ENCOUNTER RESPOND TRANSFORM

Since 1946, Camp Lake Stephens has been a place where people of all ages can encounter God and respond to His call to transform the world.

Throughout our history, we have presented the good news of Jesus to everyone who has come through our gates, no matter their spiritual background. We want everyone to experience God in His fullness when they gather at CLS.

In the 1930s, Methodist minister Dr. John Ellett Stephens began creating outdoor camping experiences for children and youth throughout North Mississippi. These camps were generally held at several locations, such as Pickwick Lake, but Dr. Stephens had a dream of something more. He believed that a permanent camp where young people could experience community, outdoors, and faith should be established in North Mississippi.

In 1945, that dream took a major step forward. The Junior Chamber of Commerce in Oxford offered to donate 87 acres of woodland southeast of Oxford as a potential site for the camp. Dr. Stephens, along with several other Methodist ministers and lay leaders, embraced the opportunity and began preparing the property.

By camping time, the Building Committee had built 16 cabins and the Dining Hall (the Dining Hall still in use today). The first camps were held in July and August of 1946.

The camp was named Camp Lake Stephens in honor of Dr. Stephens, whose vision and persistence brought the dream of a permanent camp to life.

From those first summers, Camp Lake Stephens quickly became more than a summer camp. By 1947, the grounds were being used for meetings, retreats, school groups, youth assemblies, and gatherings of all kinds throughout the year.

Today, Camp Lake Stephens has continued to grow beyond its beginnings as a summer camp into a year-round camp and retreat center, serving people of all ages as a place where they can gather, learn, worship, explore, and build relationships.

After 80 years, Camp Lake Stephens remains what it was envisioned to be in the beginning. A special place where people can step away from everyday life, experience creation, build community, and grow.

"MORE THAN A FACIILITY"

Summarized from a report written for the 1975 Annual Conference

Lake Stephens is more than a facility. It is more than a tradition. It is an alive, valid ministry. It is a or setting in which a great variety of experiences have taken place in the name of Jesus Christ. The contribution of Camp Lake Stephens has to be measured through the years in terms of the persons who have gone there for camps, meetings, leadership schools, retreats, workshops, or any of the other events.

Camp Lake Stephens is many things to many persons.

The best way to understand Camp Lake Stephens is to sit quietly among the trees or on Vesper Hill and listen to the silent testimony of what has happened to persons there through the years.

For many, Camp Lake Stephens was the place they met Christ. For others, it was the place that their Christian faith took on full meaning. A number of our ministers heard or answered the call to preach there. Countless children and youth have had their horizons of faith and understanding expanded through a tradition of gentle guidance. Camp Lake Stephens continues to be a place where the Spirit of God can move in the hearts and minds of all who gather here.

A wide variety of activities and experiences have taken place at Lake Stephens. Some have been spectacular, while others have been ordinary and seemingly routine. Yet even without the spectacular, those everyday moments bear witness to the thousands of lives that have been touched in the name of Jesus Christ.

From the beginning, Camp Lake Stephens has been a place of meaningful ministry. Through generations of campers, staff, and guests, its impact has been felt in countless lives, and that legacy continues today.

FACILITY HISTORYS

PEACOCK PAVILION

The Peacock Pavilion was built in ____ as an open-air worship space on the highest point at CLS, near Vesper Hill. It was named for Andy and Emily Peacock who followed Dr. Stephens as Camp Directors.

In the early 2000s, the Peacock Pavilion was torn down to make way for a new and improved worship space with more modern facilities. Today, the site is home to our Chapel.

The Peacock Pavilion

SALLY J. STEPHENS DINING HALL

The Dining Hall is the only remaining facility from the first summer in 1946. It was named for Sally J. Stephens, the wife of Dr. J.E. Stephens, who served as the 'Dining Room Superintendent' for many years.

The Dining Hall (c. 1946)

QUAY'S PLACE

Quay's Place has long served as our camp store in multiple ways, from snack/refreshment times to its current use as a store for camp merchandise.

It was named for Miss Quay Smith who spent time at CLS as a Counselor and as Manager of the store.

She was always ready to comfort, encourage, and just be a friend of any camper who was homesick or discouraged. She was beloved by a generation of campers who came to Lake Stephens. She was always smiling and giving out good cheer when she opened the store.

After her death, many friends gave memorials to her and set up a memorial fund to build a porch and shed over the porch in front of the camp store where she served, and the place was named “Quay’s Place.”

It was during a camp in 1947 that Vesper Hill became a fixture of Camp Lake Stephens. Several times, campers had gone down to the lake to hold vespers along the lakeside, but a closer location was needed. After trying two or three different spots, they discovered and selected the place that has ever since been the setting for our devotions.

The site was partially free of trees and bushes and covered in grass. Overlooking the western hills, it provided a beautiful view, facing directly into the sunset. They gathered to clear the area for worship, and by the third night of that camp, the first vesper service was held on what would become known as Vesper Hill.

At first, campers made their way to the spot from different directions. Some traveled through the woods behind the site where ourpresent-day Chapel stands (this was before the Peacock Pavilion was built) while others walked down the road to a point opposite Vesper Hill.

Soon, the idea of a "Silent Trail" from the road to the vesper site emerged. A small trail was made, so silence fell as worshippers gathered for vespers.

The look of Vesper Hill, the Silent Trail, and their setup has changed overtime, but their tradition has continued through the years and remains one that is still followed today.