One day in the 1940s, Ted Deibler, Pastor of Fourth Memorial Church, was hiking with Elder Fred Paul in the beautiful Pend Oreille River Valley. Together they knelt for prayer, asking the Lord to someday give the church a piece of property in that beautiful valley to be used for Fourth Memorial's camping program. Nineteen years later, in 1959, the wife of Fourth Memorial's Pastor, Wilbur Antisdale, came across a classified ad in the Spokesman Review describing a motel and nine cabins for sale on a gentle curve of the Pend Oreille River, 65 miles north of Spokane. The Antisdales and a group of men from the church went that very day for an inspection and tour of the grounds. Bess Antisdale writes, "For years we had wanted to have a Bible camp that the church could call it's own and use year round. We knelt by the river and claimed the property for the Lord's glory."

In 1959, Fourth Memorial Church purchased the entire town of Jared, Washington for $22,000! The purchase included 76 acres of wooded property with 750 feet of waterfront on the river, a tavern and tiny restaurant, a dance hall, an abandoned farm house, two outdoor latrines, and nine run-down cabins, complete with potbellied stoves.

From this humble beginning, the Lord has used the people of Fourth Memorial Church and friends of Fourth Memorial to build and maintain Riverview Bible Camp, one of our greatest outreach tools the Lord has provided. Today, we praise Him for entrusting us with this resource where lives are challenged and changed.

   Riverview Staff