Bishop Ward's ePistle for April 25, 2012 Mississippi Conference of The United Methodist Church Beach People "Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee..." -- Mark 1:16  The scripture for the first day of General Conference was Mark 1:14-20. Jesus passes along the Sea of Galilee and calls fishers to leave their nets and follow him, to fish now for people.    I have long described myself as a "beach person," loving the edge of  any body of water -- river, lake, sound, gulf, ocean.  Today, for the first time, I realize we are all "beach people."    Our General Conference worship book today says, "At the shore we are called and we are "caught" by Jesus...We are called to discipleship at the in-breaking of the kin-dom and caught up in the struggle that is the love and justice of the reign of God."    We join Jesus here on this first night of our conference at the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee.  We will live by this shoreline for the next ten days, seeing to be the church God is calling us to be.    We are beach people together, wherever we find ourselves today.  May the Holy Spirit descend on us once more, refreshing us in all 1096 places where United Methodist churches are in ministry on the "shorelines" in Mississippi.    With gratitude for our life together in Christ,  Hope Morgan Ward