Barnabas Pastors to Missionaries Conference, pt. 1

The name of the conference is a little misleading. It's not a bunch of pastors, though it would be nice if there were more. It's a conference for missionary care givers, primarily made up of those who serve full time, either overseas or from the States. There were a few agency heads, a few pastors, and a few lay people, but the majority of the 160+ people were full time care givers. And though I knew I would be one of the youngest, I wasn't quite prepared to be one of six under the age of 35, and out of those six, only two of us are full time(the others are students in the Member Care program at CIU). Then, following the six of us, there were a handful of 40ish folks, and perhaps 10-15 in their 50's. The biggest age group represented at the conference was 60's and 70's. The face of Member Care in our mission agencies today is, er, to put it mildly, OLD. At first, I was rather intimidated by these older, incredibly wiser, far more experienced, battle scarred warriors..........until I began to converse with them.And with the exception of a couple of folks who definitely thought the youngins were too young, the rest were amazingly encouraging. They talked about how we're missing entire generations of Member Care folks in our agencies, and how necessary it is for younger people to be brought along in this important work since they are getting older. It felt like I had so many incredible "grandparents" who were sharing with me, investing in me, praying over me, giving me books, passing on info., encouraging me, telling me the most important conferences/trainings to get to, etc., etc.- and just pouring into us younger ones. It was incredible.

This was my wonderful small group, which met together twice daily. The couple on the far left are the next youngest in my group- and they're the same age as my parents. =-D

I had to take a picture of these two couples. They've served with New Tribes for ages and ages- far more years than I am old- and are now in the States as Member Care workers. They're all(except for one who's only 38 yrs. older- haha) at least 40 years older than me, and the most fun and raucous bunch of mid-70's people I've ever met. They were fantastic and I spent quite a bit of time with them. They have children almost as old as my parents! I want to be that fun in 40 more years.

*in pt. 2 I'll actually write about some of the sessions and things that I learned.