Rebirth.

That's what Dale Robar felt all those summers he escaped the world at large at West Chazy Bible Camp.

"When I first thought about going up there to spend my vacation during camp week, I thought, 'That doesn't sound too exciting," said the Colton man. "But it turned out to be the best thing — I sensed the Lord's presence, had such a relaxing and wonderful week."

Now, the camp, itself, has been reborn.

The 43-acre property, owned by the Eastern New York New England District of the Wesleyan Church, had been run as a district camp until 2006, when operational costs got too high to keep it open. Its closure deeply pained devoted camp members, including the Rev. Gerald Matson, who is 85.

"From the time I was a boy of 15, this has been part of my heritage," said the retired schoolteacher and Wesleyan minister, who lives in Glens Falls and once served the Wesleyan Church in Mooers. "It confirmed my calling to the Christian ministry, and it was constantly an encouragement to me."

PRACTICAL CONCERNS
A group of the faithful had hoped to lease the campground, which, along with about 100 cottages, boasts 16 or so buildings including the 16-unit Perry Motel and the Dayton Tabernacle that holds about 300. But that plan didn't come to fruition.

Instead, the district decided to sell the property.

"So we got together," Robar said, "decided to form an association, come up with a name.

"Everything fell into place real quick."

A couple who choose to remain anonymous offered to loan the West Chazy Holiness Camp Meeting Association — the new nondenominational not-for-profit religious organization — $200,000 of the $205,000 purchase price. The cottages are privately owned, but each member pays an annual lot lease. At an early meeting of the new group, it was decided $500 per cottage would raise enough money for operational expenses for 2009.

"One of the things the Lord showed me he wanted us to do this was ... at the first meeting, in 15 minutes, we raised $10,000," said Robar, who is association president.

Through the spring, the group has tended to the practical — completing a new bathhouse, repairing the leaky dining hall roof, bringing a second well online and installing a chlorination tank to meet Health Department requirements.

"The last (camp) manager was the Rev. John Hunter, pastor at West Chazy Wesleyan," Robar said. "He has really helped us."

Previous manager Dave Kipp of Corinth Wesleyan Church heads the work team.

"We're scurrying around trying to get everything done," Robar said Wednesday on the quiet West Church Street grounds, where volunteers tended to last minute chores such as painting and erection of shower-stall partitions. "With the Lord's help, we'll be ready."

Camp meeting this year is June 28 through July 5, with evangelists Steve and Peggy Robinson of St. Louis, Mo., participating.

While most members are Wesleyan, camp meeting is nondenominational, Robar emphasized.

"When we formed the association, we were acting as Christians," he said. "We want people to know it's open to everyone. Anyone and everyone's welcome to come — we just want to do God's work and enjoy his presence and see many people come to know the Lord through this ministry."

DEEP CHRISTIAN BELIEF
Matson remembers camp meetings from his youth with great fondness.

"I made lifelong friends," he said. "And I do remember as a teen-age boy swimming in the brook that's down on the southeast side of the grounds. I remember being a smart aleck and trying to take a dive into a hole that was too shallow — I still have the scar."

One summer, Matson and a friend biked to camp from Morley, in St. Lawrence County — about 90 miles one way, Robar said.

"He must have had a pretty good desire to come to camp, the association president chuckled.

Matson's parents first brought him and his sister to camp meetings in 1938 or '39.

Eventually, he and his wife introduced their three children to the campground, where he built a cottage in 1958 or so.

His daughter Mrs. Aledra Cleveland has reserved a cottage for this season.

"From a standpoint of personal spiritual belief, its standards, its teachings, its familiarity with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ — all of that has tended to make it very, very precious," Matson said. "We are living in an age in which there is great effort to become contemporary, culturally related. Not everything in our contemporary culture is conducive to deep Christian spirituality and Christian belief."

Robar's thoughts follow that same line. When he first attended camp meeting, he drove back and forth daily from his home in St. Lawrence County as he didn't own a cottage. He then invested in one.

Camp week lifted him and his family right out of the mainstream of American life.

It's a rustic setting, Robar said, no big lake to swim in, no TV. No swearing. But friends meet up after a year apart, enjoy the outdoors and spiritual atmosphere.

"It's one of those things you can't describe very well until you experience it," he said. "But you feel healing, restored, refreshed ... ready to go at it again."

Robar and his wife, Susan, brought their daughter, Danielle, and son, Joseph, to camp. Their nieces and nephew went.

"Now," Robar said, "I'm wanting to bring my grandboys."

E-mail Suzanne Moore at: smoore@pressrepublican.com