The Missouri Camp-Meeting by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 3, 1908

The Missouri Camp-Meeting

By G. B. Thompson

The annual conference and camp-meeting for Missouri was held at Sedalia, August 6-16. The camp was well located in Liberty Park, at the edge of the city, with good street-car service. The attendance of our own people was fair, and an excellent spirit was manifested throughout. Quite a good work was accomplished along spiritual lines, and a number gave their hearts to God. Elder Meade MacGuire, Sister Merrell, and others did a good work among the young people. Forty-two were baptized.

One of the principal things accomplished was the dividing of the State into two conferences. The Missouri River is the dividing line, with the exception of the counties of Jackson, Saline, and LaFayette, which lie south of the river and include Kansas City. These go to the north. This gives a population to the northern conference of 1,250,000, with seven hundred twenty Sabbath-keepers, and a tithe last year of $5,949. The southern conference has a population of 1,750,000; Sabbath-keepers, 930; tithe last year, $8,916.

Both conferences were able to fill the various offices with capable laborers.

Elder D. U. Hale, the former president of the State conference, was elected president of the Southern Missouri Conference, and Elder A. R. Ogden, of Kansas, president of the Northern Missouri Conference. The headquarters of the Northern Missouri Conference will probably be at Chillicothe; that of the Southern Missouri Conference at Springfield. We are fully convinced that this division is a wise one, and will work a new era of progress in the great State of Missouri. The utmost unity was manifested in the division, hardly a discordant note being heard throughout the meeting.

A liberal spirit was manifested toward the work. Almost six hundred dollars was raised for the Oakwood Industrial School, and $4,360 in cash and pledges was given for foreign missions. The Sabbath-school donations were greatly increased over those of last year.

Elders G. A. Irwin, E. T. Russell, G. F. Haffner, Meade MacGuire, and J. S. Wightman, Profs. C. C. Lewis and B. E. Huffman, and the writer attended the meeting, and shared its burdens with the conference laborers.

Our prayer and desire for these two conferences is that the unity and power of the Holy Spirit may characterize their work, and that progress proportionate to the greatness of the work and the shortness of time, may be seen during the coming year.

G. B. Thompson.