Hey, my sweet sisters! I’ve just hit my desk after two and a half weeks away from the office. Our holidays were extended so Keith, Melissa, Amanda, Curt, Jackson, and I could participate in Passion ’07, a huge, life changing event for college students that was held in Atlanta, Georgia. 23,000 college kids from every state in the U.S. and at least ten other nations hit the city on New Year’s Day and sought God, worshipped their hearts out, and poured over Scripture from early morning until late at night until the afternoon of January 4th. The entire family was involved in one way or another. Curt, my favorite young preacher, has been a community leader at the event for several years and Amanda and Melissa help me in a number of ways. Among other things, this year they participated in a question and answer session I got to do with the college girls in several breakout sessions. They sifted through a large number of questions then asked them from the platform and helped me answer a few. It was a blast to work beside them in that capacity. Jackson provided non-stop entertainment to everyone he encountered. He flirted with everyone he saw and adored anyone who would let him chew on their cell phones. (Mainly me. His mother is picky about whose cell phone he is allowed to gnaw.) Keith was all over the place lending a hand wherever he was needed. I was so glad he was there. He’s one of those who thinks an ounce of pretention is worth a pound of cow manure so he keeps everybody honest.
Louie and Shelley Giglio, founders of Choice Ministies as well as Passion Conferences, are personal friends of ours and we’ve been watching this movement swell into a tidal wave since our first participation in 1998. For those of us who have done the conferences together for years, we also enjoy a family reunion. We get to meet back up with friends like Chris Tomlin and his band members, all of whom we dearly love and I actively mother whenever I feel the need. We also look so forward to getting to see what God is doing in the UK based on Matt Redmon’s annual update to us. We are crazy about Charlie Hall (as a person and not just a worship leader) and who wouldn’t be nuts about David Crowder? (His parents are some of the most wonderful people you’ve ever met.) If you’ve never had the occasion to meet any of those worship leaders personally, you’d be so pleased to see their personal integrity and warmth and the blatant reality of their own pursuits of Christ. I can tell you one thing about Louie and Shelley. They don’t think much of fakes or of personalities just looking for a platform. Big egos are big no-nos. You would approve of the humility practiced there by people who the world would welcome to be completely full of themselves. They are each the real thing. As my husband Keith says, Texans can smell a varmint from a mile away.
Dr. John Piper brought a message that I don’t think I’ll ever forget on not letting guilt destroy your God-given dream of engaging in what God is doing in your generation. (I think most of the sessions are available by podcast and some by webcast on the official Passion website.) I got to hear Francis Chan for the first time. He is a fabulous communicator who pastors a thriving church in California with multiple plants elsewhere. He called students to not just love the Word of God because of the human instrument delivering it but to love God’s words because they are HIS. I could have “Amened!” myself off the balcony. What God did among the students, however, was the unparalleled highlight. They brought such sincere heart-worship to the throne of God and studied the Word tirelessly in multiple sessions. Their unashamed proclamations of Jesus Christ reverberated throughout Atlanta. They gave titanic offerings…to see Bibles translated for the very first time in the languages of two people groups…to see a number of world mission organizations thrive…to lend relief in some areas of tremendous need. They also committed to the hard work of intercession for various missions for the next year. Refreshingly, their sacrifices came as a response to opportunity and not pressure. Literally thousands surrendered to be available to God to go to any nation at any time upon His call. It was stunning. I won’t usually write this profusely on the blog but my heart was so full because of all I’ve seen that I couldn’t hold it in. With such dismal things on the world horizon, I saw the God of Hope in spectacular glory this week. As surely as Scripture has promised, depravity of man and persecution of Christians will increase as the day of Christ draws near but it also promised that glorious things will happen through the outpouring of His Spirit in the last days. I marveled over what might happen throughout the nations in the name of Christ over the next decade because 23,000 college students gathered in the State of Georgia this week. I wanted to share the experience with you in hopes that somehow you could get a little glimpse, too. You and I inhabit Planet Earth at a time when God is in the process of fulfilling monumental Bible prophecies. Lord, give us eyes to see! “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
