My Hope

  The cultural and personal insights while learning a language can be really interesting.  One of the (many) things that’s hard for me is the conversational back and forth.  There’s nothing concrete to connect it to but more than that, they aren’t words or phrases I would’ve said in English.  It’s more than just training my brain to replace one word with another, it’s training it to talk in a whole new way.  In the Arab world, God is brought into almost every conversation.  For example, if you ask someone ‘How are you?’ you’re likely to get a response of ‘Thanks be to God’.  There’s both a Muslim and Christian equivalent so you can sometimes tell the person’s upbringing.  It does not actually answer the question, but then again, ‘fine’ is often more of an automatic response than anything.  Having this constant focus on God has advantages and disadvantages.  We do need to thank God for each moment and each day.  There’s a song titled...

  I’ve been thinking about the shootings in New Zealand on and off since hearing the news.    I didn’t see the headlines right away.    I hadn’t been on my phone much and had been out in the community.    An entirely Muslim community.    I don’t know if the news had reached them yet or not, but if it had, they didn’t let on.    Instead, they invited a group of Christians into their homes.    They served us coffee and we talked.    Our pastor has been preaching out of 1 John recently and I was thinking about the Christian love we are called to share.    The focus of 1 John is primarily targeting how Christians are called to treat other Christians and I don’t want to take those verses out of context and apply them to the love we should share to unbelievers.    How many times do we really show a Christ like love for others?  What about the love to show to people of other faith?    ...

  This was taken on the edge of a cluster of tents.  It isn't an official camp but rather they arranged with the landowner to live on the land in exchange for working in the fields.  The top of the mountain in the background runs along the border with Syria. Hagar has been on my mind lately and I thought maybe I needed to brush up on the story to share with some of the women we minister to in the Bequaa.    Instead, I got to see it.    Last time I posted I mentioned that I sometimes wonder where our place will be and that we’re seeing the possible roles we might have.    There are times I feel so unqualified for this and yet time and time again in scripture we see flawed people being used by God for his purposes and His glory.    Abraham was told that he would be the father of a great nation… but he relied on himself to bring forth an heir with his wife’s servant.    He was told he would be a blessing to others… but he cou...