¿Acia Que? – “Where To?” 

Reflections on Adelante 2011

by Tadhg Lynch

Ten days to prepare for something is a long time. Having worked with a team of about 100 others to transform an army base in the Basque region of Spain into a venue for a week long Sword of the Spirit gathering – it was time to take a break. So Sunday the 7th of August found young people from all over the world emptied into the town of Vitoria-Gasteiz for a break from their exertions in planning and preparation. We barely made a dent in the place – the local regional festival being in full swing with various musicians, vendors, and parades choking the narrow streets. 

Wandering away from the crowds, I sank down in a plaza to watch a local exhibition match of a game I had never seen before. It looked a little like a mix of handball and squash – but much tougher. Traditionally, Pelota is played outdoors with a hard leather ball and with no form of glove or covering for the hand beyond a few strips of tape. The game rewards untiring running, preparation, and footwork as players in teams of two judge the flight of a ball bouncing from one or more walls and maneuver backwards and forwards into the optimum position to hit it  back against the wall. 

The players were genuine athletes – expending a huge amount of energy in preparation for each shot. They were also undeniably tough as, after a couple of shots (having first amply displayed my complete lack of Spanish during a break in the game) I could testify that it really hurts to hit the ball with the naked hand. 

Finally it seemed that the whole town had turned out to watch. As six o' clock struck and the players trooped out into the arena for the adult exhibition match, the crowd around the middle of the Plaza de los Fueros in central Vitoria was at least six deep. 

It was the seventh of August – we were deep into the ten preparation days for the European and Middle East regional conference Adelante – and three days before it was due to begin. I was glad of the chance to relax in the midst of a crowd of strangers, watching the athletes run endlessly back and forth in front of the wall, pounding the ball with the flat of their hand while the shadows lengthened and a partisan crowd bayed for their favorites. 

Die Konferenz
 Six years ago in the European and Middle East Region, we hefted a shot against the wall. An enormous amount of effort and expense was poured into five days in Germany for “die Konferenz” a gathering of about 220 people from many different countries with a theme of sacrifice. Now a team of 105 people from all over Europe and even farther afield prepared tirelessly for Adelante – running back and forth across a huge military base, sending thousands of emails and coordinating everything from travel plans, to intercession needs, to allergy information – I found myself looking at Adelante with critical eyes. Mission in the European part of our region seems so difficult, and often fruitless. 

The image of the players endlessly maneuvering forward and back against that wall dogged me during the preparation days. Were we merely keeping the ball in the air? Was all of our running and preparation doing no more than keeping the game alive in a continent sometimes hostile but more often completely indifferent to the message of the gospel and the  call to community life? 

I wondered whether the preparation and planning could somehow spark a new wave of mission and outreach in our region amongst the participants or whether we would allow the moment to pass us by. Would the young people who came be expecting a holiday in the sunshine of Spain or would they be expecting to meet the Lord? As I considered the team which had put so much effort and energy into Adelante – a mission spanning continents, languages and regions – I noticed more than a few sore palms. Some of those shots can hurt when you make them for the 100th time. 

The goals for a conference like Adelante are many and varied. There are perhaps three that stand out however:

Firstly, Adelante was a place to gather and receive encouragement and vision for our mission in Europe. Bringing a large group of young people together – 400 in total – was an astonishing and encouraging number for that part of the Sword of the Spirit region. 

Perhaps more importantly and indeed prophetically, Adelante gathered young people from 22 different nations across the globe. In a continent where unity amidst the many blessings and challenges inherent in being a people of diverse language, church tradition, and culture is so important – ambassadors of so many nations together was a sign of the Lord’s favour to us. 

Adelante also marked a significant step in the living out of our ecumenical call as Kairos. Following a successful application to host a large venue in a prominent position at the Catholic World Youth Day in Madrid, Adelante had been a practical and spiritual preparation for the exercise of our living witness to unity in the body of Christ. As the conference itself brought more than a hundred young people from various Orthodox and Protestant church traditions to join the Roman Catholic majority a living witness to fellowship together was being forged by the days of the conference itself. 

Secondly, Adelante was a place for young people to worship together, to be changed by the experience of the presence of the Lord and to listen to his word – as individuals and as a group. 

As the conference progressed throughout the week, the experience of being bound together by worship increased. Learning songs in the language of another people, singing in German surrounded by a Scot, a Pole, a Russian and a Philippino, being led by a Lebanese in fluent Spanish – these were things growing directly out of our worship together as the Lord moved among us and formed us into a  people who sought him together. 

Finally, Adelante was a place to offer young people a call to radical discipleship and to give them a chance to choose for deeper discipleship as they returned home. As I progressed through the conference speaking to people about their future, their path in life, and what their calling from the Lord might be, I could not help but think about a good friend from Belgium I saw respond to an altar call on the final night of the “Die Konferenz” in Germany. He brought his fiancée to the back of the meeting to ask one of the leaders to pray with them for direction in their new life together. Six years, a wedding, a new house and two children later – I could see the blessing in his life. 

And yet, as the conference drew to a close my mind once again returned to those unique athletes, pounding the unyielding ball against an immovable object with their bare hand. It seemed like they expended so much effort for so little reward – the ball always returned.  More often than not, the points were decided by the team that got tired first and made a mistake, rather than a winning volley. 

I wondered about Adelante – was that all we were doing here? Merely taking another shot that would come right back at us? Would we live more for the Lord Jesus because of what had happened in Spain? Or was it merely a pressure cooker experience – rash decisions made in the heat of the moment to be ground down by the pressure of living in a place which neither supports nor values Christian discipleship? When we all go home, when all is said and done – would it all make any difference?

Forward
In Spanish the word “Adelante” means to move; to go forward, to walk through. As God’s people come together to seek him, to try to walk further into his presence, the Lord responds. In a square, simple hall, in the back of a military base in the north of Spain. God spoke to the young people of the Sword of the Spirit. 

He walked amongst them and showed them his nature. He spoke as a God of compassion to those who have strayed far from him – a God who welcomed back with open arms many who sought forgiveness and relationship with him once again. 

He appeared as a God of challenge, adventure and hope for those he calls into mission to build up his people in Europe. He appeared as a God of healing and power as we witnessed the healing of two broken legs, numerous minor ailments, and also the miraculous granting of a Visa on the very last day before the conference to enable a participant to travel from India. 

Finally, he revealed himself as a God of infinite majesty, unfathomable depth and gracious relationship to those who had prayed until they were empty and finally sat quietly beholding him in worship. 

He spoke to the young people of Europe and the Middle East – telling them that he was taking up an offering of young lives for mission, telling them that they were a group of young people whom he was calling together into a continuing call – a “Joshua Generation” as main speaker John Keating expressed it. 

Finally an image of an ink blot spreading across the continent of Europe reminded us that our God is calling us to himself to be his warriors in a time of difficulty, trial, and testing for the Christian people here, and that our response to him would demand struggle and sacrifice as we fought for his kingdom. 

Acia que?
Writing to our staff team a month before the conference, a faithful prayer warrior shared these words: “Being a disciple on mission is primarily about learning to be like him – the witness we give is not really about being a miracle worker, but someone who can persevere and endure because he is rooted in trusting that the Father’s will is nothing but love.” 

Practically, Adelante achieved its goals. It brought young people together for vision and encouragement; it provided an opportunity to approach the Lord Almighty in prayer together, and many young people were afforded the opportunity to take a step of faith towards the Lord. Although a true movement of the Lord requires some time in which to assess the fruitfulness it brings in the life of his people – the bus to Bilbao on the return journey from Adelante afforded me an opportunity to reflect once again upon the conference and the endless slugging against the wall. 

As we bounced across the dry landscape and I recalled once again the amphitheatre, the crowd, the players and the relentless mocking return of the small hard ball, I saw a new angle on pelota. The players were more than simple athletes. For the crowd, they represent a tradition, a continuation of a way of life – the symbol in motion of a people. Gathered together for one day during their regional festival – todays’ players join a long line of others who have played in the exhibition match before them. Veteran athletes, mothers, brothers, family, coach and community now seated on the warm stone steps watching them run back and forward again and again – delighting in the intense imperative of the present moment – “hit the ball now!” – sure in the knowledge that with each passing year far more than a temporary spectacle is being performed. 

A people is being moulded. God, we may be thankful, does more than “this time and this time only.” But he does do “now.” Adelante was a “now” moment. The ball was at its apex, it was ready to be hit by a fresh generation of young lives. 

The question on many people’s lips as we left Spain was, “Adelante? acie a que?” – “Go forward? Where to?” For the next shot, we may have to wait for the bounce of the ball, but the direction is clear. Forward into a people, forward into someone who can persevere and endure because he is rooted in trusting in the Father’s will. 

[Tadhg Lynch works for Kairos – EME in resource and outreach development.]