Celebrating LWR’s 20 Years with Camp Meeting

CLIFTON, TEX. – Lake Whitney Ranch (LWR) in Clifton, Tex., celebrates 20 years of ministry in 2026. For the past two decades, people of all ages have been ministered to at LWR through trainings, retreats, summer camps, church weekends and club ministries events, which included many baptisms in portable tanks and the pond. To celebrate, a conference-wide camp meeting is planned for Nov. 13-15, 2026, featuring Mark Finley, international speaker, influencer, host of HopeLives365 and assistant to the president for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Takoma Park, Md., and Arnaldo Cruz, international speaker, influencer and media evangelism director for the Southeastern Conference in Mount Dora, Fla. Special musical guests will perform a concert Sabbath evening. 

“It will be a wonderful time fulfilling our conference theme, ‘Together As One’ as we gather in the newly created open-air pavilion,” shared Elton DeMoraes, Texas Conference president. The pavilion can accommodate 5,000 people in a bring-your-own-lawn-chair seating arrangement.

LWR, which overlooks Lake Whitney, a reservoir created in 1951 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was purchased in phases. The Texas Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists, which oversees buildings and properties for the Texas Conference, purchased the first 458 acres on June 5, 2006. It was referred to as the developed side because it had existing buildings on it. Almost a year later, on May 17, 2007, 76 acres were purchased across the street on the undeveloped side, with an additional 330 acres purchased on the same side on May 22, 2007. In October 2007, the first home was purchased next to the property.

Throughout the past 20 years, besides purchasing additional houses next to the property, a number of facilities have been created, including lodges, an events center, a floating boat dock, offices, a nurse’s station, bath and shower houses, a nature center, a saddle barn, a town hall building, ropes course, an open-air pavilion, a red barn and a horse barn. The open-air pavilion replaced the large tent rented annually for camporees. Six cabins (accommodating 32 people each), a multipurpose building and a swimming pool are the next projects planned as funds become available.

“It is exciting to see the ranch being used almost every week and weekend for different ministry events,” DeMoraes added. “I look forward to seeing the grounds filled with families for the Together As One Camp Meeting. That will be the ultimate celebration.”

Camp meeting has historical significance for the Texas Conference, as James and Ellen White established the conference at the first camp meeting in Texas in 1878. Seeing the interest in Texas, James and Ellen G. White spent several months in the Plano and Denison areas in 1878 and 1879. James White, then General Conference president, reported, “During the camp meeting [held Nov. 12-19, 1878, in Plano, Tex.] 13 people were baptized, the Texas Conference was formed and aggressive plans were laid for tent evangelism.”

Please plan to join us from Nov. 13-15, 2026, for the weekend or Sabbath only, to create more LWR memories together. For more details, visit TexasAdventist.org.

By Tamara Michalenko Terry
Director for Events and Editorial Services