Camp meeting regulars have an old saying that “when you get sawdust in your shoes, you keep coming back.”
Just ask Sam Ramsey, the former Covington mayor who has attended the Salem Camp Meeting for more than seven decades and hasn't shaken the sawdust from his shoes yet.
“This place never dies out,” said Ramsey, 75, a sixth-generation tenter. “It’s ingrained in you.”
Georgia has a number of these faith-based revival-style meetings that are going strong more than a century after their founding. The Salem Camp Meeting, which runs through July 18 and draws thousands during that week is among them.
Multiple generations of families stay in cabins - or tents, as they’re called - for several days. Every day, they gather in tabernacle for services. There’s preaching, hymn singing and fellowship.
It’s a tradition that started centuries ago when the faithful would gather after a harvest to hear ministers preach the word of Jesus.
“There’s just a spirit to the camp meeting,” said Becky Ramsey, 68, who has been attending Salem for 43 years. She met her husband, Sam, there and plays the piano during the services along with her twin, Alice Walker.
” You just sense God’s presence here.”
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