Messages spoken at various Camps Farthest Out by Margaret Timms.
Margaret Timms was an Episcopal laywoman from Wellesley, Massachusetts, who spent nearly thirty years teaching at The Camps Farthest Out in New Hampshire. She first came to Camp Winnipesaukee around 1954 and became one of the familiar faces there. For much of those years she also ran the camp bookstore, where she not only sold books but talked with people, listened to their problems, and helped them find books that could speak to what they were going through.
Margaret grew up in Methodist parsonages. Her father was an itinerant Methodist minister and a devoted follower of John Wesley, and prayer was simply part of everyday family life. She originally planned to become a missionary in Africa. After marrying Leonard Timms, an English churchman, she found that there was no Methodist church nearby that fit their circumstances, so they became Episcopalians. She later described her ministry by saying that she had “worked my way up from kitchen to pulpit.” She was never ordained, but she taught the Bible, preached, led prayer, and laid hands on people for healing.
For years Margaret wondered why the miracles described in the Bible seemed to have disappeared from the church. During the Depression, she had seen illness and financial hardship affect her own family, and she was not satisfied with the explanation that Jesus had performed miracles only because He was physically present on earth.
That began to change when Leonard brought home Agnes Sanford‘s The Healing Light from the library. Margaret began putting its teaching into practice, and the health of her family changed. She then discovered Glenn Clark‘s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes. The Camps Farthest Out became the next step in her life. She attended her first camp for the last Glenn Clark camp and eventually became deeply involved in CFO. Margaret even joked that no one was a “real CFO” until they had read three Glenn Clark books. Healing became an important part of Margaret’s ministry. She understood that forgiveness and healing were closely connected and that resentment, anger, and unforgiveness could affect the body.
One man came to her with severe arthritis after his brother had cheated him out of $3,500. He could hardly walk and needed sticks to get around. The counselor who prayed with him told him that he had to forgive his brother and write him a letter. He did so, and when he finished the letter, he walked away without his sticks. His brother eventually repaid the money, and the two men were reconciled.
Margaret also told of a woman with cancer who deeply hated her sister. Glenn Clark would not simply pray for the cancer to disappear. He helped the woman deal with the hatred and begin the work of forgiveness. As that relationship was healed, the cancer disappeared.
Margaret experienced the same connection in her own life. After an argument with Leonard, her neck became so stiff that she could barely move it. She recognized that the irritation and resentment she was carrying were affecting her physically. When she dealt with what was going on inside, her neck was healed. When Leonard later suffered a heart attack, Margaret trusted God rather than giving herself over to fear. He recovered quickly.
Her ministry extended well beyond the camps. She led Bible and prayer groups, worked with women throughout the Episcopal Church, preached about healing, and met privately with people in her home. She also taught businessmen about tithing and helped people learn how prayer could become part of ordinary life rather than something reserved for Sunday.
At CFO, Margaret’s ministry took many forms. She helped lead the opening orientation, taught creative visualization and prayer, reviewed books, and ran the bookstore. Her recommendations were often an important part of her ministry. She introduced people to books such as Agnes Sanford’s The Healing Light and Glenn Clark’s writings because she knew that what someone read could open the door to a new understanding of prayer and healing.
The bookstore was much more than a place to buy books. For Margaret, it was another place to minister. People came in looking for a book and often stayed to talk. She listened, prayed with them, and helped them find something that could encourage them in their walk with God.
Margaret Timms remained a familiar and influential presence at The Camps Farthest Out for decades. Whether she was teaching, praying with someone, leading a group, or simply handing a book to a person who needed it, she brought the same conviction that had changed her own life: that the healing and transforming power of God was not something confined to the pages of the Bible. It was available to people in their lives right now.
*Note:
Many speakers lived before the days of the internet and many had very limited biographical information available. The information in these biographies came mostly from transcripts of their messages, and relies heavily on their own spoken words. Please contact us if you have any corrections.