Off To Fiji!!

Hey, everyone - for those of you who don't know, Josh and Cat are leaving for Fiji today!!! Please continue to pray for them over the next six and a half week as they travel and follow God's call for their lives this summer.

Josh and Cat will both be updating their blogs weekly, so to find out how they're doing, or to drop them a note, swing by their blogsites when you get a chance. Thanks! Their blogs can be found here:

Josh: A Cup And A Chair Far From Here
Cat: Turn Around

Quick Update from Germany

Well, rehearsal day is over, and we're heading home for the night. 7:00am tomorrow we start a last minute run-thru of the first two sessions, and at 9:00am the conference begins. Many, many things to do yet! We have yet to see powerpoint up on the screens for any significant length of time. That's a little nerve-wracking. There are small things here and there that haven't come together, and I saw some of the guys repainting a door backstage a couple minutes ago. We could definitely use some prayer tonight and tomorrow - but we know God will come through as He always does, and it will be an incredible day.

Can't wait to tell you all about it!

Hannah's Prayer

Her name is Hannah. She's an older woman, tall, laugh lines, grey hair, visibly someone who has weathered much but done it with that deep joy that marks those who follow Him. Wrapped in her dark dress coat and a brightly colored scarf, she follows us into the arena where our tech crew will soon begin the long haul of a million things that need to be done in the next three days, setting up for the conference that will begin here on Thursday.

"We pray for this," she says. "Years ago when first they begin building this place, we stand here, and we pray. We ask God that someday the Christians will come and worship in this arena. Last year for the first time, the Christians are gathering to worship here, and now you come. You are God's answer. We are so excited for this."

Wow.

Two days from now, Willow Creek Deutschland will hold the first ever women's conference in Germany. It has a slightly different connotation here than in the states - at least half the people attending the conference will be men - definitely no Women of Faith type event. :) But the topic for the conference is the role of women in ministry, which has never been addressed so publicly here before. And as someone said yesterday, "After this, everything will be different."

How cool is it that God has allowed me to be here for such a time as this, to see and to pray in a watershed moment in the life of His church? I am humbled and awed to have some small role to play in this part of the story.