The weekend of February 27-29 was our yearly Shalom conference in a Portland Doubletree hotel. Shalom means "peace" in the sense of the way things ought to be, on a large scale. It is a Hebrew word that refers to compassion, justice and reconciliation. It can describe the relationship between humanity and God, or relationships among humanity.

The conference focuses on both. For the past three years that it has been held, students from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska have come to learn about having a right relationship with God and right relationships among each other. Non-believers have been invited to attend, and this year were treated to their own lounge with food and games-- a place to get away when being surrounded by Christians became overwhelming. Students of a mix of ethnicities were invited, to pursue a diverse fellowship even in the invitations to learn about that endeavor.

This year we were blessed with two amazing speakers: Brenda Salter-McNeil and Rick Richardson. The two are an African-American woman and Caucasian man who have been friends for over 20 years and are currently co-authoring a book about racial reconciliation. Both have served as InterVarsity staff. Brenda is currently a preacher at a diverse church and Rick is focusing on evangelism in InterVarsity chapters. He has written an excellent book entitled Evangelism Outside the Box.

The first evening Brenda called us to consider the times. Our generation will experience more multi-ethnicity and issues with being bi-racial than any before us. Our generation has been awakened by September 11th to the fact that the world is smaller-- we cannot stay ignorant to what is going on in the world. And our churches are being looked to for answers, and often rejected because of how segregated they are.

"If we stay divided, no one's going to believe our rhetoric about Christ breaking down the dividing wall," Brenda said. Our generation needs to step up and create a body that is whole, that reflects our society, that is relevant to the problems of today.

Rick spoke the next day about discovering our ethnic identity-- both for the minorities in the group and for white folks. Something he said that stuck out to me was that our ethnicity and culture matter and were intended by God. When God commanded us to "fill the earth and steward it," that is what created genetic and cultural variance. Also, in John's vision in the book of Revelation, he saw people from every tribe, tongue and nation-- it was a diverse worship scene, and ethnicity hadn't just disappeared.

That evening there was a call to repentance for those who had unhealthy views of their ethnicity, such as self-hatred or embarrassment, being "color-blind" and ignoring the fact that ethnicity matters, or those who have responded to injustices against them with rage. Rick, Brenda and many staff workers offered prayer for those who wanted it.

We had extended worship that evening. Each of the four sessions that weekend included diverse forms of worship, from acoustic guitar to gospel. But Saturday evening we were treated to a Native American worship group to lead us in song and dance. This is the third time I have been a part of worshipping with a group like this, but it is still so powerful to see how God has redeemed their culture and redeemed the abuse done against them by early American "Christians".

My primary role at this conference was, along with a few of our student leaders, to lead a small group. Brandy and Christina from my Bible Study, and Leah from another U of O Bible study made up my group. We also got to room together. We met for about 45 minutes after each of the main sessions to process together our questions and what stood out to us in the talks. We also took time to pray for each other. Those three girls wrestled a lot with what the speakers were talking about. Each of them is in a rocky (or very early) stage in their walk with Jesus, so that made parts of the conference difficult for them. But talking with them recently, it seems that God has answered my prayers and has been helping them grow from the conference in the time since.

Ten non-Christians gave their lives to the Lord that weekend; it was the exact number that certain staff had felt like God was promising them before the conference. And countless other students were challenged in new ways to pursue relationships across ethnic lines and to take new risks in their walks with Jesus.