Ponderosa - July 7 - 22

We are now serving at the Ponderosa Baptist Conference Center located a few miles north of Colorado Springs, CO. We're surrounded by pine trees and wildlife at an elevation of 7,400 feet. Temperatures during the day are in the low 80s, and at night in the 50s.


Two of the buildings, the activity center (middle) and the dining hall (right) give tribute to familiar friends: Glen Braswell and William Fleming, as in Fleming Library at GCU.

Lodging includes dorm-style buildings, cabins and individual family accommodations.


The large chapel will hold 300+, while the small prayer chapel will seat 20. Small weddings (very small!) have been held in the prayer chapel. The Allison Pavilion (right) has a large fire place in the center of the room and is a favorite gathering spot for youth in the evenings.

There is a game room, gym and frisbee golf as well as the following activity sites:

Ball fields, and yes, that is Pikes Peak looming in the background!


Zip line on the challenge course; paintball field, and skateboard park.


The snack bar is where we spend a lot of our time. This week there are more than 300 youth from all over the state of Colorado and they like to eat candy and drink slush puppies (kind of like an Icee). We're open in the afternoon, and following the evening activities from 9:30 to 11:00. Thank goodness the young people on the Ponderosa staff run the night shift!!!


Not only do we run the snack bar, but help to clean up the dining hall after meals. Chef Don is an excellent cook and provides great meals. On the right, the kids are doing an after-dinner activity -- not sure what it is but they're having fun.

Our campsite is nestled among the pines so we have lots of shade. We also have lots of sap dripping from the pines! We've moved our patio site 3 times in order to escape the drips. On days when there are no campers, meals are not served in the dining hall. It's a great opportunity for the volunteers to get together for potluck and fellowship.


We have daily visitors to our campsite! This mother deer and her 2 fawns come frequently to graze behind the motor home, and the squirrels enjoy the food in the bird feeder more than the birds do! We have stellar jays and hummingbirds that also come to feed.


We have bears that come into the campground on a nightly basis. They crawl into the dumpster, drag out trash bags, and then proceed to tear them open and eat the contents. Thank goodness the dumpster is on the other end of the campground from where we're parked!