Lausanne's big small world

Onesimus was reason enough to come to South Africa. He is the chaplain to the Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Orombi, and a mighty man of God. Here we are awaiting the week's first press conference.
But that's just the beginning of the small world of the very big Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization—with its 4,000 delegates from about 200 countries. Other samples, largely involving meals: At Sunday's opening night dinner I filled a plate from one of a gazillion buffet tables lining two floors of the Cape Town convention center. Then I headed upstairs to a giant ballroom, sat down at a random round table with a pastor from Estonia, a teacher from Chad, and Gabi Nagy, who teaches English in Budapest, and is Hungarian. She's a delightful, animated young woman and after a few minutes of chatting, I asked, "Do you by any random chance know Heidi Meiners?" Heidi is a friend from Asheville who also teaches in Budapest (yes, a big city) but Gabi's jaw dropped, and she said, "She's one of my best friends." I explained that we've known Heidi since she was a little girl, she babysat my children in Asheville, and her father had taught all my children.
Monday's lunch was a boxed lunch that most ate standing up at the empty buffet tables, and through the throng of people I spied Covenant Seminary President (and World Magazine board member) Bryan Chapell, who was heading up an important working group of theological schools from around the world at Lausanne, among many other things. Monday's dinner included conversation with a pastor from Johannesburg named Cecil. At Tuesday's dinner I ran into Doug Nichols, who heads up Action International Ministries and just a few months ago stopped in to see me in Asheville. He was at a table with Daren Beck who works with a school in Cambodia (and knows Marvin Olasky). And Joel Edwards, who used to head up the Evangelical Alliance in UK (connection: Anna Moyle; he's her former boss) and now heads up the Micah Challenge.

On Wednesday we celebrated a long and cherished connection with Os Guinness over breakfast, and including our friend Emad Beshay Ibrahim. Emad took such good care of our family in Cairo (over the Eastern Christmas, no less!) that he is a mythological character: When we're lost, where's Emad? Don't know what time a school event starts, ask Emad! Need help planning just anything, call Emad! He is still wonderful, sincere, humble, and helping to manage the hard work of Mama Maggie and Stephen's Children in Cairo...but also now married and with two children, ages two and four!!
Os, meanwhile rightly diagnosed what's troubling many about this year's Lausanne Congress—"the shift from proclamation to conversation, from solid substance to sound-biting, from truth to entertainment.”
And then there were coffee line run-ins: with Labib Madanat of the Palestinian & Israeli Bible Society, plus pastors Joel and others from Baghdad, the legendary Peter Hammond from South Africa, Carl Ellis from Chattanooga, even a pastor-friend from Kabul, Afghanistan. All in the same building in Cape Town, South Africa.

And somewhere along the way these two travelers showed up. And they are a sight for sore eyes.