British Columbia Camp-Meeting
By G. B. Thompson
THE eleventh annual session of the British Columbia conference was held in connection with the camp-meeting at Kamloops, June 6-16. This conference is composed of eighteen churches, with a membership of 336, isolated believers bringing the total number of Sabbath-keepers up to about 400. The attendance at the meeting was fair, when we consider the large area from which the people must be gathered. The territory of this conference comprises 372,630 square miles. This is a territory three times larger than that of Great Britain and Ireland. It is larger than all of Scandinavia, and almost as large as the combined areas of the Columbia and Lake Union Conferences. The greater part is mountainous. The reports rendered, indicated an encouraging growth. Two new church buildings have been completed since the last conference session. The total sale of literature last year amounted to $5,618.55, a gain of about $900 over the previous year. A very marked increase in the value of the school farm at Pitt Meadows, will enable the conference, by selling a portion of the farm, to build another academy, free from debt, in the Okanagan Valley. The believers living in this valley have donated land for this school, valued at $3,500. The increase of tithe last year was more than $2,500 over that of the previous year. Because of this very encouraging increase, the conference generously declined to take the $1,000 appropriation made by the General Conference. This was much appreciated, and the amount was passed on to more needy fields. The gifts to missions from the conference are very liberal. The offerings last year amounted to about thirteen cents a member each week. For the first five months of the present year, the offerings have exceeded the weekly average of fifteen cents a member by over $300. This is certainly encouraging. The utmost unity prevailed in all the business meetings of the session. Pastor J. G. Walker was unanimously reelected president for the coming year. But few changes were made in other officers. Pastors H. S. Shaw, president of the union, and G. F. Haffner, and the writer attended the conference from the beginning till the close. Drs. W. B. Holden, of Portland, Oregon, and John Heith, of College Place, were there during a portion of the meeting. They gave valuable and timely instruction, which was much appreciated. The meeting was a source of great encouragement to all who attended. None left the grounds so far as I know, unconverted. A number will be baptized on returning to their home churches.