After Papa Ken (and Oswald Chambers!) time and breakfast, we met in the worship room, and Jonathan told us his story. Again, it is such a privilege to have leadership be so open with you, invite you into their lives like that! He has an amazing story of God’s hand being over his life, calling and ministry. It was also really great to hear more about how him and Melissa met and got into relationship, and to see how they honoured God, each other and their parents through the whole process! It’s just so obvious how much of a God thing it is! They’re only 31 and 32, and yet they’re able to lead us from a place of 11 years of marriage, many years of ministry, 9 years of parenting and having walked together through many varied situations. These guys are the Real Deal :o) How amazing is it that I get to be here to learn from them?!
After lunch we met with our collectives – today was all about hearing each other, and blasting each other with encouragement. We didn’t all get a chance to go today, so I’ll be one of the group sharing next time. It was so good to listen to everyone, with all our different styles, and different offerings... but REALLY listen to each other; allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us about what we were hearing from each person. And then we really poured out encouragement on each other. It was so good to see each person drinking it in, almost shocked at how much affirmation and love was coming their way! I think our culture and generation is so good at tearing down and criticising, that we almost don’t know what it is to really receive encouragement! But it is SO good for us, especially when it comes from God (via people around us)! It opens up new wells of creativity, and breaks down the cages of fear and insecurity that try to steal our voice from us.
After supper we broke up into our small groups, and headed off to various destinations for some relaxed hanging-out with each other. One group went to Starbucks and then a park, one went bowling (in RIDCULOUS outfits – SO funny!)... our group went to a little jazz bar. We listened to what looked like a whole lot of students performing some beautiful music, and chatted and laughed and told funny stories. It was a lovely evening :o) What a happy day!
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