NAC 2009 - This & That

The 2009 North American Convention of the Church of God, Anderson Indiana June 26-July 1 was another whirlwind of activities. Some highlights not in mentioned in other NAC posts include:

-New Missionary Orientation - June 26

-Nightly Worship Service @ Madison Park Church yielded wonderful singing and outstanding speakers. Wed. evening I participated in the missionary processional prior to the commissioning service & served as an anointer. On Demand Streaming Archive of evening services is available @ http://www.churchofgodministries.com/Events/NorthAmericanConvention/NACintheMedia/tabid/1290/Default.aspx.

-Workshop Led: Children's Literature in Christian Education - Jesus the master storyteller often taught with parables, “earthly stories with heavenly meanings.” In this interactive workshop on June 30, I demonstrated how to use children’s literature as the earthly stories to teach scriptural character and other Biblical principles. I provided a list of books, scriptures, class participation ideas and free online supplemental resources.

Seminars Attended: Feminine Art of Preaching; Feminine Art of Leading.


Visiting with children at Kid's Place




Food & Fellowship: WCG Prayer Breakfast; Anderson University Heritage Dinner; Christian Educators Luncheon; Franco Lunch; Dessert for Former Missionaries & Missionaries; Living Link Appreciation

-International Conversation following NAC. This July 2 event to focused on international partnership in leadership development.

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A special THANK YOU to "Living Link" partner Judy Lighty for her gracious hospitality during the week plus her ongoing support and encouragement. It was a delight to get better acquainted with Judy as well as with missionaries Ron and Alta Ruth Jack whom Judy also hosted.


Also special THANKS to Bonnie Newell for her willingness to send me a copy of her doctoral writing project "Leadership Development for Teacher Training in Church of God Congregations in Africa." I anticipate using that to teach the "Christian Education" module at the West African Bible Institute.

NAC 09 - Reunion with 3 Ivorian Pastors

It was a delight to have three pastors from Côte d’Ivoire at the North American Convention of the Church of God: Pastor Soukalo from Platform village, Pastor Daniel - French CBH speaker and teacher at West African Bible Institute, and Pastor Emmanuel from Korhogo Church of God. I appreciate Pastor Daniel serving as interpreter at my 2-day Christian Education Seminar in Yamoussoukro during October 2007.


CBH (Christians Broadcasting Hope) ViewPoint Live Taping. Hosts Rev. Jim Lyons and Jennifer Wilson interviewed CBH French speaker Pastor Daniel N’Goran with missionary Rev. Larry Sellers serving as interpreter. Some of us NAC guests had the privilege of sitting in on this taping as the studio audience.



Côte d’Ivoire ministry team at NAC 09 Family Funfest Global Mainstreet. First row: Pastor Daniel, Pastor Soukalo, missionary-elect Kay Watts, Pastor Emmanuel, missionaries/regional coordinators Sherman & Kay Critser; second row: missionary Larry Sellers and son Lee.

NAC 09 - Family Funfest Global Mainstreet

North American Convention of the Church of God, Anderson IN
Sat. 6/27: Family Funfest Global Mainstreet, 10 AM-2 PM.

To help celebrate 100 years of foreign missions, missionaries staffed experiential stations: bank, bookstore, food store, church, cinema, clothing store, craft store, music store, park, and school.

At the bookstore tent, I presented two African folktales. In the picture above, I am sharing the book, It Takes a Village based on African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child" with audience chiming in on a repeated phrase. Children discovered consequences of greed as they dramatized the story, "Why Spiders Have a Thin Middle" with felt hand puppets.