As church and student groups from across Texas made their way to Kerrville over spring break, Texas Lions Camp opened its doors to provide food, facilities and a place to rest after long days of flood cleanup and rebuilding.
While the camp’s primary mission is to improve self esteem for children with special medical conditions, President and CEO Stephen Mabry said they began to open their facilities to outside groups during the off-season, which came into play immediately following the July disaster.
“I enjoy having new groups, making new friends and getting new people on the grounds, so that part of it is easy,” Mabry said. “We like to be involved, and absolutely, we want to be a good neighbor to everybody in our community.”
Throughout mid-March, Texas Lions Camp hosted groups from Oak Ridge Baptist Church, Northside Baptist Church, First Baptist Church Amarillo, First Methodist Mansfield, Redeemer Church and South Texas Children’s Home Ministries as they volunteered with Texans on Mission to help rebuild homes in Kerr County.
Lania Cooper, director of Missions and Ladies at Oak Ridge Baptist Church, said the staff at Lions Camp were accommodating, kind and caring throughout the 30-member group’s stay. The camp provided the group with air conditioned bunks with washers and dryers, bathrooms and kitchens.
“It had everything you could possibly think of,” Cooper said.
Staff also checked on Cooper’s group continually through a tornado watch that occurred shortly after they had arrived, she said.
While in Kerrville, Cooper’s group painted bunkhouse interiors at Camp La Junta. Volunteers from Northside Baptist Church and First Baptist Church Amarillo continued similar work, bringing the total to about 100 volunteers, said Corey Stewart, college minister at First Baptist Church Amarillo.
When the groups weren’t working on projects or resting in cabins, Stewart said Lions Camp provided them with gathering spaces, allowing them to worship in the recreation center and eat in the dining hall.
“Trinity Baptist has kind of become the hub for Texans on Mission in that area, and to alleviate some of that pressure of bringing more teams in and staying at that church gave those that were there a little bit of a break,” Stewart said.
With the camp being located several hundred feet above the floodplain, Lions Camp and its residents were not at risk during the flood. Still, everyone there was impacted by its devastation, losing homes, friends and family, Mabry said.
“As a local resident, I cannot say thank you enough for everything Texans on Mission has done,” Mabry said. “It's been nothing short of amazing to witness the hard work and the heart behind it.”