 As you know, COVID-19 and the pandemic has made it difficult not only for our local churches and our ministry and our places, but especially to be able to hold a general conference, which was scheduled for May of 2020. But today we have learned that the General Commission has made a decision that it will postpone the general conference until a further date. That means that there are several things that we will continue to work out. But the things I want you to know is that in the midst of all of that, you have been faithful. I would like to add though that one of the things that I have relearned, I knew but have relearned, is that the annual conference is really the basic body of the United Methodist Church. We sometimes wait and begin to think, if we could just have a general conference, we could settle this, this, this, this, or that. The truth is that we still continue to have the same challenges. The challenges that we have really are best worked out in terms of local context. That is an annual conference. And while we have learned, there are times that we cannot agree with each other, we have learned that we can do ministry together. In the last two years, I cannot tell you, I cannot find the words to express not only my gratitude, but my admiration and respect for all of you in terms of the ministry that you have done. I want you to think about the new and innovative ways you have used and you have learned in order to reach people for Christ and you have done it with such, such, such excellence and effectiveness. I want to thank you for the ways in which you have continued to feed people who may not have had anything to eat. I want to thank you for the way of being a listening ear at an important time in the life of someone who is experiencing so much grief by what had happened, either the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or just the difficulty of what we were going through. I want to thank you for the ways in which some of you responded even to the church in Honduras, which I have a special interest in which we have begun to create a very good relationship with the clergy and the local churches and what is the poorest country in Central America. I want to thank you for that. I want to thank you for the way in which you've continued to tutor children at schools or even outside of the school system in order to help them keep their reading levels up. I want to thank you for the ways in which you have created new ways of engaging with people in terms of their own Christian formation with a small group on Zoom or any other way in which you have done it. I want to thank you for the way in which you have just held in there and it has not been easy. I so respect and appreciate each one of you for the ongoing work that you do. Already I'm looking forward to June 5th through the 7th. That is when the North Texas Annual Conference will gather at the First Eye Methodist Church of Richardson to hold our annual conference. Our plan is to do it in person. Our plan is to be able to come together and sing and pray and consider the work of the church and share what wonderful, exciting and inspiring things have happened when we last gathered together. And so I want you to put that date on your calendar and I want to remind you once again that when we gather as an annual conference, we gather as the basic unity at the Church. And so what we do in those three days is more important than really what is going to happen with a general conference. Because we know how to be in ministry together. We know how to deal with each other, to listen to each other. But more importantly, we know how to reach persons in new and creative ways for the good news. God bless you and thank you for the work and the faithfulness that you have.