WILLIE HUCKS: [Prayer.]
ARMANDO MIRANDA: I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and to express my gratitude for your support through the years that the Lord has given me in this wonderful church serving as a minister. After 43 years of service I am ready to retire. But at the same time I will continue to preach the Word of God until Jesus comes or until I go to rest.
Before we go to the treasurer’s report, I would like to invite Brother Homer Trecartin, the chair of the Nominating Committee, because they have another report. Brother Trecartin.
HOMER TRECARTIN: Mr. Chairman, the Nominating Committee is ready to make its second report. And Leslie Pollard, our secretary, will read that to you.
LESLIE POLLARD: The Nominating Committee wishes to bring before you the name of G. T. Ng for the position of secretary of the General Conference.
[The motion was seconded and voted.]
So it’s a privilege to introduce to you the general secretary of the General Conference, Elder G. T. Ng.
G. T. NG: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the confidence of the Nominating Committee.
Who is sufficient for all these things? Who is sufficient? No one, except by the grace of God.
So by accepting this awesome responsibility, I pledge, together with all of you, leadership and membership, to hasten the coming of Jesus Christ.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: Thank you very much, Elder G. T. Ng. And now we are going to the treasurer’s report.
ROBERT LEMON: We’re going to have a short video, about four minutes, that’s going to introduce the division and General Conference elected treasurers. If we could have that now.
I want to express great appreciation to the privilege I’ve had of working with this great team.
You will find in your treasury booklets a picture of Jóhann Jóhannsson, who also served during this quinquennium for the Trans-European Division. He moved to Norway during the term.
From the division treasurers, Ken Osborn has announced his intention to retire. Roy Ryan and myself among the GC treasurers have also indicated that we are retiring. We’ve already had our farewells. The Nominating Committee will be dealing with and bringing back recommendations regarding the rest of the group. I would like to invite all of the treasurers, both from the GC and from the divisions, to stand so that you can see them. Give them a hand for the great job.
Just a few comments about our associates at the General Conference. We have six elected positions and one additional one with Tom Evans. The North American Division treasurer is also an associate treasurer of the General Conference.
And it comes from a history during which the General Conference and the North American Division, before 1990, were one. Most of the institutions in North America are still GC institutions, and so there is a different working relationship. We have the undertreasurer, Juan Prestol. His responsibilities, among many, are the budget and the accounting.
We have Tim Aka, who is new to our team. He’s in the investment area, which is his main focus. Each associate treasurer has a specific duty and committee. George Egwakhe is the manager of the GC session——which takes years of planning——as well as many other duties that he carries.
Daisy Orion is the secretary of the General Conference corporation and takes care of all the legal matters, along with many other areas.
Roy Ryan has been in charge of the investment area and also development projects. The area of the investments has moved to Tim as we added him.
Ray Wahlen deals with the interdivision workers, the missionaries. Tom Evans is also involved in this area. Donovan Cleary is the treasurer of the Middle East and North Africa Union.
Jim Nyquist is the auditor. Paul Douglas is head of the General Conference Auditing Service. He’s not part of Treasury, but we consider him part of Treasury. We count on GCAS tremendously.
Nancy Lamoreaux is new to the team. She has a unique position. She is the chief information officer, the one in charge of all of the IT things, but also many things related to communication. She also works with presidential. So she is a field secretary and also the chief information officer.
Sheri Clemmer is the meeting planner. We thank Sheri Clemmer for the tremendous amount of work.
Eugene Korff is the controller for the General Conference. He came on in July of this year when Verland Ernston retired after many years.
Raul Nestares, who is assistant treasurer. He took the place of Dean Rogers, who had been assistant treasurer for many years. We welcome having him.
Mack Tennyson is an assistant to the treasurer for SunPlus, our accounting program that’s in many of the divisions of the world.
So that’s the team. We appreciate them very much.
I’d also like to express a quick thanks for the treasurer’s report booklet. I want to thank Raul Nestares, Eugene Korff, Verland Ernston, and the entire treasury staff for much of the information there. Also Shirley Evans and Melinda Worden for the editing of it.
And then I want to thank Licci Zembleduch from Montemorelos University. You will notice, if you look at the booklet, that it’s very creative and very modern. We have a very creative person in Licci. And I want to thank her for all of the work she did.
Appreciation was expressed for former GC Treasury personnel Bob Rawson, Don Gilbert, former General Conference treasurers, and Martin Ytreberg, former undertreasurer. In addition, appreciation was expressed for all who have served as a local church treasurer, conference treasurer, mission treasurer, union, division, General Conference accountant——in any of these positions.
[Playing of video on tithes and offerings.]
[Reference was made to graphic and statistical information provided in the printed treasurer’s report.]
Tim Aka went back and looked at the past 15 years the percentage of the GC funds that were in stocks, as opposed to bonds and fixed income. At one point about five years before the 2008 crash, we had more than 50 percent in stocks. We were making some adjustments. It wasn’t some huge single adjustment, but the Lord led over time. And at the time the stock market crashed, we had less than 12 percent in equities. So we did not take the hit that we might have taken. The Lord led in that, too.
There has been an increase of only six employees at the General Conference in 20 years. I would challenge any of you to look at your institutions. We’ve doubled the membership. But the feeling is we do not need more and more people at the General Conference even with increases. So I would strongly encourage that you look very carefully and that we don’t spend everything on overhead, on administration. There are very valid reasons for having administration and direction, but at the same time, we need to keep that.
Often before a GC session people ask: How much does the GC session cost? And why are we spending so much money on a GC session?
The amount to the General Conference this year is a little more than $8 million for the GC session. But if you put everything together, it’s somewhere between $20 and $30 million, with everybody’s tickets who come here, all of the various hotels and various expenses. But even if it were $30 million, which I don’t think it’s quite that high, dividing that by 18 million members or even 15 million members would result in a cost of $2 per member every five years, or 40 cents a year per member, for a GC session.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: We have a report from the Nominating Committee, so I will interrupt Elder Lemon’s report. And I’m going to allow the chair of the Nominating Committee, Homer Trecartin, to make the report.
HOMER TRECARTIN: The Nominating Committee has two positions that we are ready to vote on now, and Leslie Pollard will bring us the name of the first position.
LESLIE POLLARD: The name that we ar
e presenting for the position of treasurer of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is Juan Prestol-Puesán.
[The motion was moved, seconded, and voted.]
ARMANDO MIRANDA: I am going to call Juan Prestoll-Puesán to come to the podium.
Juan Prestol and his wife.
JUAN PRESTOL-PUESÁN: Thank you very much for your confidence. Thank you very much for your support. I’ll say very few words now. On behalf of my wife, my partner, and myself, we’ll do our best with the Lord’s blessings. Thank you.
LESLIE POLLARD: For the position of undersecretary, the Nominating Committee is recommending the name of Myron Iseminger.
[The motion was moved, seconded, and voted.]
ARMANDO MIRANDA: So, brothers and sisters, it is my pleasure to introduce to you the undersecretary of the General Conference, Myron Iseminger and his wife.
Brother Lemon, let’s continue with the treasurer’s report.
ROBERT LEMON: I want to congratulate Juan and Belkis. I’ve worked with him, and you’re going to have a tremendous treasurer in Juan.
The supplemental budget is, at the end of the year, if we have more than 100 percent working capital, we look at giving it in Spring Meeting as a supplemental budget for various projects. And you can see that a major portion came from what the General Conference operated under the limit of costs for the General Conference.
When you look at 2014, more than $350 million in funds belong to the General Conference. And people will look at that and say, “Why aren’t you spending that money?” And we do spend a lot of that money. But the fund balance, the regular operating, you will see has gone up to where it’s now about $150 million.
We have followed the practice for the past number of years. If we vote funds for a special project—and this is particularly important in the 10/40 window and other areas where there’s no local organization—and we say we’re going to give you X number of dollars to start a new program, we give five years’ worth to it at one time. We don’t say we’ll start giving you some next year, because we feel that if we’re making a commitment, we need to have the funds on hand. And the accounting regulations require us to show it as an expense. So the majority of this increase is funds that are already allocated. They’re allocated for various programs and various things, especially with the Middle East and North Africa Union area and the other parts of the world that are so difficult to enter.
Back in 1930 more than 40 percent of all of the tithes and offerings in the world came through the GC budget. And back then when the GC, wanted to start a mission station in this country or that, they would pay it out of GC funds. You will notice that in 2014 that’s down to 5.6 percent.
I give you this information to remind each of us that the General Conference budget is having to be more and more focused on the 10/40 window and the unentered areas. During the past 10 years we have made major shifts in funding interdivision programs, where the missionaries are, in appropriations, adjustments to appropriations, to put more and more of the funding into these unentered areas. None of us are going home until we all do. We have to finish the work everywhere.
Approximately 81 percent of all the funds in the church revenue goes to health care, education, publishing, and our food factory, etc. Approximately 17 percent comes in tithes and offerings and donations, and all to our ecclesiastical side—the churches, conferences, unions, and divisions. Approximately 1.1 percent of the total goes to the General Conference and is used for the appropriations, the interdivision workers, the various allocated funds; and two tenths of 1 percent is spent for operations at the General Conference.
During this quinquennium we realigned the appropriations. There was a five-year phase-in of appropriations and missionary budgets in large part to reach more of the people in the unentered areas of the 10/40 window. There were adjustments in tithe percentage, down from 8 percent to 6 percent. We still have 1 percent to go with North America to reach the 6 percent.
Hope Channel, which is doing a tremendous work around the world, became a separate institution. Global Mission, which celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, will be reported on more fully later in the session.
International Personnel Resources and Services is the group at Treasury and Secretariat responsible for recruiting and sending out missionaries and providing for their needs. The Treasury and the Secretariat portions were combined and are working together, and it is a much better operation.
We’ve given emphasis on funds to the field. We’ve tried to keep the employment numbers down at headquarters in order to keep as much funding going to the field as possible.
We completed a Use of Tithe Study Commission and voted some changes, most of which further restricted the use of tithe, as we seek to follow what Scripture and Ellen White advocate on the use of tithe.
For the first time in more than 50 years, mission offerings grew faster than tithe for a quinquennium.
Some people have asked me, as treasurer, “When the stock market crashes, how do you sleep?” I have a favorite quote from Ellen White. “We can see only a little way before us; “but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” He never becomes confused. He sits above the confusion and distraction of the earth, and all things are open to His divine survey; and from His great and calm eternity He can order that which His providence sees is best. If we were left to ourselves to plan, we should make mistakes. Our prejudices, our weaknesses, our self-deceptions, and our ignorances would be manifest in many ways. But the work is the Lord’s, the cause is His; He never leaves His workmen without divine instructions” [My Life Today, p. 10].
We have been able to do the work of Treasury because we are not in charge of it. The Lord is in charge of it, and the only important thing is that we follow His directions.
JUAN PRESTOL-PUESÁN: It is my pleasure to introduce to you Jim Nyquist, CPA, who is the senior partner of Maner Costerisan CPAs. He will present the audited combined financial report for the quinquennium.
JIM NYQUIST: And I appreciate the opportunity to be here with you today. I am here to present the audit report, which covers the funds under the direct accounting control of GC Treasury.
It’s interesting to note that as Elder Lemon indicated, the net assets or the equity of the organization have increased by approximately $135 million. That is accomplished through various means: the generosity, and the tithe and offerings, of the people in this room and others around the world, and the control over the expenditures of the organization, which results in that bottom line.
Obviously, that bottom line or those net assets are not all available currently, as they are allocated or designated for specific expenditures. But it is always positive to see an increase in those net assets when you are dealing with an organization.
We have audited the accompanying combined financial statements of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for the years ended December 31, 2010, through December 31, 2014. Management is ultimately responsible for the preparation and the fair presentation of these financial statements. Our responsibility as auditors is to perform tests and obtain evidence to support the amounts and disclosures in the combined financial statements. We believe that we have obtained sufficient audit evidence to provide appropriate evidence to support our audit opinion.
Our opinion is consistent with what you have seen in the past. As discussed in note 2 of the combined financial statements of the General Conference, the General Conference has not determined which of its numerous affiliated entities meet the requirements for consolidation in the accompanying
financial statements. In other words, they include only the accounts of the direct accounting control of the Treasury.
Also, as discussed in note 23 of the combined financial statements, the General Conference is not consolidated, but a wholly owned subsidy. The numerous affiliations in GenCon are audited on their own and have separate reports issued with respect their financial position. In our opinion, except for the effects of those matters, the financial statements are fairly stated in all material respects in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.
We emphasized two matters in our opinion: The first is that these financial statements do not represent the worldwide organization, but only those accounts under the direct control of Treasury; and second, as described in note 24, the Hope Channel operations were included in the financial statements that you saw last time at the previous quinquennium. And the Hope Channel was separated for accounting purposes in these financial statements, and therefore net assets attributable to the Hope Channel were removed, and net assets were reduced accordingly with respect to the Hope Channel.
JUAN PRESTOL-PUESÁN: Mr. Chairman, I move to accept the audited combined financial report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for the years ending December 31 of 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: We have a motion before us.
We have the second.
I would like to suggest that we take also the questions and comments regarding the treasurer’s report. We are still waiting for the last remarks from the treasurer, Elder Lemon. He advised me at this time to take questions from the floor. So we are now open for any comments or questions on the report and also the audited financial statement.
DELMER NAVALLO CARO: If I understood correctly, almost half of the church already is outside the United States. So my question is What’s the criteria to assign the money that goes to different entities outside the United States?
Also, what has been done at the GC to take care of the assets, especially outside United States?
Finally, how has the church addressed the legal issues that had to be paid out of this money? And what is being done in order to prevent that in the future?
ROBERT LEMON: First of all, on the appropriations, it is not a simple matter to figure out how best to allocate the funds that the Lord has made available to the various parts of the world. During the past quinquennium we had a commission that traveled to all of the divisions in the world, met with the divisions, looked over their needs, and the adjustments in appropriations came from that. We have a commission that works in this next quinquennium that will work on a year-by-year basis.
So there’s a structure of dealing with appropriations to be approved by the Executive Committee.
On the question of assets outside the U.S., you may be referring to two different types of assets, both of which are investments. We do have investment policies in each of the divisions, policies that work on trying to optimize their investments within their territories. Property registrations are done at the union, the division, and the conference levels with division guidance.
On the legal issues we certainly wish that we did not live in a world with lawsuits. But when there are lawsuits and we have to respond to those, we work with it as best we can. We have a legal department, general counsel at the General Conference. Each division also deals with lawsuits at their level.
The Lord has to give wisdom in each of these cases, because it’s not simple.
ISRAEL KAFEERO: You show in your report that the number of GC employees has been increased by eight from 1995 up to 2014.
My question is: Doesn’t this put too much toll on the employees, given the fact that the territory has expanded, and meaning that the services they render also have to expand? How do you balance that?
ROBERT LEMON: Our feeling has been that the strengthening needs to happen at the division level, the union level, and the conference and mission level, because the work is really done at those levels. It is not because we have more members that we have to have more people at the GC.
There are some exceptions——for example, in the Education Department, which has an accreditation system for colleges. Because we’ve added more colleges, more people are needed.
DANIEL JACKSON: Mr. Chairman, I would like to express huge gratitude to Robert Lemon for the ministry and treasury work that he has done for this church over many years. And I would propose a standing ovation, please, because this man has done great work for our church, and thank you very much, Bob.
GEORGE CRUMLEY: I want to express my appreciation for the careful and conservative way in which the church’s funds have been carefully managed. I know that we get many requests for contributions from different organizations. But I always know that when I give funds to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, they’re handled the way they should be. And I really appreciate that.
And I would also like to say that we’ve appreciated so much what Robert Lemon has done as treasurer of the General Conference the years he’s been there. I had the privilege of working with him, and I’m so thankful for him.
And I would also like to say that I’m very thankful to the Nominating Committee for nominating Juan Prestol as our next treasurer of the General Conference. I’ve worked with him, and we have chosen well.
TOM ANGELSEN: Mr. Chairman, I have two questions regarding investing in the stock market. Does the GC have ethical guidelines of investments in the stock market? And second, has the GC ever withdrawn investments because of conduct against these guidelines?
ROBERT LEMON: On the first question, we have very definite policies. You can look at them in the policy book that gives guidelines on investments. And certain types of investments are appropriate for retirement funds that might not be appropriate for funds you are holding for a church building program, because you can’t take the risk of a stock market going up or down, so you have to put it in fixed income.
On the question of ethics, yes, we have a very clear stand, and we screen the items. As a matter of fact, every year we have a meeting in which we get together with the various fund managers and a group from Treasury. And we spend a day looking at any companies that we have investments in and trying to determine whether their type of business has changed, what they’re doing, and we then make decisions as to whether we will include them or not include them in companies that we will invest in.
JOHN EDILSON: On page 18 you have a bar chart there that shows net income on GC-owned investments. Could you define for me what GC-owned investments are, please?
ROBERT LEMON: That’s what the GC funds are. And if you looked at the fund balances, they encompass all the allocated funds, the working capital, the extraordinary tithe, and the donor-advised funds.
JOHN EDILSON: So the return, which is roughly $16 million, is the return on that $360 million? Is that roughly right?
ROBERT LEMON: Yes. But you’ve got to remember that with the vast majority of those, we do not, because of the nature of funds, invest in equities. We have only about 12 percent or less in equities. And the U.S. return on investments for Treasury bills, fixed-income instruments, isn’t very much right now.
JOHN EDILSON: Thank you.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: Now let’s move to microphone 2. Nageshwar Rao Gollakoti.
NAGESHWAR RAO GOLLAKOTI: First I would like to thank Robert Lemon and his team for a commendable job and an excellent report.
Second, on behalf of all the Southern Asia Division, I would like to thank Elder Lemon for making the budget provision for us to come to the meetings and to every Spring Meeting. That gives us the opportunity to have the global perspe
ctive of education and how the education system in our church works.
Therefore, Mr. Chair, I’d like to propose that we should record thanks for Robert Lemon as he’s retiring for all the work that he has done. I move that we can place on the card our thanks.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: Thank you very much, brother. We have a motion on the table. But this is something special, so we can just do that. There is a motion to record a vote of gratitude to Elder Lemon for his excellent work.
[Motion was seconded and voted.]
SAMKON KIM: I have been serving this church for about 50 years. I’m a layman. In Korea, local churches had been suffering because of financial situation. According to current policy, local churches should send 100 percent of tithes to conference. I would like to suggest that this system be changed, so that local churches may use some percent of the tithes for local church growth.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: Brother Lemon?
SAMKON KIM: Of course, I respect the church policy on tithe. I continue to respect and follow. But I strongly suggest a change in the current policy. I believe that if we changed this policy for the local churches, they would continue to grow through this support. Thank you very much.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: Brother Lemon.
ROBERT LEMON: Thank you for the comments.
The question of using a portion of the tithe for the local church has been an issue that we’ve had many, many discussions on. We had a commission that spent five years studying the use of tithe. We also had studies and reports from the White Estate regarding what Ellen White had to say about the use of tithe in the local church and many different areas. It was the consensus of the commission——which was comprised of 100 people from every division in the world——that that was not a direction in which we should move.
Ellen White makes many statements that the tithe is for the support of the ministers. If you really come down to it, the vast majority of expenses for a local church are paid out of tithe from the conference——the pastor’s salaries and all of those various items. Also, there is nothing in policy that precludes a local conference or mission allocating, out of the tithes and offerings that they have, some funds to local churches for various items.
But I do not believe that the counsel we have from Ellen White’s writings is along that route. As I mentioned, there are other ways to help.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: We now move to James Makinde.
JAMES MAKINDE: I just wanted to come and add my voice to that of those who have spoken about the ministry and service of Elder Robert Lemon.
Elder Lemon has worked in the Africa-Indian Ocean Division, now West-Central Africa Division. We have watched and have seen him bringing up people, mentoring, and helping people to grow. And it’s no surprise to see his undertreasurer at that time replacing him as treasurer after he left.
Elder Lemon has such an analytical mind, and he is humble.
Elder Lemon, I pray that God will really bless you and help your ministry to be a seed that will germinate.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: Ernesto Venn.
ERNESTO VENN: And I wanted to say thank you to Elder Robert Lemon for his sacrifices and his leadership. And we look forward to the ongoing mission focus that the next administration and the treasurer will continue to build on.
I have served in Thailand with the Hope for Bangkok church planting project for six years. That was launched here at the GC session in 2005. It was a project giving, and that project has now ended.
And so I’d like to hear from Elder Lemon what plans have been made to retain the mission focus on an ongoing basis.
ROBERT LEMON: That’s a very, very key point, and one that we’ve been watching and been concerned about. Project giving is great. But if we’re going to finish the work in the unentered areas of the world, we need systematic giving. And Ellen White talks a lot about systematic giving.
There were times we were spreading the mission work in parts of the world, and we could tell all the stories. We can’t tell the stories about the hardest parts to reach. And I praise the Lord that during the past five years, for the first time, we see the mission offering going up faster than the tithe, and that is very encouraging to me.
I know that those in the Office of Adventist Mission, as well as all the division officers, treasurers, and everybody else, are focused on making sure that the members understand the work that’s still to be done. But you make a very valid point, and it’s one of the points I made in the fund balance. We are trying to allocate funds for longer periods of time.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: I would like to allow only a few more persons to make comments before we listen to the end of the report.
EMANUEL LACROIX [translated]: I want to thank the GC treasurer for a beautiful report. The concern is regarding the offerings. There is 40 percent of the offering that stays in the church and 60 percent that goes to the conference and higher organizations. Is it possible to change the percentage?
ROBERT LEMON: Some may not be aware of what we’re talking about concerning the system that was set up with the tithe percentages, because where we have the one combined offering plan, all the offerings, whether it’s taken up in Sabbath school, whether it’s taken up in church regardless of what Sabbath, in many of the divisions it’s divided on a percentage. The policy is 50 to 60 percent to the local church, 20 to 25 percent to the GC, and the division decides the distribution of the other percentages in between.
I believe that in your division you have the highest percentage going to the local church. Certainly, every level feels that they could use more. But I can tell you that the 20 percent that goes to the General Conference, that goes into the world budget for reaching half of the world that has no members, it’s going to take more than that to do it. And if we start cutting back on that, we’re going to be here 100 years from now still talking about when the Lord’s coming. We have to help in those parts of the world. And so I would encourage that we continue the system that the Lord has given us of sharing around the world.
WAZIRI OJUKWU: We heard from the secretary’s report that the work in the global south is growing dramaticaly. It means that the church members from this area will need more funds to accomplish their mission.
ROBERT LEMON: There is no question that every level could use more funds. I will tell you that there is plenty of money in our pockets. We seem to find plenty of money to do the things that are important in our personal lives. To finish the work, we need three things: first, we need personally to be spiritually ready ourselves. Second, we will have to preach the gospel ourselves, because we cannot pay enough people to go. Third, we have to take the selfishness out of our own lives.
Most of the areas that are the most generous in supporting others are also the most generous in supporting the local church. People would say, “We have more members, so we should receive more appropriations.” That’s backwards. If you’ve got a lot of members in your area, you have got a lot of people to do the work. We need to hire people to work in such parts of the world as the Middle East and North Africa Union, where we have almost nobody. We have to hire people to do everything.
We’re going to solve the problem by all realizing that we only have a short time to finish the work and that we have to put everything in, instead of taking out.
ARMANDO MIRANDA: And I just remind you that we have the motion on the table to receive and accept the audited financial statement.
[The motion was voted.]
ROBERT LEMON: Mr. Chairman, if I could just make a couple closing remarks, very short. In Life Sketches Ellen White writes, “In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, I can
say, Praise God! As I see what the Lord has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teachings in our past history.”
My parents went to the mission field, to the Congo Union in Africa, back in 1946. I was born three years later. I looked up the statistics for the membership when my parents went to the Congo Union. At that time it was composed of the Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. It had 7,047 members. Today those three countries combined have 1,187,000 members. I am not like Ellen White; I cannot say I’ve traveled the whole way. But I would invite each of you to look at the road that you have traveled and how the Lord has led.
When I travel back to these areas and realize the changes that have occurred, and we each look at our areas, we can conclude only that the Lord is coming, He’s coming soon, and I, like Ellen White, can say only, “Praise God,” for everything that He’s done.
May the Lord bless His work.
Mr. Chairman, I would move acceptance of the treasurer’s report.
[The motion was seconded and voted.]
[Benediction by Nixon Bathan.]
ARMANDO MIRANDA, Chair
HARALD WOLLAN, Secretary
NILTON D. AMORIM, GARY PATTERSON, and
CLAUDE SABOT, Proceedings Editors
60th General Conference Session
July 3, 2015, 2:00 p.m.
VOTED, To express the delegates’ appreciation of Robert E Lemon’s service to the Church as General Conference Treasurer.
VOTED, To accept the report of the General Conference Treasurer, Robert E Lemon.
VOTED, To approve the audited financial statements for the General Conference for the years 2010 to 2014, as presented by the General Conference Treasurer, Robert E Lemon, and Undertreasurer, Juan R Prestoll-Puesán, and as approved by independent auditor, Jim Nyquest, of Maner Costerisan, Certified Public Accountants.
