Amahoro

Amahoro means peace. It is a word of Bantu origin used widely across Africa. It has special meaning in places like Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo, where violence and genocide have inflicted such pain and suffering. When people from various tribes embrace, shake hands or kiss, and say "amahoro," they are expressing a deep hope for a better future.

Amahoro my friends. This is a post I'm very passionate about and it has been simmering under the surface for some time while I was busy with so many church creation difficulties on the surface.

There are moments when things find their tipping point, the tip over and all this stuff flows out and starts a whole new reality.

Here is a prophetic statement that I have been feeling for some time - in terms of the emerging church "conversation" evolving from it's early conversation stage to its full blown movement stage - I feel that in a spiritual way and a body of Christ being prepared and ready kind of way - that this big meeting taking place in Uganda in May of 2007 will be one of the biggest, if not the actual moment when this thing tips over and just blows up in so many awesome ways into full fledged movement. You won't see it in April, but a year or two later when you look back, there will be evidence that this was the moment. End of prophetic statment.

What is this big meeting.? It is when disoriented westerners like us, trying to find our way forward in the aftermath of modernity, and stumbling into postmodernity and whatever that becomes, have a chance to get together with the folks at the center of God's movement on the earth - African church leaders.

As we are emerging from modernity, they are emerging from colonialism. Both of us are in this total space of emergence from the old and into the new. It is time now for us to meet, make friendships and fellowship with a sense that we have much to learn from one another. And probably we from the west will have the most to learn.

There's a lot of wonderful details about how it is going to be held - three segments, first a series of meetings together, then a time of travelling in smaller teams back to their home bases and churches and seeing their world, then a time together with just the westerners at the end to bring it all together and see what we're learning.

There are still openings for westerners, and they also need funds to help cover the expenses of the Africans. I have been longing to go to this since it was first announced a while ago. I want to be there when everyone is gathered at the table and the Lord brings down the hammer (which crashes through all the confusion and listlessness of transitional moments) and moves us to the next phase. Wow, what a historic moment.

Check it out www.amahoro-africa.com