These are the beautiful prairies of North Dakota. This area was settled by the German Russians in the late 1800’s. They have had the camp meeting in this location since 1920. They were originally a part of the German speaking Evangelical Church which later merged with the United Brethren. When I was there 25 years ago, the meeting was 10 days long, and one of the days was all German speaking. (I didn’t understand much that day.) You can read an interesting history of the people and the camp meeting here.
What a fantastic week! It was a two and a half day drive up to Lehr, ND, where I was invited to minister in the Prairie Bible Camp. In addition to the storytelling each evening, I worked with a great group of kids (6th – 12th graders) each day. It was a great juxtaposition between old and new.
Note the names on the back wall behind me. Those are the names of the “great cloud of witnesses” who have been a part of the camp meeting through the years and have gone to their heavenly reward. The names stretch all the way across the back of the tabernacle.
Three times a day, we met in the dining room for food and fellowship.
A truly beautiful area with people who share a tremendous legacy of faith. I look forward to being with them again someday. So far, I go every 25 years. That means, I may be nearly 90 on my next trip. Perhaps we can beat that.
