Center for Action and Contemplation

GENERATIVITY IN THE TWO HALVES OF LIFE
Thursday, January 20, 2011,
9am – 4pm

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet” -Frederick Buechner

What does a vital spiritual life look like at any season of life?  Three presenters will share their personal stories of  how God called them unexpectedly, to co-create powerful ministries of compassion and justice. 

As young adults, Phileena and Chris Heuertz co-founded Word Made Flesh Ministries, serving the poorest of the poor around the world.  Edwina Gateley will share how a year of solitude and contemplation in a hermitage in mid-life led her to the streets of Chicago to found a ministry for women in prostitution.  They will tell you most of all, how their lives have been transformed, and their faith revitalized by those they serve. 

See how your ordinary life at any age, with any skillset or even lack of experience,  might be used in large and small ways for God’s higher purposes!

 

Presenter Bios:

Phileena Heuertz and Chris Heuertz are the leading directors of Word Made Flesh (WMF) — an international community serving Christ among the most vulnerable of the world's poor. Both have traveled through nearly 70 countries working the marginalized and oppressed, abandoned children, people affected by HIV / AIDS, sexually exploited women and children, people recovering from drug addictions, children who live on the streets, refugees and children of combat and war.

Chris has led the Word Made Flesh community as the International Executive Director since 1996. He and Phileena reside in Omaha, Nebraska.  Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World is Chris Heuertz' first book. It shares touching stories from Chris' life and working among the most vulnerable.

Phileena has served WMF through child advocacy, community care and leadership development. In 2004 she founded the Community Care Center–one of the internal support offices for the international movement. She believes that union of action and contemplation is crucial to ongoing personal growth, healthy community life, and sustainable, authentic social justice efforts. Her first book, Pilgrimage of a Soul, is a provocative theological narrative, steeped in contemplative spirituality.