This year's Regional Convention really had a whole different flavor to it, I thought. Someone mentioned something to me a few days ago about the UNITY we had there. He said we've always had good unity here, but it just felt especially tight and close and unified this year--like everybody there was just so in tune with one another and with the Lord. I think he was right. :-)
And in the midst of all of that "family" feel, we had an awful lot of fun! We always have good fellowship at Convention and stay up way too late eating and talking and all of that stuff, but we had a lot of fun DURING Convention this year. It was sort of like Camp and Convention all mixed together. It all started with the Western Skies boost. I got most of it on video. Pay special attention to the magazine entitled "Vanity"...
Sometime during the weekend Brother Dustin gave James a late birthday present: one of his old t-shirts, autographed and personally addressed to James. HA! It's really been a long standing joke around here and would take too long to explain in full, but it has something to do with buying and selling all manner of historical Church items on eBay and since Brother Dustin is now the General VLB Coordinator... Anyway, here is James showing off the newest addition to his Church collection.
James joked that he was going to show the whole Convention, but apparently it wasn't a joke. This is how he opened up the last session on Sunday.
Somebody said something about auctioning it off, but James couldn't bear to part with it. It suddenly occurred to him, however, that we DID have that special edition of Vanity magazine... I dug it out of my bag and James started the auction--real auctioneer style. He grew up going to auctions and knows the routine pretty well. I really should have filmed it instead of taking pictures, but it was all so spur of the moment that nobody knew how great it would be!
I should have taken a picture of the Hays, at least--they were DYING over there, half from shock that people were actually bidding on the thing and half from embarrassment I think. Ha! Things got a little wild and in the end, that crazy picture sold for $50 to Brother Daryl Clark--who insisted it be autographed, too. :-)
Here's a close-up so you can better appreciate the purchase... or not. Ha!
When that piece sold Sister Karen ran forward with a picture of the Regional Overseer's family--that she had previously had ALL of the family sign--and insisted that it, too, be auctioned off. It brought in another $20, making a grand total of $70 to add to the Mission offering. Brother Dustin wanted to know why the money went to Missions instead of Outreach Literature, but he was too chicken to say anything about it around Sister Bishop. Ha!
After the Convention had dismissed on Sunday, Brother Chris Clarkson was asked to come sit up front. It was then stated that although the world says you're not "over the hill" until you turn 40, The Church of God declares you to be officially OLD when you turn 36. Brother Chris had just a few short days left, so we wanted to commemorate the life and death of a VLB. In honor of his "passing," the General VLB Coordinator traveled great distances to be with us and say a few words. :-)
To be honest, I can't remember what he shared. I just know it had to do with the tragedy of the death of a VLB. When he was finished we presented Brother Chris with a small cake, sang Happy Birthday, and told everyone they could now come by and view the body. ;-)
KEEP SCROLLING... Part 3 is to follow. :-)
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