Ruthie and I can be described as “reluctant networkers” at best. Some people love a good conference and thrive on the collegiality and stimulation of exchanging ideas and experiences. Not us. Given all that is happening in our lives, we would have chosen another time (or not) for the “Asia ECC Worker’s Retreat” held from February 14-20 at a beach in Thailand.
But Wow! What a great time of inspiring messages, discussions, prayer, and sharing each other’s burdens this retreat turned out to be! I was inspired by our president, Gary Walter’s call for us to emulate Christ in “reaching out to those who are spiritually afar, those who are vulnerably at-risk, and those who are culturally at-odds.” And the reminder we received from Al Tizon, formerly the pastor of Berkeley Covenant Church, but now at the Evangelicals for Social Action seemed to be aimed right at us! He said “doing is not where mission begins in the Bible—it calls us first to be the people of God.” We are “called to be human be-ings, not human do-ings, he reminded us.”
And so these reluctant conference-goers were inspired by many stories from active and relevant ministries throughout Asia and we had a chance to tell our story as well. In the end, we were reminded again that being part of larger community, not being ‘lone-rangers’ is a good and necessary thing, and a source of great strength and wisdom. We’re still basking in the words and worship. Thank you to all you who made this meeting possible—and made it mandatory!
Thanks for your comments and we are grateful that you had a good conference. I've really appreciate Gary. He preached a great message at Midwinter on living out our faith. Wish I could remember more now.
ReplyDeleteBlessings on you two. You're special people.
Pete