Southern Baptist Convention 2014: Baltimore

Our family was blessed to be able to attend the 2014 Southern Baptist Convention in Baltimore, Maryland.  

Tim and I attended as messengers from our church and we therefore voted during the business sessions.

Tuesday was an especially long day for us.  The kids and I were in-session in the convention hall close to 8 hours; Tim's day of convention actually started at 6:30 A.M. and didn't end until 8:30 P.M.  We were proud of our children for being patient and well-behaved.  They had a little help from Christopher's Kindle, some earphone splitters, The Lego Movie, and a game called Subway Surfers.

During the business sessions, we heard reports from the 6 Southern Baptist Convention seminaries.  Below are the presidents of those seminaries:  Al Moehler (Southern), Chuck Kelley (New Orleans), Paige Patterson (Southwestern), Danny Aiken (Southeastern), Jason Allen (Midwestern), and Jeff Iorg (Golden Gate).

One of our favorite parts of the business sessions was hearing from international missionaries.  We learned that God is doing a tremendous work in the country of Cuba right now.  Below, a missionary to Cuba (2nd from left) leads a prayer for that country while his interpreter (far left) translates his prayer into English.  Outgoing IMB (International Mission Board) president Tom Eliff kneels in the middle.

And this was a bittersweet convention for most all of us in attendance, because Dr. Fred Luter was finishing his final term as the Southern Baptist President.  Dr. Luter has done an outstanding job leading our convention and he will be greatly missed.  He preached a powerful sermon Tuesday night.

Anna enjoyed Dr. Luter's sermon a lot, mainly because she was able to sit with Daddy in church...a rare treat.  :)

But my favorite part of the convention was when we took breaks from all the reports and votes and had times of worship. Chills ran up my arms as I joined together with 5,000+ messengers from all over the country/world in corporate worship!

The best portions of worship were those led by Charles Billingsley.  Wow!!!  

 

One of the greatest times of song I've ever experienced in my whole life was Tuesday, when Charles Billingsley led all of us in singing Midnight Cry.  I was jumping up and down with both hands outstretched into the air.  I'll NEVER forget hearing that song as long as I live!

All of this voting and worshipping and learning can really work-up an appetite.  So we were more than anxious to sample some of Baltimore's cuisine.  My main culinary goal in Baltimore was to try one of the famous Chesapeake Bay crab cakes.  Which I did:  twice.  They were certainly yummy.  Just a little smaller and rounder than others I've eaten, with more meat and less stuffing.

Of course, most of our meals had to happen quickly between sessions.  And when thousands of hungry people are all released into the city at the same time, you consider yourself quite fortunate to find food, drink, and most of all...a table!

My Three Guys at Five Guys, below.

 John, our child who loves to eat, ate his way through Baltimore. 

 Baltimore is certainly a big city with lots to see and do.  We spent our days in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, close to our hotel.

 Below, the USS Constellation.

Infront of the Baltimore World Trade Center stands a display of destroyed support beams from the World Trade Center in New York.  It was sobering each time we walked past there.

Our hotel (above) was about two city blocks from the convention center. Walking back and forth felt pretty good after so many hours of sitting.  It was a nice hotel, but one thing is for certain...sleeping in the inner city is tough!  There is constant noise on the streets below, especially since our hotel was not far from Johns Hopkins Hospital, to and from which ambulance sirens ran all night long.  We were sure looking forward to getting home and sleeping in silence again.

Grateful for the privilege of voting on behalf of our church and our state at SBC14.