Heather Grabbs

Heather Grabbs, lay delegate from the North Carolina Annual Conference, shares her powerful experience of unity and global connection at the General Conference.

I had the extreme honor of serving on the constitution legislative committee. While a majority of our delegates were present in the room with global representation, we also had two joining on a zoom video call from Kenya, Africa. It was the middle of the night for them, and minus a few connection interruptions they were present with us each time our committee met. Our general conference leaders made it a point to include those that were unable to obtain Visas in time via zoom, not just for the business, but also during the INCREDIBLE worship! The unity was felt literally while sitting in the airport on a layover for the final flight into to Costa Rica! I’ve never been to conference before, but I haven’t heard the most pleasant things. One thing I know I didn’t hear was them running behind schedule from a worship turned revival with every knee bent in submission and pure awe of His presence among us. Wounds were healed, hearts were full, and prayers have been answered! There was much praise to give.

The most impactful moment was when our committee completed the constitution document in its entirety. Our faithful committee chair had us stand together and pray over the laptop that held the completed document, and in the middle of the night in central Africa we saw our delegates standing with us on Zoom in unity!

In THAT moment I felt my imprint on this GLOBAL movement. Many times before coming to a vote on a petition we would stop and pray discerning the will of the Holy Spirit. One of the most significant parts of the constitution to me says that the ministry of the Global Methodist Church starts primarily through the local church and governed by the Charge Conference. The purpose of the Global Methodist Church is to strengthen and support the work of the local church. This proved to be incredibly empowering.

As we prepared to come home from conference, Hurricane Helene reaped havoc on Western North Carolina. With one of our NC delegates homes located in the affected area, our conference delegates pulled together and had food and fuel trailers prepared for deployment to WNC to be the hands and feet in the midst of devastation within 72 hours. Empowered from the General Conference and knowing that they are in full support of the church at the local level allowed them to spring into immediate action. We had district and circle churches coming together holding donation drives, and serving as distribution sites. We were blown away when our conference leaders began receiving calls from other state conferences across our country reaching out wanting to come help with emergency disaster response, or send monetary donations. They were immediately prepared to come and serve with teams and heavy machinery in tow! The connections made in Christ at General Conference were instrumental!