A Summer Full of Summer Camps

I say it every summer…there is something special about Camp Meetings! What a joy to preach four Camps last July in Canada: two in Ontario and one in Newfoundland and Quebec.  I’ve attended Camp basically my whole life. As a boy my Father would preach 2-3 a summer and take us along. The family cottage of fifty plus years was on the grounds of Lakeshore Pentecostal Camp. One of my first summer jobs as a teenager was at Kamp Kuriou near Parry Sound, ON working with kids. Our three kids have grown up at Camp and all three have worked at Camps in their teens.  I love the atmosphere of Camp, making new friends and reconnecting with old friends. Having a meal in the dining room over good conversation and listening to gut-funny stories. And best of all, extended times of worship and word, the blend of equipping and empowering. The corporate prayer times around the altar and set-aside personal times of prayer in the mornings.  Like so many, I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and call to full-time ministry at the altar of a Camp. One of my most vivid memories of Camp is the night Rev. Gordon Upton slipped into the row behind me during the altar appeal and said these words, “If you go, I’ll go with you”. I didn’t go that night but his words and kindness burned into the heart of a rebellious 17 year old preacher’s kid.