m INTERNATIONAL CAMPS
and
Jack Wyrtzen
J a z z master Jack Wyrtzen, who turned evangelist in 1940 following his conversion to Christ, hadn’t preached long before he realized the potent force of a summer camp and conference program in tu rn in g many to righteousness. Subsequently, he and the mem bers of his Word of Life Fellowship, Inc. which he had organized in New York City, bought a 90-acre pine- clad island in the middle of Schroon Lake, N.Y., nestled in the Adiron dack Mountains. The island was opened as a Bible c o n fe r e n c e center in 1946. The mile-off-shore seclusion, the water- skiing, aqua-planing, h o r se b a ck riding and the old-fashioned evan gelistic meetings in a pine pavilion began appealing to more and more people. Jack plugged the camp over his radio program and announced its program at his giant Times Square rallies. Whole families began driving up U.S. Highway 9, about 250 miles out of New York City, for fun at Word of Life Island. Cool spirits were fired to live for Christ. Mis sionary zeal was generated under the ministry of choice speakers from all over the world. Presently, Word of Life missionaries were heading into all the world, with support checks coming in part from the Word of Life family. The unsaved came too. Kids like Larry from Brooklyn, sponsored by an aunt who was steering him away from a life of crime. When Larry climbed into the motorboat that linked the island with the main
land at Schroon Lake, he wasn’t prepared for what he saw. Arriving just before supper on Sunday afternoon, Larry watched hundreds of campers bow their heads and pray before eating. He figured he had set foot on the wrong spot. The evangelistic service he at tended in the pavilion that night made him sure of it. When his aunt had paid his way to the lake he had had the vague impression he was going to an athletic camp. “ Look,” he said to Bob Schindler, a member of the Word of Life male quartet, “ I’m shoving off. This is no place for me! I don’t know these hymns. And I don’t know one book of the Bible from another. I just don’t fit around here.” “Well you will,” Bob told him. “ Promise me you’ll stick around until Tuesday. If you don’t like this place by then I’ll personally help 3 rou pack your bags and take you to shore.” It was a long swim to the main land, so Larry stayed on. Word got around to the counselors about what to do with the kid from Brooklyn. Monday afternoon they put him in a rough and tumble football game to soften him up a bit. He discov ered that some of the staffers could match his punches with the gloves, out-ski him on the lake, ride horse back better and farther. The Word of Life’ers tinned out to be regulars that Larry re sp e cted m ore and more. Further, he saw that the heart-peace these young people pos sessed gave them a wholesome grip on life that he utterly lacked.
That night in the pavilion Larry listened intently to a sermon on the judgment of God and His mercy extended in the person of Jesus Christ. The thought of these claims troubled him. Tuesday came but he decided to stay on. Before the week ended, he had given his heart to Jesus Christ and was determined to live for Him. Back in New York his aunt wel comed him joyfully at the news and then showed Larry the New York Daily News. In it was a picture of Larry’s buddy in crime lying dead in a pool of blood on a Brooklyn street. That scene so gripped Larry he determined not to waste one day getting started in witnessing. He took his Bible with him to the fac tory where he worked and told the men what had happened to him. He took it to the gym where he was practicing for the Golden Gloves and gave his sports buddies his tes timony. The following fall he was in Bible school and the next summer went back to Word of Life Island to take the counselors’ training course and work with toughs who came to the island. What happened to Larry is be ing duplicated in hundreds of lives each summer at Word of Life Is land — one of the nation’s fastest growing camps. Two newer projects under the Word of Life banner at Schroon Lake are seeing similar success. One is The Inn, once a plush nightclub on 40 acres valued at $250,000 which was sold to Jack for half that figure five years ago.
12
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker