96 - Nairobi, Kenya - What is it to just be?

[whiteman]

1996 - Nairobi, Kenya - What is it to just be?

As our network grows so does the conversation, and the question raised in the 1996 Summit is applicable to me. In speaking to many you last weekend on the phone and face to face, the value of the International Black Summit grows increasingly clear, and compels me more and more to keep encouraging you in your journey to bring into being your vision for yourself, the black community and the world.

For me, the Summit is a community of friends and family who speak the language, share the tools and avail themselves as supporters, coaches, and resources for my visions. Our brief communication pulls me to stand for your full participation in the conversation, and by sharing this conversation with the International Black Summit community they too will send love, peace and the power of community to you.

The following following email is an example of the Summit community that I am eager for you to participate in. Please be generous and send Lorraine a reply of love and support in her witness to us.

I am standing for 100 to 200 participants coming to this year’s event by chartered buses round trip from Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Canada to Baltimore. We have found our buses and are closer to finalizing budget costs and the process and I look forward to realizing your intentions with me.

To that end, there is more clarity in this space and I ask your permission to share it with you. Looking to the weekend of August 5^th through the 8^th, these are the components of our journey in their priority. First thing first is registration for the summit. I am creating a space for 200 participants to register by May 1, 2010. I have attached the registration forms for your completion. When completed please fax the registration forms to CharlesEtta T. Sutton

International Black Summit

www.blacksummit.org

908.753.7674 fax

1. The Summit Event: the actual Summit Event will occur Friday, Saturday and conclude Sunday. The three day conversation will entail a registration fee of:

Category	Age	Amount	Pay as you choose
Senior Adults	55 and over	$200
Adults	25 to 54	$250
Young Adults	18 to 24	$150
Youth	8 to 17	$100
Daily Rate		$100

2. The Prerequisite: the prerequisite is an event designed to prepare you for the conversation of the Summit. This will occur on Thursday. If you have not completed the International Black Summit Prerequisite Course or attended an International Black Summit Annual Event, you must complete the IBS Prerequisite before attending an Annual International Black Summit Event. The prerequisite will entail a registration fee of:

Category	Age	Amount	Pay as you choose
Adults	25 and over	$100
Young Adults	18 to 24	$100
Youth	8 to 17	$100

3. The Hotel: Pending. Once the registration is counted on May 1^st, my Chicago team will work with the Summit teams to secure hotel rooms for the 100 to 200 members of our bus trip from Chicago to Baltimore.
4. The Bus: Pending. By June 1^st my Chicago team will confirm transportation arrangements.

In the meantime here is the 14^th summit questions and declarations.

Your commentary is welcome, join in the conversation, and visit The International Black Summit web site at: http://www.blacksummit.org/, and the Summit Fan Page-www.facebook.com/blacksummit.

1995 - New York , NY - Who am I in relationship to being life as transition?
1994 - New Orleans , LA - What is my relationship to grace in regards to acknowledgement, abundance, wealth and well-being?
1993 - Oakland , California - Who or what must I be in order to transform the black community and the world?
1992 - Highland Park , Michigan - What must I transform within myself in order to transform the world?
1991 - Atlanta , Georgia - Who am I in relationship to the black community? What is it to be black?

I look forward to seeing you in Baltimore this summer.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lorraine Warren a href="mailto:[e-mail]">[e-mail]>
Sent: Mon, Apr 12, 2010 12:05 am
Subject: Re: Lorraine

Dear Summit Body,

Why am I writing to you from Rwanda? I need a space to hold what I am experiencing here. I need the space of listening that I have experienced in the Summit.

Yesterday afternoon and into the night our group attended a memorial in honor of those who perished at a site called Ibuku. It was a sit in which 5, 000 men, women and children were slaughtered. This killing occurred right after the UN forces left Rwanda and took all international citizens with them. They refused to offer refuge to Rwandans who came to a technical school hoping they would be protected.

The event was attended by over 6 thousand people. A very large circle of chairs was placed around a large fire. The people occurred to me to be numb. I looked at the expressions on their faces and they seemed vacant. This disturbed me. I had a sense that the could have been an opportunity of great release and it seemed suppressed to me. They I got up and walked beyond the circle and discovered the YOUTH. The youth were sitting on the ground just beyond the place that the over group sat. They were sitting on the grass in groups of 2 and 3 talking quietly. Some of them were standing. What I felt was an amazing energy. I hear a roaming coming from their silent conversations. Those who were standing were looking around. The energy was so powerful.

I tried to capture were I have felt anything like that before. Then I remember when I was in China before Tenneman Square. In New York before 911. In Yugoslavia before the civil war there.

I realized that this amazing energy unchanneled could create great harm or great transformation and healing.

I asked that you continue in your prayers for the Bearing Witness Rwandan retreat participants, both international and Rwandans, and please send loving light, healing light to the youth.

Today we visit the Kigali memorial site. Each day we are visiting different sites and mass graves. There are many that hold the bodies of the 800, 000 or more people who were killed during the genocide.

I am surrendering myself to THIS process. There are three tenets they have asked us to practice:
1. Not knowing: releasing judgments and fixed ideas
2. Bearing witness: to the suffering and the joy
3. Loving action

My intention, one of them, for today is to listen deeply.

Love,
Lorraine

On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 8:45 AM, Lorraine Warren a href="mailto:[e-mail]">[e-mail]> wrote:

Hi Summit Body,

I am in Rwanda, Central Africa participating in a retreat called "Bearing Witness Rwanda." I am asking that you place me and our group in your prayers for love and light and divine order.

The purpose of this retreat is to bear witness to the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and engage in dialogue to see what is possible to create peace now and in the future. The people here have experienced profound trauma. Some do not want to talk about it, others feel differently. Many are still in PTSD. Children have been impacted in unimaginable ways. I visited a home for children yesterday. 20 children who have stories that are unspeakable...I will share more later.\

For now, I just ask for your love and light on this journey.

Lorraine