We had our first North American Hub Gathering August 1-5, 2010 in Lakeside, Montana. It was a goal from the Germany Consultation in May of 2009 that we start functioning as regional Hubs. Hubs are for networking, communicating, support and relationship building and for resource sharing. Our Hub gathering was very relational. It was small enough to allow us to really spend quality time together. Present were: Tamara Mitton, from Turner Valley, Canada: Terra Montford from Boise Vineyard, Idaho: Tom Phillips from ESBS in Lake Lure, North Carolina: Bryan and KJ Appelt from Kona, Hawaii: Tom Possin, Jason Howard and Nico Bosma, from Montana: Kerry Neve, from Titus Project, Montana and Ron and Judy Smith and Mark and Dawn Masucci the Hub Facilitators from Montana.
A large portion of our time together was given to each person sharing and receiving prayer and encouragement. We also spent a day discussing what we wanted as Hub members. We also had lots of downtime to talk, eat relax and socialize in the beautiful Montana surroundings.
In addition we found out some interesting things about each other in the Sunday evening ice-breader. For instance, KJ Appelt had a $13,000 Internet bill in Afghanistan (obviously a mix up), Mark and Dawn Masucci have had the longest layover: three days in the Nairobi airport and Tamara Minten has actually been to Tinbuktu (no kidding !).
We came away with new ideas, a desire work more closely together and ideas on how to help each other. We decided to have a monthly update so we know how we are all doing. We talked about just picking up the phone and calling each other as well as sharing teaching invitations and just going to visit each other.
It was a great beginning. We all came away encouraged and connected and feeling that we are part of a great team.
