The Christian Associates 2010 Global Connect is over now. It
was a remarkable time with many, many highlights.
One of those highlights was yesterday when I had the
opportunity to sit in on Matt and Toni Daniel’s ordination council. Matt and
Toni are two of our missionaries in Uruguay. Along with Linus Morris (former
Prez), Rita Warren (our Board chair), Steve Adams (Latin American director),
there was about seven of the team members from “El Living,” their work in
Uruguay.
We had, what the Celts would have described as discovering a
“thin place.” The term was used to describe a place where you could encounter
God in a significant and unique, and even possibly easier way. We did the
normal ordination questioning, and after that we turned the discussion towards
speaking belief into Matt and Toni. After several of us spoke to them, their
co-leaders from Montevideo began to weigh in. As each one of them shared, it
was stunningly obvious to all of us that there was a level of love between them
that was distinctive and profound. One after another they communicated their
love and their belief in Matt and Toni. Everyone was crying (even their baby –
ok, the baby had an uncomfortable load so, that doesn’t count), which made the
emotional junkie in me ecstatic. Even the Uruguayan men, I am told, rarely cry.
I guess that’s what happens when the president of the organization is weeping
like a baby. Both Tony and Matt felt affirmed at a deep soul level and each of
us encountered God in a spectacular way.
I was honored to be present.
Those of us who were not from Uruguay at the Connect looked
longingly at this group from South America. There was a bit of strange envy,
knowing that many people just don’t have that type of embrace and touch and
community where they live.
As we finished our meeting, I told them if our organization
could replicate the type of missional community that they had in Montevideo we
could indeed begin to whisper the word Jesus Movement.
You can find Matt and Toni’s work in Montevideo at: El Living