onething Egypt, October 2009

IHOP’s international onething conference in Egypt began today with approximately 3,000 attendees at the afternoon session and what seemed like double that amount of attendees at the evening session. Luke Wood led worship tonight, and a good part of his worship set was done in Arabic rather than English. He did a great job, and many of the people began cheering when he started singing in Arabic! Luke is leading again tomorrow morning, and then Justin Rizzo will be leading tomorrow night. He’s going to be singing in Arabic as well and is perhaps a bit more nervous than Luke, but I am sure he will do fine. They both have been practicing hard so that they can be a blessing to the worshippers who come.

Dwayne Roberts spoke tonight and had a translator with him speaking everything in Arabic. He did a great job and interacted with him very well. He spoke on the need for the knowledge of God and how we were meant to live in fascination with God. It was evident that many were deeply impacted by the message. Dwayne invited them all to respond to the Lord in a powerful ministry time.

Today was the last day of the conference at the venue in Wadi at am 8,000 seat soccer stadium out in the middle of the desert. And when I say desert, I mean desert. For those of you from the southwest US, It’s not quite like the Arizona desert – it’s a lot more sandy and there is much less vegetation. There’s a small lush green area in the middle of the complex, but outside of that it’s pure desert sand. It’s been a hot last several days too, with temperatures reaching near 100. Tomorrow we’ll be heading to Cairo and spending the rest of our time in Egypt there.

This morning, Justin led worship and Wes Martin spoke on the Sermon on the Mount. He spoke with great clarity and called those attending to humility, meekness, purity with their eyes and purity with their speech. He continually invited them back to beholding Jesus in the scriptures and asking the Holy Spirit for empowerment and grace as the only way forward in living a holy life. In the evening, Luke led to finish out the conference and Wes spoke on the life of John the Baptist and John the Apostle, calling the attendees to believe that God truly enjoys them like John the Baptist and John the Apostle confessed. We all felt that there was a massive breakthrough in the Spirit, and I am sure it had to do with all of your prayers.

Today began with a trip to several old Coptic churches in Cairo, including the first church formed by the Apostle Mark in coming to Egypt around 40AD. It’s truly amazing to be so close to some of the places where the founding fathers of our faith and even Jesus Himself were. Egypt has such a rich Christian heritage, and I am confident that the Lord is going to bring all of His promises to pass (see Isaiah 19) related to the nation!

Our next stop was at the "cave church", located in a large amphitheater carved out of a massive rock face. The story of how this church was formed is fascinating - check out this link to read more on it. The most prominent feature upon entering the area was the massive carvings on the rock, including the birth, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and second coming of Jesus (see photos page). These were all breathtaking. The church itself meets in an open-air setting and can seat approximately 20,000 people. It was beautiful.

On the way to the cave church, we drove through an area known as “garbage city”. The people living in this small part of Cairo work for the city to sort out the trash for the 14 million inhabitants of the Cairo area. They all literally live in the waste disposal and recycling area of the city. They are the poorest of the poor in Cairo and live mostly by picking from trash. Because the Muslims look down upon them and will not work there, the area is filled with many Christians. It is so provoking to see the true impact of the gospel on their hearts, and it is so stirring for my own heart as someone who lives in such an affluent nation. Just driving through the area and pondering what the Lord has given me made me grateful, but it also filled me with the fear of the Lord related to the money that I have and that which He will give me in the future. I want to be known in God’s eyes as one who is extravagant with money. I want to cut out all of the “fluff” of my life, live simply, and fund missionaries, houses of prayer, and give generously to the poor. I will be accountable for every penny that I spend. Help, Lord!