“How long have you been coming to the Oregon Camp Meeting at Gladstone?” Marguerite Ringering was asked this summer.
“Well,” replied the 93-year-old Gladstone Park Adventist Church member, “we came from Brainard, Minn., in 1934 and started going to Camp Meeting in 1936.”
“Consecutive years?”
“Every year since then, including this year, 2002.”
“Can you recall some interesting things that have happened over the years?”
“I remember how different everything used to look. There were some big trees, but a big storm knocked them down. Also, today there are so many beautiful flowers that have been added, so the grounds look like a park… I was baptized at Camp Meeting by the father or Morris Venden, the ‘older Venden,’ and I had my 93rd birthday this year.”
Her present Sabbath school teacher, Jesse Curtis, has known Marguerite for 27 years and says she is a praying partner and a dear Christian.
Now widowed, she has five sons and one daughter, 24 grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren. She still does some embroidering and crocheting and lives on her own at Summerset Lodge in Gladstone, Ore. •
Andre Wang, religious liberty director
