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Bouws Italy-Bound
Pastor Anthon & Jamie of Wainfleet headed
to Ecumene
Read below to see how you can
support the Bouws Last summer, my
family and myself - Rev. Anthon Bouw, my wife
Jaime, and children Lia and Nolan - went to the
Ecumene Retreat Center in Velletri, Italy, for a
one-month mission trip. What is Ecumene?
Ecumene is an inter-denominational ministry
center run by the Waldensian and Methodist
churches in Italy, with whom the RCA is
partnering. The mission and goal of
Ecumene is to provide a center where people from
all over the world might gather and explore
their diverse religious inheritances, respect
others and recognize the unity of Christ’s
church. It is meant to be a place of
reflection and encouragement of personal growth
in faith. They desire all those there to
work together in solidarity, committed to
Christ’s love, to seek and learn from each other
a spirit of service and responsibility.
There is a effort to help people to be committed
to social responsibility and justice, and to
form friendships while experiencing Christ’s
love in community (paraphrased from their web
page). In many ways, it reminds us of Camp
Shalom, except that there isn’t nearly as much
space. They host children’s camps, music
camps, synod meetings, spiritual retreats, and
many other types of ministry to the minority
Protestant churches in their nation.
The time that we spent
there last year left us hoping that somehow we
would have the chance to return. That
opportunity came when Rev. Dave Zomer, the RCA
missionary connection to the center, received a
call to pastor two congregations on the island
of Sicily. When he accepted that call,
there was still work for him to do at Ecumene:
who would do it? They remembered our
enthusiasm and how well we worked together from
last summer, and sent us an email asking us if
we would be interested. To put it simply,
we said ‘yes’, thrilled at the prospect of once
again being part of that ministry team.
Our responsibilities will include volunteer
coordination, nurturing the spiritual atmosphere
of the center, and looking after any hospitality
and maintenance work that we can give a hand
with - in other words, what’s there to do, we
do. We will be concluding our ministry at
Maranatha Church in Wainfleet on July 30th,
and heading for Italy on August 8th.
This year only Nolan is going along, and we will
be home schooling him for the first time.
So now we’re going back.
Although it will be a voluntary position, room
and board will be provided; we simply have
to cover all other costs. Although the
prospect of a year without a salary is somewhat
daunting, we can’t help but look back to the 6
years we spent in Bible College and Seminary.
If God took care of us then, we know we can
trust him to take care of us now. We do
hope you will pray for us, that our time there
will be effective in communicating the gospel,
and making a positive mark on the life and work
of Ecumene. If you’d like to help out with
the costs, you can make a check out to the
Regional Synod of Canada, with our name in the
memo line, and the funds will be forwarded to
us.
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