Georgia Baptist Conference Centers at Norman Park and Toccoa have cancelled upcoming conferences and retreats due to emergency housing of Gulf Coast evacuees.

Norman Park is at capacity with 259 evacuees and Toccoa is expecting up to 700 evacuees later this week. The first casualty of the disaster response is the leadership conference scheduled for Sept. 9-10 at Toccoa and Sept. 16-17 at Norman Park.

Norman Park has cancelled all remaining events through at least mid-October until the evacuees are moved into more permanent housing in other communities. Toccoa does not plan on canceling any other events until evacuees begin to be housed. Conferences will then be evaluated on an individual basis.

Steve Parr, specialist with Sunday School/Open Group Ministries, regretted the cancellations but said they were necessary in light of the circumstances.

 

A context of priorities

"We were excited about the conference but there was just a priority that took precedence," he said. "We're fully supportive of opening up the conference centers [for evacuees]."

Parr said many churches chose to donate their refund to the convention's disaster relief fund.

"The attitude from the churches has been great," he added. "This was our number one event of the year with around 1,300 leaders slated to attend.

"You always fear a momentum loss when you cancel a major event, but you have to look at the context of the priorities, and the priority now is people," he continued. "We were pleased we had such a big crowd wanting to be there.

"We're excited about the attitude of the folks understanding and wanting to help."

Next year's leadership conference will be held Sept. 8-9 in Toccoa and Sept 15-16 in Norman Park. For more information contact Sunday School/Open Group Ministries at (800) RING-GBC ext. 285, (770) 936-5285 or visit www.gabaptist.org.