The Eastern Region had their yearly convention this past weekend. The board met on Thursday for their meeting and then on Friday and Saturday delegates gathered on Zoom for both worship and business sessions. We are all thankful that we have the technology of Zoom to be able to gather and continue to share reports and conduct business for conferences in regions. However, during the convention, superintendent Greg Twitchell expressed that unless something changes over the next few months, the plan is to have next year’s convention in person and everyone was thankful to hear that and agreed.

During the convention on Thursday, we had townhall meetings where delegates were encouraged to share about their conversions, calls to ministry and experiences with discipleship. When we came back together, the facilitators of the townhall meetings shared reports about how their group had answered the questions. It was not the same as being together, but at least it allowed us to have interaction in small groups. We also had three separate sessions for our keynote speaker Dr. Jim Critchlow from Gordon-Conwell, who shared messages from the Old Testament.

Business was conducted on Saturday morning led by the president of the region, Rev. George Karl. We had a number of reports from associate members within the region that had been pre-recorded. Regional treasurer John Jones shared a detailed report about regional finances and the budget for the coming year. It was interesting that during the short breaks within the meetings, the delegates would break off into times of catching up with one another on the Zoom conference call. It will be a real blessing when we are able to come together again for our meetings and fellowship!