Rajmund Dabrowski – Cañon City, Colorado … The third annual Southeast Camp Meeting convened June 16-18 under a theme of “Transforming Lives for Eternity.” It brought together some 200 believers to Cañon City, Colorado, from towns as diverse as Colorado Springs, Fairplay, and Lamar.
“We truly appreciate an occasion to meet with friends and make new friends whose faith in Jesus and his second coming unites us together,” commented a church member from Cañon City.
What was special about this year’s gathering, you may wonder? Firstly, the program featured an Adventist World Radio team together with a recording artist, Jennifer LaMountain. Secondly, we never had a baptism at previous meetings. “This year we will witness a baptism of five individuals prepared by pastors from Colorado Springs South and Fairplay,” announced Irwin Burton, head elder of the host congregation in Cañon City.
With the AWR team presenting their program, the camp meeting participants heard a variety of missionary endeavors sharing the Advent hope in Christ through an effective media to the people of the world in their own languages. Cami Oetman, AWR vice president, shared that, “people are more receptive than ever before.”
“I want the world to be inspired,” she declared. “You, too, can be involved. We must stand up and be different in the world … We are believers born for such a time as this. Jesus only saves lives,” she encouraged the congregation gathered in Cañon City.
The program featured effective evangelism of their ministry using digital ministry, including availability of a newly released “Digital Missionary” app made available for cell phone evangelism and showcased effectiveness of the so-called “God pods.”
Mickey Mallory, RMC ministerial director, remarked, “My heart was thrilled to hear stories of how God is using AWR to reach people around the world for Christ. The stories of what God is doing outside of the United States, helped us to remind us that we are indeed a world church.”
Duane McKey, AWR president, was enthusiastic to come to Colorado again after just a few short weeks ago from when an AWR Board Retreat met in Glenwood Springs. Being invited by a former Cañon City pastor to present at a camp meeting, McKey said, “we’ve never done that before, and this is a thrilling experience to be in the Rocky Mountain Conference.” He shared a mosaic of experiences the ministry had around the world, especially in areas where only a radio can reach populations by overcoming restrictions, cultural opposition, and geography.
The baptism included Leslie and Edward Hall, prepared through Bible studies by Marcos Melendez, elder from Fairplay, and as well as mother and daughter, Charlotte and Amy Mason, followed by Sylvia Jaramillo, a mother-in-law of Lucas Lujan, pastor at Colorado Springs.
For Pastor Lujan, this was a special camp meeting. He said, “it was to be in Cañon City, and it’s hard to find, at times, a fellowship even within the city. We do have many other brothers and sisters in the Adventist faith spread in a wide [area of] the state.”
He added that preparing and bringing three individuals to be baptized at this camp meeting was, “beyond the church or a person working. This is the working of God.” Introducing his mother-in-law, Lujan said that this baptism came three years after his wife, Asbury, was baptized.
—Rajmund Dabrowski is the RMC communication director and editor of NewsNuggets. Photos by Rajmund Dabrowski.
