Getting ready to head back to South Africa... Loosing my religion...

Tonight is my last night at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Jerusalem - we fly out at 1 AM on Wednesday morning (first to JHB, and then from there back to Cape Town where I land at around 2pm on Wednesday). I had the day off today (well, almost, we had two meetings this morning, but we were able to get away at around 1oam).

I spent the day with my friends Cois, Corne, Etienne, Wilma, Dawie and Isebel going through Hezekiah's tunnel at David's city (just outside of the Old City near the Western Wall). It was quite a challenge to make it through the tunnel on crutches, but I was adamant that I wanted to experience this! The tunnel itself was carved well over 2000 years ago. In some places one has to wade through water that is almost waste deep, however, for the most part it comes up to the top of one's calves. The challenge for me was that I had to remove my cast to walk through the tunnel, and in places it was narrow and low - so using crutches was not all that easy. However, it was a great experience! I couldn't do it last time I was here, and when our group went out the other day I was in the studio and meetings, so I was pleased to do it today.

Now, on to what truly matters!

Yesterday the Global Day of Prayer was such a wonderful blessing and encouragement. It was magnificent to see Christians from 214 of the world's 220 countries praying in various manners and contexts (from the Orthodox Christians in Egypt to the Charismatic Christians in Texas, Catholics in Latin America to Messianic Jews here in Jerusalem). The purpose of the movement is very simple:

1. For 10 days we encourage people to pray ardently for the struggles, joys, and contextual issues that they are faced with in their communities. In many contexts 'houses of prayer' are formed in communites where Churches work together to pray for 24 hours a day, for 7 days a week. Naturaly we give some prayer pointers and guidance, but the idea is simply that people will pray for the needs they are aware of, ask God to give them insight, guidance, help, and counsel to work for the establishment of God's Kingdom of grace and blessing.

2. The Global day of Prayer normally takes place on Pentecost Sunday each year. On this day people gather in various forms throughout the nations of the world. In some places (like India) there are huge public gatherings of hundres of thousands of persons, in other places, like Lebanon, people will meet in private homes, or small Churches. The idea is that people across the world will gather together on one day of the year (Pentecost Sunday in the Latin calendar) to humble themselves, pray, seek God's forgiveness, and ask God to hear and answer their prayers. Most of these events have a mix of worship, some teaching, and communal prayer. There is a prayer for the world that is said in the many languages of the world (see the Global Day of Prayer website for the prayer).

3. This is followed up by 90 days of blessing - here Churches and communities are encouraged to find creative and practical ways to address the issues that they have prayed about. In most instances there is an encouragement to address the practical and felt needs of communities (food, clothing, job creation, fixing up schools, helping in hospitals etc.) This year there has been the added challenge for Christians to read the Bible in 90 days.

Amazingly, even though I have read through the Bible numerous times, I did not realise that you can actually read the whole Bible in 90 days if you simply read for 1 hour a day. If you're interested in signing up to read through the Bible with about 100 thousand other Christians then please follow this link to the Bible Marathon sign up page.

Well, yesterday was a truly special day here in Jerusalem. I spent most of the day outside the Jerusalem Convention centre at a mobile studio with Graham Power. From there various interviews were conducted, information was shared about the various nations, gatherings, and the movemnt itself. In total the broadcast lasted for 18 hours (which is more or less how long it takes from sunrise in Fiji until the sun sets on the last gathering place, Hawai). I was so touched to see children, parents, and diverse Christian communities gathering in such harmony and joy to worship the Lord and pray.

I will confess that it is truly a blessing to be out of the conflict and struggle of leading the seminary and be doing this work! Somehow working with lay Christians seems to have a lot less trouble! Maybe I am still in the honeymoon period? I will ALSO confess that there were some expressions of worship and prayer that were not quite my style. More than once I had to ask for grace to leave space for some of the more charismatic and pentecostal expressions to have the space they deserve within the diversity of our Christian world. There are some hectic ways in which people express their devotion and sincerity to the Lord!

Perhaps the most encouraging part of the day for me was meeting with the son of my friends Graham and Daine Vermooten (who run the Media Village in Cape Town as a base for YWAM). Their son has been doing mission (Discipleship training) here in Jerusalem. He and the rest of their group came and prayed with us last night. This is a new generation of believers! They are young (all in their late teens and early 20's). Most of them have multiple tattoos! The one young guy you see here (John) has the name of Jesus tatooed on his neck! He also has other tatoos to remind him of the how God graciously rescued him from a life of addiction to drugs (Meth, cocaine, and herion). These young people skate in the streets of Jerusalem, befriend young people, and share their faith through their love. With dreadlocked hair, multiple piericings, and passion for the way of Jesus they are making a huge impact upon this city! Their aim was to win over religion with love! Doesn't that sound absolutely fantastic!? To win over religion through love!. They prayed passionately for us to serve God with courage and integrity. I was blessed and touched by their love for Jesus and the Gospel of Christ. I feel that I am loosing my religion - and it is good! I think this new generation doesn't see the distinction between conservative and evangelical, between liberals and charismatics.... They understand that Jesus wants to address the social needs of people, but also that people need to deal with their sin and cultivate a passionate relationship with Christ!

Well, tomorrow we have a few meetings to wrap up our time here and plan for some events later in the year (some of the folks we have working with later in the year - we have a critical meeting in London in September where a number of prayer, youth, mission and Church groupings will be meeting to work out creative and fresh ways to bring the Gospel, contextually, to young and old across the Globe. Then we are also going to be in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil in October for the ITN and Harvest evangelism meetings which aim to help create strategic alliances between people who minister in Churches and in wider society (what we call 'marketplace', i.e., among educators, politicians and business people).

The work I am doing now is so exciting - I am truly grateful to God for the blessed opportunity to be part of such great things! But, heck, I miss Megan, Courtney and Liam!!!!!!!!!

Megie's birthday is on the 19th of May, I am so pleased that I'll be home for that.