Thursday 1 August 2013

MUCH MORE THAN A CONFERENCE



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