Evi was invited to teach at the 10th Young Leaders Summit in Austria at Schloss Klaus (Torchbearers) from 11-13 November 2023 and her colleague Nancy joined her in this adventure.
Here a summary by Evi:
We totally loved our weekend in Austria. I, Evi, was invited to be their keynote speaker, the first female theologian and was asked to lead 4 main sessions. As always, I love to take younger ones with me and this time Nancy came along, my wonderful vice chair in LeadNow.
We had the joy of engaging with 130 youth and young leaders, sharing, teaching and enjoying life together. While I did 4 sessions on counting the costs in leadership (discipleship, pain in leadership etc.), Nancy gave two seminars on “how to keep your heart healthy”.
There was a beautiful welcome for us, a great spirit in this place and life-giving community. And this all in an old castle in beautiful surroundings. We have loved being with these young and older ones. They were so responsive, open, engaged and gave great feedback. Though I won´t eat Marshmallows for a long time! 🙂 They challenged me in a game and I nearly threw up on stage. But hey, I got 12 pieces in!
We are very grateful for the invitation. Thanks so much, Miriam Linseder, for getting me on board and welcoming Nancy just as much. It was wonderful seeing some people again like Armin Hartmann, one of the Torchbearers leaders who has been like an eternity in youth work. For the first time we also met David Bunce face to face who is the brain behind our LeadNow female speaker´s platform.
After the last session, a 13-year old young man came up to me and said, “Evi, I have understood about 90% and the rest my team explained to me! And what I understood, I really loved”. He was so sweet and encouraging.
Some said it was their best Young Leaders Summit ever. Well, we are not sure about this but we praise God for such great young people. God is on the move in Austria.
If you are interested in what they are doing, please check them out: https://yls.at/
Miriam wrote an article for Evangelical Focus on this summit: