Duane came back about 7:30 Fri night. He shared what had been happening during the day. Our friend Tom had been sick also. Duane was very tired so he decided to stay and rest. You will see as I share his notes and subsequent news we heard later that we both missed an exciting time.
When conference started Friday morning, attendees were told that Bishop Innis had been sick overnight, enough so that he went to the hospital. He had dehydration. The District Superintendents had been to see him at the hospital and prayed with him. He was back at the hotel in the morning. Bishop Hopkins led the conference in prayer for him.
Rev. Freed led another Bible study. Thursday’s perspective had been David as the Shepherd. Today he talked about the perspective of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. About 9:30 Bishop Innis came. The Journal report of the previous day would be ready in the afternoon. The Council on Finance and Administration gave their report and the budget was passed. Rev. Patrick Friday from the US and the General Board of Global Ministries gave a report about the 50/50 Ministry Assessment and resources. It has an emphasis on sustainability and capacity building. It focuses on the Head – What are the abilities of persons/churches? – Heart – What are the passions? – and Hands – What are the skills available to carry out the task?.
Bishop Innis invited a young child to come up and blessed him. Then he invited a mother to bring her baby up and it was blessed. A new operating mission was approved.
Bishop Yambasu took a few of the foreign guests to review the Bishop nomination ballots and discuss procedure. The order of the day again was the Hour That Inspires and Challenges. This time Rev. Scott Walsh gave the message. He talked about Peter’s dialogue with Jesus . When Jesus asked “Do you love me?”, Peter was wanting to go back to what he knew – the familiar. Jesus wanted him to go off in mission. An offering was taken at the end of the morning.