Ridge Haven Prayer Partners:

"Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word..."

   Colossians 4:2, 3a

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I write to you as partners in prayer for Ridge Haven ministries, both in North Carolina and Iowa. Let us truly be devoted to this prayer partnership. Let us ask humbly, boldly for this advancement of His Kingdom.

Current prayer items: [More details @ ridgehaven.org.]

1. Ridge Haven Brevard Winter Camp is December 28 to New Years Day. Junior and Senior Highs. Dr. Henry Krabbendam is the speaker.

2. Ridge Haven Brevard Winter Retreat #1 is January 17 to January 20.

3. Ridge Haven Brevard Winter Retreat #2 is February 14 to 17. Retreats include a variety of activities, both for the church groups, and large groups.

4. Ridge Haven Cono continues to reach out to new activities, including use of facilities for Winter and Spring.

5. New Brevard staff member Jorge Fogaca de Carvalho begins his administrative duties Jan. 1.  Housing needs for this family of five, with the possibility of a new cabin.

6. Long time staff member Grace Hooper is leaving for a new teaching career in Nashville. She will be greatly missed!

7. Ridge Haven intern Quinton Tart is needing to help out at home with family needs. His sister recently died, then his grandfather. He had served us since August.

8. Ridge Haven Cono has a need for two young interns that could commit to living on the Cono campus year round. We also would like to have commitments for summer interns for Cono ministries.

9. Cono's long term maintenance worker, Ted Fangman, is undergoing radiation treatment for the next month. We are praying for his strength and healing.

10. Ridge Haven staff is having some well deserved rest and recovery before Winter Camp. This means time with their families and friends, and renewal with the Lord.

11. Ridge Haven ministries is so blessed also with our CSI counselors and interns. Pray for the recruitment needs, and blessings upon these servants of Christ.

12. As always, pray for opening doors of camp, retreat and conference opportunities with our churches and groups. For the Board and the staff's vision for Ridge Haven to be realized!

13. The Ridge Haven Board also needs prayer for wisdom, vision, unity and clarity as we work along side Wallace and his staff in planning and direction.

14. We are in the beginning phase of a new, exciting faith-step of a new financial campaign to add to our facilities and infrastructure at both camps as we are challenged by campuses' infrastructure needs, the reality a fallen world, and the great need of the Gospel for young people and adults. We are grateful for our financial partners who continue to share our vision with sacrificial gifts and prayer.

Such a long, challenging list! But our God is greater still! Thank you for coming along side Ridge Haven ministries in prayer. God is opening doors of opportunity at Ridge Haven campuses!

We rejoice in His birth, His death and resurrection, and His Kingdom!

In Christ's grace,

ANDY WHITE

for the Board.

-- 

J. Andrew White

423.943.3903 (c)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 107:1

The work at Cono continues, with camps and conferences. Three young people from Illinois received Christ in the past few months.

Teachers we forgot to list

We recently sent a list of all-time Cono faculty, but accidentally left these saints off the list. Not to be forgotten:

Elizabeth Caldwell

Sally Gaebler (deceased)

Dorla Hilmer

Mark Pett (deceased)

John and Jinhi Roskamp

Mae Roskamp (deceased)

Marialena Turner

Sharla Zasadny

We are asking for gifts and prayers – to help the new Cono.
Ridge Haven is doing its part...

We want to help them.

Donate online HERE

Designate for RH Cono.
Some have already started a recurring gift, which is very helpful.

 
Mailing address for checks written out to:

RH Cono, 215 Ridge Haven Road, Brevard, NC 28712

______________________________

Our Contact Information
Ridge Haven Cono (www.ridgehaven.org)
215 Ridge Haven Road
Brevard, NC, 28712
828-702-9510

A Great Weekend at Cono

Good morning…somehow it feels like Christmas morning at Cono…snow is on the ground and we are waiting on Westkirk Presbyterian Church’s youth group of 26 to arrive this evening from Des Moines. They are an Independent Presbyterian Church.

While we have had another local small group use us this fall, this just seems different to me. It’s like a wave of a new beginning of the Lord’s blessings on Cono. It doesn’t get any better for me than the Lord providing us the ability to serve the local community, serve the churches in the area, and be of service to the broader church all in one day…it really is Christmas. I feel like a child all over again opening yet another present with so many more still under the tree of the Lord’s blessings.

Thank you all for your prayers, your work, your support, and most of all your heart’s desire to see Cono once again be a beacon on a hill for all those around her… May the Lord be glorified in this effort and bring many to Himself through this ministry for years and generations to come.

— Wallace Anderson, Exec. Director (written Nov. 1)

All-time list Cono teachers & staff*

Linda Allison
Brian and Sheryl Baker
Pete and Kim Baron
Mark and Linda Belz
Joel and Carol Belz
Andrew and Mary Anna Belz
Sam and Roberta Birchler
Rev. George and Darlene Birchler
Ethan and Rebecca Book
Mark and Heidi Boot
Ellery Breland
Bob and Becky Brown
Joel and Marty Button
Connie Chamberlain
Rev. Adam and Mary Kathryn Christiansen
Will and Margaret Davis
Carol Davis
Tony and Alicia Davy
Shirley Decker
Rev. Hans and Gretchen Deutschmann
Phyllis Deyo
Joel and Melinda Calhoun DiBernardo
Rev. Eric and Debbie Duble
Rev. David V. Dupee
Kenneth and Carolyn Dupee
Matthew and Kathy Eby
Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Eiler
Doug and Greta Eckert
Niki Ellis
Ted and Martie Fangman
Rev. Walt and Carole Gienapp
Aaron and Kristi Gonzalez
Sidonie Graves
Brian and Gretchen Hanks
Joshua and Michelle Haveman
Allison Hicks
Neal and Mandy Howard
Rev. David and Jessica Innes
Tom and Lynn Jahl
Cindy Jones
Steve and Mary Kaufmann
Howard and Glenda Kimball
George and Katherine King
Bruce Klendworth
Arthur and Debbie L'Huillier
Marian Lear
Jim and Alyca Leet
David and Laurie Lempia
Elisabeth Winkler Magnin
Rev. Mike Mahlbacher
Earl & Kathy Manchester
Richard and Nancy Marsceau
Bettie McConnaughhay
Tim and Sheila McConnel
Matthew and Chanel Metzger
Lisa Clark [Bingham] Miller
Ellyne Montgomery
Andy Montgomery
Lucas and Larissa Swanson Neece
Phil and Karen Olin
Harlene Padding
Claudia Peters
Linnea Pett
Gail Prutow
Dennis and Lea Rehberg
Rev. Casey and Victoria Reinkoester
Barbara Reinkoester
Rev. Kent and Mary Beth Seldal
Marilyn Sneller
Hannah Standard
Scott and Vicki Syverson
Dave and Linda Toerper
Esther Uhlenhopp
Nathaniel and Sharon Underwood
Dolores Underwood
Leah Wilson
David and Jann Wilson
Jane Brooks Young
Steve and Rebecca Ziegler

Those with the Lord:
Rev. W. M. Alling
David Allison
Norma Arnold
Rev. Max V. Belz
Jean Belz
Tom Bingham
Ted Bollman
David Davis
Donald Donaldson
Marian Draper
Prue Dupee
Doug Eckardt
Hazel French
Dean French
Robert Kyle
Dorothy Kyle
Lee Malone
Robert Malone Sr.
Rozella Morgan
Rev. Ted Noé
Ruth Noé
Stan Peters
Ken Remer
Maurice Riedesel
Caroline Riedesel
Dorothy Thompson
Arthur Underwood

*If you see someone missing, or want to make contact, email info@friendsofcono.org

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2019 Camps Reached Kids at Cono

Donate online HERE - Designate for RH Cono 

Some have already started a recurring gift, which is very helpful.

We are asking for gifts and prayers  – to help the new Cono.

Ridge Haven is doing its part...Let's help them.

Camps going on this week and next on campus. The future lies before us!

Mailing address for checks written out to: 

RH Cono, 215 Ridge Haven Road, Brevard, NC 28712

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2020 Vision for Cono

from Wallace Anderson, Exec. Director 

I am excited to share with you the 2020 Vision for Ridge Haven Cono. As we continue the work of establishing Cono as a camp and retreat center, we also will begin efforts for year-round ministry to the surrounding area.

While growing numbers and expanded programs are exciting—the incentive for our work continues to be the hope that lives may be changed through the good news of the gospel. Please, even before you continue reading, pray that the Lord will bring many to Himself through this ministry.

The testimonies we have received from those that have attended our first few camps at Cono have encouraged us forward. I recently attended a Northern Illinois Presbytery meeting where pastors reflected on their experience at Ridge Haven Cono this past summer. One pastor shared that three kids in his youth grouped prayed to receive Christ the last night of camp. Afterwards his group sat in a circle for over an hour and a half where a mini “revival” (his word, not mine) happened that has continued to bear fruits. Wow, it doesn’t get any better than this. I am humbled and thrilled to see what God has in store for us.

Continuing to Establish Camps and Retreats

It has been evident for a while that the new work at Cono needs its own designated staff. The geographical distance between the Ridge Haven campuses creates clear limitations. The Lord has been gracious to sustain us while we have managed Cono remotely from Brevard, but continued growth will require a significant on campus presence.

For the past two summers, we have taken a group of our summer staff from Brevard up to Cono to run camp there. This is logistically challenging (to say the least). These staff members work through Friday night camp in Brevard, wake up up early Saturday and travel 15 hours by car to Cono to prepare for camp the following Monday. The Lord has provided – but it is far from ideal.

Vicki Syverson, our part-time operations manager at Cono, has done a fantastic job while she and her husband work full-time as police officers in nearby Cedar Rapids. My wife, Paige, and I had hoped last year to join Vicki by splitting our time between Brevard and Cono. But at the time, we were unable to leave Brevard as my mother moved in with us having advanced Alzheimer’s. As of this week, my wife Paige and I are living three weeks at Cono and then two weeks in Brevard to have additional “feet on the ground.” What makes this move possible now is very bitter-sweet as my dear mother passed away on August 28th. While we miss my mom dearly, it is such a comfort to think that after so many years of mom not remembering us or even remembering God at times, she now knows Him fully and she knows that He never forgot her! I know that she is excited to know that we will now be going to Cono.

Paige and I, along with the Ridge Haven Board, are more excited than ever about the possibilities at Cono. We have faced one road block and then another with all the state regulations at Cono, but the Lord continues to make the “rough places plain.” Slowly, but steadily, momentum is building.

More to follow...

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If you would like to look at pictures of the reunion, or view a loop of pix

from the decade you attended, click here

__________________________________

Our Contact Information
Ridge Haven Cono (www.ridgehaven.org)
215 Ridge Haven Road
Brevard, NC 28712
828-702-9510

Cono 2019 Reunion Overcap and More

We Worshipped at Cono

Favorite Cono Hymns

- as chosen by Cono Grads -

Crown Him with Many Crowns
Day By Day
Gloria Patri
God Will Take Care of You
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Holy, Holy, Holy
How Great Thou Art
I Need Thee Every Hour
It Is Well With My Soul
Jesus Lives And So Shall I
Lead Me, Lord
My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less

None Other Lamb (4 votes)
Not What My Hands Have Done
Sometimes A Light Surprises
Soul, Adorn Thyself With Gladness
The Old Rugged Cross
To God Be the Glory
When the Roll is Called Up Yonder

Above: Yoo Sun, Jee Hye, and Adrienne. Photos by Tim Barnett.

Three Cono Couples started as High School Sweethearts

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…And are on their way to 50 years each of marriage! Left to right:

Richard and Nancy French Marsceau (46 years)

Eric and Barb Alta Stanton (46 years)

Sam and Connie Reece Rees (46 years)

CONGRATS....THAT'S A TOTAL OF 138 YEARS

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Introduction/Reflection at the Cono Reunion

Necessity is the mother of invention, they say, and I will also say “the mother of good.” Simplicity, frugality, community, humility, service. We saw lives changed while we learned math, practiced scales, painted, sang, enjoyed flowers and sunsets, and ate good cinnamon rolls, duro wot and kim-chee. I am thankful.

Yet, in 1948, the candle that burned the brightest at Cono’s very core was the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the supremacy, the completeness, the revolutionary power of Christ that drove men and women to establish this place. They had experienced the resurrection power of the Savior in their lives, and they chose to live for him.

This gospel eventually drove them, drove us, along with necessity, to serve a variety of people, red and yellow, black and white. To be educated primarily, but also to be exposed to and part of a church, scores of Cono kids passed through this campus. Many were gifted. All of us were needy. Cono and its history are shaped around committed, yet needy and incomplete people. And answers to calls from families came in aspects that are still deeply appreciated and useful: we offered the love of Christ, we sought to teach and practice simplicity, hospitality, community, and care. Our culture’s needs, primarily in the breakdown of the family –which is the central breakdown, can still be addressed with Cono emphases and the lifestyle exemplified here. Even at this moment in our culture, meals together, music, nature, beauty, hard work, preaching the word, a sound education, singing—are antidotes to culture’s ills. In that, we recall the power of being taken in, the hospitality, the acceptance, the expectation, and the joy that followed. Our Cono forbearers literally took in the homeless, the handicapped, the eating disorder, the refugee, the Asperger plagued, and even children stricken with cerebral palsy and Downs, and they took in US. Today there are enough people, enough needs that are worthy of Christ’s love and our incarnational presence, our work, our sacrifice, our leadership, our service. — Andrew Belz

This background sets the stage for more to come on the future ministry of Cono. We will print additional comments from the reunion in a future issue.

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Donate online HERE - Designate for RH Cono  Some have already started a recurring gift, which is very helpful. We are asking for gifts and prayers  – to help the new Cono. Ridge Haven is doing its part...Let's help them. Camps going on this week and next on campus. The future lies before us! Mailing address for checks written out to: RH Cono, 215 Ridge Haven Road, Brevard, NC 28712

Or email for info: friendsofcono@gmail.com ________________________________ We also played soccer on that beautiful Cono pitch. Good game, everyone! If you would like to look at pictures of the reunion, or view a loop of pix from the decade you attended, click here.

Cono Reunion 2019 - Revised Schedule

CONO REUNION 2019 – Revised Schedule

June 28-29, 2019 at Ridge Haven Cono, 3269 Quasqueton Ave., Walker IA 52352

  

June 28

8 a.m.             Breakfast

10 a.m.           Choir Rehearsal

Noon              Lunch

12:30 p.m.     Work Project for RH Cono: Painting one-room school house

3:30 p.m.       Softball Game

5 p.m.             Dinner

                        National Anthem – Jamie Gienapp

7-8:30 p.m.   Assembly

Prelude – Tim Belz

Singing Time

                        Memorials: Sheri Wilson Barker (5 min. total)

Students: John Kinch, John Dengler, David Greenslade, Peter Noé, Sam Kooi, David Bristley, Mark Haaland, Angie Norris, Suzanne Reinkoester, Harold Kinch, Don Donaldson, Ronaldy Mendez

Faculty and Staff: Max & Jean Belz, LeRoy & Marian Gardner, John & Frances Fults, Bill Alling, Ted & Ruth Noe, Prue Dupee, David Allison, Rozella Morgan, Herb & Norma Arnold, Ted Bollman, Marian Draper, Bob & Lee Malone, Dorothy Thompson, Dean & Hazel French, Bob & Dorothy Kyle, Maurice & Caroline Riedesel, Art Underwood, Tom Bingham

                        Speakers: Sara Drexler (15 min.)

                        Richard Marsceau (15 min.)

                        Casey Reinkoester Solo

                        Singing

9 p.m.             Bonfire

June 29

8:30 a.m.       Breakfast (Cono Cinnamon Rolls by Drexler, Kaufmann, French)

9:30 a.m.       Alumni Basketball Game/Alumni Volleyball Match

                        Choir Rehearsal

10 a.m.           Alumni Soccer Match

Noon-2 pm    Lunch – Hog Roast

1:30 p.m.       Choir Rehearsal

2:30-4 p.m.   Assembly

Prelude - Yoo Sun Paik

Singing Time

                        Recognition of restored furniture by Mark Boddicker

Reunion Wrap Up/Planning Next One

Wallace Anderson (10 min.)

Sam Belz (15 min.)

Stephen Fikkert (15 min.)

Singing

5 p.m.             Dinner

June 30

10 a.m.           Church at Walker Bible Church

Revised 6/4/19

Notes:

—$25 Registration Fee per family unit; meal registration closes at midnight June 16, 2019.

—Meals provided by Ridge Haven Cono; you must register ahead of time for meals HERE but can pay at time of meal, but you must tell us through registration and/or through emailing friendsofcono@gmail.com which meals you want. Breakfast $9, $5 or $4; Lunch $10, $8 or $6; Dinner $13.50, $11, or $8 – prices shown in order are Adult (12 years+), Child (6-11 years) or Child (2-5).

—Housing available on campus in camp cabins (capacity 12 per cabin), $25/person/night, plus $5 per person for linens. Air conditioned. Whole family wants to use one cabin - $150/night.

—Cono Reunion Planning Team: Margaret Smith-Barr, Mark Belz, Rachael Calhoun Minich, Adrienne McCrory, Bruce Olsen, Casey Reinkoester, Andrew Belz

Register HERE now

Our email for questions and info: friendsofcono@gmail.com