Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Opportunities...they come and they go!

We'd been checking the website often,

...hoping...waiting...praying...

...hoping for information on the conference we've been telling everyone about: GCOMM (The Global Consultation On Music & Missions).    It happens every 4 years and this year the conference was to be held in the Philippines the end of May, 2014.

For six months, we have anticipated the opening registration for this conference.  This, we'd heard, is the best place to meet many of our world's ethnomusicologists and missionaries.

Today, the GCOMM website had an update.

"Due to a variety of circumstances, the Executive Committee of GCoMM has decided to cancel GCoMM 2014. We regret this cancellation and are grateful for the work done by the   Manila Planning Team, but in light of the recent tragedies in the Philippines (typhoon and earthquake) we feel this is the best course of action. Please join us in prayer for all those affected by these disasters and for those who are serving diligently to meet the great physical, emotional, and spiritual needs in that country. The Executive Committee has begun considering plans for a future event and will communicate those plans early in 2014."
 
Of course, this new development will change how we spend our time during the last week of May, but we are still looking forward to pursuing this direction for ministry.  For now we are excited to begin our missions class called "Perspectives."  And just before we learned the news of GCOMM's cancellation, we signed up to attend the Missions ConneXion Conference in Vancouver, WA this January 16-18.  Praise the Lord for this new opportunity!

Please pray that we will be daring and creative as we seek guidance in our pursuit towards music and teaching in a global missions capacity.  We will keep our eyes fixed on Christ - the God who blesses us with opportunities.
From our recent trip to Kenya & Tanzania (Oct. 2013)