Blessed in Hawaii
One of the highlights of my recent sabbatical was traveling to Hawaii in early September. Now it wasn't your normal vacation to the island paradise. I only went for three days, left the family at home, didn't do any sightseeing, and spent it with other pastors and conference church members at our conference's General Assembly. Like I said, not your normal Hawaiian vacation. Yet what a blessed time it was!
As you may know, WCCC is in a conference of approximately 16 churches spread across California and Hawaii called the OMS Holiness Conference. The conference, which is over 100 years old, was pioneered by faithful believers of Japanese ancestry to which we owe a huge debt of gratitude. General Assembly (GA) is the conference's biennial gathering of church pastors and delegates who assemble to worship, pray, fellowship, and conduct conference business affecting all of our churches. Our conference has a long history of faithfulness and perseverance to the Lord and the spread of the gospel which we sometimes don't realize until we come to an assembly like this, connect with fellow believers from our sister churches, and see the godly legacy that has been built over time. Then it becomes clear that our churches don't stand alone but are part of a larger movement God has used to expand His kingdom and glorify His name for over a hundred years.
This year, GA was hosted by our sister churches in Hawaii and they did a fantastic job coordinating the event, creating a sense of unity, feeding us, and sharing God's love as well as the aloha spirit. It's clear a big part of the aloha spirit (and our conference's history apparently) is to eat well when we gather together. Food seemed be central to just about everything we did! I guess the aloha spirit is supposed to be consumed in moderation . Seriously, I found GA to be a great blessing and encouragement! It was wonderful to worship with our conference family, renew old relationships and make new ones, and be inspired to pursue the Lord together. The fact that it all took place in such beautiful surroundings just seemed to be further confirmation to me of God's glory and grace. Praise the Lord for GA 2025!
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith."
Included are some of the sights from General Assembly and Hawaii so that you can get a feel for the experience as well.
Pastor Darren
