Harlan Kirgan
The two lanes of La. 370 that lead into the Acadian Baptist Center campus have been the route to a spiritual awakening for thousands of people.
Thursday night the friend of the center gathered for a ground breaking ceremony for $3 million, 19,000-square-foot worship center on the west side of the campus.
James. Newsom, director, said construction is to start as soon as Monday if the weather permits. Building the center will take 10 to 11 months to complete, he said.
The center is to include state-of-the-art sound, stage and lighting. There will be break-out rooms in the 1,000-seat center.
About 200 people attended Thursday’s ceremony.
The Rev. Gene Lee, pastor of First Baptist Church Rayne, first started coming to the Acadian Baptist Center when he was a teenager.
Now, he is the one who brings youth groups for camps at the center.
Lee said the youth of his church were offered the choice of going to out-of-state camps every other year, but asked him of the center, “Do we have to go anywhere else?”
Lee noted that Richard, between Eunice and Church Point and south of Lawtell, is in the “middle of nowhere,” but “it is a gem of a camp.”
The camp attracts people of all faiths, he said.
Terry Hoychick, of Eunice, has been a board member of the center since the late 1970s. He estimates at least 7,500 people visit the center each year.
“The one thing that this camp has lacked is an adequate worship center for years especially with the Camp Fuego. We’ve had to scrimp and try everything we can to get people in and it is hindering our growth. So, now with this, after seeing what God did with the fundraising we did for everything else, this is like he is saying, “Hey guys, I got more that I can do. Trust me, let’s do some more,” Hoychick said.
Camp Fuego is a summer camp at the center.
“You know what? The more you get, the more you can do, and the more we can bring in, the more people you reach,” he said
Newsom provided an example of that reach during a service prior to the ground breaking.
In 2010, a Shreveport youth minister brought a group to a summer camp at Richard. This summer, the minister will bring seven different groups the center.
The Rev. Perry Hubbs, pastor at the First Baptist Church of Opelousas and a center board member, said, “It has been here for many years and it is growing. We have a lot of good youth programs every summer, in fact all during the year, but we need a bigger worship center.”
Jack Tolson, also of Opelousas, who is a retired center board member and architect, said, “For a long time this building has been inadequate because they have as many as 400 and 500 kids in the summer and this building won’t hold them for a worship center.”
Newsom said an earlier campaign raised more than $2 million to pay for a new cafeteria, renovations and land acquisition.
In the fall of 2018, camp alumnus Jim Robinson visited during a youth camp and was inspired to help.
Newsom said $2.3 million in cash and pledges have been made for the worship center with an estimate of $3 million needed to complete the building.
The campus, split by La. 370, has about 500 rooms in three renovated dorms, 32 hotel-like rooms and four cabins. There is cafeteria seating for about 500 people.
The Baptist Center has a swimming pool, tennis courts, 18-hole disc course and group meeting spaces.
The Center began as the Acadian Baptist Academy in 1917. In 1973, the Academy closed and the site reopened in 1975 as a camp and retreat.
In a series of testimonials offered at Thursday’s service, Louis Charrier said he has been associated with center for about 35 years.
“There has been people that has been called to preach from this place. There has been churches planted here. There has been evangelists. There has been people that is going to turn this world upside down for Jesus Christ that has come to this camp,” Charrier said.
All that from a place down a little two-lane road that’s about as off the beaten track as a place can be.
A service was held before the ground breaking ceremony at Acadia Baptist Center on Thursday. At center are Coby Clavier, James Tucker and Jeff Willis.