In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop sits down with Matthew Reichart, Executive Director at Pine Valley Camp, to talk about restoring hope for at-risk youth through faith and giving. They explore how generosity creates long-term change, why camping ministry is so effective, and the impact of intentional community partnerships. Matthew also shares powerful donor stories and his vision for a legacy of healing.
Matthew Reichart is the Executive Director at Pine Valley Camp, a faith‑based nonprofit offering residential camps and year‑round programs for inner‑city and underprivileged children in the Pittsburgh region. He co-founded and revived the camp in 1995 with his wife, Susan, guiding its mission to rebuild broken lives through the gospel, life skills, and outdoor adventure. Under his leadership, the camp serves hundreds of children annually with activities like hiking, biking, swimming, and discipleship in a nurturing, low‑cost environment.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [3:14] Why Matthew Reichart believes joy comes from serving a transcendent cause greater than personal happiness
- [5:01] How Matthew’s parents’ faith and example led him to leave MetLife for full-time camp ministry
- [7:21] Why camping is a powerful tool to reach at-risk youth and inspire spiritual growth
- [9:35] The mission of Pine Valley Camp to rebuild broken lives through Christ-centered experiences
- [12:54] A powerful story of a donor who redirected retirement funds to build a camp lodge before passing away
- [15:19] How Pine Valley’s new dining hall project is fueled by faith and acts of generosity
- [24:28] The ripple effect of generosity as former campers return to serve and lead in their communities
In this episode:
Some of the most profound life changes start with a single act of generosity. But how can giving — whether time, money, or love — truly restore hope in the lives of at-risk youth? And what does it look like when that generosity becomes the foundation of a decades-long mission?
According to Matthew Reichart, a lifelong mission-driven leader, hope is restored when children encounter the love of Christ in a nurturing, distraction-free environment. He highlights the power of camp to break cycles of brokenness by immersing kids in nature, mentorship, and faith-filled community. The ripple effects are clear; former campers often return as counselors, leaders, even pastors, carrying forward the same hope they once received.
In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop sits down with Matthew Reichart, Executive Director at Pine Valley Camp, to talk about restoring hope for at-risk youth through faith and giving. They explore how generosity creates long-term change, why camping ministry is so effective, and the impact of intentional community partnerships. Matthew also shares powerful donor stories and his vision for a legacy of healing.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Jim Dunlop on LinkedIn
- Advent Partners
- Matthew Reichart on LinkedIn
- Pine Valley Camp: Website | Facebook | Instagram
- Kevin Giza on LinkedIn
- The Giza Group
- “Building a Legacy of Generosity From Personal Success With Kevin Giza” on You Can’t Take it With You
- MetLife
- Sonshine Ministries
- CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship)
Quotable Moments
- “Creation is a powerful preacher no man can deny.”
- “We send buildings to hell and kids to heaven.”
- “We go by a compass, not a clock, because we’re raising over $1 million a year.”
- “God has a plan for your life and you’re not an accident, you’re precious, you’re special.”
- “Find a place, wherever you are in the get up off of that thing and go serve.”
Action Steps
- Support under-resourced youth programs in your community: Investing in underserved children creates lasting impact and helps break cycles of generational poverty.
- Prioritize time spent in mentorship and play: Building trust through meaningful presence opens hearts and fosters lasting emotional and spiritual growth.
- Engage in faith-driven service projects: Serving others through a mission-focused lens deepens purpose and aligns actions with personal values.
- Donate intentionally to high-impact initiatives: Strategic giving, like funding a camp scholarship or facility, can multiply hope in transformative ways.
- Invite others to experience the mission firsthand: Personal connection to a cause turns passive supporters into active advocates and lifelong partners.
Sponsor for this episode:
This episode is brought to you by Advent Partners — a financial planning partner dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey.
Our seasoned team of professionals is committed to guiding you toward your financial goals. We offer tailored solutions based on your specific needs, from standalone financial planning to integrated financial management.
Whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap.
To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit AdventPartnersFP.com.
Episode Transcript
Intro: 00:00
Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show, where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now, here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.
Jim Dunlop: 00:16
Hi, Jim Dunlop here, a wealth advisor and host of the show, where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity. I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire our listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Matthew Reichart Senior. Before we get to Matthew, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners. Ready for good.
Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. At Advent Partners, we’re ready for good. Our bold ten year vision to help our clients donate $100 million to transform lives through generosity and planning. United by generosity, relationship, excellent authenticity and fun, we empower meaningful lives and lasting community impact. To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit ready for good.
Now, before introducing today’s guest, I want to give a big shout out to Kevin Giza, who introduced us to Matthew. Go check out his website at thegizagroup and Giza is Giza at thegizagroup.com. So now about Matthew. Matthew Reichart was born and raised in Butler, Pennsylvania, the second of four sons in a Christ centered home where his parents actively modeled evangelism and discipleship. His father was a successful businessman who lived by the principle life is relationship.
His family regularly hosted missionaries interactions that led Matthew’s call to full time mission service at age 12. After marrying his college sweetheart Susan, and working at MetLife for eight years, both of them felt compelled and called to Camping Ministry full time in 1995. Matthew and Susan, with their five small children, repurposed Pine Valley Camp as a residential summer camp serving urban and at risk youth who typically couldn’t afford such experiences. 30 years later, Matthew continues to find Christian camping highly effective for reaching kids through encounters with God’s creation and the gospel message. A self-described social entrepreneur has been married to Susan for 44 years, and their five adult children have expanded the Reichart family to include 31 grandchildren, 16 of whom are adopted.
Matthew’s commitment remains, bringing the hope of the gospel to future generations. Matthew, welcome to the show and I’m excited to have you here. And before I let you speak, I just have to tell our listeners, I’m excited about today’s episode because I met my wife at church camp 27 years ago, and it was an important part of our lives. And so it’s neat to be talking to somebody who has that experience and is in that work today. So welcome.
I’m really glad you’re here.
Matthew Reichart: 02:55
So good to be here with you, Jim. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here and to share.
Jim Dunlop: 02:59
So, so I gave a little bit of a biography, but maybe you could tell our listeners a little bit, take a few moments and tell our listeners a few more things about yourself and your your own journey, and then we’ll get into some stories and questions around generosity.
Matthew Reichart: 03:14
Hopefully today will be an encouragement to whoever is listening. My wife read from John Ortberg’s book Transcendent Cause is when we’re devoted to something greater than our own personal happiness and true joy comes to those who are devoted to a transcendent cause. And so what we see in our mission here is people joining us all, both not just financially, but also physically helping us to to serve these at risk, needy children who are coming from such brokenness. And not all of them, but most of them are coming from brokenness. So and it’s been an exciting journey to see how how the Lord has impacted the hearts and lives of these young children and staff who come to serve here.
And it’s been a it’s been a long journey, and it couldn’t have happened without the generosity of God’s people having a heart to serve these kids. I can tell you a story after story, and probably will a successful businessmen and women who have not only just taken care of their own families, but have a heart to help serve these children also. So it’s good to be here with you.
Jim Dunlop: 04:19
So Matthew or I know to the campers you’re known as Mr. Matt. You and your.
Matthew Reichart: 04:25
Recently. Recently they’re calling me Papa Matt. But you could call me Mr. Matt because of my 31 grandkids. I’m a grandfather now. They call me Papa Matt, which is adhering to me.
Jim Dunlop: 04:35
Neat. So you left a pretty traditional world of working for a large, well known insurance company and kind of started this venture 30 years ago. Tell me about that, that that transition and that I’ll call it a leap of faith and tell, tell, tell me how that happened for you and your wife.
Matthew Reichart: 05:01
I think the foundation was laid from my parents, who were successful businessmen. He was number 1 or 2 in his company, always had his business out of his home, served Western PA. And I was he would help him by putting stickers on catalogs and stuff like that. But they always said, Matthew, we had family devotions. We don’t care what you do with your life.
Just fall in love with the Lord. Make him number one. And that’s the Psalms 128 passage the God fearing family. So no matter who you are, what you’re doing, where you’re at, when we make Christ first in our lives and he he brings all those things together. So, so from that they were very missional.
They as you mentioned, we had the missionaries in our place. So at that early age, because of my, my parents example and specifically my dad mentored me, he was my first mentor on how to just have a personal walk with Jesus Christ, taught me how to read and study the Bible, sent us to camp. He met my mom at the same camp where I met my wife. So they just they lived it. And so I think that’s the challenge for for young families today, for they were the real deal.
They weren’t perfect, but they were the real deal. And that that inspired me to to go forward and to emulate that and to, you know, the whole whole idea of our mission is rebuilding broken lives through Christ. And we’re trying to heal the urban family because 80% of our children come down. No, dad, dad’s not in the home. And there’s such brokenness.
And the family to me is key to society. If we’re going to have a successful society, we have to have healthy, strong, loving families that are nuclear, families that are loving and supporting. And so that’s, you know, our our mission, big, big picture is to heal the hearts of these kids through. And hopefully they will they will break that cycle of brokenness and become. And they are we’re seeing this where they’re becoming loving, loving parents and adults.
Jim Dunlop: 06:49
That’s incredible. I you’ve hinted at this a little bit with your dad, but tell me. So I suspect I know part of the answer here, but it’s just leave leaving a good job and and and and pursuing something like this, I think is an incredible act of generosity in itself. What is your generosity origin story that would allow you and and push you to, to to make a change like this?
Matthew Reichart: 07:21
Yeah. That’s a that’s a good question. It was because of that call at an early age, I got I got into debt to get out of debt. That was my tagline. And, and you know, I was going to do 3 to 5 years, 7 or 8 years later, my wife’s like, when are we going to Africa?
So and that’s a whole story. But we had served at our camp that we met at during college with our two two sons. We were married and had two sons in college and working on my business degree. And so she, you know, we realized that camping was something that we really enjoyed doing and, and saw it as a powerful tool. In fact, we say creation is a powerful preacher.
No man can deny. And you know, when Christ came into. To get his disciples, he took him camping for three and a half years. They went out and lived out in the country. So it’s, you know, there’s a biblical basis there.
And there’s something about powerful about getting kids away from their screens and their distractions and getting into creation and getting nurtured. So that that became clear to us that we needed to pursue camping. But it was a it was a journey. It was a long journey to get us to where we are now. But my my parents had a big part in that because they had, you know, always encouraged us just to, to do what was on our hearts.
So so I guess the generosity was I played football, I had opportunities to go to college on scholarships, but I was so mission oriented minded. I went to Moody Bible Institute for a year before I transferred to Geneva with the plan to be in missions. And so, you know that that was a lifestyle that I chose to pursue and eventually was fulfilled eight years later after I got out of college and worked for eight years at MetLife, we had the opportunity to to go into full time camping.
Jim Dunlop: 09:14
So so here we are 30 years later. And tell me what? Tell me about the vision and mission of Pine Valley Camp. Again, we’ve hinted at it, but I’ll have you maybe explain for our listeners not only that mission and vision, but some examples of how you’ve seen it fulfilled over the years.
Matthew Reichart: 09:35
It’s rebuilding broken lives through Christ. That’s our tagline. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for good and not evil, to give you a future and a hope. Our core values are faith. Faith in Jesus Christ.
Family. Family is formative. families. Restorative. So.
So no matter what your family background. I’ll ask businessmen this. And businesswomen. Are you successful because of your family or in spite of. And sometimes it’s one or the other, and sometimes it’s both.
But my dad, his father said you will never succeed. And never told him he loved him. So my dad purposed in his heart I’m going, you know, that’s why I think he was so successful. And he said to his four sons, I love you. I’m proud of you.
You’re doing a great job. So he did not want to pass on that brokenness. So why are you successful? What’s your legacy? Our legacy.
Dining hall and faith family and then fun. And you mentioned funding your fund builds the bridge to a heart of a kid. Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. So my wife, Susan says love is spelled T-i-m-e. So she likes to sit and listen and hear their hearts.
And that’s what our counselors do. They unpack their suitcases. Literally. Figuratively. Suitcase where they’re coming down, carrying a heavy burdens.
And we want them to share those burdens and get them into the light. And then there’s healing. But so that’s the love. Spend time for her. But I say, I say love is spelled p l a y.
And that’s the fun part. And I’m my wife says I’m a big kid. Haven’t grown up yet. And every time we do something, I’m like, where’s the fun? We got to have fun.
And that, that gets into a kid’s heart and opens their ears and say, you really do care about me. You love me. You care about me. So we had a lot of fun here.
Jim Dunlop: 11:17
So I, I know that that’s kind of a perfect example of what’s driven you guys over the last 30 years. What’s what’s the expanded vision or maybe a newer vision as you go forward in your ministry?
Matthew Reichart: 11:32
Yeah. Let me just two is as a part of the story. On my 18th birthday, my MetLife manager, Don flick, who’s about 90 years old now, called me on October 18th and I was sitting in our in our soon to be new offices. Just kind of thanking the Lord for how far we had come. And he said, Matt, how can I help you?
And I said, Don, you already help me. That’s way back when I was working for MetLife. You let me take the summer off to go serve at the Promise Camp. And that was a camp in Pittsburgh for inner city kids. And because of your willingness to to take that risk and let me do that, I’m here today.
So thanks so much. So I you know, I can, with this story after story of people who’ve just done with what they can, with what they have to help further this mission. And I think that’s true in any any mission that you’re involved in, people think, oh, I don’t I’m not I don’t have what you need. Like, hey, what’s in your hand? You know, God, God, Jesus.
God said that to David when he went to kill Goliath. What’s in your hand? Just use what God has given you and you never know how you can be a blessing to other people.
Jim Dunlop: 12:40
Can you? Can you share a specific story of somebody? Maybe. I won’t say reluctantly, but, you know, unknowing what the result would be. Doing something generous at Pine Valley and what the result of that was.
Matthew Reichart: 12:54
Yeah, I was meeting in a restaurant in a local town here with the development director of Grove City College, and a gentleman came over to me that I’ve known, had known then for about 20 plus years we had done a Bible study together. He was an older gentleman, like my father’s age, like a that I would look up to as a, as a mentor. He said, man, I just had a dream last night and I thought I was to build a to build a camp, and I thought it was for the Boy Scouts, but maybe it’s for you. Do you need any help at Pine Valley? I said, Elmer, it’s funny you should say that.
So he came out, and at that point we were building that we called the Valley View Lodge, and it’s we spent about 550,000 on it. He he covered about a third of that, and his dream was to come out and sit on rocking chairs and watch the kids run around. He was he had sold property that he was going to build a cabin for himself. And he said, I’m going to sell that and give it to you so I can, so that you can serve these kids. And then I just want to I just want to sit in rocking chairs and watch them run around.
So it took a couple of years to get to that point. I called him up. We just got the chairs. The building was winding down and his son said, oh, dad’s not doing too good so he won’t be able to come to the phone. So I ran.
I ran to his house that night, just tucked him in bed. He wasn’t. He had fallen on kitty litter and was, you know, it impacted him. So the next day I filmed myself and said, Hey Elmer’s, thanks so much. We got this rocking chair.
We got the dining hall. I appreciate you not talking about the Valley View. Appreciate your investment. Hopefully you get better. We come out and sit on the chairs.
He heard my he heard my video. And that afternoon he passed away. And so that so we went to the funeral. And then afterwards his two sons, Greg and Baxter, came out and we sat on the on the rocking chairs together, just celebrating Elmer. And so to me that he was like one of these God always brings me these older guys that just encourage and help me with the mission, and they do what they can with what they have.
Jim Dunlop: 14:53
Yeah. So I know that there’s a whole I know that in, in, in our talking and preparing for today, there’s a big project at the Legacy Dining Hall building. And you I know tucked into that or some stories of generosity as, as that’s coming together to tell our listeners about that project and, and how generosity is making it happen.
Matthew Reichart: 15:19
Yeah, we always make do with what we have. So the first building that we should have replaced was our dining hall. We used it to 2020. And we, we, we send buildings to hell and kids to heaven. So we poured it down in January because it’s on a floodplain, and we had a permit to raise it up six feet off the floodplain.
And so we burned down in January and in faith that we would start. So and at that point, you know, it was a $2.5 million project. Well, since then, you know, Covid happened and inflation happened, and that building has gone from two and a half to over $5 million. And and there was other things we were building to this, like this Valley View Lodge and a shelter that we were building. So we have a capital campaign that we had launched, and that was 13 years ago.
And we’ve got we and it was the first thing we wanted to build, and it ended up being the last thing that we’re working on. I’ve learned, learned to say when people say, when’s your building going to be done? I say, we go by a compass, not a clock, because we’re raising we’re raising over $1 million a year just to run the camp. So 1.3 is our budget this year for the year round operations to run the camp. They say 40 bucks.
It cost me over 950 per kid. Right. So there’s that whole part. And we have very generous supporters. If it wasn’t for our supporters, we couldn’t do this.
And then on top of that, we’re raising funds for our buildings. And this dining hall is the heart of the camp. It has the living room, kitchen and dining room. You imagine your house if you just had bedrooms, if you didn’t have a living room, kitchen, dining room. So it’s right down at the heart of the camp.
It’s it’s has big, you know, vaulted ceiling. We’re about halfway through and they’ll need to raise, you know, 11.72 2 million to finish it up.
Jim Dunlop: 17:06
So yeah. Well good luck. Yeah. And we’ll and we’ll direct. Our listeners here at the end of the show how they can learn more about this stuff. And there are I know that in looking at this project on your website, there’s lots of partners in this. Tell me about some of those, or 1 or 2 of those who have helped make a difference in getting this building moving.
Matthew Reichart: 17:32
Yeah, one of the partners I don’t know if I should say names, but one of them originally came to us was the president, former president of U.S. steel retired. Gave us money, significant money to revamp and to build our pool. For us, the pool was worth about 275,000. So one one individual gave money to our pool. This gentleman that I talked about, his sons was visiting their son.
They were visiting me in January. And the one son had lost his wife a couple years ago, and they had money nest egg set aside to build a vacation home down south. He gave me that, that nest egg for this building, for this dining hall specifically.
Jim Dunlop: 18:17
Wow.
Matthew Reichart: 18:18
Isn’t that something? I mean, it was significant. It was a lot of money. And we. Simple, simple.
I’m going to say their name. They built they built the the airport terminal and another big high rise building in Pittsburgh. They donated all the steel, 40 tons of steel, the plates for our trusses, all the bolts and we do work days. I had a guy out last fall throwing the dining hall needed. We needed glass garage doors for our dining hall to open up eight of them.
And the fact that the guy said, I think my boss would be interested in that. So Overhead Doors of Pittsburgh came out two weeks later and said, you know, we told them that we were needed over $2 million to finish this. And he was like, are the doors in that? I said, yes. He said, consider them paid for.
So all eight glass garage doors paid for and installed.
Jim Dunlop: 19:10
How neat.
Matthew Reichart: 19:11
So we just had. And then the metal roof guy, it’s like I’m gonna say metal roof. Yeah. Giving us a, you know, cost half price. Becca Becca has given us the decking at a third of the cost.
He gave us a grant in honor of Chris Young, who was our rep for 22 years. Passed away last year from cancer. So they Really. There’s just. Yeah, I.
And I can tell you stories about that.
Jim Dunlop: 19:38
Wow.
Matthew Reichart: 19:39
When they, when the decking arrived, they wanted to do a work day. They had their corporate execs out for three days, and they wanted to come out for an afternoon and work. So we just got their decking. I said, why don’t you guys put down your decking for us? So we had eight of their corporate execs for 4 or 5 hours, screwing down their own decking on their porch.
Jim Dunlop: 19:57
Oh, what a great what a great project.
Matthew Reichart: 20:00
We fed them steaks. They paid for the steaks. We fed them steaks, my wife’s homemade potato salad and shared about the mission. So I’m 25 and the president, the president and I actually worked together transplanting pine trees. But I plant 200 pine trees every year because Pine Valley Camp.
And I want to make sure that we have pine trees around. So here the president is working with me, sweating, moving, transplanting these trees. So.
Jim Dunlop: 20:24
Absolutely. So tell me about the project. And I don’t know if I’ll say this. Right. Project of Avoda internship program.
Matthew Reichart: 20:33
Avida avida.
Jim Dunlop: 20:34
Yeah.
Matthew Reichart: 20:35
So yeah, we started at two, two years ago. We’re in our third season for that. It’s a it’s a gap year after high school, after college young adult internships on serving. And they live here for the year. Then they serve in the summer.
So they starts in September. This coming September we still have some spots open and it goes through next August. And it’s 5000 a semester, 10,000 for the year. Half of that money goes to the kids, but they raise they raise, you know, they’re raising that support. They’re doing daily Bible lessons, learning hospitality, learning how to serve.
We serve at some local after school programs they go to each week to help serve. So it’s a it’s a way to just help them get some direction. So it’s been exciting just to see that work, these young adults coming and learning how to serve and serving, 77 kids year round.
Jim Dunlop: 21:34
I know that you talked about it, and you threw out a pretty big number of what it takes for a kid to go to camp. So tell me a little bit about your summer camp scholarships and and how people can help there.
Matthew Reichart: 21:50
Yeah. We believe every kid should go to camp. Not every kid can afford to. My wife and I went to camp. We met at camp.
So we’re serving low income, underserved inner city and single parents, single moms, regardless of income because they have a tough go at it. They come to the camp or have 80 to 100 kids a week. They pay $40. We raise the rest. We figure it costs at least 950 a child.
We have a team, a kids camp program, mini camp, kids camp, teen camp and then sit. So we have the Pine Valley Path is to encounter and get to know, encounter the Lord, know, grow, serve, go. So get, encounter the Lord get to to know him. So introducing them to the life of walking with Christ and then know grow. That’s our team program serve as our CIT program.
We have about 40% of our staff are former campers now. And and of course we see kids come and go. Our program director, who was with us for about ten years, came in and he was 15 and worked for a full time. He he left here a couple of years ago to serve at a local church, and just moved two weeks ago to Colorado to serve as a youth pastor out there. So we and then we have another one of our counselors who’s the head counselor.
He’s serving as a youth pastor at a big, big church in Pittsburgh. We have kids that are going into into public schools and Christian schools teaching as teachers. So we just see a lot of, you know, a lot of young adults Else getting up on their feet, kind of getting their life calling when they’re here.
Jim Dunlop: 23:34
One of the one of the themes that keeps and this is it was never an intentional theme of this show. However, a theme that keeps emerging is this the ripple effect of generosity. And you think about a kid that comes to you as a camper, and then perhaps that that has changed him or her in a way that’s very positive. And the next thing you know, then they’re working in there and they’re having an impact on kids around them, and then they’re leaving and going other places and, and just making a difference where they go. And I keep seeing this time and time again and supporting organizations where my gift today helps this kid.
But this kid can go on and do other things and help lots of other people and make an effect. I, I love the idea of leveraging generosity in that way. wife?
Matthew Reichart: 24:28
Yep. And it’s the impact. I mean, the power of camp is that we have the kids for a week so we can get done in a week. What it takes an after school program to do in a year. Not that one is better than the other.
We need both. We need. So we have. We call them shepherds, our partners. We couldn’t do this without them.
The they’re the heroes. They’re the ones in the trenches. They’re the ones with the kids throughout the year. But when they come here because they’re here 24 over seven for a week, there’s no distractions. They get to.
We really do. We’re very intentional. We do one on ones with them. We get into their life, we hear their story. Like, here’s a camper story that I have, you know, girls, first time here when she was eight years old, she said, my life was kind of hard because when I was when I was three, my mom died.
So I went to live with my grandma and my aunt, and then my aunt got arrested and put in jail. And then she got out and then my grandma. My life started to get really hard because my grandma got sick with cancer. My aunt overdosed on on Drugs. So then I had to go to the foster care program.
And right after that, my grandma passed away. Oh my God, my brothers, my brother’s been with me through all these ups and downs. God made me for a reason and I’m fearfully and wonderfully made. So this is an eight year old girl. Her life was kind of hard, and it got really hard.
I’m like, these are the kids that were serving. But then they’re coming and they’re realizing, hey, God has a plan for your life and you’re not an accident. You’re precious, you’re special, and there’s a plan. And so and sometimes they don’t get it. The first year they’ll come back two, three, four years.
We have our teens have been coming six, seven, eight, nine years. And, you know, hearing that message and being encouraged. And then they’re going back to organizations, churches, programs that are reinforcing and helping them on their journey. So yeah, so it is a rippling effect. I mean, it’s not one person doing everything.
It’s everybody doing something. Everybody do what? You just do one thing. Do the one thing that God has gifted you do it. And for a lot of our supporters, I try to get them out here to see the kids.
It just changes their hearts when they see this place comes alive. I had a gentleman last year who was our last week of camp and he had just he had actually big business owner, big company here locally. Colleague just had a son commit suicide that like a day before. And so he was just like devastated. He came here, sat at the pool, saw our kids playing, gave him hope, pulls out his phone, sends me $50,000.
Isn’t that something?
Jim Dunlop: 26:58
Yeah.
Matthew Reichart: 26:59
This place, I mean, it’s just because of the impact on these kids. These kids are having. They’re having. They’re having fun, but they’re getting hope. It’s not.
It’s not just a short term, temporary fix. We’re trying to. We’re trying to rebuild broken lives. We’re trying to rebuild the urban family. We’re trying to rebuild society.
Right?
Jim Dunlop: 27:17
Yeah.
Matthew Reichart: 27:17
We’re not doing it alone. It’s together. It’s everybody together.
Jim Dunlop: 27:20
Oh, it’s so interesting you share that story. One of our previous guests, is runs a community foundation and has talked often about the idea that there’s tremendous healing through giving and generosity, that it’s when you’ve lost somebody close to you, an important way to to honor and keep them alive in your heart is to is to to do a gift or do have some impact that that you can look at and think of that person. And what a great example of that tragic but but a powerful story. Tell speak a little bit about your family legacy retreats. Matthew.
Matthew Reichart: 28:02
Yeah, yeah. So why all this investment into, you know, over a $5 million building? We’ve already, you know, over our buildings together. We’ve already raised almost 4.5 million for these other buildings. So it’s like, why so much? How are you going to steward that?
Well, as a, you know, from a business perspective, we want to be year round missional. And so we we used to call it our off season, but we’re never off as a camp. We have our summer season, which is powerful and effective. And then our second season is to specifically invite the body of Christ to church to help us serve these families that have been coming here. And most of the families are single moms.
So we want to we’re neutral, common ground. So a church might not go into these neighborhoods and they might not go to their churches, but they’ll all come to Pine Valley. So they just come here for a weekend and have the women of the church be like the counselors or wraparounds do one on ones, and the men do the food and clean up and all that stuff. And we’ll have youth groups provide childcare so that the moms don’t have to worry about their kids, but they can meet them, see them at their meal time. Kids can come back, have have lunch with mom, and then go back and play and be entertained.
And just so we want to use this intentionally as a local mission and invite and invite the people of God to come help us serve these kids and these families serve these families, basically. And, you know, if you want to when people will see our place, they like, can we use it as a retreat place? And like, yeah, we’ll do that with our partners. But our, our mission, we really want you to join us, to help us to serve these families. So we’re going to as soon as this thing is up and running, which is, you know, then we will start piloting that and that.
That is the vision, the new vision as we go forward here.
Jim Dunlop: 29:52
So I know you have some important partners in the ministry. And I just want to ask you a little bit. Tell me about Sonshine Ministries, as well as the Child Evangelism fellowship, after school programs and how they partner with what you’re doing.
Matthew Reichart: 30:06
Yeah, yeah, we we call them our shepherds. These partners, the ones that send us the children and like sunshine has been faithful for McKeesport and sending us, you know, 30, 40 kids every summer. And then we know they’re going. They’re going back there and and being cared for on a on a weekly basis. The cool thing with CIF up in Butler is that there are two elementary schools. So this year we took our program team up there and did some programming and offered to camp the both the both schools, all the elementary kids.
So we were able to get into public school, did the same thing down in in Beaver Falls. Some connections there. Central elementary we there’s 500 kids there. We did did some things in Christmas time and then through the spring some different programming things for the kids. So we’re we’re seeing that and then offering our camp to these children.
And most of them are coming are in a low income neighborhoods and the at risk community. So we couldn’t you know, and there’s other partners and partners come and go. You know, some some have stayed with us for a long time. Some come and then they do elsewhere. But we have the opportunity to have one with such a bow as North Side of Pittsburgh.
They bring us kids. They’re Somali Bantu community kids and the refugees that are living in the projects there. So we have we have kids, you know, we have refugee kids and just all kinds of kids that are very diverse, very diverse group of kids. We had we had four kids last week from Sudan who did not speak English.
Jim Dunlop: 31:40
Oh my.
Matthew Reichart: 31:40
Goodness. Yeah. So our counselors had those like thank the Lord for the apps on the phone. They had that interpreter on there. They were able to have their phone.
We usually collect all the cell phones at the beginning of the week, but those counselors were allowed to have their cell phones.
Jim Dunlop: 31:54
What a great way to leverage that technology. I hadn’t even thought about that.
Matthew Reichart: 31:59
Yeah.
Jim Dunlop: 32:00
So as we as we start to to to wrap up our our episode here, I first of all, thank you for sharing and for the passion that you you can hear in your voice for the work that you’re doing. I is there any other Parts of of your work that you want to highlight. Before we we get to a final question and some thoughts here.
Matthew Reichart: 32:27
I would say just in regards, you know, I’m so thankful for both the supporters, the volunteers, the churches, the businessmen and women, our partners, our shepherds. We couldn’t do this without without the community helping us, the Christian community, just the community in general, business community. And so it’s like, you know, the Bible says, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth or eat and destroy and rust will corrupt, but lay up your treasure in heaven. And you know I like your you can’t take it with you. The whole idea of, you know, sending it ahead.
We the we get to when people come and support us. They’re sharing. And I say this to them when they come out, when you get crowns, whatever crowns we get for serving these kids, you share in that you that’s you’re part of this. We couldn’t do this without you. And I think that’s what’s exciting, is just seeing people having a heart to give and to serve.
So that that would I would highlight that we we need to continue. I want to reach more kids. What bigger impact? We have ideas. And we can’t do it alone.
So we need people who who are activators. So I say the body of Christ because they’re the people who grow up their sleeves. You know, church is a building, but the people, there’s people in every church that are activators that say, let’s, let’s go out and make a difference. Those are the people I want to rally around. And I even yeah, I, you know, the whole vision of Nehemiah rebuilding the broken walls for Jerusalem.
We call it Nehemiah Project. He he didn’t do it himself. He cast a vision. There was 52 sections in the walls. He had the the families closest to their section of the wall work together.
So everybody has there’s an at risk community. There’s people you know in your area. Those kids should go to camp. Let’s work together. Let’s come together.
that sort of have that symbiotic relationship. Bring them here so we can send them to your churches so you can take care of them. And then so that’s that’s kind of I don’t know if that makes any sense or not. Yeah.
Jim Dunlop: 34:27
I just I really appreciate it. And and I do have one final question. But before I ask it, I want to just share with our listeners where they can find out more. And I would direct everybody, if you’re on Facebook, look up Pine Valley Camp. Also on Instagram, Pine Valley Camp, all one word and you certainly can check out their website at Pine Valley Camp.
There’s some great pictures of this dining hall project. It looks incredible. And it looks like you’re going to be able to do some pretty incredible things there. So Matthew, thank you. And hopefully you’ll hear from some folks through this.
But if if you could share some advice or wisdom on a billboard where you’d reach a lot of people. What would your message be?
Matthew Reichart: 35:13
Yeah. So we’re talking about generosity. And God gave us his son. So think about that. The God of the universe who doesn’t need anything. He gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
So Jesus and Jesus came not to serve, to be served, but to serve. He gave his life. So I tell, I tell young guys, you know, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. So the whole idea of giving and generosity, that’s, that’s, that’s in the fabric of our souls. That’s how God, our creator, made us.
He made us to give. And so when we that’s that whole, like you said earlier, that there’s a feeling of joy when you serve others. My wife says, take it. Jesus took a child, sat him on his lap and said, serve him well and often out of the limelight and you’ll stop saying, my, what a great thing I’m doing. But you’ll say, wow, what a great God we have!
So yeah, I would just say, find a place, wherever you are in the get up off of that thing and go serve Whatever way you can.
Jim Dunlop: 36:16
I Matthew, this has been a great conversation today, and I can’t think of somebody who embodies this idea of you can’t take it with you any better than you. And I just really appreciate you being with us and sharing today.
Matthew Reichart: 36:33
Well, my pleasure too. It’s. Yeah. And I’m looking forward to seeing what God does in the days ahead and love to give you an invitation. If you’re ever in the Pittsburgh area, anybody’s in the Pittsburgh area.
Come see. We do have that video of the dining hall just that’s up there that on our website that they can look at. But if you’re in the area, come and see. See what God’s doing.
Jim Dunlop: 36:53
Excellent. All right. Well, thank you very much. We’ll talk to you soon.
Matthew Reichart: 36:57
Thank you. Jim.
Outro: 37:00
Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that you can’t take it with you. Visit our site at canttakeitwithyou.com. For more details on today’s episode and to subscribe to future shows.
Disclosure: 37:18
Neither today’s guests nor their company are affiliated with or endorsed by Thrivent Advisor Network. The views expressed in this presentation by the guest are their own and not necessarily those of Thrivent or its affiliates.
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