Lausanne World Pulse – World Pulse Archives – World Pulse Archives
Our team held daily workshops on managing conflicts. Let me paint a picture of what this looked like. Marion Dicke, Darlene Jerome, Ron Brown and I stood in the middle of 400 people surrounding us, packed as tightly together as they could. We held forth under a large tent, but the sun came through and the temperature boiled over 100. We kept drinking and were soon soaked with sweat.
We passed out handouts from the “Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills” workshop written by Ken Williams. We had no PA system, so we shouted as loudly as we could. One interpreter translated for a small group of Hausa speakers.
The group read the main points aloud in unison. I saw smiles, serious concentration and pensive reflection-all signs of engagement with the material.
We divided them into pairs to talk about conflicts they needed to manage and the noise was thunderous. People waved their arms and pointed to their handouts. They prayed for one another with evident passion and commitment.
Two of them role-played the conflict between Paul and Barnabas over taking John Mark (Acts 15:36-41). Laughter, excitement and lively discussion followed.
We closed by asking them to reflect on their relationships, and to ask God to show them unresolved conflicts they needed to settle. They poured out their hearts to God and to each other. Some told us later about their conflicts that they needed to resolve. We learned how much some of them suffer and endure in their efforts to reach Muslims.
Later in the week, more than 100 leaders met with us to discuss how they could improve their missionary care.
April 19, 2002