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I recently discussed the recently popular dystopia genre on International Christian Fiction Writers.
Back in the 1980s when my family lived in Mozambique, then a “front-line state” against apartheid South Africa, I thought the South African government was crazy not to release their long-time political prisoner, a fellow named Nelson Mandela. “Let the ANC tear itself apart with infighting,” I thought. I didn’t know Nelson Mandela. His eventual release from prison in 1990 led, not to infighting, but to reconciliation. After twenty-seven years in jail, this great man spoke words of forgiveness and united a nation. In 1994 he was elected president in the first fully democratic elections in South African history. SIM is not your grandfather’s mission agency! We are in transition as is the whole world of cross-cultural ministry. Founded as Soudan Interior Mission in 1893, SIM has since merged with groups working in Asia and Latin America, as well as our former mission, Africa Evangelical Fellowship. With expanding territory, the name was changed to Serving in Mission. But a lot more than the name and areas of service has changed! This isn't exactly a Christmas blog either, but if we're going to spend extra time in prayer on the twenty-eighth of December, the Feast of the Holy Innocents, as I suggested earlier this week, how shall we pray? We want to see solutions to the problem of gun violence in America. Here are some suggestions for using the ACTS format—adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.
This is not the first time that tragedy struck at Christmas. Two thousand years ago a psychopath who killed his wife and three sons, heard that his royal position might be in danger from a peasant baby. He wasn’t a pagan; he consulted Bible scholars to find out where this king was. When the foreigners he tried to dupe into spying for him didn’t return, he had no way of knowing which child. So he killed them all—every boy baby two years old and under in the whole village of Bethlehem. It wasn’t a large village. We don’t know how many children died that day. “Trust without knowing” is a challenge. That is the definition of trust, as my American friend in Pakistan writes. If we knew how the story turns out, it wouldn’t be trust. Of course, we DO know how the story turns out: the Lord returns to save his people and restore creation to what he originally intended. We just don’t know how our little piece of the story will turn out. That’s where trust comes in. Moment by moment. Day by day. In America or in Pakistan. The TV has been on a lot at our house this week. Ever since Peggy Fleming skated away with the gold medal at Innsbruck, I have loved the Olympics. Maybe it’s sappy; maybe there are cheats; but I love the emotional high of athletes who have focused and trained literally for years, testing their skills against the best in the world. I love seeing records teeter and fall daily as adrenaline shifts everyone into high gear. Technology has its down side (witness all the ads for Viagra and body-part enlargers that show up in my spam box) but it really has some great stuff too. Recently I have been enjoying Inter-Varsity Press’s Quiet Time Study page. It works its way through the Bible over a couple years with questions and links to the Bible Gateway page for that passage. I read the introductory paragraph, click on the link to Bible Gateway, read the passage, then line up the two windows side-by-side on my screen, read the questions one at a time and find the answers in the passage. The Daughters of Caleb Bender series by Dale Cramer is based on the daughters of the author’s own great grandfather who was the elder statesman of a colony of Old Order Amish who emigrated to Mexico in the 1920s when the state of Ohio passed laws requiring the Amish to send their children to public schools. Dale’s father was born in Mexico so he has a strong vested interest in these stories. |
AuthorLeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will permeate lives. Add http://www.leannehardy.net/1/feed to your RSS feed.
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