Blessed are the peace makers: the most stressful part of the semester

This year Torrey Conference was based on peace making and reconciling relationships.

It was a good conference. We had experts in relationship reconciliation come and speak and learned a lot of techniques to resolve conflict. There were some really good speakers that gave really good points (and one that was not so good/ had no idea what he was saying). The best were probably the first guy, Tim Pollard, and the last lady, Annette Friesen. They are flown all over the world to give seminars like these, so it was a blessing to have them here. They talked about the different ways that people deal with conflict and either tend to the dismissive side or aggressive side. They talked alot about how the Gospel is what reconciles us, as God performed the greatest act of reconciliation with us. You can read more about the speakers and even watch the videos of the sessions online.

It was interesting to see the aftermath of the conference. One thing that they didn’t mention that was key was the role of the Holy Spirit. They relied heavily on the Gospel, the forgiveness of the Son, and the grace of the Father, but the Holy Spirit was no where to be heard or seen. It was as if the Gospel had replaced the third person in the trinity. The conflicts that arose from Torrey Conference were easy to see. I talked to more people this week about their conflicts with their roommates than I ever have. Even after the first session things were being brought up. I had lunch with some of my SOS students that first day and we talked about our conflicts. It is amazing how much conflict there is and yet we try to pretend it isn’t there. As they said in the conference, we are the most forgiven people so we should be the most forgiving.

In the end, God brought good out of the conference and conflicts were managed in a proper way.

This weekend I got to see my family, or at least I was supposed to, but my family is going through a lot. Last weekend my brother in law, Andrew, got in a motorcycle accident and broke four of his vertebrae. He has full use of his appendages, but he can’t work and he’s in a lot of pain. My sister and him have a 1 and a half year old, Ady, and Andrew can’t even pick her up. My sister, Jen, is pregnant and just found out it’s a girl. However, they want her to rest alot because of her complicated first birth. She had to have surgery on Monday because her cervix was already a centimeter and she’s due in three months. God saved that child. So, my family left early to go be with my sister. Basically, my family is stressed out right now, so please pray for us.

As for me and this week I have been busy working on my Torrey paper, reading Canterbury Tales (and having session outside for the first time!), having Torrey on Saturday, and finding out how to fit my classes into five years (which they do, except for 9 units, which is better than what I thought). This weekend is Missions Conference Staff retreat which is going to be legit!

Oh, speaking of which, my co-cord, Justine,  and I are twins. We both have the love language of touch; both are INFJ’s; both have spiritual gifts of discerning of spirits, prophecy, and words of wisdom; and a bunch of other things. It’s crazy how much we have in common.

God is Good. Even in the tough times. He is Good.