Victor and Bea Rupp loved how so many kids came back from Christian camp with a new zeal for Christ, salvation and rededication. They knew it changed lives.
When their son, Ron, died at an early age in an auto accident, they began making gifts to Miracle Camp in Ron’s memory. When Victor and Bea passed on to Heaven, their will divided their estate five ways—four ways were between the four living children, and the fifth was a Donor Advised Fund at Christian Service Foundation in Ron’s memory. Knowing how much the experience of Christian camp meant to their parents, the four living children decided to set up the Victor Rupp Camp Scholarship Fund with their brother Ron’s Donor Advised Fund. The purpose of the fund is to help families with the cost of sending their children to Christian camp, when they may not have otherwise been able to afford sending their child. The family’s continued hope and vision is that other FEC families would add to the fund and make it an on-going effort to impact the lives of future generations for Christ through FEC camps.
As you’ve read in the past two blog posts, “Positive Role Models Are Hard to Find” and “Camp Scholarships Change Lives,” the Fund just recently helped send two inner-city boys, Tristan and Brandon to camp this past summer for the very first time. While, traditionally, the scholarship fund only provides $25 coupons to FEC churches, it was realized that families in the inner-city need a lot more financial help than just the $25 coupon. It was decided that families with much greater financial need can receive up to 95% scholarships so their child can also experience the joy of Christ at summer camp. After Tristan and Brandon’s week at Miracle Camp, we received tremendous joy in hearing about their changed lives through attending camp for the first time. We encourage you to go back and read their moving stories, if you haven’t done so already.
After nine years of helping send kids to camp, the Fund is getting low on funds. Our goal for the future is to be able to send more inner-city kids to camp. As of right now, we’ve identified eight inner-city children that need 95% scholarships, in addition to the coupons we are providing to other FEC kids. Our end-of-year goal to meet this need is $7,500. Would YOU support this effort to impact children with a Christian camp experience? What a wonderful way to impact kids for Christ—by giving the gift of camp.
You can give to CSF through the FEC donation web page at www.FECMinistries.org (look for the donation tab, and the CSF Camp items at the bottom of the pull-down menu) or send CSF a check by mail. Your gift is tax deductible. Thank you for your help in kids experiencing Christ at summer camp. We’ll be sure to keep you updated on their stories.
Thank you to the children of Victor and Bea, for their vision in establishing this Christian camp scholarship fund. Through their generosity, many children have been positively impacted for Christ. Will you join what they began?
Last year, CSF added a new web site to our communication process. We also started a 
Protect 101. Statistics indicate that 70% of the people in the US don’t have a will or trust. You should actually have both. This seminar teaches you the basics of providing for and protecting your family through your estate. Watch for upcoming seminars in your area and if you’d like one for your church, please let us know.
CSF is blessed to be a part of this effort. We had a booth at convention where we showed some of our new loan projects and the exciting new emphasis on legacy planning. If you didn’t attend convention this year, please consider attending next year and if you aren’t a candidate, come to the worship service on Friday night.