As a Christian community, (for every Christian, actually) one of our
greatest challenges is finding a healthy rhythm when it comes to work and rest.
We don’t want to be idle – we do care for what is happening around us,
while we do know that we can’t do everything – we are not all-powerful. As a
result, we encourage everyone to find a good rhythm for serving, giving, and
also for resting, for getting filled up again. We encourage practicing a day of
rest each week, taking time for personal retreats and for participating in our
one week long community retreat each year. For those involved for long term,
Word Made Flesh offers a longer time of rest (after 6 years of service, one
year of Sabbath).
We (Lau and Vali) are just finishing another 6 years of service, of work
with Word Made Flesh Romania, and last Monday the Cuvântul Întrupat community
just sent us in this year of sabbatical. We have 9 months ahead of us when we
have a chance to stop, and rest and get refreshed. Since neither of us has any
other responsibilities in Galati during this time, our plan is to be away from
Galati for the majority of this time. Wherever we will be doing during this
time, we want to look back, to the last 6 years of service and to recognize
where God was at work, how He provided. Looking back we will find moments of
joy, moments of sorrow, things we did manage to get done along things we
regret, and our prayer is that looking back to find strength for the future.
Planning this time has two
parts: a dreaming part, when we find out what our desires are for this time,
and an action part, when, depending on the resources available, on the doors
that are open for us, will accomplish some of the things we dreamed about. In
order to be able to be away from Galati we need to raise some extra 200-300 Euros
each month. We also have to raise the funds for travelling and for other
activities. We are praying that God will provide, and that we will be open to
the unexpected.
We will spend some time with our
families, and beside this we have 2-3 other activities we will love to do. Vali
has been invited and she accepted to write a chapter for a Christian College textbook on practices in mission – her plan is to focus on this first two
months of this time, after which she hopefully spend some time in a Christian community,
where she will bring together daily activities, practicing spiritual
disciplines and practicing hospitality. I (Lau) will love to take some
programming classes with a university in Scotland (this is something else I am
looking for financial support) – I will like to finish at least the first semester
attending the classes in person, and I will see what are the options for a
second semester.
We appreciate a lot this time
offered to us by our community Word Made Flesh Romania, we appreciate the sacrifices they are doing in
order for this to be possible (finances, time for doing our responsibilities
while we are away, ...) and our hope is that this will be a time of renewal and
refreshing for us and a time of growth and development for our community, a
time when each one of us will go deeper in discovering our gifts, our talents,
and the way in which these strengthen our call to serve.
We anticipate this time with joy,
and our prayer is that each one of us, regardless where we are in our life’s
journey, to find a good rhythm, and to receive from God his rest and his peace.
Lau & Vali Archip
No comments:
Post a Comment