3 impressions

Immediately after the congress we went to a Leader’s retreat for all the leaders within our division. The main speaker for the retreat was also Linda Bond, which probably was the reason why these two events were planned straight after each other. In one way it was not so smart, but it did mean that the impact of Linda Bond’s message was intensified for those attending both.

The retreat was held at a castle some 100 km from Stockport in a very scenic place, most would say surrounded by hills, but for a Dane, who have spent some time in Latvia too, I would classify them as mountains (the highest point in Denmark is 170 m above sea level)! The facilities were nice, without being fantastic, with 3 big advantages: A indoor swimming pool, a full size snooker table, and a 3 aside football pitch.

The retreat lasted 3 days and Lisbeth and I split it between us, as one of us needed to be home in the evenings with Lukas. I was there for the first day and half of the second, which meant I only was there for one of Linda Bond’s sessions, but there were other highlights, ex. 2-3 hours of Snooker in the evening (we were all quite bad, which made the games last very long.
After the retreat many commented on how good it had been, not just the teaching, but also the fellowship, which is quite significant. A lot of the time I was there was set aside for free time, but 3 things have stuck with me:

1) Linda Bond’s first Bible study was on the Christological passage in Colossians and during it Linda stressed that it was all about Jesus. “Don’t just talk about God in your meetings, it is about Jesus!” (said with her Canadian accent, that seemed to stress Jeesus even more). A loud Amen from me. For many people “God” has become acceptable and even fashionable, but “Jesus” as the full revelation of God is still a stumbling block, which should not be moved - it is the only name given for our Salvation!!!!

2) Somehow Linda moved onto speaking about leadership and shared how a a book had changed her view on leadership. It was Understanding Leadership by Tom Marshall, which was introduced as the best book on leadership she had ever read. Again I was nodding in agreement. It is also the best book on leadership I have read and I was a little bit proud that Linda Bond and I had found the same book and been influenced by it - until Lisbeth told me she had bought the book for me while she was at the International College for Officers, because Linda Bond had recommended it! The interesting story is that she recommended it, Lisbeth bought it for me and in Latvia we found it translated into Latvian and bought it for all our leaders (wonder if anyone ever read it?) and used it as the text book for the leadership teaching at the training centre. That is the power of testimony!

3) The pain in my legs after playing 1 hour of football together with 3 other leaders, all younger than me. It was fantastic to play and I found it satisfying I could keep up with them (or maybe they just let me keep up with them!), but my walk has been affected by it since. The good news is the pain almost has gone now - 4 days later!

I was only there half the retreat and yet brought home 3 lasting impressions, although I do hope the 3rd does not last too long. Today is another day of impressions. Maria is graduating and we are in Copenhagen to celebrate it - more about this later when we have photos to show, otherwise you will never understand how high school graduation is celebrated in Denmark.