In 1999, NNEC, with the support of our teachers, began an Outdoor School that includes all our conference schools wishing to participate. Our goals focus on four main areas: worship, teaching about God through nature, true recreation, and group initiatives. Worships teach children of God’s love for them and living in His love. Nature studies are exploratory based on habitats found in our region to show the awesome wonder of God’s creatorship. True recreation is physical and social in nature, leading to lifelong enjoyment of the natural world. The group initiatives teach collaborative process, strengthen unity and build friendships that can last a lifetime. We have dreamed of a nature center, here pictured,

where students can access resources to enhance outdoor studies including: a nature library, a naturalist lab, an amphitheater, and living space for a naturalist that embraces our philosophy. The nature center will be a sustainable building with alternative energy and waste management. The alternative energy and waste management would be an educational component of ecology and sustainable ecosystems.

We are currently in the process of further developing the curriculum that will be based in this new building. Academy age students are currently involved in conservation, land management, trail development, building with logs, and creating signage. Our philosophy is simple and Bible based. For a Christian, exploration and interaction with nature provides opportunity to renew the soul and connect with the Creator of the universe. He who has promised that “Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

We believe that by supporting this program, you will be helping the generations that pass through our camp and outdoor schools to develop a deeper understanding of God by learning through his creation. By supporting the further development of this nature center, you will be endowing our children and those we are reaching out to with practical skills and knowledge that will encourage them to preserve and appreciate God’s creation throughout their lives. Although this nature center will be built with as much volunteer labor and materials from the site as possible, we will still need your monetary support. We at Northern New England Conference believe that this investment is crucial to providing excellence in Christian Education.

Thank you for your support. We are always interested in hearing your suggestions as we move forward in God’s work.

“To those who learn thus to interpret its teachings, all nature becomes illuminated; the world is a lesson book, life a school… To a little child, nature represents an unfailing source of information and delight… So far as possible, children from their earliest years should be placed where this lesson book is open before them. Let them look at the glorious scenes painted by the great Master Artist on the shifting canvas of the heavens; let them become acquainted with the wonders of earth and sea; let them watch the unfolding mysteries of the changing seasons and in all His works learn of the Creator” (White, 1903, p. 60).

“God had endowed us with a power not wholly unlike His. To us has been given a degree of control over the forces of nature. As God called forth the earth in its beauty out of chaos, so we can bring order and beauty out of confusion. And though all things are now marred with evil,yet in our completed work we feel akin to his, when, looking on the fair earth, He pronounced it “very good.”” Education p. 214, 215

“At the creation, labor was appointed as a blessing. It meant development, power, happiness. The changed condition of the earth through the curse of sin has brought a change in the conditions of labor; yet though now attended with anxiety, weariness, and pain, it is still a source of happiness and development. And it is a safeguard against temptation. Its discipline places a check on self-indulgence, and promotes industry, purity, and firmness. Thus it becomes a part of God’s great plan for our recovery from the fall.” Education p. 214