Reflections from Leadership Summit
Acceptance and unity were just some of the outcomes from the Aglow International Australia Leadership Summit, held in Perth in March this year.
Aglow Branch Presidents, and other Aglow leaders, from all over Australia, attended the three day Leadership Summit. The Summit, held annually, is designed to be a time of refreshing and equipping for the year ahead in Aglow. It is also a time where God can step in and impact individual leaders, with His plan and His heart.
Two Branch Presidents from Victoria - Pam from Kyabram and Deane from Bendigo Night – were both encouraged and impacted by attending Summit.
“We talked Jesus and it tasted like honey coming from our mouths”, said Pam. “We were in that Summit for one purpose, and that was to honour God. And this was done, no hidden agenda, just openness.”
Deane commented, “You go to Summit expecting to see Gods heart for this Nation. Sometimes He puts His emotions (His heart) inside of you to help you understand Him, to help you understand His pain or his joy for what has happened within His precious creation.”
One of the more significant announcements made at the Summit this year, was the announcement of a new advisor to the Aglow International Australia Board, Pastor Tim Edwards. “I wept at the news,” Pam said, “I was continually seeing the bigger picture of Aglow in Australia, Aboriginals coming in… literally we were all one, all loving and accepting each other… I looked and saw what God was doing, joining us together, same language of love, hugs everywhere.”
Deane shared a dream she had while at Summit. “God spoke to me in a picture,” she said. “I saw a beautiful Aboriginal girl adorned in silver, but not like the silver we wear. This silver had a brightness to it, a purity. Her silver crown was absolutely stunning against her dark skin… Silver represents redemption, she was wearing redemption. I heard the words "She is just like you." I believe the Lord told me she is just like me, we're both redeemed, her name & my name are in the same book.”
Pam shared a bible verse that impacted her during Summit, “For just as each of us has one body with many parts, and these parts do not all have the same functions, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each part belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12: 4-5)
“I had never felt the sense of the one before, literally we were all one, all loving and accepting each other, and such an honouring was amongst (us).
For Deane, she left Summit with a strong feeling God’s heart towards the indigenous people of Australia. “It’s unity – God keeps us moving as one. You very quickly catch what God’s doing. God goes to the roots, the root of Jesse, if there’s a healthy root that’s where God will go, and we’re going to the roots of the nation, the first nation of this country.”