That time I put my conference notes in my mailbox in the office, with the intentions of transferring them to the blog, and then they sat there all week because I was sick...
So lets start with last weekend! I love when different church work together to do something cool, like this conference. My church, Forest Hill, and another church which I love down here called Transformation Church (it's the fastest growing church in America, or something) and a few others were partnered in this. So there were maybe 500 people there. It's hard to tell, and I'm bad at judging numbers of people. I learned this when I was 12 and thought that a hockey stadium with 4000 people only had 200 people in it. There were many booths with different local and global ministries focused on justice. The first speaker actually did his DTS with a member of our staff here. He was looking at the speaker's picture, and said "I know him." Low and behold, they both did there DTS on a hospital ship based in West Africa. The biggest thing he said that stuck out to me is this "Justice is about a person, not a proposition. Justice is vulnerable, not forceful. Justice is sacrificial, not fashionable." Jesus is the ultimate bringer of justice, but looking at now, and seeing different ministries. I've noticed some have these great ideas, but they'll have unforeseen consequences because they lose sight of the fact they're helping people. One for instance, brought huge amounts of mosquito nets and gave them away in Africa. The consequence is certain villages suddenly had no income. Those who were producing mosquito nets. It's great to have big ideas, but justice tends to happen slowly, and one person at a time. So next I went to a sex-trafficking seminar. This issue is hugely on my heart. "If slavery isn't wrong, nothing is wrong" - Abraham Lincoln. It was led by A21, a global ministry, as well as two local ministries, and a member of the FBI was there as well. At this time, there are 30 million slaves worldwide, more than any other time in history. A slave used to cost $40000 in today's dollars. Now, the average price is $9. The trafficking industry generates an estimated $32 billion dollars a year. More that Target, Starbucks and Nike combined. The seminar was mostly about awareness. I know a lot of people there were looking to find out what it looks like locally (it does exist and thrive in North America) as well as what they could do to help.
Later in the afternoon I went to a seminar about local justice, and how to help people locally. It was run by a man who founded a ministry in urban Atlanta. He talked about his experiences. How at first he was giving things away, but he wasn't getting the response he wanted, so he changes how his ministry worked. People had do something now to gain what his ministry was offering. Maybe, two dollars a week for a weeks worth of food. This had a drastic change. Now these people weren't a charity case, and after a time they stopped acting like it. The food charity actually was handed over to the people they were trying to help. They elected a treasurer and a secretary among them. Suddenly they had purpose, and dignity. I think that's important, maintaining someone's dignity, and helping teach them to fish, instead of just giving them fish. The final session of the day was given by one of the leaders of A21. She told a story of a young Russian woman rescued from slavery in Greece. This woman was quiet, and hardly spoke. Then one day she said "If you truly felt about Jesus, the way you are saying, then why didn't you come sooner?". A little something to remember, easy is not a fruit of the spirit. The night ended with a worship concert that was a lot of fun. My favorite day by far was the Saturday. It was only a few hours long, but so good. The day started with a seminar about corruption, which I went to because of the Fiberal government in Ontario. I wanted to know what effects corruption has. The seminar was run by ALARM - African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries. I learned a lot, and had a lot of fun. There was only a handful of people in that seminar, and I enjoyed the intimacy of it. Basically it comes down to his, if you can't trust anyone to help you, it's going to create a fairly nasty living situation. People won't invest in countries where they'll lose money to bribes, and the country deteriorates. The three worst countries for corruption ( ref: transparency.org ) are Somalia, North Korea, and Afghanistan. The three best are Denmark, Finland and New Zealand. Canada is 9th, and the US is 18th. The Congo was a country we looked at. With civil war, %90 of women there have been raped. Half those rapes are a result of either military or rebels fighters, the very people one should be able to trust. We also talked about Singapore. One of the most corrupt countries on earth in the 1960's, through government reform, it's now ranks among the top, so change is possible. The final session was given by the founder of ALARM, where he discussed the parable of the good samaritan, and how compassion and relationship is so important.
So that's a glimpse of my time at the conference. Hopefully you'll have learned something. Then I spent the week with the flu. Now I'm going to work on the base's website, which needs a lot of love. Also, if you haven't liked our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ywamcharlotte?ref=ts&fref=ts please do! Our recent updates will be posted there, as well as some of the pictures from the outreaches currently going on in Cambodia and Thailand.
Christopher
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