Pilgrimage.

The 'new look' Ignite meeting on Monday mornings is continuing: as before, we met with the person preparing the evening (in this case, Steffi, one of the leadership group) and talked with them a few days before the evening, and figure what they wanted to do, then support them as they led if they felt the need (or kept out of the way when they didn't). we're hoping to start giving people feedback as well, so they can be encouraged to do this again.

This one was the third time at our house -well, sort of at our house. Steffi took everyone off on a pilgrimage down in the valley. Once outside, we all collected a stone as a symbol for the thoughts we had, something which we felt we needed to forgive or to be forgiven for, or perhaps for things we wanted to give back to God, then we began a time of silence (an interesting experience with the boys) and followed a route to several stations where Steffi had set up a bible verse and a poem, and sometimes added a few carefully chosen pictures. It didn't take a vast amount of work and energy, (So far both people preparing have commented that it was a lot less than they expected) but it gave people a chance to think and pray, and at the end talk a bit.

One of the stations. This one shows characteristics of God.

Once back at the apartment we made a cairn from the stones on our coffee table to show we were giving these thoughts and concerns back to God, not carrying them forever, and we'll have them in place next month as a reminder of the decisions we made. The stones are anonymous (except for the whopper Stephan selected) but corporate, and a reminder of a shared experience.

A bad picture of the 'cairn'

The next iKreis at our house is in about a month, and we've asked one of the younger lads to lead with us this time. He'll let me know what he thinks soon: so please pray that he will feel able to take the challenge.