My experience in an Acts29 discipleship school (not to be confused with Mark Driscoll’s Acts29 Network) was formative to say the least. Acts29 is a discipleship movement that began with the covenant partnership between the Covenant Churches of Ecuador and Sweden, and has now expanded to numerous countries like Congo, Chile, Finland, and India. The reality is, strong discipleship opportunities for people my age are not all too common. That the Lord brought me to India to continue being discipled and wrestling through what it looks like to follow Christ in a hands on, multi cultural experience, was life changing.
While going through blog posts from my time in India between January and April of 2011 I came across this one that dug up a lot of wonderful memories. It was written during a time of transition for our group…
“As we prepare to go on a thirty-six hour trek into the north of India: Dehradun, we all have mixed feelings. Our time here in Pune has been formative for the entire group, we have grown closer through debates, questions, fears, laughter and frustration. We have grown used to the constant business and insane rickshaw rides through the city. We will miss tea time at the convent, and laying on the terrace looking down on the street. We will miss our early morning devotions and singing songs about mopping the floor. We will miss candlelight devos in the chapel, and fighting about who does the dishes each meal.
Most of all though we will miss the relationships here. Mrs. James, the Reverend and her amazing vision for women here in Indian society. Her passion for full equality and rights, and her bravery in standing up for them (at absolutely all costs). We will miss our churches we worked along side and the families who welcomed us into their homes for meals and fellowship. We will miss the woman who runs the elderly home, and all the women who live there that we sit with and sing with. We will miss the girls next door, who study hard and miss their families daily, who’s names are the most important thing to remember. We will miss Auntie Sheila who runs the convent and always greets us with a smile and a hug, and makes sure we eat plenty. We will miss the three aunties that have taught us to flip Chapati bread with great skill. There is very rarely a burned piece these days. We will miss smiling and hugging them each day and laughing at our large amounts of miscommunication with them.”
And it is true, those are still, a year later, things our group misses. As our time in India ended, we left to God’s next calling, which for a group of twenty four included; Sweden, Congo, Kenya, Mexico, Ecuador, the US, Finland and India, we continue to reflect on our time in India. It’s amazing how God shaped us through those experiences, and those memories continue to impact us in our daily lives. God’s story truly continues…
Please pray as the ECC is working on a partnership with IPEE to hold an Acts29 school in Ecuador THIS fall, 2012…
If you have questions about Acts29 please visit: en.acts29.se
