Okay! Let's see what I can remember...

This is been a fantastic Assembly, thus far. There is just such a freedom to pray and worship and the sermons have been outstanding. Yesterday morning Brother Ammons preached a wonderful message on Theocracy. Soooooo good. After that we went into the committee reports. The Ways & Means stuff went through without a hitch, but Section 1 of the Q & S stuff (concerning the office of General Overseer and how the office is to be declared vacant and when and by whom and then what next, etc.) inspired lots of discussion and failed to go through. The following two sections (concerning the appointment of Field Secretaries and something that I can't seem to recall!) went through. Section 1 is to be brought back up for more discussion or what have you at 12:00 tomorrow. There seem to be several people strongly opposed to the recommendations and it appears very unlikely that this section will be passed. Of course, God is able to turn the hearts of the people if He so chooses. But unless He does I expect to see the section withdrawn.

The afternoon session was the best up to that point, in my opinion! Jon preached a message familiar to some of us (it's the one he preached at last year's Regional Convention) entitled "Drunk with Wine vs. Filled with the Spirit." It was excellent.

Then we went into Maudie Wood's Sunday School program. Again--it was excellent! She is just soooooooooo good!!! She had a lighthouse brought out to the stage and the lights went down, leaving everything dark except herself and the lighthouse. She talked about the storms raging all around us: the wars and terror going on around the world, the sicknesses and diseases people are facing, the broken homes, and on and on and on. She even had storm sound effects going and spoke of the need for LIGHT to shine to those in the midst of the storms.

Sister Prince had been on to preach in the morning session, but was unable to because the Q & S stuff continued on through her time slot. But when Sister Maudie finished her program we still had 30 minutes until our dismissal time, so Dad asked Sister Prince to come ahead with her message. I'm sooooooooo glad God worked it out for us to hear it! She preached an outstanding message on sanctification. She had an illustration of a heart that had a "root" at the bottom of it and different sins coming up from the root: pride, adultery, lies, etc. She said that the root must be gone if we are to end the struggle with the sins that come from it. The last portion of the message was addressed mostly to our young people and their relationships with one another. It was quite wowing, I think! Ha! She had some tomatoes there and talked about how folks will go into the market and pick up a tomato and "touch it up" and squeeze it and consider it, then put it down and walk away without buying it. The next customer will pick it up and do the same thing, then another costomer, and then another. She said that some of our young people do the same thing with each other. She brought her son and daughter-in-law up front (which I'm sure they loved! Ha!) and spoke of her counsel to them before they got married to "keep it clean." She said soooooooo many good things, but I can't possibly pass them all on to you. So buy the DVD. :-)

Last night was the Annual Address. It always seems so weird to say good things about whatever it is that Dad is doing because he's my DAD and it just... well, I don't know--I guess I don't want people to take it wrong somehow. Hard to explain. Anyway, in my opinion (!), it was a wonderful message. It is the only time I can recall hearing an Annual Address actually preached! Ha! No, he read lots of statistics and such to begin with, but I don't think it's in him to just stick strictly to the notes. Again, I couldn't possibly relate it all. Buy it. :-) We sang and worshipped at the end of the message and the Lord just really blessed. There is such a strong Church spirit here this year--it is so apparent and such a blessing to be a part of!!!

This morning was the BTI program and a great message by Brother Pimentel. (Forgive me for skipping all of the details--there's more to cover and I'm already getting very tired!) This afternoon was Brother Byers' CPMA program. The Lord took over and really blessed again as we sang and waved flags and worshipped. He had the NC/VA choir sing "Let the Church be the Church" and everybody stood and joined in and we just kept on singing and God just kept on blessing! Honestly, everything just feels so Churchy this year!!! That spirit is just so strong right now. And maybe it's just me, but I'm seeing our Church flag waved a lot more than usual. It's been great!!! Anyway, Brother Byers preached a fantastic message, too. All of the preaching has been soooooo good!

Tonight was Brother Ard's World Missions program and the Parade of Nations. I had brought my white clothes just in case they needed an emergency fill-in. They did. I represented Guatemala. :-) The parade was done a little differently this year and I think it was pretty neat. I'll have to watch the video to know for sure! (Buy the DVD! :-) Ha!) At the end, after we had welcomed the new countries into the Church (4 of them this year!), all of us parade people marched around the sanctuary while everybody sang "The Meeting in the Air." It's the first parade I've ever been in where we actually marched! It was good, too. Then Brother Ard had all of the National Overseers come to the front and introduce themselves. He showed a really neat video clip of our Church people in Swaziland (I think!) singing a song called "Never Give Up." It was soooooooooo neat!!! What a blessing! I'm always sooooo blessed to see our brothers and sisters from around the world singing and worshipping God. They are a part of me and I am a part of them. I feel such love for them and I just love being able to see them and feel connected somehow. Brother Ard preached a good message, then we ended the service in the altar praying for lost souls. Another great service.

Melissa and Dave flew in this afternoon and I've been anxious to see them, but haven't been able to yet. As we were leaving tonight we walked across the front of the building and I discovered why I'd been unable to locate Weese before. She was still in the altar, praying and crying!!! It made me sooooo happy for her! It's been 7 years since she's been to an Assembly and I know they don't get a chance to attend very many local functions either. They're so isolated there in Montana and I can only imagine what a blessing it must be for her to actually be in a General Assembly after all these years!!! She's going to eat it up! She'll go home so excited and blessed and refreshed... ~sigh~ Makes me happy. I look forward to getting a chance to talk to her tomorrow!

Ah yes, tomorrow. It's going to come way too early. I've got to go to that dippy Mission Breakfast in the morning. Don't be offended--I think it's great to have a time for this sort of thing. I just personally feel that 7:00 in the morning is the WRONG time!!! I know, I know--they did these things for years and years in the Church. So what?! That doesn't mean it's not dumb! 7:00. It's already been a long, tiring week and there's more to come. So what do we do??? We schedule an event that will get you out of bed super early in the morning and ensure that you'll struggle to maintain your coherency throughout the rest of the day. Somebody should be drug out to the street and shot, but I'm not sure who yet. ;-) In any case, I'm not helping my situation by staying up to blog. But I feel so bad for you people who aren't able to be here!!! It just seems right to stop by every day or two and at least touch on the highlights so you don't feel quite so far away from it all! Next year just get yourselves HERE so I won't have to do this!!! ;-) Love you all! G'night!!!