by Glenda Williams, BNc correspondent
GENEVA, Alabama (BNc) — The sixth annual preacher’s conference was held in Vyatskiye, Polyany, Russia, September 27-30, 2010. Charles Williams, minister of the New Union church of Christ, Manchester, TN spoke at the four-day conference. This was the third conference in which he has participated.The conference, which is much like a lecture program in the U.S., is provided to give preachers who live great distances an opportunity to get together and study the word of God and get to know each other. Lessons are presented, encouragement is provided and a question and answer period is provided for open participation.
Nineteen from Russia and the Ukraine attended the lecture conference. Six Russians participated in presentations.
Classes were provided for ladies during the conference. Grace Davidson, Manchester, TN and Kathy Murphy, Littleton, CO and niece of Charles Williams, went along and provided excellent teaching. They went into the public schools and taught Bible principles and facts to high school students in English. Kathy taught the Seven Keys of Excellence that is taught in her children’s school. The students asked her if she could sing and she gladly sang a song for them. Eighteen ladies attended the late afternoon classes held at the Vyatskiye church building.
Williams reports he is seeing the third generation of people in the congregation. “This conference provided more open discussion and there was a better attitude and atmosphere,” Williams said. One participate said, “This was the best conference ever.”
As a teenage girl, I prayed to marry a preacher. I knew no one who was desiring to be a preacher but each night I knelt by my bed and prayed, “Lord, if I am capable of being a preacher’s wife I would like to marry a preacher. If not, just let me marry a Christian.” God answered that prayer for me. Our local preacher, Jerry Humphries, preached in two gospel meetings that summer and invited a young man from Alabama Christian College (now Faulkner University) to preach in his absence. He brought his girlfriend with him so that took him out of the running. But when I learned they were coming back in a week or so, I asked if they didn’t have some fine young man they could bring down and let me meet. The girl thought for a minute, snapped her fingers and said, “Old Doug.” Old Doug and I have been married 53 years and have two children and two grandchildren. All our children are faithful members of the church. God is so good. I love Him so.
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