So much has happened since my last update:
 
First of all, I want you to celebrate with me: I finally found the only starbucks in CapeTown.  Yeah! Here’s a shout out for overprized coffee! A truly American experience that I am glad for.
 
Monday night I had the privilege of addressing the 650+ people from the US delegation. Out of the 4200 world-wide representatives, 400 are official US delegates.  The other 250+ are guests: donors, workers, spouses, observers, etc.   After some basic intros and information, 7 of us went to the front and each in 3 minute segments presented the emerging variety of the body of Christ in the US. 
 
Off course, I went forward representing the immigrant church and had a blast. Out of the 650 or so people representing the US I was blown away from the fact that only around 25 of us are Latinos.  I kindly invited people to realize the amazing growth of the immigrant church in our midst by quoting the words of the King, “lift up your eyes and see that the fields are ripe for the harvest.”  I also presented a message which I continue to sense growing, burning, stirring within me: Who could be better suited for taking on the great US missionary mantel than passionate God-fearing Hispanics among our cities who live on little or no health care, with few financial means, and who don’t mind crossing borders at great personal peril. 
 
I was both absolutely nervous but also truly enjoyed myself. Could this be both a drum that I continue to beat among our people as well as a canvas that I am called to dedicate my living years to? 
 
After the meeting, Donna –who pastors @ Park Community Church in Chicago along with her husband—came running and gave me two clear words of motherly wisdom: she said: “Paco, you don’t realize that your life will never be the same since this moment.”  And “Be careful.” Immediately after her, there was a line of people wanting my business card—I quickly ran out of them—and people coming to invite me to speak at their church or event or association.  I realized then two things:
·       I am saddened at the amazing lack of Latino voices able, willing or allowed to speak into the mainstream of the US Evangelical world, and
·       was glad to hear how strongly my message resonated among the US leaders present by the amount of conversations with multiple people—many, new friends--affirming the words of my talk since then.
 
Donna’s words were truly impacting into my heart. Even as she spoke to me I felt a deeper longing at the core of my heart to just go home and be a good pastor to my little congregation in Little Village.  Yet, I am here at the Lausanne Cape Town not by my own doing. I am being truly impacted by men and women from the whole world speaking the whole gospel to representatives of the whole world.
 
One great treat was to see John Bernard. We had been missionaries together in Spain almost 20 years ago.  During very unsettling times in my life and plenty of dark moments of the soul he offered to mentor me. Throughout the years I have thought about him so much. It was a great surprise to see him and thank him for his investment in my life back then. I was so truly thankful to the Lord for the special gift of seeing my good friend from long ago. He is now the president of United World Mission and his son, Jeffrey, who was 4 years old when I knew them, is getting married in a few weeks.
 
Tuesday as we studied Ephesians 2 we got immersed into the issue of Reconciliation and the Peace that broke through with the arrival of the Prince of Peace.
 
Here are a few very important quotes to me from some of the presenters of that day. These are ordinary people doing extraordinary things for Jesus in their own context:
·       Ruth Padilla DeBorst: The expositor for Eph. 2 and leaders of the Latin American Theological Fraternity:  Each of us are living stones in this building called the church, how well are we fitting with each other? Ephesians 2:22 “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God…”
·       Os Guiness: Talking about why Truth matters supremely especially in our contemporary evangelical situation where many times we dilute truth for the sake of other things.  He said that all humans are both “truth-seekers but also truth-twisters.”  “Let the sorry fate of the liberal Protestants warn us.”
·       Daniel Sered from Israel, presenting together with Shadia Qubti a Palestinian said: “the only hope for Peace in the Middle East is Jesus!” Shadia in turn mentioned that “in the Messiah there is room for all of us.”
·       Antoine Rutaysire, a bishop in Rwanda described in depth the spiritual problem of the Rwandan Genocide.  Before 94, “Rwanda was used as example of the Christianization of a whole nation.” Over 90% of the population considered themselves Christian. Yet in “94 people who had the bible memorized turned around and murdered 1 million of their fellow Rwandans”. He gave two clear calls, one to make not just converts but true disciples of Jesus; and the second, to not ignore but to focus on the Reconciliation of all peoples.
 
Tuesday evening we got a real treat: I attended along with 600 others a private screening of 30 minutes of un-released, never-before-watched footage of the upcoming “Voyage of the Dawn Tredder”.  Fox and Walden media made a special edition with summary slides of the faith parts of the movie just for the Cape Town congress.  All camcorders, cameras or phones had to be turned in at the door.  Also, everyone who attended got a free copy of the movie “Amazing Grace”.  After the screening, there was a panel with Walden media representatives. True to Lewis’ intended goal, the movie seems to be bold and outright about its faith aspect. I can’t wait to hear your reactions when yall get to see it on December 10th.  That was fun.
 
On Wednesday Piper hit a homerun. He laid out a banquet from Ephesians 3 in 25 minutes. He focused on Suffering. Two great take-aways which I could never articulate as he did (you must watch the video on the Cape Town 2010 website).
·       Jesus allows t suffering in some of his people, “so that the church be drawn to the unsearchable riches of God’s glory thru the suffering of her missionaries!”
·       He also hit it out of the ball park when he confronted “a tension that exists among us.” What he did was absolutely masterful, framing the controversy between working for justice and evangelization into the one broad stroke of Human Suffering (between alleviating human suffering today and alleviating eternal human suffering).  He said: “if you have a problem with the eternal suffering part, then you have a faulty view of hell.  If you have a problem with the present suffering part then you have a faulty heart”.
 
For the afternoon I went to the meeting on Globalization with four presenters including Os Guiness and David Wells (author of “the courage to be protestant”). It was fun to sit with several members of the Spanish delegation. “pero hombre, tio!”  This session gave amazing insight into the issue of globalization and the church’s advantage and use of the present situation.  Again the call was towards creative evangelism and deeper discipleship.  I can give you fuller details in person as requested.
 
After that session I went to the top of the Westin Hotel—which is adjacent to the convention center—for a Christianity Today interview with a few other young US delegates (yes, I am considered young among  US representatives. That would give you a better idea of the make up of the delegation.) I knew only a few of the interviewees.  We all had to crowd in two couches. I sat next to a lady who introduced herself as Sara. “Hi Sara, where are you from?”I asked. “Minneapolis,” she answered. “cool, and what do you do there?” “I am a musician.” “hmmmm,” I thought, “everybody is a musician now a days.”  Then it hit me!  “wow, this is SARA GROVES! And I am seating next to her!”  I wished I would have downloaded less U2 and less Shakira and gotten some Sara Groves on my ipod because I could not for the life of me think of any songs by Sara Groves. So I did what I always do when I am nervous, I told her about my kids. I was surprised to see how amazingly low key Sara is. After the interview we had a blast talking about our spouses and our children. She truly lit the fire that Sylvia and I have had of moving into the adoption season of our parenting life.
 
Again, that interview was great fun. There were seven of us. The interviewer, Skie, the editor of leadership magazine did a fabulous job of moving us along. Also part of the interview was the executive pastor for Lifechurch TV the guy who is the mover and shaker for this amazing church with senior pastor Craig Groeshel.
 
Tonight I am going to a Sara Groves concert. Since I don’t have any of her CD’s I am going to have her sign my favorite preaching tie or my bible or my passport. Eat your heart out Stipp!
 
Tim Keller was the speaker for Wednesday night. He off-course talked about cities: why we must, how we can and why we can… reach the cities. 30% of the world’s population lives in 100 cities.
·       Young adults disproportionally live in cities
·       Most unreached people are more reachable in cities
·       The most impacting trends for the world flow from cities
·       The poor live in chanti-towns in cities.
 
That evening the continent in focus was Latin America. I was delighted to sit with the moody delegation led by Dr. Fuder and also was so excited to see both Samuel Escobar and Rene Padilla. These are Lausanne’s two Latin American sages. They have had a global influence since the first Lausanne back in 74.  I got a picture with both of them. I remember reading their evangelical responses to Liberation Theology back in the 80’s. both of them are getting older and as the entire Latin American delegation joined them on stage to lead a song of worship, I felt like these two godly forefathers, were passing on the mantel to younger Latin American leaders.
 
I felt puzzled to be here but not being part of the Latin American delegation.  I have been hanging out with Daniel Rodriguez a fellow chicano from Pepperdine University.  His new book on Latinos in the states is about to come out through Intervarsity press. He along with others has encouraged me that it is okay to be Latino in the US.  The work is vast and the workers are few. I was able to celebrate my Latin-American cousins.  Interestingly enough, that evening at the US reception, Al Hsu, the editor of Intervarsity approached me with the very same idea of writing a book through Intervarsity about what the Hispanic experience. We had a great conversation. I feel like the Mexican population is the largest demographic among Hispanics in the US but the least represented in evangelical circles. I had already thought about this. I wonder, again, why God would bring me here.
 
Thrusday was a free day. I slept in and only got up because I did not want to miss the hotel’s bfast. At noon I went with two friends, Alex—who works is Israel—and Andrew—who works with businessmen in DC.—to table mountain. Since the cable car was closed for high winds and the expectation of rain, we decided to climb up. It was quite a climb. I was truly glad to have watched the Lord of the Rings and seeing Frodo go through the steps to Mordor. At any moment we expected Gollum to jump out from the cliffs. The climb was steep. We went from 300 feet above sea level to 1200 feet. The entire adventure took us over 6 hours, up and down. But the view from the top was extraordinary. Off course, this morning my knees are killing me and my legs are so sore that this morning I drop something in my room and decided to just leave it since I would have to suffer to pick it up.
 
Last night we were so glad to be back to civilization that we decided to celebrate with steak. The base common denominator for us was getting in touch with our carnivore roots. I had me a great big juice American style cheeseburger. The other two guys went for T-bones.   Then back to my room, totally exhausted. Thank God for that day of rest.
 
I feel like I have moved from the overwhelming emotional stage of the first two days to a newer and deeper stage of thoughtful listening. While in the first two days the tears where always a second away, the third and fourth day, I have been sensing deeper messages from the Lord through the still small voice of his Holy Spirit. Today I finally wrote down furiously about some things that I believe very much pertain to our context in Chicago and Little Village.
 
Also Mario Vega is here. He is the pastor of Elim, the largest church in our Continent.  They are in Salvador. I am hoping to meet up with him tomorrow. Some of you guys know Joel Comiskey who writes on Cell churches. Our small group leaders have been reading about Elim and their system of cell groups.
 
Again, greetings from the global church.
 
Paco in South Africa.
 
I leave you with these words from Os Guiness: “God is truth, have faith in God and have no fear”