Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Editorial

If you walked onto the grounds of Hargis Christian Camp a few months ago, you wouldn’t recognize it today.

That’s because of tireless days and nights of hard work from Aaron Knight and his wife Kellie.

For the last few years, Aaron had been on a mission to save the camp, which had served as a Christian camp since 1965 until closing a few years ago.

Knight, however, had seen the camp’s impact firsthand and felt called to preserve it so lives could continue to be changed.

With that, he poured the next three years of his life into keeping the camp alive.

Now, as of June, the kids are back and lives are being changed.

In a very short period of time, from the start of the year until June, Aaron and Kellie have spent every weekend and several days each week working to revive the camp to get it ready for the camp to return this summer.

Now, it’s a completely new place.

While keeping the charm and beauty of the camp, buildings have been renovated and repainted, outdoor equipment has been drastically upgraded, amenities are now top notch and there are even all new mattresses for every camp and retreat that happens on the property at Hargis.

The Knights are the driving force behind it, but they would be the first to tell you it has been a team effort.

Every step of the way, there has been someone there to donate. Whether it be time to help renovate or spruce up the camp or donating money or items, residents of Chelsea, Shelby County and across the state and country have gone above and beyond in helping them accomplish their goal.

And it’s all because Aaron and his wife, who is running the camp, had a vision for what happened during the camp’s first week of this summer.

In six days, six kids were baptized during Hargis’s welcome back for campers.

That made all the hard work and exhausting hours put into rejuvenating the camp more than worth it.

The kids may not fully understand the impact they are having on the Knights or the camp, but those moments and seeing lives change in front of their lives is a moment they will never forget.

The old saying, “If you build it, they will come” really applies here. But not only will they come, lives will be changed.