Why Bear Pause Lodge Exists

Bear Pause Lodge is a family home in Lakes of the North, in Mancelona, Michigan.

It exists for two reasons. Our family needed a place to be together. And people in ministry need a place to rest.

This house gives us both. Our family gathers here in every season. When we are not here, we share it with ministry friends who need time away. Nothing about that is a business. It is a home, and it is shared on purpose.

Debbie Kramer is my sister, and one of the six who bought this house. She told the story the day we closed. Here it is in her words, from September 17, 2020:

6 weeks ago us 3 couples went on vacation together at Lakes of the North in Mancelona, MI...never thinking we would buy a house together here!

We saw this place for sale with a "coming soon" sign & thought it was so pretty! 3 days before we were leaving it was available to see. We were the 2nd people to see it and the first to make an offer! Today this awesome house became ours! It sleeps 14 people and also has a studio apartment above the barn, a game room and a gorgeous 2 acre yard. This whole process has flowed so easy. It is in these times that you know you are in God's will. We are excited to have this vacation home to make family memories in. God is good!

Debbie Kramer, September 17, 2020

That fall we renovated it together. Dad worked on the laundry room. Debbie and Scott helped every chance they could. By winter it was the family home it is now.

Dedicated to our parents, Richard and Donna Andrews.

They are the reason this house is shared the way it is. Mom and Dad have supported ministry their whole lives. They gave to it, worked in it, and opened their own home because of it. Retirement has not changed that. Ministry is still their focus, and serving people in ministry is still how they spend themselves.

Bear Pause Lodge is part of that pattern. They did not buy into this house to keep it to themselves. They bought in so family could gather, and so people who serve others would have a place to rest.

We are grateful for their example, and we intend to keep it going.

Mom has called Dad "Bear" our entire lives.

When the family bought this house, the name was settled before the paperwork was. Bear Pause Lodge. A place to pause, named for the Bear. It is a nod to Dad, and he is a big part of the reason this house exists at all.

That is what this house is, and why it exists. If you are family or a ministry friend, the rest of this site is for you: see The Lodge, read Your Visit, and check the Family Calendar.