The Oklahoma Camp-Meeting by R. C. Porter

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Oct 4, 1906

The Oklahoma Camp-Meeting

By R. C. Porter

The annual conference and camp-meeting for Oklahoma was held at Kingfisher, August 23 to September 2. Kingfisher is a city of forty-five hundred inhabitants. The city council very kindly placed at the disposal of the conference their beautiful park with all its buildings, water privileges, electric lights, and other conveniences, free of charge.

One hundred and forty family tents were pitched upon the ground. This did not prove adequate to accommodate the people, and many camped in a large building, which was curtained off into rooms. One large tent was then divided into apartments to accommodate the campers, and fifty covered wagons were used as living-rooms. In addition to this, quite a number rented rooms in the vicinity. A census of the camp-ground was taken, showing twelve hundred in attendance at the meetings.

The annual reports of the president and the treasurer showed that over one hundred had been added to the membership during the year. Six churches were received into the conference. The tithes received during the year amounted to $17,900, an increase of $2,913.76 over last year. The offerings for foreign missions for the year came to $3,046.30; other funds outside of the conference to $2,445, making a total of $5,491.30; donations to funds in the conference amounted to $943.01, making a total of all the offerings received during the year of $6,434.31, an increase of $1,791.95 over the previous year.

The business of the conference was all completed during the first half of the meeting, leaving the last part for spiritual work. A spirit of unity pervaded, and some differences that had formerly caused difficulty were harmoniously adjusted, and all were united in all the recommendations of the conference. Fifteen hundred dollars tithe was donated to the General Conference to be used in the foreign mission work. Twenty dollars a week was given to the support of the German work in the east, and two hundred and fifty-six dollars for the Spanish work in the southwest.

During the meetings the Sabbath-school offerings amounted to $228; the offering to the Oakwood school to $268, and to the work for the blind to $192.

A good new tent, seventy feet by one hundred and five feet, had been purchased during the year, and a collection for the tent fund and the religious liberty work was taken to the amount of six hundred dollars. Other collections during the meetings added considerably to this amount.

The religious services throughout the camp-meeting were both instructive and spiritual. The revival services were marked by special manifestations of the working of the Holy Spirit. Some battles were fought and victories gained that gave the clearest evidence of the terrible conflict between angels of light and angels of darkness contending for the mastery of souls. One man left the ground Sabbath morning, to avoid the revival service. He could not remain away, so he returned and gave his heart to God. Another sent his family to camp-meeting, but would not come himself. On Sabbath morning he decided to come and see what was going on. He also gave his heart to God, repenting heartily of his backslidings. All encamped were greatly refreshed by the meetings. Seventy-five were baptized.

Elder Andrew Nelson was re-elected president, and the other officers and laborers remain about as last year. The visiting brethren were Elders G. A. Irwin, J. N. Loughborough, Geo. B. Thompson, H. Shultz, C. Santee, F. G. Haffner, G. A. Grauer, U. Bender, Professors Hughes and Giddings, Edith McDonald, Sister Lackey, and the writer. Elder Loughborough's talks on the spirit of prophecy were greatly appreciated.

The outside attendance was good the first evening of the meeting, and the interest and attendance steadily increased to the close. Elders G. G. Rupert and H. Giddings will follow up the interest with a tent effort.

All who attended the camp-meeting returned home encouraged to press the battle more strongly the little time that remains before the final triumph. It was the prevailing sentiment of the brethren and sisters that the camp-meeting this year was the best ever held in the conference. R. C. PORTER.