Illinois Great Rivers Conference 2025 Journal-Yearbook
got a call and said, “Nope, that’s not the right one.” But she did not despair because she said she know that God saved her from a bad kidney and that she was grateful to him for doing that. And now we know that she got her kidney. I can tell you about another person who was sustained by the baptism and that was yours truly, Lorene King. Two and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and then after I got the PET scan, I was told, “It’s all in your bones so we will not be doing surgery because there’s no need.” But then I had to have another test to find out what kind of cancer was in the bone. Was it the same kind that was in the breast? The result:, there was no cancer! My faith sustained me throughout that and I know that your faith can sustain you as well. So I pray, and this is my challenge to you, I pray to you that you will let the baptism water be your catalyst for going out and helping to make disciples for Jesus Christ. I hope that you will be like the verse where Jesus said, “Let your light shine so brightly before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who’s in heaven.” I wanted to share you some words with you from the Black Hymnal. “Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us and have not our weary feet come to the places from which our father sighed. We have come over a way that has been watered with tears.” So my charge to you is: let’s go back and pull those thoughts and those feelings and those experiences when you first got baptized and use those in your daily encounters as you go out and reach out to others and bring them into the fold. Amen.
Cabinet Address Rev. Stan Irvin We need more Hannah’s and more Eli’s (Editor’s note: The following is a transcript of the Cabinet Address delivered by South District Superintendent Stan Irvin during the 2025 Annual Conference).
I come to you this afternoon with two requests. The first request is we need more Hannahs and more Elis. We need more pastors to serve our churches, but we need Hannahs and Elis in the churches. If you know the story in the Old Testament of Samuel, Hannah was barren and when she pled to the Lord, the Lord finally blessed her with child. After she weaned the child, she took the child to the temple and turned the child over to Eli and dedicated the child to the ministry of God. Eli, one of the priests in the temple raised Samuel up from a young child. He disci- pled Samuel, he nurtured him, he trained him, he taught him. He blessed him. And eventually in the stillness of that night, Samuel was awakened three times by a voice and he would go to Eli.
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