God has come to speak with us as one speaks to a friend. White River has never been about “creature comforts.” It has always been about seeking the Presence of a Living God. It was true then as it is now – we come together with an air of expectancy; with anticipation that God will encamp with us on this holy ground. Sometimes, if you listen carefully you will think you hear the powerful voices of generations that have gone before us as they boldly proclaim the truths of the Word of God – - without fear, without compromise, and without apology.
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Each year camp commences on the Saturday before the first Sunday of August. It is an old-fashioned way of marking time, but it’s worked for us for many years and so, we continue to mark the week of camp in this way. Year after year that first Saturday is met with campers who come with expectancy, humility, and hearts open toward Heaven as the generations that have gone before us. From all over New England; from Vermont and New Hampshire, from Maine and Connecticut as well as from many other places, families gather to meet with God.
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We are just completing 135 years of growing closer to each other and to God as we join together with like goals, passions, and purposes. A lot has changed. Scarcely, could our forefathers have imagined that someday we would be telling our story on something called the “world wide web”. Nor could they have ever imagined a place filled with motorized “RVs”, and young people twittering and tweeting all over the place while sliding on soap-soaked surfaces like dolphins in the ocean. They could not have imagined the electronic sound systems or video projectors putting words on the wall. Surely much has changed since 1887, but there is so much that has not changed, for the same Spirit that inhabited these grounds in 1887 visits the grounds at White River in the 21st century. The same strong worship, the same Biblically sound teaching, the same authoritative preaching abounds in this place now, as it did then.
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As blessed as we are about our history we are even more excited for our future! Join us and become a part of the future at White River Christian Camp.