Thursday, July 05, 2007

Cry from the Heart - Finding Hope in the Rural Landscape

The IRCA conference has held day two and day three ... and it has been astounding ...
Yesterday our key not address was from Dr John Ikred, who inspired us with a message of hope that envisions our economic systems as something responsive to and responsible for our neighbours. He nailed it by saying over and over that the current system - the current way of doing business and farming - the current socio-economic way of living in the world is BROKEN and in desperate need of transformation.

But most inspiring was his insistence that the CHURCH (that's you and I) have the moral obligation to speak a message of faith, hope and love - the gift of Grace to the world, not just by word, but by our actions, by our economic decisions and by everything we do ... It was truly, truly awesome.

However, what has made this Conference truly memorable for me is the decision by Ms H. (aged 10!!) to attend it too. She came along with me for an afternoon session yesterday and has stayed - she even insisted that we needed to get up early to be there for breakfast this morning, so we could meet MORE People ... She is particularly taken by the delegation from the island Kingdom of Tonga. She looked on a map to find out where it is ...

The Conference Continues for the next few days - and the networking and relationships that are forming will last far longer ... This brief sojourn in Brandon truly is a whisper of hope in the rural landscape ...

Stay tuned - more to come ...

1 comment:

Katie Bowen said...

Might there be another Reverned Ankenmann among us? Hell, even I'D go to church once in a while is Miss H. was running the show.