The impact that McCall Royal Ambassador (R.A.) Camp, now called Camp McCall, has had on the lives of South Carolina Baptist boys, men and families was evidenced in part on July 18 when nearly 600 persons returned to the sacred mountain to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the camp.
Crowds gather to enter the chapel at Camp McCall for the 50th anniversary celebration.Royal Ambassadors is the missions education and action organization for Baptist boys ages 6-18. Since Camp McCall moved to its current location in 1960, more than 112,394 boys have spent a week enjoying the majestic setting, worship, mission studies, fellowship and recreation with other youth from around the Palmetto State.
Prior to the establishment of Camp McCall, RAs attended Camp Rawls near Wagener.
When Camp McCall, expected to open for the 1959 season, was not ready, North Greenville Junior College (now North Greenville University) became the campus for the lively and adventurous boys’ gathering. Camp McCall was known for the first five years as Camp Sunset, named for the small township of Sunset, S.C., which remains the Camp McCall address.
Camp McCall is named for its original donor, R.C. McCall of Easley, who gave 99 acres to build the camp. Additional gifts and land purchases enabled the camp to add buffer property and to expand the camp site to its current 310 acres. Located at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains near the South Carolina/North Carolina border, Camp McCall is the largest Royal Ambassador Camp in the nation and the only one accredited by the American Camp Association.
Barbara and Cliff Satterwhite pose with the plaque naming the Satterwhite Chapel in recognition of their combined 60 years of service.Among the nearly 600 who attended the McCall 50th Anniversary celebration were 178 former staffers. Many camp experiences of the staffers and campers were shared during the celebration ceremonies held in the chapel and in an adjoining overflow tent. It was quickly obvious that Camp McCall experiences were life-changing for many young men and boys.
The McCall family tree keeps growing. Every person associated with the camp is considered a member of the McCall family. There is a large number of staffers who have married the daughters, sisters and nieces of other staff members. More than two dozen sets of brothers have served on the camp staff across the years, and there are numerous other family connections within the extended McCall family. Many of the boys who attended camp for years chose to return to work as staff. Some staffers attended camp for as many as 12 years, and others have served 13 years or longer.
Enjoying the festivities is Lloyd Batson of Pickens, who served for 33 years as camp pastor at McCall.The chapel, which sits atop a mountain overlooking the camp, is one of South Carolina’s most beautiful sites. And the chapel has special meaning to every person who has encountered its beauty and tranquility. In the chapel, hundreds of young men and boys – most now leaders in their respective churches, denomination and professions – have made life-changing decisions. The camping season, which just ended, recorded 556 decisions, including professions of faith, full-time Christian service commitments and rededications. Since Camp McCall’s first season, more than 23,198 Christian decisions have been made on this mountain.
One special event at the anniversary celebration was an announcement that the South Carolina Baptist Convention was naming the chapel at McCall “The Satterwhite Chapel” in honor of Cliff and Barbara Satterwhite. Cliff is Camp McCall’s longest-tenured camp director (35 years) and wife Barbara served for 25 years as business administrator. Cliff is an ACA certified camp director.
Rudy Mancke, left, Camp McCall staffer from 1962-67, and now South Carolina’s state naturalist and a University of South Carolina professor, visits with Eddie Pettit, camp director/manager. Mancke, known for his love of snakes and all of nature, wanted to “return something to the camp,” so he brought along and released a non-poisonous snake on the camp property.“We could not be more surprised or honored,” Satterwhite said of the move to name the chapel in their honor, “This is indeed a holy place. So many staffers come back to the chapel during ‘rough’ times in their lives. They leave notes in the chapel visitors’ log – remembrances, thanksgiving, prayers, confessions. Some staffers have proposed to their fianc?es in the chapel. And every year, two or three staffers choose the chapel at McCall as the location for their wedding,” Satterwhite said, “It’s a really special place.”
Lloyd Batson, now 86 and “having a ball,” is Camp McCall’s longest-tenured camp pastor. He served for 33 years as pastor “and other assignments.” Batson, former pastor of First Baptist Church, Pickens, also has been president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and served two and a half terms as chairman of the Sunday School Board, SBC. “Nobody ever had a better time than I did at McCall,” Batson said. “Many men tell me they became a Christian under my camp pastor ministry at McCall, and that makes the effort more than worthwhile,” he added.
Camp McCall was born as a vision of the late John A. Farmer, for many years director of the state convention’s Brotherhood department, who dreamed of a camp where men and boys could have a fresh encounter with God and could learn firsthand about ministry and missions opportunities at home and abroad. Staffer David Bennett received the 2009 John Farmer Memorial Scholarship.
Dot Ballew, wife of the late J.C. Ballew, third director of Camp McCall, and her sons Mark, left, and James, right, share Camp McCall memories with Rob Carr, National Royal Ambassador coordinator, NAMB. Two scholarships each year are presented in memory of J.C. Ballew.Camp McCall has had six directors in its 50 year history: J. Cordell Maddox, Mike Chertok, J.C. Ballew, James L. Beacham, N. Clifton Satterwhite (1975-present) and Eddie Pettit (director/manager) since 2006. Hundreds of others have served as assistant directors, maintenance superintendents, business administrators, nurses, dieticians, cooks and other support roles.
Shortly following the close of the 2009 McCall camping season, more than half of the staff left for several weeks’ of hands-on-missions in the U.S., Africa and Peru.