Greetings from the President’s Committee Meeting

Published on September 1, 2015

Greetings to GB friends around the world!

My greetings come from a chilly but bright Summer’s day in London. I though you might like an update following our 2015 President’s Committee meetings, which took place recently in the UK. At ICGB, in 2014, we designated 2015 as the year to Be Expectant and we identified a number of things that we wanted to focus on as we moved forward in GB internationally. Through our discussions and agenda items at our IPC meeting we explored each of these in turn and below I share just a taste of what we discovered, planned and hoped for.

We wanted to grow in our intimacy with God

What we did: Throughout our week together we very purposefully met with God each day reflecting, praying, listening and studying His word. It seemed that the recurring message was based around Jesus’ words in John 15 & 16. We heard that we did not choose to do this job of leading GB. God chose us!’ We heard that He wanted us to bear fruit. We heard that we needed to be pruned.

Our challenge to you: Read John 15 yourselves, use it as a prompt in your Board Meetings and see what it says to you. Ensure every meeting you have has time for God to speak and lead you!

Watch out for: More monthly reflections to help you engage with our 2015 &2016 themes and a new project to help leaders to grow in their intimacy with God as we share books that can help us explore the theme of Christian leadership.

We wanted to find open doors to walk through to reach new places

What we did: Each VP shared stories of what was happening in their part for the GB world as member countries or fellowships walked through open doors. Priscilla shared about new work in Uganda, Hazel Ann told us of revived work in , Jennifer reported on…, Claire explained how Government grants in deprived areas of the UK were opening new doors and Poh Im recounted how new work was developing in some of the indigenous groups in Malaysia.

Our challenge to you: Look around your corner of the kingdom – are there new denominations or churches that you could support? Are their age groups that are not fully engaged with GB? Could you think outside the box and develop some new social enterprise initiatives under the banner of GB?

Watch out for: Stories of these exciting initiatives in our bi-monthly newsletter and some guidelines for those wishing to develop GB work through social enterprise.

We wanted to engage with the potential of modern technology

What we did: We reviewed the reach of our new e-newsletter and facebook pages, the effectiveness of our web presence and the future potential of these resources.

Our challenge to you: Encourage your members to sign up for the GBI newsletter and facebook sites https://gbworldwide.org/ and pass on the news shared here through your various country communication channels so that it reaches as many people as possible.

Watch out for: Our ongoing bi-monthly newsletters, a revamped website with easy access to resources, stories and encouragement and an opportunity to get involved in an online video to tell the GB story.

We expected to harness the power of the intergenerational leadership we have within GB

What we did: We began to plan for and pray about two major events: ‘Gathering 2017’ for U30s and ICGB 2018 in Zambia. These two events will be key in gathering together key leaders from our GB family to harness the energy and passion of leaders everywhere who are GB’s hands and feet around the world.

Our challenge to you: Continue to identify ways in which the strategic issues shared at ICGB and The Gathering 2013 and through GBI’s ongoing communications are shared and made relevant to every member of GB Please also pray for these two major events.

Watch out for: Details of ‘Gathering 2017’ and dates for ICGB 2018

We expected to address the need to make paradigm shifts within GB internationally .

What we did: We shared a paper prepared by Miss He Ping Chin who introduced this theme at ICGB. Together we began to unpack the shifts that we felt were necessary if we were to remain relevant, and identify ways to help national boards engage with this process.

Our challenge to you: Make sure your national boards have intentional time to discuss some of these key issues e.g. How do we remain relevant in the current culture in which we are working?

Watch out for: A training resource based around the need for us to make paradigm shifts – to be distributed and cascaded via your fellowships.

Throughout our time together we looked back with gratitude on the year that has past and looked forward with hope to the new challenges that lay ahead in the coming year. I know a number of you will have been sharing the monthly reflections that GB International have published around the theme of expectancy. I pray that these will have helped you to engage with God both as individuals and as national boards. There are so many precious promises in God’s word and I pray that you, like other countries around the world, will continue to identify your expectations knowing that we have a God who ‘is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power’

Be blessed as you continue to serve Him through GB and BE EXPECTANT!

Love and prayers

Vivienne

International President
Girls’ Brigade International