Hi! Megumix here!
It’s the peak of summer! I’m tired of listening to greetings in Japan, “is hot, isn’t it?” I pray that everyone reading this blog will be encouraged in body & spirit.
Today I’ll introduce an event we’ve decided to hold annually on Marine Day (July holiday in Japan). Introducing “BBWIT” it’s a leadership camp conducted by JCFN. Listen to the theme, I’d want more people to come and join us at BBWIT. At BBWIT I want to learn what I need and dig in deeper with others involved in returnee ministry. BBWIT stands for [Bridge Builder’s Whatever It Takes] Grab hold of anything and make it yours! Is that how you feel?
This year’s two themes were “mentoring” and “Let’s develop a seminar for receiving returnees” Concerning mentoring we looked at what Mrs. Mayumi Pohl has written, “The importance of mentoring”.
Mentoring in reality takes various forms and styles, and I also have a mentor, in my case it is “scout” style.
When I was talking to someone about my troubles they said, “Megumix, you need a mentor”, this person offered to mentor me.
In the event Q & A time, I asked this question.
“What does a mentor do to prepare, to meet their mentee?”
Answer: “There’s no special preparation.”
Well (· o ·)! I was so surprised.
The mentor is older in faith, usually older in age, and looked up to, so I thought that it was reasonable preparation.
But there are reasons why there is no special preparation.
Rather than preparing something just before meeting with mentee, I think about the mentee and regularly pray for them until I meet them the next time.
Ooh(T_T)♡
When I heard the answer, I realized again that I’d been encouraged by someone who knew me well and prayed together and walked along side me in my life, and my heart was warmed.
When you want to resolve the daily-accumulated problems of life, you tend to want to rely upon your own power and it helps having a person that makes your eyes turn to God instead of yourself.
＊＊＊＊＊
Well the second half of the event, we broke in to groups, and for 10 min. in our groups we discussed “Let’s develop a seminar for receiving returnees!”
Since we look from our personal view, we had to think about individually doing what we ourselves experienced as returnees and just talk about returnee ministry, but put ourselves in the other person’s position.
We divided into three groups, one group discussed hold seminars at university student’s gatherings, one group discussed how rural churches church that want to receive young people into their congregation, and the third group were general BBWIT participants. 40 people are in the average rural church.
Each group made PowerPoint, made videos, included a testimony and made presentations.
Although each group’s, way of speaking and approach was completely different, the common theme came out from all groups,
“We eat together”
After all it is important to eat together! ! !
Jesus blessed meal times, and placed importance on it.
Although the time was a short, it was a high quality seminar.
Based on the “Returnee Receiving Seminar” that each group made at BBWIT, I think that we can do things that can be used in lots of places, even if it takes a little time to refine the format.
In this way, JCFN can hold leadership camp every year, and we will learn from one another.
Those attended BBWIT, please join us! We look forward to your participation next time.~ ☆
Megumix