It’s Monday across the thousands of islands that make up The Philippines and somewhere a student is still proudly rocking their Passion Manila/Passion HK wristband, praying and believing for great things to come in Hong Kong five days from now.  And they are not alone.

Together, they’re getting random stares, puzzled looks, inquisitive questions and shrugged-shoulder responses on the bus, in class, at the store, around the house and at work.  Yet they are standing firm, forming a beautiful link in a generation that spans the globe.  (That’s not to say you have to be a wristband wearer to be a part of the Jesus-generation that’s rising up on every continent…just that a few crazy Filipinos are!)

The wristband is a simple thing, yet a powerful reminder of life-shaping days in God’s presence and, as is the case with the World Tour, a visible encouragement  to pray for the students ahead.  And we’re not just talking about Manila.  This week, during a quick pit-stop in Atlanta, I met a girl still going strong with her wristband from Passion Atlanta!!  (Hello…that’s five months and counting…mind you, she said she was down to layer three…which makes me wonder, is there a layer four?)  I’m sure someone from the WT stops in Kiev,  London and Tokyo is doing the same…and know there are more who have a wristband in their journal, tacked to the wall, taped to the bathroom mirror, hanging in their car, and on and on….

Theirs are the hands across the world, hands united by a common Savior…hands outstretched to love the world in Jesus’ name.

And speaking of Manila, thank you to the university student who wrote to us back in 2001 after watching the Passion OneDay DVD.  Your email was one of the first to ever reach us from outside the USA and in it you shared how moved you were at seeing your generation gathered for His fame.  And then you did it…you asked if we would ever  consider hosting a Passion gathering in The Philippines!  Our team will never forget reading your email together…stunned that ripples from our little movement had reached your shores and thrilled about the prospect of uniting university students across the world.  We just looked at each other in amazement…and wondered if that could ever happen…and what it would look like to be with thousands of Pinoy Believers going for God.

Well, now we know.  So, wherever you are, thank you for your vision and for helping make Passion Manila possible not once, but twice!  And, thank you, Manila, for praying for Hong Kong…and thank you Atlanta, Kyiv, London, Tokyo and every city/student before who has leaned into this journey with us.

Hong Kong, you’re next!  We are expecting great things as your hands join the wave.  If you haven’t already made plans to be there, get your tickets today!  Passion Hong Kong.  Saturday, June 5. HK Convention Centre.  Passion HK info and tickets here.

LG

OK…I’ve said it before.

But I’m saying it again.
Words fail.

Tonight.
The Big Dome!
Became the Big Loud Dome!

Awakening.
Passionate Pinoy people.
Full on.
Full of faith.

People.
Make no mistake.
Jesus is alive.
In Manila.

Tokyo.
Your prayers blew this place up.
For real.
All time.

HK.
Did you hear the shout?
I am pretty sure you could hear it!

Ears are ringing.
Heart is pounding.
Humbled.

Long live Jesus in Manila!
Mabuhay!
Thank you Manila.
Thank you great Savior!

LG

Night is settling on Tokyo…and an amazing night it was!
What an honor.
Right place.
Right time.
Tokyo.
Japan.

Coolest venue ever!
Japanese make cool stuff.
Rare that Christians use it.
Secular promoter took a chance on us.
He’s not a believer.
Yet.
But helped us anyway.
Came tonight.
Stayed till the end.
Hosts concerts of every size/kind.
Said he’d never seen anything like it.
“The young people’s eyes were shining!”
Yes to that.
He said it touched him deeply.
Told him it was not just music.
But the God of the songs!

Energy.
Faith.
Not polite.
Yet really reverent at times.
So loud at others.
Such a hunger.
Special, special night.

So worth it.
Investment.
Mattered.

Tomlin and band killed!
KILLED!
Not sure how I did.
BUT Katsumi, my translator was awesome.
I mean AWESOME!

London, your voices were heard.
Your faces seen.
Your shout received!

God has a plan.
A purpose.
A time.
He is sovereign over Tokyo.
The time is now?

Beautiful faces.
Many love Jesus.
One non-believing student told a friend…
“I didn’t know there were this many Christians…
In Tokyo!”
Thanks for inviting your friend.
Praying they will pursue the sound they heard tonight.
Pursue the grace we celebrated.

Hope abounds.
Millions wait.
For the Son.
Of God.
To be shared.

Never count Him out.
Our God.
Is Greater.
Stronger.
Higher.
Than any other!
Healer.
Awesome in power.
Our God.

Manila.
You’re up.
Tokyo is for you.
Behind you.
Praying.

Tokyo.
We love you.
LG

Some crazy costume event, you ask? No, just a normal day out and about in Shibuya and Harajuku, two of Tokyo’s vibrant (if not slightly bizarre) areas and two of the most culture-forward places on earth.  The main Shibuya intersection pictured above is said to be one of the busiest in the world, a place where thousands cross the street(s) every time the lights change.

“Oh, you can find a few kids like this in Tokyo,” you ask?  Nope. Not a few, but tens of thousands fill the streets at all times (hundreds of thousands at peak times), where the emphasis is squarely on “the look” you’re rocking and the “vibe” you’re sporting.  In a pretty short period of time you can see it all, and though everyone seems to want to break the mold, after a few minutes no one seems to stand out anymore.

But, if you dig youth culture (and love young people) it’s the place you want to be…and the place you can’t help but ask, “How will the gospel come to them?  Who is God going to use to bridge the gap and bring awakening here?”  I certainly don’t have the answers, but I believe the time is now.  Tokyo’s youth await…and I think it won’t take much to turn the tide and start a revolution.

For our team there’s no place we’d rather be tonight…

Peace out and stay tuned…

If there is such a thing as an epicenter of a movement, it’s probably true that the epicenter of the Passion Movement happened ten years ago today as 40,000 university students gathered on a field outside of Memphis, TN.  Though Passion was only three gathering old, we felt a sense of urgency that led us to call the students of the nation to a holy fast, a scared assembly…a day set aside to put our faces to the ground and pray for this generation.

More than a festival or concert (no names were used in promoting the event and we didn’t even call it Passion), OneDay 2000 was a day purely set aside for God.  Though students arrived in the days prior, no one set foot on the OneDay field until the morning of May 20…with the exception of those who read the Word over the ground 24 hours a day from a wooden tower erected in the middle of the vast grassy slope.

And when the crowd did arrive, they arrived in silence.  As you would expect with Passion, clouds were overhead and a steady, misting rain met the morning.  But the weather only seemed to add to the serious tone as tens of thousands of people made their way from the various campsites onto what we all felt was holy ground.

I can’t say I have ever experienced anything quite like it, especially given the months and months of prayer and anticipation that led up to that morning.  Our team had crossed the nation by tour bus and RV, meeting face to face with students and holding events on hundreds of campuses from coast to coast.  And, in response, students had come from the four corners to be represent their campuses and bow before the Lord with their peers.  OneDay was billed as: Sacred. Holy. His.  And it was all that, and more.

An hour or so before the day began, our leadership team was together praying in a tent off to the side of the main stage.  The moment was marked by such a sense of God’s presence that no one wanted to set foot on the platform.  No one wanted to taint the beauty and power of His presence.  On our knees, the mood was more of, “I’m not going up there…you go up there!”

As the day unfolded, there was no rushing into celebration.  Confession and repentance led the way.  And then the cross came…visible in our midst and massive in our hearts.  I think we were so in touch with our sins (and those of the nation) that we felt we needed its power as never before.  I remember standing, somewhat stunned, as students started running toward the cross from the edges of the field…from hundreds of feet away.  Their response wasn’t organized or dignified as they sprinted past their friends and literally threw themselves on the ground at the foot of the cross.  We were all wrecked by His grace and mercy…and sent out with a desire to amplify the One who bore our shame.

I can close my eyes and be back there in a heartbeat.  I can see a generation on their knees…on their faces…bowed down in the muddy grass to be lifted up again to touch the world in Jesus name.

Ten years later I would guess anyone on that field can tell you how God touched their lives that day…and many would say they are where they are because of the calling God put in their hearts at Shelby Farms.

That’s why Shelley and I are here in Tokyo tonight with a Passion Team that still carries the heartbeat of OneDay among a nation that is yet to see His grace and sing His praise.  For a time we thought that OneDay 2000 would be the end of our Movement, yet, today, it serves as fuel for a journey that has only just begun.

Along the way we are: Remembering. Grateful. Humbled. His.
LG

Passion London is in the books…or, maybe, it’s just begun.

We’re hoping, if you were there, that you’re voting for the latter…feeling like we have experienced something powerful together but are just now starting to work out what God has revealed and planted in our hearts.

This I know for sure: my God’s not dead, He’s surely alive, and He’s living on the inside, roaring like a Lion!  And, contrary to popular opinion, the Church is not dead in Western Europe, and certainly not in the UK.  Evidence?  The faces of a new generation that are real about their “stuff,” yet confident in the sure foundation that is under their feet.

Tonight, I really felt like we saw faith arise in the hearts of people–a growing confidence in God’s unstoppable purposes for us, and the potential that He can use us to show His Son to our world.

I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, but we love London…we love the city and the nations it holds.  And we love England, and are so grateful for the way the awakened Church here has spilled over on us in America.  And we love the world, especially the European nations with us for these two days.  The numbers of Believers within your walls may be small, but the God who leads you is greater than all.

Thanks for welcoming our little Passion tribe.  We are so grateful to share these days with you and to play a tiny role in the beautiful work God is doing in and through you all.

Tokyo…a shout went up for you tonight that was more than simply crazy LOUD! It was a shout of hope and belief from one side of the earth to the other that is sending us out of this place with huge expectation for what is to come.

Kyiv + London –> Tokyo

All for Jesus,

LG and the Passion Team

We are off to a great (brilliant) start here in London after a really beautiful night with students from Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Holland, France, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, all across England…and of course greater London!

CT, Matt, Christy and Kristian did fantastic leading us tonight and we all walked away stunned again that miraculously, by amazing grace, we are in the movie…we ARE IN THE STORY OF GOD.

It’s way past late here, and we have another great night ahead tomorrow (DCB/Chan rocking things), so we’ll sign off for now.  We feel your prayers and love being in this with all of you!

More tomorrow!
LG

PS-Plenty of tickets available for tomorrow night for only 10 pounds!! Come on!

As we have come to expect on Passion World Tour outings, the schedule has us right in the middle of historic change in many of the cities we visit.  For starters, we were in Kyiv on the 65th anniversary of Victory Day.  Next, we touched down in London on the very night that a deal was brokered between rival parties and a new Prime Minister took office. Not to mention, there is a presidential election happening in The Philippines, the country we’ll be in two stops from now.

As a lover of history, and someone who appreciates “the moment,” I couldn’t resist taking a stroll down to Number 10 Downing Street yesterday to breathe in the atmosphere surrounding David Cameron’s first day in power.  Of course we didn’t plan to see anything special (you can only get a tiny glimpse of #10 through the gates off Whitehall Street on the best day), and, as expected, we were met by a throng of media-types and on-lookers when we arrived.

Not wanting to cram up to the gates, we just hung out across Whitehall, looking on the activities and thinking about how often God puts us in spaces where culture and the Gospel collide in such obvious ways.  What I mean by that is this: we love being in a city when the eyes of the world are on that place.  History is being made this week (specifically the day we arrived) and we are right in the middle of it lifting up the name of Jesus over London and the nation.  Right time.  Right place.  Yes!

So, we’re standing there, just taking it all in, when a motorcycle cop comes blazing by toward Parliament.  As we looked back the direction from which he came, another cop was being closely followed by a Rolls containing none other than the Queen and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh! Yep, right there in front of us.  (OK, some are going to spiritualize here and make Queen/King references, but no matter how you slice it, it’s cool to see the Queen of England that close.)

Yet, my day was made complete when I saw this pic from a student in Kyiv.  In case you didn’t know, in each city there’s a wristband required for entrance to the event.  On one side it says where we are, but underneath it has the name of the next city to serve as a reminder for those students to pray.  So Kyiv is now praying for London, and we’re hoping there are a lot of these wristbands floating around Ukraine to prove it!

That’s one of my favorite things about the WT…students praying and giving for their peers around the globe, an unbroken wave that is circling the globe for His fame!

London starts in 24 hours!  Tickets and info here.
LG

PS-(Kyiv gave 53K in their currency–about $8K US–to help with costs in London!)

It’s pushing midnight in Kyiv and we are still trying to fully process a beautiful and powerful night with over 6500 students and university aged young people in the Sports Palace.  One word seems to work in every language, so can I say it again…wow!!

The word we felt like we were carrying tonight was Freedom, the result of grace that is stunningly free and radically amazing.  Ukraine knows “church,” but what the Spirit of the Lord brings is liberty.  So we lifted up the Saving One and echoed His grace with all our might.

Our team did such a great job, singing and leading in Russian and English.  About three songs into the night Matt started singing the chorus of Blessed Be Your Name in Russian and the lid that wasn’t really so much on anyway completely blew off.  It says so much when you lead in the language of the people and I love our guys for going for it and bridging the gap.

The students were pretty floored when we told them the story of Passion 2010 and how you guys that were there prayed for Kyiv and gave so generously to kick-start this journey.  They got it, and flooded toward the buckets to give to help support the London stop in four days from now.

One of the coolest moments of the night happened when the band led Our God for the first time.  Yep, you guessed it, the song has already made its way to this part of the world (CDs are not available here, so go figure and thank you for YouTube!) and they were on it from the start.  That became our theme for the night, and is our hope and prayer for the city and the nations tonight.  And if our God is for us, who could ever stop us?

Tonight, we saw the future of the Church here…a powerful wave of people awakening to the grace that brings freedom and fuels worship.

We are all pretty wiped out, but humbled and honored to spend ourselves serving the Church in Ukraine and the people of this city. Thank you to the ministry partners and churches that sacrificed so much and welcomed us for a night we will never forget.

We love you Kyiv!

Иисус живо!
LG

Hello from Kyiv, Ukraine, where it’s Victory Day and the eve of Passion Kyiv. [Kyiv is the preferred Ukrainian spelling of Kiev, by the way...Kiev being Russian.]  Today, to mark the occasion, a massive parade celebrating the 65th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis made its way down Khreschatyk Street into Independence Square.  The sun is out and the city is filled with people taking advantage of the national holiday tomorrow.  It’s a festive time to be in Kyiv and an exciting time to be lifting up the name of Jesus over the city.  Freedom is on the lips of people and that’s what we are all about.

All of our team has finally arrived (Icelandic ash delayed a few flights today) and we are getting set for a full-on Monday.   For now, we’ll do our best to recover and get set for the start of a great adventure.  It’s great knowing so many of you are praying with us and believing for supernatural things in the days ahead.

Happy Mother’s Day to all, especially MJG!
LG and the Passion Team