As we mentioned on our March 25 post, I (Randy) had the incredible opportunity to attend the Global Youth Initiative (GYI) Summit in Israel from March 5-17! (http://www.globalyouthinitiative.com/)
GYI had been working over the past 2 years towards a large gathering or ‘Summit’ of Leaders that are involved with raising up the next generation of Christian leaders world-wide. The ‘Summit’, Jerusalem 2008, was an unprecedented gathering of 250 leaders representing 53 countries that came together. The theme of the conference was ‘Jesus On Location’ and was a gathering quite unlike anything anyone there had ever experienced before.
All 250 GYI participants standing on the Mt. of Olives. The Temple Mount (including the Dome of the Rock) in the old city of Jerusalem is in the background.
Blowing one shofar was not enough to start off GYI!
Often when people are asked about what it was like to go to Israel, there is a difficulty, as there is with many who travel cross-culturally, in explaining and communicating through words and 2-dimensional pictures what can only be explained experientially. Israel is no different, except that the added dimension for many people (myself included) is that if you’ve grown up reading the Bible and studying the lives of the Israelites, Jesus and the early church, you’re no doubt familiar with all of these places in Israel and you find yourself walking/seeing/feeling and yes, even smelling all that once was only words on a page!
Very hard to express, but yet, I would definitely have to say that Israel is a place that everyone should experience sometime.
In addition to the experience of being in Jerusalem and the land of Israel as a tourist/pilgrim (?), etc. as many others have done, Jerusalem ‘Summit’ 2008 participants also had the programming/teaching/dialogue of the conference to experience, and countless networking opportunities among the 250 attendees. All this to say, it continues to be quite a lot to get one’s head around! I’m sure pictures, feelings and images will continue to come to mind for a long time.
An opportunity for Randy to pray at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Nicky Joya, a Seminary professor from Manila in the Philippines and Randy’s roommate at GYI on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
The great thing about our (Gateway Teams') participation in GYI is that it has been more about the networking opportunities created in such an alliance of organizations than anything else (although the time in Israel and the Jerusalem ‘Summit’ itself was obviously an incredible opportunity!). When we were invited to be a part of GYI 2 years ago at the meetings in Malaysia, that opportunity proved to be very instrumental in the formation of “New Vision-New Aim” and the idea of Gateway Teams being strategically involved in discipleship and leadership iniatives.
So now, as we have networked these past couple of years with our GYI connection with Sonlife Africa/J-Life (Cameroon) and ‘developing connections’ with Sonlife Latin America (Mexico), BIG (Romania), and Josiah Venture (Bulgaria) that were all formed and/or strengthened at GYI Malaysia, we’ve seen Gateway Teams moving forward under the priorities of “New Vision-New Aim”. And, after some discussions at the Jerusalem ‘Summit’ with these ‘developing connections’, we’re excited to see what form our Mexico, Romania and Bulgaria work will take in the years ahead in the areas of discipleship and emerging leader development.
The networking component of GYI and this Jerusalem ‘Summit’ in particular was a powerful thing! As were the great challenges we had during the conference and during our time seeing the city of Jerusalem and Israel – (go to http://www.globalyouthinitiative.com/ to download audio files of those sessions and see more pictures).
What a great opportunity! And what a tremendous time we live in, having the opportunity to develop community and share resources across many borders, cultures and languages!
At the “Gates of Hell” (really!) in Caesarea Philippi, site of Peter’s confession, ‘You are the Christ’ – Matt. 16:13-20. Please take a moment and check out the context of this passage; an incredible truth for the church. We are on the offensive!
Thanks for reading and for your prayers!
- Randy
PS - although daily blogging was not possible for me from Israel, I still journaled almost everyday. Those journal entries will appear daily over the next week or so with additional pictures....thanks for reading!
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