08/11/2021
LEADERSHIP CONVENTION CANCELED!
Hello Pathfinder directors and staff,
I pray that you, your families and church communities are doing well through this Covid pandemic. We pray for you daily.
After much prayer and consideration, I have decided to postpone our in-person Leadership Weekend at Nosoca Pines Ranch for August 27-20. This is due to the surge in Covid cases in our states from the Delta variant. It is known to even effect those who were previously vaccinated (https://health.ucdavis.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-information/delta-variant.html) and we are now seeing an increase in our children being hospitalized (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/10/us-covid-vaccine-children-under-12-cases ).
I realize that for some of you this is welcome news, and others may feel it is an overreaction. Only time will tell if these kinds of precautions were necessary, but we take them now with the safety of you and your family in mind. Truly, my heart is heavy. Our conference Adventurer and Pathfinder councils, as well as Zuri and I, have invested months of diligent planning into this Leadership Weekend which we hoped would meet the instructional needs of our leaders. We were looking forward to finally gathering face to face, having worship together (led by Pastor Luke Steen), going to workshops, reviewing the YMMS, having resources available for you, and having supplies from Advent Source to assist you in starting your new year as a Pathfinder or Adventurer leader.
Several other factors are also contributing to this decision. One is that, as of today, we only have 51 attendees registered, which includes several non-participant children. With the deadline for registering having been this Friday, we wondered if some of you were already hesitant to attend due to the Covid virus. Second, we have already had an in-person event where an outbreak occurred, and we’ve learned to take this new strain very seriously. Out of the 13 attendees, five of them later tested positive for the Covid virus because of exposure at the event. We thank God they are recovering well.
I propose to replace this live event with two virtual event options. The North American Division has archived their training seminars at OneTeam Playbook (https://oneteamplaybook.org/). Those who participated last year will remember the quality presentations and information that replaced our Leadership Weekend. If you participated last year, you can take this opportunity to watch a different track than the one you did last year. This program will most certainly be a blessing to you. I am also working with our Communication team to develop a virtual leadership weekend from our conference. The details will need to be finalized and a date established for presentation after consulting with the Adventurer and Pathfinder councils. We will give you more information as we have it available.
Those of you who have already registered will be issued refunds next week. I appreciate your patience and understanding during this difficult time. We all wish for this pandemic to end. It is discouraging, frustrating and exhausting. But may it not distract us from our mission and goal of reaching and nurturing our young people. We may simply have to get more creative to do it!
God bless you all!
Hector Gonzalez
Carolina Youth Ministries Director
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