Greetings to you in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Today, I want to begin to introduce you to Cape Town 2010 and the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization which is coming up in just under a year.  This congress will be a meeting of a select group of 4,000 Christian leaders from 200 nations with the purpose of confronting the most critical issues of our time so that God's church can more faithfully take the whole Gospel to the whole world.

     In God's mysterious wisdom, TIBM has been given a seat at the table for Lausanne III and, God willing, I (Cody) will be in Cape Town as an on-site participant.  While this is a tremendous and befuddling honor, it is also a great responsibility.  Will I just be an ineffectual mass of flesh at this conference, or will the Lord use me to really contribute to His Church and Kingdom through the congress?  Clearly, I need your fervent prayer.

     Over the next several months, I'll begin doing several things to prepare for and engage in the work of Cape Town 2010.  First, I'll begin raising financial support to cover the cost of travel, lodging, food, etc.  My goal is to raise $5,000 for this trip--a very insignificant amount for Yahweh Yireh, our provider.  Secondly (or perhaps simultaneously), I'll be seeking to mobilize a base of prayer supporters that will intercede on my behalf with the Father related to this congress.  Finally, I'll begin to participate in the global conversation of Lausanne III.  This will be a largely on-line process of reading, writing, and otherwise dialoguing with believers around the world.  As a matter of fact, this post itself serves as my official entrance into the conversation. 

     Now, if you are ready to dig in deeper into the purpose and work of Lausanne III, please check out the links in this article and the video below.  I find this clip to be a nice introducation to the work of Cape Town 2010, it features John Stott.  I'll also be creating a number of future blog posts related to the congress and trying to add some features right here on TIBM.org that will help you begin to participate in the work of taking the whole gospel to the whole world.

 

     Well, happy Boxing Day.  Yeah, I don’t know what it’s about either.  I suppose I could look it up.  Does it have something to do with the Boxer Rebellion?  Most of us probably associate it with the empty boxes and trash that make up the day-after-Christmas carnage.  There certainly isn’t any good boxing matches on T.V.  Maybe Boxing Day for you means going to the mall, returning home from your Christmas travels, or doing what I did this morning – helping the kids assemble their new toys  (I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but it seems to me that toy makers have stopped even trying to make instructions easy to follow). 

     Actually, for me , my first association with Boxing Day is that today is the anniversary of one of the worst disasters in history.  I’ve actually been cringing a little bit inside each time I’ve heard the phrase (and, yes, I have heard it), “Happy Boxing Day!”  And it is a bit sad that most of you when reading this won’t immediately know what I’m talking about.  It was four years ago today that about a quarter-of-a-million people in 11 countries lost their lives due to a devastating earthquake and tsunami.  That’s more than 200 Hurricane Katrinas, and the only reason that we don’t so much as observe a moment of silence is that none of those 11 countries affected was the United States.  I don’t even want to begin to speculate how many of the 220,000+ people killed by the earthquake/tsunami didn’t know Jesus Christ.  When one considers the nations impacted (including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives, Somalia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Seychelles), it just doesn’t look good. 

     So, yeah, it just seems kind of sad.

     You know, this is the time of the year when a lot of people are making New Year’s resolutions, and I suspect that many of you reading this blog are in positions of leadership and influence in your church.  Perhaps many of your churches consider themselves to be “missional” or “Great Commission Churches.”  Well, just imagine if you were to survey your congregation next Sunday asking how many of them could name the great disaster that took place four years ago on Boxing Day.  People in your pews have strong positions about how good or bad a job FEMA did following Katrina, but haven’t a clue where Myanmar even is.  They don’t know that Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world.  They are unaware that Sri Lanka was virtually swallowed by a tsunami four years ago.  They haven’t even heard of the huge numbers of children that were kidnapped and sold into slavery following the chaotic aftermath of the 2004 tragedy.  Is your church really serious about the nations?  Are you?  Why not resolve to lead your church, small group, or family in the coming year to become truly aware of and actively engaged in what is happening around the world – even in forgotten places like Maldives.

     One thing I’m curious about, how many of you can remember where you were when you first heard about the 2004 Boxing Day disaster?  Please leave your response in the comment section.

Peace.