Getting out into the city

So, what do you do when 255 people show up in your city to participate in one of Europe’s most important conferences relating to ministries among refugees?  And your local planning team is already stretched and you need extra volunteers?  

RHP Malmö 2020

 

You invite your own Serve Globally European colleagues who are planning to attend the event to come early and help out!  You offer a place to stay, feed them yummy food (well, at least I hope it was yummy!), introduce them to your local church and small group, and then you ask them to show up on Monday morning and help with preparing registration packets.

It started at 9am with making copies of labels and putting them on the plastic sleeves for the registration packets...

This was a great crew to work with!  As long as we kept the coffee coming, we did great work together!  Thanks, Emily from the RHP and Serve Globally colleagues!

 

260 copies x 5 pages = several reams of paper!

Then, in the hope that you aren’t abusing your friendships, you ask them to be part of the team that receives 200+ guests who all needed to register on that first day.

Serve Globally does RHP registration!

 

The Refugee Highway Partnership (RHP) network continues to grow.  Check out this interesting photo that shows the corners of the world that were represented at this year’s conference.

Countries represented across Europe that participated at the roundtable

Each morning, there were 10 workshops being offered.  We filled up every available room in the building!  Each afternoon, there were 5-7 excursions being offered as well. It was the chance to get out and about in the city of Malmö to see ministry sites and hear of important work going on among unaccompanied minors and helping women get out of their secluded and isolated apartments into a place where they can work on Swedish language skills, get job training, and even go one step further and get an actual job!

Our excursion to an organization that helps women develop job skills.  And, don't you know, it's Sweden and they have a great working relationship with our local IKEA store to provide sewing services for IKEA customers.  Great initiative!

Expecting God to grow a ministry that we're currently involved with in the immigrant community in Malmö ~ specifically because of the prayers that were offered up during prayer walks led by ministry partners

 

It was a lot of work, this RHP conference.

I have since said that a girl only needs to help host a conference for 255 people once in her lifetime….

Thankful to God for the deeper things that I learned about justice issues as this group met and challenged one another “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.”  Micah 6:8

Don't need to add anything to this ~

This quote from the UN just adds validity to what drives me to be a part of a community that sees being the body of Christ to the stranger that God brings to us is important...