SEC in Review

Last weekend in Norman Park, Georgia, eighty five men from around the Southeast Conference gathered for the annual men's retreat. The theme for the retreat was fostering authentic community through building spiritual relationships. The speakers for the retreat were Rev. Deric Gilliard, Rev. Tim Rodgers and Rev. Peter Hartmark; all are members of churches in the Southeast Conference. Additionally, Rev. Jim Black, our worship leader for the weekend, led the men in recording a song he wrote for the conference, It's better together.

      Each church represented was given a song tract to take back to their churches and play for the church at a designated time. The weekend was capped off with communion service around a barn fire, where three stages were erected, one for prayer, one for foot washing, and one for the Eucharist. Pastors from the conference conducted the communion service and men were serviced in pairs of two, each with someone from a different church.                        

From the responses received, the weekend was a time of renewal, informative and in many ways transformative for those who attended.The next men's retreat is scheduled for March 13-15, 2009 in Norman Park; start planning now to attend. You will be blessed and refreshed in your spirit.

SEC Looking Ahead

      17-19 April 2008:  The SEC 45^th Annual Meeting is quickly approaching.  Please be reminded that unless arrangements have already been made with the SEC office, all registration deadlines are final.  Only registration forms postmarked by the 10 March 2008 will be considered for early registration.  All registration forms mailed after the 10 March 2008, but by 04 April 2008, are expected to include the regular amount for registration.  All registration forms mailed after 04 April 2008 must include the $10 late fee.  So avoid too excessive costs, please be mindful of all dates.

Now that the business aspect has been addressed, let    s move along.  The planning committee is excited about welcoming the SEC family to (Metro) Atlanta.  With great anticipation, we have been prayerful that God will make this a truly wonderful experience for the entire SEC family. 

As mentioned in communication before, we are expecting all who are able to attend.  However, at this time, we wish to extend a special invitation to the children and youth of this conference.  Veronica Gilliard and Frankie Gentry are teaming up to lead a workshop for our youth, exploring the ideas of what it means for our youth to have a personal relationship with Jesus, a workshop that will encourage them to believe by experience as opposed to inheritance.

Let us not forget the little ones.  Cathy Neal will be leading the workshop aimed at the SEC children; this group includes kids in grades kindergarten to fifth.  Being that time and space are limited, the children will not be able to get the total camping experience.  However, Cathy is busy preparing ideas that will give the children a “taste” of the camping life, i.e. arts and crafts. 

"Blessed are the people who will share in the meal in God's Kingdom (Luke 14:15b, NCV).  Let us all come together for this occasion."

Prayer Requests

      SEC- staff, finances

       45^th Annual Meeting Planning Committee

      all SEC churches

      SEC churches seeking pastors

Please Help Us

We are in need of updates, stories, testimonies, prayer requests, etc. from all of churches.  If you have anything that you would like to be included in the updates, please send it to here at the SEC office via e-mail (southeastconf@bellsouth.net) or via mail (1553 Virginia Ave.- Suite 201B, College Park, GA 30337).  We would love to share them with the rest of the conference.

An update about Craig Anderson: Email from Dotty (Craig's wife)

Craig was supposed to go home today, Thursday, March 6, 2008, but he has some arterial fibulation, his heart went out of rhythm so they are keeping him another day. About 2 pm he went back into rhythm and so they said if he stayed in rhythm for 24 hours he could go home Friday afternoon. I will go up after Church Women United and pick him up - fingers crossed.  Dotty

Stay Strong,

SEC Team

Robert

Requaya

Veronica

Steve

Lucy