Day 1 @ Cape Town 2010
A feast of African culture highlighted the first day of Cape Town 2010. The opening session was spectacular with a full African choir, dance groups, flag ceremonies, and special guest presenters.The first day was spent getting to know our table groups and my table group is made up of people serving in Asia: Singapore, Korea, Vietnam and China. What a blessing to learn that one of the table participants is a neighbor to my colleague who was unable to come due to governmental pressure. It gave us fuel to pray for the Church in his country.Then, at the gala opening ceremony a nice video capturing the history of the evangelization of the world was played along with several short skits depicting current missional realities. Executive Chairman, Doug Birdsall, gave a powerful address detailing the issues to be raised as he formally opened the Congress.In addition, he read letters from Billy Graham and John Stott. It clearly touched everyone's heart to hear from both of them and the clarion call to finish the task of world evangelization was sounded loud and clear from Billy, the Movement's founder.I expect this to be a powerful event and our corporate and individual prayer today is that we will hear a fresh word from God for the Church in Mission today. May He speak boldly to a new generation of Church leaders as we delve into Ephesians in depth every morning and walk through the sessions to discover how He's leading us to face the complex challenges of this era.
Please continue to pray for this Congress which runs through October 25.
Joe Handley
