What an incredibly busy and blessed time the last few weeks have been! For two Sabbaths in October I was blessed to be part of Eastern Carolina Camp meeting. This year because of a change in policy at Oak Island, our venue for the last 25 years, we were forced to approach eastern Carolina camp meeting differently. Let me tell you how God blessed that change.

Our first site was at Greenville, NC on Sabbath, October 16. The day dawned sunny and beautiful. The church family at Greenville had worked tirelessly to serve as our hosts for the day. Our speaker was Ty Gibson, well-known Adventist speaker and author. In planning for the event we simply didn't know how to plan since we had never done camp meeting in this way. Since the most we had ever had in 25 years at Oak island was 500 we decided to plan on 300 for Greenville since we were doing the same program the next week for southern eastern Carolina in Summerville, SC. By church time in Greenville there were 650 people present! What a joy to worship together. At lunch time God multiplied the loaves and fishes and no one went away hungry. In the afternoon the blessing trio presented a musical concert, the apostle Matthew presented the Sermon on the Mount, and Ty Gibson concluded with a final message.

The next Sabbath the same identical program was held in Summerville, SC. Again, what a beautiful job the Summerville church family did as they served as host for this convocation. They even provided shuttle bus service to an offsite parking lot for overflow parking. Here over 350 people were in attendance! Thus for the first time there were nearly 1,000 people in attendance at Eastern Carolina Camp meeting. What a beautiful spirit God provided as we enjoyed these two Sabbaths together. Many people at both sites expressed a desire that we continue to have camp meeting in this way which the camp meeting committee is already making plans to do.

When the Oak Island facility told us of their changes in policy which made it prohibitive to continue we were concerned about what we should do. But God was guiding all along (as He always does) and blessed beyond measure. Certainly God is good!

On the final weekend of October the ChurchWorks team of the North American Division devoted the entire weekend to our Carolina family. Dr. Ron Clouzet, director of the North American Division Evangelism Institute, Dr. Ed Schmidt, Professor at Andrews University, and Dr. Rod and Donna Willey, laypersons from the Illinois conference, presented the ChurchWorks Again program in five different locations across the Conference. They did follow-up presentations of what was begun in Black Mountain, NC back in March of this year. At that time each church was challenged to develop their own strategy for reaching each person within their ministry area with the Three Angels messages. As we traveled to these five locations throughout the Conference I can't tell you how exciting it was to hear what some of our churches individual members are doing in an effort to reach the people God has put in their areas. Churches have begun new outreaches in the area of health ministry, internet ministry, prison ministry, personal evangelism, and a host of other outreaches. As I traveled with the ChurchWorks team throughout the weekend they couldn't stop marveling at all the ministries that are taking place across the Carolinas. I would ask that we each simply pray for our churches as so many of them are taking new and bold steps to reach their communities for Jesus.

Immediately following this weekend I attended the North American Division Year-End meeting at General Conference headquarters. This annual meeting of the NAD Executive Committee is to care for the business of the Division. In addition to the business of the church recently elected president of the NAD Elder Dan Jackson set a tone for desiring excellence in God's church. Certainly an aspiration which I know we all share. Among the business items voted on was providing a cost of living increase for the employees across the NAD. After some discussion this proposal was not passed due to the economy of the nation and the stress this is placing on the church across the North American Division. As they reviewed the tithe across the division it was noted that it is basically flat from a year ago. In Carolina we are experiencing the same thing as our tithe through September is basically the same as a year ago. Certainly we are living in difficult times. But as I reflect on this I can't help but believe that time is exceedingly short. We are living in those perilous days which the apostle Paul said would come just before the return of Jesus. So, this is not a time of despair but a time that we lift up our heads for our redemption draws nigh. Praise God!

This coming weekend will be a Community Services retreat at Nosoca Pines Ranch. I look forward to being there with our CS director Bob Self and the Community Services leaders from across our conference.

As always let's continue to lift each other up in our prayers and never lose sight that truly JESUS IS COMING SOON!

Your friend,
Jim