Soquel Camp Meeting Restarts with Prayers and Impact Where we’ve been In 1873, at a camp meeting in Yountville, California, the Central California Conference (CCC) was officially organized with seven churches and 253 members. John N. Loughborough was elected the first conference president. The conference has since grown and changed, and it is now made up of nearly 34,000 members and 148 congregations. But the camp meeting continues to be one of the many beloved conference traditions. Despite being canceled due to COVID in 2020 and offered online in 2021, Soquel Camp Meeting has remained an important part of the conference. This
26 Pacific Union Recorder
Central California Conference
year’s Soquel Camp Meeting showed how committed the conference and the members are to continuing this impactful piece of our history. Where we are This year’s Soquel Camp Meeting brought together members from the CCC and numerous other areas for a powerful two-weekend event. It included a speaking series from Carlton Byrd in the English tent alongside a series from Jose Esposito in the Spanish tent. These resulted in about 15 baptism requests and 11 baptisms, respectively. Recently elected CCC President Dan Serns was able to share his vision for Central. The camp meeting was themed “Arise and Go: The Story Begins,” and Serns highlighted this with his own dream of getting every church and member in the conference involved in outreach. “Around 2,000 people came to each of the two Sabbaths,” said Serns. “They enjoyed beautiful music; testimonies; baptisms; fellowship; interviews with church planters; mission trip opportunities to Silicon Valley, Ireland, and the Middle East; an interview with the new principal and the new pastor at Monterey Bay Academy; free food; prayer; children's stories; and powerful preaching in the three tents: English, Spanish, and Young Adults.”