Monday 1st March 2010
Dear pray-ers,
I’m sitting having breakfast in a little coffee shop aptly called Utopia in Spring Hill, TN on the first day of my 25th birthday month. I’ve just had Breakfast Club with some secondary school students before driving them to school. The past week has been a particularly busy one in down in Memphis Theological Seminary for classes, and with confirmation, a lunch leadership meeting and youth group on Sunday - I’m feeling a tad sleepy and slightly regretting giving up coffee for Lent – but couldn’t be much happier.
While in Memphis I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Brian Santos author A Community called Taize, the only authorized book about this modern ecumenical monastic community built on the principles of reconciliation, located in Burgundy, France. This community though small attracts hundreds of thousand young people every year, leading me to believe that there is something really attractive, actually more than that – God-ordained about human beings earnestly and intentionally living, working, learning and worshipping together. There’s something in the essence and very DNA of such a community that honors God, living out the values of the Kingdom of God in a world that is often more concerned with creating (or maintaining) divisions. It all seems terribly romantic until we appreciate that such a way of life does mean that conflict won’t happen, it does mean however that we are forced to deal with disagreements up-front. “Well, I don’t so much like the idea of that, so perhaps opting to live in a society that is divided up into fairly homogenous sub-groups is more palatable”…isn’t this what we’ve done and as a result devalued God’s desire for both diversity and unity. Anyway, this is just what has been on my mind…take it or leave it!
Thank-you so much for keeping me in your prayers, this is month 19 and I am truly indebted to your faithfulness. Confirmation for students aged 13-15 so going really well on Sunday mornings both in attendance but more importantly in the quality of conversations. We’ve just completed our weeks on the Trinity, first looking at God, Sin and Grace, then at Jesus as Saviour and yesterday at the The Gift of the Spirit. I would really appreciate your prayers for the next couple of weeks. This weekend the Confirmands are spending Saturday morning with the Bishop of the United Methodist Middle Tennessee Conference, the following weekend is an intense few days of church visits. On Friday we’re visiting a local synagogue and the kids will have a chance to explore our Jewish heritage as Christians who believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah – after all Jesus was a Jew. We’ll also be visiting an Antiochian Orthodox Church and a Catholic Church. It should make for very interesting conversations as we discover what we can learn from these other traditions and find out where we’re similar, where we differ and what makes us distinctive as Methodists.
As for other prayer points, please lift up a thanks to God for peace as regards the school and work balance, I’m getting there slowly over the past months. This has a lot to do with a growing respect and appreciation for taking Sabbath rest. It seems obvious but only for the last 4 weeks have I intentionally put one day aside and not done any work or school related activities…and, though not a miracle cure for stress or busyness, really does help with maintaining perspective. Again, I really appreciate your time and notes of encouragement, thank-you!
Blessings,
Emma
