GLC Triennial Global Guests

Di Keener (l) and Amudha Barrigar (r)

The Great Lakes Conference hosted Di Keener and Amudha Barrigar as Global Guests to Triennial, a Covenant gathering for women by women that is held once every three years.  The conference is a time and place to connect with women from other nations, cultures, and traditions. Through Global Guests, women are invited to the conference from countries where the Covenant serves in global mission.

Di and Amu are members of the Church of St. Mark and St. Peter in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Di and her husband Tim are bi-vocational missionaries. They are both on staff part time at the church and partner with the Canadian Conference and Serve Globally. 

Di and Amu came a week early to spend some time with different churches and ministries of the GLC. Their first stop was Redeemer Covenant Church in Caledonia, Michigan. They spent time with Pastor Beth Ernest and while in the greater Grand Rapids area they were able to visit with Dale Dalman of Esperanza Covenant Church, Rob Peterson of Thoranpple Covenant Church and the staff of Degage Ministries.

Amu at Faith Covenant Westerville

They then traveled to Columbus, Ohio where they were hosted by a family from Faith Covenant Church in Westerville. On Saturday night, there was a women’s gathering where Di and Amu did a presentation and had a time of prayer. They also shared during the Sunday morning service which was followed by a potluck and a time of questions and conversations. The next stop was metro-Detroit. They were accompanied by Jody Eidnes (GLC Conference Administrator) and Pam Pangborn (Executive Pastor of Hope Community Church). They spent an afternoon at City Covenant Church (Detroit) and received a tour of Mission:City. They heard ministry stories from Pastor Semmeal Thomas and his wife Pat. The next day they visited The Henry Ford Museum (Dearborn) and spent some time with Hope Community Church (Detroit) and learned about their outreach ministries. They then flew from Detroit to Minneapolis to attend Triennial from July 18-21.

(l-r) Jody, Di, Amu, Pat and Semmeal

Di said of her visit in Detroit, “I was inspired by Pastor Semmeal, and his wife Patricia, by how they love so big. They are serving so many little and big people. Mission:City gives so many opportunities for the community to be part of what God is doing. I’ll never forget the pastor telling us about the ‘tree’ and how people gather there. He told us how their church community pulled up chairs around the tree with them and shared stories and food. This church really gets being the hands and feet of Christ.” She added, “We are so thankful to all the leaders that gave us their time to share stories about their ministries. We will hold these churches in our hearts and remember to pay close attention to what God is doing around us. We are ‘the’ church and together throughout the world we are building HIS kingdom!” Amu shared that, “It was an honor to be invited and experience the Covenant Triennial conference this summer. I enjoyed my time in Westerville where we were welcomed with open arms by the people of Faith Covenant Church. It was lovely to meet people at that church and share a bit of my story with them. I loved staying with Angie Goff and her family, they made us feel part of the family right away and fed us very well! I very much enjoyed how the people of Faith Covenant Church tried to make us feel at ease by singing a song in French for us. This showed their commitment and willingness to include us in their service.”