An open letter to the Strategic Board

Trying to describe what Sound View means is a difficult task. It’s indescribable. There aren’t strong enough words, phrases, or even sounds to describe Sound View because it’s a feeling. It would be just as impossible to describe how someone knows that God loves you. You try to put it into words and struggle, because it’s a deep feeling you know in your heat and trying to express it leaves you speechless.

I came to Sound View for the first time as a high school student. I was shy, weird, lost, and overall inquisitive about faith. In my short time at Sound View from 2007-2008 as a camper, to becoming a part of an amazing staff 2009-2011, I can with certainly state that Sound View Camp changes lives. I saw it happen in little as a week with campers, and over years with my fellow staffers as well as with myself. Sound View provides a safe environment to discuss faith with no harsh judgements and provides much needed love and guidance.

My life has been heavily impacted by the time I spent as an L.I.T. and working on staff. Sound View is more than a plot of land on the Key Peninsula – it’s a home, a church, a place to heal, a place of acceptance, and most importantly a place to grow in the love of Christ. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the guidance, love, encouragement and confidence that Sound View gave me. It was at Sound View that I began to fathom the love of God and learn to accept myself and others around me. The focus of Sound View has and never will be about quantity of campers that come each year. It’s about the quality of the relationships that you develop with God and his people.

Allie Jo Koester

Testimonials