"Fire on the Mountain"

Many times in the past years when we have told people we lived in West Virginia, they would invariably ask the question. "How far are you from Mt. Salem Revival Grounds?" We would usually inform them that we were approximately two hours from the camp. We would follow that up by saying that we had never been to the camp even though we lived in West Virginia. We had been with Evangelist Randy Taylor, Sr., in meetings in the past and had also been with Evangelist Oliver Araiza at several meetings here in West Virginia. But we had never visited the camp ourselves. Last November we were able to be in a meeting with Bro. Randy Taylor, Jr., at Bible Baptist Church in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. (Pastor Matt Schwender) We spent four days getting to know Bro. Randy and we even did some music together. Later, when we returned home, we received a call from the folks at Mt. Salem Revival Grounds asking us to be in their special fall meeting, "Fire on the Mountain". We agreed to come. And that's how we found ourselves at the Mt. Salem Revival Grounds on October 5th and 6th, 2007. It took some doing to get to the place. We made a wrong turn down one road and decided to stop and ask for help as time was running out. We knocked on a door nearby and a man gave us more accurate directions. Praise the Lord, he had once lived by the camp and knew exactly where to tell us to go. (Later we realized we were coming from a different direction than what the secretary had thought.) With not much time to spare, we pulled into the drive and asked a man on a four-wheeler where we could set up the P.A. He had to wait until a noisy truck had passed. Someone told us that a table had been set up for our CDs and we finally made it to the tabernacle and made ready. Folks around seemed to be in quite the hurry and apparently there was much to be done. It was a very warm evening for October. We were told that attendance was the largest ever at this particular meeting. We ministered in song and Word. Dad seemed to have much liberty in preaching and there was a good response. After the service was over, we headed to the chow hall for some food, fellowship, and an old-fashioned auction. We heard that there was supposed to be a coon hunt later. Unfortunately, we had to leave before all the festivities were over to head to our hotel. (The camp was too full for us to stay there.) It was good to see Pastor Jerry Wilson and folks from his church in New York. We hadn't seen him for some time. Pastor Matt Schwender and others from his church were also here. The next day there were split sessions (with Mrs. Cathy Corle teaching the Ladies Class), an activity out on the ball field, and lunch. After another service in the afternoon, we packed up in the sweltering heat to head home. Already the group from New York had had to leave. Our stay was short but we trust that the Lord used us at the Mt. Salem Revival Grounds. Now when people ask, we can say, "Yes, we've been there! We're approximately two hours from the camp...."