Tuesday at Lausanne

Today’s theme was reconciliation, and there were powerful calls to respond to the tremendous brokenness and injustice of our world. We were reminded of the terrible plight of the Dalits of India—a totally disenfranchised people among whom, it is estimated, there are 25 million slaves, many of them children. We watched a young Arab woman stand beside a young Israeli man and tell how they could love each other only through Christ’s grace and transformation. We listened as a Rwandan told how God miraculously could heal the bitterness in the hearts of those who lost their families in the terrible Rwandan genocide.  Truly, only the power of God’s love and healing can bridge these situations in our hurting world.

In the evening, testimonies were shared by two Africans not only living with AIDS but who have created ministries to reach out to others suffering from this disease. Among the reports of pain were also stories of how God was working, especially in the Middle East today. At my table, a young Croatian shared how he found Christ even though his father was a Muslim imam who initially threw him out of the house, and how now many in his family have subsequently come to Christ.

 It was a day of celebration of victories but also of powerful challenges to share the pain of a tortured world. So much suffering demands that the church boldly express the love of a Savior who died to set people free. I know that many of us soberly considered how God could use us in a greater way to mend the broken.

I had some great individual conversations today too. For example, at dinner, I had the privilege of spending some extended time with Steve Richardson, the director of Pioneers, one of the premiere mission agencies in the US today.  It was helpful to hear some of the passion and challenges of an agency on the forefront of reaching some of the least reached places. I met another woman with a vision to create a new associate to support and train people around the world doing prison ministry.

The picture below does an injustice both to the size of the room and the power of the changing images that serve as a backdrop to the  speakers as projected on the giant screens. But the statement, "God is on the move" has been powerfully demonstrated.