Greetings to the precious Saints and friends of O.A.A. It is with Jesus joy that I thank God for each of you.

Can you believe it; conference time is here! June has come so quickly and for the first time in three years, we’ll be gathering in our church for the Annual Visions Conference. Most of you know that the Visions Conference is one of the seminal events on our church’s annual calendar. It was originally conceived as the church anniversary and pastor’s anniversary. Later it became the church’s Bible Conference and the Pastor’s Anniversary was held later in October, where it is now, and the one event became two. In 2000 it became the Visions Conference. This name was meant to demonstrate the vision that the Lord had given our Pastor for the church’s year.

As of 2020 and the advent of COVID, it seemed that everything came to a screeching halt. Our Adversary should know by now that while he may delay what God’s church is doing, he can never stop it. So it is time to ‘come home’ and to worship the True and Living God. During COVID, we worshiped God by way of Zoom, we had all of our lessons and prayer gatherings by social media. We had to rely on the use of cameras and other elements of technology and every application that we could, to continue to serve the Saints. Sunday School was the teacher talking to an iPad with the saints in cyber-space. The Worship Service was the singers and preachers, addressing the camera in the back of the sanctuary (and hoping that the Saints stayed out of the kitchen, long enough to get the Word). In point of fact, we are still having some of our gatherings for prayer and teaching on Zoom and free Conference Call because we are reaching more souls than we did in person. But now the clarion call from our Father has gone out throughout the land: it’s to come home. Even the world has determined an effective end of the pandemic. More importantly, our God has given us the words of David, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalms 133:1). In a fashion reminiscent of call and response preaching (“Say Amen, Somebody”), the Psalmist says, in Psalms 122:1 “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.”

We have SEEN the VISION that we can do much more for the kingdom together in person than we can in the silos of our homes. The Spirit of our God operates fluidly among His people when they are gathered together. It is in the House of God, that
the love of God is shared from heart to heart and breast to breast. It is in God’s House that we can pray, lay hands in impartation of gifts and anointing. It is in God’s House that we experience the sense of community and the wholeness of family in a tangible way. I haven’t taken a poll but I am sure that I am not the only one who feels that it is high time to come ‘Home’, meaning God’s House. I am grateful that God has lifted this plague and now, it is God who now says come to worship. I am so happy to share with you all that our supremely gracious God has given to His church in “Visions of Coming Home.”