Apart from me you can do nothing – Kairos Conference in Central America

“I want to stir up the already kindled flame” were the first words the Lord gave us. Straightforward and direct, showing us the way the next 4 days would be, filled with confrontation, love, and joy in his presence.

“Apart from me you can do nothing” was a conference for university-aged young people that took place in the Arbol de Vida community center in Costa Rica with 173 participants from the Central Zone in the Ibero-American region.

As young people, we found ourselves in daily contact with the world, it becomes easy to yield into the routine and be more aware of the “trending topics” of the social media than in the daily following of Christ. We leave aside our identity and the calling that God has given us: to be light of the world and lift up the banner to make disciples of all nations.

Nevertheless, we cannot do this with a waned heart, with our faith turned into ashed, constantly carried by the wind; we cannot seem alive but, at the same time, be dead inside; decide to ignore the urgent calls we constantly experience around us because the world is falling apart around us, due to fear or because we think we are not yet ready to take on this mission.

It is fine to experience fear. We are humans and God has given us the ability to feel and yield to our emotions. But he also tells us “do not be afraid to fail me, I am waiting for you to come to me and give me your whole life”.

And that’s what our even was all about: letting go and letting ourselves be transformed. Allowing God to take on authority over our lives; that the Holy Spirit be the fuel that keeps that flame in our hearts burning, a flame that was stirred up because we are sure we were “in holy ground, his grace and the fire of his love were with us”.

God, with his unconditional love, freed us from every chain that we coudln’t let go, all that was blurrying our sight and didn’t let us see that it is not us who live but Christ who lives in us. He has given us a flame of his love so we can share it and bring light to the darkness of this world.

We went back home to all of our communities convinced that the Lord is with us and with a firm commitment to move forward and put into practice the calling God has given us: to be disciples and missionaries.

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You can see more photos of the event in the Kairós Zona Centro Facebook page.