Amahoro Gathering Overview

There is so much I could or want to say about the Amahoro Gathering that I don't know where to start! But being quite a blogging sort of crowd a large number of other people have blogged about it and covered various things I might otherwise have written about.

Some of the highlights for me were encountering Adrian Vlok, previous minister of Law and Order during the Apartheid regime, hearing from Paul Verryn, the Methodist pastor who has opened his church doors and now has some 3000 homeless people sleeping in his building every night and being challenged by Rene August to speak out as a woman, emotionally and vulnerably, as my contribution to reforming my community.

But perhaps more than any of the stirring talks, I appreciated all the spontaneous conversations I had with Kenyans, Burundians, Ugandans, Rwandans, Zimbabweans, Australians, Americans and South Africans I would normally not speak to. These conversations, normally over meals, were more transformational than any planned event at Amahoro. Melanie Lorenz has blogged about the 'ministry of presence' which describes best what I hold onto the most from this Gathering. I'm sure to write more about all of this over time but in the meantime, here are just some of the links to Amahoro related blog posts for the interested:

• Steve Hayes at Emerging Africa has blogged about an Amahoro synchroblog here.
• Melanie Lorenz, an apprentice at Nieu Communities, Pangani has blogged about the Ministry of Presence and about the legacy the West left Africa. Here she mentions Brian MacLaren's reference to the 'haves' and have-nots', something that stayed deeply with me as well.
  
• Joe Reed from the same community blogged about his impressions of the Gathering here.
  
• Tom Smith blogged about being white and African.
  
• Cobus van Wyngaard blogged about Adrian Vlok (in Afrikaans) and about his personal transformation due to Amahoro here.
  
• Mark Riessen from Australia blogged about the Amahoro Context.

It will be clear from all these people that Amahoro has left a deep imprint in all our lives. Although nothing tangible came out of it in terms of something achieved or some sort of action plan, lives were changed, and out of that transformation I trust will come transformations in our respective communities.