RMCNews – Montrose, Colorado … Church members from several Western Slope congregations met on August 21-24 for their annual Camp Meeting convocation at Mountain Top Christian Retreat in Montrose, Colorado.

Nathan Cranson, pastor of the Montrose Seventh-day Adventist Church, coordinated the work of a planning committee, which consisted of local church ministers and laypeople. “We get together a few times during the year, and we vision cast. We talk about what we think should be a theme for the meeting. For the current meeting a theme of Being Prepared and Ready: Living as End-time Disciples, was chosen,” he explained.

This year’s program was led by lay speakers and presenters. Nathan shared, “One of the things that was attractive included an invitation to the Harding family from Montana. I knew them personally. I knew that their relationship with Jesus was authentic and very important to them. And there was no external incentive for them to be holy and that it was coming from a very genuine place in their own experience, their own lives, which had driven them to lots of study and lots of prayer and lots of transformation in their own lives.”

Alecia Harding was the main speaker at the Camp Meeting. In her Sabbath sermon, she challenged participants to reconsider Bible reading. “Is your Bible read?” she asked. The Scripture offers “the keys to the kingdom,” she shared.

Among the workshop presenters was J.D. Harding who spoke about values and importance of family worship. Garrett and Katrina McLarty from New Beginnings Ranch* in Norwood, Colorado, spoke about identity issues and relational discipleship, and Joy Kauffman, founder and executive director of FARM STEW International*, an organization dedicated to addressing hunger, disease, and poverty, presented as well. The camp meeting participants we also treated to presentation of original songs by Addie and Greg Cranson.

Nathan explained, “The choosing of our speaker and our teachers here [shows] that you don’t have to be somebody special to have a powerful relationship with Jesus and be able to communicate that effectively and inspire the people around you to have a closer walk with Jesus.”

“This was the ninth year for Western Slope Camp Meeting in this location,” said Ron Johnson from Grand Junction, Colorado, who serves as the event treasurer. Average attendance during the week was 66 people with 114 joining for Sabbath worship. He added that this year “there were 265 meals served by our excellent cooks, the Montrose Church members.”

Among the participants in the camp meeting were Elaine and David Phillips, members of Grand Junction Seventh-day Adventist Church who proudly shared their 61 years of marriage. David commented, “I was just impressed with the whole family from Montana. Her [Alecia] testimony and the whole family—her husband, the girls, the little boy.” Elaine appreciated the camp meeting’s venue: “You can have much quiet time with God out in nature and different places. I never thought about doing that before. Studying His word and being in a quiet place like when Jesus went to the mountain and had spent time with Him. I thought that was a very different way of spending time with God. The music was really good and really encouraging,” she commented.

Apart from the spoken word, presentations, and never-ending conversations with fellow church members, the Hardings presented their musical talents and were joined by Michelle Cranson, Alecia’s sister. On Sabbath afternoon at the camp meeting, the attendees listened to the Montrose Hispanic Seventh-day Adventist Church Youth group and their full-of-enthusiasm singing. Addie Cranson and her husband Greg, members of the Paonia Seventh-day Adventist Church in Paonia, Colorado, presented several original songs. Their presentation was considered as a special treat of the Mountain Top gathering.

Those who came to this year’s camp meeting also experienced several thunderstorms followed by rainbows. “It’s monsoon time for us here on the Western Slope at this time,” one participant remarked.

Among those representing the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) were Doug Inglish, RMC vice president for administration, Mickey Mallory, RMC Ministerial director, and Mary Lynn Green and Dawn Westgate from the RMC Planned Giving and Trust Services Department.

*Organizations not affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC). 

—RMCNews. Photos by Rajmund Dabrowski and Ron Johnson.