Durban, South Africa

It is my honor to be a member of the World Methodist Council.  We are meeting for 3 days prior to the World Methodist Conference, a much larger gathering.  We welcomed three new member churches into the Methodist/Wesleyan family:  Methodist Church of Nepal, Methodist Church of Tanzania and the Methodist Church The Gambia.  The General Secretary of the Council is retiring and today we elected Bishop Ivan Abrahams, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of South Africa as the new General Secretary.  He will move to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina to assume this post on January 1, 2012.  We are working on a new constitution and bylaws.  Now that is really interesting!

Tonight we had a lovely dinner with our Nebraska Bishop, Ann Shearer Simpson, her husband Wayne , his daughter and her grandson.  Fun to get better acquainted away from home!

The real excitement will be the opening worship on Thursday with banners of the churches and a choir from Africa Methodist University (where we will visit next week).  Marilyn and I are so grateful to be here and have opportunity to see old friends and make new ones. 

Some of you will remember Hung Yu Kim, who served with me in Aurora.  He is now pastor of the mother church of Korean Methodism in Inchon.  Seeing a Korean pastor, I wondered if Hung Yu might be at the Council meeting.  30 seconds later he came down the aisle and we had a wonderful reunion.  It is a small world after all!

More to come!

Joe