General Conference 2010 - #3

A full Sabbath! The outgoing Secretary, Mathew Bediako spoke. The music wasn’t bad; but almost all traditional. Quite unlike the 2000 Toronto GC where there was a great diversity of music from different cultures, performed in styles from the enthusiastic and exotic to the sublime. The number of attendees seems to be down from previous GC’s. Possibly it will increase significantly next weekend. We didn’t even battle the lines to eat in the dining hall. I walked the 20 minutes (via the Olympic Centennial Park) to the Marriot Marquis Hotel and ate dinner in the room. It’s a lovely hotel and I’m on the 34^th floor. I got there just on time to catch the Sermon (on Church Pond on my computer) at the famous black church in town – Berean. It was awesome; and made my day! (Thank the Lord the African American worship services extend the Lord’s presence!) That should not take away from the fact that my day was also blessed, and I was very excited, to have as my seat mates in the dome my WWU colleagues and students: Jodi Wagner, Dorita Tessier, Erika Carbal, and Greg Hannah-Jones. I felt at home. But feeling at home extended to visiting the booth of one of the GREATEST University: my Alma Mater, Northern Caribbean University. And meeting so many of my former students, colleagues, and classmates was a translation to a third heaven. So many of them have made me so very proud! I was especially delighted to see Dr. Spence, the President of Washington Adventist University, who was my college classmate in Jamaica in the late 60s. And then what a reunion we had at the WWU booth, when serendipitously we were there at the same time with Iva and Willie Armstrong, Clinton and Martha Valley, and Victor Brown and Mike Unterseher. And what a delight to bump into my dearest friends, Maxwell and Desrie Blakeney, and Danny and Verna Francis…! And many, many, many more! See today’s photos for all those I could snap: http://www.wallawalla.edu/campus-life/spiritual-life/gallery/general_conference_2010. Tonight begins the reports from the Divisions. A great start with a report from the Southern Africa Indian Ocean Division! It makes one proud to be a SDA as we witness the wholistic ministry and outreach by members and leadership in that area of the world.