Hello, my friends. Gail here. I greet you from the mountain enclave of Montreat, North Carolina, where I have spent the past twelve days. The first days were days of preparation and meetings and sound checks and practices for conference events before welcoming the youth last Sunday evening. The first group of youth was here last week, from Sunday, June 5th, until Saturday, the 11th. The second group arrived on Sunday, the 12th, and will be here until this Saturday morning. After breakfast, on Saturday morning, I will drive back to Charlotte and write a sermon for you all for Sunday. This is going to be another long week.
To say that I appreciate your prayers, your texts, your emails, your notes of support is an understatement. Your encouragement means more than you know, Caldwell. More than you know.
The Montreat Conference Center is a well-oiled machine – with dozens of people working behind the scenes and in buildings all over this campus to bring this youth conference to life. Here are just a few of the teams that are at work here in Montreat this summer.
There is the audio-video team and the tech team – that make sure sound and slides and videos and music can be seen and heard by everyone in the auditorium. There is the auditorium team that sets up and breaks down the stage every day. They clean the entire auditorium building and keep it ready for all participants. There is the small group team that oversees the dozens of small groups that the youth enjoy. There is the recreation team – that sets up rec events indoors and outdoors all day and deep into the late evening for the youth. There are the musicians who wrote a theme song for these two weeks. The song title is also the theme for the conference – More Than Enough. There is the worship team – that makes sure that the evening worship goes smoothly. There is the keynote team – they are my team, making sure I have everything I need for keynote every morning. Speaking of which, my sound check each morning is at 7:30 am! And the last activity each day ends just before 11 pm. These are long days!
And through it all, God has been faithful, granting me the energy, courage, strength, and stamina to give a keynote talk each morning, Monday through Friday, last week and again this week.
I am thrilled to share that I have made connections with many youth and many leaders here. I have prayed with dozens of people. I have received many more written prayer requests, requests that I will bring back to Charlotte and keep laying before the Lord for weeks and months to come. These youth are carrying a lot. So are the adults. And God is meeting us here every morning, every evening, every step of the way.
Caldwell, you all are on your own adventures as well.
Two babies have been born into our faith family in the past two weeks – Emersyn Edwards and London Anderson. I cannot wait to meet these precious little ones and pray with them and their families.
The Hope Summer interns are well underway in their work placements and Theology Thursdays.
An ARCC Juneteenth event is being planned at Caldwell for next Monday, June 20th, from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Click here for more information.
Abong and Mongai Fankam are heading off to Angola, Namibia, and Zambia next Monday to continue their backpack/school supply ministry there. They have already collected more than 500 backpacks, so they don’t need more backpacks at this time. However, they would love for us to bring school supplies – pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, rulers, and erasers -to Caldwell on Sunday so that they can fill the backpacks before they leave for Africa next Monday.
There are many, many great events and opportunities coming up in the next couple of weeks. Look for more information in Caldwell This Week on Friday.
I’m sure I’ve left some things out. Please forgive me. This mountain air makes me forget things.
In the meantime, let us give God praise for all that God has done for us, all that God is doing in us and among us, even as we look ahead to all that is yet to come. We have so much for which to give our God our thanks and praise.
I will pray for you in these coming days, Caldwell. And I hope you will pray for me. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday morning, in person or online. Grace and peace be with you all, Gail