PEM ANNUAL MEETING 2011 AND HUMANITARIAN FORUM, BRATISLAVA
Pentecostal European Mission, the PEF branch which connects currently 28 mission organizations, arranged the annual meeting and a mini consultation with committee meeting and PEM humanitarian forum in Bratislava 4.-6.11.2011. The conference gathered together about 30 mission and movement leaders, and experts of humanitarian work from different parts of Europe. There were also meetings with people interested in missionary work during the consultation.
The conference began on Friday afternoon with the PEM committee meeting.
On Saturday, Nov 5th, many new attendants arrived. The program of the day included two mission celebrations with presentations, devotions and prayer. Between meetings there was also time for fellowship and developing the network in Europe.
An important part of the day was also the PEM annual meeting 2011. In it, two new members were accepted to the PEM Committee: Harri Hakola (Fida International), and Frank Erlandsen (PYM, Norway). Erlandsen came to continue the work Björn Björnö from Norway had done in the committee.
In addition, Bongartz Siegfried (DE), Freyd Michel (FR), Jung Edwin (AT), Pinter Imre (HU), and Wojnar Bohuslav (CZ) were welcomed for a new term in the committee. The annual meeting heard news of the year 2011, for example from Impact Now conference and the outreach week which sent teams to several locations in Hungary and Europe, as well as from the PEM Mission course, which gathered ten students from different parts of Europe into Brussels. Also PEM strategy is causing practical action: PEM Annual Meeting welcomed Stefan and Helga Ross to start as coordinators to work towards the realization of the PEM goal 200/2020. They will cooperate with the European Pentecostal mission organisations and movements so that by 2020, the network members would altogether have started to work at least among 200 new people groups that by far are totally unreached. This also means strengthening the PEM office in Brussels, as more people join the operational team in order to serve the network better.
On Sunday, Nov 6th, the first PEM Humanitarian Forum took place. The morning worship was lead by Slovakian believers. In the afternoon a number of PEM associates gave presentations and speeches, and before the closure we had time for discussion about decisions and the future of PEM. PEM network will further develop its humanitarian cooperation, and PEM will serve as a possible channel through which help can be directed to humanitarian crisis situations. The meeting accepted the PEM humanitarian policy, and also discussed about the need to have PEM as a channel to deaconry support to Christians who suffer in the catastrophe areas. Both humanitarian and deaconry work will be further developed with the people and PEM members who are involved in this work; so that PEM can by synergizing the efforts serve also PEM members that have no own humanitarian expertise.
The weekend was full but interesting and blessed, and very important in regard to decisions and the future of PEM. It was valuable to gather coworkers together to meet, pray and strategize.