Monday, August 21, 2006

This morning started at 5:00 again.  Just my body going back to its normal wakeup style.

Last night I built a Power Point presentation to use for the formation meeting today.  You can see a copy of it here.  We have three different groups being reached.  First is the pastors, then the business leaders and finally the governmental leaders.  I think the government will be much more involved than the normal Crown event.

This morning Shadrach and I left for the meeting at 9:00 in order to get there early and set things up.  It’s good that we did because there had been a miscommunication between the restaurant owner and staff as to our reservation.  They quickly set up a room for us and were extremely helpful even letting us borrow their PC speakers so that we could play the Crown promotional DVD at the start of the meeting.  Special thanks go to Rev. John Russell for renting and bringing, early, a digital projector for our use.  It costs $25 to rent and was money well spent.  In the States it would have been $100 or even much more.

The members started arriving a few minutes early and we had a time of greeting.  As more and more arrived we were seated and the staff brought water for everyone.  To honor the time of those who were on schedules we started very close to on-time with the showing of the Crown Promotional DVD.  After that we took about 5 minutes to visit and let people make a few critical phone calls (the Mayor of Monrovia is on the committee but was gracious to take time out to attend).  Although most of the participants already knew each other we took time for each person to introduce themselves, their organization and tell a little of what they did.  The Power Point presentation started right at 11:30am and I moved through it punctually but without hurrying.  We completed it exactly at 12:00 noon.  There were questions by several of the members and then the decision as to who the chairperson of each committee would be.  Mayor Saytumah recommended that Mr. Perkins of the Vice President’s office be the chairman of the Business & Governmental committee and everyone agreed.  The Pastors’ committee position was discussed for a few minutes and it was decided that Dr. Reeves of Providence Baptist would be the chairman.  Each chairman immediately set a meeting date and work was underway.

We hurriedly made way for the next group that were to use the room we were occupying.  It’s hard for me to describe the excitement that I have for such a positive and enthusiastic response to the committee formation.  I believe that the Crown Liberia conference will bring glory to the Father as His children learn to turn over one additional part of their lives to Him.

Thank you again for your prayers.