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Its late Sunday as I write and I’m on my way home from a three day trip to Indonesia to be with 40 people gathered from across South-East Asia.

These were exceptional days.

We worked, and chatted, ate, drank, reflected prayed and played. On Friday evening when we gathered many of us were strangers to each other. But a weekend of focus on the reality and power of the presence of Christ here and now formed us and bonded us into a community of faith.

Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do people say I am.” Yes there are many opinions and confused by these differences diversity is a problem.

Then Jesus firmly fixed his gaze on them and got to the heart of the matter: Yes (he ponders) I know that there are as many opinions out there as there are people.

But that doesn’t really matter any more.

The time for theories about God has passed. The days of simply believing because others tell us might be ok for kids, but now we are seeking greater maturity of Christian faith and we sense Jesus asking of each of us “who do YOU say I am?

This was the theme of our days and in the formal sessions we sat alongside each other beneath a large poster which presented this central question.

Who do YOU say that I am?

A couple of hours ago we began to leave the venue for long journeys home to Philippines, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Rome, Milan, Japan and Singapore.

As we sang in the refrain of one of our favourite weekend songs: together, the road is beautiful.

The road is beautiful for those who walk,
the road is beautiful for those who go,
the road that leads home is beautiful
where they are already waiting for you.