231 Stories Series: Faith Building Miracles with Dave Pridemore

231. Stories Series: Faith Building Miracles with Dave Pridemore

 

**Transcription Below**

 

Isaiah 55:12a NKJV "For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace;"

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Questions and Topics We Cover:

1. What was your upbringing like and how did you come to Christ at age 30?

2. What miracles happened along the way to launching Camp Grace?

3. How have you grown to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit vs your own voice or culture or the enemy, etc.?

 

Dave Pridemore is the founder and Executive Director at Camp Grace where their mission is to transform the lives of urban youth, with grace, through overnight camps. Learn more at the Camp Grace website or read God's miraculous story in Dave's book, Real Vision: Life is Too Short to Miss God's Best.

 

Dave received his undergraduate and master's degrees from The Ohio State University and then worked for the Bell Telephone system before attending Southwestern Theological Seminary and serving in churches. In 2005 Dave left the church to follow a calling God placed on his life to start an overnight camp for the under-served children of Georgia. To date Camp Grace resides on 300 acres and has a capacity to serve over 3,000 children per summer.

 

Dave and his wife, Susie live in Cumming Georgia and spend as much time as they can with their 12 beautiful grandchildren.

 

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Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)

 

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

 

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

 

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” 

 

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” 

 

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

 

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” 

 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

 

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

 

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

 

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

 

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

 

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“

 

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“

 

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

 

**Transcription**

[00:59:16] <music>

 

Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. 

 

[00:00:17] <music>

 

Laura Dugger: I am thrilled to introduce you to our sponsor, Winshape Marriage. Their weekend retreats will strengthen your marriage, and you will enjoy this gorgeous setting, delicious food, and quality time with your spouse. To find out more, visit them online at Winshapemarriage.org. Thanks for your sponsorship. 

 

Today, we are launching a new and exciting Stories series. These will be faith-building true stories that are important to share, because the first part of Revelation 12:11 tells us how to conquer our enemy, Satan. And it says, "And they overcame and conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony." [00:01:16] 

 

So to kick off our Stories series, my guest is Dave Pridemore. He is the founder and executive director at Camp Grace, and he's going to share God's miracle after miracle, from first delivering a vision to Dave in 2002, all the way up to present day.

 

This chat will encourage you in your own walk with Christ, and Dave's going to inspire you to take your next step forward in whatever dream God has laid on your heart. 

 

Here's our chat. 

 

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Dave.

 

Dave Pridemore: It's good to be with you, Laura.

 

Laura Dugger: Can you just begin by sharing what your upbringing was like and how you came to know Christ at age 30?

 

Dave Pridemore: Oh, sure. I grew up in a small town in Ohio.  Was not a Christian. Parents really didn't go to church. And so just had a great time growing up. Never went on a vacation. Parents didn't have much. Never went to camp myself. [00:02:18] But I just enjoyed growing up in that small town, playing sports. And that's pretty much what I did.

 

So I qualified in high school for the state gymnastic meet and went to the Ohio State University. And I had never been out of my hometown, and I was about 15. So I got on campus and I thought it was phenomenal. And so I stayed in the dorm. I had a college kid that hosted us, went to the auditorium, was able to go off the diving boards, the gym, the football field. It was amazing. 

 

But the only reason I say that is that one week, the day before I came back to my hometown, I decided, "I want to go here. This place is phenomenal." My parents were steel mill and pottery workers, and I was kind of going to follow the same line. But when I came back, I talked to my high school counselor, she said, "Well, you'll have to change to college prep." [00:03:20] And so I did. 

 

I ended up getting my undergraduate and master's degree from Ohio State. I made the cheerleading squad and was able to travel the United States with the football team. But that one week was a defining week in my entire life. So I can see even now if you can get kids in the right environment, it can do the same thing for them. 

 

So while at Ohio State, I worked for Ohio Bell. After graduation, I stayed with Ohio Bell. It was really a non-growth company. I was in personnel and I placed myself in Atlanta. In 1978, I moved my family to Atlanta.

 

Laura Dugger: Okay. And at this point still, having a family, being married, traveling the country now, was faith ever mentioned or how did you even come to meet and then follow Jesus?

 

Dave Pridemore: So God has a sense of humor. [00:04:21] I didn't see much use for church or faith. When I moved to Atlanta, he gave me two neighbors. On my right-hand side was a guy by the name of Dr. Larry Parker, who was the chairman and president of an organization called CBMC, Christian Businessmen's Committee of USA. On the other side was a guy by the name of Bruce Wilkinson. He started Walk Through the Bible Ministries. He wrote many books, Prayer of Jabez, you might be familiar with it. 

 

But these two guys just started loving on me, playing tennis, taking me to Braves games. And then I went to a CBMC luncheon where a tennis pro was speaking. And that's the first time I really heard the gospel where it affected me. 

 

After that, my friend asked me if I would like to know more about what the speaker said he could meet with me one morning a week before we went to work. [00:05:20] So I was really inquisitive about all of this. 

 

But I really liked my neighbor, Dr. Larry Parker, played a lot of tennis. And so because... and I say today, when you come to trust the messenger, you'll trust the message. So I loved Larry Parker and I trusted him. And so I started meeting with him once a week in Operation Timothy. 

 

So then I started understanding my problem wasn't everybody else. My problem was a sin problem. I remember coming back from a business trip in January 1980, and I knew what I needed to do. I needed to make a commitment to Christ and receive Him. And as I was driving through Atlanta, I thought, You know, what if I were to reckon this downtown connector and I were to pass away tonight? It hit me that night that I knew I would not be with God in heaven because I had never really done business with Him.

 

So that night in tears, driving through Atlanta, I was confessing my sin. And I said, Lord, I don't understand it all. But it was that night that I received Christ. [00:06:29] 

 

Laura Dugger: That's incredible to hear. There was someone else on The Savvy Sauce. She's actually believe lives in Atlanta now. But Rachel Faulkner Brown said, "We continue to share our stories and our testimonies of what God did so that he can do it again, anew and afresh in someone else's life." So you have seen the fruit of that. 

 

You eventually became the evangelism pastor at a mega church in Atlanta and I believe it was at that time that you had a start of your fresh vision. So will you take us back to that time and share how God spoke to you and what was the result?

 

Dave Pridemore: Yeah. So I was evangelism and missions pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell. When the towers came down, a friend of mine asked me to come to New York and do chaplaincy work.

 

This guy was kind of like me, poor, grown up in New York, and had never been out of the city. [00:07:29] And when he was 16, he was invited to go to an overnight camp and he became a Christian and came back, ended up going to Bible College, started Manhattan Bible Church, Manhattan Christian Academy. But he also was a chaplain for the Knicks and always wanted to camp because he knew what it did for him. And if he could get other inner-city kids outside the city, he can really speak to their hearts. 

 

Charlie Warden Allen Houston, a couple pro players helped him build Hoop Heaven. And I went up the next year and saw it in action, and I had never seen such transformation in kids in one week in my life. 

 

So I came back to my church and came back to Atlanta and I researched and said, how many camps do we have in Georgia that are exclusively for underserved kids? And I could not find one.

 

And when I say I'm talking, taking hundreds and maybe thousands of kids. And so I was at the beach with my wife and I took some yellow tablets because I wanted to write out what it would look like. [00:08:35] And I came up with three camps on 300 acres and serve at least 3,000 kids a summer. I ended up typing that out. And God really one day was convicting me. He was calling me to do it, although I'd never raised money. I'd never run a camp. I'd never been to camp. Didn't know anything. If you're going to find somebody to hire to do what I was called to do, you would never hire me. 

 

I remember one day I was so... I call it in my book that I wrote, a holy miserable, because I knew He was calling me, but I did not want to do this. So I got in my car, I went down actually and went behind a Chick-fil-A in Roswell, shut off my car, was crying in my car, was going to do business with God and say, "Listen, I'm not doing this. So I'm settling this once and for all."

 

So I started my car back up that day, went back to my church, walked past my office to my pastor's office, and I quit my job that day because I knew God was calling me to do it. [00:09:42] You either have to say yes or no to God. And like I tell people, "If I'd never had a camp, if I never had land, if I never had any kids to camp, the most successful I've ever been in this ministry in the last 19 years was the day I went back and said yes to God." 

 

I think that's what a lot of folks need to know. Our identity is not tied up in a ministry we have. It's tied up in being a child of God.

 

Laura Dugger: That's always a helpful reminder and so neat to hear how it played out for you. So he's dropping this little idea, this seed at this point, and in obedience, you said yes to him. So your vision was for a camp to serve underprivileged children in Atlanta. What miracles happened along the way as you pursued putting this vision into action?

 

Dave Pridemore: Well, there's so many. One of the things I think helps a person to go forward with a calling that God's given them is what they believe about themselves and their relationship to God. [00:10:50] I teach a lot of folks the grace of God, which comes out of 2 Corinthians 5:21. "He gave him who knew no sin to be sin on my behalf that I might become the righteousness of God in Christ."

 

So a great exchange happened in that verse. He took all my sin and put Himself in me, gave me His righteousness. So I just believe with Christ in me, what He does is He honors faith more than anything. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. 

 

And so I believe that once you get an idea and it's constant, kind of like the calling, that you just step out and God will do it, right? I remember I was needing some land and I had some people that wanted to give me land, but then they wanted to control everything.

 

So I told my wife, I said, "I do everything by faith, and the folks who want to give me land they want me to have so much money in the bank. They want me to build a certain kind of building." [00:11:50] And so I said no to two people.

 

Then there was a guy in my church that he knew I left and he had a big company and he takes all 500 of his employees to the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Amelia Island. So he asked my wife and I if we'd come down and be the chaplains or the minister for his company for that week. This was in December. Who wouldn't want to go to the Ritz Carlton in December? And so I went down. 

 

What I didn't know was he had a polar bear run that he announced for Friday morning. And he said, "You know, Dave used to be my pastor and he's a chaplain this week and he's starting a new camp for kids who live in poverty. We're going to do a polar bear run tomorrow, and if anybody comes and jumps in the pool with their clothes on, I'm going to give Dave $15 dollars per person."

 

Well, I walked away with over a half a million dollars that morning. So God provided the money for me to buy just a beautiful, beautiful piece of land. [00:12:52] So I got on the land and I decided, you know, I need to go ahead and build right now, although I didn't have the money. 

 

And I think that's another thing. When God speaks to me about doing something, I never have any money. But it's when it's so clear, I say, thank you, Lord.

 

So I said, I didn't give the money to the camp that I was renting. Another reason is they only had me down to two weeks that they would give me. And so I said, Okay, Lord, I will build eight of the 30 cabins of the Wild West Fort. But I had no money. 

 

I went to speak at a place in Macon and a guy came up to me after I spoke and said, "I'm with Builders for Christ. And you're talking about building a fort. We can build that for you." I said, "What do you mean you can build it for us?" He said, "We can actually bring a couple hundred people out there. We can build the fort for you." [00:13:54] I said, no way. 

 

And so he came out. And sure enough, and another guy provided all the concrete. Another guy provided all the electrical. What's so amazing is the day that the kids showed up for the camp is the same day the city official came out to inspect the camp to give us our certificate of occupancy. So we were cutting it kind of close. I said, Boy, this is a little close, right? But he gave us our certificate of occupancy and we went in there.

 

So we didn't quite finish the whole fort, but we had enough cabins done to go ahead and do that summer. Let me just tell you one other quick miracle. So I'm standing out in a field and they're playing, the kids are playing, and all we have are about 10 cabins and we needed 30. We didn't have it quite all finished. And so in my mind, "I'm thinking we're going to go ahead and finish the fort." [00:14:55] 

 

But in that field, God impressed upon me. He said, "Right now the kids have to go back to the cabin if it rains. They can't go under a roof to play. And if it's too hot outside, you don't have any shade for them to do programming." He said, "I want you to build the gym."

 

Now I had the gym, of course, on the master plan, but that was years down the road. I said, Lord, I don't have the fort finished. It was so clear to me to do the gym. So I said, "Okay, Lord, I'm doing the gym." And I just remembered that there was a guy and his wife that came to the camp and they walked around, they loved what we did. And I remember he said, "I'm a structural engineer." I said, "Oh, I'm going to call him." So I called him to ask him if he would help me manage and build a gym. And he said yes. 

 

I remember the day that the guy that I bought the steel from was a guy that I discipled in my other church. And then this other guy that was going to help me build it, they were looking at the steel plan and they finished talking and he said, "Dave, I need to order the steel today or tomorrow," this was on a Thursday, "in order for us to get the gym up by June." [00:16:06] He says, "$135,000." And he looked at me and I said, "I don't have any money."

 

He kind of looked at me like, "I can't believe I'm helping you and you don't have the money." And I said, "Well, you said today or tomorrow, let's pray and ask Him to bring it tomorrow." And he thought I was kidding, but I wasn't.

 

And so he said, "If I write this check, will you pay me back?" Of course, I'm thinking, "If you write the check, that's between you and God, not me and you because I do everything by faith." But he wrote the check. And we ordered the steel and the steel came.

 

I remember the Friday that he came out and he said, "Dave, I have three bids to erect the steel to get this up before June. One was 24000, one was 60,000 and one was 80,000." He said, Dave, I've selected the guy that's 60,000 because I know him. He will do a good job. 

 

As soon as he said that, my phone rang and the guy on the other end of the phone said, "Hey, you don't know me, but I just met with my financial advisor and you're building a gym." [00:17:12] I said, "Yes, sir." He said, "My wife and I were talking about it on the way home and we have some money to give. We just pulled over because we felt the Lord telling us to go ahead and send you 60000." I said, "You've got to be kidding me. Talk to my friend." 

 

So I handed the phone to my friend and sure enough, the guy said 60,000. We got the gym up in time for the summer. And then at that time in my ministry, I would write some grants, but grants you only receive when you're successful. And I got good at reading the rejection letter.

 

So I went to the P.O. box and I had this grant that I remembered. I had actually forgotten about it. I went to open it to read the rejection letter and there was $177,000 check in there. And so I called my friend and I said, "Hey, God gave you money back today." He said, "What do you mean?" And I told him, he said, "Dave, the difference to the penny will actually put lights in the gym." Can I put lights in the gym?" I said, "Yeah, I'm too crazy to think about putting lights. So, yes, go ahead and do that." [00:18:15] 

 

And I know your husband works for Chick-fil-A. And the guy that sent the 60,000, he and I have become really good friends now. But he was a Chick-fil-A executive. I thought I'd throw that in. That's just one of so many, so many other miracles.

 

Laura Dugger: Goodness, they just bring tears to my eyes. I've read so many of these in your fantastic book, but it just leaves me in awe of our Lord. Let's take a quick break to hear a message from our sponsor.

 

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Laura Dugger: One other thing God was calling you to do was to also practically raise your own salary. You write in your book that God gave you this idea to ask 10 people for $10,000 for your salary.

 

Dave Pridemore: Yes. [00:20:17] 

 

Laura Dugger: Can you share about Frank?

 

Dave Pridemore: Oh, Frank, yeah. Well, Frank was one of the 10 couples. These are couples I ministered with at my church for 10 years. Frank and I... I could call him and get coffee in the morning, but all of a sudden, it was like two months before we could get together. We finally got together at Einstein Bagel in Roswell. 

 

I had my book, and I had my little spiel that I was going to tell him. Because these guys know that I already left the church. I said, "Frank, this is what I'm doing, and I'm asking 10 families if they would support Suzy and I with $10,000 so we could put it in the bank and we can get started with this ministry." 

 

He kind of looked at me and then kind of bowed his head and shook his head like, No. I thought, "Oh, no, I have offended Frank." Then he raised his head and he said, "Dave, you know, my wife Jan is selling her Fazoli fast food restaurants." [00:21:17] He looked at me and said, "Isn't God's timing perfect?" And I thought, "No, I don't think it's perfect because I wanted to meet with you two months ago. He said, "No, Dave, she just sold a restaurant in South Carolina. Last night, Dave, we were talking about where do we tithe this $10,000?"

 

I put that in my book because God wanted to teach me real early on, Dave, never, ever worry about timing. The timing is not yours. You can plan, but I will make it happen in my time. That frees me up just to enjoy Him. Laura, I'm serious. I don't really care when anything happens. He taught me that early on because He doesn't want me to have any anxiety about when things are built. I love that story because it was a real teaching moment in my life. [00:22:19] 

 

Laura Dugger: Wow. There is just a presence about you, just a patience. Mark has said this before, too, how he's so drawn to that, to mentors who are not hurried. I wonder if that's in part what God's teaching you about his timing.

 

Dave Pridemore: He really is. I remember having this land and it was in '08 and '09. That's when everything was terrible. Real estate, terrible, no people building. I remember going to a church that I came to Christ in, Dunwoody Baptist. The pastor was a friend of mine. I said, "Do you know anybody that does site work?" I had a lot of site work to get done. He told me about a guy. This guy's name is Barry. 

 

I had lunch with Barry. My first mission trip was in Granada, Venezuela. Believe it or not, Barry's number one foreign mission trips were always to Granada, Venezuela. [00:23:20] So we became buddies at that lunch. Do you know he had no work to do? He came out with all of his equipment. He spent two months. He did all of the site work, water lines, sewer lines, everything for my entire frontier town. That's my first camp. He did everything as a gift. 

 

You never know how God is going to do it or when he's going to do it. All I do is... I operate out of a principle of Romans 1:16. It says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God into salvation. In that verse, it says the power of God is in the story. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because the gospel says it is the power. The power is in the story. 

 

I didn't ask to do this ministry. God called me to do it. It is not my story. It is His story. I just believe the power is in his story. So I don't raise money. I just tell his story, say, "Here's what we need," and I leave. That's what I did that day. [00:24:33] 

 

God worked on this Barry's heart. He decided, I don't have any work. I'm sending all my men, all my equipment, and we're going to get this done for Camp Grace. The power is not in me. The power is in him, in his story.

 

Laura Dugger: That reminds me of something that you write about on page 85. You emphasize that it's ministry first. Money follows ministry. Ministry first, money second.

 

Dave Pridemore: Yeah. I remember meeting with this one lady, and she was going to be a donor. And as we were talking, I remember her starting to tell me about years ago, her son was in a car accident and died. Then we spent an hour just talking. And then all of a sudden she said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Dave. Now you came to see me. What would you like? What do you need?" I said, "I don't need anything. Maybe we can meet again later."

 

Right. And that's principle is she needed me at that time. [00:25:31] Then also, everything I tried to do is operate out of the principle was in the word of God. You know the story of the centurion, right? The centurion came to Christ and said, My servant is dying. And up until that time, if you read, Christ had never healed anyone without touching them first. 

 

Then Christ even said to the centurion, I will go to your house with you. Now, I know I would have said, Please come. But the centurion said, "No, no, no, you don't need to come. I know who you are. You just say the word and he will be healed." And he is only one of two people in the New Testament that Jesus said, "I have never seen such great faith in anyone in all of Israel." 

 

In verse 13 is the verse I so like. He says, "Let it be done to you as you have believed." You see, I believe blessings will always follow belief. [00:26:30] If I believe God is going to build a fort, then I go forward as if it's done. If I believe God is going to give me a swimming pool, then I go forward as if it's done.

 

But once He calls you to do it, thank Him and do it. Without believing that He's going to do it, I don't think you're going to get the blessing. I think there's so many Christians that want blessed. But what if they really stepped out in faith to do? I would encourage people, man, if you want to be blessed, then identify something that is so big that if God does not show up, you will surely fail. And you will find blessings upon blessings. I think I've experienced it.

 

Laura Dugger: And is there any other specific scripture that has sustained you throughout this process?

 

Dave Pridemore: Well, when I was behind the Chick-fil-A crying. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, "Faithful is he who has called you." We'll do it, Dave. For some reason that came to mind. [00:27:39] And I thought about that. Okay, it's not my job to do. I believe He is faithful. If he calls you, I just believe that He will do it. I don't know how it's going to come about, but that's not my job to worry about. My job is just to walk in Him. So I probably say that verse every day for the last 20 years. Every day. 

 

At the end of my book, I say, hey, listen, we need to have the faith about the size of a mustard seed. So you can see as He calls you into ministry and to do what He wants you to do. It's not the size of your faith. It's his faithfulness. It's always Him. You always go back to Him because without Him, Camp Grace wouldn't exist today.

 

Laura Dugger: Faithful is He who calls you and He will do it. That's so encouraging for each of us, regardless of what He's called us into right now. [00:28:39] Recently, there have just been these themes about discipleship defined. I've heard it described simply as sharing with another what Jesus has revealed or taught to us. 

 

So with that in mind, Dave, as you continue to disciple us through this conversation, do you have any favorite takeaways from your experience that you want to make sure none of us miss out on?

 

Dave Pridemore: I think maybe Colossians 2:6 is a big verse. It says, "In the same way that you have come to know Christ Jesus as Lord..." And how did we come to know him? Through faith. It has to be by faith. Right? So it says, "In the same way that you've come to know Him, so walk in Him." 

 

It seems like we come to know Him by faith, and then as we walk in our Christian walk, we get farther and farther from that faith and we get farther and farther from trusting Him in everyday life. [00:29:44] That's the exciting part about being a Christian. Because then by faith, we give him an opportunity to show up and do things that we can't even explain. 

 

I think it's important to me that we get back to trusting Him in small things, big things, all things. And that's why I say I encourage people. 

 

I was doing a devotion at the National Christian Foundation. This just came to mind. I don't know why. So after I gave my talk, this lady comes up to me. She says, "Can we go to lunch?" I didn't have any lunch plans. I said, "Sure." We go to lunch and she's telling me about this vision that God has given her out of what she's doing and mentor for entrepreneurship, young African-American inner-city poor kids. [00:30:41] 

 

And then the more we're talking... I mean, the passion was just oozing out of her. So I looked at her and I said, "Hey, guess what?" She said, "What?" I said, "You got to do this." You've got to say yes to God. And that scared her to death. Well, then I go back months later to do another devotion at NCF. So I asked, "Where's this girl?" And they said, "Oh, she left months ago to go do a ministry with underserved girls." 

 

So the reason she was so scared, she had never done it. It was so big she didn't know how to start. I said, "It doesn't matter. It's so big that that's why you should start." Because if He does not show up, you're going to fail. 

 

I tell people if I've never had a camp, if no kids had ever come to camp, if none of this would have ever happened, I'm still successful because I quit my job. [00:31:42] I'm not telling everybody to quit the job. Don't get me wrong. But I did say yes to Him. And that involved me quitting my job because this was so big. But the day I quit my job and said yes, that's the day I've been most successful.

 

Abraham and Isaac. Abraham was so successful because he went to do something I don't think any of us could ever do. But he was right there ready to finish it. And God said, "Okay. Go to the thicket. I provided. Don't take your son's life." 

 

So that's how serious God is about us trusting Him. If we say yes, man, Katie bar the door because He is... I'm doing some things right now that are so big that scares me. But I'm excited because of what God can do.

 

Our next camp is going to be called Hooptown. Like this summer, we had 480 first-time decisions, which takes us to 5,662 decisions since we started this camp out of the 15,000 kids that have come. [00:32:48] 

 

In Hooptown, I know that God is going to have more kids come to Christ than in Frontier Town. So Frontier Town is finished. So now we're getting ready to do our next camp. And it's going to be exciting to see how God does it, because I don't have a clue how it's going to get done.

 

Laura Dugger: That is incredible to hear the next vision of what's coming. But can you catch us up to speed a little bit more about the current camp and a little bit clearer picture of your vision for the future?

 

Dave Pridemore: Oh, yeah. So the first camp was Frontier Town. We set off 455 acres. We have 500 beds and we can host right around 28,000 kids a summer. The real challenge for us, most of our kids come to camp through corporate sponsors like Chick-fil-A, you know, like your family sponsors kids. And I have 149 corporate sponsors. [00:33:52] So to get to where I want to be in 2025, I'm making an all-out push to try to get 300 corporate sponsors, because that will allow me to send 3,000 kids to camp. 

 

When you think about what I'm doing, it's kind of crazy, but God's called it. That's why we've never finished a year in the red. We not only build a $26,000,000 complex right now, but all of our customers can't afford to come. So now we've got to go out and we've got to raise all the money to get them there. But these kids thrive at Camp Grace.

 

So now we have finished Frontier Town and our next camp is called Hooptown and it's 14 courts and six of the courts are on the inside air conditioning and the other courts are under pavilions on the outside. And it'll be 24 cabins and we can host 338 people at one time on that facility. We're in the process now of putting together a strategy to try to raise capital dollars to get that built. [00:34:58] What's so nice is God's already provided all the land we need for all we ever want to build. 

 

Again, I share the story. I have a great architectural company that does renderings for me because, you know, a picture is worth a thousand words. And so these renderings are beautiful. But my biggest challenge, really, for some reason, we can get buildings up, but it's harder to get all the kids sponsored to camp. 

 

And that's the main goal is I have a little thing going. Each one, reach one. I'm asking each one of my corporate sponsors to see if they could find one other company. And they sponsored 10 kids, which is 36,000 a year. So I believe in the next 18 months, God's going to give us 3,000 sponsors.

 

Laura Dugger: Have you checked out our library of articles available at thesavvysauce.com? New posts are added multiple times a month related to parenting, intimacy and marriage, personal development, habits, and other topics connected to what we discuss here on The Savvy Sauce. [00:36:08] If you sign up to join our email list, you're also going to enjoy little extras delivered straight to your inbox. 

 

Our hope is to encourage you to have your own practical chats for intentional living. So these freebies will include things like questions that you can ask on your next date night, safe resources to read to promote enjoyment in your intimacy and marriage, or questions to ask your kids to connect to the more relational level. We hope you check out all the available reads at thesavvysauce.com under the articles tab. 

 

Who qualifies to come to camp and how are you connecting with these kids?

 

Dave Pridemore: Well, when I was sitting on the beach putting together the camp, I have to have follow-up because, you know, I've been in the church for 15 years and I was always the outreach and evangelism pastor and follow-up is really important. So I don't take any kids off the street. I only go into inner cities and find people who are working with these kids on a weekly basis. [00:37:12] And then I talk to them about becoming a long-term partner. 

 

I have 59 partners in 27 cities and in four states. My original 501c was called Vision Atlanta, but now I have a DBA called Camp Grace. 

 

So what happens is people are hearing about us through word of mouth and kids from Alabama, from Florida, from South Carolina, and Georgia. South Carolina, especially, we took over, I think it was 270 kids this summer and they want to bring like so many more. But that's why we have to keep growing.

 

I tell people, if you have a church that's baptizing 400 to 500 a summer, wouldn't you want to double that? Rick Warren, he's a pastor in Southern California. I used to go to all his conferences and actually I interviewed for a job out there years ago. [00:38:12] He says, if you're not growing, you're dying. And he has the six D's. He calls the six D's of God grows you as He grows your ministry. 

 

And those six D's are something that really come out of what I do. And they are, God will give you a dream, and from that dream, you have to make a decision. And from that decision, once you say yes, you can always count on delay. And after delay, you're going to have difficulty. That difficulty will lead you to dead end. You'll get to a point you want to throw in the towel. But after the dead end will come deliverance. So what I tell people is never give up and never stop. Because deliverance with God always comes.

 

Laura Dugger: That is so encouraging and sounds so accurate. Practically speaking, I would love to add some links in our show notes for today's episode. If someone's hearing this and they're feeling nudged to contribute in some way, where would you want to direct them to support all of this work and vision? [00:39:16] 

 

Dave Pridemore: You can go to thecampgrace.com and there's ways to sponsor children there. We actually are working with two people right now. One's in Canada and one's in Houston. And they want to do a Camp Grace Canada and a Camp Grace Texas.

 

So we're lending our expertise on inner city camps to other people. There may be some people listening to this that says, you know, we don't have a camp for kids that live in poverty anywhere in my area. If they want to call us, call me on (404) 493-4075. I would love to speak to them because we really have a turnkey manual that I could go to Chicago. If I had land and a person who had passion, we could do a Camp Grace Chicago tomorrow.

 

Laura Dugger: Well, thank you for sharing that. We will certainly add that to the show notes for today's episode. [00:40:19] Dave, you just have an inspiring spiritual gift of faith and you have clearly exercised it well. There's so much that we could learn from you but now I want to zero in on discernment. So how have you grown to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit against your own voice or culture or the enemy?

 

Dave Pridemore: Well, we're made in three parts. We have a body, we have a soul and we have a spirit. Before we were Christians, we didn't have the Holy Spirit in us, so we were dead in our trespasses and sin. 

 

Now, you know, what's called the flesh or the soul is our intellect and our emotion, and our will. Now that we're Christians, the spirit of God will test and give answers to our intellect, our emotion, our will. I call it our thinker, our feeler, and our chooser. And I call it a check in my spirit. [00:41:18] 

 

Let me give you an example. I was going to get zoning for the second time I tried to get zoning, but everybody was so ugly and they didn't want us to bring our camp to their area because of all the kind of kids we were bringing. 

 

So I was driving home and I was talking to God and I said, God, everywhere I go to get zoning, everybody's the same. They don't want us to come so I might as well go ahead and buy this camp. So the next morning, my real estate agent called me and she said, "Dave, I've got the contract. Let's go ahead and buy this land. I can't believe how ugly all those people were." 

 

Her name was Shelly. I said, "Shelly, I can't." And she said, "Why, Dave?" I said, "I don't know. I just know that it doesn't feel right right now. I have to wait." And I call that a check in my spirit. You see, the spirit of God will lead you into all righteousness. All right. And when you have a hesitation in you, then you just wait. [00:42:17] 

 

That's how I personally discern what God's telling me to do. And like this next thing I'm getting ready to build. He gives you not only a go-ahead. You have an enthusiasm inside of you that can't wait. You're like a racehorse at the gate. And when I'm not like a racehorse at the gate, I don't do it. I just don't do it.

 

I can say no to so many things because I know when it's of Him, because His spirit gives my mind the go and the emotion and the will to go. Right? So that's the exciting thing about being a believer, because now you have the Holy Spirit guiding and directing you.

 

Now, I could have still bought that land. Right. I could have. But I think I would have been miserable. And then two weeks later, a guy called me about the land I have now. I walked in the zoning, it was packed. I thought it was about me again. But it wasn't about me. 

 

I gave my testimony, the guy said, in the opposition, "No opposition." They said "settle." [00:43:17] I didn't realize it was right in the center of the state. It was the only camp I looked at that had county water on it. And that's a big deal if you're doing a camp. 

 

So if I would have said no to God and gotten the flesh. John 6:63 says the spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing. There's nothing good in the flesh. So if I make decisions without the spirit telling me that I'm going to be in some deep doo doo. But I don't know how other people do it. But I think you got you kind of know. When you're talking to God you kind of know when He says go or when He says wait.

 

A lot of my stuff is wait, believe it or not. Because He will not only say go, He will give you an enthusiastic excitement about the next step, about what to do. And if I'm not excited and enthusiastic about it, I just wait.

 

Laura Dugger: Wow, that's so good. It just makes me think of the first part of Isaiah 55:12 that says, "For you shall go out with joy and be led out with peace." [00:44:22] 

 

Dave Pridemore: Man, that is it. Because we want God's best. I have a saying at camp that God gave His best. So we're going to build the best. I had a little African-American foster girl come and she was put in a cabin with a gal that the stories were the same. This girl was, of course, a college kid and her mom was in jail and didn't know her dad. The same as little Elijah. 

 

And Elijah comes and she falls in love with her counselor. She comes to Christ that week, she goes home. And two months later, her foster dad calls me and says, "What did you do to her?" I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "She's praying, she's reading the Bible, she's wanting to go to college now, she's telling me." And so I told him and he said, "I can't believe what you've done. If I could ever help you, let me know."

 

And so I said, "What do you do since you said you want to help me?" He said, "I built the Olympic pool in Atlanta. I built pools for 20-plus years. I said, "Man, I need a pool." [00:45:25] I don't know what he was thinking, but I lived in a big subdivision. I want the best for our kids. 

 

This subdivision was a zero-entry mushroom Junior Olympic. It was like a resort pool. And so I gave him a picture of it. He said, "Dave, I have built that for 500, 600 in subdivisions." I said, "I know that's what we want." And he sent 40 guys and he built a 600,000, 130,000-gallon pool, which is the best. Most of our kids learn to swim at camp in that pool. So why settle for second best when you're working for God?

 

Laura Dugger: Well, as you're walking us through this story, it just takes me back because when this was becoming more of a reality around 2008, that's when our paths crossed during that time. You were my husband, Mark's mentor. Mark and I were not married yet. But you would meet together with Mark and Chris Allen and just encourage them. Eventually you ended up officiating our wedding. [00:46:34] 

 

When I'm going back to that time, I just remember we had invited a lot of our unbelieving friends to the wedding and we had a captive audience. So we didn't want to miss out on an opportunity to share the good news. So do you remember the story of grace you shared as Mark and I left the sanctuary as a newly married couple?

 

Dave Pridemore: Oh, yeah, yeah. It's the difference between justice, mercy, and grace. Of course, my camp is called Camp Grace. And I just believe people need to understand grace to be effective in everything that they do. I liken it to if you're speeding in your car, right, and you're going 30 miles over the speed limit and the officer pulls you over, well, you deserve justice and justice is he's going to write you a ticket. 

 

In the spiritual realm, we deserve justice, and that justice is getting what you deserve. So we deserve death and separation from God for all eternity because of sin in our life.

 

So the officer is writing out what I jokingly call the sin ticket, right? And so because you or I have had... let's say we've had four other tickets and we, you know, this is a super speeder ticket, man, he's going to throw the book at us and so we look at the officer and say, officer, will you give me mercy? [00:48:01] 

 

And to our surprise, the officer says yes. And he takes the sin ticket and he tears it into a bunch of pieces and he throws it in the air and it goes as far as the wind blows it as far as east is from west. So the mercy that God gave us is the blood of Christ takes away the sin of the world. 

 

So mercy is not getting what you deserve. We deserve that ticket. We deserve separation from God for all eternity. But God so loved us that He sent Jesus so that he could tear up the sin ticket, so that He could get rid of sin once and for all. 

 

Once we just think about if an officer tore that sin ticket up, how would you feel sitting in the car? And it's the same thing the night I came to Christ. I felt so good about my decision because I knew I had entrance into the kingdom of heaven. [00:49:01] I was a child of God. I had no sin at that moment.

 

And then I try to explain grace by all of a sudden the officers walk into his car, then he stops and he starts walking back toward your car. And you say, "Oh, I knew this was too good to be true." I knew that that ticket would have cost you $300. So he takes three new $100 bills and he hands it to you. He hands it to me. And he says, have a good day. Well, I would take that $300 and I would put it in my pocket. 

 

I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So He has put his life in us. So if justice is getting what you deserve and mercy is not getting what you deserve, then grace is getting what you don't deserve. 

 

That's why I can discern the best of my ability what God is telling me to do, because He is in me. I tell people, quit trying so hard to do the Christian life. You can't do it. [00:50:05] But there's somebody in you that can do it through you. We don't have to do anything for God. It's what he does from us that really matters. So grace is a big deal to me.

 

Laura Dugger: It is a big deal to you. You've shared that so much throughout your life and this conversation today and even tying up that story of our wedding, we wanted people to experience grace in a really tangible way.

 

So after we had exited, you shared this story of the good news, and we had hidden a lump of money under someone's seat in the sanctuary. And it was actually Chris Allen's parents, Don and Sheila Allen, were the ones who received that money to experience grace that they didn't deserve. We're just showing up for a wedding.

 

And then at the reception, I don't know if we ever shared this with you, they found us and insisted that we take that with us on our honeymoon. [00:51:01] And when we tried to resist, they said, "No, no, no, it's grace." And so that grace upon grace has been evident through these stories that you've shared and through what Christ models that he gives us more than we could ever ask or imagine and definitely more than we deserve. So thank you for illustrating that so well. 

 

Again, we will put the links to the website and your phone number. Is there anything else we can add if we want to support your vision or read your book?

 

Dave Pridemore: That's pretty much it. We just love what we do. We see so many changed lives. Just pray for the summers for Camp Grace and for salvation for the hearts of kids.

 

Laura Dugger: Absolutely. Dave, you may already be familiar that we're called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge. And so as my final question for you today, what is your savvy sauce? [00:52:05] 

 

Dave Pridemore: I think my savvy sauce is just pretty practical. And praying without ceasing is just chatting with God as you go through the day. I think it's really important that you stay connected and you just talk to Him like he's your best friend. When you have concerns, just talk to yourself. I call it self-talk. But I think it's just a practical thing to just pray in a sense is just talking to God throughout the day as you walk and go about your business.

 

Laura Dugger: What a wonderful savvy sauce that is and something that you model so well. Dave, I am so grateful for you and your faith and your ministry and just the impact and legacy that you've left on our lives and through this chat today. So thank you very much for being my guest.

 

Dave Pridemore: Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you for the invite. [00:53:04] 

 

Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves.

 

This means there is absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a Savior.

 

But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news.

 

Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. [00:54:10] We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us.

 

Romans 10.9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

 

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 

 

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him. You get the opportunity to live your life for Him. And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you ready to get started? [00:55:11] 

 

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible, and I love it. You can start by reading the Book of John. 

 

Also, get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps, such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. 

 

We want to celebrate with you too, so feel free to leave a comment for us here if you did make a decision to follow Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process. 

 

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today. [00:56:11] 

 

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.