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 Some of my favorite new friends from Cape Town.

This little girl with spina bifida was part of the opening ceremony.

Gloria from South Africa.

Darcelia from Trinidad.

An Egyptian orthodox priest.

Sarai, from Pakistan, was part of the praise team and works with Youth With A Mission .

I was assigned to write an official "Session Summary" of John Piper's Bible exposition on Ephesians chapter 3. It was fantastic! When I got this picture I also asked him for his manuscript. I can tell you exactly what he said or you can go on line and listen to his delivery--the better of the two choices.

Paul Eschleman was the director of the Jesus Film Project for 20 years. He recruited my brother and sister-in-law, Brian and Cathy, to go to the former USSR almost immediately after the fall of the Iron Curtain. They spent a couple of years in Moscow and have been in Kiev, Ukraine for 15 years. Paul gave one of the most practical challenges of the entire congress. On the topic of "priorities," he presented a list of over 600 unengaged and unreached people groups with a population of 50,000 or more. He encouraged delegates to adopt one of more of the people groups and begin work among them within the next three years. I'm pleased that Dave Mann of  World Partners, the overseas missionary arm of the Missionary Church, plans to engage 10-15 of those groups. 

Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda was the Honorary Chair of the Congress. Can you believe this tall east African told me I walked too fast! Though he lost his voice and could not verbally participate as the presiding minister in the closing communion service, his imposing presence added a regal element to the service.

I met Regula Zurschmiede from Switzerland at the Womeun's Cafe.

Shirinai is a converted Muslim with a powerful testimony. She spoke in a general session as well as at the Women's Cafe.

Dr. Wilf Gasser is a journalist from Switzerland with the Swiss Evangelical Alliance. We sat at the same table when I was taking notes for one of the session summaries I was assigned to write.

Helen is from Kenya and was part of the praise team. She had several solos in the closing celebration.
We met one day over lunch.

This young man was a  steward and accompanied me to the Chineses restaurant a couple of blocks from the convention center on Saturday evening. I was able to take a copy of the Jesus film in French to Timothy, the friendly waiter from from French-speaking Ghana who had waited on Brian, Jeanie and me a few days before.

Windblown--Grace Mathews and me at the Cape of Good Hope. I met Grace a year ago at Stacia and David's wedding. She was the program chairman for the congress and did a fantastic job.

 Chinese Bible expositor, Carver Wu, was one of the 5,000 people I kept running into over and over throughout the week. . 

Renee Padilla, a real statesman among South American evangelicals, and me.