In just a little over a month from right now we’ll be rolling through the doors of The Sports Palace in Mexico City, the largest city in the world and one that’s home to over a million university students. In fact, over 300,000 of them are on one campus, the largest of its kind! As of today, over 13,000 people are coming to Passion Mexico City, a number that’s growing by the hour. There’s a special feeling about what God is going to do there, and great excitement about third leg stops in Vancouver, Seoul, Tokyo (also, the world’s largest city!), Hong Kong and Sydney.
But that’s not to say we’ve forgotten our first eleven stops and the amazing things we have seen and experienced so far. Kyiv will always be special because it was the very first stop and, honestly, we had no idea what to expect right up until the minute the doors opened (and even for a little while after they did). Then, suddenly from nowhere, 4000 smiling, loud Ukrainians (and other Eastern Europeans) rushed in like a massive wave and launched the Passion World Tour in a way that blew our minds and set the stage for all that has followed. And Stockholm, Sao Paulo, Kampala, Paris, London, Manila, KL, Jakarta (are all you guys still with us???)…we love you, too, and not a day goes by that we’re not thinking and talking about you.
Today, we take a last look back at the future and faces of South Africa (congrats guys, you did finally win an Olympic medal in the men’s Long Jump!). We can’t help but smile when we close our eyes and remember the roar that filled Gallagher Estate and The Bellville Velodrome. And not only was what happened inside the venues incredible, you gave 3882 blankets for those in need in Jozi and CT, love out loud and the kind of worship that makes God happy. I love the images above! Your smiles are the hope of a beautiful nation, and the cross that marks you is alone the power to reconcile people to their God and to one another. Never underestimate His power to save. Never count Him out.
With amazing visions of the last World Tour leg dancing vividly in our heads, our team is back in the USA and massively excited about today’s launch of two projects we’ve been waiting and working on for months!.
Last night we were with the Crowders in Austin for the theater release of the Remedy Club Tour DVD, the first full-length concert DVD from DC*B and a bundle of happiness. The concert, filmed in NYC and Atlanta on the Remedy Club Tour, was shown on close to 100 screens across the nation last night to launch the DVD/CD release in stores everywhere today. While the concert footage looked phenomenal on the huge screen of Austin’s Galaxy 10, the DVD contains more stuff than you can imagine. If you love DC*B’s music it’s a must have. And if you’re really into how the guys play the songs you’re going to flip out with all the extra content. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, there’s a live concert CD included!
Tonight, we’ll be with Charlie Hall here in Atlanta as his band launches their newest offering, The Bright Sadness. All I can say about this one is that Charlie is one of the most honest writers you’ll ever find, brilliantly crafting songs about the redemptive hope of God without minimizing the arduous struggle of life in a broken world. The album is amazing! [I'm hoping all of you who maxed out our crazy pre-order and have received yours can attest to that!] It’s so Charlie: Unique. Powerful. True.
For us [especially Mike and Shelley with sixsteps and our friends at EMI CMG] these projects are works of love, sweat and tears. We are so proud of what these guys are bringing to the world and pray favor on every disc as the music explodes for His fame in people’s hearts around the world. Enjoy!
PS- I just saw The Bright Sadness at #24 on iTunes!
It’s 1:30 AM local time in Dakar, Senegal (West Africa) and Shelley and I are waiting to connect to the JoBurg-Atlanta flight which is stopping here soon, the last leg of a journey that has literally taken us around the globe in eighteen days. A stunning Cape Town sunset sent us on our way tonight, a color-rich memory of a five-city world tour leg that just simply cannot be put into words. We’ve touched down in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Johannesburg and Cape Town, places as diverse as can be, yet in many ways the same. We’ve met 31,000 new friends, from UCT students in Cape Town to a Princess in Manila. And we have heard the roar of an awakening generation that transcends language and culture.
In every place a similar eruption has happened during the night as the words to God Of This City have unfolded on the screens. Leading up to the chorus the words state: There Is No One Like Our God, There Is No One Like Our God. Something about that bedrock confession unleashes a sense of faith and hope that gives me chill bumps in every city and turns the atmosphere in the venues from concert to Church, His people united around the world.
And it’s true. There is no one like our God! Grace sets Him apart and makes our God-story beautifully unique and irresistible for anyone who as truly seen the cross. And grace frees us to both live for the One who set us free and believe in its power to change a life, a city and a nation.
A few crazy weeks will pass [Crowder has a DVD release in theaters across the nation Monday and Charlie debuts his new CD in Atlanta on Tuesday night, and that's just the beginning of a hectic stretch] and soon we will be on our way to Mexico City for the start of leg three. Over 11,000 free tickets have already been claimed for stop one in the heart of Mexico, and that with six weeks to go. That bodes well for a two-day event we have all been looking forward to, one Cape Town is bridging the gap to with their prayers. After that we head to Vancouver, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong before a final event in lovely Sydney, where over 6200 tickets have gone. (Crazy!) But for now, it’s a pretty chilled (and notably sparse) Delta Transit lounge in Dakar and a massive amount of gratitude to God for including us in such an amazing endeavor.
Well, I think it’s safe to say His Church is alive and well in lovely Cape Town as 6000+ faces jammed into the Bellville Velodrome for a fitting end to Leg 2 of the Passion World Tour. But before we jump in to CT we must say quite well done Jozi!! Way to rock the Blog and send a massive wave of love our way tonight!! It’s been incredible to see the way you took the baton from Jakarta and passed it on to your friends here tonight and as we came through the doors we could sense that you were really believing for something special here in Cape Town.
Honestly, this whole Tour has been a stunning ride, each city landing with a thunderous ovation and a unique place in God’s unfolding epic that is circling the globe. But there’s no place we’d rather end this leg than here in Cape Town, a gorgeous convergence of 3 million+ people in a breath-taking collision of land and sea. And just further down from Cape Point and the heart of CT is the Cape of Good Hope, a potent reminder of what this city can be to the nation and what SA can be to the African continent.
Tonight was amazing, but the story of tonight is really the story of tomorrow, a future rooted in the hearts of the generation that worshiped so loudly tonight, believing that greater things have yet to come for Cape Town. It’s tomorrow that our zeal must turn into action as justice becomes ‘love out loud’ as the grace that’s set us free moves us in that freedom to extend mercy and healing to anyone who needs their heart put back together again with God. Tomorrow, the cross must loom large in our hearts, compelling our hearts and steps to make famous the One who saves.
It was a humbling privilege for our team to be a part of two events on South African soil, two nights we will never forget and ones we pray God will make last forever. Mexico City, you’re up next and there is so much CT love coming your way (not to mention over ZAR 116,000/ US$14,800!) and the promise of many prayers as Passion wristbands dot the campuses of the Western Cape for weeks to come.
It’s late. We’re spent. CT sleeps. Our God reigns!
Manila-KL-Jakarta-Jozi-Cape Town=WOW! We love you all!
The final session of an amazing all-day Passion JoBurg ended about an hour ago and my ears are still ringing and my heart is really full. What can I say, Passion loves Africa, and the thought that we came here today with a tidal wave of Indonesian love behind us is quite humbling. Jakarta, your thoughts and prayers lifted us to places we could not have gone without you, so from our Passion team and the 6000 people who filled the world’s longest hall at “The Gallagher” today–THANK YOU!
Honestly, I’m not sure I can sum up today in a simple blog post, but let’s just say from 10AM, when “Hello JoBurg” hit the screens, it was on, and things just kept building right through to the end. And all day long the cross was huge, and the belief that this beautiful nation and it’s people are on the brink of something large, holding in their hands the hope of a nation that very well might be the hope of a continent, fueled our worship.
FEE absolutely blew up the place and the Tomlin crew were, as always-amazing! But this day belonged to a much more massive name and was all about and totally for the fame of Jesus in SA and the world. As the pic shows, Do Something Now was happening here, worship and justice joined, as 2300 blankets were provided for those in need in the Johannesburg area. That was a cool thing and an encouragement for you guys coming to SOLD OUT Cape Town next week to bring one from home for the needy of your city as well.
JoBurg, it’s your turn to pray and keep the wave going around the world. I forgot to mention, but on the inside of your wrist band-thing it says Passion Cape Town, and it would be really sweet if you’d turn yours inside out and keep it on until next Wednesday as a reminder to pray for what God has for us that night.
God is alive in SA and raising up a beautiful generation of God-lovers in this nation. It’s real. It’s His grace. It’s what God is doing. And it’s an awesome thing. We have seen their faces, heard their prayers, felt their love and sensed that they are poised to take their place in this unstoppable Church Jesus is building here and around the globe. And we are with them, and all of you who want to live to make Jesus famous in this generation!
“Take my life and let it be all for You and for Your glory, take my life and let it be Yours!”
A little over two days have passed since we left Jakarta on flights that would land us in Africa for the second time on this amazing world tour. Though now in Johannesburg, and excited about what is in store tomorrow, we all feel like we’ve been hit by a massive SE Asian typhoon and are very much missing Asia! Can you believe it? Three nights and 19,000+ new friends who are now on this massive and growing wave that God is raising up all around the globe! What a ride!
Manila, KL and Jakarta…we love you so much and feel like in a really short period of time God somehow merged our hearts beautifully into one. The way you have prayed and given for each other speaks of a thread being woven through every nation and people, a thread that’s telling a story so much bigger than our own. And Jakarta, you have blown us away with your blog-mania! 900+ comments!?!? Are you kidding? But more than the number (Manila and KL, you rocked as well), it’s the stories that move us most…stories of God’s grace and a night that was Spirit-powered and all about the powerful simplicity of the cross where life began.
And speaking of typhoons, as we were leaving Jakarta Wednesday one shut down the Hong Kong airport (our intended layover on the way to JoBurg) giving us a nice long day at the Jakarta airport before a late-night flight to Singapore, and for many Dubai, before we arrived over 24 hours later to sunny SA winter. JoBurg, there are thousands of Indonesians praying for you right now (see the 900+ posts mentioned above!) and we are expecting great things tomorrow. For those of you around the world, JoBurg is an all day event starting at 10 AM local time. And for you folks who are going to “pitch up” tomorrow, remember to bring a blanket for our Do Something Now campaign! And to everyone following the Passion World Tour, we love you and couldn’t have done any of this without you!
It’s pushing 2 AM and from our 30th floor hotel window Jakarta seems to have settled into another quiet night. But Istora Arena was anything but quiet tonight as over 7000 people united to make a big deal of the Savior of the world in the heart of the most populous Muslim nation on earth.
We have fallen in love with SE Asia (Manila/KL, you were very much in our hearts tonight) and the people of Indonesia have been nothing but amazing. KL, we told them about your prayers for them and the 400++ Blog posts to prove it!!! Thy were pretty blown away by that and were eager to take up the challenge to make sure Johannesburg, SA, is surrounded by thoughts and prayers, too. And moved by your generosity, they gave US $23,500 to help the wave reach South African shores! That’s a movement friends, and what the Passion World Tour is all about.
Once the podcast from KL/Jakarta is up you’ll get to hear more of what these beautiful nights were all about. But our whole team left tonight just shaking our heads at what God is doing around this globe AND floored that we are getting to see so much of it with our own eyes. Every culture and people are unique and diverse, but in some ways every night looks remarkably the same. It’s that Ephesians 4 thing…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and in all and through all.
It won’t be long now before the morning call to prayer will blast from the mosque below. And when it does, I’ll wake up and think about the hope of this city and the presence of God that filled the room as 14,000 hands raised toward heaven lifting up “God Of This City” as a prayer for the 15 million people who call Jakarta home. God is alive and well here, His Church growing in strength and stature. Yet, the final chapter of Jesus’ fame in Jakarta (and the 28,000 islands that comprise this nation) has not been fully written. The future is here though. We worshiped with them tonight as we celebrated the simple, yet profound grace of God in the cross of Jesus Christ.
We are free, we are free, yea the Son has set us free, drop your chains sons and daughters come and run in liberty! Let that wake up this city and the world!
Kyiv + Stockholm + Sao Paulo + Kampala + Paris + London + Manila + Kuala Lumpur + Jakarta = A generation united for His renown!
It’s going to be hard to describe the beauty of this night, a huge celebration of the grace of God in the midst of the biggest collision of cultures I have ever seen. 4000 people packed into the Sunway Convention Center tonight, representing a giant mix of nations, students studying here in Malaysia from throughout Asia, Africa and the Arabic speaking world. And tonight they were all about one story, one name, one fame.
Passing through the five-story mall to get from the hotel to the convention center (Sunway is resort-ish and about 30 minutes from the main city center of KL) there’s the ice rink, every store imaginable, kids who look like kids anywhere on the planet, women in burkas, teen girls with head coverings and others sporting cowboy boots and skirts. Music is pumping from the rink and a huge crowd of people are waiting for the doors to open for Passion Kuala Lumpur. It’s a little hard to grasp, but right here in the mix is a story that is changing the world. And tonight we were with the future of not just a nation–but of nations!
The place was loud and the message was grace…God doing what we could never do to span the gulf of our wrong and put us back together with Him forever. Charlie and Chris were an amazing team. Their songs were already echoing through the nation before we arrived and were powerful anthems of freedom and life tonight. And the faces were like heaven on earth, every nation, race, tribe and tongue. As our camera crew grabbed hellos from those waiting outside they met students from all over the world, the first one being from Tehran, Iran! So while we were thrilled to be in Malaysia, we knew tonight was about something shifting in the whole world.
Manila, your smiling faces greeted your friends here tonight and the promise of your prayers was an encouragement to us all. KL, this was a special night! Thank you for joining the wave and giving so generously for Jakarta. I’m told you gave 55,000 Ringgit (over $15,000 US) to make a night like tonight possible in Indonesia. That’s a huge wow! Thank you.
We are praying for you Kuala Lumpur. You are destined to be history makers! Go for it.
Though we are waking up to Kuala Lumpur (having traded the chaos and craziness of Manila for the sky scrapers and mosques of KL), we still have our new Filipino friends in our hearts!! And how could we not, especially after they have completely taken over the Blog. 200+ comments!! What?!?! That’s an all-time record and just shows how strong the connection was in PhilSports Arena Friday night. Thank you for such a warm welcome to the Philippines and for being a part of a generation that really desires nothing more than to make Jesus famous with our lives. We love you guys so much and have been humbled and encouraged by your (many) responses and your promise of prayers for the students of Kuala Lumpur!
It’s been a quick trip to KL, with an introduction to a brand new culture, and the expectation is high for something special here tonight. Please pray for special grace and strength on our lives and voices as we lead.
More to come later tonight!
Louie
PS- Under the heading of “Life Is Weird”: If you’ve been RickRolled, you’ll be happy to know that none other than Rick Astley himself played Friday night at one of the other main arenas in Manila while Passion Manila was happening. No joke! And under the heading of information “No one really cares about,” there actually was a Thrilla in Manila in that same arena in October 1975.
Not to be denied, we are posting from Manila after an AMAZING night here! I say “not denied” because we were awakened this morning to an e-mail from Google saying their spam robots had blocked access to our Blog today because they thought we were harmfully spamming the Blog community. Not sure what triggered that action (not what we need from the company who lives by the motto – Don’t Be Evil) on day one of this second leg of the Passion World Tour when we have a lot of people all around the globe waiting to here about what God did in the Philippines tonight! But fear not, our phenomenal team (Matt back at the Passion House and Jonathan here in Manila) created a brand new 268Blog in less than 24 hours! Come on!! Let’s hear it for these guys and the heroic job they did building and launching a whole new thing on top of getting everything rolling at the venue today! So to Google’s robots I say, “interesting timing”. And to all of you who are with us on this beautiful journey…thanks for checking in and walking with us through a night we will never forget.
We’re posting a podcast right now, so you’ll be able to hear some of what happened for yourselves, but for now, tonight was a microcosm of Manila, controlled chaos in a tightly confined space…beautiful and crazy! I haven’t heard a final number, but somewhere near 8,000 loud Filipinos eventually just took over the night and almost brought the place down.
Speaking of the LOUD Filipinos, Brazil, we have found your people!! They are over here on the 7000+ islands that make up this nation, crazy people that make me wonder what the Brazilian/Filipino section of forever is going to be like! All I know is I want to get into that section!
I’m not sure how to fully describe what happened, but let’s just say these guys have fully embraced the message and music of Passion and were up for everything that came their way. They even started singing on “Jesus Messiah” like they knew it…and funny thing, they did! YouTube?!?! But tonight was more than unbridled enthusiasm, tonight a deposit was made that we pray will shake things up forever as the young people of this nation say “Yes” to Jesus and follow Him wherever and however He leads.
Our days and nights are still pretty upside down right now (I’m writing this at 1:12 AM, but my body has no clue what time is should be), so we’re going to crash before we fly out to Malaysia tomorrow. And as we sleep (actually as tired as I am it may take a while to wind down from this one) we will be thanking God for all of you. We have never felt so connected to people before, and as today got closer and closer we could feel the wind of your support and prayers at our backs.
God is alive and well here in this city, a metro area of 14 million of the most beautifully-hearted people you have ever seen. And we are humbled to be a part of the unfolding story here for His renown.
Greater things have yet to come…and we saw a little taste of that tonight in Manila! Wow. Wow. Wow!
Louie
PS-London, thanks for praying us all the way to here! Great job! Now Manila is praying for you KL!
