Wednesday, December 31, 2014

35 things we had better tell our boys

Ann Vos Kamp hit this one out of the ball park.

What do parents say to boys about harassment of girls, assault and "boys will be boys" ?

You'll want to keep this one. Read more. 

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas in Northern Iraq - "Remembering the Refugee Baby, Jesus" - from the Vicar of Bagdad

Refugees in Iraq remember the coming of the Christ child.
Although hundreds of thousands of refugees are displaced from their homes in Iraq and their futures remain uncertain due to the siege of the Islamic State, The Vicar of Baghdad wrote in an online Christmas letter.

Christian refugees in Iraq have not been deterred from exhibiting joy in the only thing they have left: the unconditional love of Jesus.

 Read more.

Writing from his new temporary home in Bethlehem, the  birthplace of Christ, the Rev. Canon Andrew White, the only Anglican pastor in Iraq, said that even though ISIS has left these displaced Christian refugees with no homes, no clothes and, in some cases, no families, their faith remains strong in the "refugee child," Jesus.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Adversity and Compassion in Lebanon as Syrian refugees continue to pour in.

So what did this pastor do when the load became too big? He called a church prayer meeting and they prayed again. “We could not run away from our responsibilities. God would provide in the future as he has done in the past,” he says.

Read more.

How many of us in the West, where we have enough funds to live on, would challenge our local church to take on the feeding and care of 900 refugee families?

From Syria and Lebanon come amazing stories of faith and courage. I encourage you to think about the generosity of this church, as we think about the Christmas Story - with Mary and Joseph not finding hospitality anywhere, until someone pointed them to a manger.

Until someone points others to the Savior.


 

Monday, December 15, 2014

"O Holy Night" - just great - as sung in Tanzania!!

In Bethlehem - the star - the Light of the World
What a lovely way to arrive at the last 10 days before Christmas! "O Holy Night" being sung as worship by Tanzanian men and women.

The usual melody is given a slight twist, one you will appreciate.  Click here for music



 

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Adversity and Child Poverty: An Encounter in Saint Nickolas' city

(Continued from my previous blog, two days ago.)

In front of us, 100 yards / meters away, stood a statue of Saint Nickolas, made of bronze. The previous, red and white one, Hollywood style, (see below)  had been dismantled by the government. "Too Western and pagan!"

The sun blazed down, as it always does in mid-July, and my brother and I searched for anything to bring comfort, ice cream being the best option at hand. Our restaurant waiter brought us different flavors and I decided to speak to him, in Turkish.

"Thanks for the ice cream. Here's the money and a small tip. Now, do you know anything about the reason for the hundreds of thousands of people who come here every year as tourists?"

"No, I have no idea."

"Do you know who Saint Nickolas was?"

"No, not at all."

"How long have you lived here?"

"I was born here in Demre 38 years ago."

"Did you know that Saint Nickolas was kind to the poor, and he rescued children from being sold into poverty, actually into slavery?"

"Someone told that to me once, but that happened long ago, didn't it?"

"Did you know that Saint Nickolas, the bishop, was imitating the life of Isa Messih (Jesus Christ), who taught us to be kind to the poor, to share with those who are in misery, especially children?"

"No, I didn't know that."

"If you had a person like Saint Nickolas here today, here is what I think he would be doing. Instead of everyone going to these massive souvenir shops, and buying gifts, especially in Russian and other languages of Eastern Europe, I think he would rent that shop over there, that little one on the other side of the street, which is for rent. He would be telling tourists that there are many children in Turkey today who need food, love in their homes, to go to school instead of staying home and working from a young age. He, or she, would be raising money to help Turkish children, widows and orphans, who don't know where their next meal is coming from. I think that person would explain the great love of God - have you heard about it - No? well, this is what it says..." I gave him a very elementary explanation of God's redemptive love, forgiveness and compassion.

A man who we had not met until 10 minutes before stood before us with tears flooding his eyes. I had the same response as we drove on towards the port city of Antalya - but for a different reason.
     He was hearing about the unique life of Jesus Christ for the first time.
     For me, though, the pain was that he had served - what? tens of thousands of tourists in his 20 years in that restaurant? - and had never heard "The Story".

That man is still very much in my heart.

 

Monday, December 8, 2014

Adversity and Saint Nickolas: "How a Turkish Bishop became Santa Claus"

Statue of St. Nickolas and the three children
One of my favorite places in Turkey is the long, jagged, azure-blue, 1,000 mile coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. An ancient port, visited by Paul on his way to Rome, is Myra, (today with the Turkish name: Demre). The Apostle Paul was a prisoner of Rome and  Myra was one of the best ports for ships bringing grain from Egypt. (Mark Anthony and Cleopatra stayed there as they prepared to fight Augustus for control of the Empire.)

Bishop Nickolas lived in the fourth century. Visitors can visit the remains of his 4th Century church. He believed in living very humbly, unlike some  bishops through history, and was especially concerned with  adversity that came upon families burdened by debts.

The government removed this statue in 2006
One family in particular caught his attention. Most likely, the mother had died, or was incapacitated. The father of three children was unable to pay his debtors so the family was threatened with the imminent sale of three children to pay off an "impossible mountain" of debt. What a situation of adversity! How would help come to this family?

However it happened, and many variations of the story circulate, Bishop Nickolas took coins (maybe gold or silver coins?) (his own or those of the church?) and gave them to the father in unexpected way. (One variation says he placed coins inside an open window during the summer night where they were found the next day.)


The ENORMOUS Russian shop for souvenirs of St. Nickolas 
At any rate, the funds were sufficient to keep the family intact, not living in poverty, but not living in great wealth, either. No children in that family were sold as slaves.

This is the most famous story, and there are plenty of others, too. Kindness and generosity flow from this story.

Unfortunately, the reason behind Bishop Nickolas' generosity, the life of Jesus Christ who gave life to others, showing 'agape' love, and especially his concern for children, is usually left out of the picture.

In Myra / Derme there is no hint of the gift of salvation through forgiveness of sins, that which we consider to be the greatest gift of the season. (More on this in my next blog post.)

The incredible twists and turns by which this famous, short man with a big heart became known for his Saint Nickolas' day, which is celebrated by the Orthodox Churches around the world on December 6, is a tale you might want to spend another five minutes reading.

Gradually, giving at Christmas became a custom of Western Christianity with children lining up for photos with Santa Claus in shopping malls throughout the world. The story  is briefly summarized  here in Wikipedia. A map and many photos are here in Google maps.

 

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Adversity and cancer: "Turning disappointment into witness"

Adversity comes in many ways.

     To Ron, it came in the form of a rare form of cancer that affected the muscles in his neck and throat. He was only 28 when he received the diagnosis from the physician in Texas. "If I operate, I may or may not get it all. If I do get it all, you'll never again be able to break in wild horses - you'll have to stop that all together."

     Ron was devastated. He enjoyed his part time job as a cowboy and half time job as a pastor of a small, rural church. Kneeling down at his bed he cried to the Lord, "Oh God! if you can, please let me live a little bit longer, enough time to let my wife at least get both our boys into school, so she can work. After that, you can take me."

     When he came to our home in Istanbul, (he visited more than once), he told how he was going with my friend, David to villages where no Christians had ever visited. More than 20,000 villages dot the Turkish landscape, from north to south and east to west. He overflows with joy and courage.

     "I sit down in the center area, ready to stay for a day, if need be. Men gather around, curious who has come to their town. They ask, 'Why did you come to our village?' they ask, and I say, 'I'm here because I was cured of cancer. I'm 68 years old and 40 years ago, a surgeon told me I had less than two years to live. Would you like to hear my story?' And let me tell you what happened in that village."

     Cathie and I found his witness powerful, courageous and captivating. He had been able to do the impossible, keeping taming wild horses, tending to the flock in his church and now, going to villages in a predominately Muslim country (99.9% is "predominate), sharing his faith in a vibrant way.

     Pain - lots of it came when almost certainly faced death many years ago, yet he turned those painful days into praise and ... now into one of the most creative forms of witness I've seen.

     "What was the response?" I asked, as the supper dishes remained on the table, more than an hour after we finished the meal.

     "In that village, more than 40 men asked for a copy of our Holy Book. It was amazing. And then, we went to another village, the next day. Do you want to hear what happened there?"

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Adversity - 1: "Why Character makes a difference in how we respond"

This is the first of several blog posts on adversity, situations facing us that bring perplexity.

     What do we do or say when a child is born and it's health is not perfect? Let's say, born with Down Syndrome?
     Dr. Barnhouse, who lived three generations ago, was mightily used of the Lord. On one occasion, he preached for a week at a church where the pastor and his wife were expecting the birth of a child. The last night came and the pastor wasn't there. He was attending the birth of his infant baby. However, the child was born with Down Syndrome.
     The pastor immediately came to Dr. Barnhouse asking, "What do I say to my wife? She doesn't know yet."
     Barnhouse showed the pastor these words, "The Lord said to Moses, 'Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?' (Ex 4:11). My friend, Romans 8:28 is at work here. There is something in this event that God is working for good, for you and for the child."
     Returning to the hospital, the wife was distraught, wanting to hold her newborn. The father quoted the verse from the Old Testament and the follow up encouragement from the New Testament, and said, "We are being blessed with a child with a special challenge. You need to know this before they place the baby in your arms." She wept, agonizing but deciding that this was going to be  her "life-long discipleship".
     In the hospital, news spread about the birth. At the switchboard (yes they had switchboards in those years!) the operator listened in as the parents made a call to their friends. She was antagonistic towards Christians and had told her friends, "There's no difference between Christians and anyone else!"
     What she heard changed her mind, because listening to the conversation, she heard, "Mother, God has just blessed us with a Down Syndrome baby. I don't know how we will manage, but we will." The switchboard operator did not hear panic, sobbing or groaning. She had heard that a child with a disability was a "blessing".
    So impressed was she - that she began to spread the word around the hospital. "This is amazing, let me tell you what happened!" By the end of the week, all the nurses and doctors and cleaning personnel in the hospital knew the story.
     The next Sunday came and the church had a record number of visitors: 70 staff members from the hospital. He gave an invitation after recounting the blessing that had come to his home that week, and 30 nurses came forward to receive Jesus Christ.
     The timing of the birth could not be planned in advance, nor the person who was at the switchboard.
     But, the response to the crisis was a choice - a choice of character, of choosing to depend on God.   -   Oh, the family had friendship and support from birth - a group of medical specialists that money and fame could not have bought.


 

Monday, December 1, 2014

Surprizing research about those "colonizing" missionaries: "They changed history."

Surprising research carried out by Robert Woodbury shows that there is a significant relationship between democratic nations around the world and Protestantism.

One afternoon he attended a required lecture that brought his vocational drift to a sudden end. The lecture was by Kenneth A. Bollen, a UNC–Chapel Hill professor and one of the leading experts on measuring and tracking the spread of global democracy. Bollen remarked that he kept finding a significant statistical link between democracy and Protestantism. Someone needed to study the reason for the link, he said.

Woodberry sat forward in his seat and thought, That's me. I'm the one. Read more.
 
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