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 74 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.




