POAMN held its 2024 conference at Solana Beach Presbyterian Church near San Diego, California, May 28-29. Some 75 people from across the USA participated. For about 40 percent of the attendees, this was their first POAMN event.
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Opening worship on Wednesday morning included a delightful sermon by Dr. Emery Cummins on gratitude. Cummins serves the Presbytery of San Diego as moderator and is a ruling elder at Point Loma Community Presbyterian Church. He recommended three ways to transform the abstract idea of thankfulness into workable steps for understanding and practice.
Thursday’s keynote speaker, André Rocha, discussed God’s mission across generations. Drawing from God’s Call to Abraham in Gen. 12:5-14, André framed how God is at work in each of our lives while sharing stories from his own background. He is director of Mission and Outreach at Solana Beach PC.
Elaine Burrell shared about a photo project she coordinated that celebrated the lives of members of her church and the San Diego community in their 80s and 90s. Elaine is director of Senior Adult Ministry at Point Loma Community Presbyterian Church and also was a member of the conference planning committee.
These are just three of the speakers who shared informative and uplifting messages with conference participants. Many of our speakers have given us their slides or resources from their presentations. Check out these for information that may benefit your ministry.
We are grateful that these speakers chose to contribute their gifts to our members and those interested in learning more about service to older adults. The evaluation summary from attendees certainly attested to the positive impression the presenters made.
Quentin Holmes, conference attendee and former member of the POAMN board, reflected on an additional value he finds in POAMN events: joy in networking with other attendees. “The opportunity to forge an individual-to-individual relationship with another person of deep faith is priceless.” This sentiment was echoed by many others.
POAMN also is grateful to Pastor Michael McClenahan; Cindy Wright, minister of Care and Mature Adults; Elizabeth Arthur, coordinator for Mature Adults; and the many other volunteers from Solana Beach Presbyterian Church who hosted us so graciously and helped make the conference a success in so many ways. Throughout our time with them, we observed their members living their mission of serving with uncommon generosity and impacting the world by demonstrating the kingdom of God.