The theme for the 2022 Conference was “Uplift, Serve, Proclaim,” based on our AUC mission theme. (You can read about the delegation session here).
Starting on Wednesday evening, the conference was held over four days and was attended by people from across the Union, with a few from outside our region as well.
A large tent replaced our main hall which was lost to fire in 2019, and this tent was set up in nearly the same spot as the old hall had been. In this tent we gathered for morning and evening worships, meetings and workshops on Thursday and Friday, and the Sabbath services.
Our visiting guest speaker was General Conference Vice President Rolly Dumaguit. He spoke on Sabbath about our mission to uplift Jesus, serve others and proclaim the truth. Other speakers highlighted the concepts behind this theme.
Thursday afternoon’s feature was various department leaders giving presentations and demonstrating the activities of their department. The Health department gave some talks, the Education Department showed their programs, the Media department new video production equipment, the Missionary Department showed the new canvassing program and books, the Welfare Department showed pictures and souvenirs from the East Timor Mission, and Elim Heights Management Committee showed the plans for the new hall.
The close of the conference was emotional, partly because it is always this way, and partly because this was the first Union-wide camp to be held at Elim Heights since 2018. What a blessing it was to gather our people from both countries, plus international visitors from afar, together once again!
Everyone was in for a surprise after the close of the conference. It was New Year’s Eve, and our caretakers had organised a special fireworks display, which held us spellbound and seemed to rival even the displays enjoyed by people in the city!
Over the next several days after the conference, we went on an outing to Hunter Valley Gardens, conducted a summer school and Camponotus Kids program, and held discussion sessions for our church workers and their spouses. Finally, it was time to leave, but we all thanked God for the precious opportunity and very much look forward to our next conference at Elim Heights!
All meetings including Sabbath School and Young Peoples Meeting were recorded and can be viewed on our YouTube channel here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVjhYVpvjlASjcw1Mp91JN4FIUYVgOL4k