Encountering Islam, week 2

Shalom!

I can't let another week pass without commenting on my Encountering Islam class. Last night was our second Wednesday evening session (dad, and my brothers Matthew and Nathan are attending too). Each week the class is hosting a different speaker (several will be Muslim back-ground Believers) addressing different aspects of understanding and interfacing with Islam from a Biblical worldview.

The book that goes along with the course (by the same title) has been fascinating to peruse. Granted, with the Peru trip next week, I haven't had long, settled times of reading, but everything I've read so far is fascinating. I appreciate that it brings in over 80 different authors, rather than just hearing one man's perspective. Encountering Islam (the book) is extremely well laid out, very user friendly, well foot-noted, with graphs, pictures, and charts, divided into succinct little chapters with specific life application at the end of each section. (Encountering the World of Islam was one of five finalists in 2006 in the ECPA Christian Book Awards' Christian Life category.)

My prayer is that God would till up hard places in my heart and do what He will in my life with this information. It's not that I'm after expertise; God hasn't placed a specific call on my heart to work in a Muslim country. In fact, I don't even know a single Muslim personally right now. It's more of that still, small voice that over the past few years, through missionary friends, books, Perspectives, and trips, that has been compelling me to look carefully at this people- this most unreached people in the world and ask, "Lord, what is my part?"

Here are a few things notes interesting to me from last nights "history of Islam" lesson.

• Not all Arabs are descendants directly from Ishmael. There is a whole group of Arabs that are decendant from Qetura (or Keturah) Gen 25:1-6, Abraham's wife after Sarah died.
• In the Koran, many allusions/references to Jesus Christ, come from the so called "Gnostic Gospels," such as the Gospel of Thomas. A half truth, can be more harmful than a obvious lie.
  
• We all hear about the Sunnis and Shiites in the news. There are several differences between these groups. Here's one distinction that helped me sort out the files in my brain. For one, Sunnis are extremely leader loyal while Shiites are more Koran loyal. The speaker compared these two groups to Catholics (who place great importance on the pronouncements of the pope) and Conservative Evangelicals (holding up the inspired Word of God).
  

Blessings, my friends. May His kingdom come, His will be done!

Homeless and Frightened - Pray for refugees from Chad

How can we even relate to what these people in Chad are facing right now? No army is planning to rush us out of our homes with guns and force us to flee for our very lives. We don't have to worry where we will find a place to sleep tonight. But 20,000 refugees from N'Djamena, the capital of Chad are asking those questions. Life and death.

What should can you and I do about it?

A) Make big posters, fly to Washington DC and demand US intervention?
B) Put on sack cloth and refuse to eat food as long as the refugees suffer (that would be a long time)?
C) Nothing. People around the world face war and suffering all time. We can't help everyone.

How about none of the above? But there is something we can do.

For starters, let's look up Chad on a world map, read the news headline, and stop to pray for God's justice and mercy on those affected. We can pray for the Church impacted and ministering to those refugees. We should pray that even in this scary situation, men, women and children will find refuge in the Rock of Ages. We can mention it to a friend over dinner tonight, ask if they have heard anything about the current crisis in Chad. You can stop and pray about it together. If your church knows any missionaries in that region, you might want to send them an email, let them know you are thinking about them. Maybe you can mention it at Bible study. Multiply the prayers. God works through prayer! Check out what He's already been doing through Christian involvement and ministry towards those affected .

Technology on the Mission Field

Now here's an interesting link to read, Technology on the Mission Field, by Weston Leibee. I found this article in a magazine produced by Charity Christian Missions. I'm not sure how we ever got signed up for this magazine, but I've enjoyed the challenging articles over the past few years.

Is technology a missionary's friend, or is it his foe? When I am able to send a message to family via laptop and satellite phone from a remote village, or 'sit in' on a board meeting in Pennsylvania from Ghana via international conference calling, it seems like a friend. When as a returned missionary, it makes me feel about two decades behind the times, it seems like a foe.
Missionaries aren't the only ones caught up in the drama. How is technology affecting the senders? What about the potential future missionaries that are being raised up and trained? What about the short-term workers? Is technology helping or hurting the cause of world missions?... (read the rest here).

I believe the author leaves the reader with a balanced approach to technology, and some good questions for helping keep that balance, as applicable to short and long term workers.

Am I planning on taking my laptop to Peru? Yep. Things are such that it would be best to check in at work while I'm away. In that sense, my laptop will be a friend (I probably wouldn't have been able to totally drop my work and travel to Peru otherwise). It will also allow us to post pictures on the ministry team blog for family and friends back home. This is my first mission trip taking along a laptop, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out, and if/how it effects my perspective. I like how the article ends..."Let us make wise choices so that an unbiased observer could accurately describe our relationship with technology as using and not abusing."

I guess that's the heart of it. Technology is a means, not an end. Mastering technology, having the best, knowing all the jpeg, i-pod, wi-fi lingo doesn't amount to a hill of beans in eternity. Souls are what matter. If technology is frittering away our time, or creating barriers to our witness, then it is being abused. If it is extending the reach of the Gospel and opening doors to transform lives, we should make effort to harness it for the Kingdom.