Emmaus Newsletter - Summer 2010


NEWS AND EVENTS

We have just completed the first 7 months of conducting Leadership Development Meetings throughout the United States.  Our dream of developing relationships and empowering local Board of Directors to be the leaders in their areas is becoming a reality.  It has not proceeded without a few snags though.

Many people have asked us how they can find the locations of all the meetings throughout the USA.  If you go to our webpage – www.upperroom.org/emmaus - and click on Leader Development on the list at the left of the page, you can see the locations and the contact.  Another question is one that asks who it to attend these meetings.  While any interested community members are welcomed, the intent is to have all new, first year Board of Directors attend.  Once they attend, they do not need to attend in their second or third years of their term of office.  If you have any further questions, contact your Regional Leader or the International Office.

Another bit of information that you may want to know is that the International Advisory Committee decided to meet in the fall rather than the spring.  This was due to all the spring activities for communities and the International Office.  Beginning in 2011, the International Advisory Committee will meet in Nashville, Tennessee in October.

A NOTE FROM THE DIRECTOR

Emmaus and Chrysalis Movements Growth

During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” (Acts 16:9)

Ukraine

Our Russian Emmaus brothers and sisters and the Central Mississippi Emmaus community have heard the call from their neighbors in Ukraine and have opened the doors for them to go to Satka, Russia during the month of July to participate in both the Men’s and Women’s weekends.  These will be walks # 3 in Russia and already they are sharing their overflowing blessings with one of their neighbors.

Sarawak, Malaysia

Our Emmaus communities in Singapore and Taiwan have been supporting the development of a new Emmaus community in Sarawak, Malaysia.  Our international Spiritual Director visited Sarawak last spring to meet the leaders of the new Emmaus community who signed a Letter of Agreement. There are 110 pilgrims who have made their walks in Singapore or in Taiwan.  Eighty two of them where present for a two day training session with the International Spiritual Director (ISD).  Two leaders of the Singapore Emmaus Community accompanied the ISD to help with translation and transportation arrangements.  Plans are moving forward to launch the first set of walks in March of 2011.  This time we will have an international team composed of leaders from Singapore and Taiwan Emmaus communities and a representative from the international office.  Praise God!

Romania

Following a meeting on Nov. 2009 in Nashville, TN with Rev. Eugen Groza leader of Misio Link International in Romania and several leaders of the North Georgia Emmaus community, a formal agreement was reached to support the launching of a new Emmaus community in Romania.  To that effect they sponsored a group of five Romanian Baptist pastors to attend Men’s Walk # 134 and five Romanian ladies to attend Women’s Walk # 170 in October of 2009.  They will sponsor several other key leaders from the protestant churches in Romania in 2010 to come to the US to participate in a walk. This core group will serve as leaders in the establishment of our new Emmaus community in this country.  The international office will financially support the translation of all the materials in Romanian so the local leaders can have access to them in their own language. Our hope is to be ready for the first set of walk in the fall of 2011.

Zimbabwe

United States

De Colores,

Victor Perez, Spiritual Director

****************************************

LETTERS FROM REPRESENTATIVES

A Walk becomes a Journey…

Like being Methodist, The Walk to Emmaus has become a “connectional” journey of sorts for my husband, Sam, and me.  Beyond our initial 72 hour experience, we have continued to be blessed by the many Emmaus brothers and sisters that we have come to know and love.

We attended the Walk to Emmaus in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Green Country Emmaus…each Emmaus community gives itself a name) in 1987.  If you’re not familiar with it, The Walk to Emmaus is a spiritual renewal program of The Upper Room.  It is intended to strengthen the local church through the development of Christian disciples and leaders.  Its aim is to inspire, challenge, and equip local church members for Christian action in their homes, churches, workplaces, and communities. 

My own perspective is that it is a unique opportunity to spend 72 hours away from your world…and concentrate on what God may be speaking into your heart.  I had recently lost my parents and a young daughter when I attended Emmaus, so my experience became one of healing.  For others, it may be a very different experience.  Because our spiritual journeys are so varied, each of us responds in his or her own way.  When encouraging someone to attend a Walk, I try very hard not to place any expected outcome on them.

A few years after attending the Walk in Tulsa, Sam and I moved to Louisiana.  We missed our church and Emmaus friends and were saddened to learn that Emmaus did not exist in Louisiana.  In just a short period of time however, God brought together a handful of Emmaus veterans…all with the same desire of establishing The Walk to Emmaus in Louisiana.

We were blessed to be part of that budding community and serve in its leadership.  God nurtured our efforts and today there are four thriving communities in Louisiana.  The churches in these areas reap the benefits of Emmaus folk who return to their home churches with a renewed enthusiasm to grow and serve. 

After living in Baton Rouge for ten years, we returned to Houston and now participate in the Houston West Emmaus Community.  Sam has been on the Emmaus International Advisory Board for several years and recently had the opportunity to serve as a musician on the first Emmaus Walk in the Bahamas!

Emmaus folk from Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas made up the team.  Pilgrims (that’s what participants are called) represented a cross section of the Bahamian community.  Nine of the fifteen participants were clergy, including four bishops from different denominations.  There was a strong sense of reconciliation as old tribal estrangements were reconciled through a shared love of Christ. The “Sonshine” Emmaus community in the Bahamas is off to a strong start!

As you can see, the Walk to Emmaus has given Sam and me many ways to make new friends in Christ.  Emmaus certainly enabled me to hear God’s continuing call on my life and was a valuable part of gaining my voice and confidence to serve as a minister.  Sam’s work has taken us to several different states and we have been able to “connect” with friends and friends-to-be wherever we have landed.  It’s a beautiful connection in which we are all made stronger. Through our own congregation and our Emmaus communities, we continue to experience God’s grace and love in new and exciting ways.  We are blessed to be so “connected!”

Reverand Susan Wiley, Associate Minister, Memorial Drive United Methodist Church

****************************************

LETTERS FROM PARTICIPANTS

Grab your coffee, take a seat and lean in to hear a story about how God uses ordinary folks in His efforts to construct extraordinary things. Oh, you've read countless tales about God's providence in Scripture, but these stories still happen today quite regularly. And in this one, the Walk to Emmaus is a catalyst unto itself.

We attended Athens Area Walk to Emmaus No. 19 and No. 20 in April 2002. These profoundly moving weekends changed our lives forever. Brad now refers to his life as pre- and post-Emmaus. Our walks and the four days between the two weekends were wrought with numerous spiritual battles, but we came out stronger through the prayers of friends. Brad promptly became the spiritual head of the family, an answer to Jill’s prayers and we have become a team for Christ in our marriage.

We delighted in our new Emmaus family. We attended gatherings and reunion groups. We sponsored pilgrims on the next fall’s walks and served on a Chrysalis team that December while giving the Marriage Talk and sponsoring one youth.

Two months later that was all gone. On Valentine’s Day 2003, we found ourselves driving to Wisconsin in the middle of a snowstorm, befuddled and wondering what God might have planned for us there. Upon arriving in Appleton, WI, we promptly looked for an Emmaus Community, not thinking it would be difficult. We knew Georgia had numerous communities and figured Wisconsin would as well. But we came up empty.

We desperately missed attending Gatherings, Candlelights, serving and Reunion Groups. You have no idea what a precious thing God has given you with an Emmaus community until you no longer have it.
One afternoon, when Brad came back from golfing, there was a note with a telephone number written on it stuck underneath his windshield wiper. It read: "Saw your DeColores bumper sticker. We’ve been looking for an Emmaus connection in the Fox Valley." Thus, the "Fairway to Heaven" reunion group with Bruce and Gail Miller, who attended walks in Texas and served Emmaus in communities in Indiana, was born.

We talked with Bruce and Gail about what we needed to do get an Emmaus community started in Wisconsin, but it was a dream. It was almost like wondering what are you going to do if you win the lottery. It was way out there. In the meantime, we both continued to serve in Athens Area walks, flying or driving down the 16 hours to work behind the scenes or in the conference room.

After the pastor in our new church commented he wanted to find a way to make the few members who were filled with the Holy Spirit “contagious,” we knew the Lord was opening a door for the Walk to Emmaus. Through the advice of the Upper Room, we started by bringing these church members to Athens in April 2004. God’s providence was obvious even at this time, as just a few months prior to taking three couples on the first walk, a direct flight on Delta opened between Appleton and Atlanta at a cost of $179. Two years later, the flights were $400.

Eighteen people from our church came through the Athens Area Walk to Emmaus. These people became a core group for starting an Emmaus community in Wisconsin. As news of our baby community grew, people who had transferred to Wisconsin from other areas began coming to our Gatherings. Some of our Gatherings were with as few as six people – the same size as a typical reunion group.

In 2006, we had our first Outreach walk, sponsored by the Minnesota Walk to Emmaus based in Minneapolis, 300 miles away. Our new friends from Minnesota were joined by people that God brought together from Georgia, Alaska, Texas, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Iowa and Washington. Ten members of the Athens Area Walk to Emmaus flew to Wisconsin to serve on those two weekends. Those two weekends more than doubled the size of the community. Our core group, including these new pilgrims, served relentlessly over and over again either as sponsors, support team, playing music, making agape, praying, entertaining and serving on Saturday nights or in the conference room. They served on the steering committee and at Gatherings. Some drove two to three hours to participate in monthly Gatherings or Emmaus training weekends. When you have a tiny community, everyone needs to do their part to make walks and Gatherings happen.

But there came a time when it appeared the efforts were not going to be enough. Our community was still short of the "average" 75 people needed in attendance at monthly gatherings to be considered for a charter as a new community. An opportunity to increase our numbers had fallen through when the Minnesota community voted not to host another outreach weekend. For three days, it appeared the community had hit a dead end. However, a Walk to Emmaus trainer from Minnesota spoke to the Emmaus board in Nashville, and the board voted to extend a charter because of the faithfulness exhibited by our small community.

In 2007, the charter was signed at a gathering of 85 people – some of whom had driven great distances to be there – with Dick Gilmore, the then Walk to Emmaus International Director from the Upper Room.
Our first walks where held that year with Jill serving as the first Women’s Lay Director and Bruce Miller as the first Men’s Lay Director. Brad served as Lay Director on the second Men’s Walk.
Now, more than 400 Wisconsin residents are exploring deeper relationships with Christ because of the seeds planted by the Athens Area Walk to Emmaus that so preciously helped create and nurture this newborn community.

And our core group of brave Appleton souls willing to venture to Georgia for those Athens Area walks? Oh, how the Lord is using them! One is a pastor, many lead Sunday School, others lead community and charitable organizations, attend mission trips, cook church suppers, sing and lead choirs, lead church committees and see their work environments as mission fields. In January 2009, the Fox Valley community went from a steering committee to a Board of Directors preparing for walks No. 5 and No. 6. It was then the Lord then decided to move us to Alabama. Before we left, at our last Gathering, the Fox Valley Walk to Emmaus community gave us a handful of dirt – dirt from the actual road to Emmaus a pastor had brought back from the Holy Lands for us. It was the best gift we could ever receive. We were devastated leaving the community of brothers and sisters in Christ, but so grateful to God as He had brought up amazing leaders to grow the community in a powerful way. Before our move to Alabama, many people joked, "God must want you to start a community there," but we have come to an area well established in the Walk to Emmaus and can’t turn around without running into an Emmaus brother or sister here.

Our son went to Chrysalis here this past summer with two friends who flew down from Wisconsin to join him. He and Brad will serve in the conference room on the next Boys’ Chrysalis Flight here in February with hopes additional youth will come down from Wisconsin for the flights. Our daughter attended a Chrysalis in Iowa when we lived in Wisconsin (Chrysalis is in the Fox Valley’s future hopes and dreams) and she has served on two flights in North Carolina where she goes to college, her most recent giving the Next Steps talk in the conference room. Brad served on a Kairos prison ministry weekend in spring of 2009 here in Alabama at a medium security prison and was moved to the point of wanting to work every Kairos he can. And Jill has just been asked to serve on the Chrysalis Board in our area.

In our Fourth Days, Brad has taught adult Bible Studies, Sunday School, given sermons and sees his workplace as a mission field, even leading Bible studies at the newspaper where he is sports editor. Jill served as the artist check-in director of the Lifest Christian music festival in Wisconsin. She sings in cantatas, played in the bell choir, given regular children’s sermons, been a lay reader and teaches youth Sunday School and adult Bible studies. She is currently the Midday DJ of The River Christian radio station in Montgomery (Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. – you can hear at www.wvrvfmtheriver.com) We continually strive to serve God and His children. God creates soldiers for himself to grow additional Christians for the Kingdom of God, and we are so thankful that He not only put us to work, but has molded us and shaped us through this journey. We are excited to see where He will lead us next.

Since our pilgrim weekends, we have sponsored over 30 people for the Walk to Emmaus. And they in turn have sponsored so many, each designed by God for some specific mission field. How can one not look at our journey, with Emmaus as an integral part, and not give glory to the Almighty Father? We are told on our weekends the Walk to Emmaus isn’t for everyone. This is so true as God uses all kinds of methods to grow His children. But for us, Walk to Emmaus was not just a mountain-top experience, but also catalyst to so many God moments, we can’t help but pray many others are enriched by it to go on and bless others. Our Father is so good. And it’s so fun watching Him accomplish the extraordinary. Glory to Him!

With love, dear brothers and sisters in Christ – DeColores,

Brad & Jill Zimanek

****************************************

More Information about Emmaus including Regional Representatives, Emmaus staff members and more is available at www.upperroom.org/emmaus (http://www.upperroom.org/chrysalis)

The Upper Room
1908 Grand Ave
Nashville, TN 37203