What I took away from the GWF

It often happens that after coming back from a trip, we bring back more luggage than when we departed.

Sometimes they are presents, things we were asked to buy, whims, or just unexpected things. Sometimes, that extra luggage isn’t stored in our suitcases but in our minds or even in our heart.

Personally I went to the Global World Forum (GWF) saturated. Sometimes work in our jobs gets in the way of our calling.

After the confusion of the first hours, due to the stress from the journey, jet lag and a general disorientation, I was ready to find ways to fill my suitcase with extra luggage.

Needless to say, one of the first things I brought back with me was the experience of getting to know brothers and sisters in Christ from more than a hundred countries.

Not just people with name and surname, but a glimpse of who they are and what they stand for as representatives of different countries, cultures, experiences and realities.

None of us can avoid being what we are with our own emotional baggage, our resources and experiences. All that comes to the surface when we interact and spend a little bit more time together, in a context which has been permitted by this Forum.

Im fact, one of the recommendations of those who welcomed us the first day, was  to make at least three new contacts during the conference.

I was also confronted with the reality of the great amount of resources that were placed within my reach, as well as the huge number of challenges that we have before us.

That was made clear in a meeting such as this one, precisely in the context of the Mission in our workplaces, but it is of course applicaable to other areas of influence.

A lot has been done already, many accomplishments, a lot of joys; but there is also some sadness or the challenge- depending on how we see things – to acknowledge what lies ahead to be done.

The injustices, the lost ones, the uncared-for, the dangers and the helplessness around us, should bring us to make decisions about it. It is not a matter of what we have, but of what we do with what we have.

In those moments I always remember one of my favorite passages, the feeding of the five thousand. If it had been up to the boy to believe that his snack could miraculously be transformed so that it could feed so many, he probably would have eaten it in disbelief, convinced of the uselessness of his gesture.

Curiously, like the fishes that were replicated, organisers also suggested not to leave the GWF without taking away two new ideas from what we had heard and experienced there.

At least two ideas that mobilize us, inspire us, and that are confirmed by that inner voice of God that sounds in our hearts to make a difference in this area of influence which is our everyday working life.

Thirdly, I identify in my return luggage an element that didn’t accompany me on my arrival in Manila. It is obviously the most fragile: the conviction that it was God who brought me there, talked to me, challenged me and showed me the way.

All this, as you know, doesn’t just occur in an event such as the GWF, but it can also occur in the solitude of our home, or in the company of our friend or brother. Whatever the case, these moments of our life that leave a handful of seeds in our hands.

The seed has the capacity to be stored and kept for a long time. However, if we decide to plant it, the event becomes a process, and every process entails effort, work, constancy and faith in what has been sown, even if we don’t see it ourselves.

And yes, interestingly too, we were given the suggestion not to leave that meeting without taking with us at least the challenge of one new collaboration or of a new project.

This is a summary, a very personal one, of what I brought back from my participation in the GWF 2019. the best was that the airlines didn’t lose my luggage and that I could come back with it all intact.

The other luggage, the one that I couldn’t put in my suitcase, but travelled with me in my mind and in my heart, will remain withme forever, nobody could takeit way from me.

I thank God because He always gives us what we need, sometimes in ways we least expect or even imagine.

Goyi Mexino lives in Madrid and works in a multinational.