ROM 2016

Towards the end of the 2016 (ROM) Renewing Our Minds Gathering in Fuzine, Croatia last August, Jack Fallow, ROM speaker and mentor wrote and shared the following poem that summarized how he experienced the 2016 ROM Gathering and its amazingly diverse community:

ROM 2016

Poems write themselves, you know

They plow out from the pen

Sometimes at ROM, the rhythm flows
And it’s happened – once again.

Fifteen countries came to talk

To share, to listen, learn

Emotions flowed, and tears did too

As we started to discern

That

Our National Love

Comes not from above

That our National Pride

Creates thoughts to divide

Yes, iconic structures

Create mental structures

That tell us we’re better than them

That we will excel

As they go to hell

Because God rings our National bell.

But – God made our world a place

For the whole human race

And here we are – Each one a star

With talent and gifts that abound

And now – as we leave – Don’t forget to believe

That these people around you,

Are part of your team, can help with your dream.

They can all sing your song, as you travel along

They are part of your team, whatever your scheme

But they are not THEY, In fact they are ‘WE’

We have no stones to throw, wherever you go, there’s an ‘US’

That you meet here at ROM, And each is an “I” as part of the ‘US’

So, when you’re alone

There’s Facebook, Skype and phone

And we shall be the bone

That straightens you back

When your will might crack.

And when you’re up high

With your head in the sky

Just continue observant

Of the call of THE SERVANT

Jack Fallow

This is What ROM is About

Since 2001 Allen Belton has been a speaker and mentor every summer at the ROM (Renewing Our Minds) Gathering which takes place in Fuzine, Croatia. Here is Allen’s brief report on the past summer ROM Gathering.

My time in Fuzine at the Renewing Our Minds Gathering 2014 was rich inspirational experience for me and everyone attending the gathering.

I would like to share one story that demonstrates that. It is about two young couples. Both couples were married just before ROM and both couples decided to come to ROM for their honeymoons. Shenaj and Erman Belegu are from Kosovo. Shenaj’s first time at ROM was in the summer of 2013 and she decided to bring her husband to the next ROM. When I asked her why they came to ROM for their honeymoon she said, “Because I don’t know of another place that has so much peace, that I can feel so comfortable and be myself. I wanted my husband to experience this place for himself.”

The other couple just married who came to ROM 2014 were Marko and Mateja Stupar, from Serbia. They have been part of ROM for a number of years. “ROM is our extended family and we wouldn’t miss it”, they said. They shared a joint wedding reception, together with Erman and Shenaj, at ROM Gathering 2014.

The remarkable thing is that not all is well between Serbia and Kosovo, and ROM is probably the only place in the recent history of Serbia and Kosovo, where one could witness two couples, one from Serbia and another one from Kosovo, celebrating their marriages together, in the same room.

This is what ROM is all about. Each person that experiences ROM is a change person. I am a changed person. ROM is a time to learn from one another, a powerful time of building relationships, learning about Jesus, a time to have our minds renewed and being challenged to home and make a difference.

As a speaker at ROM I felt that what God gave me to share with those present at the last ROM was well received, understood, appreciated with open minds and hearts. I had many one-on-one conversations, and God used me to help others see that Jesus loves them, and that in God’s eyes we are all ‘Designer Originals’.

Allen Belton, published by Balkan Task Force Newsletter, October 2014.

ROM, A Life Changing Initiative

Renewing Our Minds (ROM) Gathering 2013 was the fourteenth annual ROM Gathering held in the picturesque township of Fuzine, Croatia. Since the first gathering in the summer of 1999, ROM has remained consistent with its vision -“Developing leaders transformed by the person of Jesus in a divided world”.

A two-week long ROM Gathering 2013, 13^th – 28^th July, attended close to 60 young leaders from 15 countries. They came from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Northern Ireland, as well as Australia, New Zealand and the US.

The 2013 ROM program, designed to be intentional, relational and transformational, majored on friendship development between young leaders of different faiths and ethnicities. Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Muslims, and agnostics were present. The program focused on leadership of service and on leading young leaders to their own personal transformation in regard to forgiveness, reconciliation and peace building.

ROM Gathering 2013 was uniquely impacting and transformative in the lives of all attending. The intensity of mutually encouraging communication that has flourished between all participants since the end of ROM Gathering 2013 two months ago, as well as the contents of journals and surveys, witness to the depth of the impact.

“Initially when others told me that ROM is a life changing experience, I did not believe them. But now I can say that ROM 2013 has been a life changing experience for me”, said a participant from Romania attending a ROM gathering for the first time. “I am excited to be in relationship with world changers who long to participate in creating a world that transcends history of brokenness, fatalism and despair”, wrote a ROM 2013 participant from New Zealand.

A participant from Albania said: “This is what inspires me! In our own society to create the same society of genuine, loving friends that we had there in Fuzine, by loving each other with the great love of God!” And a 2013 team member from Macedonia reflected on her first ROM experience four years earlier: “I felt the infinite and unconditional love of God, given to me through the organizers and speakers at ROM 2009. I decided then to follow Jesus, and this was the beginning of my spiritual journey that truly changed my life and healed my past.”

One of the successes of ROM Gathering 2013 is seen in the number and quality of presentations delivered by young speakers emerging from within the ROM community itself.

While ROM Gathering 2013 enjoyed the contribution of a number of academically proficient professionals in the fields of peace building and leadership development from the world and the region, the strength of this gathering was the quality and variety of themes covered by speakers who were ROM participants only a few years ago; most of them from the Balkans.

Their presentations included themes such as human trafficking in the Balkans, serving the least in our communities such as the poor and children with special needs, and fighting the evils of ethnic and minority discrimination. Moreover, the prevailing themes at ROM Gathering 2013 were – leadership with personal and corporate integrity, forgiveness and reconciliation, and following Jesus of Nazareth as the best example in leadership and peace building.

Another success of ROM Gathering 2013 was the official launching of the first five Forum (ROM and EDI) Southeast European Representatives; the project had been in formation for a few years but came to fruition in 2013. Their role will be to coordinate the follow-up of ROM and EDI activities, as well as to assist the vocational and spiritual growth of ROM and EDI alumni across the Balkan region. Another four Representatives will be added in the summer of 2014 to complete the process of adequately covering the needs of ROM and EDI communities across the entire Balkan region.

In summary, every element built into a two-week long 2013 ROM program played a deliberate role in helping the process of education and transformation of all attending. Some of them were the Empathy Night, sharing evenings, lectures, workshops, various group activities, Café Dialogue, Trinity Forum, and purpose driven film nights and excursions.

In the heart of the 2013 ROM Gathering, however, were well-structured small groups. We had five small groups that met every day for two hours. It is within the privacy of a small group that the change of heart and transformation takes place in the lives of ROM participants.

In the past years ROM was governed by its founding organization, Life Center International (LCI) from Rijeka, Croatia. Since the end of 2011 ROM, as well as Economic Diplomacy and Integrity Forum, are governed from Seattle WA, USA by a new organization, Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation (Forum), while LCI remains to be the key regional partner in the ministry of ROM and EDI in the Balkans.

ROM initiative in the Balkans and beyond is unique in that it brings Jesus and genuine demonstration of His love into the heart of its reconciliation, peace building and leadership development curriculum. Therein is the secret of the high transformational impact of ROM demonstrated in the lives of hundreds of young leaders who have encountered ROM .

Tihomir Kukolja, Renewing Our Minds, Director

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

OUR FOCUS AT THIS TIME

Renewing our Minds (ROM) initiative is an international movement of young leaders, with the roots in Southeast Europe (Balkans), that teaches young leaders how to embrace each other and develop lasting friendships despite their religious, national and ethnic differences. For the past fourteen years ROM has been encouraging young Balkan leaders to adopt a new paradigm – one of forgiveness, reconciliation, peacemaking, humanity created in the image of God, loving one’s neighbor as oneself, and leadership of integrity

There are four areas of a continuing strength and vibrancy of the Renewing Our Minds initiative. ROM is foremost a mission that challenges paradigms and assumptions, and refines the characters of young leaders. Then, it is a place where forgiveness and reconciliation are demonstrated realities. Moreover, ROM is a community in progress where loving one’s neighbor and leadership of serving are taught and practiced. Furthermore, it is the environment where all teaching ingredients are anchored in the teachings, example and following of the person of Jesus. All of those together form the life defining impact of the ROM mission.

Our focus at this time is on the 2013 Renewing Our Minds Gathering, a two-week leadership and reconciliation seminar in Fuzine, Croatia, 13^th – 28^th July, 2013. A selected group of fifty young leaders, from 15 countries, representing diverse religious and ethnic backgrounds will attend. Objective: To teach young leaders about forgiveness, reconciliation, understanding of the current issues, and leadership of integrity and service by exposing them to the teachings of Jesus.

Will you partner with us by helping our mission today? Please donate by clicking on the “Donate Now” button. Fill out the form completely. IMPORTANT: On the form under “Please direct my donation to:” select “Project Support”, and under “Select project of your choice” select “Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation”. Thank You!

ROM 2012 FESTIVAL OF FRIENDS

Close to one hundred young adults, leaders from over ten countries, gathered together for several days in Ohrid, Macedonia to talk about leadership of service and integrity, peacemaking, reconciliation, and building of serving communities – and all of those from the perspective of following the person of Jesus. Watch this video postcard featuring moments captured at the ROM Regathering 2012 in Ohrid, Macedonia, Sep 26 - Oct 1, 2012. Photos included by Jeremiah Collins, Donald Grabovari, Zeljko Rajkov and Tihomir Kukolja.

EDI Forum This Summer

Economic Diplomacy and Integrity (EDI) is a new initiative designed to support the development of young professionals and students in the areas of economics, business and politics which are based in the life and teachings of Jesus. EDI Forum 2012 will take place in Fuzine, Croatia, 31^st July – 11^th August, 2012. A similar seminar took place in Fuzine, Croatia, in the summer of 2011. Watch this video.

Introducing ROM - Renewing Our Minds

Since 1999, ROM has been encouraging young leaders in Southeast Europe and around the world to adopt a new paradigm – one of forgiveness, reconciliation, peacemaking and humanity, shaped in the image of God. ROM is an intentional community where loving one’s neighbor, and leadership with integrity and service are taught and practiced, and where all teaching is rooted in the person of Jesus Christ. Many who have attended ROM in the past have become leaders of influence in their own countries, or have founded new socially transformative movements and organizations.

ROM is designed as a two or three week transformational gathering to which young leaders from the polarized Balkan region are invited to learn to accept each other and develop lasting friendships, despite their religious, national and ethnic differences. Participants attending ROM often say that a time spent in an intentional community of diverse people, often previously considered enemies, is a life-defining experience. ROM has become a meeting place appreciated by Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, agnostics and atheists. To date, hundreds of young leaders from over 50 countries have attended ROM gathering. That has inspired the creation of numerous other movements, NGOs, organizations and socially transformative groups.

In 2012, the Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation, in partnership with Life Center International, Croatia, is planning the 13^th international ROM Gathering in Fuzine, Croatia.  It is expected that about sixty young leaders from up to 20 countries will take part in a two-week journey of learning and empowerment to become effective leaders equipped to forgive, lead in the process of reconciliation, and make a difference in their communities through sacrificial service and example. The ROM Gathering 2012 has a two-fold purpose: to help build a reconciled, transformed and connected community of leaders with integrity in Southeast Europe, and to mentor young leaders beyond the Balkans in setting new leadership and reconciliation initiatives in other parts of the world. A group of twenty experienced facilitators and speakers will lead the gathering.

Since 1999, ROM’s home has been in Fuzine, Croatia, a charming and friendly town, situated among the mountain peaks, lakes, caves and breathtaking forests of Gorski Kotar, only a short distance from the Adriatic Coast. The Gorski Kotar Region in Croatia has a history of advancing peace and reconciliation. During the wars of the 1990s, Gorski Kotar was the only region in Croatia populated by Croats and Serbs, that was spared the conflict thanks to the deliberate effort of local leaders on both sides to keep the peace and maintain good relationships between the two communities.

Renewing Our Minds 2012 Gathering will take place in Fuzine, Croatia, July 14 – July 29, 2012.