“Hello everyone! My name is Anna-Maria Gross. And I am a peace messenger!”
That’s right, now I am not only a believer, teacher or leader of youth meetings, but also a peace messenger!
From the 1st to the 5th of June, my sister Marta, a Sunday school teacher, and I were able to attend an incredible training on topic “Peace and Conflict” in Geneva, Switzerland. I am sincerely grateful to God and our church for this opportunity!
During this seminar, we met many brave and intelligent Christians of the Lutheran confession from different continents. There we were able to share our knowledge on the topic of the project and learned many interesting facts. I can say with confidence that we have brought with us different views on peace and its components, which we will be happy to share with all of you.
The LWF organization that invited us and prepared this training, provided some time for participants and their presentations. My sister and I introduced the audience to our country and the church. We were able to share about churches where our family serves and what we do! Despite the sadness, we also talked about the war in Ukraine and its impact on society.
Moreover, we listened to other participants with a great interest! This is how the story of a Palestinian girl touched our hearts, as now we share her pain more than others do. And a young man from Malaysia shared about the conflicts in his Lutheran Church, where we also saw ourselves!
In this seminar, we realized that no one is truly perfect, but everyone has the opportunity to become a messenger of peace in his or her country, community or church!
We truly thank everyone who joined this project and for creating a safe place for reflection and prayer!
Anna-Maria Gross
The primary objective of this LWF Youth program is capacity building for youth to become well equipped “Peace Messengers”. The understanding of peace and conflict, conflict analysis and conflict resolution are key to the Peace Messengers, in order to plan and facilitate training in the local communities.