I Finally Got to a Biennial...

Catching up with friends

As many of you will know, I have been in contact with ECM as an organisation since 2016. I have officially been part of the organisation since 2017 and first moved to Slovenia in May 2018. In all of that time I have never made it to a Biennial. The last one took place in March 2018 and so I missed it by only a few months. For obvious reasons, the one that was due to take place in 2020 was cancelled and so it was a great joy to finally make it this year. My journey was probably one of the least stressful as I only had to travel to Umag on the Croatian coast, only a few miles from the Slovene border.

Many of you know that the last few months have not been easy for me and so it was really helpful for me to travel away from Ljubljana and to encourage and be encouraged by other workers from across the world. It was such a joy to catch up with friends I have not seen in person since 2019. I also met some people that I had never met in real life before. I have been meeting with one lady regularly for a number of months on zoom so it was lovely to meet with her properly for the first time.

The main theme of the conference was But God... We had great teaching on how different people in the Bible faced trials and struggles, but God worked powerfully to achieve his purposes. The greatest example of this being the death and resurrection of Jesus - a rather fitting topic for this Easter period. We also had an emotional time hearing about the work and struggles of our Ukranian colleagues, many of whom are based in Lviv. It was good that they were able to come and join with us, and it was a much needed reminder that we need to stand with our brothers and sisters who are going through such times of suffering.

One of our morning sessions

For the first few days of the conference I was a lot busier than I expected to be and so I hardly left the hotel. I was asked to sing in one of the sessions and I helped out with the info desk over a couple of lunchtimes. Later in the week we had our General Assembly where I was voted to join the Advisory Group for ECM International. Please be praying as I take on this new role, that God would give me (and the rest of the group) wisdom and discernment to know what is best for the organisation. I was also involved in introducing speakers at a number of seminars and I led a seminar on singing in church with a couple from Austria. This seemed to go well, so thank you to those of you who were praying for it.

The best part of all, though, was the random conversations with different people and the ministry reports from across Europe. Work in Europe can feel slow and small, especially when compared to other parts of the world, but God is still working. He is still in control, and this was a great reminder for me as I go back to my everyday ministry and work in Slovenia.