Confirmation

I had dinner with Annette tonight. We had postponed our meeting once because I could not meet with her previously. Now I had more questions to ask her. Now some of my questions have been answered. She encouraged me to accept the challenge and to take up this opportunity to serve as an advisor. She mentioned that one of the CF members felt disappointed when she found out that she had not been chosen to be in the committee. She had been praying about it and sincerely thought that God was telling her that she would have a part to play in the committee. She even argued about it with her church mentor, who came from a church that discouraged its members from being involved in CF. I feel for her, and I think she did deserve a chance as she is a wonderful person. Now she is in her final year and it looks as if that opportunity will never come. Annette then shared that we can pray and think that God is leading us in a certain direction, but we will always need the community to give us confirmation of that.

Is being the advisor really what God is calling me to do? I now have the answer. As Annette explained to me about her belief that my returning to serve in CF is a calling from God, I felt that it was God’s word of confirmation to me. Again, it seems that He is using another significant encounter to set me off on a new path. Here is another example of how the community of believers can be so important in bringing new life to the Church.

What role will the advisor play? Where do I draw the line in regards to my involvement so that the leadership of the students is respected? Annette, being an experienced full-time staff with FES, could answer my question without hesitation. The advisor will be someone who needs to be present among the students, so that he or she can function as a sounding board for them. The students can bring their questions to the advisor, and the advisor should help them to see things from an unbiased perspective. The advisor will also need to function as a mentor to some of the students. The advisor should always ask himself this question: Are the students able to handle this thing themselves? The advisor should not in any way attempt to do anything which he thinks the students are able to handle for themselves. This is where I should draw the line.

A new adventure lies before me. As I make preparations for the journey ahead, I feel that it is time for another period of soul-searching and reflection. It is time to look again at myself, my motives, and my focus. It is time to ‘walk down the old roads and read again the signposts that have led us to this moment’, as Annette would say.