Maiden voyage

Well friends, I'm trying out the blogging phenomena. (Yes, I'm a late adapter.)

Soon, I'll be leaving on a 16 day trip to Los Angeles, Beijing and Manila, Philippines. In LA, I'll be attending a gathering to learn more about Partners International. In Beijing, I'll be visiting three Grace Chapel partners: Stephanie Diamond, David & Jackie Ro and Gary & Phyllis Ayers. In Manila, I'll be speaking at a conference.

This whole trip began almost a year ago because I was invited to speak at "the 3rd Worldwide Chinese Women Missions Conference," October 26-30, sponsored by CCCOWE (a ministry related to the Lausanne movement). Wow, there will be 700 attenders! Time to get really nervous.

Here's a link to the conference: http://www.cccowe.org/eng/content.php?id=86

I've been invited to give one of the evening talks called a "Revival Meeting," a term which I suspect loses something in translation. I'm not prepared yet but am thinking on speaking on "suffering." How's that for an inspirational topic? (Please pray! I'm a last minute preparer but I've been pondering the topic for a while.) I'm also leading a workshop on "singleness" which I guess I'm qualified to lead because I is one. The conference hotel is in Tagaytay City which is outside of Manila. I've been watching the news reports about the flooding and recent typhoon damage in Philippines with great concern. The conference organizers say that the co-workers are ok.

The conference organizers have arranged for me to visit urban, Muslim, garbage dump dwellers for a day. I know that visit will break my heart but it's important for me not to hide from the "least among us" whom Jesus so loves.

OK, enough for now. Need to do lots of administrative work so I can leave on Thursday morning feeling that I've "carried my weight" in the Global Awareness Week preparation process.