The world just got smaller
So many highlights, so little time…
If you see bruises up and down my arm, don’t worry… Val and I got along just fine in last week’s trip to Geneva for JC2033. The bruises (metaphorically) are from all the times I had to pinch myself and say, “Is this real?”
Here are just a few of the endless highlights.
In the Houston airport on the way out of the country one week ago, I was reminded why we simply cannot miss the opportunity to give the 2000th anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection the attention it deserves. I recognized a friend from high school who was there with his wife. When I walked over to say hi, his immediate reaction was, “David! Holy s***! Oh I’m sorry, you’re still a man of the cloth, right?” Needless to say, they weren’t headed to the same conference I was. As conversation eventually reached where I was heading and why, the most interesting thing happened. I mentioned the 2000th anniversary of the resurrection, and you could see the wheels turning for his wife. After a few moments, she said, “2000 years!!! That’s amazing. Never thought about that before.” We don’t get a lot of 2000th anniversaries of anything, so let’s not miss the significance of this one.
Over 100 people registered and were unable to attend due to problems with visas or finances, but 40 nations were represented among the attendees. Worship in such a setting was completely awe-inspiring. (You can find a small snippet on our J17 Ministries Facebook page.) At the end of the event, 400 local youth from Geneva joined the gathering, and we witnessed eight of them step forward to commit their lives to Jesus for the first time, and another 50 or so commit to take their faith seriously in the future… If that can happen in Geneva, there’s no reason it can’t happen in our cities.
At one point, there was a group of eight of us that walked over to the United Nations to pray for all the nations of the world while looking at all their flags. Represented in our group of eight were North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Not only did I have the opportunity to personally meet with people around the world whom I’d prayed with through zoom, there was also a guy there from North Carolina whom I’d connected with on some cross-cultural unity efforts. I had no idea he was engaged in this vision, too, though if there’s a high-impact ministry he’s not meaningfully connected to, I haven’t discovered it yet! I can’t wait to see how God will develop that new partnership.
An oncologist from South Korea is leading an effort called the Billion Soul Harvest. A young leader from Mongolia prayed for the German-speaking nations while we met at the Salvation Army in Geneva. New friends from Uganda, Kuwait, Hong Kong, France, Pakistan, Malta, and more are all part of the answer to Jesus’ prayer, and all of us recognize that we’re better together. I won’t even begin to guess what future partnerships God intends to develop, but wow, will it ever be exciting to follow God around the world, even just electronically, and take notes. And like my airport encounter reminded me: while the developing relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ are so rich and rewarding, we aren’t doing any of this for ourselves.
