Hollis Community Church

Hollis Bible Camp is located on Prince of Wales Island in Hollis, Alaska. Prince of Wales Island is approximately 150 miles long by 45 miles wide and is the 3rd largest island belonging to the United States. Over 90% of Prince of Wales Island is part of the Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest National Forest at 16.8 million acres.

There are approximately 5000 people living in 12 different communities on Prince of Wales. These communities are some of the most remote communities in S.E. Alaska. While most communities have a young established church body, several have no church at all. Most of the pastors on the island are bi-vocational, or are supported as missionaries.
There are two communities that are made up primarily of Native peoples, one of which has no active church. The combination of old native spiritual beliefs and practices, isolation, and lack of Christian influence has made this place very dark spiritually.

The small membership (20) of Hollis Community Church caught and chose to pursue a vision of building a camp in an effort to fulfill the mandate to the church of The Great Commission. The prayer is that this camp located on Prince of Wales Island will create a facility available to island children and adults where they will have an opportunity to meet God, and come to know Jesus Christ as Savior. Discipleship, mission training, and retreats are also purposes for which the facility will be used. We feel that many people throughout Southeast Alaska, and even groups from the lower 48 states, would use the camp for these purposes.

At present, the camp has a main building which is now used for pastor’s housing, sanctuary, kitchen and dining room. This building has been remodeled and renovated several times over the past 10 years, and will eventually be remodeled to complete a commercial kitchen and dining hall/recreation area.

Two cabins were built 5-7 years ago and still require some finish work and completion of bathrooms. A structure that was built over the last two summers contains a bath house for the camp, and the first sanctuary ever (built for that purpose) in Hollis, Alaska.

This summer we hope to complete the bath house and new sanctuary, possibly begin remodeling for the commercial kitchen and install a new septic system to serve the camp. To adhere to State of Alaska guidelines for the septic system installation funding of approximately $10,000 will be required.
Eventually we hope to have 2 more cabins and a building for recreation which would include a basketball court and another large indoor recreation and meeting room.

Resources, both financial and physical, have come primarily from mission teams and churches from the lower 48 states. This will most likely remain God’s source of supply for this community because the church here, and island wide, is still very few in number.

Also, many people here make a living fishing, logging, and in tourism, all of which are seasonal jobs overlapping directly with construction timing.
This also explains the need for mission teams to help us with evangelistic outreach opportunities from VBS in many communities to staffing the camp.

Thank you for considering this camp and Prince of Wales Island. If you need any further information or clarification please let us know.

In Christ,

Jeff and Rhonda Jones
Hollis, Alaska
www.hollisbible.org

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