From Joe Horness, GLS Producer, in Nairobi, Kenya:
We ended the day with Wes Stafford’s talk about his upbringing in an abusive missionary school in Africa. Hearing this talk here, in Africa, surrounded by people that were deeply, deeply moved by his story, his [Stafford's] love for them as people, and the lessons he drew from it, was amazing. Then we went into a time of prayer. The piano was playing quietly, and the cleansing rains, which they had prayed for here for so long [Kenya has been suffering through a drought as of late], were falling quietly on the roof. Hands were raised, heads were bowed, and the tears began as people cried out for forgiveness, for grace and for healing. It was beautifully led by Stephen Mairori [WCA's point of contact in Kenya], and God’s presence was so real.
Some pictures from Cochabamba, Bolivia, taken by DaRonn Washington, one of WCA's reps for South America, where 800+ leaders were served:
From Aliece Hendricks, Executive Director of International Conferences, in Lusaka Zambia: We have had a great first day here in Zambia, it all came together. The audience really connected with the sessions, the tech was flawless and the worship has been very good.
We had a rocky start, we went through 5 projectors yesterday to find one that would work. The team here has worked very hard and are looking forward to tomorrow and doing the GLS next year.
From Ulf Osterlund, WCA's rep in Eastern Europe, reporting on Helsinki, Finland:
The content once again proves to be strong this year. There were people in tears after Hamel…Gibbons was greatly appreciated again and Stafford moved people. One businessman said afterwards that he had been crying all Stafford session without showing a tear! He, as many Finns, could not show his feelings publicly… So God has been moving.
From Janine Couchman, WCA's Event Manager in South Africa, in Walvis Bay, Namibia, overseeing the event: On Thursday evening [before the event] all the volunteers from the host church gathered for a time of praise and prayer and final briefing for the GLS. About 120 volunteers gathered in the church and the praise began with a song by Hillsong called “With everything” The chorus line “with everything we will shout for your glory” gripped our spirits and we felt the passion, enthusiasm & commitment of the volunteers as they sang out to God. Senior Pastor Tobi Nel dedicated the event and everyone to God and asked God to bring hope, peace, justice, salvation, healing, deliverance and peace to every delegates attending. Then we were blown away when they called Gerry [WCA South Africa's leader & Janine's husband] & I forward to be prayed over and then Tobi and the facilitator Matt sat us down on the platform and then knelt before us and washed our feet…they prayed for God to bless, refresh, revive & strengthen us as we have been doing GLS for 5 weeks straight, week-end after week-end.
Pictured below is the Walvis Bay volunteer team:
Here are a couple additional highlights from Walvis Bay:
- As we all know too well the world has been impacted by the economic downturn and Walvis Bay was no exception. But incredibly the event was the best ever with the most amazing stories about how people in the church came forward and contributed a total of R500 000 towards making the GLS the success it was. I heard stories about how 2000 glass bottles were collected over a few months from the local rubbish dump, cleaned, washed and prepared for the flowers which created the stunning décor planned by the pastor’s wife for the refreshment tent.
- One of the intercessors from the prayer team testified about a black leader who went to the prayer room at the end of Wess Stafford’s session. He confessed to having experienced racism and oppression and as a result had developed feelings of resentment towards white people but when he arrived at the church to attend the GLS he was overwhelmed by the love and welcome he received from the greeters and ushers. He realized he needed to forgive those who had hurt him after the session so he went for prayer. As he sat being prayed for one of the intercessors felt the Lord urge her to go and sit in front of him and take his hands in hers and pray for him. As she obeyed tears flowed down his face as he was set free from his bitteress. She too was deeply moved by how God used her and blessed her through this experience.
We had to do the hard work of wading through all the stories sent in just to identify these few to tell you. There were so many stories of God's touch on leaders' lives, we were humbled to read them all. Continue to pray as the GLS still has about a month left in this year's run.
Stay tuned...
