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Still standing on ‘The Rock’

Hollow Rock in Toronto, country’s oldest holiness camp, marking its 200th birthday this month

READY FOR ‘ROCK’ — Attendance at the 10-day Hollow Rock Camp Meeting in rural Toronto that kicks off Thursday is a lifelong tradition for Sheron Woodruff of Chester, 75, who stands in the main tabernacle. The country’s oldest interdenominational holiness camp meeting at 1958 county Road 51 is celebrating its 200th anniversary. -- Janice Kiaski

TORONTO — Sheron Woodruff of Chester is a “Hollow Rocker,” a lifelong one at what is the country’s oldest interdenominational holiness camp meeting at 1958 county Road 51.

“I am 75, and I have been coming for 75 years. I was brought as a baby,” Woodruff said of her connection to Hollow Rock, which is marking its 200th year and preparing to welcome hundreds of returning visitors and campers this week to its traditional 10 days of services, music, programming, spiritual nourishment and fellowship.

Established in 1818 when Ohio was the American frontier, Hollow Rock attracts participants from all over the United States, many of whom, like Woodruff, have fostered a generational relationship.

But the setting “where lives are shaped for the future” is one that also is open to area residents new to the experience, seasoned participants assure.

“My dad was a single man and stayed in one of the dorms,” Woodruff reminisced during a visit to the camp grounds last week. “It had a third floor, and they actually slept on straw pallets, and then when he and my mother got married, we stayed at anybody’s cottage that would let us stay there until we got our own,” Woodruff said, noting her two great-grandchildren from Louisiana will be on hand for their first Hollow Rock this year.

Hollow Rock kicks off Thursday at 7:30 p.m. with an opening night family singspiration featuring Hollow Rock musicians. Through July 29, main tabernacle services are at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. daily with a 2:30 p.m. Bible study.

There also are prayer meetings throughout the day at the 25-acre site that has more than 100 cottages; six dormitories; space for trailers with hook-ups; a first aid room with a nurse on duty; a main, youth and children’s tabernacle; a cafeteria-style dining hall; a snack shop featuring famous Hollow Rock sloppy joes and slaw dogs; a grocery store; a book store; a gift shop; laundry facilities; and a museum.

A children’s program led by Stephanie Schellin and Wendy Hanks is for pre-school through grades six, while the youth program, led by the Rev. Jon Truex and the Rev. Charlie Alcock, caters to seventh-graders to high school seniors.

The Hollow Rock lineup includes evangelists the Rev. Lane Loman, Thomas Hermiz, Charles Lake and Ron Smith; special guest speakers Bob Fetherlin, Dan Schafer, the Rev. Kim McLean and Sandra Gray; Bible study leader Victor Hamilton; and music led by the Rev. Brock Barnhouse, Beth Cook on piano and Jeff Capehart on organ.

Beyond the opening night singspiration, other daily attractions are the prayer ring for Hollow Rock families, Friday; the 200th anniversary all-camp photo and parade on Saturday; the reunion choir, July 22; open house at cottages one through 50, July 23; open house at cottages 51 through 100, July 24; an old-fashioned candle light service, July 25; missionary day and bonfire, July 26; women’s day, July 27; annual children’s program and all Hollow Rock potluck fellowship, July 28; and closing morning celebration service, July 29.

Woodruff said her father, the late Paul Brookes, served as camp president at one time, and one of the buildings is named in his memory.

“There was a pastor by the name of Homer Smith who influenced my dad, and because of that we have seen that domino effect where there are men on the board that got saved under my dad’s ministry that were some of the backbone of this place,” Woodruff said. “It’s such a generational thing,” she added, noting her ancestors traveled to Hollow Rock horse-and-buggy style.

“One of the fun things we did as kids was we’d get a pad and pencil and go around and write down all the license plates because they were from all over,” she said of its annual participants. “For us, this was our vacation. My dad was a potter who’d been called to the ministry. We never took a real vacation because this was vacation for us,” she said.

“One of my earliest memories is the camp actually was sectioned off because one of the farmers up on the hill grazed his cattle down here, and so they did take the fencing out and did take the cattle out for campers, but my mother’s admonition was ‘Watch where you’re walking,’ and it seemed like everything we bought, clothes during the year, it was. ‘This would be good for Hollow Rock,'” she continued

“The weather has changed radically since I was a kid,” Woodruff added. “In the morning we actually had a woodburning stove to warm us. My mom would make oatmeal, warm things, because it was so cold in the morning, then in the afternoon it would warm up, but it was never unbearably hot,” she recalled.

Another favorite memory from a tradition that perseveres is nickel ice cream day — “a scoop for a nickel. People line up for it,” Woodruff said.

Attending Hollow Rock has been a 48-year tradition for Robbie Young of Steubenville.

“It’ll change you,” said the Steubenville woman, who attends with her husband, John.

Young was hooked on Hollow Rock from the get-go.

“For me as a Christian it’s like a piece of heaven out here, and you can sense the presence of God — so much peace, so much joy, and people crave that, they long for that,” Young said.

The couple have a cottage there.

“There’s just no place like Hollow Rock, and kids develop relationships that will outlast high school friends,” she continued. “My girls and my son have friends that are more to them in meaning and friendship and lasting that they found here at Hollow Rock than anywhere else. They’re all Hollow Rockers,” Young said.

Dave Barnhouse of Richmond first went to Hollow Rock with his dad in the early 1950s. For him and his wife, Marie, Hollow Rock has been a part of their lives from their courtship days, throughout their marriage, as they raised a family and now as grandparents, too. The couple have a cottage there, and son Brock leads the music.

“We call it ‘The Rock,” Barnhouse said, noting as another camp tie draws near, the question among friends is ‘You going to ‘The Rock’ this year?'”

“We want to get the word out,” Barnhouse said of Hollow Rock’s July presence. “They used to come from the Valley more,” he said, noting local churches, for example, would organize a group to come on certain days.

“It’s getting harder and harder to keep the old camp meetings alive and healthy, but this old girl keeps on,” Barnhouse said.

“This world we’re living in we need all the places we can get like this,” he added.

Woodruff said she finds it amazing that through its history, wars never kept the Hollow Rock camp meeting from happening. “We kept on going. You would have thought the world would have stood still, but it didn’t. It just kept on going. This is where the strength lies,” Woodruff said.

The camp fosters lifelong friends, she adds, and despite its lack of a pool or what some might consider amenities that are necessities, even teens attached to their phones and electronic devices find refuge and renewal in the more primitive setting.

“For teens I think it is totally outstanding,” Woodruff said. “The depth of their Bible study is so life changing Ijust think it’s wonderful.”

“Camp is hard to explain to an outsider,” she said. “To them it’s bizarre that you’d spend 10 days without all the nice things you’re used to. My son is a CO in a federal prison, and this is where he takes his vacation.”

“It’s just a good old interdenominational camp trying to get people saved and to heaven,” Barnhouse said. “Anybody can come be a part of it.”

“Whatever it takes to touch people’s hearts, this camp is for it,” Barnhouse said.

The camp whose covenant is to proclaim “Holiness Unto the Lord” is owned by the Hollow Rock Holiness Camp Association. In a promotional flyer, the Rev. Mel Truax, who has served as camp president since 1977, describes the camp as “a moment to discover God’s grace.”

He notes, “Godly persons with a passion for the methods of John Wesley organized Hollow Rock Camp Meeting in 1818. Their vision for hearts and souls sanctified for Christ has drawn people to these grounds for 200 years. We gather this year to embrace their passion and continue the mission of proclaiming scriptural holiness for every Christian.”

For information, visit www.hollowrock.org

(Kiaski can be contacted at jkiaski@heraldstaronlinecom.)

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