FRONTIER

By Jan White

For some, the words “summer camp” bring back memories of awkward kids, spending the week away from home for the rst time — thrown in with a bunch of relative strangers, sleeping in lumpy bunk beds in cabins with no air conditioning, plagued with mosquitoes, obligated to eat unfamiliar food or go hungry. Some campers couldn’t handle it and bailed out mid-week. But some were strong and stuck it out, returning home as victors who survived the fray, vowing to return to conquer the quest again next year.

Others have a di erent view — they saw camp as an opportunity to make new friends, learn new skills, experience new adventures, and walk away with a lifetime of happy memories of some of the best summers of their lives.

Hans Meinardus is rmly in the second category of summer campers.

Meinardus is the executive director of Frontier Camp — a local

Changing kids’ lives for over fifty years

Christian Camp and Retreat Center located on Houston County Lake. As a camp alumnus, Meinardus is well acquainted with its history.

“It all started with ve churches that had what they called a Christian Service Brigade, their version of Boy Scouts,” Meinardus said.

e Brigade, as it was known, provided a discipleship ministry for boys and young men to learn about God and how to lead and serve their families, churches, and communities.

“ ey [the churches] bought the property as a place to hold their jamborees.”

Although chartered in 1969, the concept never really got o the ground. e camp’s rst director, Arthur Betz, did his best, but it was a challenge to keep the camp alive.

“One summer when they were struggling to nd campers, Betz took the camp van to one of the underprivileged areas of Crockett and just loaded kids into it and brought them out here for a week of camp.” e summer camp languished for years until organizers decided they needed someone who understood camping but also had theological and nancial experience. In 1980, they hired Wes Woodard, and under his leadership, additional cabins and buildings were added. Programs and activities were developed for both physical and spiritual growth.

Frontier Camp had nally come to life.

Meinardus praised Woodard’s work as camp director, listing o names of former and current sta members who had attended Frontier Camp as kids and teenagers.

“It was Woodard’s idea,” said Meinardus, “to go through the previous camper rolls and see who might come back and work as sta members.”

Meinardus had attended Frontier Camp in its early years when he was nine years old and returned for several more summers. He recalls the day he got a letter from Reverand Wesley Woodard.

“I was in high school and had forgotten about camp.” Nevertheless, he showed the letter to his dad, who approved the idea, “And here I came,” said Meinardus. “A junior counselor at age 14. And that was the beginning of eight years of summer work at the camp.”

“Wes mentored a lot of young men, and I was one,” Meinardus said. e credited Woodard for encouraging him to attend A M so I could learn some discipline and direction. ver the years, Meinardus stayed in contact with Woodard, at one point serving on the camp’s board of directors. Woodard had asked Meinardus to work for him as an assistant director. At the time, he didn’t feel like the Lord was leading him in that direction. ut when Woodard retired in 200 , his successor, Matt aines, wanted Meinardus to be his new summer camp director. So, in 2004, Meinardus relocated his family to rontier Camp, from suburban Austin to rural ast Texas, and took on the position where he served for eighteen years. When aines resigned in 2021, after 18 years as executive director, Meinardus stepped into the role. ecause of his history, Meinardus knows a lot about the camp and can tell story after story about the early days of the camp and how it differs from today’s version.

In the 0s, we didn’t have one of these at all, Meinardus said, referring to the little retail space where campers can purchase drinks, snacks, and camp memorabilia. y the time I became a staffer, there was just a little space in the corner of the dining hall with some tables set up. They called it a trading post,’ and we could buy soft drinks.

The current Trading ost is a building made of two conjoined boys’ cabins with shelves full of t-shirts, ball caps, and water bottles, all sporting the rontier Camp logo. ointing to a framed photo hanging on the Trading ost’s wall, Meinardus said,

This is from the early 0s, maybe ’ or ’ 4. See this kid right here in the corner That’s me.

When I was a summer staffer, the cabins were just wooden boxes. We call them legacy cabins’ now, and they’re used for storage. ut back then, they were just a box with an air-conditioner that held seven bunk beds. They housed 14 kids in all. There was no indoor plumbing. We had to walk down to this long house with bathrooms and showers in it. ut that’s a thing of the past. Now it’s a weight room and a washateria.

While the newer cabins still hold 14 people a combination of 12 campers and two staff members the accommodations are clean and organi ed and probably twice the si e of the original cabins, complete with central heat, air, and their own A A-compliant bathrooms and showers. And the bunkbed mattresses aren’t your typical summer camp mattresses, Meinardus said, these are much softer and bedbug free.

There are over 60 activities for campers to choose from, and they get to create their own recreation schedules. The list includes woodworking, a giant swing, a tube slide, ropes courses, archery, horseback riding and trail rides, waterskiing, wake- boarding, swimming, ible dramas, evening campfires, cookouts, banana boats on the lake, laser tag, whi e ball, dodge ball, foursquare, basketball, tomahawk and slingshot classes, skeet shooting, climbing walls, a jump pad, a ip line, and the camp’s world famous shaving cream slide. They also hold their own rodeo every Thursday night and recently hired an equestrian director who offers a free therapeutic riding program during the off-season.

The unior Camp is comprised of seven weeks of activities for ages -12, and features an action-packed but structured camp schedule. The Teen Camp, for ages 1 -1 , is also a seven-week program at the portion of the encampment called ossil Creek. The teens also have their choice of activities they can do the same thing all week or try something new every day.

The camp also offers one unior Camp week and one Teen Camp week specifically for homeschoolers. The staff, made up of mostly homeschool graduates, and homeschooled campers from across Texas, join together for a week full of activities and programs targeted at their unique demographic.

The camp offers outreach programs for boys and girls who need a positive role model in their lives. In 2004, rontier Camp partnered with rison ellowship and ran its first Angel Tree Week of summer camp for children and teens with an incarcerated parent. The camp also teams up with salm68five Ministries to offer Timothy Week a week of free summer camp for children who are growing up without a father in their lives. And in anuary 200 , a group of staff members traveled to aiti to run a day camp at acob’s Well, which was the start of a ministry in aiti that continues today.

With its multiple meeting multiple-use buildings, rontier Camp offers a variety of family weekend retreats based around Christ-centered programs. They hold Mother and aughter etreats and ather and Son etreats, all designed to forge meaningful relationships between family and friends in the beautiful iney Woods of ast Texas.

In 201 , rontier Camp celebrated its 0th Anniversary, but the camp isn’t resting on its laurels. Meinardus has plans for upgrading some of the old facilities and is always open to new and creative ways to improve the camp, but more than that, to reach out to boys and girls who need to hear about the love of od. To help reach that goal, the camp has a robust scholarship program and offers significant discounts for kids who live in ouston County.

If you would like to explore all the camps and programs offered by rontier Camp, visit www.frontiercamp.org, call 644- 206, or email info frontiercamp.org.