Help us Finish the James Farr Workshop

I’m honored to share that the Hidden Acres Board voted unanimously to name our new workshop in memory of our dear friend and former Board Chairman, James Farr.

James poured his heart into seeing this building become a reality, and now we have the privilege of finishing what he started.

The James Farr Workshop will be more than a place to house equipment—it will be a place for equipping leaders. Within its walls, we will store the tools and resources needed to keep Hidden Acres running, while also creating classroom spaces where young people can gain hands-on skills that will serve them for a lifetime. This is a key part of our mission to make Hidden Acres a place set apart to experience Christ, expand community, and equip leaders.

Thanks to generous supporters, we’ve made great progress—electricity is connected, the water cutoff is installed, and all the dirtwork is complete. Next step is to finish out and trim the building.

The rough estimated cost to complete the building is $75,000, with an additional $10,000 to fully furnish it as an educational facility. In a beautiful tribute to James, a generous donor has offered a matching gift of up to $50,000 in his memory to help us finish strong. We’ve already received $28,000 toward this match, and your gift can still be doubled to honor James’ legacy and carry forward the work he championed.

Would you join us in helping open the doors of the James Farr Workshop? Together, we can make this vision a reality.

Letter from Beef: AKA Brett Fedderson, Summer Camp Director

What an absolutely incredible year of summer camp we had! I do hope you were able to experience summer camp this year at Hidden Acres in some small (or large!) way, but if you weren’t, let me tell you about it:

This past camp season, Summer 2022, was my first year in the director’s seat (scary, I know!), and I had HUGE shoes to fill coming in after Amanda Smith and Tim Carpenter, my two predecessors. I wasn’t the only staff member taking on a new role at camp either! Over sixty percent of our summer staff was completely new to Hidden Acres and only one member of our CORE team had been on the CORE staff before. Being a new camp director and having such a new summer staff, naturally, my nerves were running pretty high going into the summer. I saw our newness and inexperience as a disadvantage and obstacle to overcome, but it forced us to fully hand the summer to God and trust that He would provide; looking back, I see that our newness is probably the best thing that could have happened to us this summer.

We experienced a summer of life change and joy at Hidden Acres. Our staff, most being fresh to both Hidden Acres and camp ministry, showed up each week of camp with hearts on fire for Jesus and immense passion to serve others. The Lord moved in big ways through them and the Gospel was shared with over 650 people this summer! During this camp season, we witnessed over thirty campers surrender their lives to Christ, multiple baptisms between campers and staff, and a constant stream of conversations about Jesus – and that doesn’t include the countless rededications and heart changes that we didn’t see! In any other summer, we might have been able to credit these successes to experienced leadership, veteran staffers, or a smooth program, but our newness and lack of these luxuries forced us to a monumentally important and simple realization: God showed up. We can’t explain the success at Hidden Acres this summer with any other fact except God showed up in undeniable, inexplicable, monumental ways.

Looking back, we are filled with inexpressible gratitude and joy for the souls that Jesus won. Looking forward, we ask you to join us in hopeful expectation and prayer that He will do it again. If you are interested in contributing but are unsure how, please reach out. I would love to speak with you about ways you can join us in our mission. As always, thank you for your support and friendship to Hidden Acres. May you be encouraged by the work the Lord has done and will do.

Testimony

Brett, Tim, and the Hidden Acres Staff! This week has been AMAZING! What a joy it was to partner with your ministry and share the gospel with students. I have been around many ministries, but there is something so unique about y’all. You guys are full of humility and are kingdom minded. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to bring our students and leaders here to learn, serve, and be a part of gospel-centered work.

Payton Esparza

Citizens Church

From Carp's Desk

The summer of 2021 was the first year that we partnered with Angel Tree™. Through Prison Fellowship Angel Tree, churches help support the families of prisoners year-round through delivering Christmas gifts on behalf of incarcerated parents, sending kids to summer camp, facilitating one-day sports camps, and more.

This year, Hidden Acres hosted over twenty campers through the Angel Tree program.

Two of the children included in this group were a set of siblings, Kassie and Timothy. They came to us through this program; hesitant, and unsure of what to expect, but in less than one week, they were impacted in a tremendous way. Kassie started off very reserved and hesitant to connect. We may have thought she was not impacted, but by the time she left she was in tears because she did not want to leave. They begged their grandparents to come back. Kassie and Timothy came to a total of three camps, including a day camp where the grandparents paid to stay at a hotel so they would not miss out on what they deemed a life-changing experience for their grandchildren.

Prison Fellowship invests on these type of camps because they want to break the generational cycle of incarceration. We believe that the message of the gospel can do just that.

We Have a New Mailing Address

We Have a New Mailing Address:

Hidden Acres Inc.

PO Box 901

Kaufman, TX 75142-0901

Health and Wellness Precautions

Hidden Acres is known for clean facilities.  Our housekeeping team cleans and disinfects between each guest groups’ stay at our facility.   We are taking the precautions necessary to make our guests stay as safe as possible. 

What we are doing:

• Educating group leaders about our cleaning procedures 

• Providing hand sanitizer for guests to use

• Asking group leaders not to bring symptomatic guests, and if discovered, isolate and send home immediately

• Dining experience will be modified to reduce exposure for our guests and staff.

What Retreat Leaders Should Do:

Perform health screening before arriving at camp

Do not bring anyone who:

• Has oral temperature above 100

• Has a cough/or sore throat

• Does not feel well enough to participate in activities (achy, fatigued, etc)

If a guest demonstrates symptoms while at Hidden Acres, our policies require that leaders isolate and send home immediately.  Isolation spaces will be provided for guests displaying symptoms until arrangements can be made for them to be picked up or taken for treatment.

Retreat Guests Before Camp:

For 14 days prior to your retreat 

• Reduce exposure to others

• Reinforce proper personal hygiene techniques at home

• Monitor for symptoms

• Do not send any guests to camp if they have been exposed to someone with Covid-19 or are displaying symptoms.

Facilities

• High contact surfaces in the dining area, and other common areas should be cleaned more frequently (We will provide a kit of disinfecting cleaners for your team to use.)

• Hand Sanitizer will be available in all the buildings and to use prior to recreation equipment use.

Retreat Guests While at Camp

Guest Interaction:

• Modified arrival and departure procedures to limit interaction between groups.

• Proper hand washing & personal hygiene technique emphasized.

• Organize your group into teams who operate independently from each other to the greatest extent possible.

Medical Care

• We encourage retreat groups to provide their own trained medical staff.

• Group leaders will be required to ensure that daily temperature and symptom checks are performed and recorded.

• Minors who exhibit symptoms must be able to be picked up by parent/guardian within 4 hours.

After Camp

Limit Interaction:

Guests should limit interaction for 14 days after their retreat with those who are at higher risk of serious illness.

Summer Camp 2020 Outreach

Dear Friends,

We as a camp are facing unprecedented times.  Our leadership team at Hidden Acres has made the very difficult decision to cancel our 2020 summer camp season.  However, Hidden Acres is still planning on making an impact this summer.  

Here’s how:

We plan on serving from camp headquarters with our summer camp leadership team to develop and implement creative ways to stay connected with Hidden Acres campers and staff (i.e., letters, phone calls, fun camp videos, live-streams, zoom get-togethers etc.).  With summer camp in mind we also desire to work on some home improvement projects to make our programing better when campers return.

This plan will also allow us to continue developing our leaders for the future.  

We need your help:

In order to make our Summer Camp outreach possible we need funding for food, utilities, supplies for outreach projects, and for summer staff salary.  Since we will not have any revenue coming in, we are asking our friends and supporters to help us meet these needs through this season.  

Our goal is to raise $10,000.  We are in a time crunch.  We would like to raise the money by June 15, which is the day our summer camp outreach 2020 will begin. 

If you’re in a place where you could help us achieve this goal, would you please contribute to our needs. 

You can give online by clicking button below or by check (please make checks payable to Hidden Acres with summer 2020 in memo) and mail to: Hidden Acres, P.O. Box 851462 , Mesquite, TX 75185-1462 

Covid-19 Update from our Executive Director

March 19, 2020

Dear Hidden Acres Family, 

During these unprecedented times in our nation and as we navigate through the various guidelines from the state, county, and CDC in order to slow/limit the spread of COVID-19, Hidden Acres will continue to remain up to date on the current situation.  While we are closely monitoring this ever-changing situation, Hidden Acres currently still plans on having seven weeks of life-changing summer camp. Our mission of being a place set apart for these kids to experience Christ, expand their community and be equipped as leaders has never been more relevant than now.  Our prayer is that summer camp will be a time of much needed renewal after such a long period of social distancing and isolation.

As we prepare for the summer, we are monitoring federal and local health agencies such as the CDC and the Texas Department of Health Services for updates, recommendations, prevention and containment.  We are working closely with medical personnel and professionals in order to best sanitize our facilities and what are best protocols. As we learn new facts about this virus and the impacts it can have on our camp, we will strive to take the necessary precautions and make improvements to better ensure the safety of our camps and staff.  

We ask that you join us in a season of dedicated prayer for our nation, for our states, cities, leaders, ministries, medical personnel, hospitals, businesses as well as for all the families going through either health issues or financial issues.  As a camp, we also anticipate more families needing financial assistance to be able to attend camp this summer. If this is something that you’re in a place to help, we are hoping to build up our scholarship fund to be able to assist as necessary.  

As we see in Philippians 4, God tells us to not “be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”  

In the powerful name of Jesus, 

Tim Carpenter

Summer Camp Dates 2020

Summer Camp Dates

• May 26-29: Work Week

• June 1-5: Staff Training

• June 7-11: Jerry’s Dream Camp

• June 14-18: Elementary Camp (Opened to the general public)

• June 21-25: Elementary Camp (FBCK & New Hope, plus a few openings for general public)

• July 6-10: Mission Week I (Fellowship HS, Trinity Fellowship, River of Life)

• July 13-17: Mission Week II (Fellowship JH, I.D.C., Rockwall Pres.)

• July 20-24: Mission Week III (Poetry, H.C.B.C., FBCK)

• July 27-31: Promise Land Day Camp

  If you have questions about which camp your child should attend please contact us. There are limited spots available for individual campers (not attending with a church group) to attend our elementary and mission camps. Registration is on a first come basis for individuals and for those attending with a group.

To Be Present with the Lord

It is with bittersweet emotion that I share that Hidden Acres’ founder, Charles Diffee passed away December 15, 2019.  He was such a key element to the foundation and direction of HA and the effects of his efforts can be seen through all the buildings he designed and built as well as through the numerous individuals he mentored.   We will forever be indebted to this great man who saw the vision to create a place for countless lives to be impacted for all of eternity.  His legacy lives on and it was a legacy worth leaving.

I can’t thank Uncle Charles enough for all the love, support, guidance, patience, encouragement, wisdom, and enumerable ways he has cared for me. There are not enough words to explain the impact he has had in my life and to those in my family.

An excerpt from his Obituary reads, “Rev. Diffee’s lifelong focus was on serving young people, and to that end he founded Metropolitan Christian School in 1966 and Hidden Acres Retreat Center in Kaufman County in 1984. He often remarked that today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders and wanted to make sure they had solid Christian foundations.”

It is by his guidance and wisdom that we continue to focus our efforts in equipping leaders through our programming at Hidden Acres.  We thank you for your prayers for his family and friends as they grieve his passing.  Pray that we continue to point to Christ in all we do at Hidden Acres. - Tim Carpenter