A Weekend of Reconciliation

This past weekend I traveled to Chuuk to talk with the leadership of the Evangelical Church of Chuuk and Faithwalk Christian College. This was part of the ongoing process of reconciliation between Liebenzell Mission, PIU and the people of these organizations that began several months ago. The relationship was broken back in 2009 for several reasons and many of you have been praying for the reuniting of all these groups.  There were also divisions within the ECC that needed to be healed.

 

Over the last few months the Spirit of the Lord has been moving in a powerful way to heal these breaks and restore unity in all these relationships. It has been exciting to see people, who had thought to take each other to court, now unified in spirit, mission and relationship. My desire for this trip was to continue the conversation and come back to Guam with the principles   of a working relationship between PIU, FCC and ECC agreed to in a memorandum of understanding.  I came back with much more than that. After I preached Sunday morning at Berea Church, President Karsom Enlet of the ECC invited me to stand with him, hand in hand, in front of the church to signify that we are reconciled and “one in Christ.” This was a powerful experience that moved me to tears (both of joy and conviction) and I could feel that it had the same effect on all of the people there. As President Enlet said at lunch, “As schools we are contracted partners, but as a church and God’s people we are one.”

There is much more to do as we develop the relationship between PIU, and the churches in Chuuk and with FCC. Please pray for us and the ECC as we move forward and deal with the details of what God is calling us to do. One thing we do know is that when God’s Spirit is working in reconciliation, He is also working in mission. I am looking forward to seeing what God will do in Chuuk.