The highlights for May are:

Dr. Tim Erich, the principal of the Milwaukee SDA School, and I attended the Lake Union Conference Board of Education. The board voted on important initiatives related to the education system in the entire Union. Two of our Wisconsin schools received their accreditation for the next six years: The Adventist Junior Academy in Green Bay and Wisconsin Academy.

I attended the Presidents’ Council and, with Brian Stephan, the Officers’ Council at the Lake Union Office. In both meetings, we had the opportunity to discuss administrative and mission-related projects and initiatives in our territory. Some of these in Wisconsin include Free Dental Clinics in the Green Bay Church this Fall, and the Milwaukee area churches next year.

I attended the Lake Union Conference Association Board and Executive Committee with our Wisconsin Conference representatives, Brian Stephan, Jonathan Fetrick, and Geraldo Medina. Members from all five conferences come together three times per year to decide on essential matters such as administrative, departmental, and financial reports. AdventHealth, from the Chicago land area, reported 3,465 deliveries and only one pregnancy termination based on medical necessity. They do not perform any elective abortions.

Laurella Case, the Communication Coordinator of our conference, and I met with Debbie Michel, the Lake Union Conference Communication Director, and her associates, Felicia Tonga and Katie Fellows. It was an excellent opportunity to strengthen the collaboration between the two departments to benefit all constituents. I appreciate both teams being very professional in promptly spreading the good news of God’s miracles in our churches and schools.

The Maranatha Team ended their term at Camp Wakonda. We are so grateful for their involvement and praise God for much progress. Many other volunteers continued other projects. We are getting ready for the upcoming camp meeting and summer camps. More work has to be done after summer camps are over.

The Spiritual Life Committee of Wisconsin Academy organized a 24hr prayer vigil from 7:30-7:30 pm on May 5,6. I had the privilege to lead the group for one hour, sharing testimonies of the power of prayer.

Chaplain/Pastor Nick Moore was the guest speaker for the Pastors’ Meeting. He presented seminars on preventing and addressing physical and sexual abuse.

Several pastors and lay members of the Discipleship Cohort met on Zoom to share their stories about the discipleship opportunities they have created in their local ministries.

We had our regular Staff Meeting just one month before the camp meeting. Every department presented reports emphasizing church growth, attendance reporting, and updates on pastor and teacher openings, camp meetings and summer camps, youth events, trust and corporations, and Hispanic-related programs and activities.

I attended the Area Pastors’ Meetings in Milwaukee and Madison. It was a great occasion to meet our pastors from the two areas and hear their personal and ministry-related stories.

Wisconsin Academy conducted their graduation ceremony for the Class of 2023. The Commencement speaker was Kelly McWilliams from Union College.

I was part of the Hispanic Advisory Meeting, having Elder Carmelo Mercado, the Lake Union Conference Vice President as the devotional speaker. All Hispanic pastors, led by pastor Evelio Miranda, presented reports about their churches’ involvement in church growth, consolidations, and outreach programs. The highlights of the first months of the year were evangelistic campaigns and the health expos.

We had another session of the Leadership Cohort with Dr. Steven Poenitz. The retired Lake Union Conference Executive Secretary presented a seminar on delegating as an essential ministry of empowering and giving authority, and emulating God’s shared stewardship with humanity.

I attended the Hispanic Brotherhood Day held at the Milwaukee Seventh-Day Adventist School. All the conference’s Hispanic members gathered for one Sabbath to worship and be inspired by Pastor Arturo Quintero’s presentations on the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation.

All our teachers from the elementary levels gathered at the conference office at the end of another successful academic year. We greatly appreciate their dedication to Adventist Education and wish them a blessed summer vacation.

I was privileged to worship and share God’s Word in the Madison Community and Tomahawk churches.

Again, I want to close my report with an inspiring paragraph about attending camp meeting. I am happy to mention that our camp meeting is a blessing because of every member’s involvement.

“None should go to the camp meeting depending on the ministers or the Bible workers to make the meeting a blessing to them. God does not want his people to hang their weight on the ministers. He does not want them to be weakened by depending on human beings for help. They are not to lean, like helpless children, upon someone else as a prop. As a steward of the grace of God, every church member should feel an individual responsibility to have life and root in himself. All should feel that in a measure success depends upon them. Do not say, I am not responsible; I shall have nothing to do in this meeting. If you feel thus, you are giving Satan opportunity to work through you. He will crowd your mind with his thoughts, giving you something to do in his lines. Instead of gathering with Christ, you will scatter abroad.” PH 139.121

 

Titus Naftanaila, President