History

We (Denny & Violet Slaughter) came to Dallas March 31, 1970.  At that time our churches did not have a campground to call their own.  We, therefore, rented a campground from Lake Murray in Oklahoma.  In the winter of 1970, Bob Hawley and his family moved their membership to Valley View Christian Church—I had called on them the week before and told them of our dream to own our own camp ground.  A few weeks later Bob stopped by the church offices and told me that he wanted to donate 50 acres of land in east Texas to the church.  Would that be ok with me?  I assured him it would be.  For the next several months we planned and prayed for the Lord's direction in building the camp.  An important part of that plan was finding some bank that would loan us the money to build the buildings.  I remember spending many hours traveling from bank to bank and being told, "No!”  Talk about rejection. 

Finally, by the grace of God we found a friend at Town North Bank that was located at the intersection of Midway and LBJ.  We had already dug the trench for the water line and, because we had interim financing we had started to pour the foundations for some of the cabins.  When the bank found out that we had already started to build they said that they could not loan us the money because they had to be a part of the whole project from the beginning.  I remember sitting in that bank president's office and begging him to please make an exception in this case and to loan us the money even though we had already started to build.  He thought about it a long time and said, he would like to see what we had done.  So I gave him directions to the camp, and set up a time when he would inspect our plans and the potential for the camp.

This was in the Spring of 1973.  For us older folks who remember that far back, it was a very wet spring.  He came out to the camp in freshly shined shoes and his new black Mercury.  We were in the process of making a road that would allow us to drive through the woods to the cabins and other buildings, but it was a long way from being completed.  My banker friend buried his shiny car in mud and then, when he got out of the car he buried his shoes in the mud.  I thought, " Oh no.  He'll never loan us the money now."  But he did.  We helped him get his car out of the mud and sent him back to Dallas.  In a few days we had our money. 

We had not made reservations at Lake Murray for the summer of 1973 because we thought we would have our own campground.  Bad weather and delays in getting our loan processed caused us to be behind schedule.  But it was still possible to have camp in August.  Well, you know what August in Texas is like.  Everyone pitched in to help build the rest of the cabins.  Oh I think I forgot to say that preachers built all the cabins.  For a brief time in 1973, we all became carpenters.  Many a smashed thumb, blisters, and aching muscles, but it was a great time of fellowship and bonding.  I think all of us who were a part of that time really grew in our Faith and Love for the Lord and each other.

We did have camp for the first time in August of 1973.  The mess hall was not finished, and some of the cabins were not either but there was enough to get the job done.  Some of the people who made the camp a reality were:  Bob Land who now lives in Tulsa.  He helped dig the trench for the water line and find financing.  Bob Brockus, his skill with a hammer and saw was greatly appreciated.  Preachers like Herman Cain, Leslie Loftin, Ron Key, Curtis Reynolds and Mike Abbot and just some of the laymen like Cecil Farley, Earl Mounger, James Tomlinson, and Ray Dean Sauls from McKinney (there were many more) were all hard workers and contributed their time and muscles.

I appreciate so much the effort that is being put on improving the camp.  It is a great place given to us by the Lord Himself.    

Denny Slaughter