June 11th

Returning Home

I recently returned to Alberta after participating in the Anabaptism at 500 events in central Europe. On May 29, over two thousand Anabaptists from across the world gathered in Zurich to remember our denomination’s origins, to learn about where we are headed as a faith community, to broaden our understanding of our faith in action and to worship where we are today.

Then, from May 30 to June 1, I joined 12 other young Canadians and about 200 other Anabaptist young adults in Schonblick, Germany. This weekend was a chance to continue reflecting on our time in Zurich and to come together as Anabaptist young adults in a smaller setting than Zurich provided. Before this weekend, I didn’t know what to expect. I was unclear if the weekend would be filled with lots of discernment about our future as anabaptists, or intense conversations about our spiritual practices and beliefs, or high energy rushing through the weekend from activity to activity.

In the end, the weekend was none of these. I was pleasantly surprised by the opportunity to simply be and to make the weekend what it needed to be in my spiritual journey. During this weekend, I was part of a small group of fellow French speakers from Canada, Switzerland, Burkina Faso and France. Our group had the chance to discern what it looked like to put the following theme in action: “the courage to love”. Our conversations ranged from our sense of self worth, what it means to do everything in our lives for the glory of God and how to disagree well with our fellow church members. In our conversations, there was a resounding reminder that God is enough to satisfy every need we have and to provide us the confidence to take on every challenge in our life. I was reminded to let the love of Christ more seriously sink into my heart, my soul and my mind in my day-to-day life.

Photo -- the Canadians!