It is with much disappointment that I am informing you of the postponement of the Roundtable Asia Conference scheduled for March 9, 2020 and the Spiritual Leadership Asia Conference scheduled for March 10-12, 2020.
While there has been much planning, anticipation, and excitement regarding the conference, we have simultaneously monitored the escalation in the spreading of the coronavirus (COVID19) across Asia and around the world. We have prayerfully and carefully considered the advice received from medical experts and government sources both within and without the Philippines. We have been advised that the virus is currently not contained and likely to spread further and that it would be prudent to postpone the conference due to health and safety of all our delegates.
Over the past week, there has been an escalation in the number of cases reported from around the world. As the number of reported cases increase in some of the other Asian countries, there is a possibility of further travel restrictions being introduced. It is also becoming more evident that countries in Asia are willing to impose stringent quarantine measures to minimize the spread of the virus. Due to these reasons, we have been made aware that a number of companies and organizations are cancelling their conference scheduled for the first half of this year in order to minimize the health and safety risk for their participants.
The purpose of the Spiritual Leadership Asia Conference is to bring together Christian leaders from across Asia and the 10-40 region to encourage, equip, and engage them in the work of the ministry across this region. We have a large number of Filipino delegates and international delegates from over 50 countries that have registered to attend the conference. We believe that if we were to go ahead with the conference, we would be putting all our local and international pastors, missionaries, ministry leaders, Bible college students, and Christian businessmen at risk of serious illness and would impede the very work that we are seeking to support. Further, we have also been advised that this could potentially increase the level of risk of the COVID19 virus spreading within the Philippines and internationally.
We want you to know that we have not made this decision lightly, and we are firmly assured that this postponement is of the Lord’s leading. It is a decision that has been made through much prayer and counsel. We have been working tirelessly for months in anticipation of this event. This is a disappointment for us, and we recognize this will be a disappointment to you and all those who were planning to attend the conference. We would appreciate your prayers as we work with the SMX Convention Center and others to reschedule the conference and that God will use the new dates and timing in an even greater way to impact Asia and the regions beyond with the gospel of Christ.
For those who were planning to fly into Manila, we would like to remind you to contact the airline and hotel immediately to cancel your booking and keep the air ticket and hotel booking open until we have the new dates finalized. We will endeavor to have this finalized as soon as possible.
Thank you for your understanding. Our prayer is that God will use this conference in a far greater measure to impact the 10-40 region with the gospel of Christ.
Sincerely,
Pastor Paul Chappell
Conference Host
Niranjan Sundararaj
Conference Coordinator
