CAMP MEETING MEMORIES - #1

When I was a kid, Camp Meeting* was the second-best time of the year - beat out only by Christmas!  We would literally move the twenty miles to East Liverpool and live in a rustic old cottage for ten or twelve days!  We all slept in the same room.  We ate our meals in the dining hall with lots of other people.  I had a lot more freedom than I had at home! 

There would be classes for children all morning.  Then in the afternoon we would play softball.  The camp store would be open.  We kids would go around hunting for pop bottles to return to the store for a two-cent return.  Three pop bottles got me a popcycle. 

As I recall, my Dad gave me a quarter to spend every day!  I was judicious about the way I spent it.  I remember one year when a guy gave me a dollar and asked me to run to the store and buy him a bottle of pop.  When I brought him the pop and the change, he told me to keep the change!  It was the best thing that had happened up to that point in my life! 

In the evening, everyone went to the tabernacle for church.  The singing was amazing!  There would be someone playing the piano and organ, and they always hired a special song-evangelist to lead the singing.  Often the song-evangelist would put together a camp choir.

One year, Clyde VanValin was the song-evangelist.  He announced choir practice and I showed up - I was ten years old.  The adults started shooing me away, telling me I was too young to be in the choir.  Reverend Van Valin saw this happening and intervened.  He told me I was welcome to sing in the choir.  I was so proud and happy.  I clearly remember singing the hymn, "He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels".  That song still moves me deeply today!

I made my first commitment to serve Jesus at camp.  Every year challenged me spiritually and helped me root my faith more deeply!  I even joined the church at camp;  my pastor at that time was Harold Mitchell. 

I still attend camp every year.  I'm actually writing this blog while sitting in a cottage on the campground!  I come every year looking forward to the spiritual growth that God is going to foster in my heart and life! 

And when camp ends - just like when I was a kid - I'll start looking forward to Christmas!  :-)




*  We changed it to Family Camp when I was Director in the 80's.