November 2003

NEAC Booth at the Heart of the Action

The great design of the NEAC booth at the General Convention was the creative vision of NEAC Board member Alfredo Macaya. It welcomed people in the Exhibit Hall to come and get more information about NEAC, as well as Prayer Cards, Newsletters, post it notes, NEAC pins, and condoms. (We shipped a lot of materials to Minneapolis but didn’t have to send much back.)

Convention Booth

Once again we were pleased to have panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt hanging as our backdrop. We used three different panels during the course of convention and two more panels were hung in the worship space. With the panels looming 16 feet in the air, even the Convention Daily noticed and there was a large color picture of the booth in an early issue.

Those staffing the booth talked with hundreds of people. The stories they shared can only strengthen our recognition that NEAC is as needed today as it was at its inception. There are amazing HIV/AIDS Ministries throughout the country that we learned more about in Minneapolis; hopefully we will be able to highlight some in future issues of NEACtion.

We also heard about places where fear, stigma and isolation are still major factors in HIV prevention, treatment, and care—further strengthening our resolve to continue and increase the work of NEAC.

Convention Booth

Thank you to all the NEAC members and friends who stopped by and said hello. As always, please let us know by phone, mail, or email if there is an HIV/AIDS ministry all the members of NEAC should know about.

In my testimony before the Program, Budget and Finance committee defending the NEAC budget, I said, “My prayer is that NEAC will not be at the next General Convention because we are no longer needed. Until that day comes we are here and will continue to do the work that God has called to. But we can’t do it without your support.”
Bill Frampton, NEAC Executive Director