Dispatch #1 from Lausanne Cape Town 2010--Drs. Sabrina Black and Peggy Rayman

This is Ebony (Dr. Sabrina Black) and Ivory (Dr. Peggy Rayman) reporting to you from Cape Town, South Africa at the Third Lausanne Congress on Global Evangelism.  We just came from the opening ceremonies and want to share with you some of our impressions.  We each answered six questions about the opening day, and here are our responses.

Of all the things you heard today, what penetrated your heart the most?

Sabrina: “Of all the things I heard today, the thing that struck me the most was when Doug Birdsall, Executive Chairman of the Lausanne event, was closing.   Of course there were many profound things in between but, when he gave some figures of who was represented here, I was blown away.  There were over 4200 participants from 6 continents and 200 nations.  There were approximately 1200 women, 1200 pastors and church leaders, 1200 missionaries and missions leaders, and 600 business leaders.  It is the most diverse mix of people ever gathered.   Then I thought¸ “How  amazing that I am one of those 1200 women and missions leaders in the world to be selected, and just felt in awe of the Lord's goodness to be in that number.”

Peggy: “What penetrated my heart the most was the sheer joy everyone in that room had to be there.  The Body of Christ is so beautiful, and we so seldom have an opportunity to see a really good cross section of it.  I was struck again by the beauty of humanity in all the diversity that God has created.  He created that diversity for His good pleasure, because it pleases Him so much.  I also thought about how sad it must make Him that so often the enemy uses our diversity to cause us to have discord, rather than to enjoy the way He made us.”

Tell us about one person that you sat next to today that impacted you.

Sabrina: “One person I sat next to that impacted me was Robert Coleman.  He came to the table late and flustered.  He was telling of us all the things that hindered him from being on time.  At first it didn’t dawn on me who he was.  Then he said, “I was part of the original Lausanne group,” and handed me a copy of his book.  I looked at it and couldn’t believe my eyes.  The book was “The Master Plan of Evangelism,” one I have had on my shelf for years.   It is a classic on evangelism and here is the author sitting at my table!!  As we got him to engage in the conversation, he settled down, and became one of the group at the table.   Now Robert and I are on a first name basis, and I will get to sit with him and the other awesome people at our table all week!”

Peggy: “The personal encounter that most impacted me was a beautiful young lady, Gloria, that I met.  She had a lovely pink African dress on, and came over with a big smile and introduced herself.  Her name tag said that her country was Nepal.  She obviously wasn’t Nepalese, so I asked her to tell her story.  She is from Uganda, and was attending college when an American missionary came over and challenged them to get involved in missions.  She answered the call and is now a missionary to Nepal! NOW THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!  She just heard there was a need for missionaries in Nepal, and said, “Here am I, Lord.  Send me!”

It is very late here now (2:30am), so we are going to sign off and continue tomorrow posting our answers to these questions. Remember we are six hours ahead. Check in daily for more updates.

Tell about a moment in the day, when you felt in awe of God.

Tell me about the people who sat at your table

What impressed you most about the dramatic arts presentations?

Who would you have really wanted to be with you tonight?

Answers to these and other questions along with photos and videos  will be posted on the GPH3 website: www.globalprojects.org