s the 2010 General Conference (GC) session begins, it brings to my mind many wonderful memories.
I was raised in an Adventist administrator’s family. My parents were Elder and Mrs. Theodore Carcich, one-time vice president of the GC. This gave me the opportunity to attend several GC sessions.
For me, a GC session meant more than seeing the workings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Each aspect of it was a touchstone leading to a place and time—a place and time in which my heart was touched. One cannot forget Eric B. Hare; Uncle Arthur Maxwell; Brad Bradley on the organ; the King’s Heralds; Del Delker; the Faith for Today Quartet. There was also the wonder of each division’s mission pageant, and Loma Linda Boisenberry Punch.
The list can go on and on, with different people experiencing their own favorite events.
Vienna, Austria, was the venue for the 1975 General Conference session. It was a session that reminded me very much of what heaven will be like. In 1974 the General Conference had authorized one of its general vice presidents (who turned out to be my father) to visit the U.S.S.R. to hold consultations with government authorities to secure the attendance of Russian Adventist church representatives to the Vienna GC session. (One can read about this development in Mikhail Kulakov’s book Though the Heavens Fall.)
As a result of that visit and others, seven delegates were presented to the world church for the first time in 57 years. What a reunion it was for these members who’d remained faithful through those many years of hardship!
Blest be the tie that binds!
Ahead of us is the grandest reunion of all—a reunion I do not want to miss for anything! There’ll be no more goodbyes! We’ll be reunited forever with family, friends, and those from around the world who’ve remained faithful until that glorious day.
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Joanne Carcich Rasco lives in Albion, Washington, U.S.A.