I just spent a very enlightening, inspiring, affirming week in Berlin with a bunch of people I’d never met before. I’m a pretty international person, I travel a lot, have lived in a few places, and I’ve met quite a few people along the way. But never have I experienced such an immediate connection and unity between strangers as I did at this conference I attended. The conference itself was organized by EuroPartners, a network of Christian business leaders from all over Europe (www.europartners.org). And they have a sub-division that targets young professionals under the age of 35, aptly named Young Professionals (YP). This group is where it’s at! The underlying concept is the understanding that a younger generation needs to be mentored and coached by an older generation in order to continue reaching newer heights and extending the Kingdom of God (I apologize to those who are not familiar with ”church jargon” but I will be using quite a lot of it). I was so deeply impressed by the fact that I was surrounded by successful business people who are experts in their field, most of them very wealthy (I suspect) yet are without prestige, so willing and eager to encourage and nurture people like me. And not just people like me, but me! A teacher! And not even an official one at that (I don’t have a teaching degree)! I must have been the least ”professional” out of all of them, but there was never a feeling of misplacement, only an atmosphere of encouragement and identification. Because I really did identify with YP’s mission. It encourages vision, identifies gifts, nurtures growth, provides accountability and community in the most kingdom-minded, Christ-centered way. Amazing.
The first thing we did (”we” being young adults from the UK, Belgium, Sweden (me!), Finland, Moldavia, Albania, Holland) was to take a personality assessment test - anyone familiar with DISC? Dominant, Influencing, Steady and Cautious. I turned out to be an extreme DI with a little bit of C, which was no surprise really, but it was interesting just how accurately the test pinpointed me. For the first time in a long time I felt so encouraged to embrace my DI-ness. Yes I like to be decisive and get things done and get people moving and have structure and clear goals. Yes I need freedom to be myself and do things my way. Yes I like to encourage people to think big and to get them excited about life and God’s purposes and plans. So yes, I tend to be a bit energetic, a bit ambitious, a bit impatient with people who like to sit around and discuss rather than do. I hate details and endless analyzing. But that’s actually okay!!! God made me this way for a reason!
I live in a small town in Sweden where DI personalities don’t exactly thrive, especially not in the local church culture. This is very unfortunate and there are a lot of things I can say about that, but this is not the forum. The point I want to get across is that I felt so affirmed, by both God and man, that it’s okay to be the way I am. God made me this way, likes me this way, can and will use me this way. I of course know this and have always known it, but there is a difference between knowing and knowing. It was as if God took me to a deeper level of appreciation for His plan for my life, saying ”Annika, don’t pay too much attention to people who try to box you in and/or feel threatened by your giftings. Just keep following the vision you know I’ve placed in your heart.” I’m the square that doesn’t fit into the circle. But it’s okay, ‘cause I’m not going to be here forever. There is a big world out there and God is a big God. I just need to keep following Him.
The highlight of the week was the people I met. Hands down the coolest, funnest group of friends I have ever known. And I say friends because that’s really what we became. Already the first day we all felt that God had brought us together for a purpose that went beyond this conference. Right then and there God was forming a team of young adults who are in love with Him, passionate about living our lives full-out for Him, driven to do big things for Him, together. We had amazing times of fellowship, prayer, laughs and conversation. I didn’t sleep more than 3 or 4 hours per night simply because I wanted to spend as much time with these people as possible. I tend toward extremes (which would explain the absence of Steady points on my profile), but I just wanted to absorb it all, live it all, feel it all.
Now I’m back to real life, but I feel so mentally absent from my work. I find my mind wandering back to Berlin while my students sit their nervously, doing their oral exams. Yikes! But in all seriousness, it is hard to get back to the mundane when you’ve experience the mountaintop, when for the first time in a really long time you’ve felt truly at home, and have truly identified with the people around you. It was a an enormously significant experience which I’m so grateful for having had. And I am once again in awe of just how much God loves and takes care of me. My Daddy knew what I needed. And like my grandpa tells me all the time, Jesus is smiling at me. :)
