General Conference 2008 - Impact

It is over powering to sit with all of these friends and be surrounded with this much love. The setting we are in is amazing. No one expected this many people to show up. They say it is the biggest one ever held in Canada. There are 2000 people registered and over 1000 in the meetings we are attending. 99% of the people with me are Pentecostal Ministers. You have to struggle to find a seat in the main room – there are not seats available even at the very front – in fact those seats seem to go first.

Where are we? Alida and I are attending our church’s National Conference in Toronto, Ontario.

Men and women from all over Canada and from many parts of the world have gathered to hear and give reports of all that has been happening. We have listened to many amazing stories both in the sessions that we have attended and also in the times together with the other ministers in the foyer/meeting places.

(I may not get some of the email and posting done that I would like to because of email access problems. At the hotel it is a little pricey – at $250 for the first day of connection and $100 every day after that. Yikes! At this moment I am at a friend’s home using their wireless connection – and a better price – free!)

The sessions are dealing with a topic that is powerful, “Everyone Matters!” It has been powerful to hear the presentations in such a creative way…WOW! I actually matter and some one cares!

I have met broken men and women that have been crushed in the situations that they are working in as ministers. The churches that they have tried to serve have been filled with some of the meanest people one could ever meet. I am sure glad that I don’t have to live there.

Others have been wondered what they are doing where they serve. The words spoken in the sessions that we have attended – have said it over and over again – “I matter” – “God cares and he knows where we are and what we do.”

I am just like the rest of the folk that are attending… tired… busy… surrounded with problems that I have no answers for. And taking this time to be away from everything has been wonderful… refreshing… uplifting… re-charging and Spirit Filled with God lifting us all up.

My needs are maybe even greater than others. That has been the humbling and sobering thought from yesterday.

One thing I know from it all – God has a plan for me and my life and my ministry. That thought was a great thing to go to bed with last evening. Double WOW!

I can’t wait for today to begin. It is dark outside and no one wants to get up… Come on there is stuff to do.

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~