Os Guiness spoke today. I have finally found worth having a man-crush on.  He is deeply intellectual, highly relevant, profoundly prophetic and a true lover of God (he is amador). 

We began the morning with a study of Ephesians 1.  The process is so powerful. 

After worship we took a few minutes to study the text individually. Imagine 4200 people sitting in the same room meditating on the same passage from the word of God.  They printed out the entire letter on a long sheet of paper. It is in 8 different languages. the only bummer is that they chose the ESV version. (I don’t do weird English) 

Then the Lausanne theater team read the first chapter creatively through a contemporary drama of what it would have been like to receive Tytichus (?) or "Ty" into their fellowship carrying the letter through Roman checkpoints.

After that, we shared our observations of the passage with our small groups. All the congress participants were assigned a table for the purposes of discussion and fellowship. Tables have a maximum of 6 chairs and the entire auditorium floor is filled with tables.  No one gets to sit alone or in anonymity. There are close to 700 tables and our assigned seating is only for the morning sessions. I was asked along with 700 other people to be a Table Leader. Thank God for New Life small group training.  So far only two of the people assigned to my table have arrived (I am trying hard not to feel dejected: God loves you, paco). 

As a table leader I am expected to encourage conversation leading by example. Last evening we had one hour to all share our stories, hope for the congress, strengths and limitations. 

The two guys in my group are great! We are really hitting off well. Global jiving!

• Simon, is from Australia and works training and networking for children's and sports ministries throughout the world. As he shared in our table discussion we realized how hard it is for him to be serving children but his wife not being able to have children. His wife, penny, is here on another table. Hopefully we will get to meet her sometime during the week.  It was great to pray for Simon.  As we laid hands on him the HS spirit gave us a full sense of empathy and we all ended up in tears.
• Umut is from Turkey. He shared passionately about the work God has called him to do in Turkey.  He is younger than 30 and is already the General Secretary of the Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey. He was converted while in college doing research on the internet. One thing led to another and eventually he bumped by accident onto the words of John 8:32 on some website.  God then led him to meet and chat online with a Turkish christian living in Canada. And finally agreed to visit a Christian church in another city in turkey where he met the Lord Jesus.  Now he is a pastor. One of his parishioners was killed by Muslims, slashed his throat for being a believer. There is a movie about him and two other Turkish believers murdered for their faith.  Umut's English is not as elaborate but is cool to hear his accent. After I shared about my life and struggles he prayed for me, laying hands and speaking in turkish.  It was way cool!

By the way, one more interesting thing about these two guys: Simon and his wife travel throughout the world for about 6 months of the year since they have no kids. On the other side, Umut has never travelled outside Turkey until this trip. Isn’t that interesting!

Anyways, back to this morning (Monday morning) we are following the Inductive method for bible study. It was so cool to hear the observations of Umut, who lives in Smyrna, one of the seven churches of the Apocalypse.  Ephesus is the city next to him.  It’s as if we were reading the letter of the Apostle Paul to the church in Lawndale or to the church in Oak Park.  After that, Ajith Fernando came to do the exposition from the front. 25 minutes on the dot. (good thing they didn’t invite Mark—Mr-One-hour-minimum-preaching—Driscoll  to speak). 

The final step of the time we spend on application questions. It was such a fulfilling time. It felt like sharing a well-balanced meal with everyone there.  I am wondering how this experience can inform our way of studying scripture together for our New Life pastoral Message Preparation, this feels definitely like a fellowship immersed in scripture.

The second session was about truth. That is when Os Guiness spoke along with two other chaps. So good! I hope you can follow some of these sessions @ www.lausanne.org.  You can also interact by going to the Global Conversations link.

Bless yall!  Got my ipod and running shoes on. The weather is great. I am going for a run.  Hope to see me some seals.