Who's Coming to Camp?

Have you ever heard of Edward Kimball? He was a Sunday School teacher in Chicago who was concerned about one of his students. He visited the student at the shoe store where he worked and, after talking to him for some time, led him to Christ. That student was Dwight L. Moody, who became one of the greatest evangelists of all time.

 Years later, Moody was preaching in a small chapel in the British Isles and inspired the pastor there with his story about Kimball. That pastor, Frederic Brotherton Meyer, became an evangelist like Moody.

While preaching in Northfield, Massachusetts, Meyer challenged a young preacher in the back row to give up everything for Christ. That preacher, J. Wilbur Chapman, responded to the call of God on his life and went on to become one of the most effective evangelists of his time.

A young volunteer traveled with Chapman and learned to preach by watching him. That volunteer, Billy Sunday, eventually took over Chapman’s ministry to become one of the most dynamic evangelists of the 20th century.

Inspired by a Billy Sunday crusade in Charlotte, NC, a group of Christians there dedicated themselves to reaching their city for Christ. They invited evangelist Mordecai Ham to hold a series of evangelistic meetings in 1932. There a 16-year-old boy gave his life to Christ. That boy, Billy Graham, went on to communicate the gospel face-to-face with more people than any other man in history.

 We don’t know who is coming to camp this summer. It could be the next Billy Graham, or it could be another Edward Kimball. Either way, the world could be changed forever.