World Assembly 2019


Hard to believe it’s been a month since my time in South Africa for the IFES World Assembly! As many of you may know, InterVarsity USA is one of many chapters under the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. With over 170 countries represented at this once-every-four-years event, it’s been a blessing to go over notes and videos of our time together.

It was exciting to go as a delegate for GBU Chile and receive materials and training that will be useful for my time there. Even though I went representing Chile, it was great to be included in the debriefs and information for the USA team as well as reflecting with national staff and reconnecting with my Link family.

Every day was packed with devotional, worship, seminars, plenaries, etc. However, my favorite time by far was small groups and meal times. Now you might be wondering, was the food that amazing? Yes it was, but beyond the tasty flavors, the conversations that happened around the table are ones I will cherish forever. In the same way, I was grateful for the time in small groups, which provided a steady group of participants which would be together daily to process the talks and devotionals. I was blessed to have staff and students from the US, New Zealand, Netherlands, Singapore, UK, Arab Emirates, and Syria. It was exciting to hear of the ways God was moving in their countries and to get different perspectives on the Scriptures. What a blessing it was to receive encouragement from my sisters in Syria, whom even in the crisis of war, have remained full of hope and joy!

Being bilingual has always been a gift but in events like these, it’s even more of a blessing. I was honored to hear and help translate the presentations for the movements in Nicaragua, Colombia, and Venezuela as staff shared the difficulties of their contexts. It is humbling to hear of the instability of the current government in Nicaragua and how amid protests and police crackdowns, the students decided to continue to meet and show God’s love by providing food to both sides of the conflict. To hear of how Venezuelan students were preparing for a summer retreat with insufficient funds, trusting that God would provide, and God miraculously providing an anonymous donor who would pay for the complete cost of the retreat, allowing students to have more food than what they had at home.

After World Assembly, all I can say is God is at work! God is bigger than our limitations, bigger than governments, greater than the failures of the past. This event’s theme was “Messengers of Hope” and I agree, as followers of Jesus, we are captives to Hope, even in the midst of suffering, our God has a way out and has promised to return. There’s so much more that came out of that time and I hope to continue to share with you through my newsletters and time together.


Thanks to technology, you too can experience the wonder of World Assembly! Please click on this link to get access to the content and videos of our various speakers.






If you are wanting to know more about the specifics of where I am going and how you can be part of that please click here for a previous blog post or here for a video update.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meta Conference 2019

Image
On October 18-20 I had the privilege to go to InterVarsity's Fall Conference for the Florida region called Meta. It's an annual conference bringing around 300 students from chapters all over the state for a weekend of training and fellowship. This was the second year that we were having the conference in Orlando hosted by Calvario City Church. As a volunteer from FIU, we were able to bring 4 students, one of which gave his life to Jesus on Saturday evening! We traveled together with Miami Dade College (MDC) and I was able to help with driving to and back from Orlando.  Meta brings such great memories from my time as a student, it was a break between the hectic semester to reflect on how our chapter was doing and be trained to continue working on campus when we went back. I was excited to go back and to participate this time as a staff. October 18 happened to be IFES World Student Day . World Student Day is an annual celebration where we pray for other sister movem...
Read more

InterVarsity Matching Grant!

Image
As many of you already know, InterVarsity has offered me a $3,000 grant if I raise another $3,000 by July 31, 2020. Thank you so much to all of you who have already given or have shared with family and friends this opportunity. If  still haven't given, there's still time, help me reach my goal!  If you aren't a monthly giver and become one, your gift will be counted as the total  annually . If not, the one-time gift will be counted as is. *As of today, I have raised 54% of the $3,000 How to participate: Give at:  https://donate.intervarsity.org/donate#d22949 Share this email with family and friends! Pray for me!
Read more

Putting EFO into Perspective

Image
Truthfully, this reflection should’ve been written a while ago. Yes, maybe it’s a combination of procrastination and trying to get used to this new reality of living under quarantine. But as I sit in front of my laptop and try to find the words to describe EFO, I realize that beyond it being a training event, EFO was a time of testing, polishing, resting, and finding comfort of living in the tension.  As many of you know, for the month of February I was in Colombia for a month long training called EFO. Every 3 years, IFES gathers new staff from all over Latin America for an intensive training equipped with 1 week of missions locally. To learn a little more click here to read my previous posts about EFO. Although coming from Miami means I have friends that come from all over Latin America and the world, there is something entirely new in being immersed in a foreign country. To be honest my first thought about Colombia was coffee, music, and warmth. And although I wasn’t e...
Read more