Bread from Heaven by Rev Oscar Owens

The Winner's Circle by Rev Frank Warren

The Forgottten Powers by Rev Daniel Marshall

A Little Farm House in North Mississippi by Lorene Holder

The Voice of the Pioneers by Rev Eugene Holder

Do All Speak With Tongues? by Rev Eugene Holder

She is Mine by Stephanie Fast

This year's BMA Spring Conference looks to be one of the most unique, interesting and maybe inspirational conferences we have ever had. At first glance, I'm sure you can tell that this conference is about writing. (Yes, I know I spelled "writing" wrong up above...that is one of the central issues of this art, speling correctly. You absolutely must catch words spelled incorrectly! My attempt to insert a little levity into the discussion.) This conference might go over big, and it might not. As with all our conferences, however, it is our hope to honor and glorify the Lord first. Come help us do that, please. The central thought of the conference is an attempt to emphasize what we do every week as ministers...communicate. Most of you have used your skills in preaching, teaching and testifying for years, even decades. We learned how to do it by going to school, by learning our skills from others before us, and frankly, by doing it over and over again. The years and years of doing this have made most of us very skilled communicators. Our hope in this conference is to introduce to you ways to translate those communication skills into writing about them. Many among us have done so, and I think the rest of us can learn from them. Each of our evening meetings will begin with praise and worship to our Lord. We want to follow this with a session led by a very close friend of mine, Retired Air Force Colonel Doug Dildy, who is an accomplished author. His primary efforts have been in writing about military history. However, when he described to me his latest research for his next literary work, the topic of the Centurions of the New Testament, I felt a real leading from the Lord to feature him in a conference where he could share his skills and probably inspire each of us as ministers. Doug's testimony will touch you. His communication skills will inspire you. His stories as he tells them will give you pause to consider the lessons the New Testament teaches us about these soldiers' lives. After each of Doug's evening introductions to each different story of these soldier's connection with Jesus, we will feature one of our own BMA ministers to take the story and apply Biblical doctrine and teaching from their lives to ours. I think you might be truly blessed by each of these sessions. Each morning, we will feature those among us who have already launched out into this sometimes-intimidating branch of ministry. We will feature Pastor Steve Schwambach, our own published author among us, who has truly experienced the complete success of not only coming up with things to write about, but put them on paper to completion, promoted the product and seen it through to professional publishing. I have asked a lady from my Sunday School class in New Albany to speak to us on her approach to writing Christian Romance Novels. I suspect that her abilities and experience may show us some things we have never seen about writing and ministry. JoAnn Durgin does this for a living...she makes a living writing, promoting and publishing her stories. She will inspire many of us trying to do the same thing. Rev Jose Rodriguez is actively involved in full time ministry but still found time to come up with his first novel. I suspect that he will represent the "I can do this" approach that many of us think cannot exist in our own lives. Rev Kevin Horath has taken his teachings at Hillside Bethel Tabernacle and incorporated them into teaching books. He is the best example of what I feel all of us can become. I know Kevin will inspire you to follow his example. Lastly, Rev Keenan Smith is our "celebrity" pastor who is in the process. He is in the process of putting together so much of his testimony and translating it into printed words. We want him to share with us how that is happening, what some of the joys and sorrows of the experience are and what he sees as the future of this endevor. I know his testimony will again inspire you. Friday afternoon will feature our board meeting after lunch and membership meeting after that. Friday evening we will be honored to hear Bethel's own Stephanie Merwin Fast speak to us about her testimony. An orphan, adopted by our own David and Judy Merwin, missionaries to South Korea in the 1950s and 1960s, Stephanie now has an international ministry speaking to thousands and reaching them with the Gospel and the truth about "the most vulnerable among us" around the world. I know you will enjoy her message and enthusiastic spirit as well as "welcome her back home." Saturday, we hope to join together on the Bethel Camp grounds for some "vision casting" about Bethel Youth Camp and Conference Center. We have two power-packed weeks of Youth Conferences planned for our kids and teens in June and July that need to be prepared for. (There's that preposition you never end your sentence with.) We have always believed and applied the Scripture that whatever our hand finds to do, we will do it with all of our might. There is LOTS of work to do in preparation for our Conference season. We hope you join us for coffee and donuts at camp, see if you can catch the vision for what needs to be done and certainly feel welcome to stay here with us and help us work on the grounds as well. However much you can join us, we know that this conference has the potential to change your life. We hope you will pray about it, come join us and see what comes to pass for you! God bless and see you there. Rev Dave Matthews Click here after April to see photos from the conference

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For last year's conference at the Conference Center, take a look at 2022 Spring Conference

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