Follow Up to ICOM 2014

There’s a lot in this letter so be sure to read this to the end!

 

“This feels like home”, “It was a great conference!”, “There’s a spirit of peace here”
 These are two quotes that David Butts and I heard many times over the course of the weekend in Columbus. Anotherpositive sign is when you see people lingering in the worship area. They weren’t rushing off to lunch, they were just chatting after the main session was over.  Any preacher would love to see that!

David and Kim Butts deserve a lot of the credit for the success of ICOM this year.  It was/is a great theme, the amount of traveling and personal dedication, challenging folks to come to Columbus, but more so, to “go Vertical!”
Some other key contributers to our weekend:

  • The responses from the prayer center in the exhibit hall sponsored by Southeast Christian Church in Louisville were very inspiring and uplifting.

  • Folks were praying through the night in the Clark room of the Hyatt.

  • The Praise team from the SouthBrook Christian Church met with David and Kim several times and the worship team did an excellent job preparing our hearts for the delivery of God’s Word, challenging us to “go Vertical!”

 
 

Behind the scenes—that describes a lot of what goes on at any ICOM.  So much goes on that a very high percentage of people never hear about. Every now and then I get to, like in this letter I got from a dear friend.  This person in his church wrote:

Dear Pete,

Please express my most sincere thanks to the SouthBrook leadership and all those responsible for making the ICOM available to me and my mother.  What a powerful day it was!  The speakers were excellent and the music ‘the best’!  I felt God’s presence.  He spoke to me through the break sessions.  The first on was on Islam. A mosque is under construction a mile from my home and I learned some very practical ways to witness to my Muslim neighbors.  The second session we attended was about the Ukraine crisis.  My mother is giving refuge to a displaced woman from Eastern Ukraine, the area under the heaviest fighting.  She arrived yesterday (Sunday).  Neither my mother or I had a good understanding of the conflict there until Saturday.  Praise God for the missioanries who helped us with ideas about how to minister to Lena and pray about the situation.

I have been to many conferences and events at the Columbus Convention Center but none have been as well organized and run as ICOM.  And the generosity of SB (Southbrook) to cover the registration and transportation was a true blessing.  I would not have been able to attend otherwise.

I was so moved by my ICOM experience that I hope to find a way to attend 2 or more days next year.  Want to come?

Sincerely,

Tara

Friends, this is what my staff and I work for.  This is what we pray to happen every year. Open hearts, working side by side with churches, keeping our costs low, offering lots of workshops & exhibits to connect people to what and where God is leading them—encouraging, equipping, empowering God’s people to be his hands and feet.  

And there are so many more people who deserve to be appreciated, too.  All the workshop leaders, the volunteers who took care of the children and the nursery, those who helped move in exhibitors, greeters, Spanish translators, deaf interpreters (Brian and Pam Eubanks), offering handlers, registration workers, student meal baggers from Lifeline, Milligan students with workshops & wall builders, and the list keeps going.  

We had over 300 people attend one of five pre-conference events.  

  • Thank you Paul and Margaret Pennington for leading the For Missionaries Only.  Thank You Kairos Benevolence Fund for sponsoring this event.

  • Thank you Mike Sheagren for introducing the Standards Of Excellence group to ICOM.  70 people attended this workshop, most SOE had ever had at one time!  Thank you Manage Missions for sponsoring this event

  • Thank you Bill Warren and FAME, for sponsoring the Community Health Evangelism pre-con.

  • Thank you Doug Priest for leading the mission trainers pre-con!

  • Another new pre-con event was led by Greg Swinney on international students.  Thank you Greg!

Every year, our Technical Director, Gary Jordan, and his crew from Ohmart Video Creations (Terry & Gary), Danny Powell, Danny Mullins, Jacob Miller, Pokus Keeran, Steve Ward, Ryan Krob, Korey Klein, Gary Levengood, Steve Ward, Ron Neidert, Patrick Smith, Isaiah Davis, Dakota Witzman, Adam Durbin—these guys don’t get to enjoy the service but come to serve ICOM so we can see and hear our speakers and musicians.

My staff, their families and some great friends from Hazelwood CC in Indiana worked very hard throughout the whole weekend behind the scenes.  

And wasn’t Sophorn from Rapha House such a blessing?!  What a story to witness!  That movie “Finding Home” is incredible.  I just can’t believe the work that Rapha House and other ministries like them are doing.

We have some big plans for next year.  We have a few surprises and dreams that we will be unfolding in the coming weeks and months too.  Jim Tune is going to lead us this next year and I am so excited!  Please mark your calendars, because our dates are earlier next year, Oct. 29-Nov. 1, 2015.  

 

Thank you for being part of the ICOM family.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!  

 

David Empson

ICOM Executive Director

P.S. Final numbers:  44 decisions made.  Attendance was 7,300.
         We surpassed our offering goal (2 years in a row),  $ 52,100.00.  
And the credit and value of ICOM goes to all who attended, volunteered, and supported us this past year.  Thank you all very much.  May all praise, glory and honor belong to our Lord and Savior!
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International Conference on Missions

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