One of the icons of London’s historic landscape, the Tower Bridge, provided a great location to gather university leaders from all across the UK (and Scandinavia) to dream about Passion’s return to the City in 2010!  If you squint (or just enlarge the image!) you’ll see a set of windows just below the fly-over connector on the tower to your right.  This past Monday, 40 of us met inside to pray and think about the possibllity of another London Passion event next year.  The vantage point was amazing and there was still a buzz among us from our event in Hammersmith Apollo last summer.  But what was really cool was seeing new faces in the room, people who are joining the movement for a Passion gathering to be hosted in London in May of TwentyTen.

I’m not sure I’m even supposed to be releasing this information, as no plans for a LIMITED Passion World Tour in 2010 are official as yet!!  But if you’re in the UK, I’d watch closely for the something in the coming months!

[And, just in case I am in some serious trouble right now, please do not write us or lobby for your city in 2010.  For one, we loved EVERY city we were in on the inagural Passion World Tour and would love to come back to see you all again.  But, reality says that seventeen cities in one year (with our major Passion Twenty Ten gathering in Atlanta in January and this little thing called Passion City Church coming to life) is maybe not the wisest plan.  So, we will be back in a few cities next year, God willing, and might even add a new destination this time around.]

A few days after our London gathering I was speaking in Oxford where I met a student leader from the south coast of England.  Their group was recognized on the last Passion Twenty Ten Live Link web stream (and they said they would be with us for our next one in September as well) at 2AM AND that they are already bringing 9 students to Atlanta for Passion Twenty Ten.  Brilliant!

So thanks to everyone who joined us in the Tower Bridge (and those who met our team in Kyiv before that).  We loved hearing about how God is stirring in your hearts and movements and look forward to even greater things for London and beyond.

Passion London, May 2010?!?!?

But first, Atlanta!  January 2-5, 2010.

Louie

PS- Tower Bridge is most often confused with London Bridge, the latter made famous by the song London Bridge is falling down, falling down…

Most notably, this confusion happened when the London Bridge was sold for $2.4 million in 1968 to a US oil tycoon who dismantled it and had it rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it stands today.  No kidding.

Inching ever closer to our $1 million goal, our third cause at onemillioncan.com has just been funded as we have exceeded our $100,000 goal to fund the expansion of the Sari Bari project in India with our partner Word Made Flesh!

This is what we had in mind when we introduced onemillioncan back in August of 2008, a small army of people working together to accomplish great things for people God loves so much throughout the world. And while it is exciting to see our total grow, far more amazing is knowing the women of Sari Bari (and their children) are free of the injustice and oppression of forced prostitution and now have a hopeful future filled with dignity and worth.

As is so often the case, these women have been trapped in a degrading cycle of evil that has inflicted enormous pain on their lives simply because others could take advantage of them in a weakened state, exploiting their innocence for selfish gain. But today, 75 of these precious women will taste rescue as they begin a new life in the Sari Bari project.

Not only will our gifts through onemillioncan purchase their freedom, but these women will now be gainfully (and meaningfully) employed, producing 2500 blankets per year that will generate an additional $96K that will be reinvested in the freedom of others.

While three of our onemillioncan causes are now FULLY FUNDED, other opportunities remain. We still have a long way to go (we’d like to see all the causes funded before Passion Twenty Ten!) and are grateful for your support and your willingness to spread the onemillioncan message to those in your world.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, so let us now stand firm and not become entangled with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1

Louie

Although I do not hear the faint sound of sleigh bells in the distance, Christmas has come barging into summer’s June! No, global warming has not forced the reindeer south. Tomlin is recording an album of Christmas tunes in Nashville! So, last night was “O Holy Night” as one hundred friends packed the church-turned-studio at Ocean Way Recording for a beautiful night celebrating the coming of the Son of God.

In a way it’s a little weird to be singing Joy To The World in June, but then again, quite appropriate as Christmas is simply about Emmanuel–God with us. The miracle of today, and the best thing that has or will ever happen to you and me, is that Christ stepped into our reality, God with skin, to live among us and set us free.

Packed with songs you know and love, Glory In The Highest will arrive in time for “real calendar Christmas,” bringing with it some original songs from Chris and friends that I can’t wait for you to hear.

So wherever you are today, remember the miracle and celebrate the unthinkable…Christ has come. To me. To you. Right here. Now. Emmanuel.

Merry Christmas!!
Louie

Available Everywhere Today!  We’re Excited!
Louie and the sixsteps Team