In earlier “History Highlights” I’ve mentioned our new Camp Museum and the new Serenity Garden next to it, and many of you have come to take a tour. I’d like to tell you a little about the two people for whom we have named them. To come up with my theme, I reminisced about the forties when TV’s were introduced, and someone coined the term: “Black and White.” Please hold that thought.

The Dr. Gene R. Alston Memorial Camp Museum

Our museum is named “The Dr. Gene R. Alston Memorial Camp Museum.” Our “Serenity Garden” is named for Julia Arnold Shelhamer: one an accomplished black man and one an ambitious white woman. They were two ordinary people who did extraordinary things. I’ll begin with the woman. Julia Arnold was born in Sycamore, Illinois, in 1880. She lived to be 101. She spent her childhood traveling with her parents and family while her father held evangelistic meetings and her mother lectured on temperance and reform issues. The children were all trained vocally and in a variety of musical instruments. They performed regularly in the evangelistic services. The Arnolds first held tent meetings, but later bought a houseboat that held 500 people. It was called “The Exhibitor.” Julia’s father figured that if people would come out to tent meetings, surely they would come out to a nice boat ride. And, people did come. The Arnolds traveled up and down the Mississippi River, holding what were like floating revival meetings.

Julia’s mother was particularly impressed to minister to the black people in the towns and often went from cabin to cabin visiting and bringing the gospel and food. She visited prisoners and stood with them at executions. When Julia grew up, she married Elmer E. Shelhamer, a promising then prominent Evangelist who was to become the founder and first Superintendent of the Florida Conference of the Free Methodist Church. They traveled around the world twice, preaching in many places. She, too, was often called upon to speak.

In 1947, after Rev. Shelhamer passed away, Julia came to Washington with her sister, Helen Arnold, and opened the Shelhamer Memorial Mission. It was located at 38 I Street, N. W., in Washington, D. C., and was dedicated to the memory of her late husband. It had long been her dream to minister to the African American people in Washington. She finally realized her calling at age 67, when she opened the mission. I knew of her when I was a child growing up in Washington because every time my father’s parents came to town from Florida, we went to see “Sister Shelhamer” at the mission, but it was not until I read her book recently that I came to understand how our families were intertwined. I learned that my grandparents, Rev. and Mrs. Marvin Conley and Myrtle (Cummings) Ballew, worked side by side with the Shelhamers in the 1920’s pioneering Free Methodist work and planting churches together in Florida. They were lifelong friends.

In her old age, Sister Shelhamer ministered in Washington for 13 years, and even began a telephone ministry similar to what would later be called “hot lines,” in which she counseled and prayed with people in trouble. As word of her work spread, even to Capitol Hill, a reporter came to interview her and suggested that she offer counseling in a small ad in the Washington Times Herald newspaper. She agreed, so he published her name and number. To her amazement, many people began to call. There was a time when she had as many as 200 calls in a 24-four-hour period. She also developed a huge list of names and addresses of her friends and acquaintances and wrote to them every month. Through her mailing lists, she raised thousands of dollars to support her mission and pay for tuition for the young people she began sending to college.

The Serenity Garden

One of Julia’s earliest converts at the mission was 9-year-old Gene Robert Alston, who she later encouraged to stay in and complete high school, and who eventually graduated from Greenville College, a Free Methodist school in Illinois. With her continued support, he then went on to become the first African American to graduate from Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, obtaining a Masters Degree in religion. Later, he completed his PhD. Dr. Gene Alston distinguished himself as a Pastor, School Administrator, and in numerous other ways. His vignette in the Camp Museum is filled with tributes and awards. Certainly his greatest credential and most significant legacy is his son, Paul, also a Minister, currently serving in Hampton, Virginia.

After Sister Shelhamer retired in 1960, a young couple named Rev. Wayne and Mary Lou Lawton became the mission superintendents. In 1965, the mission was closed by the Redevelopment Land Agency to make way for urban renewal projects. Wayne and Mary Lou went on to pastor in the Maryland-Virginia Conference, and their last church was Layhill Community Church. They are presently pastoring in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. We look forward to seeing them on Sunday, for the dedication of the Museum.

Virginia Nottingham (owner of Cabin 1 on this campground) attended and taught Sunday school at the mission as a young woman. She is now a member of the Layhill Church. Virginia has been helpful, as have Wayne and Mary Lou, in providing information for our tributes to Rev. Gene and Sister Shelhamer. Dr. Alston passed away suddenly on February 14, 2005. We give thanks and gratitude to Mrs. Shirley Alston, Gene’s widow, for contributing personal items of Gene’s for his vignette in the Camp Museum.

Both Julia Shelhamer and Dr. Gene Alston contributed immensely to the Free Methodist Church. The influence of their lives affected hundreds if not thousands of people for the Lord. It is for this reason that on Sunday, July 16th, at 2 p.m., we will dedicate the Serenity Garden and the Camp Museum to these two worthy individuals who spent their lives in servant hood in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Praise God for Ebony and Ivory Update 6/2/2007