Paul: Did you have a good New Year? Ours seemed rather brief as we were getting ready to head out to a long weekend with Agape staff and others involved in our movement from around Europe. We didn't make it to the end of the time. I'd planned to come back on Sunday with the kids - trying to explain to them that going to school is a legal requirement was a tricky thing - and Lesley ended up coming back too, having spent the previous day and a half in bed with the flu (that everyone seems to have had). Not fun at the best of times but really rough while at a conference! But even from my brief time, I wanted to let you in on a couple of my experiences.
We had some great people come and join us to give input. Probably my fave was Krish Kandiah (Exec. Dir. "Churches in Mission" for the EA) who was speaking about dominoes. He was talking about the TV show "Record Breakers" and in particular the domino challenges where some poor soul spent weeks lining up 30 zillion dominoes top see if he could beat the record for the most dominoes to topple in succession. The thing that always happened was somewhere along the line, one domino wouldn't fall and as a result, thousands of others didn't topple over. I was really challenged by the perspective that I came to faith as a result of this unbroken chain of people through the generations who have passed on their faith to others and to successive generations. The challenge of this comes down to me: Am I going to be that domino that doesn't topple over - that doesn't share what I know and believe with others? Getting a generational perspective on this has unsettled me. It's a good thing.
The other thing that impacted me was some of the folk who showed up. I was praying with this guy on Saturday eve, who was just desperate to re-ignite the passion he used to have for both God and the stuff God wanted him to be doing, but somewhere in the midst of university life, it has gently dissipated. Straight after that I was walking back to our halls with another couple of students, both about to finish their courses in a few months time. It was so refreshing to chat to these two. It wasn't the normal "dunno what I wanna do" type chat: They were highly focused in their decision making: "How can I make my life count most significantly for God's purposes?" It was a real privilege to have this passing contact with all three of their lives.
It's funny going to these kind of conferences as "staff". I was expecting God's role to be to speak to delegates.
