RMCNews – Casper, Wyoming … Mills Spring Ranch (MSR) in Casper, Wyoming, offers the ideal setting for the annual Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) Wyoming Camp Meeting recently held, July 16-20. The ruggedness of the surrounding Rocky Mountain landscape was complimented with this year’s camp theme “Armor of God,” in which featured-speaker Dr. Dick Stenbakken showcased decades of knowledge and procurement of first-century Roman artifacts and relayed its Biblical significance.
Dr. Stenbakken served as a pastor for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Wyoming as was an active-duty chaplain for the U.S. Army for 23 years before working for the General Conference (GC) of Seventh-day Adventists. He provided a five-part series at the camp meeting referencing the whole armor of God discussed in Ephesians 6:10-20 with purchased or hand-made examples of each element.
Dr. Stenbakken urged attendees, “You need to put on all of God’s pieces of armor. They are no good when not used. Every piece of the armor reminds me of who He is. And a good soldier is not ready last month, last week, but ready today.”
“Any time Dick Stenbakken is doing a presentation, it just helps bring alive so many things that happen in the Bible that, when you go back and read over those passages again, you see them in a way that you never did before. I’m so grateful he came to camp meeting this year,” remarked Doug Inglish, RMC vice president for administration.
Ardis Stenbakken, former GC Women’s Ministries director, joined her husband Dr. Stenbakken as a featured speaker and presented on the Book of Ruth for two of her afternoon programs. “Ruth, generally, is looked at as a love story, but you have to wonder why put a love story in Scripture?” she commented about her program. “But when you look at the Book of Ruth literarily, and [it as] a chiasm, you begin to see the importance of it. [It] has all kinds of levels and blessings that, in casual reading, you just don’t get.”
Ardis also led a program on how to study the Bible covering sections and authors, types and supplements, and literary aspects of the Bible. “My background was a major in English, and I taught English. And, so, I look at the Bible as literature as well as the spiritual and divine Word of God. When you look at it literarily, it’s beautiful. It’s artistic. The God of creation has made his word beautiful.”
Wyoming pastor Steve Nelson, pastor at the Cody, Worland, Powell, and Ten Sleep Seventh-day Adventist Churches in their respective cities, also presented on the United States in the Biblical prophecies of the book of Revelation. He explored the darker history and current affairs of our nation: “We aren’t against our nation; we are just against the direction it may head if we don’t keep it in check … How are we going to win people to Christ if we align our religion with our political views.”
Mic Thurber, RMC president, Doug Inglish, and Mickey Mallory, RMC Ministerial director, provided morning devotionals at the camp meeting. “I am going to take the stance that prayer is part of the armor. If you have a good prayer life, you are unstoppable,” remarked Thurber.
The Wyoming Camp Meeting also scheduled in plenty of free time amidst the busy programming schedule for attendees to relax in nature and connect as a community. Rhonda McDonald, Community Service staff and social and recreational assistant for Casper Seventh-day Adventist Church in Casper, Wyoming, has been coming to the Wyoming Camp Meeting since 1992.
When asked what brings her back every year, she commented, “It’s a long story and it’s a testimony, but it’s the first camp meeting I ever came to after I got baptized. My husband and I, Pat McDonald, were camp rangers for five years. We live in Casper, so we come back every year. I have to say [that] I appreciate all the speakers, but I really appreciate the friendships that I’ve made over the years.”
“The music has always been top notch, and it’s just good to spend time with the folks in Wyoming and connect with the people that we see when we go around to the different churches,” remarked Inglish on his experience at the camp meeting. “And there’s kind of an excitement this year with the International Camporee happening [in Wyoming] later in the summer. So, there’s a lot of buzz about that.”
Another bit of excitement at this year’s camp meeting was the convergence with the RMC Youth Summer Camp. The youth summer camp began July 21 at MSR, so the youth summer camp leaders and staff, and camp horses, came a few days early in preparation. The summer camp staff took the children attending the camp meeting out on horseback rides and evening rock climbing.
The next RMC Camp Meeting will be held in Montrose, Colorado, August 21-25. Keep watching for updated information at rmcsda.org
—RMCNews. Photos by Liz Kirkland.
