Church Planters Exchange, Greece, 12 - 19 October 2008.

A pictorial report from the South England Conference Church Planters Exchange in Athens, Greece.

The main report for this story is in BUC News 609 for 24 October, 2008. This poem by Rose Ricketts reflects on 'the journey':

From the mountain top experience
To the valley down below,
The dark and sometimes trying
Valley I must go.
To learn and develop what
lessons God needs me to learn,
With each answered prayer
My faith will ever burn.

From the mountain top experience
To the valley beneath,
God wouldn't put me where I am
If He didn't have the belief
That I will gain from this experience
and I'm sure I will,
as I receive the training and
I use my talents and skill.

So what will I take away from
this Greece Church Plant X-change?
That I must follow Jesus' example
Though His message is
Awesome, radical, strange!
For there is a work for me to do
And I don't need to feel inferior, alone,
Cos we're part of a team you and me
and we are right at home
reaching the unchurched around us
With their needs to meet and greet,
As we share the love of God in action
In our neighbourhoods, on the street.

So this mountain top experience
Is amazing, faith stretching, worthwhile,
As we receive and pass on
The warmth of God's smile.

Copyright October 2008. Rose Ricketts.

[Photos: Richard de Lisser, Steven Hulbert]