August 26, 2002
RHONDA HARRISON and Ray Rogers participate in a bubble-blowing contest at the anniversary celebration. Games like this have been a staple of the Possum Kingdom ministry through its 25 years. At right, Jim Young of the BGCT presents a recognition to Barbara and Cy Gibson.
MISSION POSSUMABLE:
Resort ministry marks anniversary
___By Dan Martin
___Regional Correspondent
___PALO PINTO--With letters and plaques, good words and music, Possum Kingdom Resort Ministries observed its 25th anniversary Aug. 9 on the shores of the sprawling North Texas lake.
___About 50 people were on hand at the Associational Retreat Center on the Gaines Bend of the lake, about 20 miles northwest of Palo Pinto.
___Friends, supporters and guests ate barbecue, potato salad, pinto beans and homemade ice cream provided by the churches, associations and individuals who support the summer ministry to visitors at Possum Kingdom State Park and two other campgrounds.
___Jim Young, director of the Center for Creative Ministries at the Baptist General Convention of Texas, presented ministry coordinators Cy and Barbara Gibson with a book of letters honoring the ministry for its 25 years of service.
HARRISON and Stephen McKenzie perform a skit with the help of Awesome O'Possum, another ministry tool at the lake.
___Young, whose department puts about $3,000 per year into the ministry, noted Jesus ministered in resort areas as he preached and taught along the shores of the Sea of Galilee in the Holy Land.
___The gifts of letters were "tangible recognition" of the ministry and of the contributions of the Gibsons, Young added.
___Among the letters he read were those from Charles Wade, executive director of the BGCT; Bob Campbell, president of the BGCT; Jack Graham, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano; Texas Gov. Rick Perry; State Sen. Kip Averett on behalf of the Texas Senate; and U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm of Stamford.
___The three Baptist associations that most directly support the ministry--Cisco, Palo Pinto and Salt Fork--also presented commemorative plaques.
___Gibson said he was "pleased to accept the honors on behalf of the ministry and all who have participated in it in the past 25 years."
___"We counted up that during these years we have had 151 staff members serving here. Several came back year after year," he said, noting that the current director, Rhonda Harrison of Weatherford, has served four years, and her husband, Terry, was a staff member 10 years ago. He is back helping again this year, usually conducting a Sunday morning worship service at the state park.
___"During these years, we have seen several staff members marry," Gibson said, adding that his son, Shawn, met his wife when she came out from a church in Mineral Wells to work in the ministry.
___"We also have had deaths, and we have had the opportunity this year to minister to two families who lost children in drowning accidents in the lake," he said.
___"Our staff members have come from all walks of life and have gone on to do a lot of different things," he added, noting several became home and foreign missionaries, pastors, chaplains and teachers.
___"One of our staffers was legally blind," he added, "and after he finished several years with us, he went to Colorado, where he did resort ministry work in the ski areas until his vision deteriorated to the point he had to stop."
___The Gibsons, who have deep family roots in the area, came to the ministry after it had been going for a couple of years. It was started by representatives from Graham, Breckenridge, Palo Pinto and the Palo Pinto, Cisco, Salt Fork and North Texas Baptist associations.
___Leading the effort were Clinton Watson, who became director of missions of Parker/Palo Pinto Area in 1976, and Edgar Jones, now retired and living in Graham, who was director of missions for North Texas Baptist Area.
___Gibson, who led the music at Palo Pinto Baptist Church for more than 30 years until giving it up recently, became coordinator in 1979 and has been what many call "the heart, soul, driving force and sometimes sugar daddy" of the ministry.
___He maintains it is "Jesus' ministry; we are just working to sustain it."
___Gibson estimated that in addition to the 151 staff members who have served the ministry, it has touched the lives of an estimated 200 people a week for 15 weeks each summer, meaning that the ministry has perhaps reached 75,000 people.
___In addition, the ministry usually hosts several church youth groups each summer, and he estimated they have had a chance to touch the lives of another 2,000 young people and their leaders from across Texas and Oklahoma and even as far away as Missouri.
___"We do not compete with the church; we are not trying to do that," he said. "What we are trying to do is to go out to the campers, the visitors--people who will probably not go to anybody's church anywhere--and to let them see the face of Jesus Christ in the face of the people who come to minister."
___The team of students--generally recruited by the Gibsons--work at the state park and two campgrounds with children's activities in the mornings and hold a more formal show in the evenings, with puppets, songs and other activities.
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