Conference in Sovata

Mari and I were blessed to be invited to a conference in Romania held at the lovely mountain resort of Sovata

Around 250 pastors and leaders of churches - Baptist, Pentecostal and Brethern - were in attendance for the 3 day conference

The speakers for the conference were Stuart and Jill Briscoe

Not long after I got born again in 1984 I read a book which was very encouraging by Jill Briscoe called "How to fail successfully"

Jill took the ladies while Stuart took the men

Mari mentioned to Jill about me being encouraged by her book all those years ago and she said interestingly enough someone had spoken to her the week before about how, many years ago, that book had been used to lead them to the Lord but Jill had said to the person that she never wrote such a book - she had forgotten she had written it and now here were two people in a week bringing it to her mind.

Stuart had pastored a church in USA from 400 to 4000 members and not surprisingly had much encouraging and relevant stuff to say those of us in

ministry.

When asked how he would summarise what a leader should concentrate on he said

Preach the Word

Love the People

Pray for the Holy Spirit to Move

Sovata was also a lovely place to be, to relax and although the weather was not great we still managed to go out an enjoy the local scenery

In fact many people come to the hotel for it's spa and swimming pools and fitness centre and saunas

Unfortunately we were foolish enough not to get round to using any of these until the last day and then greatly regretted that we hadn't used them more

This was my first time in a sauna for 20 years and Mari's first time ever

We were also able to go to this conference with our good friends Anatol and Nadia Dunas ( he is pastor at Emanuel church in Cahul

We are all under much pressure all the time and so it was good to get away for a few days

And much to the pleasure of both myself and the main speaker Mr Brisoce (a man of great wisdom and discernment) Man Utd beat Inter Milan 2-0 in the champions league on the Wednesday of the conference.

Enough Said?

Mark