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Rocky Mountains Will Be Home to Feast 2002
CHICAGO, IL (January 14, 2001) - The Rocky Mountains will provide the perfect setting for those seeking a "mountain-top experience" during Feast 2002, a prayer gathering of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC).
Feast 2002 will be held June 22 to 25 at Keystone Conference Center in Keystone, Colorado. It will be held in conjunction with the ECC's 2002 Annual Meeting in Keystone June 25-29. Plans are well under way to make the denomination's second prayer-based event as uplifting as the first held in 1999 in Green Lake, Wisconsin, according to Gary Walter, executive director of the Department of Church Growth and Evangelism. Approximately 1,000 individuals participated in the first event.
"We think this is a significant event for the Covenant - in all of its diversity and ages - to come together in prayer and worship, food and fun," said Walter. "The setting will be spectacular and the recreational opportunities will be plentiful as well. It should be a memorable experience for individuals and families that will attend."
Art Greco, the department's director of prayer and evangelism, praised the work of department staffers Anita Elseth (now working for the Pacific Southwest Conference) and Carla Erickson, who helped finalize details. They and Annual Meeting coordinator Eric Palmquist have spent more than six months coordinating Feast 2002 and the 2002 Annual Meeting. Greco said their work has given the denomination affordable housing in "a world-class conference center." The view isn't bad, either.
Keystone Conference Center is located in the Rocky Mountains, 75 miles from Denver and 90 miles from Denver International Airport. It includes 32,500 square feet of meeting, exhibit and reception space and a 16,000-square-foot ballroom that can be divided into 10 smaller rooms. It also has 1,350 rooms for lodging.
There are more than 300 days of sunshine per year in Keystone, giving Feast 2002 participants plenty of opportunity to enjoy God's creation. The conference center is near three of the top ski slopes in North America. Activities available in the area include golf, tennis, mountain biking,
horseback riding, sailing, fly fishing and river rafting.
Although the setting and participants may differ from the event two years ago, Greco believes the main mission will stay the same. Worship and prayer are priorities, along with attention to quality family time, ministry to children and youth and a host of recreational opportunities. Greco's goal, however, is not to design an event that is viewed as superior to the first experience. He hopes that it will be as Christ-centered as the time spent together in Wisconsin.
"The values that were represented at the first Feast will drive this one," he said. "And what excites me most is the possibility of what happened last time happening again. It'll be fresh because the context is different, and the things people will bring to the meeting will be different. There will be engaging speakers, fantastic worship and music experiences, a focus on prayer and a place that's family friendly.
"The Lord never runs out of ways to bless us and each worship experience is new," Greco continued. "But when you get a group of people whose only purpose is worship and prayer . . . good things are bound to happen."
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