The Firs, established in 1921 as a modest annual gathering of friends and supporters of the China Inland Mission, grew by the 1950s into a multifaceted camp and conference ministry with three exceptional recreational properties near Bellingham, Washington. This book recounts the origins and early growth of The Firs, through a complex weave of relationships with pastoral, lay, and missionary leaders, as it pursued a countercultural identity as a “work of faith and labor of love” whose primary focus was “helping people believe.” It then chronicles the last half-century of The Firs’ “endurance in hope”—through myriad challenges of suburban encroachment, bureaucratic regulation, cultural upheaval, international tension, enticements to mission drift, technological “noise,” and even pandemic lockdowns, ultimately resulting in an unequivocal re-centering on its historic identity and mission. Its special focus is now child and youth evangelism, through premier camp experiences on Lake Whatcom and atop nearby Mount Baker, and year-round mentoring and discipleship for young Christian leaders. This is a bracing narrative of the fidelity of one pioneering family and those who carried forward their vision for a distinctive Christian ministry in the Pacific Northwest. Above all, it is a story of God’s faithfulness from generation to generation.
