AWAKEN VI – Coming Home- by Sveta Kurinna, Zurich, Switzerland

To understand the permanent impression that  AWAKEN VI made on me, I have to mention that my search for a true Christian fellowship led me to a GCE church in Kyiv, Ukraine 15 years ago. I was still in college, and was a “child” Christian. Since then, I’ve lived very far away from my first church family. I came to AWAKEN VI with a sense of going back in time and being afraid to find that things naturally changed. Surely you are familiar with the feeling of longing to go back home and find things exactly as you remember them from your childhood memories! Perhaps some of you have already discovered that it may be better not to go back to avoid the disappointment.
Surprisingly, from the moment I entered the conference site – indeed, from our first meeting at Roma Termini – I started sensing something supernatural taking place. As a scientist, I use the word “supernatural” with care: it humbles me by pointing to something I may never be able to explain. I cannot explain how and why people from GCE churches located in Italy, Spain, Germany, and Holland, people whom I never met before, would love and care for me. I did nothing to deserve their love; it was given to me because I was a member of God’s family. The timing to receive this care and spiritual nourishment was also supernaturally perfect. It was at the end of a difficult period of my life and it was a proof of God’s presence and love that I needed so much to start the new year of 2016. My family in Christ did not age, move away, or forget me. Instead, it grew, got closer, and wanted to know me more. I can only thank God for it, and for AWAKEN VI! I encourage you to join me and my friends at the next AWAKEN conference.