Whispering Winds - How Faith Built a Catholic Camp

In 1975 my wife Maureen was converted to Catholicism in a closing ceremony at a weekend Cursillo. I made a silent promise to the Lord that because He united our family, I would be open to anything He had in store for me. Little did I know that what he had in store for me was an unbelievable undertaking. I thought He might ask me to help coach the basketball teams at St. Therese Parish because my background included 12 years as a professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association. www.legendsofbasketball.com

One year later, a Catholic family by the name of Jerry and Anne Tisi and their children went for a weeks vacation with my family to a Protestant Family Camp near San Bernardino, California. We had such a tremendous time that we said, "Why doesn't the Catholic Community in LA and San Diego have something like this? Somebody should build a place like this near San Diego."

This Camp and Conference Center was actually four-camps-in one. Children ages 8-11 lived in large tipis, worked with arts and crafts, learned to shoot a bow and arrow, had access to the swimming pool while receiving a Christian message throughout. Junior Highers stayed in another part of the camp near recreation fields. The High Schoolers were located in another part of the camp, had programs that they related to and received a Christian message. The adults lived at the main camp in nice accommodations, all meals were family style so no one had to cook or do dishes and they were free to attend a variety of Christian speakers for a spiritual renewal. If you had children under 8 years of age they would stay with you in your accommodations but would attend their own programs during the morning and a free baby-sitter would be available in the evening if you attended the evening sessions.

While driving home, one of the Catholic teenage boys thanked his parents for encouraging him to attend the camp. He told them he had a wonderful experience but wanted to relate a particular incident that had happened on Thursday evening. One girl stood up and said she had just had a personal experience with the Lord and wanted to talk about it. When she finished, everyone rushed up to her, hugged her and a party started. He said, ' You know dad, if I had told my friends at my Catholic school and parish that I have had a personal experience with the Lord, three things would had happened:

Realizing that this was not just an isolated incident but that many Catholic youth felt the same way, we said, someone should start a camp and conference center like this for Catholics near San Diego.

The next year we convinced 25 Catholic families to attend another week-long vacation at this Protestant Camp and they all had the same wonderful experience we had the year before and remarked why don't the Catholics have a place like this. Jerry Tisi said to me, "Why don't we build it? Somebody has to and if we don't do it, who will?" So we made a vow to build it.

We went to the Bishop and explained what we had experienced and said surely you know we need a place like this for families, children, couples, singles, senior citizens, etc. The Bishop agreed but said that he couldn't do it because he had 40 other projects to be completed. He said it is a project that should be done by lay people. At this point we had a choice to either drop the idea or proceed ahead and find a way to build it. We decided to do it.

We consulted the Protestant Camp's Executive Director and asked if he were to build this camp over again, what he would do different. He said he would find a piece of land in the mountains where they have the four seasons with plenty of trees. Then build your buildings to suit your programs and not vice - versa. The logical place seemed to be Julian, California, a small town up in the mountains at 4500 feet elevation, receiving 4 - 7 snowfalls a year and approximately one hour from San Diego by car.

We looked at various properties in the Julian area but didn't find anything that we felt was suitable for the camp. A realtor told us that there was some property not on the market, but maybe the owner would sell part of an old ranch. We approached the owner about 2 parcels of land totaling 368 acres of beautiful rolling hills, meadows, valleys and lots of tall oak and pine trees. He said it wasn't for sale but if he were to sell it he would need $1.5 million. We countered a week later with a bid of $1.15 million. He asked us how much we had in the bank and we said $25, because we just opened up an account for the camp with a minimum balance. He said, "You fellows are really going on faith on this project aren't you?"

For several weeks we tried to get in touch with him to no avail. Then suddenly he returned our call and we set up a meeting. Before we could say anything he told us the Lord had done something in his daughter's life this past week. He proceeded to relate how the Lord was working in his daughter and then said, "After this happened I believe the Lord wants that camp built and built on this property. Therefore, I can't sell the land to your for the $1.5 million I was asking, or the $1.15 million that you bid. But I will sell it to you for whatever I paid for it plus any money I have put into it." That turned out to be $600,000 plus another $200,000 he put into the land. We considered this a sign that the Lord wanted this camp built and built right here on this property.

We set up a tax-exempt, non-profit corporation with the express purpose of building a Catholic Family Camp. There was a big hurdle though and that was the monthly payment on the 368 acres which turned out to be $9,000. We worked hard each month to raise the $9,000 by talking to anyone or any group that would listen. We had 30 days to make the $9,000 payment or we would lose the land. Indirectly, we were told that we could not ask for donations from the pulpit at Mass because the individual pastors were having enough trouble paying their bills and the feeling was that any donation to the camp would take away from the collections. However, we could go to any individuals and seek donations. We missed making the payments several times, but the owner of the land made them for us. Somehow the Lord provided the money to pay off what payments we missed.

The real test of faith came when we missed two payments totaling $18,000 and we were not getting the financial support we needed monthly. One day the phone rang and a lady said she had just sold some property and wanted to give the proceeds to Whispering Winds, which is what we named the camp. She asked for the address so she could send a check for $10,000. The next week we received another call from another person who sold some stock and wanted to give the profits to the camp and donated $8,000. It was exactly the amount we needed to keep up with the payments. This strengthened our faith and trust tremendously and once again we were reminded that the Lord was watching over Whispering Winds.

Another time on a Friday when our payment was due in three days, we began calling two people who had shown interest in contributing. We felt that each of them was going to give $4,500 each towards the payment. When the first person could only give $500, I realized that I had completely misjudged the situation and that we had to raise an additional $8,500 that day. I called Jerry Tisi and told him that were in deep trouble and the we needed to raise $8,500 today. Jerry was extremely busy at work and asked me to call a fellow he had been talking to all month.

I really didn't know this person , but I would call. Feeling extremely uncomfortable and looking for some guidance, I opened up the Good News Bible for some inspiration and read James 1:2:

"My brothers consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, (I said I don't feel very fortunate right now) for you know when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should pray to God, who will give it to him because God gives generously and graciously to all. But when you pray, you must believe and not doubt at all.
    Whoever doubts is like a wave in the sea that is driven and blown about by the wind.
    A person like that, unable to make up his mind and undecided in all he does, must
    not think that he will receive anything from the Lord."

All my life I felt that I was in control, but here was a situation that was completely out of my hands. So I said, okay Lord it's in your hands and if you want this camp built, you're going to have to find a way to provide this $8,500 today. I'm going to believe that you'll do it and even though I don't know how it will be done, I believe that it will. With that I called this other person and after telling him we needed $8,500 today for our payment and after listening to him say how crazy we were to expect that type of money with the economy the way it was, he told me to come over and pick up a check for $8,500.

We made this $9,000 a month payment for four and a half years and realized that while all the money was going into the land payments it would be a long time at this rate before a building program would start. So we approached the owner of the property once again and asked him if he would take back the upper parcel of land which was 207 acres and we would keep the lower parcel of 161 acres. He agreed not only to take back the upper parcel but also gave us a credit on all the money we put into it and applied that to the lower parcel.

Immediately, we proceeded to dig two wells to provide water and had electrical lines brought in to supply electricity for the water pump. A bulldozer began to cut in a few dirt roads for access. We began a program to get a Major Use Permit to build the camp which included filing an Environmental Impact Report.

In August of 1985 we rented two 20x40 foot tents to serve as a meeting and dining hall and 20x20 foot tent to house the kitchen and we put on our First Summer Weekend conference. Fr. John Powell, a well-known author, agreed to be our first speaker and officially opened Whispering Winds. 110 people came in motor homes, trailers or stayed in Julian hotels to attend this conference because we had no other accommodations. It was a tremendous success and the camp was on its way.

In September of 1986, we held our 2nd Summer Weekend Conference featuring Fr. Jim Nisbet. A temporary kitchen was built out of two donated trailers which could serve 120 meals at a time. Again, we rented the tents for the meeting and dining halls.

The next year, along with numerous one day outings for youth groups, parishes and other religious groups, we have scheduled two Weekend Conferences for adults. Fr. Steve Gibson, from the University of Notre Dame, was our guest speaker in August and Fr. John Aurelio spoke at our September conference. That year we built two temporary open air meeting and dining halls and no longer have to rent tents. Our first Quadruplex cabin was completed and we plan to build 18 more cabins and a large conference center as the money is raised. Recreation fields, breakout meeting rooms, a chapel, outdoor amphitheater, a large pond, swimming pool and bookstore and other amenities will also be built.

Our camp and conference center is a "grass roots" effort funded by lay people with the support of churches, industry, foundations, service organizations and religious groups. It serves our Catholic Community and is open to all faiths. Much has been accomplished but there is much to be done. If you wish to help in "bringing Christians together for vacations and spiritual enrichment," please write or call for information or for a brochure at the following address:

Whispering Winds
Catholic Camp & Conference Center
8186 Commercial Street
La Mesa, CA 91942
(619) 464-1479