Renewing Our Minds 2013
Gathering in Fuzine, Croatia finished a couple of days ago with the 2013 Southeast
European summit of regional representatives. We now begin with the season of
reporting on the powerful month of July in Fuzine, with the focus on the
two-week long 2013 ROM Gathering of young leaders from 15 countries. This first
report was released yesterday by Brett McMichael:
We just finished an
intensive two-week peace, reconciliation and leadership conference with young
adults from all over the Balkan region. The conference is called ROM for
short or Renewing Our Minds. We learned about conflict resolution and
questioned aspects of our identities. Looking beyond just our ethnic and
national identities, we considered our unique identities as creations of God. Indeed
the principles of Jesus were at the center of all we learned about and did. So
when we dealt with difficult issues such as wars in the region and forgiving
those who have harmed us, we saw Jesus as our example to follow.
We also addressed such
challenging issues as human trafficking, poverty, racial and gender
discrimination, and organized crime. Realizing that we are all equipped with
gifts from God to serve others, we were called to action to prevent or at least
alleviate the suffering caused by the issues mentioned above. I spoke to
the participants about the Biblical mandate to serve the hungry, sick,
orphaned, imprisoned and refugees for example. Jesus teaches that when we
help “the least of these” we are serving Jesus himself. We had plenty of fun
too, such as trips to the beach, team building games, hikes in the mountains
and songs around the camp fire.
In addition to peace
building the ROM conference also focused on leadership development. We
want these young adults attending ROM Gathering 2013 to assume leadership
positions in various fields (political, economic, educational, social etc.) in
their respective countries. However it is not just enough to learn leadership
skills without having the proper character. Thus being a leader of integrity
who is transparent and trustworthy is just as important as having great
communication skills. Again we looked at Jesus as a role model, but also
looked at the lives of Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin
Luther King Jr and William Willberforce. The key is to be a servant leader -
one who is humble, but not self-degrading.
Renewing Our Minds is much
more than a conference. Strong, often life-long friendships are forged
that transcend national, ethnic, religious, class and other boundaries that
divide us. I am blessed by many friends I have made from previous ROMs
and am happy to have gained even more from this year's ROM conference. Now I am relaxing for a
couple of days before I serve at another event: a camp for orphans from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Blessings to all of you.
Brett McMichael, Forum
for Leadership and Reconciliation, Executive member
