As 2022 comes to an end, I want to take a moment to say thank you for all of your support, volunteer hours and prayers, which have enabled us to have a successful year.  Ferncliff hosted 1300 summer campers, welcomed over 200 retreat groups and cared for 49 children in our nature preschool.  We also served 130 non-profits through our Sharing the Goods program and received and shipped over 94,000 pounds of disaster kits for communities recovering from disasters!  The year has been full of good work towards our mission and you have played a key role in what we have accomplished.

At Christmastime and with the advent of a new year coming, I find myself reflecting on what all we do at Ferncliff.  I have come to realize that “making love our aim” is what our work is all about.  Yes, we do a lot of different things here, however all our programs share this common purpose.

Make A Year End Gift To Ferncliff

This fall we hosted a mission team from Seneca Presbyterian Church from Seneca, SC. This hard-working group spent three full days working in our Disaster Assistance Center (DAC) inspecting and assembling thousands of Church World Service disaster kits.  We have many groups that volunteer in the DAC throughout the year, however this experience held special significance for these folks.  In April of 2020, Seneca, South Carolina was hit by a devastating EF3 tornado. Seneca Presbyterian Church received pallets of Church World Service kits from Ferncliff to aid in their recovery. And so, they felt compelled to come here to serve as a way to make love their aim and “pay it forward” for the kits they received.  Your support enables us to operate our disaster assistance center, which provides disaster recovery supplies to communities in need and also provides people a real experience serving others.

You help us provide these types of experiences for our campers too!  Sure, camp should be fun, but at Ferncliff we believe it should also help kids begin to develop their sense of responsibility to care for others.  One night each week of the summer our overnight campers participate in meal packaging programs that combine upbeat music with preparing nutritious meals for kids all across the world.  This summer our campers made love their aim as they prepared 30,000 meals that went to serve children in the Philippines.

Your support also allows Ferncliff to make love our aim as we find new ways to respond to the needs of our world.  Last year Ferncliff had the opportunity to support Afghan refugee families as they started their new lives in Central Arkansas.  In partnership with local congregations, we were able to fill the gap and provide needed temporary housing for these families when they first arrived.  We added some outlets, bought some appliances and made temporary kitchens in our youth cabins. We found that with a little adaptation these spaces could serve as good landing spots for these sometimes-large families.  Through the winter and into early spring we were able to host 3 families and were blessed to play a part in welcoming 22 new Arkansans.

And while we reflect on a wonderful year behind us and all whom we were able to serve, I am focused on the opportunities to make love our aim that are still ahead of us.  So, I am asking for your help by making a financial contribution to Ferncliff.

In order to finish the year strong we have set a goal of raising $40,000.  Will you consider a year end gift to enable Ferncliff to continue to make love our aim through our many programs and ministries? 

A gift of $75 can provide supplies for a flood bucket to help a family recover from a disaster or a gift of $500 can provide a week of camp for a child whose family may need some financial help. No gift is too big or too small and every dollar is needed to make sure that Ferncliff remains able to do all that we do.

Give Now

Be it providing camp experiences for kids, or helping communities recover from a disaster, or just staying open to how God may be calling on us to meet our mission in a new way, Ferncliff strives to make love our aim in all we do.  With your help we can continue to do that.

Thank you for your support and Merry Christmas,

Joel Cory Gill, Executive Director