/a/muse(d)

Abstract:
-Reachout was excellent.
-I’m now a lovely even number again.

Full Text:
If you want a good overview of Reachout you can check out Ben’s blog. However, for those of you who want my thougts on the weekend, some follow.

- I loved spending time with other people who are working out what they think about and what they’re willing to do about world mission. That, and the people we stayed with were terrific (the infamous QH mob)- I learnt how to play ‘letters’ (an ingenious game wherin someone picks a letter randomly and you go around the group and everyone says a word starting with that letter until you have no more words in your combined lexicon that begin with the letter, or until you’re all too tired or aggrivated to go on. Weird words encouraged, pretend words sometimes attempted, but less encouraged.)

- The weekend was made all the more interesting by the fact that I was leapt upon by a more-awake-than-me woman early on Sunday morning flashing a shiny rock that was somehow attached to her finger and squealing that she was going to marry my brother. Needless to say, I woke up quick smart, mauled them both enthusiastically, and now I have a sister-in-law to be. I’m thrilled for them, although it makes me feel old to know that my baby brother is going to be a husband. We had a fantastic inpromptu engagment party after church on Sunday night back at my parents house, replete with Arabic celebration dancing, a singalong around the piano and a surreal interpretive harvest dance. Don’t ask me where the last bit came from, I’m scared to dig that deep into the subconciences of those who initiated it.

- The actual Reachout bit of the weekend was also quite excellent. The talks really challenged me and my thinking and motivation, which is always a little painful, but really worthwhile. The seminars were interesting too, I went to ‘called, sent or dragged’ which was about the concept of being ’sent’ out into mission work (especially in a cross cultural setting), as opposed to the traditional notion of being called. The term ‘called’ is apparently not so Biblically accurate, and as I learnt, stemmed from some old missiological textbooks who refer to the chapter headings in the KJV as their references for writings about being called to mission. (e.g. ‘Amos is called by God.’) In the Old testement, God tends to call people to hinself and then send them out with the promise of his presence being with them (e.g. Moses in Exodous 3: 2-12). Much more common in the NT, is the concept of people being sent by God and their churches into other places. Jesus himself makes a point of highlighting that he was sent by the Father in John 20:21-22. The main point was that a person would be sent out to do God’s mission with the backing of God, who has authority, purpose and a message, and goldly people in the body of Christ. I found it interesting to reflect on the integral role of churches in ’sending’ missionaries, as opposed to people wanting to go on mission and their churches just saying, ‘great…off you go’, and how this interacts with the individualism that is so fashionable in our society today. Perhaps more thoughts later. (There are examples of the way churches set apart and sent apostles in Acts 13:1-4, 14:26-28, 15:40 and 16:2 and Romans 10:15 if you want to check it out.) Anyway, that’s basically what the sent bit was about. The third option ‘dragged’ was basically reffering to those people who do everything they can to avoid doing what they know God wants them to be doing, but eventually God wins out and they end up doing his will anyway. However, this was more of an addendum to the seminar as it made for a catchy title, and was more about the bigger issue of obedience to God, which we didn’t have time to go into in detail.
I also went to seminars on mission in the Middle East, which made me miss Bahrain, and one on caring for Third Culture Kids and their families, which I helped out with. All good.

- A less mind-involving thing that was cool about Reachout was that I randomly bumped into a girl that is in most of my uni classes who I know a bit from group assignments, but who I didn’t know was a Christian. It was awesome to be able to connect with her as a fellow servant of Christ and to know someone else in my classes who is serious enough about thinking about mission in the world to go away on the weekend before the major assignment crunch starts at uni!

On a leass reachout-related note, I celebrated my 22nd birthday on Monday. I like the number 22 and if I had had a party I would have made it a duck themed event because, as those of you who occasionally indulge in bingo would know, ‘all the ducks’=22. I also like ducks. The day itself was fairly unspectacular as I had an assignment due and three hours of science and technology education lectures, and two train trips to endure. However, the day did have a lovely ending as Ben and I had dinner together and I was given a very fun and thoughtful present(s) to enjoy unwrapping! (If you are the nice person who collaborated with Ben to help him reach the little things that were just out of his reach, thanks for your advice and help - I have not been told who you are, but you’re sweet.) However, I still maintain that my husband is the sweetest. Sorry, he just is.
On Wednesday night, my out-lawed family and my in-lawed family went out to consume Indian food together in celebration of my auspicious, even, and newly aquired age. 21 was great…I wonder what 22 holds…