A Place of Peace

Spend even a day in western North Carolina, and you’ll hear just how beloved Camp Linn Haven is.

This gem of a summer camp, nestled at 3,600 feet in the Blue Ridge Mountains, has served LCMS ministries for more than 80 years. Generations of Lutherans hold memories of its peaceful setting.

“Camp Linn Haven is a very unique gift to the church,” said Rev. Jeff Skopak, senior pastor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church and School in Asheville. “People here have a genuine appreciation for the beauty of the mountains—God’s creative hand—and in the midst of all of this, we have this little gift called Camp Linn Haven.”

BUILT BY THE CHURCHES

The camp is community supported. Churches in the region sponsor cabins, and when repairs are needed, those congregations show up—donating time, materials and funds to keep the camp going.

“One of the things that has been a real blessing in being in ministry here in North Carolina has been Camp Linn Haven,” said Rev. David Ziehr, pastor at St. Stephens Lutheran Church in Hickory. “It was started by laypeople about 80 years ago, and they had a vision to have a place of peace. And that’s what I call it because every time I’ve pulled into that parking lot, it has been a place of tranquility, a place of rest.”

RESTORING HOPE

Watch how God worked through Camp Linn Haven, Mountainside Lutheran and Emmanuel Lutheran in Asheville to bring hope after the storm.

AFTER THE STORM

Since Hurricane Helene, peaceful, restful days have been few and far between.

As Teirsa Lane surveyed the camp’s grounds in the immediate aftermath, she saw damage unlike anything she had seen in decades of camp life. “There were times I had to reach down and hold my shoe so I didn’t lose it in the mud—it was suctioning into the mud, (which was) trying to pull my shoe off,” she said.

Some cabins couldn’t even be opened. “There were doors that we had to bust out. We had to climb through… or move beds out of the way to even get one of the doors open,” she said.

Even the debris felt surreal. “The asphalt from the road here in camp was on the tennis courts,” she said