Campus by the Sea
Encyclopedia
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
camp operated by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is an inter-denominational, evangelical Christian, student-led ministry which for the past 70 years has been dedicated to establishing witnessing communities on U.S. college and university campuses...
and is located on Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
. The camp was founded in 1951 by Mel Friesen and can now host 250 people. CBS offers the chance for people to take a break from their regular lives so they can study the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, rest and play. The camp offers a number of recreational activities, including swimming, fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....
, table tennis
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
, volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
, kayaking
Kayaking
Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving across water. Kayaking and canoeing are also known as paddling. Kayaking is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle...
, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, horseshoes
Horseshoes
Horseshoes is an outdoor game played between two people using four horseshoes and two throwing targets set in a sandbox area. The game is played by the players alternating turns tossing horseshoes at stakes in the ground, which are traditionally placed 40 feet apart...
, shuffleboard
Shuffleboard
Shuffleboard, more precisely deck shuffleboard, and also known as shuffle-board, shovelboard, shovel-board and shove-board [archaic], is a game in which players use broom-shaped paddles to push weighted pucks, sending them gliding down a narrow and elongated court, with the purpose of...
, and has a play yard for children.
CBS hosts groups of InterVarsity college students from various campuses in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
during the year, primarily in fall and spring through early summer ("Fall Conference" and "Chapter Camp", respectively). Additionally, CBS hosts Long Beach Marine Institute ("LBMI") and Catalina Island Marine Institute
Catalina Island Marine Institute
The Catalina Island Marine Institute is a non-profit educational program run by Guided Discoveries on Santa Catalina Island, California.It is the host to approximately 15,000 students a year, who visit it in school-organized trips and summer camps...
("CIMI"), both outdoor education institutes, during the spring and fall. During the summers, CBS hosts family camps and high school camps, monitored by Paul and Virginia Friesen.
CBS is often noted as the birthplace of the "Mark Study", an in-depth inductive study of the Gospel of Mark
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
. The originator of the inductive method (and co-founder of CBS) is Paul Byer. Paul was a graduate of the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
and served on staff with InterVarsity there for many years. His original Mark manuscripts (along with teaching notes and other documents) can now be found on display in the library of CBS' brand-new building, named the "Crow's Nest", which opened in late summer, 2006.
History
Campus By the Sea has gone through many stages of development since its founding. 1980 marked a major turning point in the life of the camp. After torrential downpours in the early months of 1980, the narrow valley in which the facilities are located was flooded. The swiftly moving creekStream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
which normally ran along one side of valley, overran its banks, washing eight cabins and buildings out to sea. The fresh water plumbing
Plumbing
Plumbing is the system of pipes and drains installed in a building for the distribution of potable drinking water and the removal of waterborne wastes, and the skilled trade of working with pipes, tubing and plumbing fixtures in such systems. A plumber is someone who installs or repairs piping...
was destroyed, and the camp was on the edge of ruin. Some thought that the time to close it down had come.
However, those loyal to the camp rallied to see that it was cleaned up and renovated. Frantic preparations began that spring for the summer camping season. Fund raising and blueprints had already began for a new dining facility/multi-purpose building, and soon volunteer and professional construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
teams arrived to make this a reality.
The new building, which would be dubbed "The Lighthouse" for its first-in-camp use of Edison electricity, upgraded the service that Campus by the Sea was able to offer. (Prior to construction of the Lighthouse, camp had relied upon generators for its power needs) A "winterized" facility (that is, insulated
Building insulation
building insulation refers broadly to any object in a building used as insulation for any purpose. While the majority of insulation in buildings is for thermal purposes, the term also applies to acoustic insulation, fire insulation, and impact insulation...
), the addition of "The Lighthouse" and some enclosed cabins enabled the camp to extend its booking dates late into the fall
Autumn
Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....
, and to start much earlier in the spring. A core of year-round staff was hired and retained to meet the needs of this expanded camping schedule.
The rest of the '80s would be a time of continued development at Campus by the Sea. Two historic cabins, "Rock Cod" and "Sea Horse" were insulated, wired with electricity, and expanded, in order to better house the year-round staff. Electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
and telephone line
Telephone line
A telephone line or telephone circuit is a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system...
s expanded during the '80s as well. A permanent pier
Pier
A pier is a raised structure, including bridge and building supports and walkways, over water, typically supported by widely spread piles or pillars...
set on pilings was installed in the winter of '86/ '87, replacing the rope-and-pulley shuttle system which had been the means of bringing campers from boat to shore for over 35 years. This, along with a central bathroom-shower pavilion built in 1990, prepared the camp for year-round use. (However, the camp still usually closes down for 2 months, from mid-December to mid-February. This is usually the worst weather season for Catalina due to high waves and downpours.)
Shed
A shed is typically a simple, single-storey structure in a back garden or on an allotment that is used for storage, hobbies, or as a workshop....
was also built outside the main part of camp to provide a safe work area for mechanics
Mechanics
Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment....
in which to service the numerous boats and heavy equipment that are so imperative to the camp's operation.
In May 2007, wildfires on Santa Catalina Island
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
came dangerously close to the camp and threatened several buildings. Luckily, at seemingly the last moment, winds shifted and the camp escaped relatively unscathed.