The Northern Union Camp-Meeting by R. A. Underwood

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 21, 1910

The Northern Union Camp-Meeting

By R. A. Underwood

FOUR camp-meetings in the Northern Union Conference are now in the past. The first was a local meeting at Sigourney, Iowa. Seventy-five or eighty of our Iowa brethren and sisters were in attendance. This meeting was held in a beautiful grove on the edge of the town of Sigourney, the location of one of the oldest churches in the State. Elders C. Santee and R. S. Owen, of California, were with us, as were also Elders K. C. Russell, A. G. Haysmer, F. Griggs, and P. T. Magan, and Brother L. A. Hansen, besides the force arranged for from the union and the local conference.

The meeting made a good impression upon the people of the town, and our own people were also greatly helped. Our brethren took up the work of raising their part of the $300,000 Fund with vigor, and also subscribed for about six hundred copies of “Ministry of Healing.” I was unable to remain to the close of the meeting, owing to other appointments in the union for the same date.

The next meeting I attended was at Hutchinson, Minn. This was held in a public park, covered with beautiful native trees, in the center of the town. The use of the ground was given by the city, and it was one of the most ideal spots for a camp-meeting that I have ever seen. The arrangements for the camp in many respects were almost ideal. Everything was in readiness before the meeting began, and the grounds were kept clean and tidy.

The meeting made a good impression upon the people, and the editors of the local papers gave excellent reports of the exercises. The evening services were generally devoted to doctrinal themes of the message. On the first Sunday of the meeting there was a temperance rally, in which the mayor of the city, the State secretary of the Y. M. C. A., Mr. Peck, Dr. Hawkins, and the writer took part. This meeting was highly commended by the local papers.

Thirty-three years ago, upon the same grounds, a camp-meeting was held by our people. Following this meeting a large church was raised up, but deaths and removals have reduced the believers at Hutchinson to eight or ten.

The new Danish-Norwegian seminary is located at Hutchinson, and this fact added to the interest of our own people in attending the meeting, as well as to the general interest of the citizens. About six hundred fifty of our own brethren were encamped upon the ground. The sweet, gentle Spirit of God seemed to pervade the entire encampment. Meetings were conducted in the German, Scandinavian, and English languages. This called for laborers in these various tongues. Among those in attendance were Elders O. A. Olsen, G. F. Haffner, P. T. Magan, K. C. Russell, and others.

The brethren took hold of the “Ministry of Healing” campaign, and indorsed the plan they had already entered upon to raise their proportion of the $300,000 Fund, besides indorsing the raising of $4,000 in the conference for the Danish-Norwegian school. Our next meeting was at Chamberlain, S. D. This meeting was held on a little island in the Missouri River, just across from Chamberlain. There was a good attendance of our brethren, and the meeting was regarded as successful.

The revival meetings were blessed by the conversion of a number of persons. Meetings were held here also in the three languages, and representative men were in attendance to assist the local conference laborers in the spiritual work of the meeting.

The South Dakota Conference laid plans to push forward arrangements that had already been entered into for the removal of their academy from Elk Point to Redfield, and to erect suitable buildings the present season, so that one year from this coming September they can open their academy at this new location. Eight thousand dollars had been given to this enterprise by the citizens of Redfield, and our own brethren entered into the plan of raising funds to complete a school building that would be suitable for the work of aiding in the education of the scores of young people in South Dakota.

The last meeting attended was at Jamestown, N. D. Here Elders G. F. Haffner, Valentine Leer, O. A. Olsen, R. S. Owen, A. G. Haysmer, and Prof. F. Griggs were in attendance. Meetings were conducted in the English, German, Scandinavian, and Russian languages. Some of the meetings in the Scandinavian tent were conducted in the Swedish language, and some in the Danish-Norwegian language. This required quite a force of laborers, as practically four camp-meetings were held in one.

The meeting in North Dakota was excellent, but rather strenuous in some respects. The dry weather and the hot winds and dust made it somewhat unpleasant, although the beautiful grove in which it was situated was as near ideal as possible for this northern climate, where few groves can be found. The attendance from the city was good, and the interest in the topics presented was apparent in the conversion of a number to the truths of the third angel’s message.

The school and the work of the conference demanded considerable attention. One feature of the camp-meetings in Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota, where conference sessions were held in connection with the camp-meetings, was the marked spiritual atmosphere in all business sessions. On one occasion at the Jamestown meeting the entire forenoon was occupied in a business meeting, when the topic under consideration was the discussion of a resolution urging the importance of personal missionary work. I think I never attended a meeting of any kind where the presence of the Holy Spirit was more manifest than on this occasion. The discussions necessarily had to be translated from the English to the German, or vice versa, and also into the Russian language. One might think that in the translation of a speaker’s thoughts from one language to another his message would lose some of its power; but the Spirit of God witnessed on this occasion in a wonderful manner to the deep impression made upon hearts.

Our brethren took up the proposed campaign with “Ministry of Healing” and other missionary plans with a unanimity of sentiment among the four different nationalities that made them as one people. Brother L. A. Hansen attended all these meetings in the interests of the relief campaign with “Ministry of Healing,” and found the people willing to co-operate heartily in the plan proposed by the General Conference.

More than one hundred persons were baptized at these four meetings. In North Dakota something over four thousand dollars was pledged, largely to help the general work. These pledges consisted principally of stock, horses, and cattle. North Dakota is suffering at the present time with the most severe drought experienced for many years. The wheat crop in many places is an entire failure, and in other places only partial crops will be harvested. The severe drought of the Northwest has affected Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota also, and the grain crops will not be very large. The grass and hay crops in some of these States will be very light. Notwithstanding this, our brethren are of good courage, and manifest a faith worthy of imitation in their willingness to respond promptly to all the calls that come. However, we can not overlook the fact that the severe drought will affect the financial resources in a material way the present season.

Elder C. J. Buhalts was elected president of the North Dakota Conference. Elder Carl Leer was chosen vice-president, and will labor largely among the German and Russian people of that conference. Elder F. L. Perry was asked to take the principalship of the Sheyenne River Academy, and has accepted this call. Elder S. E. Jackson was re-elected president of the Minnesota Conference; and Elder C. M. Babcock was chosen president of the South Dakota Conference.

Altogether these meetings were a source of great encouragement and help to the brethren in the various conferences. Four more camp-meetings are to be held in the union,—a local meeting in North Dakota, and three local meetings in Iowa. R. A. UNDERWOOD.