Almost 200 attended the South Asia Leadership Conference in Chennai, India. But our sister Sheeba was the bravest of them all.

Encounter with a Snake!

Stuff of which nightmares are made, right? Well. It happened to our sister Sheeba from the Cochin Church who took a break from the happenings in SALC to visit the washroom. To her horror she found (after locking the door) that she was in eyeball contact with a long snake that had nestled along the hinge side of the door. Everyone else was in the hall listening to various messages and so for quite a few minutes Sheeba busied herself with just freezing.

Who knows how long she would have stayed that way if another sister had not happened to come along at the right time. Well, all is well that ends well and she was rescued (praise God) after nearly an hour of encouragement and instructions from a few brothers and sisters. The next time you meet Sheeba just mention 'snake' and she'll go into peals of laughter. Brave sister, that!

A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken - South Asian Leadership Conference 2008

In 2007 God blessed the 52 Churches in India and 4,558 disciples with 627 souls baptized into Christ.

A whole year had fled since the last conference in Delhi and the Staff in Chennai found themselves rollercoasting into SALC 2008 after a hectic December and a busy first week of January. The venue for the three days Jan 17-19th was Scripture Union off the East Coast Road and, for a short time, this beautiful, quiet place was completely taken over by almost 200 brothers and sisters from across India, America, Australia, Britain, Singapore, SriLanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The South Asian Leadership Conference gives Full Time Ministers and HOPE Staff an opportunity to come together once a year, exchange good news, listen and learn from messages, gain perspective for the year ahead, do some soul searching, sing and pray together, perhaps even unburden with special friends to find strength in God or resolve issues. Some old friends had, sadly, been unable to come. Some faces were new.

Here is a list of the messages preached at the conference:

1. Combined Classes
A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken
The Foundations Of The Prison Were Shaken
Building Churches
The Place Where They Were Meeting Was Shaken
Today I Appoint You Over Nations

2. For Men
How To Grow When We Feel Stuck
Resolving Conflicts Between Leaders
All Called To Royal Priesthood
Motivating The Christians To Serve
Never Be Lacking In Zeal (for Singles)
Resolving Conflicts In Marriage (for the Married)

3. For Women
How To Grow When We Feel Stuck
Conduct Yourself In A Manner Worthy Of The Gospel
All Called To Royal Priesthood
We Belong To The Ministry Of Reconciliation
Never Be Lacking In Zeal (for Singles)
Resolving Conflicts In Marriage (for the Married)

Too soon, the conference was over and buses were starting up to drop the delegates to the railway station. Amidst all this, however, two things stay on in memory. Pls read more in The Week That Was.

Kalpana Kanaka

www.incoc.org