(I will precede this first post by saying I am sorry that I posted all of them today, but I did not have either consistent internet or much free time to upload them. As such, I wrote them for each day, but have posted them all now, at the end of the week, once I had more opportunity, so that you could still read all of them.)
Today was the first day of our legislative portion of the Global Young People’s Convocation and Legislative Assembly, a quadrennial gathering of United Methodist young people (and adults who work with them) in Berlin, Germany at which we have a chance to connect with other young people, send legislations to General Conference, and share our ministry experiences with one another. Although we are only on our second day at the Convocation, I am having an awesome experience already. I have been able to meet delegates from around the world (for instance, my roommate at the hotel is from Bulgaria). In addition, I was able to participate in both a brief legislative session of the whole body and a legislative committee whose purpose was to look at pieces of legislation and recommend them to the whole body. My committee was dealing with five different pieces of legislation, all on fairly controversial issues, but the discussion was very civil and everyone was respectful of everyone else’s opinions. Although the legislations which the committee was dealing with were probably the most controversial ones at the Convocation, we managed to finish early because everyone was so cooperative and respectful. Having such a positive air to the meeting was really encouraging, because I know that in such meetings there is sometimes a potential to have a very disrespectful atmosphere. After my committee was over, I went and sat in on another committee. Their discussion was a little more intense than ours, but it still remained fairly respectful given that some of their resolutions were just as controversial as ours (if not more so). However, their meeting got over early like ours, which was encouraging, too. Tonight, we had some time to share with the other delegates what we are doing in our individual ministries. Not everyone shared, but it was a fun evening, because there are some really interesting things which people are doing in their ministries. The rest of the night was an opportunity to relax and to get to know other people. I have a feeling that the rest of this week is going to be a fantastic experience! Thank you for your prayers and financial support for bringing me this far and continuing to support me through this journey!