2022 How we can pray for Pocono Mountain Bible Conference.

At Pocono Mountain Bible Conference, things are moving.  Slowly, but moving.  We are grateful to be standing strong, in the Lord’s strength, after two years of difficult ministry and business circumstances with the pandemic. I’ll focus on three areas for which we could use your prayer and awareness, so you can best partner with us in ministering to the children, families, and churches we serve at PMBC.

Children and Families

As we finish the final planning for the 2022 camp season, we look ahead to our flagship ministry, sharing the Gospel message through summer camp.  This year we are especially excited to serve children and families in a new way, by hosting children with incarcerated parents through the Angel Tree and Prison Fellowship Ministries.  PMBC serves a diverse community of children and families whether talking economically, educationally, culturally, emotionally, physically, or any other “lly” you can think of.  The concept of building the Kingdom of God through sharing the GOSPEL with all people of all nations is something we take seriously.  Pray that this summer ALL the different children present know they can have the SAME hope of life, peace, and joy through reconciliation with God in relationship with Jesus as their savior.  That they can feel the unity that comes through Jesus, and live by our motto “Not I, But Christ”

We are also excited to be offering FAMILY CAMP this summer, as a means to allow whole families to experience PMBC summer camp, TOGETHER!  Our hope is that this will bring families closer, through shared experiences, and help equip them to better serve and follow the Lord through speakers and pertinent topic discussions through the 4 day stay at PMBC.  There is nothing better than families being equipped to grow in relationship with Jesus, while enjoying good food, awesome fireworks, challenging activities, and building friendships with other families.

Churches

The old system of church retreats, designed and run by the church, served and supported by the camp, has been changed by the pandemic.  What was once, just two years ago, calendars with every weekend of the year filled with a retreat or summer camp opportunity, is now churches struggling to commit, or families in a church committed to a retreat struggling to afford a retreat.  We have been blessed by the churches that retreat with PMBC and we are overjoyed to continue serving them.  We also understand that they may be struggling with staff, finances, or other things that make their retreats a lot harder to continue.  For those churches we are struggling to plan their own retreats, we want to serve you better in the future.  We are beginning growing PMBC planned and programmed retreats that YOU and your church family can come to without having to do all the beginning to end legwork of putting together.  Family Camp, Women’s Retreat, Wintercamps, and Marriage Retreats are already in place.  Our plan is to grow with consistent Men’s retreats, Parent and Child Retreats (mother/daughter, father/son, father/daughter, mother/son, etc), Pastoral and Leadership retreats (awesome time, free training, time to sit together and discuss your team’s long term plans), Pastor and Wife retreats, Singles Retreats, Retreats for those engaged to help prepare for marriage, etc.  Pray for guidance as to the pace and timing of introduction of these new elements, as well as talent to help program and execute these to best serve those who attend.

Support

We want to serve children, families, and churches with Gospel opportunities.  We want those opportunities to be affordable.  We want to be generous in our aid for those who struggle to fund the cost of an event that they wish to attend but just can’t seem to afford.  All of this comes down to support.  Believe it or not, the most helpful form of support is not necessarily financial giving.  One of our top needs to continue providing valuable ministry, consistently, and affordably, is VOLUNTEERS.  We need partners, CHAMPIONS, who will come along and serve with us to provide these Gospel opportunities to our children, families, and churches.  Work day, Summer camp, Mentors, Speakers, Teachers, Tradesmen for maintenance, Kitchen volunteers, Grounds volunteers, PRAYER partners.  All of these things are backed up by financial giving, and financial giving is a HUGE help, but paper bills and balance sheets cannot serve a meal, hug the hurting, speak the Gospel, build a relationship, teach skills, grow confidence, and be a personal part of a life changed to follow Christ.  We need YOU, volunteers, to help us go where God calls, when He calls, to all He calls, to see lives changed through Jesus.  We need Life Changers.

In, through, and by Christ


Matt Macking - PMBC Director