Surrender Conference and Coffee & Conversations

Bella and I had a wonderful road trip down to Melbourne last week to join in the Surrender Conference.

Bella was part of the social enterprise panel session at the conference. She described the way we have used coffee sales to raise funds for various projects, and how that sustainable social enterprise model allows local community building to intersect with global development needs.

The trip also allowed us to lead Coffee & Conversations in Tumut and Ballarat, as part of a series of small gatherings in which we lead discussions on the various things we are passionate about.

We are most excited to facilitate new thinking about the importance of mercy in our increasingly polarised and aggressive society, and about human trafficking (also called modern slavery). You’ll find more about both of those topics on this website. There are various documents here about our research work in human trafficking, and of course, you will have heard about our recent book Disrupting Mercy (available now from Amazon, Koorong and elsewhere — there’s even an audio version).

But these conversations could be about many other things too, like …

  • The upcoming referendum on enabling an indigenous voice to parliament

  • Sustainable social enterprises: using small business for social good

  • Navigating a journey of faith in the light of a growing disillusionment with the tradition model of church

  • The intersection of religious faith and technology

  • The Anabaptist tradition and its focus on community and non-violence.

If you would like to host a gathering around any of those topics, or need more information, please call Bella on 0409 50 88 99 (in Australia), or email rossinibella@gmail.com.