Friend, are you sitting there on a hot, muggy evening, sweating like a politician taking a public lie detector test at a bipartisan Bar-B-Que? Are you gasping for breath like fish in a creek that just had its last drop of water evaporate right up into the heavens? Has all of the starch wilted out of your shirt collar? Are you being pushed to your limit and are you already cussing under your breath? Well, brother, if you are, I can tell you it is getting time for the annual camp meeting! And you need to get ready to go to the meeting! The weather won’t be any cooler but your inclination to lose your religion and start cussing in this heat will be fixed. You will be encouraged to repent for your wickedness and not be such a sinner any more. Who knows? You might even cause it to rain!

     Now, some of you have no idea what I’m talking about. But I’m here to help you with such things as this. For more than 200 years, folk in these parts have set aside a couple of weeks in early August each year to hold Camp Meetings in which the work of the farm is put aside and the community comes together for a time of family relaxation and spiritual revival. In the beginning, they actually camped out in tents. In time, as the events became institutionalized, they built little huts to stay in and called them tents. Although times have changed over the centuries, they still maintain much of the original character and flavor of a tent campground. The grounds ring with bells calling people to worship morning and night. The sounds of laughing children at play reassure the elders that all is well. The smell of the best food you ever tasted sweeps over the campground at all hours of the day and night. And the music is full of vigor and nostalgia, harmony and joy! It is like stepping back into early American history. And for a preacher, to be invited to preach at camp meeting is a privilege and a pleasure.

There are lots of these camp meetings in our region. One of the oldest and most venerable is the Rock Springs Camp Meeting that begins with a Community Singing on August 1st over in Denver, NC. This will be the 179th edition of the event. There will be between 1,000 and 1,500 people there each night for the two weeks of meetings. All sessions are open to the public and visitors are warmly invited to the outdoor event. Of course, many people will spend the entire two-week experience there on the grounds. More than 250 of those “tents” still exist and are owned and maintained by families with deep roots in the culture of the camp meeting.

     The person credited with starting Rock Springs Camp Meeting in 1794 is Daniel Asbury. Earlier, he had the bad fortune to be captured by an Indian. It was his good fortune, however, that the Indian needed a blanket. He traded Daniel to the British troops for two blankets. (Scalped prisoners only sold for one blanket.) So everybody went away happy. The Indian went away twice as warm; the British troops went away without a fight; Daniel Asbury went away and became a Methodist preacher. The first camp meeting was held near Rehobeth United Methodist Church in Terrell, NC where Asbury is now buried. By 1829 these pioneers concluded there was not enough water at Terrell to support them so in 1930 they found a place named Dry Pond. They bought 90 acres for the princely sum of $45. The good news is that today this places them in downtown Denver. This makes directions easy. You can’t miss it when you attend a service there this year. Just go to Denver and there you are. Oh, and if you like Southern Gospel music, there will be a big Gospel Concert on Saturday, August 2 with singing groups coming from all over. You don’t want to miss this, folks!

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