when in Rome

It is Wednesday afternoon at the 2009 Global Baptist Peace Conference. This week, I have met people from Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Italy (of course, we are in Rome), Indonesia, Liberia, and so many other places I can’t list them all right now. I have thought about being in Rome for this conference, and returning; I have thought extensively about Calvary’s trip to El Salvador in October and my participation in that educational/cultural opportunity, and more than anything, and more than in a long time, I have thought about the EP. This is the beginning of making contacts for my trip; I already have added at least three definite locations to my itinerary (Liberia; working with Jimmy Diggs in reconciling/peace activism in the local church, Uganda; a women and girls’ ministry centered around craftivism, and back to Kenya for PHARP, the Peacebuilding, Healing and Reconciliation Programme). In addition, I have made a major contact in the Rev. Septemmy Lakawa, an Indonesian woman from the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia who has roots in 1) Christian-Muslim relations, 2) is a female minister and 3) works as faculty at the Jakarta Theological Seminary. Uh, hello! Definite educational exchange possibility.

Being in Rome is making my world grow. I am seeing and thinking and planning not only for the EP in two years, but for my thesis, internship opportunities, and my future beyond this. I am considering my ministry opportunities as I am surrounding by ministers actively working in the pursuit of God’s peace and justice in the world through so many diverse avenues my mind might explode.

Also, today I caught myself responding to someone’s introductory, “Are you a pastor?” with “Not yet.”

What?

Guess I’m a bit more open-minded, God, than I thought.

I am so appreciating this conference for its networking opportunities and it’s presentation of the application of faith and peace at work. Suddenly my options for the future are taking shape. And I am already thinking about the next Global Baptist Peace Conference and how we can expand its mission and service to extend the benefits beyond the attendees. I can see myself presenting a paper or leading in worship at the next conference in a few years (which I still find incredible: it’s been less than a year since the first time I participated in leading a worship service and preparing a devotional), and I think I’d actually be good at it.

And while those are all selfish, apply-to-me thoughts, I am impressed with so many who have given their lives in the service of others. Stories of ministers who stepped up between warring parties, literally putting their lives on the line; victims of war and violence who carried their children on their backs to safety, only to return to save more lives in promoting peace in conflict-rent situations, and those who have sought asylum in foreign countries because their work for peace in war has led to threats on them and their loved ones’ lives. These are my heroes; these are my role models. I want to be that kind of worker for peace, I want to be that kind of Christian, I want to be the radical lover that Jesus calls me to be. I want no other future than to share the peace that God affords me, even if that means in the process I lose myself.

Just think; if there was one peacemaker for every ten warmongers, if there was one radical lover for every ten who participate in acts of hatred. What a different place this world would be; what a difference the one would make in the lives of the ten, of the tens of ten touched by those ten… It is so much more worthwhile to spread peace than anger, to turn victims into survivors, into bearers of hope.

And today in Rome, it snowed.


I can see a different life for myself than I could see last week, and I fear the world will never be small again.


PS, Sorry no photos.