A letter from Stephen Birkett, Lay Director for Men's Walk #39
Dear Emmaus Community
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again
by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)
It is of course a great honour and responsibility to serve as the Lay Director for the upcoming Men’s Walk No. 39.
In the last 5 years (I was a pilgrim on WTE17), the Emmaus experience and community have come to mean a great deal
to me, and I sometimes feel that I am a representative of Emmaus at my church more than the reverse.
Yet my perspective on that experience has been broadening in recent months, not least as I have been involved for
the first time in the gestation process of Team formation. You will probably have realized it long ago, but it has
become clear to me that, while the service of each Walk’s Team is focused wholly on the pilgrims’ experience of and
response to Grace, the whole process of preparation is an avenue down which we as a Team are walking in that same
active Grace. This phase is not just a means to an end, but an end in itself. The Team is not just being readied
for a future task, but is a community in the present, within which we are living out the ups and downs of our Fourth
Day, and exercising ourselves in spirituality, study and action. God is using this phase to work on us individually
and collectively: Walk 39 has definitely begun already!
I know I’m not the only one to feel that Hong Kong is now in a season when God is calling the Church to unity and
cooperation. In studying the book of Haggai recently, I felt its message on ‘Building the House of the Lord’
speaking strongly at 3 levels: ourselves individually as temples of the Holy Spirit, our individual churches, and
the wider Body of Christ across Hong Kong and even beyond. This is a particularly compelling and timely directive
for the Emmaus Community as the Spring 2008 Walks approach. On each of those 3 levels, we are challenged to “give
careful thought to [our] ways”, to discern where and how we are called to ‘build the house of the Lord’ (and
recognize where we have been neglecting it, or even pulling it down), and to step out in action accordingly.
I am excited that the Emmaus Community is well placed to serve Hong Kong’s churches in this season, as a network
of connective tissue and also an incubator of energized Christians. As we prepare in particular to welcome
another generation of pilgrims on Walk 39, we face challenges as usual in areas ranging from the health and safety
of Team members and their families (unsubtle) to heavy travel schedules and other destabilising pressures at work
and home (only slightly more subtle). This is to be expected, and we are firmly resolved to hold to the Galatians
verse adopted for the Walk and quoted in the heading above – which always used to look a bit obvious to me, but on
closer examination is not so simple to put into practice!
So we covet your prayers for the Team (including the Spiritual Directors) and the pilgrims alike, and in particular
that we will all appropriate the full freedom that Grace has made available to us, and will discern and reject any
‘yokes of slavery’ that present themselves to us, however disguised.
We also covet your pilgrims, of course, and urge you now at this critical juncture just a few weeks before the Walk
to consider (if you have not already done so) whom you should sponsor for this Walk, to encourage them to commit to
it as soon as possible, and to give them the full 5 star sponsor service throughout -- right through to Fourth Day
follow-up including arranging their introduction to a Reunion Group.
Thank you for your support in these areas of prayer and pilgrims, which has been vital in ensuring that to date each
Walk has been “the best Walk ever” – I trust that this one will be no different!
De Colores!
Stephen Birkett
March 2008
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