Kinship Wisdom in Action
- Carolyn & John Wilt
- Sep 30
- 2 min read
In August, Carolyn and I enjoyed spending personal time with many Kinship members and families at our annual Kampmeeting. It was so valuable to greet in person - to shake hands, hug and reconnect - and to absorb unique feelings and emotions. Each speaker shared many unique viewpoints, thoughts and experiences.
By Saturday evening our Kampmeeting personal mental tapestry was started with threads of ex-pastoral stresses and goals - evaluations of our faiths reactions to modern awareness of SDA religion and Queer identities - understanding the desires and complications as caring conference educational leaders work with local faith school leaders and teachers encountering various LGBTQIA+ rainbow students situations - gaining insight into the value of friendship and acceptance versus judgement and rejection - dealing with the trauma experienced by Kinship members and their families - and finally a valuable historical review of Kinship from the eyes and emotions of an original leader and creator of SDA Kinship.
Our tapestry is still being woven with all the knowledge and information shared. It continues to be enriched as we add the personal and emotional connections we enjoyed over those four meaningful days. Carolyn and I were strongly enriched with all the information we heard and absorbed. Then we started thinking and pondering what to do with those valuable threads - those colorful and meaningful patterns of needs, successes and concerns. We returned home much smarter - more knowledgeable than when we arrived in the Riverside hotel and Kampmeeting conference room.
A few days ago I was wandering through my stack of philosophical daily thoughts and stumbled on this one:
“It’s better to be the wisest person in the room, than the smartest”
I’ve always thought knowledge was important so I kept reading more on that page and learned:
“People prove their intelligence by showing what they know. They reveal their wisdom by integrating what everyone knows“
So Carolyn and I did increase our rainbow knowledge from each speaker and personal encounter with loving attendees. We are smarter and our Kampmeeting tapestry is in-work but how do we weave all those threads into something of wisdom? The final thought on that page stated:
“Intelligence can be used to advance personal agendas. Wisdom guides groups to shared goals.“
Ah ha that is exactly what our Kampmeeting focus was:
"We Hope Together - We Grow Together - We Overcome Together"
That was true wisdom as all of us - kinship members - parents and families - and allies work together to provide a safe community that accepts, understands and supports all rainbow situations. We need to expand our Kinship activities in our local communities. We need the local members, families, and allies to connect and meet often.
Please feel free to connect with Kinship leadership for information about members in your local areas. Let’s connect together locally. Let’s build bonds of understanding and acceptance locally. Let’s energize Kinship’s desires and goals at many local areas.
Let’s be truly wise and reach out locally. Together we will hope, grow, and overcome together. Jesus will smile down on all of us and give us a loving thumbs up! He will support our wisdom!
- Carolyn & John Wilt
Kinship Families & Friends Coordinators
