REFLECTION FROM THE ACTS13 GHana CONFERENCE (2019) by JC
No East
or West
In February all those involved or interested in the ministry of ACTS13 got together in Ghana to fellowship, pray, plan and to be trained to work more effectively as mission mobilizers. The gathering made the old hymn below to become reality – “In Christ there is no East or West”.
In Christ there is no East or West
In Christ there is no East or West,
In Him no South or North;
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth.
In Him shall true hearts everywhere
Their high communion find;
His service is the golden cord,
Close binding humankind.
Join hands, then, members of the faith,
Whatever your race may be!
Who serves my Father as His child
Is surely kin to me.
In Christ now meet both East and West,
In Him meet North and South;
All Christly souls are one in Him
Throughout the whole wide earth.
(John Oxenham)
Among the 32 participants at the conference there were people from 19 nationalities. It was wonderful to experience how every culture brought their best to serve God. During the worship times there were many ways to express our thanksgiving and praises and we sang songs in different languages. It was like a scene from the Revelation 7:9.
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”
Our fellowship didn’t happen only in worship but throughout the whole day program. If you had looked at us from outside, it would have been like a beautiful picture of family gathering. Only this family had different skin colors and cultural backgrounds. But this uniqueness helped us connect with each other more intentionally and be humble to learn from each other.
ACTS13 is promoting cross-cultural mission and as a mobilization team we also work multi-culturally. We thank God for everyone involved in ACTS13 – no matter if you are African, Westerner or Asian. It’s a powerful testimony of God’s power when we witness to nations individually and then come together as a multicultural team.
At the ACTS13 conference and then at the mobilization training which followed, we brainstormed better ways for helping our African brothers and sisters to rise up to be the great missionary workforce. The experiences and ideas shared with the group came from people from different cultures – it made the planning more creative and the strategies more effective. It also brought out the best of each culture. Asians can see the good things of Africans that they don’t have in their culture. Westerners might see things differently but they also have something Asians and Africans don’t have. Likewise Africans have something that none of the others have.
It was healing and empowering to experience unity in diversity during our time together.
