Dear visitors
It
has been said that the average number of years served my a Christian
worker in the Middle East is 5.6, though those statistics may have
changed with the more recent events of workers being asked to leave,
increased unrest, revolutions, instability, risk and suffering.
In my
own experience, if we did not have the few workers who have spent 20 or
more years in the region, those statistics would be even more
challenging. Given the resources expended on preparation, and helping a
new worker establish cross-culturally, we might expect more for the
investment of time, money, support, training, prayer, etc.
This issue of
St Francis looks at issues of longevity and resilience. It asks us to
explore spiritual, practical, emotional and practical issues that might
increase resilience and help workers live with increasing insecurity and
change. The articles offer the individual and mission organisation
guidance in developing wholeness of life to build for the long term.
May God help all of us live whole lives that reflect him in today’s realities of chaos and challenge.
The Lord be with you
John Stringer
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Let me know about new issues
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A Dangerous and False Theory: Positing Equivalence between Christianity & Islam |
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Radio, television, and the print media, brought us several articles and commentaries on the occasion of the Fifth Anniversary of September 11, 2001. The New York Post Online edition published an article by Ralph Peters, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, with this title, “Islam-Haters: An Enemy Within.” He referred to “a rotten core of American extremists,” without naming them, “who are standing in the way of properly dealing with the global menace of jihadism.” In September 12, 2006, Robert Spencer, an authority on the history of Islam, and author of several books on the subject, responded on FrontPageMagazine.com, with an article entitled, “Ralph Peters’ Fog of Confusion.” For a full text of the article, please go to: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles
It is not my intention to deal with all the charges of Ralph Peters, but I restrict myself to a comment he made about God, as He is revealed in one of the historical Books of the Old Testament. In his article that appeared on the New York Post Online edition, on September 7, 2006, Mr. Peters criticized those he termed as “Islam-Haters” for pointing to references in the Qur’an that support violence against non-Muslims: “As for the books and Web sites listing all those passages encouraging violence against the infidel, well, we could fill entire libraries with bloodyminded texts from the Christian past. And as a believing Christian, I must acknowledge that there’s nothing in the Koran as merciless as God's behavior in the Book of Joshua.”
>> read complete article
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