Saturday, 10 October 2015

Friendship that grows into commitment



It’s been exactly five years since we launched our very first public meeting in Kairos.  It took a year previous to this for our team to work together putting the strategy in place of how we thought Kairos would look.  The beginning days were days of dreaming, and the realisation that history was being written made life very exciting!  We met daily in our Kairos office to pray for the miracles we needed to plough ahead with what seemed like something quite outlandish and impossible.  To try to change the culture of a country is in itself a huge dream, but with leaders and team members like we had, it seemed and still seems very possible. 

We’ve weathered many storms since then.  We’ve stayed together as a team – all five of us from the original days – meeting every week discussing the past, the present and the future!  It’s been quite a journey, and Sava and I are very aware of how privileged we are to have such a wonderful team of young folk working alongside us.  We barely knew each other at first - God put the most unlikely people together - yet we can see the hand of God changing each one of us as we walk alongside each other with a common dream.

The dream is becoming a reality and as days go by and years pass quickly, we can see God bringing the dream to pass.  Over the years we’ve cried together, we’ve laughed together and God in His mercy has grown us together.  Sometimes now we don’t even need words as we can read each others’ hearts.  Sometimes words are said that we wish we could withdraw but as time passes, those mistakes become more and more infrequent.  You see, our friendship has grown into commitment. We no longer strive to be friends.  We ARE friends.  There is no jealousy there, no malice, no back biting or striving for position.  We all know our place in the ‘pattern of Kairos’ and we’re working quietly away to bring the dream to pass. 

Is commitment easy? Not if it’s a life commitment.  Our team has been together almost every Sunday morning and night in almost six years!  Unless absent because we are not in the country, the team is there fully present, willing and able to take on any assignment given to further the Kingdom of God.  Church is planned in our meetings, preachers and messages are planned in our meetings, every detail of the Kairos plan is discussed together and agreed upon or it just doesn’t go ahead.  Think that’s easy with strong characters and weak characters together?  Only the grace of God can do this incredible work in all our hearts, and make us submissive to each other.  It’s been an exciting journey.  One we wouldn’t have missed for the world!

There will be days ahead when we won’t be so close.  When there are Kairos gatherings in all four corners of the city of Timisoara, we may not have time to be together so often.  So, we cherish the moments.  We pray together and believe the best is yet to be.  When friendship grows into commitment to God, commitment to a cause, commitment to each other, it will last the tests of time.  It will withstand the adversities that life will throw at it and it will grow until it encompasses everyone around who becomes committed to the dream.  One thing I’ve learned: if you don’t have a dream of your own, then find someone who has a large dream, is fully committed to it, and join them.  Walking with people as they fulfil a dream is exciting and invigorating, challenging and satisfying.  There’s nothing quite like it!

Don’t settle for the normal.  Don’t be satisfied with the status quo. Find a dream that scares you half to death and follow it!  In any realm, in any sphere, go for it!  Write it down and work towards it – find friends who share your dream – or who trust you enough to follow you as you dream – then I pray that your ‘friendships will grow into commitment’…into something greater than anything we can dream!  

 Wendy Tomin
Co-Pastor, Kairos Church Timisoara

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