This past weekend, October 30-November 1, we hosted pastors, elders, and leaders from churches throughout our Indiana-Michigan conference. We had more than 15 churches represented. Dan Miller, along with Nadine Zook Miller, provide plenty for everyone to think about. The past year has had a lot of transition it for how our conference looks and acts. This weekend we came together to look at how we deal with change.
I got to plan and lead several activities focused around change. It was a lot of fun to work with Cheryl and Jess as we tried to figure out how to use different challenges as examples of how we look at change. In this post, I have some pictures from our mosaic challenge. This was a challenge to best replicate the bigger mosaic while having limited resources and many different groups trying to use them.
Everyone worked had to come up with something. It was fun to watch as they put pieces together. Some worked very had to be exact, some went with artistic expression. Some competed, some cooperated, but all strived to do their best. It seems to me that is what God desires of us as churches, conferences and camps. We are blessed to have a diverse conference of believers striving to follow Jesus.
On sunday, we celebrated communion together. Brent Eash, wrote and read the following:
We are and have been in a time of transition, change, even upheavel. We know it. We may be tired of saying it, and hearing about it. We're tired of living with in it. We don't know all that will happen. Some of what we do know will happen, we wish wouldn't. Transition can be exciting and energizing, but it also can be draining and distressing.
Jesus' first disciples also struggled with their transitions. In their greatest transition, when Jesus was preparing to die and leave them, they were distressed. As Jesus gathered them for a meal, one last meal, they were distressed at his words about how what had been would end. One of them left. Some jockeyed for position and power.
In the midst of all this, Jesus asked his disciples to remember him. Luke tells us, 'then he tooka loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, "this is my body, which is given to you. Do this in remembrance of me." And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, "this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
Was he just wanting not to be forgotten? Did he know that they would need to remember him to make it through the upheaval, the change, the transition?
It certainly turned out that way. Luke tells of another story of disciples struggling to make sense of past, present and future. Though Jesus is with them, walking right alongside them, in their anxiety and disrupted experience, they're unable to 'see him'. Even though they invited him to stay with them, and he came in with them, they didn't know him. Then they sat down to eat, and Luke says "When he was at the table with them he took the bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him"
They were transformed! In the breaking of the bread, their memory of Jesus returned, and their blindness was healed. They now could see past, present and future with new eyes.
Jesus still comes to the table with his disciples. He comes here now to be remembered and revealed in this time of transition. Come and let us remember him together, and be transformed.
What a great reminder. Thanks to those that participated in the weekend. It was good.
Jason Lichti
Spending time with a friend I don't often see
just spending time with friends and family and being able to reflect on my family while working on pictures of them
What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. 
Then I looked closer and found out that this insulation is made up of recycled newspaper. In fact, you can still see some of the words in it. Ross told me it was a collection of short, short stories.
When I came in January, there was a foot of snow on the ground. We stayed busy with Winter Youth Retreats, and I found that my favorite activity in the snow was cross-country skiing, something I had never done before. 
As we moved into spring, the pace quickened. Spring O/EE was busy, yet rewarding: late nights and early mornings teaching students about God's creation. The flowers started blooming, plants turned green, and animals came out of hiding 
Summer – what can I say. Vibrant. People everywhere. It was a great chance to broaden my usual perception of summer camp as I delved into roles with which I was not familiar. 
