Annual Conference 2009 will be one I will never forget. This was my year to be commissioned in The United Methodist Church and I am blessed to be Commissioned under the Leadership of Bishop James Swanson. I have the utmost respect for Bishop Swanson. He is someone who inspires me by his preaching and by his leadership of the Holston Annual Conference. If the Lord is willing and all goes as planned Bishop Swanson will also be the one to Ordain me in 2011.
It is difficult to describe how I feel about what God is doing in my life and the life of my family, church, and friends. Excitement, in awe of God, humbled, peace, an odd feeling of patience. All of these feelings are present as I think about the past 5 years but then it started way back beyond 5 years.
I believe it is the most exciting time ever to follow Christ and I hope everyone around me and before me has felt the same way. There are so many hurting people in the world all around us and I know that God wants us to reach out to them and bring them in.
I think of my fellow women and men in the clergy and the Holston Conference and I am excited. God is obviously at work and He is up to something. There is a new hunger and a burden to see lost people come to Christ. God give us a greater burden for the lost.
Below are some pictures taken at Annual Conference this week. I wish that all of my family could have been there to share this time with me but they have commitments also. In 2011 I plan to get a house on the Junaluska Property so all of the family can attend my Ordination.
I was blessed by several of the youth and leaders coming for the Commissioning Service and I was blessed with the awesome honor of awarding Laura Holderfield with the 2009 Youth Denman Award.
God is so good to us, may we never forget it and may we always be thankful and mindful of the fact that we are blessed to have all the advantages we do and we need to bless others.
Ronnie
