You should soon receive a registration brochure in the mail. Registration will soon be available on our website.

World Convention President, B.J. Mpofu and I were blessed to spend last week in Brazil, meeting with the planning team for the 2012 Gathering and participating in the National Conference of the Churches of Christ in Brazil. Here are the highlights of that visit:

• We were warmly received by the Brazilian people. Without exception, everyone we met was helpful and friendly.
• That warm reception was multiplied by the love shown us by our brothers and sisters in Brazil. In a few days, we shared a deep and joyous fellowship.
• The planning committee is enthusiastic and well-organized. This Global Gathering promises to be the best we have had.
• The city of Goiania is a modern, safe, and beautiful city with a thriving economy.
• We met with the mayor of Goiania, as well as with state and national leaders, all of whom pledged their enthusiastic support of the Gathering, July 25-29, 2012.
• We had lunch with officials from the Goiania Tourism Bureau, who will work hard to make our stay in 2012 enjoyable.
• We ate some of the best food I've ever had, including local specialties.
• We stayed in a nice, comfortable, reasonably priced hotel (The Papillon) and ate at a slightly more upscale hotel (the Castro Park), each of which is a ten-minute walk to the Convention Center (yes, I walked it!). 
• We toured the Convention Center, a state-of-the-art facility that will provide space for our plenary sessions, youth and children's programs, displays, classes, and the Global Women Connecting program, all under one roof! They even have their own restaurant. A reasonably priced hotel (the Sleep Inn) is just across the street from the Convention Center.
• But the greatest highlight by far was the National Convention and visiting churches in Goiania and Brasilia.

What should you expect in 2012?

• Expect to experience lively and vibrant worship! Our worship with be in the Brazilian style, in both Portuguese and English. So before you leave Brazil, you will learn to dance and sing and shout with the joy of the Lord!
• Expect powerful engaging preaching, translated into your language.
• Expect informative and enlightening classes, translated into your language!
• Expect to be fully embraced by your brothers and sisters in Brazil! Many of them are working hard to learn English, so they can be good hosts to the world.
• Expect a Global Gathering, where you will hear preaching, teaching, readings, and prayers from Christians across the world.
• Expect to be stretched, enlightened, and taken out of your ordinary routine of life.
• Expect it will be hot!
• Most importantly, expect that God will be present and active in our Global Gathering.

So make your plans to be with us in Goiania, Brazil! Spread the news to your church that they do not want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

"One in the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer" (cf. Acts 2:42) is the 2011 theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18-25). Begun in 1908, these days have been set aside each year so that Christians the world over may share the prayer of Jesus: "that all may be one... that the world may believe" (John 17:21). Note the dates and plan to participate in the following special observance:

Service of Prayer for Christian Unity

Vine Street Christian Church

4101 Harding Road · Nashville, Tennessee 37205

Ouida Garrett, 86, died at The Vintage in Denton, Texas on December 3.  Born in Corsicana, Texas on August 5, 1924 to Dillard and Maude Pitts, Ouida was a resident of Denton for 48 years.  She was preceded in death by a son Philip, a daughter Phoebe, and by a granddaughter and a great granddaughter. She is survived by her husband Leroy Garrett of Denton, by a son David Garrett of Chillicothe, Missouri, by a grandson, two great grandsons, and by a brother and a sister.

Ouida graduated from Texas State College for Women (now Texas Woman's University) in 1944, and was married to Leroy Garrett the same year. She was a homemaker and  a member of the Singing Oaks Church of Christ in Denton.

Ouida donated her body to the Southwestern Medical College in Dallas. A memorial/celebration service was at the Singing Oaks Church of Christ, 101 Cardinal Drive, on Saturday, December 11 at 11 a.m.

Travel With World Convention

Since World Convention people like to travel, we are offering a tour of the Holy Land, June 6-15, 2011. This could be the trip of a lifetime, a trip where we see the places the flesh-and-blood Jesus walked and talked -Galilee, the Jordan River, and Jerusalem.

It is also an opportunity to see Jesus in the faces of his followers today. You will meet him in your fellow travelers, as well as encounter him in the Palestinian and Israeli believers that we meet.

So, broaden your world and your view of Jesus through World Convention. For more information on the tour, contact us at julia@worldconvention.org

or see http://www.harrywelton.com/travel/Tours_files/Jun%206,%202011%2010%20Day%20Israel%20with%20Options.pdf
(we are working with Harry Welton travel on this tour).