Holbrook Campground

Recently, I attended my great aunt's funeral. She was my Papa R.C.'s only sister and lived a wonderful, loving, Christian life for 94 years. Her death ended a generation. All of the siblings of my four grandparents (also all deceased) are now gone from this Earth.

Following the funeral service, I made my way to the graveside service. My aunt Ellorie was buried in the same cemetery as my mother's parents and my daddy. The graveside service was short and then I visited with friends and family, celebrating my aunt's life.

And, that led to a conversation with my cousin Terry, my aunt Ellorie's oldest son. Terry told me about his mom's salvation experience as a young girl under a large oak tree in the Big Creek community of south Forsyth County, GA. The tree, now designated by the University of Georgia as the "revival tree," was the cornerstone of my aunt's faith experience. In recent years, Terry took his mom back to the revival tree, and she went to the exact location where decades earlier she was touched by the Holy Spirit and gave her life to follow Jesus. She knew exactly where she met God.

In Brookwood Road, I use two chapters (23 & 30) to communicate my own coming to faith. My faith story began with the death of my Papa Paul Yarbrough, and his death began a lot of questions. Then, I wrote about our family's annual summer visit to Holbrook Campground and its 10 days of worship services. It was there, when I was about eight years old, that in a supernatural way my questions of faith were answered. And, they were not answered by men, but by the very real presence of the Holy Spirit (God in spirit form) settling in and on my life. I was baptized a few months later at the First Baptist Church of Cumming, GA (now Cumming Baptist Church, pictured).

But, Holbrook Campground remains holy ground for me.

It's fresh on my mind this week because annual camp meeting services are occurring for the 178th consecutive year. Gatherings for 10 days of prayer and worship began in 1838.
Like my great aunt took her son to the exact location of her conversion, I could this very day take you to the exact location of my own conversion there within the open-air arbor of Holbrook Campground. I can even tell you - 48 years later - that the preacher that night used Matthew 19:14 as part of his preaching text, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them . . ." Pictured here is the Holbrook Campground arbor during an evening service. While this photograph is from more recent years, I would have been sitting in the back left corner of the arbor as you look at this photograph. Hundreds and hundreds of men, women, boys and girls have come to faith under the ministry of this annual camp meeting and its sawdust floor arbor.

I believe, as many believe, that the experiences of my aunt and me aren't that unusual. So life-changing is the conversion of an unbeliever to a follower of Jesus, every believer should be able to put a finger on the general details of his or her conversion. You may not remember every single detail - I don't - but every believer should be able to say, "It was at this place, about this time of year, about this age, when I knew for a fact that Jesus was real and I made the decision to follow Him."

Cynics scoff at it - this supernatural miracle of faith. I am sad for them. I am not a naive person. I know it's real, and I am prepared to share my story with anyone and everyone who will listen.

Order Brookwood Road, my boyhood memoir written as a novel, at Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle formats. The book is also available at the Humpus Bumpus Bookstore in Cumming, GA and the Rainy Day Pals Bookstore in Lexington, SC.