Camp Meeting Memories
I grew up in Minnesota as a preacher’s kid in the 1930s when pastors and their families arrived at the Anoka campground a week early to set up camp. The pastors erected family-size tents for the members and huge tents for the meetings—kindergarten, primary, junior, and adult—plus the memorable straw tent.
 
The straw tent was where families would fill their ticks with straw to be used as mattresses to be laid over the hammocklike and uncomfortable bedsprings. These “ticks” were a cloth case made of ticking. The straw tent was a favorite meeting place for the youth.
 
The wise camp director, N. R. Nelson, chose to channel our energies in a different direction to avoid our spreading straw all over the campground. He presented each of us with a bag and a stick with a nail at the end. We were to go around the campground and pierce any noticeable bit of trash and put it into our bags. As soon as we smelled the delicious aroma coming from the cafeteria at noontime, we would present our full trash bags to Nelson in return for a free pass to the cafeteria. What a strategy! The result was a clean campground, and our parents knew our whereabouts.
 
One day the pastors spied a tornado funnel coming directly toward the campground. They immediately fell flat to the ground, alerted us to do the same, and we prayed for protection. The destruction ceased right at the edge of the campground—an answer to many prayers! Later on we toured the town of Anoka. Here are some of the photos I keep in my album to remind me of God’s protection over His children.

—Perle Lockert Westerberg, Yuma, Colorado
 
 
Sound Bite
“You should make ridiculously high goals, and when those goals fail, you will still be ridiculously higher than any of your competitors.”
 
—Jaymie Pottinger, at the Miracle Meadows School in West Virginia during the 2011 graduation address
 
 
Adventist Life
D. A. Delafield served many years as the announcer for H.M.S. Richard’s Voice of Prophecy radio broadcasts. Many years ago he and I were scheduled to speak at the same youth rally. I was to speak Friday night, and he was the preacher for the next day, Sabbath.
 
We sat beside each other at supper Friday afternoon in the cafeteria. Delafield became very excited and involved while telling about a wild experience. He leaped from the table and grabbed me around the neck with his left arm to illustrate his point. He then grabbed his left arm with his right hand and accidentally squeezed too much. In the evening when I tried to speak, the pain was so great that I couldn’t talk! Delafield was horrified and extremely remorseful. He had to speak in my place that night as well as preach the next day. ?I went home to recover. For five years I received from him apologetic letters in regret for what had happened. What a neat and compassionate guy!

—Lester E. Harris, Jr., Urbanna, Virginia
 
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This article was published August 25, 2011.