“VICTORIOUS FAITH” CONVENTIONS

The “Victorious Faith” International Convention made the year 1978 even more outstanding. Thanks to the generosity of our brothers worldwide the missionaries and other full-time ministers were to attend that faith-strengthening convention. There were 99 delegates from Chile who traveled to the United States or Europe, and another large group traveled to Lima, Peru. Many were the enthusiastic comments about the program and the love of the brothers. Yes, what a privilege to belong to this international family of true worshipers!

Since the authorities would not allow us to have an international convention in Chile, in January of 1979 we began a series of small district conventions with the same theme. The cost of hotels is beyond the means of most of our brothers, who have perhaps already made great sacrifices to be at the convention site, so the majority of the delegates stay in the homes of their spiritual brothers.

At one convention the rooming department was having some difficulty finding enough accommodations, so the convention committee made arrangements to give brief talks in the congregations to stimulate the brothers in the way of hospitality. After giving an enthusiastic talk the speaker asked for a show of hands to see how many could offer rooms to the visiting delegates. No hands went up. After a pause, a young boy about seven years of age raised his hand and offered to give up his bed so that a married couple could have his room. That melted the ice so that a flood of offers came in. In fact, when the rooming work was finished, it became evident that of all the congregations that offered rooms, this congregation offered the most.

Then came the summer months of January and February and our “Living Hope” District Conventions. We had a very good total attendance figure of 25,544.