13 December 2017 [Raafat Kamal /tedNEWS] How do you reflect on a year that has seen BREXIT, currency fluctuations, terrorist attacks and sexual scandals? Pay too much attention to the news headlines and the world is a depressing place.
I prefer to look elsewhere! Across the 22 countries that make up the Trans-European Division, I see seeds of hope, and a vision to share Jesus’ love with our communities.
How can I tell? Partly from attending the Pan-European Youth Congress together with 4,000 enthusiastic, passionate youth. Listening to their singing, joining them in the prayer room, talking with them in the corridors and watching them sign up for mission – that, to me, was inspirational. I call it my ‘sparkling moment’.
I asked my colleagues in the TED office about their ‘sparkling moments’ and their hopes for 2018. The result is a montage of hope: noting how tithe has increased across the Division allowing more money for mission. In fact, according to Daniel Duda, the TED Adventist Mission department has been able to finance 81 projects at a value of £410,000 (466,500 Euros).
Mission seed money has supported something as simple as kayaks for summer outreach in Estonia, Social media projects in Serbia as well as significant support for using the Reformation 500 celebrations as an opportunity to tell our story.
Unions worked creatively to support reformation programmes and gained further support from the Division with a specially prepared mini-series of social media videos, Reformation Journey. The aim was not ‘yet another’ documentary, but to make the themes of the reformation accessible to today’s generation.
This autumn I was invited to speak at the European Parliament during a Reformation 500 celebration. As a Seventh-day Adventist leader I sat with Lutheran academics, Orthodox priests, and MEPs of various faiths. While listening to the variety of presentations and perspectives, I was struck with the idea that the Reformation must continue.
As one of the last speakers, I led the audience back to the concept of grace, expounding on the Old Testament principle in Micah 6:8, to “do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Those few short words encompass our attitudes to our families, our neighbours, our lifestyle and our witness. It affects the way we deal with social issues, and especially it makes practical the way we witness. We stand by principle, holding firm to the words uttered by Martin Luther during his trial at the Diet of Worms: “Unless I am convicted by scripture and plain reason, my conscience is captive to the Word of God.”
That intellectual and emotional challenge, together with the justice, mercy and humility of Micah 6:8 is what gives me hope and challenge for 2018.
For more on Adventist Mission in the TED, watch our Autumn 2017 video, A TED Mission Journey. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Deana Stojkovic, associate editor
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tedNEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
