There are recreational vehicles that serve as a home away from home – and there are RVs that are home.
There are retirees – and there are people who volunteer their “retired” years to actively serve the larger community of believers.
There are campers – and there are campers on mission.
Tim Hughes (left), director of White Oak Conference Center, talks with Jos? and Lynette Stephens under the awning of their RV, stationed at White Oak’s new RV park while the Stephenses volunteer there.Jos? and Lynette Stephens, of Moncks Corner First Church, exceed on all three counts – and in March and April, their beneficiary has been White Oak Conference Center.
The soft-spoken, unassuming couple, with servant hearts the size of their 40-foot RV, pulled into White Oak’s brand-new, 15-site RV park in mid-March and immediately went to work: landscaping, carpentry, and any other task the White Oak staff asked of them for the next three weeks, clocking in just about the same hours as the paid staff each weekday.
The Stephenses, 53 and 57 years old, sold their home last summer after Jos? retired, sold the bulk of their possessions, within weeks purchased the RV and heavy-duty truck to pull it, and set off for the West, where, after two months of vacationing (“elk hunting,” admits Jos?) in Colorado, they began their new career of volunteering at Baptist churches and institutions across the country. The hit list so far: Glorieta Conference Center in New Mexico, Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina (where they will return in April), Pine Hill Baptist Retreat (the retreat center of the Pee Dee Association), Connie Maxwell Children’s Home, and now White Oak.
“Every day is different, and the flexibility – not always knowing what’s next on the schedule – has been a challenge, but also exciting,” says Jos?, who worked as a forester with Santee Cooper. “We’re really blessed to be able to retire at relatively young ages, debt-free, thank God, and in good health; we love the opportunities we have to volunteer.”
Adds Lynette, “We’ve gotten such a great reception everywhere we’ve been. We feel really ministered to ourselves.”
Lynette and Jos? Stephens display the logo of their new “career” on the tailgate of the truck that pulls their new home (RV).For his part, Tim Hughes, director of White Oak, is quick to point out not just the projects Jos? and Lynette have worked on, but also their willingness to do whatever they’re asked, and to do it well. He adds that a place for just such volunteers – whether one-night or long-term – is one of the main reasons the center opened the RV park. Visitors who want to take advantage of the retreat center’s several miles of equestrian trails are another group they wanted to better accommodate.
The Stephenses are part of the South Carolina chapter of the national Campers on Mission group, a ministry coordinated and supported by the North American Mission Board. Campers on Mission are individuals or families who minister “on the way” – while traveling with their tents or RVs – in campgrounds, fairgrounds, raceways, parks and churches. Sometimes the travel is specifically for the purpose of such ministry, such as what the Stephenses do.
At White Oak, Jos? cut and installed new wainscoting in the group house, and he and Lynette both worked on landscaping, especially in preparation for an 800-person conference held the last weekend in March.
And the transition from stationary to 100 percent mobile life, and regular work schedule to spontaneity?
“I wasn’t sure how that would be,” Jos? confesses. “I had a good job I liked, and I know that was from the Lord. But every morning now when I wake up, I’m excited. I’m excited that I get to go to work for the Lord.
“Really, I’m happy as a lark.”