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Page 2 of 5 International Ministry ConferencesBishop Jakes is the CEO of The Potter’s House, a nonprofit organization that has produced several major international conferences – The Pastors’ and Leadership Conference, ManPower, Woman, Thou Art Loosed (WTAL), and MegaFest. A powerful and popular symposium, WTAL addresses the specific spiritual needs of women, speaks to their strengths, rather than their weaknesses, and empowers many to go from welfare to work, and from prison inmate to productive citizen. The WTAL conference set national indoor attendance records at the Atlanta Georgia Dome in 1999 with an average 84,500 attendees per day. ManPower seeks to equip and encourage men to build strong marriages, increase their confidence, and take on more responsibility within their community. The Pastors’ and Leadership Conference is designed for individuals in church leadership positions and for those seeking to further develop their leadership skills. MegaFest, inaugurated in 2004, is a family-oriented Christian festival that combines Woman, Thou Art Loosed, ManPower and new components for children, teenagers, and young adults. The Mega Youth Experience (MYE), a component added to the conference in 2005, was created for young people ages 13 to 21, and is designed to inspire, inform, prepare, and empower Christian youth for today’s world. MegaKidz offers fun-filled and interactive sessions throughout the day, presenting the Christian gospel to children ages 5 to 12 in an easily understandable format. In 2005, Bishop and Mrs. Jakes were honored by Georgia Dome officials for breaking their 1999 attendance record during MegaFest 2004 when more than 140,000 people attended a single service – over the four-day period the couple hosted 560,000 men, women, young adults, and children. MegaFest 2005 was broadcast internationally to more than 2/3 of the world’s population, broadcast live via satellite into 350 U.S. prisons, and into each prison in the country of Bermuda, with live dialogues in Chicago, Memphis, and Glennville, Georgia. In October 2006, Bishop Jakes announced that the ministry will not host a MegaFest 2007 conference, and will instead take a year-long sabbatical to strategically evaluate the focus of MegaFest 2008. The location of MegaFest 2008 is yet undetermined. In 2006, Bishop introduced and hosted the first For Men Only conference, and in 2007, he and Mrs. Jakes will also host the first-ever For Ladies Only conference. Both conferences will be held in 2007 at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas. In previous years, Bishop Jakes has also hosted both the God’s Leading Ladies and Into the Hearts of Men national speaking tours. Each of these conferences was conceived by Bishop and Mrs. Jakes’ desire to assist men and women in their efforts to become and achieve their personal best, and to allow themselves the opportunity to intimately speak and teach into the lives of conference attendees.
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