p. 12 | What to Do With Children at Camp Meeting

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 1, 1915

What to Do With Children at Camp Meeting

By Mrs. C. C. Lewis

THE time for our annual camp meeting season is drawing near. No doubt many earnest workers are already planning lessons and religious instruction for the children's meetings. For years special services have been held for the different grades, until this phase of caring for the younger members of the flock has reached a good degree of efficiency. Therefore it is not concerning the strictly spiritual side of this subject that I wish to speak.

Children have social natures, and in properly supplying those needs the spiritual side of their natures may not only be sustained, but greatly strengthened. What worker for children has not often, with a saddened heart, watched his little flock pass out of a deeply spiritual meeting, to be turned loose on the grounds and allowed to spend the time between services in a noisy, boisterous manner? One often wonders if the good is not largely neutralized by this laxity of association and discipline.

In a well-regulated public school the children are marched out in lines to the playground, and a teacher is with them until time to form in line again. We take our children to camp meeting, presumably to receive spiritual help, but between meetings they run around the grounds, associating promiscuously with other children, often with those who are boisterous and rude, and they probably go home with but little idea of the sacredness of the place or occasion.

How shall we avoid this situation? We cannot leave the children at home; they should be taken to the meetings for the benefit they may receive. Moses said, "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, . . . for we must hold a feast unto the Lord."

Would it not be a good plan to have the Missionary Volunteer Department take up the matter. Two or three (more if the meeting is to be a large one) reliable Christian young men and women who are looking toward active service for the Master, could be selected as caretakers. The young men should care for the boys, the young women for the girls.

Sometimes it would be suitable to take a troop of boys and distribute handbills advertising the meeting, or lead them in cleaning up the camp, or help them to make themselves useful in other ways. Under the supervision of a caretaker the girls could take their younger brothers and sisters for an airing, thus giving tired mothers an opportunity to attend meeting in the big tent without having the care of their little ones.

These youth need to learn that it means more to be a Christian than simply to attend children's meeting and bear testimony. They must be taught the responsibility that comes with their attendance at camp meeting. The place is sacred, and all rude, boisterous conduct should be put aside. If they would really serve Christ, they must be constantly on the lookout for an opportunity to help others.

I hear some one say, "I think it is the duty of parents to care for their own children. The responsibility is theirs; let them bear it." Yes; but is it not true that at camp meeting many of the fathers are occupied every waking moment? Many are on committees; some have charge of furniture, hay, tents, etc. What can these men do for the boys and girls? There is the tired mother who sat up nights and worked hard to get the family ready for this occasion. She comes to the meeting much worn, but she cannot take time to rest, even here. She must prepare the meals, keep the children washed and properly dressed, and all these duties require more time than if she were at home. How much strength and time will she have to give that wide-awake boy of ten, or that restless girl of twelve, who has just returned from the children's meeting? To these tired mothers responsible young men and women could render real Christian help.