3/5/2019
It’s been too long without writing. No one could call me a “blog-meister” with these kinds of habits, now could they. I’ve no real excuse for not writing, either, just couldn’t wrap my head around it. There is a SIMH this morning, however. It’s a throwback to a somewhat younger version of myself. This may have been prompted by going to bed unable to finish some things I wanted to do and at the same time, remembering it had been several days since I wrote on this blog: Too Long…no, I mean that was the SIMH; “You’ve been Too Gone For Too Long” —a Randy Travis short song (barely 2 minutes.) But, I don’t want it to end the way his song did—“so why don’t you just turn back now!” No, no! I like doing this, just some things get in the way of my feeble mind.
We went to Gatlinburg this past weekend and had great fellowship with many friends, old and new. I really enjoy these conferences; they are all for the fellowship around the word of God, yet they extend into fellowship over and around meal-times, and even sometimes on the way home, a last get together at a restaurant on the way! For several years, we’ve stopped at a special place in Maryville, TN for a really great meal. This year, knowing two families were headed in the same direction and one of them had a favorite place to eat which closed, we asked them both to join us—an added treat “post-conference!” We enjoyed that, hope they did, too.
The start of our exposure to and inclusion in conferences began in 1978, I think the month was March. Bro. E.C. Moore held a small conference in Gulf Shores, AL, in a motel ran by some friends. There were just a few of us there—maybe 35-40 people. And, as I recall, only 3 preachers. I can’t remember him doing that the next Spring, but the next year in September, 1979, Hurricane Frederick wiped that little motel off the map completely! So then, just shortly after that, Brother Moore scheduled a conference in Pensacola Beach and for several years we had an annual visit there. Staring in 1980, the Grace Bible Church in Chattanooga held a conference each year, as did the church in Baton Rouge.
Early in the ‘80s, the church in Meridian, MS added to the list, followed in 1985, by a group in Texas that turned into being our church in New Braunfels for about 27 years straight. The first was held in Houston with Brother Barry Hampton hosting it. (If you see an old picture of a bunch of preachers you know, that’s where it was taken. As a matter of fact, the photographer was Bro. Moore’s son Tom.)
There was also the on-going Pineview Bible Camp each year, which had its start in the late ‘60s and continued till about 1989. Along the way, there were others which were fine conferences, some lasting just a year or two. Some, like Brother Jack Lockhart’s group hosted which became the largest attended one, going for several years, I expect about 20 years or so, in Guntersville, AL.
We also held a bible camp for a few years in Texas which was profitable for salvation and edification, as well. We were granted permission by a camp to use their facilities for nothing more than an offering taken especially for them. Most years, the one offering taken for them they told me was more than larger groups gave, and we’ve always found that sort of generosity to be true of grace believing groups.
Even with some hurricane interference which stopped 4 (I think—3 of Bro. Moore’s coastal conferences and one in Meridian, MS because of motel overflow of those escaping the coast) and even though there was an occasional argument which got a bit out of hand, these conferences saw many people come to salvation, a time when they trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Think about that, hundreds of people used the camps and conferences as the venue for once and for all “hearing” the words of truth, the gospel of their salvation, and gaining eternal life in Christ. How many getting saved would have made all of them worthwhile, folks? One. Just one would have made them all worthwhile. But, there were hundreds, praise the Lord for His matchless grace!
Thanks for reading, the Elder
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