Breath in the Spirit- Day 2 of the Assembly

Again, I am awestruck with the presence of the Spirit... and the amount of time people are actually taking in preparing statements to make and the time we are spending in prayer... by my count we had 8 times of prayer yesterday, and there was a motion made yesterday afternoon to include a time for silent prayer every 20 minutes... which we will do.

The Lutheran Malaria initiative passed yesterday with I remember was a 98 or 99% majority.... this is a initiative we are joining with the LCMS and Lutheran World Federation to purposefully eliminate Malaria... the source of which is rooted in poverty. We are linking with our work in Aids and TB. The work begins with fundraising and then grants to projects in basically sub-sahara Africa... then will spread to other areas of the world. I underestimated the expanse of this work. It will literally take some 5 to 7 years for this initiative to play itself out.

Much of the day was spent hearing thoughts from delegates on the Social Statement on Human Sexuality... the feelings are polarized. The rules call for opinions being offered both pro and con in an alternating fashion. We hear from pastors and lay, theologians and farmers... opinions and thoughts well thought out, read and spoken from the heart. The delegates truly represent the full expression of the church.

I heard a term that I loved... "we are grabbed by Grace"... think about it. Several persons talked about the story of Philip and the eunuch, with several different twists on the story.

I attended a hearing on the Book of Faith initiative... more on that when I return to St. Joseph... but I am excited to hear stories of others churches as we move towards being a Book of Faith church. This is an exciting initiative that we started 2 years ago, and frankly I did not know much about. We as the church have some great and awesome resources developed for use in the local church... talking about increased use of podcasts and iphone applications for access to the bible and devotionals...some great new DVD's etc...

The days have been long... I leave at 7:00am and return at 11:00 pm... but it is really is worth it.

I have been renewed by the stories of others... convinced that God's Spirit is at work.. moved by the Spirit's presence in our midst.... and very proud of the whole church. Are we the perfect church... by no means... Do we have some tough issues... you bet we do. But you can not be here and not be proud of who we are.

God's Work... Our Hands