Dear Pastors,
I hope that each of you found some time to rest during these busy but holy days. I know that Christmastime and the New Year are filled with so many emotions and challenges as you think through ways to speak into the lives of those who will sit under your teaching each week in the coming year. These are challenging days as we try to “read” the signs of the times and clearly and accurately prepare and equip our congregations for today and for what lies ahead. This is a difficult task.

I would like to share some of my thoughts with you as we begin a new year. I’ve been asking myself the following question over the last couple years: What is really happening in the U.S. today with regard to the increased number of devotees to the Muslim faith? I believe we have some unparalleled opportunities before us, which carry with them some great challenges. Let me list some of my observations and then make a suggestion as we move forward.

My observations: (1) A Wheaton church invited interested members and friends to attend an informational meeting about a new ministry to Somali refugees. Five people from the congregation showed up, plus ten Muslim families from the community who happened to hear about the meeting. (2) My in-laws live in rural, upstate New Hampshire. Their home caregiver is Muslim. (3) The "holiday" play at one of Wheaton’s elementary schools was totally devoid of any reference to Christ, Christmas, or anything religious. A Muslim mother called the school principal, very angry because the play did not reference Islamic faith. The principal “disciplined” the music teacher responsible for this performance. (4) It was reported to me by a friend that a young lady was arrested and taken into custody in a London airport because she wore a cross around her neck, which was considered an offense to the Muslim community.

Question: How do we respond to the increasing number of Muslims in our country? Suggestion: Why not begin to dialogue with missionaries who are serving in Muslim areas, asking them to teach your congregation about Islam and how your church might have an effective and strategic outreach to Muslim people in your area? I would like to suggest to you that you have one of the greatest resources for exploring these questions right at your fingertips—missionaries. Many WorldVenture workers (and those with other agencies as well) have served for years in Muslim communities and are willing to share with you their experiences. I think it is time to learn and move forward in this area, not in fear but with knowledge and faith in the power of the gospel.  - Dave 

CHINA: POLICE RAID BIBLE STUDY AT COMMUNIST SCHOOL
Local police in northeast China raided a Christian Bible study held at a Communist Party school on Jan 1, reports China Aid Association. A group of Christians had gathered in an office at the school to celebrate the New Year by studying the Bible together. The local Public Security Bureau raided the gathering at 10am and arrested more than 40 Christians for interrogation. Most of the Christians were released by 6pm the same day.

Among those arrested was Dr. Li Baiguany, one of the most renowned Christian legal activists from Beijing. He was named as one of Asia Newsweek’s “Person of the Year” in 2005 and met with President Bush in May to discuss freedom of expression and religion in China. The host of the Bible study was a professor and vice president of the school. She is an underground Christian intellectual among Chinese house churches, and is now under tight surveillance.

Recently, the director of the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs said that the number of Christians in China has reached 130 million, including 20 million Catholics, according to a CAA source. However, the Chinese government often underestimates the number of Christians in officially released figures by not counting unregistered house churches. | Read more

INDIA: CYCLISTS RAISE AWARENESS FOR CHRISTIAN HOSPITAL
An international team of five people is bicycling 2,000 miles through India from Dec 30 to Feb 8, 2007 to raise awareness for Umri Christian Hospital (UCH), an aging medical facility serving rural residents of central India. The team consists of 2 Americans, 2 Indians, and one Canadian, plus 2 Indian support personnel. In addition, two riders from each state/region of India pedal through their native areas with the team, guiding them through language translation and cultural sensitivity.

Team leader, Bob Yardy, a physical therapist from the U.S., was born at UCH, where his father, Dr. Paul Yardy, was the founding physician. When Bob returned to UCH 5 years ago for the hospital’s 50th anniversary, he was struck by the wonderful outreach of the hospital…and by the deteriorating physical condition of the facility. He vowed to try to make a difference, and Bicycle India 2007 is the way he hopes that difference will be made. | You can read more at www.bikeindia.org and follow the team’s daily progress on their blog, http://bicycleindia2007.blogspot.com 

IRAN: PERSIAN CHRISTIAN INTERNET RADIO SERVICE LAUNCHED
For the first time, 24-hour Persian Christian radio is available anywhere in the world. The new Persian-language web site Radio Mojdeh (Mojdeh means “good news” in Persian) and a 24-hour Internet radio station have recently been launched.

The web site (www.radiomojdeh.com) includes Christian music and teaching for both Muslims and Christian believers, the entire Persian Bible online, testimonies, Bible exposition, and intensive discipleship training. This technology is vital because the number of Internet users in Iran jumped by 90% in the past year alone. Seven million of the 65 million people in Iran currently use the Internet, and this number is expected to jump to 20 million next year. | Read more

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TEAMWORK: LESSONS FROM GEESE
Here's a fun resource for encouraging teamwork among the members of your global outreach committee or short-term mission team in training. This brief (2:17) video is a great reminder of the importance of working together in an atmosphere of trust. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cdyej0AJaI to view the video.

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Spiritual Assessment: Handbook for Helping Professionals
by David R. Hodge
2003, 2005 North American Association of Christians in Social Work
(Reviewed by David Korb)

Dr. Hodge has written a very helpful book to assist Christian professionals in the whole arena of spiritual assessments. In this book he covers six different tools: spiritual histories (a verbal approach), spiritual lifemaps (a pictorial instrument), spiritual ecomaps (a diagrammatic tool for assessing marital and familial spirituality), spiritual genograms (a generational approach), and spiritual ecograms (for identifying clients’ spiritual strengths).

This slim handbook is just over 100 pages, so each topic is covered only in brief. I cannot say that I completely understand all of the tools, terms, and materials covered here by Dr. Hodge, but I did find his chapters of spiritual histories and lifemaps particularly helpful. He provides helpful questions for working with a client and a framework that assists the professional in asking the questions in the right order, with a distinct purpose to each question.

This book would likely be most helpful to the professional therapist, but even as one not familiar with all of the terminology and assessment tools I still found many sections helpful and insightful.

Looking ahead, my reading list at the beginning of 2007 includes:

1. Philip Yancey, Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference?
2. David Kuo, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
3. Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity
4. David Hesselgrave, Paradigms in Conflict: 10 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today

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