Volunteers helped every year in clearing the grounds and setting up what was practically a little city. Adjacent to the tabernacle would be a restaurant, a grocery store, utility buildings, and scores of family tents. In order to save money, many local families would give up their rented houses or apartments and move onto the grounds for the duration of the meetings, which sometimes continued for three months.

Persecution accompanied the preaching of the Gospel in those early days, and from time to time the tabernacle tent was pelted with rocks during the services. One year, a group of troublemakers decided to cut down the large tent. They succeeded in cutting twenty-two ropes and were in the process of cutting one of the main guy ropes when our founder, Florence Crawford, stepped forward and began to sing a hymn. As others joined in, the tumult quieted, and before long the culprits skulked away in the darkness.

In an Apostolic Faith paper published at the close of one of those early camp meetings, it was reported, “More souls were born into the Kingdom during these seven weeks than in any previous camp meeting. Whole families, people who were hardened in sin, people from the better walks of society, professed Christians, and even ministers, found salvation at the old, tear-stained altars where hundreds had wept their heart out to God.”

At those early camp meetings, a sawdust trail marked the way to the place of prayer, and the kneeling space around the little pine benches was carpeted with a thick layer of clean straw. The canvas tabernacle was always well-filled, with the long, wooden benches usually crowded to capacity. As time passed, we needed larger tabernacles and larger plots for the summer meetings. The yearly task of preparing a location came to an end in 1920, when we purchased a beautiful park-like site in Southeast Portland for a permanent campground. Camp meetings have been held there every year since, except for one year when the camp meeting was canceled due to World War II.