What comes to mind…

Ephesians 3:19-21; “…and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
It is with great pleasure that I’m able to come and serve here at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit in Lilongwe, Malawi. I haven’t been to the heart of Africa for over 7 years now, and I miss it! It felt really good to arrive at the airport and come out smelling Africa! The ground is Africa Brown. You could see the color of it everywhere! Malawi is a country in southern Africa, surrounded by Zambia, Mozambique and Tanzania.

On our way from the airport, we passed by a gas (petrol) station, and there was a line on the street about 20-25 cars long! There’s shortage in diesel, and people have to wait in line forever to get a fill-up!

I met some wonderful people here in Lilongwe. People who are passionate about their calling to serve Africa. Stella, who’s on staff at Willow Creek, lives here and she’s the one who brought the Summit to Malawi. I met Ernest, who is on the committee that organized the summit, he was the do it all person, the man who knows how to get things done in Malawi. He and his wife are heroes, when we had no power on Saturday, his wife found 10 litres of diesel for the generator to power the GLS for us. She reminded me of the women who poured all her fragrance on Jesus’ feet; with Malawi’s shortage on fuel these days, it was a wonderful gesture to give diesel for the Summit! Funwayo is a pastor from a city 4 hours away! He came and helped with powerpoint and other technical help. Grace was the glue! She has a wonderful smile, great attitude and a final exam on Monday! She was waking up at 2AM everyday this week to study, then she goes on to work on GLS work during the day.

I saw the love that surpasses knowledge this week in all of them. They obeyed God’s calling for them, and He delivered His message using them. So, while we couldn’t imagine a video and audio signal that is professionally displayed for the conference audience. While we couldn’t imagine power coming out of the generator on Saturday. While we couldn’t imaging even powering the generator itself with diesel that requires drivers to spend the night in front of gas stations, just to get their cars filled up. God did “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

There’s a common life between all of God’s people, bringing Hope to the world. I’m inspired to keep focus!

I’m still so excited! It’s been over a month now, and this post is way overdue!

On November 7 & 8, we had an amazing event that made up for any stress I had this year! After more than a year of preparation, we had our first Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit in the Middle East! It was an event that I’ve dreamed about way back in August of 2001, when I first attended a Summit at Willow. The first time I attended the summit, I said to myself, “I’ve never heard anything like this before! We’ve got to take this to Egypt and the Middle East!” I learned so much that day, it was overwhelming to me. I was working at Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena at the time and was struggling to learn about leadership and how to make technology a ministry that works for the Church and ministry.

GLS Egypt 2008 - Bill Hybels

Growing up in Egypt, I never heard the teachings of leadership the way I heard them at Willow. I decided to make it commitment to attend the Summit each year, and haven’t missed it since. Having the previlidge of working at Willow some 4 years later, I had the opportunity to meet the leaders of the Global Summit and share with them the vision of taking the Summit to Egypt. We started the Journey in the Summer of 2007, and in November 2008, we had 460 registered leaders from Egypt and other Arab countries.

We had the honor of Bill Hybels’ presence, who through his humble spirit and his valuable leadership lessons, gave us 3 sessions that were outstanding. Bill Hybels is an amazing leader, he has a Jesus heart that just listens to people and learns about their situation. He delivers talks that make people learn why they were assigned by God to do His work in the Church. He makes you just want to go back and start serving right away and not waste any more time! He is very passionate about Christ and seeing the Church be the Hope of the World, he is very contagious and inspiring!

Preparing for the Summit took so much energy, but because God is good and is in control, He lead us to the success of the event. I’m so honored to have worked with the WCA staff, Willow volunteers and KDEC staff and volunteers who have given so much of their time, finances and energy to make this event a success!

I’m looking forward to next year where we can expand the opportunity to more people. Leadership is a valuable lesson and life to learn. People anywhere should be excited about learning how to lead with integrity and skills that can advance the church and advance the community and advance government.