My husband and I came into the Reformed Presbyterian denomination by way of the Oswego, N.Y., RPC in 1985. Since that time, we have enjoyed several meaningful conferences.

1988 Our first Reformed Presbyterian International Conference was at Carlton College in Northfield, Minn. At this time Synod and women synodical were concurrent with it. The busy conference was packed with worship, business, special speakers, and seminars. The main meetings were held in the gymnasium sitting on folding chairs and without air conditioning. Even without modern comforts, we were blown away by hearing the psalms sung by so many people. We loved it and could not wait to return next conference.

1992 The RPIC was again at Carlton College in August. This time we remembered to bring fans. The Synod set a goal of “7 more by ’94,” or 7 more churches by 1994. The women’s synodical missionary fellowship president was Beth Lamont, from Seattle, Wash., and she passed on the baton to Marilyn Russell from Walton, N.Y. I returned home determined to start a women’s missionary fellowship in the Oswego church.

1994 We had the blessing of attending the Scottish RPIC “Covenanter Holiday Tour” on July 26 through Aug. 13. That included staying one week with a couple in Belfast, one week of touring Scottish Covenanter sites by bus, and one week of conference held in Termonfeckin, Ireland. Among other things, we learned what an afternoon tea includes and how friendly the Irish people are.

1996 The RPIC moved to Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., having outgrown Carleton. We sponsored Daniel Howe to attend. This investment resulted in a great blessing to us as Daniel met his bride to be, Esther Wright. Currently they are proud parents, and Daniel pastors the Providence, R.I., RPC. Synod no longer met concurrently with the RPIC. Also, although Marilyn Russell worked on hard to increase participation in the women’s synodical, it disbanded due to the small number of WMF groups and participants. At RPIC, we rejoiced in the air-conditioned meeting rooms and the improvement of the facilities available to us.

2000 RPIC was held again at Calvin College in August. We very much appreciated all those who work diligently to ensure the conference ran smoothly. Thank you! We took the opportunity to tour some local attractions and we visited Radio Bible Ministries, President Gerald Ford Museum, and Frederk Meijer Gardens. As usual, the conference featured outstanding speakers, and sometimes it was difficult to choose which seminar to attend. The talent show was fun—what a wide variety of gifted children and adults we have! This year I volunteered to babysit for young parents so that they could enjoy a date night. At the end of the evening, Willard and Shirley McMillan shared their wisdom to the parents who returned from date night.

2004 Again at Calvin College. This was an exciting year for missions. Speakers mentioned new works in Ireland and Scotland; plus Cush4Christ was started in South Sudan under the leadership of Vince and Julie Ward. Theological Foundations for Youth (TFY) showed youth efforts are going strong. As usual the speakers and seminars were excellent and spoke to our hearts on various issues.

2008 Conference met July 19-26 at Calvin College. Women’s missionary fellowship has been replaced by the WMF advisory committee. Conference attendance was 1,625, the largest so far. Due to the excellent work of John McBurney, an orchestra of God’s gifted people gave a wonderful performance for us to enjoy. The main speakers did an outstanding job of speaking on “Meeting Christ in Life.” The new goal for the church became 20 new churches by 2020.

2012 RPIC was held July 21-27 at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind. Dr. Joel Beeke, pastor of Heritage Netherlands Reformed Church and president of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary was the main speaker. This year I taught fifth graders during Dr. Beeke’s talks. I found it rewarding to work with the children. We rejoiced because our eldest son Guy and his family were also attending. We liked to explore the many places to fellowship after scheduled programs. IWU looked like a place we can grow into, and there was air conditioning in the rooms.

2016 RPIC was held again at IWU on July 23-29. We brought Sarah Dahar from our church to attend for the first time. Once we dropped her off, she fit right in with her age group and met up with friends she made at TFY. We were blessed with great speakers, Barry York (thanks for the outline), Gordon Keddie, Matt Kingswood, Jeff Stivason, and Peter Smith. To witness the commissioning service for the South Asia church planters was awesome, and I again had a hard time choosing which seminars to attend. The talent show was packed and next time will have to be moved to a larger venue. No one wants to miss seeing the many gifted people. Psalm singing was heavenly, as was the fellowship enjoyed.