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August 2026 Update

And just like that… summer has ended. ☀️At the beginning of summer, 10 weeks on the summer schedule didn’t seem like much. But as the weeks went by, there were definitely times when it felt super busy, and the thought of “When are we finally done with this season?” crossed my mind more than once.And now, we were at the end, wondering where the time went and saying, “Wow… how has summer flown by so quickly?”What felt like a long 10 weeks at the beginning somehow turned into a summer filled with memories, busy days, laughs, challenges, and plenty of moments to look back on. And now it’s over until next summer. 💛🌻

And just like that… we have finished Summer #33! Whoa… 33 summers! And even crazier to think that we have been here for 30 years of service. What an incredible joy and blessing that has been.It’s actually quite funny to me walking around and hearing the occasional, “You’re old, hey old man!” 😂 But honestly, I take it with pride. There’s something pretty special about getting older and being able to look back at all the years, memories, people, and experiences that have been part of this journey .Over these past 30 years, we have watched God work in our lives and provide for us in so many ways. Through the busy seasons, the challenging days, the unexpected moments, and all the blessings in between, God has been faithful. When I look back, the only thing I can really be is thankful. And I look forward to these next many years working here, and see what God will do .

This summer, there were 37 salvation decisions and over 160 life decisions for Christ. That is what we recorded in the first several weeks. The first 3 weeks was camp sponsored by Ironwood, and the last 6 were custom camps for different churches.

As we finished this summer, I was especially thankful to finally head out on vacation, slow down, rest, and spend some much-needed time with family. There was sleeping… playing games… more sleeping… eating junk food… and just enjoying being together. 😂 We spent a week with Tyler, Alyssa, and Oliver at the Sequoia Meadows facility in the mountains. The first couple of days our church, Faith Baptist Church of Cherokee Rd, did a family camp. We had lots of fun, playing, listening to Gods word, and crafts. Yes we did crafts. We made our own walking sticks. It was quite fun and then I came home and spent money on some wood whittling tools. (another statement of your getting old)

Current Working Project

This summer has been all about the Barn Project. If you’re not aware of what’s been going on, let me share the story. A couple of years ago, we decided to move the horses and all of their things north of the barn to make room for a new facility. But God didn’t have that facility in the plans. Instead, He gave us Sequoia Meadow Christian Camp. That left us with a barn that was basically just sitting there. Then the idea came up: “Why don’t we turn the barn into a meeting room and play area?” A few churches and individuals got excited about the idea. Then came a chunk of money to get things started. And then came the statement: “Ben, this is your project!” And this is where I’ve been for quite a while now. 😂 If you remember what the barn looked like before, the side that was covered in plywood was filled with horse stalls and storage rooms for all the horse equipment. We had to jack the barn up on stilts, remove all of the stalls, and replace them with beams and square posts. Then we had to get the floor ready for concrete.The barn now has a concrete floor, new wiring for lights and future lighting, and two new bathrooms that are going in. I’m hopeful that in the next few weeks, we’ll have the second bathroom finished. And then… we’ll be out of money and it’ll be time to move on to the next project. 😂 It has been a lot of work, but it has also been amazing to watch how God has redirected the plans and provided along the way. What started as a barn that no longer had a purpose is slowly becoming a place where people can gather, play, meet, fellowship, and hear the Word of God.

Fall Schedule

As we close out summer, we are already heading into our fall season of ministry! 🍂 This year, we have 22 ministry crew members joining us through the Defined group and the Ministry Bound group. We are so thankful for each one of them and excited to have them here helping us serve and minister at camp. The next 14 weeks are going to be busy! Our fall schedule includes:

  • 4 Family Camps
  • 6 Women’s Retreats
  • 7 Men’s Retreats
  • 8 Youth Camps
  • 3 Father-Son Retreats
  • 3 Couples Retreats
  • 1 School Convention

That’s a lot of ministry packed into 14 weeks, and we are excited to see what God is going to do! We are praying for full camps, but even more than that, we are praying that God will work in the hearts and lives of every camper who comes through our gates. We know that the schedules, activities, meals, and programs are important, but ultimately, God is the One who changes lives. Would you pray with us over these next 14 weeks? Pray for full camps, strength and wisdom for our staff and ministry crew, safety throughout the season, and most importantly, that God would use every retreat, camp, and gathering to impact lives for Him.

Family News

Family news is always fun!

Kayla is enrolled at the Institute of Culinary Education in the Los Angeles area. She’ll be doing online classes for the first 14 months and then head down there for in-person training. Right now, she’s studying the business side of the culinary world. After that, she’ll move into the Pastry and Baking degree. She’ll be living at home while she does the online portion and is hopefully going to find a side job along the way.

Jennifer is as busy as ever. We are taking care of her mom full-time, and then there are all the kids to keep us busy! Tyler and Alyssa’s little guy, Oliver, is here quite often, along with several other kids from camp who are under five. It seems like we are buying little toys again — lots of them! 😂 The living room even has a toy box now. Between Grandma, the kids, camp, and everything else Jennifer wants to do, there is never a shortage of things happening around here. Life stays busy, but it’s a good kind of busy. We’re thankful for our family, thankful for the time we get with the kids, and thankful for all the little moments that fill our days. We are also excited to have Erieck and Jolynn here with us in the states for a little while. They will be heading back across seas here in a couple weeks. Pray for them as them continue to raise support.

Please pray for us. Pray for full camps, safety in our projects, Gods protection of family, the kids and grandkids. We are very thankful for the many years God has allowed us to be here. I look forward to many more years of service here at camp.

Ben and Jennifer

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Happy Thanksgiving

Hello there. We would like to update you with lots that has been going on over this fall. O my, has it been a whirlwind. As we finish up our fall season and sit here, we are Thankful for what God has been teaching us and the blessings He has heaped upon us.

CAMP

Great things have been happening with camp. We have been busy serving people, from Ironwood sponsored to custom camps. We have had around 35 different groups come in since September, with a average of 2-3 groups each week. Ironwood has hosted women’s retreats, men’s retreat, marriage retreats, youth retreats, and a teachers convention. We heard of testimonies of salvation and people making decisions to do right. What a blessing to hear when people say they are going to follow God no matter what.

Sequoia Meadow

Ironwoods new Sequoia Meadows facility is starting to fill their calendar and making summer plans. We helped close and winterize the facility a couple of weeks ago as we anticipate the cold months ahead. All of the cabins are boarded up and the water is drained. “Why do we have to close up the cabins?” you ask. Great question! Sequoia Meadows is in the Sequoia National Forest which is home to black bears and is also expecting lots of snow this winter. To protect the cabins we have to make sure they are closed, windows are boarded up, and the water is off and drained out of the pipes so they don’t freeze up. Imagine God’s sense of humor giving us desert dwellers a forest camp! We will head back up in April to reopen the camp and the first week of May we will send a team up to start getting ready for the summer. Be sure check out the website: https://www.ironwoodcamp.org/sequoia-meadow/ and see what they have going on. Also check out this video. https://youtu.be/kYGyUeYn5iU?si=nBVvADAHUbGGH2Ui We are excited that Tyler and Alyssa will be heading up there for the summer season to work. Can’t wait to see how God works up there this summer.

Bens Projects

Ben has been working on several projects. This summer he helped with the building of the new horse area building 2 new round pens and a new arena, added lights, built a medicine room and wash rack for the horses, a hitching post and remolded a room for the horsemanship camp to meet in the summer. It was a project that started in May and finish up in October. Ben has now moved to a different project at the old barn. The barn (which was a part of the horsemanship program) will be renovated into a meeting room/activity area. The barn is a 90’x110′ area. We will take out the horse stalls, rebuild a couple walls, and then add a concrete floor. The hope is that by end of February we will have the concrete in and have it enclosed with a new roof and end walls. The next step would ge to start working on the cooling side of things. There will be a couple of mission teams here in January and February to help.

Family

Things are going good with us. God has blessed us and contiues to take care of us. Jennifer has been busy taking care of her mom, and tried to volunteer down at the school for a hour each day. She has been hosting women’s bible study at the house and then for thanksgiving we had pie brunch. Pie brunch, what is that? I am glad you asked! Thanksgiving day is all about fellowship, eating, and giving thanks to God for your many blessings! When you eat your turkey and potatoes, you are usually so full, you don’t want to eat that pie. So many years ago, Jen decide she wanted to make the pies earlier and we would have brunch with mostly pie. Well, it has grown and grown. We started inviting people over and this year we had 81 people here for brunch. We had 24 pies, eggs, bacon, sausage, and fruit. It was so much fun.

Kayla is in her senior year. Whoa. She is doing dual enrollment this semester with Pensacola Christian College as well. She is planning on heading there next year to study nursing. We are excited for her as she follows God. She and her classmate Caitlyn are planning their senior trip for March. They are hoping to do to a missions trip to Indonesia. If your interested in helping her, here is a link. https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-kayla-and-caitlins-missions-trip?attribution_id=sl:746236d1-966a-4e26-8e86-493e4018682b&lang=en_US&ts=1758241068&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_content=amp13_t1-amp17_ta&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=facebook

I read a book a couple weeks ago. Dark Clouds Deep Mercy. It talks about lament, and I have been challenged by this book, because I can come to God and bring my hurt, BUT then I have to remember how good God is. I love the Psalms when David would make statements about what he was going thru, then in the next verses he says, BUT God you are good, merciful, loving. As I read this my heart was challenged. Ps 77 is a good one, where the writer says how he cried out to God, sought the Lord, remembered God, complained, and then remembers the works of our Lord, the wonders of old, and then declares how great is our God. I would recommend this book. God is so, so, so GOOD

We look forward to finishing out 2025. We have a few more camps in the next couple of weeks and then we will head into some vacation time and spend it with family here at home. We are thankful for the ministry that God has called us into, and we are thankful for your support. Both financial and prayerfully.

Ben, Jennifer, Kayla

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New Year

And just like that, the new year is here. We hope you had some great time with family and friends and spending time with our God. Christmas vacation was a bit different for Jennifer and I. The kids are spread out all over the world so it was a bit more quiet this year. Which we were glad to slow down a little. Kayla got to spend some time with Mamaw and Papaw and flew to Greenville to be with Tyler and Alyssa. She had a wonderful time, she learned to longboard, went on walks with Alyssa and played lots of games. Her only complaint was she didn’t see the sun except for about 10 minutes. Oh the little things we get excited for!! That left Jen and I at home and we did some remodel in our bathroom, it’s almost done.

We jumped back to work on Jan. 2. We had a mission team that came from Alaska, South Carolina and Nebraska. We are remolding the Broken I Ranch stores. The building was built in 1982, so you can imagine how straight the walls and floors are, insert sarcasm. With that old of a building and living in a area that has earth quakes, its just a bit off in places, so you have to work around that. We are expanding the store, adding two new bathrooms and a seating area. If a building could tell stories, this one would have some great ones. A few just from my time of being here. 1. I dedicated my life to serving in ministry full time. 2. One summer as I was working I got in trouble (I know its hard for you to believe) but sat in Mr. Ricks office and got a “talking to.” 3. I had a camper one summer when it was our meeting room, that started to walk out to accept Christ as his Savior, but he turned around and choose not too, his name is Chris. I will not forget that and the hurt, sadness, and crying I did that night. I still pray for him, have no idea where he is today. That building was also my church for a time until we moved into our current building. If walls could talk, there is no doubt that building would be able to share blessing of people accepting Christ as their savior as well. It has been a school, church, meeting hall, registration, offices, nursery, game room, coffee shop and I am sure I am missing something.

40 40

40 40, well what is that. Every year in January the biggest thing people due is….Oh the New Years Resolution. Some people call it look at the past year and plan, as the Lord wills, the new year. Well, I am not much a person that does “New Year Resolutions.” But this year we decided to do something different. I saw on a Facebook feed a thing called 40 40. So, I looked it up and it intrigued me. Well what is it. Walk/Run a mile a day for 40 days and study through a book of the Bible and a few other “challenge ” type things. I am not here to promote them, but I am here to promote our God and spending time with our God. As of right now there are about 20 of our friends and family doing this. How it works for us is, I spend time each morning, listening to the Bible reading for that day. I go to work, then when I get home, Jen, Kayla and I go on our 1 mile walk, and then at the end of the day, the 3 of us read it and spend time in prayer. I would encourage you, if you don’t have a consistent relationship with our God, that you would make that a priority in your life. Our God, who created us, gave us life, and gives us salvation to spend eternity with Him, why would I not want to spend time with Him?

Summer Camp is coming. Be sure to save your spot.

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Summer Update

Dear friends,

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You have known my sitting down and rising up. You understand my thoughts afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.” – Psalm 139:1-6

These words have been a source of encouragement and challenge for me. He knows all about the hard things, and He is protecting me in all directions at the same time. He knows my thoughts, actions, and reactions, and I am responsible for how I respond. May God be glorified in my actions and reactions!

We’ve been through a season of hardship, but we’ve also experienced some sweet blessings this summer. I won’t go into detail about the hard things because I know we each face struggles that either refine us into a better image of our Savior or tempt us to give up. But we keep going, keep trusting, and keep serving, because He is worth it.

Our summer began on June 3 with 55 college-aged summer staff and 30 high school-aged leadership students. After a week of intense training, we began three weeks of teen, junior, and horsemanship camps. God blessed us with 23 salvations and a total of 247 spiritual decisions based on the truth of His Word.

The next week, we said goodbye to a few staff members and welcomed some new ones. For the following three weeks, we focused on serving local churches in ways that met their specific needs, and we heard of an additional 20+ salvations, bringing the total to over 330 spiritual decisions. To God be the glory!

In July, we celebrated the marriage of our middle daughter, Alyssa, to Tyler LaFlamme. We are so thankful for Tyler’s desire to follow Jesus and love Alyssa. We couldn’t be happier for them. All of our kids were there, except for Eric, Jolynn’s husband. We cherished every moment, especially getting to know Tyler’s family and enjoying friends, whom God has graciously brought into our lives.

Tyler & Alyssa LaFlamme

In August, we welcomed 18 young adults to our ministry crew. It’s encouraging to see their fresh excitement and energy for serving. Ben is continuing to work with the program team and they have been super busy running camp. I continue to care for my mom, serve in the nursery ministry at church, and volunteer at women’s retreats.

As we enter the fall, here’s how you can pray for us:

• Spiritual decisions during the fall season

• Campers to fill our camp

• Wisdom as we transition into parenting adult children: Jolynn and Eric in Indonesia, Gavin in San Diego, Alyssa and Tyler in Greenville, and Kayla finishing high school here

• My mom, Rella, as she battles Alzheimer’s, and wisdom for me as I care for her

Here are some of our praises:

• Alyssa’s wonderful wedding

• All the spiritual decisions made this summer, to God’s glory

• Safety throughout the summer

• God’s provision for our health, food, and material needs

Thank you for your prayers and for walking alongside us in this season.

In Christ,

Ben & Jennifer Magee

Videos, Videos, Videos

Check this out!! Our IT guy, whom we call Bodie, that’s a long O not a short O :), has been making videos. So we want to make sure your seeing his handy work, and we want you to see what camps are coming up. Check it out!! OK—so I have to talk about ON Target—That’s one of my mostest mostest mostest favorite camps. Its a 24 hour shooting camp. But what makes it so much fun you ask? Great question-its people coming to fellowship with each other and shoot, and they share their firearms so you can try out some pretty neat weapons. My favorite was when a guy let me look through his thermal image scope and I could see the heat signatures of even the targets. I then asked how much it was, and quickly realized that goes on my bucket list. Its a sweet time of fellowship, shooting and being around God.

The second video is all about summer. Our summer staff are amazing. They work so hard so that the young people who come to camp can have fun, fellowship, eat, and hear God’s word. We are always looking for summer staff, if your interested, check it out. Just as a side note–Jennifer and I met at camp, Tyler and Alyssa met at camp so who know, you might meet your future spouse.

The third video-just some fun things we tried this summer, some went well and some failed. But we had fun!! Enjoy