10/15/2026
Joe Patterson wasn’t sold on camp when he and his wife Marie decided to send their eldest child to Loucon. His parents weren’t into camping, and he was plagued by allergies to seemingly everything that bloomed. It took marrying the daughter of Peace Corps parents to get him into the great outdoors.Â
“Our kids loved being outside,” Joe says with a laugh. “If I was going to connect with them for their interests, I had to get over my own discomfort and go with them.”
Before long, Joe learned to love the outdoors–especially once he saw the ministry opportunities for kids. As children’s pastor at Broadway UMC in Bowling Green, he began sending kids to Loucon and working as a dean. He not only adapted. He started to feel at home.Â
“Turns out Chacos feel pretty good,” he says.Â
None of that made sending their 13-year-old to camp one year, however. Although Kellen had been to Loucon camps several times, the move to middle school presented new challenges. He had become obsessed with running cross-country, so much so that he sometimes forgot to eat. Joe worried that a week of camp might distract him even more from the nutrition his growing body needed. When they dropped Kellen off for camp, Joe pulled aside some staffers to explain the situation.Â
“The staff told me don’t worry. We’ll keep an eye on him and make sure he’s okay. They’d taken good care of him in years past, and they really stepped up this time.”
During his week at camp, Kellen participated in the running track, which put him in the care of a cabin leader named Corbin. Throughout the camp, Corbin talked about the importance of nutrition and ways to make sure Kellen got what he needed. That week, Kellen thrived, and he returned home with strategies for being healthier going forward. Â
“I could never have reached my kid in the same way camp did,” Joe says. “It brought the right person into his life at just the right time.”
Joe continues to work as a dean and volunteer at Loucon, pouring into other kids the same way previous staffers did for his own. It’s a way for him to disconnect from the pressures of the world and reconnect to joy.Â
“Holy Spirit magic. That’s what a place like Loucon does.”
