Welcome Home

On behalf of the Local Committee of the IAMS 2008 conference I bring you warm greetings from Budapest. By now you may all have unpacked your suitcases and shared your Balatonfüred experiences with family members, friends and colleagues. We would greatly appreciate if you share some of these in the conference website (http://www.iams2008.com/) for we can learn much from looking at our situation through your eyes (send your contributions (and pictures!) to: iams2008lc@gmail.com). This interactive website also offers the possibility to continue our communication on such an important theme as “Human Identity and the Gospel of Reconciliation” started at Balatonfüred! Thank you Nienke (Pruiksma), for all your hard work putting this website together. For those who forgot to return their evaluation forms, please do so asap!

Hosting you has been a marvelous experience for us as Local Committee of the Central and Eastern European Institute for Mission Studies of the Károli University. It was a great honor for us to welcome the 12th International Conference of IAMS in Hungary. Under the very capable leadership of Ms. Niké Szkárosi as logistical coordinator of the Local Committee we are amazed at what we were able to accomplish. During the last two years she kept us all on track. During the conference - with Rev. László Gonda - she worked twice till early morning hours to get the church visits and the exposure trips on track. Meticulously she kept an overview of all logistical details, and even knew by heart the arrival and departure details and special wishes of most of the participants. Mrs. Gabriella Maros arranged the 1001 details of the conference book sale and with Mrs. Margit Szirmai worked hard on checking out all details for the visa. In our evaluation with the Local Committee and the stewards, this team experience stood out as one of the highlights of the conference, apart from the interaction with you, participants from all over the world. The technical assistant of the company providing the ICT and AV equipment asked Rev. Enikő Hulej, coordinator of the plenary sessions, what next conference our team was to organize. He was very surprised to learn that we were a bunch of rather inexperienced pastors, teachers and students who “did” such an international conference for the first time. We praise God for what He has done in and through us.

Some statistics:
· 231 participants, 7+1 local committee members, 13 visitors, and 11 stewards participated, representing 44 countries.
- Division of participants per continent:

• Africa // 18
• Asia // 23
• Oceania (including Australia and New Zealand) // 14
• Europe // 99 Western Europe, 49 Central and Eastern, total 148
• North America // 51
• South America // 8

- Gender division

• total men // 179
• total women // 83

- 188 people visited 49 churches on Sunday
- 252 people participated in eight different exposure visits on Tuesday together travelling together 3000 km
- 24650 photocopies were made
- 40 people had to cancel their participation in the course of the registration process, a number of them because they were not granted visa
- Two national TV channels reported on our conference, twice we were live at the national radio, and a number of national newspapers published articles on the conference

Hosting you as the Central and Eastern European Association for Mission Studies has been unforgettable as well. The theme of the conference: Human Identity and the Gospel of Reconciliation: Agenda for Mission Studies and Praxis in the 21st Century is very important for our region. We feel we have only scratched the surface of this theme, and look forward to learning more from reflections on and best practices in Reconciliation Efforts elsewhere in the world.

In our CEEAMS meeting attended by over 25 people a new momentum could be detected. National, ethnic, cultural, denominational and gender differences – so often prominent - seem to have disappeared. We look forward to partnering with each other and with you in our newly established regional CEEAMS DABOH study group, but also in common Ethnic and Minority issues like that of the Roma. We started the planning process of our next CEEAMS conference 3-6 June 2009 in Kishinev, Moldavia, and hosting the European IAMS conference from 18-21 August 2010 in Iasi, Romania.

In terms of email exchange, the last few days were exactly the opposite from the days preceding the conference, when we nearly made it into the Guinness book of records for the highest number of emails answered within 24 hrs: we don’t receive any emails at all! It turned out that last Thursday the server of the Károli University crashed. So, in case you have tried to be in touch with us by email lately you may have experiences difficulties. Repairs may last for a few more days. Please re-send all messages directed to name@kre.hu to iams2008lc@gmail.com or to amkool@t-online.hu.

Finally, it was wonderful meeting you, although we deeply regret that some did not make it due to not being granted a visa. We look forward to welcoming you back to Hungary, or meeting you at another occasion with more time for interaction.

with wishes of grace and peace, on behalf of the local committee,

Anne-Marie Kool
Central and Eastern European Institute for Mission Studies
Károli Gáspár University