My first camp meeting recollections are from Oregon in 1969. My wife Linda, who grew up in the Oregon Conference, told me about the camp meeting in Gladstone, Oregon. Her family joined the church during an evangelistic effort with George Vandeman. When they attended their first camp meeting, the whole family moved into a tent for ten days. She told how she and her siblings looked forward to camp meeting from then on. Each year the family took vacation time to be at camp meeting, along with thousands of others.
Speakers like H.M.S. Richards, George Vandeman, J.L. Schuler, D.A. Delafield, Eric B. Hare, Josephine Cunnington Edwards and the like came to the campgrounds. So, my anticipation was great that first year. I was assigned to the youth tent. Nearly 2,000 young people packed that large tent. It was so big it had to be brought from Los Angeles. The main tent was far larger and took two or three days to erect. The pastors took three days to put the benches in the main tent and under the trees outside.
Later, when our children were born, they had identification to tell people they resided at cabin 1380 on top of the hill that overlooked the campground. They learned to love camp meeting and looked forward to it each summer as much as we did. They enjoyed seeing friends they met the previous year and vowed to meet again the next summer. They heard their mother talk about the great story teller, Josephine Cunnington Edwards, and got to meet her personally when I was a leader in the Primary department one year. They purchased her tapes at the Adventist Book Center and played them over and over until the tapes wore out.
Even today our children have lasting friendships that started at camp meeting. One year at the New York Camp Meeting our main speaker could not come, so a local person was asked to speak. Her name was June Strong. She wrote the missionary book for the next year, and shared from her rich background. June challenged each family to pray for their little ones that, if time were to tarry, God would prepare their future mate in some other home so our children would always serve Jesus as Lord and Savior.
The Nelson family took that challenge seriously and started to pray that very summer for our two children. Little did we know that just a few short steps away, on the very same campground, the Rempher family started to pray for their three daughters and son. In fact, the middle two daughters were in the very same Primary tent with our son. We started that prayer in 1977 and kept praying that prayer until 1996, when our son Loren III and Suzanne Rempher were married. Suzanne was one of the Rempher girls whose parents began praying for their future mate that same year at camp meeting. Our daughter Leslie was already married to Matt Falor, whom she met at Great Lakes Adventist Academy. They were married in 1992.
One family camp meeting tradition revolved around our son, Loren III. He always celebrated his birthday at the Oregon Camp Meeting for the first seven years of his life. His grandmother always made a special cake with all the trimmings. But on his sixth birthday, she played a joke on him and gave him a Walla Walla sweet onion with a candle in the middle of it, instead of the traditional cake. We had so much fun laughing and teasing him that we forgot to bring the real cake out until it was time to go to another meeting. The cake was not eaten until after supper that year! The whole family remembers that year of camp meeting more than any other to this very day.
Another remembrance is when our daughter Leslie found new friends and invited them "home" for a meal without even asking Mom or Dad for permission. We learned to never be surprised at what would happen at camp meeting.
Yes, camp meeting has been an important family tradition. Our son was ordained to the gospel ministry a number of years ago at our sister camp meeting in Wisconsin. Camp meeting holds so many fond memories for our family. Oh how many times we were challenged to make a recommitment to our dear Lord and Savior, Jesus. How many times we were called back from wandering from our main focus in life. We remember how many friends we met that we look forward to seeing again at camp meeting. For those who have passed away, we look forward to the great reunion when Jesus returns.
Won't you join us for camp meeting this summer? Additional Michigan Camp Meeting information is available at www.misda.org.
Loren Nelson is the ministerial director of the Michigan Conference.
Michigan Conference
Hispanic Camp Meeting
May 23–25
Camp Au Sable
2590 Camp Au Sable Drive
Grayling, MI 49738
Call: 517-316-1561
E-mail: dscarone@misda.org
Cedar Lake Camp Meeting
June 20–28
Great Lakes Adventist Academy
7477 Academy Road
Cedar Lake, MI 48812
Call: 517-316-1581
E-mail: cstephan@misda.org
Website: www.misda.org
Upper Peninsula Camp Meeting
August 1–3
Camp Sagola
2885 SR-M69
Sagola, MI 49881
Call: 906-639-2440
E-mail: campsagola@gmail.com
Captions and registration information:
# 1 Olan Thomas, director of the Planned Giving and Trust department talks with a couple who stopped by their booth.
# 2 There is so much to do at camp meeting; sometimes you just need a quick nap to get ready for the next class.
# 3 Jay Gallimore, Michigan Conference president, held a five-part seminar, "Revelation's Trumpets, Babylon & More."
# 4 In the Primary Division, they spent time studying the pioneers of our church.
# 5 The tram was ready and available to shuttle people to the meetings.
# 6 The Junior 2 class watched intently as Ben Roy, from The Science Zone Corporation, demonstrated what happens when heat is added to a balloon filled with a certain gas.
# 7 The mobile kitchen is another venue to grab a bite to eat between meetings. The menu will be expanded this year.
# 8 The main auditorium was overflowing with attendees who came to gain a special blessing at camp meeting.
