MEGA

This past weekend, a group of about 30 (mostly) young adults and Seventy gathered at the Toronto West church campus for MEGA. The name MEGA is an acronym for the theme of the weekend, which was Make Everyday a Great Adventure. To avoid confusion about the above references to 30 and 70, perhaps I should explain that Seventy here refers to the priesthood title a group of missionary Elders in Community of Christ, based on Luke 10. There were four such persons in the group this weekend.)

The weekend had several purposes. One was to provide a forum for young adult leaders and potential leaders to come together. A second was for the Seventy to be together in a ministry situation, and a third was to begin to build community between these two groups.

Each of these groups has its own set of characteristics. Young adults are always bursting with energy and ideas, so being with them is always a lot of fun. Just being in their presence will inevitably lead to lots of smiles and laughter. The Seventy, on the other hand, tend to be natural story tellers. These folks have been on their own great adventure with God for many years, and have lots of stories to share. Given these characteristics, it is only logical that putting these two groups together should make for an interesting weekend. It did.

I think it is safe to say that this group found fun in everything they did. Together they played ping-pong, went bowling, and took in a Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre, which several still insisted on calling Skydome. Attending the ball game was made even more fun because the Blue Jays actually won! The group also found great pleasure in assembling 150 lunches for the benefit of homeless people in Toronto, and in sharing food together themselves.

On three occasions during the weekend, the group sat around together to share stories. While the Seventy led in this, not all the stories came from them. Several young adults shared their own stories of life; some of which were happy and some of which were not. This sharing of stories led us to amazing moments of seriousness and sacrament, as several people asked for the blessing of laying on of hands for healing in their own life needs; some shared and some not.

Finally, on Sunday morning, the group met together with the host congregation to lead in an outdoor worship service. This too proved to be an adventure (competing with a neighbour’s lawnmower) and a blessing as music and still more stories were shared, followed by a bar-b-que with the congregation.

Should you happen to look up mega in the dictionary, it would tell you that this word is a prefix used to indicate something “large or great.” I suspect the impact of this gathering will be both large and great in the lives of those who participated. It was good to gather, good to have fun, and good to share stories together. We have agreed that this must not be a one-time event, but needs to happen regularly. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, as you go about your day, let me urge you to remember what MEGA stands for, and enjoy your own great adventure today.