Rajmund Dabrowski – Loveland, Colorado … The Rocky Mountain Conference 2023 Camp Meeting season opened at Campion, June 2-3, with more than 250 adult church members of the Northeastern Colorado congregations coming together for their first joint convocation of the year.

Welcoming the attendees, Mic Thurber, RMC president, said, “The camp meetings give us an opportunity to come together and fellowship beyond our own congregations.”

The gathering began on Friday evening with Pastor Joseph T. Ikner II as the meeting’s keynote speaker. Ikner serves as pastor of the Linwood Seventh-day Adventist Temple in Kansas City, Missouri, as well as ministerial director for the Central States Conference. This was his first visit to the Conference. His presentations centered on the theme “I Will Go.”

Using the story of how God blessed King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20, Pastor Ikner helped us to realize that the Lord’s blessings provide us an opportunity to testify how good He is. “God blesses us so we can bless others,” he shared.

Ikner’s Sabbath presentation drew on a story of the calling of Moses. “You are enough,” he said. “God has an assignment for you. Your best years are before you and not behind you.” Moses responded to God’s calling him to lead a nation for Him, with Moses’ excuse that he was too old, and his speech was inadequate.

“The Lord tells us that He is with us,” Ikner stated. He repeated an affirmation to the camp meeting audience that “You are enough!” but God is calling us as His messengers.

In his final presentation on Sabbath afternoon, he used the story from the Gospel of Luke 5, of the miraculous healing of a paralyzed man. Pastor Joseph helped us to realize that Jesus is just as available today to bring healing as He was some 2000 years ago.

Commenting on his sermon, Mickey Mallory, the RMC ministerial director, shared that the speaker, “helped us to realize the tremendous power of prayer—that no matter what you are facing, you can give it to God and trust that he will provide the help that is needed.”

Mallory, who met Ikner in Michigan a couple of decades ago, commented about the Northeast camp meeting and how he felt “inspired and encouraged by Pastor Joe Ikner’s sermons as well as through the sweet fellowship with members from all other Colorado made for a really high Sabbath.”

Pastor Leandro Bizema from the Campion Church shared Mallory’s sentiments and said that among the “camp meeting highlights would definitely be [having] the powerful speaker.” It was natural for him to add, as he was conducting, that “also the music—the choir and orchestra—were a highlight for me. I love seeing people come together to make music and to use it to minister and uplift and glorify God.”

The organizers of the NE gathering offered programming for youth provided by the RMC FEJA (Adventist Youth Federation of Hispanic Churches). Pastor Bizema explained, “I understand that it had been many years ago that we had youth programming at the Northeastern Colorado camp meeting, which we call a Connect Weekend.” This group added another 250 attendees to the camp meeting.

Among the camp meeting’s participants was a group of young literature evangelists who are planning to spend their summer weeks in Denver and Colorado Springs canvassing. Nick Lesch from Mexico commented, “I was blessed by that fact the theme was ‘I WILL GO’ and how this was such a reminder of how important it is to live a life of service to Jesus, in response to his love towards us!” Nick plans to study and support himself in college, perusing ministry full-time.

Commenting on his visit and first time preaching to a congregation in Colorado, Pastor Ikner said, that “the atmosphere was wonderful. I am an engaging preacher, and I had the people talking back to me. But it seemed they were engaged from the eye contact, their ‘amens,’ and responses to the altar call and the decisions we had to take for baptism.”

— Rajmund Dabrowski is editor of the NewsNuggets. Photos by Rajmund Dabrowski.