Restoration 2008 Report

I know this is super late. But it is never too late to praise God for all His blessings in my life. I have been a part of Restoration for the last three years or three Restoration annual meetings. For 2007 and 2008, I had the privilege to co-lead (07:Connected) and lead (08:Ignite) the Restoration team. Each year I have seen God work miracles on our behalf and I have been humbled as I saw God work through the Restoration team. Each member that joins to lead the team does so voluntarily with no compensation for their time and effort. Even though most members of the team were heavily involved with studies in the various graduate schools with clinical rotations and tons of tests to sap their strength, they led with courage and worked well together.

The department directors for this year were:

Catherine Wilson (Venue & Logistics)
Stephanie Kime & Claudio Japas (Programming)
Elisa Song (Treasurer)
Brittany Brockmann (Secretary)
Jamie Lois Lirio (Public Relations)
Dafne Moretta (Campus Diplomat)
Todd Patterson (Data Management)

The speaker for this year was Matt Parra. God really blessed through Matt's preaching. Even though the first day went sort of bad because we were missing a crucial piece to help Matt with his presentation, the students were blessed and the attendance increased daily. Matt preached prophecy sermons in the morning and practical hard hitting sermons in the evening and weekends. Many people stood for baptism and rebaptism and we are currently working with candidates to prepare them for baptism at their respective Adventist Churches in the area. All decisions to follow Jesus are very precious to me but there was one rebaptism that was most precious to me this year. A member of the Restoration team, Brittany, chose to be rebaptized during the series. She had helped with numerous duties including typing up the appeals cards for baptism and it was nice to see a member of the team take that step to walk closer with God.

This year, I chose to let someone else take over the reigns of leadership for Restoration ,not because I was tired, but because I believe that regular changes at the top give the ministry a chance to grow and not be molded after one man's ideas. Claudio Japas is the new director for Restoration and I believe that God will continue to bless this ministry.

As I look back on my time leading Restoration, I have seen God work many miracles for this ministry. I have learned numerous leadership lessons and have learned a lot about myself in the process as well. I would like to thank Tim for consulting, Dafne for her prayers, and enthusiasm to help pull me up when I felt down, and all the departmental directors that served with me these past two years who put their whole heart and soul into making Restoration a success. Most of all I would like thank God for His working in the lives of the administrators, professors, and students at Loma Linda University. God's greatest gift to me for my service for Restoration was that my Uncle and his family stood to make a decision about keeping the Sabbath holy and not working on God's day.

No Man Knows the Day or the Bride

In honor of my roommate Tim, getting engaged and married, I have decided to put up a timer indicating my impending marriage. :)

Obama Leads in the Polls

Obama led with 3 votes at poll closing at the Zahid polling site. Clinton and McCain pulled 2 votes each. There was a category for those who don't want to to vote for people but vote for issues. Those people tied with Obama. Thanks for exercising your right to vote!

Restoration 2008

Restoration 2008 is just around the corner. To check out our website http://www.restorationministry.net/ . For those of you who are local and can attend I invite you to do so. The Speaker this year is Matt Parra. You can hear some of his sermons on http://www.audioverse.org/ to get an idea of his style. He is a deeply spiritual person whom God has blessed in Ministry and Evangelism. This year's Restoration is going to be completely Evangelistic in nature so please feel free to invite your friends.

For those that cannot attend you will be able to hear all the sermons on Audiovese. Please pray that this series be a means to reach many for Christ.