Seven-year-old Larry Stewart was very mischievous, always dreaming up new forms of entertainment—like the time he rounded up the neighborhood cats and placed them in one trailer home! He says, “I was one of those super-ballistic, hyper kids. On a scale of one to ten, I was a 97. I was so hyper as a child my mom would say it was like a nuclear reactor on the verge of exploding at any moment. They tried to slow me down on Ritalin, but I ate that stuff like it was candy.”
One summer Larry’s mom put him on a plan to visit his Aunt Sally in South Paris, Maine. Apparently, he says, his Aunt Sally thought she could deal with him—but she could not. After his second day there, Larry says he had one of those outbursts of uncontrolled energy, and that is when he shattered one of her prize antique lamps. Fortunately, Aunt Sally heard about Camp Lawroweld, and she thought it would be a good thing for him to try. He says, “It was the perfect place for me—and, of course, I loved it!”
Larry remembers learning how to water-ski and ride a horse for the first time. He says, “I remember eating meat—that wasn’t really meat—and it bounced as you chewed it.” He also remembers getting first place in the “See Who Can Go the Longest Without a Shower Contest.” “I won that hands down,” Larry recalls. He also remembers canoe trips, the hikes up Mount Tumbledown, eating in the lodge, building campfires, learning how to swim, and even getting into a fight or two.
Larry says many of the staff members made a huge impact on him while at Camp Lawroweld. He fondly recalls the bakery lady who shared cookies and bread with him when he showed up at the back door to the kitchen. This helped to make him popular with his friends back at the cabin.
These experiences were all thrilling and meaningful, but Larry credits his camp experience with giving his life a new direction. He shares, “The thing I remember most was meeting Jesus for the first time. Herb Wrate was the camp director. Gilbert Goodall was my counselor. Charlie Simms was the waterfront director.” He saw something in those people he never saw back home, and he “wanted to be like them more than anything,” Larry shares.
On Friday evening at worship, campers were invited to surrender their lives to Jesus. Larry recalls running “down to the shoreline with a couple of cabin buddies, and we were baptized right there.”
Former staff member Craig Morgan shares his memories of Larry in I Remember Lawroweld.1 Craig wrote, “When we worked at Lawroweld as boys’ and girls’ directors, Larry Stewart would come, not just for one week, but for weeks at a time; and if anyone were a terror, it was Larry. If there was a fight, or someone got into trouble, you would know Larry was going to be around.
“One year after camp was all over, I had to go down and clean out a cabin. I found a little note underneath a bed, and it was a note Larry had written to his grandfather. … He wrote … telling him all about camp, how good it was, how good-looking the lifeguards were, and near the end of the letter he wrote, ‘And you know Grandpa, they keep the Sabbath here. We should keep the Sabbath, too.’”
Larry returned home and told his mother about the commitment he made to Jesus while at camp and his desire to attend church. He reflects, “Praise God! She had no problem with that. She even gave me offering money.” From that point on, whenever Larry visited Maine in the summer he attended Camp Lawroweld.
When at home in Michigan, Larry connected with the Benton Harbor Church and Edith B. Garrett Elementary School. It was from friendships established there he learned of Camp Au Sable in Grayling, Michigan. Larry made his trek to Camp Au Sable one summer and once again experienced acceptance and friendship by the staff.
When it came time to attend high school, Larry’s church family in Michigan kick-started his education opportunity at Great Lakes Adventist Academy (GLAA). With the help of his mother and the work opportunities provided by the Cedar Lake furniture mill, Larry could return to GLAA each year. While at GLAA, at the age of 18, Larry studied the Bible to fully understand the significance of his previous decision to walk with Jesus. He was re-baptized and has never looked back.
Each summer Larry’s heart for young people drew him back to Camp Au Sable, and soon he graduated from camper to staff. He became an icon—loved by camper and staff alike. Affectionately dubbed “Larry-Boy,” he was known for his great sense of humor, unique voice impersonations and noises, terrific videography, daring water sports, rodeo clowning, never-to-be-forgotten snow mobile driving, practical jokes, and his love for Jesus.
Larry loves camping ministry. He shares, “It was a privilege to be a part of Au Sable’s ministry for 16 summers. I grew up as an only child, but camp provided all the brothers and sisters I could have ever wanted. The idea that a camper just might see Jesus in me and decide to give their life to Him is what kept me going back. Yes, it is fun, but I see it as an evangelistic crusade, a place where Satan loses and Jesus wins—a little Heaven on Earth!”
While working at Camp Au Sable in the summer of 2000, Larry was cast as pastor for the Friday evening program, “The Wedding.” At the end of the presentation, Larry had the opportunity to invite campers to come forward if they wanted to make Jesus first in their lives. He says this experience helping kids give their hearts to the Lord provided the pinnacle in his camping experiences.
Call to Action: Sharing Jesus
Larry obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcasting from Southwestern Adventist University and an Applied Ministries Certification from the Black Hills School of Evangelism in South Dakota. He has since had a variety of ministry opportunities, including directing video projects in places like Papua New Guinea, Russia, Cambodia, and Africa. Larry has been a Bible worker, academy teacher, an assistant boys’ dean, producer of Christian television shows and commercials, and participated three summers in camp ministry at Sunset Lake Camp in Washington. He now resides in Fletcher, North Carolina, with his wife Ruth.
Larry continues to be used by the Lord wherever He leads because he has fully consecrated his life to helping people of all ages know the God he first learned about as a young boy of seven at Camp Lawroweld. That experience changed his life, and now he wants to share with others what was given to him by so many dedicated Christians.
Diane Thurber is the president of Christian Record Services, Inc. (CRS), in Lincoln, Nebraska, a nonprofit ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America that provides camper experiences through National Camps for Blind Children. To learn more, visit https://ChristianRecord.org. This story was originally published in the Atlantic Union Gleaner (June 2002) and reprinted with permission (adapted) in the Lake Union Herald (May 2011).
- Bettle, Ruth. I Remember Lawroweld. Print World: Portland, Maine. (1994)
