Camp Meeting Conversion He traveled from Honolulu to Portland with just one purpose. By Ritchie Ho

I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. However, I have a special place in my heart for Portland, Oregon, because I was born again in Portland when I was fourteen years of age.

Up to that time, I was just a kid whose grandparents brought him to Sunday school. I used to go to their home on Saturday evenings so I could go to Sunday school with them the next morning. As a child, I heard the prayers of my grandparents. When I stayed all night with them, tears would roll down my cheeks as I listened to my grandmother pray at her bedside. There is something beautiful about your grandmother praying for you and for all of her grandchildren.

Thanks to their efforts, I went through the whole Sunday school system. However, I cannot really say I ever felt God calling me until one night in my bedroom, at the age of fourteen. That night, somehow I understood that God was reaching after my heart—that God wanted me to give my life to Him.

In Sunday school, I had heard the word “salvation.” My grandparents and Sunday school teachers had told me, “You need to get saved. You need to be born again,” but I really didn’t understand what they were talking about. Until that night, I had never thought seriously about getting saved. Then God made it known that He wanted my heart, and I made it known that I wanted Him to have it. But I didn’t know how to go about getting saved.

In our little church in Honolulu, they would always talk about Portland, Oregon. I heard, “You need to go to Portland camp meeting.” “Are you going to the Portland camp meeting?” “Are you going to make camp meeting this year?” In my young heart, it seemed to me that if I could somehow get to Portland, Oregon, I could get saved.

I proceeded to talk about this with my parents, who were not Christians. You have to understand the relationship between me and my parents when it came to getting things. It basically went like this: I would ask for something and my parents would tell me “no.” My parents gave me food to eat, a house to live in, and clothes on my back, and they really didn’t think that they owed me much more than that. As a kid, whenever we entered a store, I would ask for something. “Mom, can I have this fifty-cent bag of marbles?” The answer was no. “Can I have this little, plastic dump-truck?” The answer was no. “Can I have this tablet of colored paper?” The answer was no. I got accustomed to no, no, no. Sometimes I would ask for something just to hear her say no!

So, how was I going to get to Portland? I had no money—my parents would have to buy the ticket. I decided to ask my mother. Now, you may not think that approaching my mother took real bravery, but maybe your parents say yes a lot more often than mine did. It took courage! I chose my mother over my father because I thought she was the more vulnerable of the two. As sincerely as possible, I said, “Mom, could I go to Portland, Oregon, this summer for the camp meeting?” I was just waiting for the no. My mom paused and looked at me. Then she said, “I will talk to your dad, and we will think about it.” That was pretty good! I had asked for a fifty-cent bag of marbles and been told no, and now I was asking for a three-hundred-dollar ticket and she said she would think about it! I walked away and there was a rejoicing in my heart, because even though she hadn’t said yes, she hadn’t said no!

Two days later, my mom came into the kitchen and said, “Your dad and I talked about it, and we have decided that we will let you go to Portland.” Oh, was I happy! Deep in my heart I knew that when I got to camp meeting, I would get saved.

And so I came to camp meeting with my grandparents. What a feeling it was to come onto the campground for the very first time! It was a beautiful place, but I had only one focus and that was to get saved.

Sometimes I think there should be an orientation for people who come to camp meeting for the first time, because I got caught off guard in every way you could imagine. I was afraid of all the people—it looked like so many people to a young boy from a small church! So I took a seat way in the back of the tabernacle. That was mistake number one because the altars are much farther away when you sit in the back. I said to myself, When the sermon is done and the altar call comes, I am going down there to the altar and I am going to pray and get saved. I don’t remember what the sermon was about because I was focused on the altar. When the altar call came, I made my way down to the front, but by the time I got there, all the altars were filled from side to side. I stood there and looked around but there was no room. I was a little disappointed, but I thought, Well, I guess I can get saved back there in the chairs.

I was about to turn around and try to find a chair when a man who was standing there spotted me. He saw a boy with a desire in his heart. I am sure that he could read from my expression that I really wanted to pray. He said to me, “Come here,” and he tapped one man at the altar and made him move over about a foot to one side, and he made the lady next to the man scoot over about a foot the other way. I was small and all I needed was a little space, and that man gave it to me. I got in there between that man and lady, and I started to pour my heart out before God. I wanted to be saved! The tears began to fall and I wept there upon that altar of prayer—I just wept my heart out.

About an hour later, I still hadn’t gotten saved. I just could not figure out why in the world it was taking me so long. As I was weeping and praying, the man next to me gave me a handkerchief. I needed it more than he did at the time! I took that handkerchief and I poured my tears into it, and soon that handkerchief was sopping wet. It was heavy with the tears of repentance before God.

 Then the man next to me started to get up. Suddenly I realized I should give back his handkerchief before he left. I thought, There is no way I can keep this man’s handkerchief. I don’t even know who he is! I was a little embarrassed because the handkerchief was all wet, but I lifted it up, trying to give it back to him. He took my hand and pushed the handkerchief back to me, and then said, “The Lord is going to give you your salvation just like I am going to give you this handkerchief.” When I heard those words, my heart just broke. I realized it was that easy! That kind man was going to give me his handkerchief, and God could give me my salvation just like that. With my head back in my arms and my heart reaching out in faith, it was probably less than five minutes before the Lord broke through to me. God poured His grace and His love and His blessing down into my heart that day. When I finally stood up and walked out of the tabernacle, I could say, “I am saved! My name is written in that Book!” I looked up into the sky with all the stars in it, and it had never looked so beautiful. I was saved!

How I thank God for that night! It was the start of my Christian journey. God has kept me through the years since then, and has sanctified me and filled me with His Holy Spirit. I cannot thank Him enough for all that He has done for me!

Ritchie Ho is a minister of the Apostolic Faith Church in St. Louis, Missouri.