The afternoon session of the ILC is focussed on HOPE worldwide. I am posting this while the meeting is going on. Mark Templer opened the session …

He spoke of an orphaned girl who was taken to adoptive parents, but who was returned to the orphanage when the parents discovered she was deaf in one ear. She screamed on returning to the orphanage. Such trauma is hard for me to imagine, but is a common experience for so many millions in this world today. HOPE is making a difference in such a compassionate and cost-effective way.

The Wednesday morning session for the delegates at the ILC in Denver began with a lesson from John 17, “Loving the Truth” by Wyndham Shaw and Dinesh George (Boston and Bangalore, respectively). A picture of Wyndham is below. Dinesh will follow later.

Wyndham spoke movingly about an old friend who had lost his love for Jesus, the truth and people. One man who had preached to thousands and been responsible for many being saved left his family and four children for a woman not his wife. At his funeral only 19 people turned up and his children found it hard to say anything positive about their dead father. It gave me a renewed conviction to hold on to the truth.

Here is Dinesh, also preaching passionately on loving the truth from Galatians …

The International Leadership Conference (ILC) is in Denver this year – a place I have never been before. It is a mile high, and I can feel the difference. At least my panting as I come to the top of a flight of stairs has an excuse other than my general lack of fitness!

There is a strong Greco/Roman style to most of the civic buildings of any age.