many, if not all of you reading this newsletter know of, and have experienced that sense of “extended family” when we attend a CFO Camp/Retreat/Gathering. In responding to the Holy Spirit’s nudge to register for a CFO, we go on to attend that gathering and make deep connections with people only to be blessed in ways we could never have anticipated. Here, CFO International President, Johnson Thomas reflects on these connections.
A GOD OF CONNECTION
The culmination of Advent is here and soon it will be Christmas! The expectancy of Emmanuel, God with us, is now fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. Our God who created and connected man to the divine with Spirit Breath, dwells with us. A divine CONNECTION for eternity. The human race once alienated, now connected again, is the ultimate act of HUMILITY and agape LOVE.
Thirty-three years of Jesus’s physical presence on this earth spanned the time to school His followers in His character of Humility and Love. Humility, in the superlative level, by which He stepped down from the throne of heaven to the thorns of the earth and shed His blood for the forgiveness of all the atrocities of the lost human race to redeem them to the realm of Heaven.
Our Lord taught us the value of human connection by connecting Himself with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the lepers, the lame and the blind… the lost, the least, the rejected and the marginalized were revived with the divine connection. A connection, beyond human understanding that surged peace, love and joy far and wide.
I praise and thank God for the provision of that connection for me and my family of thirty years. And we are all connected to one another through Christ. My family is connected to CFO families around the world. The web of connections extends from Fiji, Papa New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, China, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, India, SriLanka, Ukraine, Germany, UK, USA, Canada, Peru and elsewhere. These connections, embedded in love and more to be experienced than expressed, sometimes, can only be called “mysterious”. As CFO’ers, each one of us are part of the Belt of Prayer around the world and we experience this mysterious connection on many levels.
The instilled character of Christ’s humility and love in Glenn Clark, those CFO’ers who have gone before us, and ourselves is a legacy in our time to be passed on to the coming generation. Let us strive with love to continue Camps Farthest Out (CFO) to be a CONNECTION-ORGANISM that connects CFO’ers as “extended family” around the world. Let it be an infectious organism, that spreads Christ’s love and peace all around the world.
From my extended to family to yours, I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! – Johnson Thomas
THY KINGDOM COME. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.
LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH AND LET IT BEGIN WITH ME.
AMEN.