I am in Rome--or just outside it in a beautiful Catholic retreat center--with over 300 peacemakers from around the world for the Global Baptist Peace Conference.
We have people from over 50 countries who have gathered, mostly Baptists, but also Pentecostals, Catholics, Reformed church folks, 
Methodists, an Anglican and one Muslim. It's a peace conference where we have already touched some of the deepest pains in the world but also celebrated the transformative power of Christ. The worship has been stunningly rich. Sometimes worship needs to be closest to the sorrow of the world to know the wonder of grace and resurrection joy--that's certainly how our experience has been so far.I've been working as the registrar for the non-Italians, a huge organizing challenge. Given that
we had over 40 people have their visas denied, it's still an incredible gathering. Some of the people I've been working with over the years are here to learn more, share their stories, be encouraged and connect with other peacemakers engaged in similar struggles. Peacemaking colleagues I've worked with are here from Nagaland, Orissa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Georgia, Nicaragua and Wado from the Karen refugee camp. We have large delegations from Cuba, India as well as folks from Uganda, Kenya, El Salvador, Colombia, Palestine, Bangladesh, Japan, Burundi, and the list goes on. It's like homecoming, but with a serious purpose, helping us sustain our peacemaking for the long-haul.Today Gustavo Parajon spoke, a key Baptist peacemaker who worked with the conciliation commissions that were part of ending the war in Nicaragua. He's one of my role models, and I was deeply moved to hear him.
Yesterday we had day-long intensive training seminars. Sharon and I facilitated a seminar on
Bible-based conflict transformation. We had a great group, including 9 Cubans. We finished with the Rizpah story, weaving together all the work we had done earlier in the day. We also passed out CDs with my "Bible Study Manual on Conflict Transformation" in 7 langauges (English, Spanish, Chinese, French, Arabic, Burmese and Portugese). It has also been translated into Italian and will be given to all the Italian participants.
This afternoon it started to snow. We have huge snowflakes falling and sticking to the ground. Many of the conference participants from the tropical countries have never seen snow. It was amazing watching them standing out in the snow, taking pictures, relishing the flakes hitting their open hands--an unexpected delight.This is the first breathing room I've had since Sharon and I arrived on Friday morning. As soon as we got checked into the hotel I went over to the Italian Baptist Union office to start working on the plans, especially picking people up and dealing with matters such as housing for the extra nights. Then Saturday and Sunday we were getting people at the airport, checking to see who wasn't going to make it because of not getting their visa, trying to find people who somehow slipped by our signs and the waiting people, getting people from the airport to downtown Rome, and later to the conference center. We had a press conference on Monday morning as the Italian Baptists are trying to use this opportunity to give Baptists more visibilty especially identifying them in relation to peace concerns.
I'll try to send a few more "snapshots" 
along the way. Meanwhile please keep this rich time in prayer that people who need to connect for some of the new things God might do will make those connections, that the discouraged folks would be lifted up, that people will gain just the skills they need for the challenges before them, that we will all have health, and that the ripples of peace will spread from here to touch distant places.Ciao!
Pace (that's "pahch-ey"--"peace" in Italian),
Dan
