HERTFORD, N.C. (ABP) -- A Baptist association in North Carolina has hired an interim replacement for a camp director arrested last summer on molestation charges.

Chowan Baptist Association has employed Matt Thomas, pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Elizabeth City, N.C., as interim director of Cale Retreat & Conference Center. The job begins Feb. 1 and is scheduled to last through August.

The camp's permanent director, Steve Carter, is on administrative leave since his arrest July 1 on charges of taking indecent liberties with a child and first-degree sex offense involving a child. A grand jury later added four more felony charges.

Thomas earned the bachelor's, master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Campbell University Divinity School.

"I believe that God has brought Matt to us for this time in the ministry of Cale," Associational Missionary Rob Roberts wrote in the association's February 2010 newsletter. "We look forward to what the Lord has in store for the Cale ministry as we seek to touch the lives of children, youth, and adults for Christ."

Roberts asked Baptists in the association to pray both for Thomas and for Carter and his family. Carter was quoted in media denying the allegations against him. If convicted of the most serious offenses, he could receive up to life in prison. Roberts said in an e-mail to Associated Baptist Press that no trial date has been set.

Before taking over as director of the Christian camp operated by Chowan Baptist Association in 2002, Carter served as a Southern Baptist missionary in Belize from 1997 to 2001 through a short-term mission program called International Service Corps.

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This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.

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