Micah Global, which is where everything happens having to do with Integral Mission, holds a major consultation every three years. This year the gathering was online, but in Africa, and theme was Kashmiri, a Kiswahili word meaning “to flourish”. All of the conference materials are available on the Micah website here. (Go to “Listen to African Voices” for the Plenary sessions.)
Here is the conference description:
Every three years, Micah Global members from around the world gather for a consultation that is hosted in turn by one of our regions. This year, Africa was our host. The theme of the consultation is KUSHAMIRI, which is the beautiful Kiswahili word for ‘flourish’. We gathered to reflect on how we as individuals, organisations and congregations flourish so that we may be catalysts for the flourishing of the communities we serve. And explored how this is a flourishing for all seasons, and in difficult situations.
The flourishing we seek as a network is described in the invitation and the promise of Jesus Christ to his followers: “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). It is this active abiding, us in Christ and Christ in us, that we continue to pursue. We also continue to reflect on the fruit which such abiding produces, in our lives and in the communities where we are located. Considering flourishing from a biblical perspective, we are reminded also of the text in Revelation 22:2 where the tree of life has twelve kinds of fruit and produces fruit every month. And the leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations. As the Body of Christ, participating in God’s mission of holistic redemption, we are the instrument of current flourishing and the foretaste of future flourishing through our abiding and fruitfulness in Christ.
May this word KUSHAMIRI | FLOURISH take root in our hearts and minds as we hear the invitation and the promise from the Lord to flourish and be agents of flourishing in our communities.
Nigerian professor Grace Pam addressed the topic of creation care and flourishing:
