History

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During the spring of 2009, a generous individual heard about a farm that was for sale across the road from Camp Andrews.  After hearing the tremendous asset that this land would be to the expansion of ministry, he offered to purchase the 40 acres.  The farm was purchased with his gift in July 2009.

The Board of Directors and Camp Andrews staff prayed and discussed what God’s purpose was for the “miracle farm” across the road.  Teresa Beachy, the camp program director, had previously spent several years in South Carolina at a residential camp for troubled teen girls and brought a vision for starting a similar ministry in Pennsylvania.  Many teen girls came to Camp Andrews for summer camp but had no place to go for continued healing and discipleship.  The vision for Meadows of Hope was to extend Camp’s ministry.

On November 15, 2010, the Board of Directors established an exploratory subcommittee with 10 members to research creating a program for troubled teen girls on the newly acquired property.  On March 14, 2012, the Board unanimously approved the motion to open a residential girls’ home and formed a steering committee with 8 members.  The committee had 21 meetings from March 2012 - August 2014 and conducted more research, visited and networked with similar ministries, prayed a lot, developed vision and policy statements and prepared the new property. 

Starting the summer of 2013, horses were acquired, the old barn was renovated, the new house was built with the school in the basement, and the first staff members were hired.  On August 26, 2014, our first teen girl entered the program at Meadows of Hope. Many adopted and some biological girls have been enrolled, both Mennonite and not, but family work for urban teen girls proved complex, and they are not a focus. The first graduate was celebrated in May 2015, and by year-end 2016, there were 8 girls in the group at Meadows of Hope. The group reached 10 girls by November 2019, and by summer 2022, 43 teen girls' lives had been touched by the program.

Camp Andrews is the “parent” 501(c)(3) private, non-profit, Christian para-church ministry of Meadows of Hope.  Meadows of Hope and Camp Andrews are governed by the same Board of Directors and currently operate under the umbrella organization of Silver Springs Ministries.