A couple of my kids have recently joined the other two in pursuing some personal fitness goals.
So y’know, that’s cool.
Photo courtesy IMB.org
Both the Qur‘an and Islamic tradition erect barriers which inhibit Muslims from considering who Jesus is and what He’s done for them.
Muslims are often taught
One year after my family arrived in Uganda, I sat in a gentle sunrise on our porch, overlooking a corner of our neighborhood–and evaluating my expectations overseas.
The same cookfires exhaled ribbons of smoke to the sky. The same lorries trundled down the street. Passersby trudged by in the same hole-y clothes and well-worn shower shoes.
One of our most popular posts ever kicked over some of the missions myths we’re all prone to: I should have the gift of evangelism. I should plan on leading Bible studies, prayer, service projects, and all that 24/7.
So we’re still messing with (or just scribbling out) some of our stereotypes of missionaries: the fetching jumpers-with-tennis-shoes combo, the slideshows, the mud huts, the untrimmed hairstyle, the image of white-person-hugging-cute-brown-child.
(Wanna help identify our weird stereotypes? Comment below.)
Missions Catalyst has put together an impressive calendar of upcoming missions events you just might not want to miss. Dealing with discouragement, isolation, fear, or feelings of inadequacy as you head overseas? This could be a great chance to get together with your tribe.
P.S. Did you know Johnson University offers a totally online Intercultural Studies course?
COMMA, the Coalition of Ministries to Muslims in North America, put this together–and from the feedback, it sounds like Journey to Jesus: Building Christ-Centered Friendships with Muslims will help you feel equipped and less offensive to those to whom you long to reach out. (Or wish you did.)
Tim Keller writes,
The Church needs artists because without art we cannot reach the world. The simple fact is that the imagination ‘gets you,’ even when your reason is completely against the idea of God. ‘Imagination communicates,’ as Arthur Danto says, ‘indefinable but inescapable truth.’
…There is a sort of schizophrenia that occurs if you are listening to Bach and you hear the glory of God and yet your mind says there is no God and there is no meaning. You are committed to believing nothing means anything and yet the music comes in and takes you over with your imagination. When you listen to great music, you can’t believe life is meaningless. Your heart knows what your mind is denying.
You’ve probably had that moment–the one I’ll call The Freeze.
Someone’s talking about something incredibly difficult in his or her life. Your heart is caught up in compassion. And you can see that knowing Christ–walking with him, being gradually healed by him–would make the difference not only in their now, but indefinitely.
I confess I was finishing up my Christmas list in a perfect fashion for a busy mom in a little mountain town: online only on Black Friday, while my kids shouted around the house. But when I went to check my email account, it was a headline that caused my heart to fall: A 26-year-old missionary from Vancouver, Washington, John Allen Chau, killed by bow and arrow on India’s Andaman islands in the Bay of Bengal.
“I hollered, ‘My name is John, I love you and Jesus loves you’…You guys might think I’m crazy and all this, but I think it is worth it to declare Jesus to these people,” Chau wrote in his journal of his previous attempts, the UK Mirror and ABC News report. In one of his first attempts, one of the native children shot at Mr. Chau’s heart. The arrow skewered his waterproof Bible there instead.