My Hope

  Where are you in your relationship with Christ this Resurrection Sunday?   Are you dining at the Passover supper with Jesus- blissfully unaware of what you’ll soon be called to do?  Do you know that something is coming, but you’re focused more on who is sitting where?  Are you looking for someone to overturn the oppressive government or do you search for a servant king? Maybe you’re in the garden, fighting to stay awake.  You know what you’ve been told to do and yet you struggle to obey.  Maybe you’ve seen the innocent mistreated and you react in anger and violence rather than allowing God to bring justice. Perhaps you’ve just experienced the death of your Rabbi, teacher and friend.  You don’t know what to do and so you hide from this world and wait until things are clearer.  You protect yourself by denying your relationship.   Maybe you’ve seen the risen Messiah.  You have touched his hands and feet.  Now he is telling ...

   Caiaphas, who was high priest at that time, said, "You don't know what you're talking about!     You don't realize that it's better for you that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed."    He did not say this on his own; as high priest at that time he was led to prophesy that Jesus would die for the entire nation.      And not only for that nation, but to bring together and unite all the children of God scattered around the world.    So from that time on, the Jewish leaders began to plot Jesus' death.   (Joh 11:49-53 NLT) His death transcended time and space.    His death was for the Jewish nation at that time.    But his death was also for each person, no matter their nationality, for generation to generation.    I can tell you firsthand that Christ is able to unite those of us who are children of God, no matter where we’re from.    There have...

  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...

  Finding community with other Horizons' staff at a game night. Fitting in It’s hard to believe that we’ve now been in Lebanon 3 months.    Most days it doesn’t feel like we’ve been away that long.    We still feel very much like newcomers, both in the neighborhood and as part of Horizons.    Lebanon has churches, though not many when compared to the population.    There are believers here reaching out to those who have never heard the gospel, but the laborers are few.    Still, I wondered, where will we fit, what will be our role.   How will God use us as we cross both language and cultural barriers? And yet, God has already given us glimpses of ways we can come alongside those already here.    There are gifts and strengths we have that compliment the gifts and strengths of others.    He keeps reminding me, we are here by His design- and His plans are perfect! Today I listened to a woman share the ways that...

  Old Brain Made New! Arabic makes my brain hurt on a daily basis.    It’s hard thinking about everything in the masculine, feminine or plural.    I’ve (almost) gotten used to reading from right to left and the different forms the letters take depending on where they’re located in the word.      It’s tricky and complicated working between different dialects since we’re living in Lebanon but ministering to Syrians and while most words are the same, many are not.      It’s also complicated working between formal Arabic and dialects.    Formal Arabic is used in most written texts, particularly religious writings, but is not spoken by the general public.    Just imagine that everything was written in the style of the King James Bible (or older) but spoken as we do now.    I tell you this not to complain, but rather to give a glimpse into why Arabic is considered one of the hardest languages for native Engli...