Throughout the afternoon and early evening of the first Sabbath in Toronto, the atmosphere around the SkyDome and Convention Center is electric. An estimated crowd of more than 50,000 crowd the Dome, sidewalks, hallways, exhibition halls, and escalators. And by the time the evening program begins at 6:30, the massive hall is jammed with tens of thousands of believers and friends from around the world, savoring the daylong menu of fellowship and worship.

The meeting opens with a variety of vocal and instrumental offerings from around the world-everything from classical sacred music to toe-tapping gospel songs, provided by musical groups and individuals of every age.

The View From Here
The North American Division (NAD) report was introduced by several individuals speaking the different languages represented in North America. Giving their names, they each announced: "This is my church." They were followed by NAD president Alfred C. McClure who, introducing himself, proclaimed: "This is our church."

Several video clips, announced by different officers and departmental leaders, described some of the outreach and nurture activities in North America over the last five years, featuring congregations and outreach ministries in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Salt Lake City, Utah; Toronto, Ontario; Orlando, Florida; Colton, California; and Boulder, Colorado.

Vocal and instrumental performances by an ensemble from Berrien Springs, Michigan, featured gospel songs from our church's past, as well as an anthem introduced at last year's ConneXions '99 conference at the world headquarters, adopted as a prayer of commitment by many in North America, concluding with the words: "And open up our path/So we can have no fear/As we go out to reach the world you long to save."

Across the Pond
After a brief musical interlude by the preteen musical group Pro-Active Kids, dressed in festive African costumes, Bertil Wiklander, president of the Trans-European Division (TED), introduced that division's report entitled "Until the Lost Be Found."

The report began with a video dramatization of the experience of a Bosnian soldier, Filip Zesevic, who became converted during the war after his Army unit had commandeered a Seventh-day Adventist church. Looking for something to kill time, Zesevic, a former Muslim, began reading the Bible and eventually had an encounter with Jesus Christ. The story of his conversion is contained in the book Cover Me, published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

Also featured were a congregation serving the hearing impaired in Riga, Latvia; Karachi Adventist Hospital in Pakistan; and a Messianic Adventist church in Jerusalem.

A Caf� Church, a unique outreach ministry in Copenhagen, was offered as an example of one way of connecting in many developed countries with an increasing secular society. Wiklander interviewed Betina Wiik, one of the founders of this unusual ministry, where young adults attend services in an informal setting and enjoy the ministry of small group Bible study and contemporary Christian music. Asked about her objective for this ministry, Wiik replied, "Every day I pray, 'Lord, let there be less of me, more of You.'" "Praise and worship renews me," she said. Her vision for her life and for the church in general is to "focus on Jesus and depend on Him totally."

After the Party's Over
In a small room on level seven of the convention center a meeting of the General Conference management committee convened at 9:30. Session manager Linda de Le�n, led the group of a dozen departmental leaders in a review of the day's activities. This is where the "bugs" and "glitches" of conducting a convention for thousands of people from dozens of countries are dissected, discussed, and (hopefully) resolved.

A major item on this evening's agenda was food service for the session. Specifically, how visitors to Sabbath's noon meal had to cope with a meal service provider that was stretched to the limits. De Le�n reported that more than 16,500 people were served within a two-and-a-half-hour period. Until today, the convention food service had been barely utilized, there being so many inexpensive, convenient dining options so close to the convention center.

Other items under discussion included crowd control (how to keep foot traffic moving on sidewalks, corridors, and escalators); security; audio-visual quality control (including use of the "Jumbotron" (the giant television screen in the SkyDome); handling Sabbath's offerings (nine mailbags full of cash-four from the Sabbath school offering and five from the worship service-to be counted and deposited); as well as a simplified process of distributing badges and passes to the assortment of people who attend a General Conference session: delegates, guests, family members, General Conference retirees, musical performers, etc.

The refrain spoken most often at the session management meeting was: "We'll have to remember this next time," said associate secretary of the General Conference, Don Sahly, philosophically. "We don't do this often enough to do it really well."

Night Shift
The hallways of the convention center were nearly empty when the session management meeting ended past 11:00 p.m. Where the hallways and escalators had been jammed with people of all shapes and sizes only a couple of hours before, the crowds had been replaced by convention center maintenance crews getting ready for the night shift.

In a room just off the main entrance of the Convention Center's North building, Ruthie Jacobsen, prayer ministries coordinator for the North American Division, was enjoying a quiet conversation with a handful of young prayer warriors from Maryland. Deirdre Medley, Otis Coutsoumpos, and his brother, Alex, were keeping vigil with Jacobsen in a room furnished with chairs and sofas arranged in informal settings that is open 24 hours a day, every day of the session, where people can come to pray for the session, for each other, or for any number of needs known only to them and God.

Jacobsen reports that throughout the day people drift in and out of the room to pray singly or in groups. "We've had General Conference vice presidents; conference, union, and division presidents come and spend time with us," she says. "They pray in different languages-Spanish, French, whatever."

The "Prayer Room" is structured, but unstructured. Every day of the session a union from North America is teamed with one of the world divisions to make sure someone's present, praying for the Lord's Spirit to preside over the session and be reflected in the lives of those in attendance.

Back to Work
"People of Promise" is the title of the Sunday morning devotional, presented by Daniel Villoso, president of the North Philippine Union. The presentation is powerful, the musical performances are polished, and the prayers (in different languages) are devout. But nothing can disguise the fact that the pageantry of the session's Sabbath celebration is over for another week. The two or three thousand people seem insignificant in an auditorium designed to contain 15 times that amount.

The morning's agenda-mostly proposed Church Manual changes-holds little drama or excitement. There are no reports from the nominating committee to break up the monotony of a two-and-a-half-hour business session.

A new feature of this year's session is a 90-minute block of time each afternoon dedicated to the discussion of "Windows on Mission," an attempt to raise the profile of evangelism and outreach by on the floor of the convention center by all the delegates. Jan Paulsen, General Conference president, makes the keynote presentation, and invites comments from the floor of the convention center. "We want you to talk back to leadership," he says.

This is why delegates have traveled thousands of miles to attend a General Conference session. They've met friends, they've listened to thrilling reports from around the world, they've heard skilled and talented musicians. There will be other division reports. But there are six more days until Sabbath; and now there's work to do.