GC Session Day 3

PRESIDENT’S BLOG GENERAL CONFERENCE SESSION DAY 3
JUNE 26, 2010

This morning on the way to Sabbath School in the Georgia Dome, we were dropped off from our Shuttle Bus at the exhibition hall. While walking from the exhibition hall over to the Georgia Dome, we passed a display by ASI depicting a “1 Day School.” ASI has provided the materials for a simple steel building that can be put together with a screw driver and pliers in just about 1 day. They have also designed desks and benches constructed out of simple metal for this school. The cost is somewhere around $1,000.00. I think it would be wonderful if some of our church schools for the next school year planned to concentrate on a “Hope for Humanity” project, or a “1 Day School.”

For the GC Church session, several musical numbers were offered by our sister Conference and sister academy, Pine Forge Academy. Their music offerings were outstanding and I was proud of each of the young people who participated.

The crowd packed the Georgia Dome for the Divine service. Delegates, family and guests were seated on the floor while Seventh-day Adventist Church members from across Atlanta, neighboring regions, southern states and across the United States filled the seats, usually filled by rapid football and other sports fans. How wonderful to see so many people dedicated to the worship of the Creator God and soon coming Savior on this Sabbath day, instead of glorifying sports and entertainment.

After the Church service, I stopped for just a minute and visited with a pastor who is the Adventist World Radio speaker in the Masi language. He is from Tanzanika.

On Sabbath, I am amazed at how well the staff has planned to feed the thousands of delegates, family members, and guests in a section of the large exhibition hall. It is an adventure in discovering members of the Adventist Church family from around the world that we have never met before.

On the way into the lunch room, we caught up with Pastor Matthew Bediako, retiring General Conference Secretary and his lovely wife. Pastor Bediako is from the country of Ghana, which is also the home country of Bill Oblity, a delegate to this GC session from the Pennsylvania Conference.

During the afternoon, Jeanne and I visited several of the exhibits of ministries in the exhibition hall. One of those we spent several minutes at was the Ellen White Estate, where we spoke with Dr. Merlin Burt and Dr. Jim Nix for some time. One of the ideas we discussed was the possibility of taking our Pennsylvania Conference pastors and teachers on an Adventist Heritage tour from Pennsylvania to New England, then across New York State to the William Miller farm, then to Michigan to several sites. If God makes it possible, I believe it would be a tremendous learning experience for our staff, well worth the investment.

We visited several of the College and University exhibits, such as Washington Adventist University, Oakwood College, Andrews University, Union College, Montemorelos University and Southern Adventist University. Southern had an attractive display solidly presenting its stand on a literal, Divine Creation.


Tonight, the Southern Africa - Indian Ocean Division and the North American Division reports were shared with all the delegates and guests attending GC session. At the end of the Southern Africa – Indian Ocean Division video report was a quick memory picture and slide that tugged at my heart. It read, “In loving memory of Paul Mawela, April 2010.” Paul “Pappa” Mawela and his wife established the Nhengelo community outreach work for AIDS orphans and organized home health workers in South Africa that we visited on the Hope for Humanity trip that 4 of us from Pennsylvania Conference participated on. When we were in South Africa, they were feeding 700 orphans every day, and would be feeding over 1,000 within a month after we left. They also had 20-40 caregivers going out every week to visit seriously ill and terminally ill people in their homes, often walking up to 10 miles each way to bring this care. This was the first I had heard of his death. Pastor Mawela and his wife retired and moved to that area, since there was no Adventist work, and in their retirement, they prayed and by faith started this work from scratch. He and “Momma” Mawela are an inspiration to all of us of what God can do, with a person that is fully dedicated to God and pray with faith that God will do great things, and do them through us.