The first couple of days here at this fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Seoul, Korea have been lively and encouraging. The sessions are as great as one might expect. The worship and AV/tech are the best I’ve ever seen. The wi-fi works (haha — true) and the giant projection screens remind me of Times Square in New York City. But like all events such as this, it’s the networking and collaboration that stands out the most. The talk that stands out the most to me so far is that of Anne Zaki, Professor at The Evangelical Theological Seminary at Cairo. Her use of the movie The Boys in the Boat was clutch – and her illuminating message from the first church conference in the book of Acts 15 was not only encouraging, but in addition, incredibly helpful in understanding the Holy Spirit’s role in making us one. Wow. There are 5,000 of us here onsite, but did you know you can watch the same sessions we’re seeing here? (In fact, your vantage point might be closer than mine. I’m *way* far back in the room. haha To tune, check out the website here: https://lausanne.org/gathering/seoul-2024.

But… back to the networking in the hallways and workshops. One of the best moments for me was sitting down beside Steve Hawthorne, the man that Ralph Winter tagged to assemble the Perspectives Course. He told soooooooo many hilarious stories of those early years. I loved hearing him tell stories about the early days with Dr. Winter. One of the most surprising moments was when I asked, “Would Dr. Winter be excited to learn how many students are still taking Perspectives?” Steve laughed and said, “Probably not. He’d be wanting to re-engineer something about it.” haha Steve has always found it odd that Dr. Winter felt such a strong urge to buy a campus in order to launch a course that would largely be taught at a distance. hahaha (Note: Yvonne has made it easier for all of us to learn more about Perspectives, by the way: https://missionbooks.org/products/propelled-by-hope )

Are you here at Lausanne 4? What experiences have meant the most to you so far?