Global Consultation
1. Spirit Led: please prayerfully seek God’s guidance of all our preparation, consultation and conclusions for this Global Consultation.
Speakers and facilitators: that as they spend time before God preparing the material to be shared that they would hear from God and be able to with integrity reflect this to us.
Administration and management: that all who are involved in each aspect of preparation and managing the consultation that we would be able discern how to proceed, coordinate and serve all who will participate, both those who will, be present and those who are not.
Worship team: that they would be able to draw us deeper into God’s presence
International Board: that as they meet before the Consultation God would guide their preparation and discussions.
Participants: that each person would give adequate time and attention to preparing themselves to participate with their experiences, testimonies and learning.
2. Visas and Travel: please pray for the immense struggle we are all experiencing in acquiring the visa to attend this Consultation. For every person faced with the daunting challenge of meeting the requirements posed by the Swiss authorities that they would see each Embassy / Consulate encounter as an opportunity to reflect the values of God’s Kingdom.
God we cry out to you for help to overcome the barriers that seem to be placed before us to get these visas through. We confess our own failings in not anticipating sufficiently in advance this demanding process. We ask that you would give us due diligence to faithfully and correctly complete the forms and requirements to the best of our abilities, knowing that the goal is the fellowship and opportunity to discuss pressing issues together.
We pray for each Embassy / Consulate and the staff who process our documents that they would judge fairly and with sensitivity each application in a timely and appropriate manner. Lord we ask that we would bless them as we also seek to bless Switzerland during our engagement in this nation.
Micah Network staff team as they seek to serve each participant through this process. With over 200 visas being processed the work load is so much higher than we anticipated and we seek to be able wisely prioritise and efficiently serve so as to ensure maximum number (our goal is ambitiously all) who have faithfully applied will be granted a visa.
Appeals: we are currently processing a further 5 appeals for visas that have been denied. Please pray for a breakthrough.
3. Switzerland: many people have asked us why we chose Switzerland for the site of this Global Consultation. We give three very practical answers below:
Every three years we rotate the region in which we host the Global Consultation:
2001: United Kingdom (Europe)
2003: Mexico (Latin America)
2006: Thailand (Asia)
2009: Kenya (Africa)
2012: the turn of Europe again – we chose Switzerland
We seek a member who is willing to host and help with facilitation in the country where the Consultation could be held. TearFund Schweiz (Switzerland) offered to be our host. Why? They sought to serve us and they especially wanted to be able to draw the Swiss church into an understanding and practice of integral mission.
Costly: we knew Switzerland was one of the most expensive countries in Europe, but also saw this as an opportunity to raise the awareness of poverty globally to the Swiss Christians and invite their participation in response. The response to date has been astounding. Over 119 families have opened their homes to participants and volunteers have offered themselves to serve us throughout the preparation and week so as to reduce costs and to share in vision.
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