Adelaide

Tonight I'm down under, on the other side of the world... far, far away in lovely little Adelaide. It's been an amazing Saturday night here, the close of three incredible days sharing with youth and young adult leaders from throughout the city and the greater area who have a passion to see God raise up a new generation of worshippers throughout Australia. Tonight we closed the conference with the song "Mighty To Save," a fitting bookend to twenty one remarkable days that began with hillside filled with students raising up the very same song on Henderson Lawn at Virginia Tech.

That was three Saturdays and many nations ago, the beginning of a whirlwind journey that has absolutely blown me away. So three weekends ago it was Blacksburg and that unforgettable moment at VT, two Saturday's ago I was a part of the wedding of friends at a posh golf club near our house, and last Saturday, Manila (see pic) where Matt Redman and I led an evening of worship with over 1,000 mostly young people who were going after God with everything in them.

Manila fell in the middle of a crazy Asia swing that took Matt, me and our team to Seoul, Hong Kong, Manila and Tokyo in the span of six days. Four of the great cities of the world, home to a combined 60 million+ people, over 20 million in Tokyo alone. Sixty million people in four cities! And in every place we found the church of Jesus Christ alive and well...maybe just a tiny band, but a worshipping community nonetheless, believing God for the salvation of their cities and nations.

Seoul was an exception, where the church that facilitated the events we were a part of gathers 30,000 in worship each week and is possibly the largest Presbyterian church on the planet. Matt and I led at two night events in one of the Olympic venues and found the young people hungry for God and excited about a possible Seoul stop on the upcoming Passion Tour. HK was nuts, like NYC in overdrive, and we did two events in one night, both filling a second story church worship center in a high rise in the densely packed North Point area.




We spent less than twenty four hours in Manila, a rowdy Saturday night on the eve of Monday elections throughout the nation. Sprawling and emerging third world, Manila was captured in one image of bomb sniffing dogs having a go at our boxes of Passion CDs at the entrance to our quite nice hotel. But, The Philippines was amazing, a special night with some of the warmest and most beautiful people you will ever meet.

An early Sunday flight took us to Tokyo where we worshipped with over 1200 people in a church in Chiba, one of the largest gatherings for worship in the city. The church we met in was, once again, on the third floor of a building that was home to a casino on floor one and a bowling alley above. What a great place for a church! It was a really amazing night followed by a few days to chill in the city. From our 32nd floor hotel rooms Tokyo spread out to the horizon in every direction, an incredibly efficient and inviting urban mass where only 1% of the people walk with the Savior. That's a bit hard to swallow when you can't see the end of "city" in any direction, yet there are many Jesus followers there planting churches for the next generation and making the Gospel accessible to the young people of Tokyo. Something powerful is stirring, the wave is growing, and in time the tide of His great mercy and rescue is coming in.

Matt and his team shot back to the States from Japan while I dropped down to join new friends in Adelaide, the end of a three-week span stretching from VT to Australia's coast. And everywhere I've been the song of His great fame is rising up, everywhere the Kingdom is advancing, everywhere massive needs abound and much work needs to be done, everywhere God is unfolding His story. Everywhere, our God is mighty to save!

Cheers!