Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca Celebrates 50 Years in 2013

A paragraph from the Io-Dis-E-Ca Report - 1963. 

The idea for a church camp in Iowa District East was inaugurated by the "Mo. Service Club." this organization is a non-profit service club of five area churches meeting at Bishop's Cafeteria in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The prperty (78 acres) was purchased on March 1, 1963.... The is not land, or the Directors, it is the people!

We will be celebrating our 50-year anniversary in 2013.  The Camp has developed a lot in 50 years and we want to reminisce and celebrate with the people who helped the camp along the way. We are preparing for a big celebration next summer and we need your help to make this event a success! This summer we took several thousand pictures but we only have several hundred pictures from the past 49 years. So gather around the family, dust off those old photo albums, dig out the old shoebox, pull together an armful of memories and send in your pictures of camp, camp staff, and campers of past. Do this a couple of different ways: you can scan and email your pictures to campiodiseca@gmail.com or mail your photos to the office with names and the date of the picture if possible.  If you would like the photos returned to you, please indicate that and include your name and address on the back of the photos. Otherwise we will keep them for our next anniversary celebration!  

We are also looking for volunteers to serve on an anniversary committee. This committee would meet as soon as Saturday, September 22nd and discuss, plan, promote, and organize this 50-year celebration. This rewarding opportunity will be a lot of fun as we dig through the history of Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca and shine light on all the great people God used to make Camp what it was, is, and will be.

Looking forward to your memories,

Luke Fischer

Interim Executive Director

Site Manager

2012 Summer Camp Program Concludes

As quickly as they began, these wonderful few months of summer camp have come to a close. We have no doubt that all of our campers were able to enjoy fun games, outdoor activities, and close friendships. More importantly, however, campers have gone home knowing that we have God With Us.

Here are some of the comments campers and parents had to say about their summer camp experience:

"Thank you to Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca for a great week of keeping my son interested in bible study, outdoors and off of the computer." 

"I was so excited to hear my daughter talk about the greater understanding of the Bible and God's will for us. She really had an "aha" moment in going beyond the Bible stories to the meaning and application of the story. What a blessing! 

"He wishes he could stay for a whole summer."

"The sermons were really good! (Must have been really good to make a 13 year old say that!)

“My daughter works all year to save enough money to fund her entire amount to attend this summer camp. She gives up b-day gifts and Christmas gifts to get money to put  for paying. She had such a good time this year and she said she will again forgo the presents for money for next year’s camp.”

“Focused on God’s Word… She loved every minute and is planning for next summer.”

 “We feel blessed to have our son get the opportunity to go to Io-Dis-E-Ca each summer. It's a great camp and the proximity to home is a plus! The staff is awesome and I can see him grow in faith yearly as a result."

“Loved it :-). Didn’t stop talking the entire ride home!”

“The new rock wall is fantastic… and the zip line is just awesome.”

“Thank you for providing a safe and fun camp as always.”

“It was great! Our son has been to at least three camps and this has been the best yet! Immediately when leaving camp, he asked to return for another camp.”

"It's her favorite place on earth and she will keep coming back. One of her dreams is to someday be a camp counselor. She loved all the people, and although the camp is amazing by itself, the friendly staff, JC's, and other campers really make it more like home."

From beginning to end, the Bible teaches us that God desires to be with His people. Each week, our campers learned how God has been with His people throughout history and into the present day. Campers learned about the separation the fall into sin created between God and man. But the story doesn’t end there. God did not simply discard humanity but instead, chose to redeem it. God stayed with His people in the Old Testament, as we see in the Tabernacle. But God was unapproachable without mediation.

Then comes Jesus, Immanuel (God with us), who dwelt with us here on earth to be a sacrifice for us and save us from our sins, restoring the broken relationship between God and man with His perfect life, death on the cross, and resurrection from the grave. And God has not left us alone since the time of Jesus. He is with us today, as He has been since that time. We have God with us today in the Church through His Word and sacraments, bringing to us, today, forgiveness and life in God. Through all this we know God is not a distant, far-off figure. These things teach us that we have God With Us and that we are His people.

As you can tell by the comments, we at camp are not the only ones excited for 2013. We look forward to seeing many returning campers next summer and are equally excited for new first-time campers as we celebrate Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca’s 50th anniversary!

Daniel Sanchez
Program Director

Opportunities Ahead

By Daniel Sanchez, Program Director

Here at the end of March, it isn’t just business as usual at Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca, it’s business all the time! From now until winter, things are in full swing for our staff and volunteers. Our vision at Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca is to support the ministries of congregations, nurture the faith of individuals and families, and motivate patrons toward congregational involvement and positive vocational choices. We have all kinds of opportunities available to our guests as we serve them in light of this vision we have as a camp.

We have opportunities to serve you and you have opportunities to serve Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca. When you serve Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca, it is truly a special thing because it gives us the opportunity to serve someone else. The gifts you give and efforts you make fuel the opportunities others have to experience Christ-centered recreation and inspiration in a quality and safe way at Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca.

One of the most notable opportunities we have is our new camp scholarship initiative, Family’s First Camper. Every dollar we receive for this initiative goes to create opportunities for youth across Eastern Iowa to experience a week filled with fun, adventure, friendship, and most importantly, knowledge about Jesus and the treasure we have in Him through Word and Sacrament.

Over the past month and into the next two months, your camp staff is out on the road promoting the upcoming summer camp program. This scholarship initiative is a way we hope to recruit up to 50 new campers from families who have never before sent children to Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca. We’ve recruited several already, but we need more funds to reach our goal of recruiting these 50 or so campers. Indeed, this is an opportunity.

Camp is the place where individuals, groups, and congregations have the opportunity to do good and receive good. Whether it is having the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful outdoors and walk our trails, or to sponsor a camper by donating to our scholarship fund, I urge you to be a part of our opportunities at Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca. We have so many opportunities for so many people, including you!