My earliest memory of camp meeting was when I was a boy growing up in Idaho. We were a new Adventist family, and my parents felt that camp meeting was an important event in our newfound faith.
Camp meeting for the Idaho Conference, at that time, was held at Gem State Academy in Caldwell. I don’t really remember a lot about what happened, except for two significant events that impacted me personally. The first was when I broke my arm while playing soccer, and the second was when Eric B. Hare came to our junior meetings and spent the entire week telling his fabulous tales of the people who lived in some far-off, exotic land. As he told those stories of mission service, I found myself wide-eyed, bursting with excitement and anticipation of the day when I, too, could be a missionary and go to those places to tell people about Jesus.
As the years went by, many things changed for me. Gradually, camp meeting was crowded out of my busy life. But I never forgot those mission stories and the dream of one day going to the mission field. Although that opportunity never came my way, the memory never died. Even today, I can still feel the same goose bumps I felt as Eric B. Hare looked right into my eyes while painting his wonderful word pictures. I have no doubt that in some way that experience had much to do with my sense of a calling to the pastoral ministry.
Many years later I was a young pastor working in the Iowa Conference. Camp meeting time came, and I was assigned to work with the locating committee which helped people find their tent or camper site and get their trailers situated. I will never forget the excitement on the faces and in the voices of the people as they hurried to get settled, so they would be ready for that first meeting on Friday evening. The conversations were glowing with anticipation as people spoke of the various preachers and musicians who were to be there. H.M.S. Richards Sr. and Del Decker were on the program one year and, of course, included in every conversation. Those conversations and the contagious excitement all over the campground rekindled earlier memories in my heart when Eric B. Hare had fixed his eyes on me and, without actually saying it, challenged me to give my life in service for the Lord.
There is no doubt in my mind that camp meeting was a powerful influence in shaping my spiritual commitments and my sense of ministry, and it still is today.
Throughout the years, I have served the Lord in a number of conferences and have experienced camp meeting in a variety of places and formats. One conference held camp meeting on a public university campus, meeting in a large auditorium for the services and housing the people in the dormitories. Another conference held camp meeting in a beautiful mountain campground with tall pine trees mingled with the cabins and campsites. The meetings were held in a wonderful open-air pavilion with the scent of fresh pine filling the air. Other conferences have held camp meeting on academy campuses. But wherever camp meeting is held, the experience is always the same. God’s people come together in His presence to worship, to praise, to share, to rejoice together, and to recount His wonderful love and goodness.
In 1989, my wife and I came to Michigan. We are sorry that we never had the opportunity to experience camp meeting at Grand Ledge, but we certainly heard the stories of the crowds and the spiritual feasts that drew people from throughout North America. But, camp meeting didn’t die in Michigan when the Grand Ledge campgrounds were closed. It just shifted gears and kept on going. And I still find myself standing in awe in the presence of God as I mingle with my brothers and sisters for a few minutes before the early morning meetings, shaking hands and exchanging hugs and greetings. That same tingly sense of wonder and anticipation is there. God’s people have come together in holy convocation to worship, to praise, to share, to rejoice together, and to recount His wonderful love and goodness.
These gatherings are God’s appointed times for the outpouring of His Spirit on His people. May the God of Heaven pour out His Spirit on the Michigan camp meetings and on camp meetings throughout the world to prepare a people for the coming of Jesus.
Fred Earles is the secretary of the Michigan Conference.
Hispanic Camp Meeting: May 25-27, Camp Au Sable, Grayling, Michigan
For information, please contact Daniel Scarone at 517-316-1562 or e-mail dscarone@misda.org.
Cedar Lake Camp Meeting: June 15-23, Great Lakes Adventist Academy, Cedar Lake, Michigan
Visit www.misda.org to download a camp meeting schedule. Registration was available online April 12–18. You may call Cindy Stephan at 517-316-1581 for additional information.
Upper Peninsula Camp Meeting: August 10-12, Camp Sagola, Sagola, Michigan
Ron du Preez, pastor of the Michiana Fil-Am and St. Joseph churches and a member of the General Conference Biblical Research Institute Committee, will be the speaker. A few rustic cabins are available for rent, as well as trailer and tent sites. For information, call Kevin Miller at 906-639-2440 or Camp Sagola at 906-875-4203.
