Orlando 2011: Hwa Yung Calls Complaints Against Cape Town 2010's Diversity Unjust

Tonight's presentation by Malaysian Methodist Bishop Hwa Yung was excellent.  I will not delve into all of it, but I wish to highlight one important comment that he made regarding Cape Town 2010, lest it go unnoticed.

Bishop Yung referred to the fact that there had been a number of complaints against CT2010.  The accusation was that the third Lausanne had been representative / multicultural / international only on a superficial level.  That behind-the-scenes, Western Caucasians were really controlling everything.  I have mentioned this before in my blog.  I had heard that at one point some even considered staging a protest during the final Communion service.

Tonight, Bishop Yung, himself from the majority world and a key player in the design and planning of CT2010 had this to say, "I do not find these complaints to be justified."

I had heard previously from Doug Birdsall that the Bishop felt this way, but I was very glad to hear him say it publicly. Hopefully now some of these accusations could be tempered.  In particular, I believe it is important that those responsible for generating them take at least a moment to consider, ponder, search their hearts.

My Own Research into this Controversy

For my part, I had been aware of the complaints to which Bishop Yung referred before even returning from Cape Town.  Later I came across an article by Tim Stafford in Christianity Today that served to add some steam to this issue. Then in December, I was asked by Beth Snodderly and Scott Moreau to write a chapter on CT2010 for a book they were editing for Regnum.  My research took me deeper into the controversy.  Eventually, I came across some reflections by missiologist Rene Padilla that seemed to express this same sentiment.  I have just now noticed that the reflections have now been taken down from the Micah Network site.

What I would like to see happen is for this particular controversy to give way to peace and a spirit of unity.  To that end, I offer below and excerpt from my CT2010 chapter that I hope can be helpful in addressing the concerns that have been raised:

The Will to Represent: Pressing towards the Whole Church

While I was in South Africa for the Congress, a friend and teammate of mine was invited to attend a national consortium focused on church planting and evangelism in the United States. This was a relatively small, invitation-only event organized by some leaders in our denomination. My friend is an immigrant to the US from East Africa and was struck by the fact that in a meeting presumably focused on reaching all people groups in the nation, he was the lone African. In fact, besides himself, a small handful of Korean leaders, and one African-American, the other participants at the meeting appeared to be American-born, Caucasian men. It was likely an unconscious and unintentional thing for the organizers. Other immigrant leaders were perhaps invited but unable to attend. My friend may not have noticed a Russian or Polish pastor, a Hispanic church planter, or even a woman amid the crowd. But the point is that in that meeting and countless other Christian meetings like it throughout the history of the family of God, little to no effort was placed in intentionally trying to represent the Church in its wholeness.

Here is where CT2010 has broken the mold, although it was not the first Christian meeting to do so, following in the historic tradition of Lausanne 1974 and Manila 1989, two of the most representative Christian gatherings in history. Beyond that, we may assume that other gatherings of Christians have exercised great intentionality in seeking to be as representative as they could be. However, it is safe to say that nothing on the scale of Lausanne III has ever been either attempted or accomplished. During the opening ceremonies, Doug Birdsall called the Congress ‘the most representative and diverse gathering of Christian leaders in the nearly 2000-year history of the Christian movement’.[i] The figures were impressive—more than four thousand carefully selected on-site delegates representing 198 nations, an additional 100,000 people reached through 650 fully interactive GlobaLink sites in 91 countries,[ii] and a less formal, social networking system called the Lausanne Global Conversation that allowed countless individual Christians from all over the world to read papers, watch session videos, offer feedback, and even create their own content to share with the global Church. Plenary and multiplex session presenters were likewise carefully chosen so as to pursue both excellence in content and a broad representation of the global Christian community. In addition, a rather complicated selection grid was designed in order to help ensure that more of the Church in its wholeness would be represented than ever before. At minimum, 60% of participants were to be under the age of 50, 10% under age 30, 35% women, and 10% of the delegates were to come from the marketplace.[iii]

When a friend of mine, a female pastor from Germany, learned about what she referred to as a ‘quota system’ for selecting participants, she was initially disappointed. ‘I want to be here because I deserve to be here, not because of some quota’, she told me. However, as she reflected throughout the week, she realized that without such a system she simply wouldn’t have been invited to attend. As a young leader under 40, I knew that the same was true for me. Yet all those traditionally marginalized segments of the Church—the young, women, disabled peoples, laity, ethnic minorities, and others—truly belong at the table. In fact, as we have seen from Ephesians, they are needed. That the CT2010 Participation Selection Committee, led by Hwa Yung, understood, prioritized, and actually accomplished bringing them to the table in a historically unprecedented way will stand as a lasting part of the legacy of the Congress. What is more, this intentional effort to represent the breadth of the global Church must also be appreciated as one of the truly significant contributions of Lausanne III to the cause of Christ.

CT2010 modeled for the Body of Christ what it looks like to pursue the biblical ideal and mandate of gathering the Church in its wholeness. This was done in continuity with the two previous Lausanne Congresses, but to a degree of thoroughness which surpassed them. Taken together, the example of the Lausanne Movement’s three global Congresses now resounds as an unambiguous call to the global Church to ‘go and do likewise’. The mantle of responsibility has now clearly fallen upon the delegates of CT2010, many of whom are key influencers of churches, denominations, and organizations around the world, to pursue the same kind of breadth of representation in the committees, leadership teams, consultations, and conferences that they are and will be a part of. If this is done with faithfulness by a significant number of Christian leaders, it will signal the dawn of a new era in the history of Christ’s Church and its partnership in mission.

Before leaving this section, something must be said with regard to the voices of dissension that have openly criticized the Lausanne Movement at this very point for not being representative enough in the planning and implementation of CT2010. Of the more notable critiques on this issue, Latin American missiologist Rene Padilla specifically pointed to the plenary session focused on evangelism strategy as being ‘made in the USA’ and reflecting ‘the obsession with numbers typical of the market mentality that characterizes a sector of evangelicalism in the United States’.[iv] Wrote Padilla, ‘All too frequently Christian leaders in the North and West, especially in the United States, continue to assume that they are in charge of designing the strategy for the evangelization of the whole world’.[v] Still others lamented the fact that Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or other non-evangelical Christians, while present as official observers, were not invited to serve as delegates to the Congress.

Doug Birdsall, in response to such critiques has offered the following:

It is a stretch to suggest that the program was planned by Westerners and then sent to the rest of the world. The program chair was Ramez Atallah of Cairo, Egypt. The program director was Grace Mathews from India. The twelve International Deputy Directors from the twelve regions of the world were involved at every stage, including hosting of 20 pre-Congress consultations. The program represented the consensus of hundreds of leaders from around the world. A group of leaders from across Africa met annually in Cape Town for the last three years under the Chairmanship of the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Rev. Dr. Henry Orombi to ensure that the program was global in scope and also African in nuance. Two thirds of the speakers were from Africa, Latin America and Asia. They shaped the program. The leaders of the worship team were from South Africa and from Jamaica. It is a slight to these global leaders to overlook their rich contribution and suggest it was planned by the West.[vi]

Added Birdsall:

“There were many participants from churches related to the WCC - including Bishop Hwa Yung the Methodist Bishop of Malaysia.  There were many Catholics and Orthodox who were there as participants from many places around the world.  There was indeed a smaller group of observers who were officially deputized on behalf of the Vatican, the WCC center in Geneva, and the Orthodox Patriarchs.  I met with all of them twice during the Congress.  They all expressed their desire for more involvement with Lausanne and their desire for ongoing discussions.”[vii]

The criticisms nevertheless are of tremendous value in that they soberly remind us that CT2010 did not fully arrive at the biblical ideal as presented in Ephesians, a fact that Birdsall himself would readily admit. Nevertheless, we cannot deny that with the third Congress, the Lausanne Movement pressed in more closely to it than anyone ever has.

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[i] Birdsall, ‘Cape Town’. A significant disappointment that must be noted was the shutting out of some 200 Chinese delegates by the government of that country. Though prevented from attending, the delegation nevertheless rejoiced in the face of their persecution and accepted the Chinese government’s decision with humble and hopeful submission. See The Lausanne Movement, ‘The Third Lausanne Congress Opens’, online: http://www.lausanne.org/news-releases/the-third-lausanne-congress-opens.html, 16 October 2010 [accessed 31 December 2010].

[ii] The Lausanne Movement, ‘The Third Lausanne Congress Opens’.

[iii] T. Stafford, ‘Teeming Diversity: The Third Lausanne Congress Demonstrated That Global Evangelicalism Has Been Transformed’, online: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/december/6.34.html?start=2 , 1 December 2010 [accessed 31 December 2010].

[iv] C. R. Padilla, ‘Reflections on Cape Town 2010: Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization’, online: http://www.micahnetwork.org/en/story/reflections-cape-town-2010-lausanne-congress-world-evangelization, 2010 [accessed 31 December, 2010].

[v] Padilla, ‘Reflections’.

[vi] Birdsall, D. Email to Cody C. Lorance. 9 January 2011.

[vii] Birdsall, Email.

3 Crucial Things that are Impossible Apart from the Body of Christ

     Some of you, it is conceivable, may be waiting for me to post something to this blog.  I've not been doing so lately because I've been buried in writing for a couple projects.  Anyway, I do want to share something with you to kind of tide you over until I can get back to regular writing.  The following reflects some of the thoughts that I shared last Sunday night in house church at TIBM and is actually an excerpt from a chapter that I'm writing for a book the will come out next year.  I hope you're an Ephesians fan! Enjoy:

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     In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, which served as the primary Scriptural focus of Cape Town 2010, one gets the impression that if a follower of Christ wishes to have anything approaching a meaningful relationship with God, they must become deeply enmeshed with the life of the Church in its wholeness.  It is, in the language of the Apostle, the Church who has received “every spiritual blessing” (1:3) and that has become “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (1:23).  The Church is his “body” (1:23), his “workmanship” (2:10), a company of “fellow citizens” and members of “the household of God”(2:19), a “temple” in which the Holy Spirit dwells (2:21-22),  and Christ’s own bride, the object of his tender care and nourishment (5:32).

 

     What is more, it is clear from Ephesians that at least three things, and those of paramount importance, are possible only within the context of the whole Church.   First, making known the “manifold wisdom of God” to the invisible realm of evil spiritual “rulers and authorities” is something that God has purposed to do “through the Church” (3:10-11).  This is accomplished as peoples from many divergent and often mutually hostile nations and cultures become one body through the peace-making cross of Jesus Christ (2:12-3:10).  Consequently, the more wholeness is realized among the nations and peoples of the earth through the blood of Christ, and the more he himself is manifested as the peace of the Church that truly joins us together as one new humanity, the more awesome the resulting display will be of God’s wisdom to the demonic spiritual realm.  According to John Piper, in his exposition of this passage at the Congress, “There isn’t anything greater that can be said about the global Church of Jesus but that, through the death of the Messiah, God has created a people in whom he means for his infinite wisdom to be manifest to the cosmic powers of evil” (Piper, 2010).

     Secondly, it is only “together with all the saints” that Christ-followers can find the strength to comprehend the multidimensional love of Christ and, through that, to be “filled with all the fullness of God” (3:18-19).  Such love, we are told, “surpasses knowledge” (3:19) and thus lies outside the grasp of a divided and fragmented Church.  But when Christians from every family on earth, “rooted and grounded in love” and indwelt by the Spirit, join together in partnership and communion, the breadth and length and height and depth of divine love is brought into full relief, God is glorified, and we are filled (3:14-21).

     Finally, we see that outside the context of the whole Church, genuine spiritual maturity is likewise impossible.  Paul exhorts us to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” for a very practical reason (4:3).  There is a single, universal Church and only one Holy Spirit (4:4), but the grace-ministering gifts of Christ are varied and have been distributed to Christians (4:7) far and wide.  Doug Birdsall’s vision of Cape Town 2010 being an “international gift exchange” (Birdsall, 2010) is exactly what Paul argues is always and at all times required.  He says that all the saints are to be equipped.  All are to attain to the unity of the faith.  All are to become spiritually mature.  But this is possible for none unless the whole body is “joined and held together,” “each part working properly” and thus promoting the growth of the Church in the love of Christ (4:16).  I dare not presume that all the gifts and manifestations of God’s grace exist within the confines of my own local, denominational, or even national church.  I need the whole body.

A Special Year-End Message from the Lausanne Movement

Greetings friends, followers, readers and web crawlers! Many of us involved in the Lausanne Movement received a email message from Doug Birdsall, the Executive Chair of the movement.  Doug has provided a helpful update on where things stand right now and where we're headed, which is great. However, he's also laid out the financial needs that remain in the wake of Cape Town 2010.  I'm reposting Doug's letter below because I'm a poor, lowly little cross-cultural missionary who himself needs all of you to send financial support.

And that's true. We really don't bring it up often, but Trinity International Baptist Mission needs your support. We are doing a tremendous amount of Kingdom work on a shoestring budget -- which is as it should be. However, we could do so much more.  There is so much more to do.  Your financial gifts could go a long way in helping us to bring the hope and wholeness of Christ to the nations here in Chicagoland and beyond.

So, do take time to read Doug's request below and I strongly encourage you to give to the Lausanne Movement.  I am so convinced that the work of Lausanne is important to Christ's mission in the world that I will say this- If you can only give to one ministry this Christmas, don't give to us.  Give to Lausanne.  I really mean that.  Now, on to Doug's letter:

Dear Friends:

Thank you for your investment in advancing God’s Kingdom through your support of The Lausanne Movement and Cape Town 2010: The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization.

This Congress, perhaps the widest and most diverse gathering of Christians ever held in the history of the Church, drew 4,200 selected participants from 198 nations to Cape Town.  Leaders from around the world, unable to be in Cape Town, also participated through GlobaLink sites and the Lausanne Global Conversation.  Many of the participants stated that the Congress provided them with new vision, inspiration and courage for their ministries and businesses—and because of the global nature of the gathering, a little slice of heaven!  By God’s grace and His provision of an excellent technical team, we overcame fierce attacks on our websites by cyber-hackers who did not want the world to see what God was doing in Cape Town.

The first part of the Cape Town Commitment has been well received by the global church (read part one here: http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11544).  The Statement Working Group, led by Dr. Chris Wright, will complete part two in the next few weeks.  The first six months of 2011 are already full for Lindsay Brown, Lausanne International Director, and me as we respond to invitations to participate in consultations and conferences around the world which have been energized by Cape Town 2010.

We are eager to build on the global momentum that was generated by Cape Town 2010.

However, we must quickly resolve one issue before we can lay hold of the opportunities that are on the horizon.  We must raise US$2 million in the next two weeks so that Lausanne can end the year with all bills paid and all financial commitments fulfilled.

Let me offer a word of explanation.  Prior to the Congress, nearly US$15.5 million had been given.  At the time the Congress opened, we needed just US$1.024 million (in addition to pending pledges) for the budget to be fully subscribed.  During the week of the Congress, additional gifts of just over US$200,000 were received leaving us with a balance of approximately US$800,000.  We anticipated that this gap would be covered by additional gifts and by an expected significant refund of the South Africa Valued Added Tax (VAT).

Several factors have contributed to significant additional costs of over US$1 million that we are now facing:

• We were assessed more VAT than anticipated and our VAT refund was reduced by nearly two thirds to just US$175,000.
• Planning a global Congress means that we are also subject to international currency exchanges.  During the month of the Congress the US dollar hit a three-year low against the South African Rand, resulting in a currency exchange loss of US$486,000.  Ouch! 
• We had approximately 300 invited participants come to the Congress who had not completed their registration, so we were not expecting them to attend.  The majority were from very poor countries in Francophone Africa and South Asia where they have limited Internet access (meaning we weren’t able to send and receive regular communication from them) and where their culture does not emphasize long-term planning horizons.  Though we had not anticipated their coming we did accommodate them, paying for hotels and local transportation which added nearly US$300,000 to our costs.  While this was a major increase in expense for Lausanne, it was a great encouragement to these dear brothers and sisters in Christ and a strategic Kingdom investment in the leadership in that part of the world, as well as a significant blessing to the global body of Christ to have them in attendance.
• We also experienced US$500,000 in extra costs to cover additional furniture and meals due to the higher number of participants and the increased technology expenditures incurred in responding to the cyber-attacks on our websites. 

 All of these factors combined have placed us in a situation with a steep financial hill to climb.  However, we have a great community of deeply committed friends around the world.  Rich Stearns, President of World Vision US, when making his emergency gift, had this to say, “[Cape Town 2010] was such an important event for the Church of Jesus Christ and the bills must not go unpaid.”

I am writing to ask you to pray with me about this critical financial need and to consider making a special year-end gift to Lausanne.  Would you please be in prayer that God would provide through His people?  I am sure we will reach the summit in a short time through a concerted global effort.

At this moment in time, I believe it is safe to say that The Lausanne Movement is the most dynamic movement in the world for the future of world evangelization and global Christianity.  We have an opportunity to further strengthen the Church so that it can be a source of hope and reconciliation in the decades to come.  Your gift can help us in this significant opportunity. 

Thank you for considering this request.  I remain

Yours in Christ,

Doug Birdsall

The Lausanne Movement, Executive Chair

Was Cape Town 2010 scripted by the West?

Recently, Tim Stafford posted an article on his blog entitled "Blind Spot." This seems to be a follow up from his Christianity Today article "Teeming Diversity" which provides a kind of post-Cape Town 2010 review.  I appreciate what Tim is trying to do in both offerings, but I have been very concerned generally by the kind of criticisms and complaints that have been coming out of the congress.

To be clear, I'm not trying to respond to or argue with Tim here as much as I'm seeking to respond more generally to the spirit of criticism voiced by some who have tried to suggest that the program of Cape Town 2010 was essentially a Western production that non-Westerners were invited to participate in.  I've heard some suggest that while African, Asian, and Latin American faces were on the stage, Americans where calling the shots, writing the script.  I'm disturbed by this kind of talk because my feeling is that in the midst of it, we're missing something huge -- Jesus.

I've already written on this before in my article "Top 3 Complaints about Cape Town 2010".  So, I refer you there.  But today, I feel compelled to post this article because I found an important comment by none other than Doug Birdsall tucked away in the comment section of Stafford's CT article.  Doug, of course, is the chairman of the Lausanne Movement.  I believe his response is compelling and important.  Writes Doug:

"It is a stretch to suggest that the program was planned by westerners and and then sent to the rest of the world. The program chair was Ramez Atallah of Cairo, Egypt. The program director was Grace Mathews from India. The twelve International Deputy Directors from the twelve regions of the world were involved at every stage, including hosting of 20 pre-congress consultations. The program represented the consensus of hundreds of leaders from around the world. A group of leaders from across Africa met annually in Cape Town for the last three years under the Chairmanship of the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Rev. Dr. Henry Orombi to ensure that the program was global in scope and also African in nuance. Two thirds of the speakers were from Africa, Latin America and Asia. They shaped the program. The leaders of the worship team were from South Africa and from Jamaica. It is a slight to these global leaders to overlook their rich contribution and suggest it was planned by the west."


Perhaps more on this later. For now I leave it at this.  May the Lord grant us to worry less about such controversies and more about Christ and His Kingdom.

God at Cape Town: What I saw and heard today

The first full day of the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa has come to a close. I am exhausted. My fatigue today was so extreme that I know it would be unwise for me to go on for very long.  Still, let me just give a few moments to reflection.

What did I see God doing today?

More than anything else, I see God gathering His Church from every corner of the earth and knitting our hearts together as one. Again, I know that I'm extremely naive.  I'm sure there is all sort of carnality going on here and there.  But I don't really care much about that right now. I'm captivated.  I saw a tweet a few moments ago from Ines Franklin that said it perfectly, "When we get to heaven we are going to want to meet every single person there. Getting a feel for it at Cape Town 2010."  Yes, that's it exactly.  I see God in His people today. In my table (which is now complete with the addition of a pastor from Germany), His Spirit is stimulating very fruitful conversation.  My ear is straining to hear His voice there -- I know He is speaking. I'll be posting insights from our table discussion on the Lausanne Global Conversation.  Not there yet.

I'm seeing God in lots of conversations here and there.  I met so many great people today.  From the famous like John Piper, Doug Birdsall and Ajith Fernando, to the awesome like Ruth. Ruth was a great blessing to me tonight.  I sat down at an empty space where several Nigerians and Ruth (a Rwandan) were eating.  Ruth had already finished, but she settled back in and started to talk with me.  She runs a ministry called Pan African Christian Women Alliance in Rwanda where she minsters to women who have been victimized in various ways by the massacre that happened in that country in the 1990s.  Widows, orphans and others are taken care of there.  She teaches them skills that empower them to earn a living.  She teaches them about forgiveness and reconciliation.  She teaches them about Christ.  In other words, she incarnates our Savior in a remarkable way.

Ruth took her time with me.  She lived right on through the unspeakable tragedies of her country.  She told me about the losses and the pain.  "But you cannot grieve for 15 years. You cannot stay in the past.  You have to hope for the future."  So mostly she told me about forgiveness and reconciliation.  "So, it's like that . . . it's like that."

This is a solemn moment in the history of God's Church.  I believe it with all my heart.  Ebenezer from Nigeria said as much to me over dinner when he spoke of God unifying His people right here, right now, before our very eyes. Praise the Lord!

What did I hear God saying?

Allow me to be simple.

I have heard God saying to me through a number of voices, "Press on in the pursuit of contextualization." This word has come now through God's people from Norway, India, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

God is also bringing a question to my mind about partnership.  He seems to be impressing on me that He has some kinds of partnerships for me here at Cape Town 2010.  So the question swelling in my heart is, "What does the partnership look like?"

I heard God say, "Truth is not a what, it is a who -- Jesus Christ."  And, that "truth must be shared relationally, contextually, and dialogically." Finally, that "discipleship must involve the utter transformation of an individuals concept of God."

And, randomly . . . 

Did you know that there are now more cell phones than toilets in India?

Okay, time for bed. Thank you for reading and praying!

Cape Town 2010 Begins!

Nearing midnight, I'm back in my room.  I have so many thoughts going on in my mind.  My body needs sleep, my heart needs to share.  I can't get over the feeling - almost magical - about being here at Lausanne. Some of you have heard me teach about the presence of God in the past. His omnipresence (Ps. 139:7), his presence in the believer's life (Eph. 1:13), his presence in the company of saints (Matt. 18:20), his presence in the God-wardly focused Church (Ps. 22:3), his presence in the missional Church (Mt. 28:20). Well, tonight we sang -- more than 4,000 of us, from 200 nations -- "Jesus is here." I just looked around the room.  My heart swelled within me contemplating that truth.  Yes, indeed. He is here.  He will speak.  He will move.  He will do unspeakable and unimaginable things.

Today, from the podium, Doug Birdsall said something like, "May it be that by the time we meet again for the 4th Lausanne Congress, we'll be able to say, 'Now there are no more unreached people groups. Now there are no languages spoken in which there is not a Bible.'"

It is humbling to be here.

Around my table is a church planter from Pakistan, a long-time scholar, journalist and missionary from Norway, a pastor from Burundi, and a woman from Mumbai who has a ministry to sex workers in that city.  Today, we met and shared our names, families, strengths, weaknesses, hopes for the Congress, and prayer requests.  This experience is truly awesome.  I've been in multicultural worship services before.  I've heard others and said myself of such services, "This is a foretaste of heaven." No, no. This is.  You can't even imagine it, friends. There is a sense of the Holy Spirit's presence that moves me to tears even as I write this.  I am convinced that I've never been a part of something more important.

I snap photos and sometimes video and think all the while, I can't really share this.  No one can really get it unless they are here.  Still, I want to plead with all of you not to miss the amazing opportunity that you have to engage the Congress.  Make it your habit to visit http://www.lausanne.org/cape-town-2010 very often during the next week. Look at pictures, pray, watch video.

My Today:


Today, was strange for me though.  I woke at 5AM and thought, well I don't have to be at the convention center until about 2PM, so let me sleep more.  Next thing I knew, it was 2PM.  I got ready in minutes and walked as fast as I could to the center.  I arrived sweaty (it's hot today) and frazzled.  So, it was difficult to calm down today.  I was in a mad rush getting back tonight also; I wanted to be able to call back to my church in the U.S. and had forgotten to bring my power adapter for the laptop.  So, there's that. I really don't want to be frazzled.  I want to be open to the Lord.  Please pray for me in this.

Table Leader:

Some of you already know that I was selected to be a table leader for this congress.  It is a great opportunity in my mind.  Yesterday, I spent 6-7 hours in a training for this role.  It will be a demanding job.  I need your prayer.  As I understand it, my responsibility will be to facilitate the discussion around our table, to prayerfully intercede for my table mates, to listen and feedback to the congress leaders what is going on and being said at our table, and to essentially shepherd those at my table -- knowing and helping to meet their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. The Lord has given me a strong willingness to perform these things.  I want to surrender myself and my agenda and my needs in order to serve my group.  Will you pray that God empowers me for this?

Encouraging People:

There are some really great people here.  I've loved mingling and meeting.  I usually don't like that component of a conference.  Maybe it is because I'm kind of arrogant often.  This has been different.  Niove from the Dominican Republic found me today and we had a chance to encourage each other.  Greta from Zimbabwe talked with me for a long time about youth ministry and allowed me to share our struggles with 1.5-2nd generation immigrant youth.  Several church leaders from Nepal blessed me today with warm greetings and a promise to meet together later.  Vijayesh and Knud both encouraged me to continue on with the pursuit of contextualization in cross-cultural mission.  I feel great joy.

Tomorrow Awaits:

So, tomorrow awaits.  God know's what is lying ahead.  Please don't forget to pray for me.  Especially for the rest and energy I need.  As well as for my ability to discern what the Lord is telling me to do moment-by-moment.  I need to sleep now. Blessings!