The CAMP (Christian Artists and Musicians Project)

Primary Contact Person: Denise Strong
Phone: 248-886-0881
Fax: 248-886-0203
E-mail: info@thedamponline.org

Location:
5119 Highland Rd.
PMB 207
Waterford MI 48327

The Metro Detroit based organization the CAMP (Christian Artists and Musicians Project) is looking for artistically minded Christians to share theier gifts in state prisons. In connection with Prison Fellowship Ministries, the CAMP seeks to gather a pool of artists who are ready to minister when called upon by Prison Fellowship or a prison Chaplain. Christian musicians who could serve fruitfully in this capacity should contact Denise Strong (contact info above) immediately.

A prison ministry training seminar is to be offered to those interested.

Christian Non-Profit Forges New Cultural Territory:

"TheCAMP" (Christian Artists and Musicians Project) presented its second annual benefit dinner on May 30, 2007 at the Troy Community Center. This Christian-based non-profit organization is meeting many crucial needs of artists of faith and the people they reach. The event served as wonderful exposure for a first-timer to the activities of theCAMP, not without its own inspiring story of a personal "Tapestry" — the life of Detroit Symphony Orcestra violinist Ann Strubler.

Ann Strubler, with great humility, shared the story of her reunion with her birth mother, and later with her birth father, and her discovery of her own musical and spiritual heritage. Her birth father was present at the event and heard one of his own songs played in his honor by the Jump Street Swing Band, and he was in tears. Ann's sons, also budding musicians, contributed significantly. Mark Strubler, from the Berklee College of Music in Boston performed three smooth, catchy pieces with his former teacher, jazz guitarist Paul Dozier. To close the evening Rufus Harris, Executive Director of theCAMP, sang a chorus, "Oh, make of us a tapestry in which your beauty runs."

The evening symbolized the cultural force that an organization like the CAMP can carry, affecting people in untold ways with the power of heartfelt music. And under the leadership of Rufus Harris theCAMP brings artists into the loneliest of places — state institutions. Call it subversive or simply loving, this is an activity that the Christian people of Metro Detroit ought to know about and be grateful for.

For more information on theCAMP, including their monthly entertainment venue in Dearborn MI, visit www.theCampOnline.org. For more on Ann Strubler go to www.detroitsymphony.org, click on "Meet the DSO."

Target Groups of Ministry: Local communities; prisons