Ruth Nelson and Sheila Jamieson giving personal recollections of the impact the camps had made on their lives.	Harold and Meta Patterson in conversation with Jean Gibson.

Railway Street Presbyterian Church Hall was packed on Sunday evening 10th February as Jean Gibson guided Harold and Meta Patterson through the memories of a lifetime. Billed as a normal evening service, Harold and Meta had no idea that friends who had been influenced by them over the years had been secretly invited to this special evening. Almost overcome at first by the sheer number of those who turned up, Harold and Meta soon recovered to take part in a light-hearted conversation about their life together.

Jean reminded Harold how he had distinguished himself early by becoming a Sunday School teacher at the age of 17 and an elder in Railway Street Presbyterian Church at the age of 21. His work in the family business was lightened by his exploits in filmmaking. Meta described how they met on a blind date in 1956 and married in a Quaker ceremony the following year. Memories were shared of the 'squashes' they had for young people in their new home 'Argyll House', the trips to Bible teaching weeks in Filey and the youth camps in Donegal and Scotland where many present in the hall met their future spouse.

Ruth Nelson and Sheila Jamieson gave personal recollections of the impact the camps had made on their lives as young people and a short video clip was shown of the very first camp in 1966. In 1976, Harold and Meta opened the Y Club in Wallace Avenue, which soon hosted many young people, running for three nights a week with leaders being found among those who had been on the youth camps. It continued for the next 20 years.

During an excellent supper, guests caught up with friends from the past, examined clippings in a scrapbook of the Y Club and watched the DVD of camps through the years.

Although the evening was an opportunity to celebrate Harold being awarded the MBE in the New Year's honours, Jean highlighted the fact that far from the motivation of an earthly award, Harold and Meta had done everything out of a genuine love for others and for the Lord they had served since their own young days.

Some of the many people who attended camps through the years.

Photographs by Don Mitchell

19/02/2008