Super Bowl XL Highlight
I would like to report to
you what I consider to have been
the highlight of Super Bowl XL.
It was not Willie Parker’s
75-yard run for a touchdown. It
was not the gadget play where
Randle El threw a 43-yard pass
to MVP Hines Ward for the
Steelers’ final touchdown. No,
in my opinion the highlight
aired during the pre-game show.
It was an interview with Kathy
Holmgren, wife of Seattle
Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren,
direct from a mission outpost in
Congo.
Kathy began her nursing
career 35 years ago as a
missionary in Congo. Last autumn
she made plans to return this
February on a short-term mission
trip with her daughter, a
doctor, to help out in the
hospital there. The person
interviewing Kathy for the
pre-game show was trying to make
sense out of her presence in
Congo while her husband was in
Detroit leading the Seahawks
into the Super Bowl. The
highlight for me was Kathy’s
response: “In our family
priorities have always been
faith, family, and work. We need
to remember that as important as
the Super Bowl is, it’s just a
game.” The camera then turned to
the suffering children at the
hospital, and the point was
made. Now that’s something to
cheer about!
ERITREAN MILITARY
JAILS 75 CHRISTIANS FOR
READING BIBLES
Military authorities
jailed 75 Protestant
Christians at the Sawa
Military Training Camp
in the East African
country of Eritrea
Wednesday, Feb. 1, for
“reading Bibles and
praying during their
free time.” Local
sources said the
detainees, including 37
women, were doing their
compulsory national
military service near
Eritrea’s mountainous
western border with
Sudan. The 75 young
conscripts put under
“military detention and
punishment” had not
attempted to conduct any
Christian meeting at
Sawa or committed any
other transgression of
military law. “In Sawa,
to possess your own
Bible and keep your
personal devotion and
loyalty to Christ is not
allowed,” an Eritrean
Christian explained.
“This is considered an
act of Christian
extremism.” (Source:
Compass Direct)
VILLAGERS BRUTALLY
BEAT CHRISTIANS IN INDIA
Hindu residents of a
village in Orissa state
to attacked a gathering
of Christians on Jan 24.
Four missionaries from
the Indian Evangelical
Team and 14 Christian
families were gathered
at a believer’s house in
Koikonda village when
members of a Hindu
extremist group formed a
mob of about 50 people
who surrounded the home
and demanded that the
missionaries come out.
As soon as the
missionaries complied,
the mob started beating
them and then attacked
other Christians inside
the house. Two were
hospitalized with
serious internal
injuries and at least 8
others were injured.
Village pastor Salyam
Samu, who received minor
injuries, tried to lodge
an official complaint on
Jan 26, but police said
they were “too busy” to
talk to him. When one of
the missionaries
approached police the
next day, they accepted
his written complaint
but failed to give him a
signed carbon copy as
required by law.
Although the
missionary’s report
named 11 of the
attackers, at press time
police had made no
attempt to arrest the
accused. Fearing further
violence, Christian
residents of Koikonda
did not meet for worship
Jan 29. (Source: Compass
Direct)
TWO CHURCHES
ATTACKED IN SRI LANKA
Two churches in Sri
Lanka was attacked
recently as threats from
Buddhist monks continued
amid tensions between
the government and Tamil
rebels. The day after a
threatening
demonstration of 500
people against an
Assembly of God church
just north of Colombo on
Jan 22, some from the
mob returned and stoned
the pastor’s house (part
of the church building),
breaking windows. And on
Jan 21, about 20 men
brandishing rods and
sticks walked into the
house (also part of the
church building) of
another AOG pastor in
Alpitiva on Sri Lanka’s
southern coast. The
pastor’s wife was home
with only her three
young children when the
intruders entered and
demanded that they cease
all Christian
activities. The men
knocked over a table,
chairs and other
furniture and threatened
to destroy all of the
family’s belongings if
these demands were not
met. (Source: Compass
Direct)
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Lead Like Jesus by
Ken Blanchard and Phil
Hodges
2005 W Publishing Group 239
pages
I have been waiting for
this book to arrive for
months! I appreciate The One
Minute Manager and some of
Blanchard’s other works, but
I must say I found this book
rather pedantic. I feel that
it lacks the kind of
insightful nuggets that
grabbed my attention in his
other books. But having said
that, I can see where this
book might have value for
training an elder board or
mission team.
Blanchard and Hodges
speak to the four key areas
of life—heart, head, hands,
and habits—and explore how
these areas should align
with Jesus’ leadership
style. A very positive
aspect of this book is that
assessment tools are offered
along the way. These tools
assist a person or group in
analyzing their own
leadership styles and
understanding next steps.
Though I didn’t feel like
the book presents anything
new, I did appreciate the
strong reminder of the
servant leadership modeled
by our Lord. As I read
through this book I found
myself recalibrating my own
approach to leadership, and
put it down challenged and
refreshed.
The Confessions of St.
Augustine by
Aurelius Augustinus (354-430
AD)
Various editions and
translations
I’ve read Augustine’s
confession many times. As I
began a new year, I decided
it was a good time to read
them again. I was making my
way through this book while
I was sharing a room at
WorldVenture HQ with one of
my teammates. I’m afraid I
bugged him terribly by
interrupting the silence
with, “You have to hear
this!” and then reading an
excerpt from Confessions.
Augustine’s words are so
gripping and heartrending
that you almost have to read
them in the presence of
another person to whom you
can relay the vital
passages.
In his Confessions
Augustine rehearses the
journey he traveled to
faith. He recalls his sins
not as a trophy of
sinfulness but as a clear
indication of the triumph of
God’s mercy and grace. He
recounts the awfulness of
his actions in order to show
the overwhelming grace of
God. Listen to his
explanation of intent in
chapter 2: “I will now call
to mind my past foulness,
and the carnal corruptions
of my soul; not because I
love them, but that I may
love Thee, O my God. For
love of Thy love I do it;
reviewing my most wicked
ways in the very bitterness
of my remembrance, that Thou
mayest grow sweet unto me.”
Later, as Augustine
contemplates how God had
pursued him, even in the
midst of his evil choices,
he writes, “Woe is me! And
dare I say that Thou heldest
Thy peace, O my God, while I
wandered further from Thee?
…And whose but Thine were
these words by which my
mother, Thy faithful one,
Thou sangest in my ears?
Nothing whereof sunk into my
heart, so as to do it. For
she wished, and I remember
in private with great
anxiety warned me, “not to
commit fornication; but
especially never to defile
another man’s wife.” These
seemed to me womanish
advices, which I should
blush to obey. But they were
Thine, and I knew it not;
and I thought Thou wert
silent and that it was she
who spake; by whom Thou wert
not silent unto me.”
If you have not read
Confessions, I encourage you
to read it for your soul. If
you have read it—read it
again!
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