Last night we had a moving and powerful presentation by woman from Uganda on a response to HIV/AIDS. She was an extremely articulate speaker who spoke with great insight and emotion. At the end there was no applause just reverend silence. How do you respond to broken and destroyed lives of people who God made and loves? We need to have our hearts broken in order to empathise or even care for those suffering around us.
The talk this morning was really good about the importance, even essential role, of inductive small group Bible studies. It is great to see that groups are being encouraged to keep Bible study as central to the movement.
The days are very full. I was having trouble keeping awake as it is all so full on that you really do not get much of a break in the program. We make appointments with those we want to talk to over meals. It is like a dance card and most meals on most days are booked with someone. All very encouraging but exhausting, especially when English is not the first language.
In the afternoon each country set up an 'embassy' based on their region and had to present something of their work. We were with the Pacific Region (NZ, Fiji, PNG and Australia). The NZers (there are eight of them, including four students) gave their presentation first, then the Australians and then the Fijians in three different half hour blocks. All the visitors or delegates moved to a different presentation each half hour. The AFES wallplanners were a big hit; we had everyone folding them to give away and I stood in the corridor encouraging people to come to the South Pacific and having something to give away was a big drawcard.
In the night we had a talk from Becky Pippert, author of Out of the Salt Shaker. She was very entertaining with lots of funny stories to illustrate her point. She spoke well but was sticking closely to her notes and at one stage got so emotional she could not talk. When she recovered she said at least the translators got a break!
So it was another long day and night! Could not wait to get to bed. During the bus trip back to our college I sat next to a French man who turned out to be one of the keynote speakers. His name is Jacques Buchhold - he is the Professor of NT at the Theological College of Waus-sur-Seine in France and helps with the GBU in France. It was such an encouragement to talk to him (in English!) about the growth in enrolments at his theological college. They have 95 French students studying and the churches want more pastors. There has been a rapid growth in planting of evangelical churches in the last 50 years in France, but not enough pastors to lead them. He knows all our Australian friends and was such a humble and godly man. Such a privilige meeting these great men of God.
Howard Spencer
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