Saturday, August 10

This was held at our church – White Oak Church of the Brethren.

The conference coordinators and speakers met in the board room for prayer before the beginning of the day.

Cerwin and I were on the welcome committee. When we realized that there was need for a second table, we asked Marian and Earl Fahnestock to help us. We had registration information, programs, speaker notes, name tags, donation boxes – and mints. Cerwin, Mark Zimmerman, Gary Zimmerman, and Gary Stevens helped with ushering and giving room and general information – especially to visitors.

Jon Cassel (MC for the day) prayed for Lloyd Lorentz, MD, before his keynote message at 9:00 am. Lloyd is a family physician from Peru, Indiana.

He is affiliated with Indiana University School of Medicine as a Clinical Assistant Professor – working with 3rd year medical students. He and his wife, Carol, have four children and one grandchild. He is a minister and Elder in the Dunkard Brethren Church at Plevna, Indiana.

Some of his information was concerning how too much “screen time” affects our brain.

Kerwin Miller was on sound for the day.

The kitchen committee exchanged coffee pots after the first morning break.

There were two tables of resource material – recommended by the speakers or coordinators.

At 10:00 there were three breakout sessions. This one was titled Digital Hygiene and led by Ryan Bowman. Ryan has worked in IT services for more than 20 years and is currently Sales Manager at TCW Computer Systems. He and his wife, Gina, have four boys and attend Word of Life Mennonite Fellowship.

Lloyd continued in the sanctuary on the subject Tech Dependency.

Larry Rohrer led the third breakout session on the subject Truth and Technology. Larry and Carol attend our church and live near Landisville, PA. They have two children, eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter (We share the same great-granddaughter – Jade – who just turned one the other week.) He is retired from ownership of The Rohrer Company and is now an adjunct professor and on the board of trustees at Lancaster Bible College.

There was a second breakout session at 11:00 am. Ryan Bowman led another session on Digital Hygiene.

Jared Groff led a session on Identity Protection. Jared has worked in the tech industry since 2004, primarily helping businesses with their computer, networking and security needs. He and Andi attend our church and have six children. (If you follow my blog, you may see his family at Hershey gatherings as Andi is my youngest brother’s daughter.)

Kevin Greiner was in the sanctuary and talked about Establishing Boundaries. Kevin and his wife, Sheila, attend New Covenant Mennonite Church (Lititz) and have four children and two grandsons. He has a degree in computer science and works as a project manager for Practical Computer Applications located in Boston, MA.

By noon it was time to go to the fellowship hall for lunch.

The main item was sausage sandwiches – with peppers and onions if you wished.

The rest of our meal was in these boxes. There was also a variety of juices, coffee and water.

Macaroni salad, a bag of something salty, fruit and cookies. Everything was delicious.

Those who weren’t quite ready for lunch continued to visit in the sanctuary or one of the breakout rooms.

Enjoying food and fellowship.

Ed Kegerreis and a son added two tables for more seating.

Some checked out the resource tables during lunch break.

Gordon Gregory (behind the table) was in charge of the resource tables.

His wife, Janelle, was the one who thought flowers would add some class to the tables 🙂 …and they were beautiful.

If you live in our area, you know they came from Mary Kathryn Hernley’s flower garden.

By 1:00 pm we were back together for the Afternoon Keynote session.

John Myer led the song Standing on the Promises as people returned to the sanctuary.

Jon Cassel gave a few announcements and introduced Nelson Rutt – the afternoon speaker.

Jon is one of our ministers, and completed the weekend conference with a sermon on Sunday morning. (I didn’t take any pictures on Sunday.)

Jon praying for Nelson before his message on Freedom and Responsibility.

Nelson and Christa have five children and attend Parkview Mennonite Church in Reamstown, PA, where he was youth pastor for nine years. He was recently ordained as associate pastor and is employed by Garden Spot Furniture, Ephrata, PA.

I was taking some pictures and missed the reason for the cycle and gas can on the pulpit, but I think it was something about good and bad gas.

Just as that will make a difference in how the cycle runs, good or bad information makes a difference on how we live our lives.

Following the keynote, there were four breakout sessions. Nelson continued in the auditorium with his last subject – Self-Worth. Jared Groff (above) was in a sanctuary overflow room to continue his subject, Identity Protection.

Larry Rohrer had a new group to hear his subject Truth and Technology.

Kevin Greiner was in the fellowship hall to teach more about Establishing Boundaries.

Then – just like that – it was time to clean up. Those were our registration tables being taken to the fellowship hall.

It was an incredibly good day. I will share my notes tomorrow morning with my Bible verse.