The Carolina Conference is the headquarters for the Seventh-day Adventist churches in North and South Carolina. We oversees 141 churches, 34 companies, and 31 groups in North and South Carolina, which include a variety of ethnicities, including American, Hispanic, Cambodian, Haitian, Karen, Korean and African congregations. The Conference has 18 elementary schools; one K-9, one K-10 and one K-12 school; two academies; one Adventist hospital; and numerous community centers within its territory. The Conference also owns and operates Nosoca Pines Ranch retreat center and summer camp in Liberty Hill, SC, and the Adventist Christian Book Center in Charlotte, NC. Membership in the Conference is over 30,000, and there are around 180 ministry workers employed as pastors, teachers, office staff and administration. The Carolina Conference is part of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church, which encompasses 213 countries and is comprised of 21 million baptized members, 1.2 million of whom live in North America. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the fastest growing Protestant Christian denominations in the world, with the second largest parochial school system and the second largest medical system in the world.