Tents and Equipments for Visiting Ministers by Wm. Covert

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 25, 1907

Tents and Equipments for Visiting Ministers

By Wm. Covert

WM. COVERT

In most cases the cause demands, and our people expect, that General Conference ministers and other laborers from without the local conferences render help at our general camp-meetings. Many of these laborers are bearing heavy burdens, and are devoting their lives to the advancement of the Lord’s cause in the earth.

They start on these camp-meeting rounds the latter part of May or early in June, and continue this work until perhaps the middle of October: They pass from one meeting to another with but little or no time between in which to rest, and often they travel long distances and travel nights to get to their appointments. In doing this they do without rest, their clothes become soiled, and they arrive in the camp to receive such hospitality and care as their friends have provided for them. If those in charge of the camp have made ample arrangements for their rest and comfort, then all is well as far as this feature of camp-meeting interests is concerned. Some conferences do this part of their work very well. Others do not give it sufficient thought.

There is on record in 2 Kings 4:8-10 an account of the hospitality of a great woman who fed the Lord’s prophet without charge every time he came to her city. Finally she had an addition built to her dwelling wholly for the benefit of this prophet. It was furnished with a bed, chair, table, and other essential equipments, and all of this for the purpose of helping this man, Elisha the prophet, in the work which the Lord had assigned for him to do. The Lord was so pleased with the kindness thus shown to his servant by this Gentile woman that he gave room in the Bible for the whole account.

The reader will agree with the suggestion that our camp-meeting and conference committees should be as hospitable with our General Conference camp-meeting helpers as was the Shunammite family with the prophet Elisha. If so, then these men will have a good home and free board ready and waiting for them when they arrive on the grounds at our camp-meetings.

It is not proposed that a room be built for the ministers who are called to our camp-meetings, but the suggestion is made that a sufficient number of tents be pitched for their accommodation to give ample room without crowding many into one tent. In our dwellings we seldom put more than two persons in one room; and should we not give as much consideration as this to our general camp-meeting workers? Consider that they spend from one third to three fourths of their time going from place to place in this kind of work. Understand that they are God’s appointed messengers sent to us in the name of the Lord, and for the work of the Lord. Their lives and the efficiency of their labors are committed to the care and guardianship of our people. We should most gladly arrange to make their stay among us as pleasant and helpful as possible. The plan and the purpose plainly suggest to us that these men, in attending our general meetings, have become the guests of the whole conference. This being so, we should certainly enjoy the thought of making them feel at home among us. Whatever we would do for them should they become our personal guests, we should certainly feel it to be in good form for us to do for them when they become our camp-meeting helpers.

One qualification required of an elder before ordination is that he be a man given to hospitality. Elders may, as a matter of course, expect the brethren and sisters to visit their homes. Elders are expected to be examples to the flock. The manner in which they treat General Conference men will be an example of how they would have the people of their conference treat them. If they insist on charging visiting ministers for their board, then they are teaching their people to do the same thing by them.

Now the conference president and the conference committee have become the elders for the whole conference; and if they should refuse hospitality to our General Conference workers sent to our camp-meetings, would they not thereby show their unfitness for the place they occupy?

The suggestion is here ventured that an ordinary-sized family tent is the proper thing for two ministers. In some cases two are quite willing to occupy one full bed, while others rest better in a single bed. The majority prefer the single one. Each one prefers a wash-bowl and a towel in a compartment to himself. He likes to have this little home chamber to himself, where he can retire to secretly pray and to go alone with the Lord to study and prepare for the public services when he is required to lead them. The writer sometimes thinks about the blessed seasons of prayer that Elisha enjoyed in that Shunem bedchamber on the wall. It was to that same bedchamber that the Shunammite woman took her dead son to rest when she went to call for the man of God to come and pray that the boy might be raised from the dead. It was there Elisha called upon the Lord to restore life to the deceased child. There he continued his supplications until God heard his prayers and raised the boy to life again.

The family who so kindly cared for Elisha’s needs never had reason to regret making the investment in that bedchamber and its furniture. The wonderful sequel shows what great things came to their home in return for the interest they took in housing and feeding the Lord’s servant.

Possibly if there could be secured as sweet co-operation between all our people in all things as there was between Elisha and the Shunammite family, we would see more of the mighty power of God manifested in our work. Shall we not labor earnestly to have it so?

Chicago, Ill.