Is God doing a 'new thing' among Muslims

Rick Brown in 2000 explained that there are five main reasons why he believes that God is doing a "new thing" in the Muslim world:

1) More workers
2) More collaboration: missions agencies working together
3) Contextualization
4) Prayer, Signs and Wonders, and Spiritual Warfare
5) Socio-political change: the fall of Communism, globalization, urbanization, the rise of Islamic governments and shari'a

How we became post-human

Ok, so not really about Islam or Christianity, but still a fascinating point. BTW I have been posting less lately (obviously) but if anyone has any topics you want me to address just let me know.

Actually, we have become symbionts, says Katherine Hayles, author of "How We Became Posthuman." Just as a lichen is the marriage of a fungus and an algae, we now live in full partnership with digital technology, which we rely on for the infrastructure of our lives. "If every computer were to crash tomorrow, it would be catastrophic," she says. "Millions or billions of people would die. That's the condition of being a symbiont."

From HERE.

Southern Yemen and Secession

Why Southern Yemen is Pushing for Secession

In the CS Monitor. Please pray for Yemen. Now even Saudi is getting into the fight over in the Northern areas, as they are worried about the near-civil war going on there will spill over into KSA.

--AD

Syllabus for Eastern Christianity--I need your insights!

Hi All,

What if you have to put together a syllabus for a course called "Eastern Christianity: Spirituality and Theology"? It would have between 10 and 14 sections. What would you include? Work from the assumption that the students have already taken early church history and thus know the basics of the first 5 centuries and the Christological and Trinitarian debates. This is a seminary-level course being taught to people training for the ministry.

Also, what books would you use?

I look forward to hearing your ideas! Please feel free to paste the above question on your blog for your readers as well.

Salam,

Abu Daoud

Dispute on the nature of the Eucharist and Priesthood

Hi All,

Abu Daoud is off to an overnight planning session for a very strategic ministry to the local churches. The goal is to motivate and train them to engage in planting cell churches in homes and thus provide a venue where inquiring non-Christians could attend safely and comfortably. Please say a prayer for us. One important thing to note is that said effort is largely an initiative of local Christians, not foreigners.

Meanwhile, two folks on my blogroll have an interesting debate going on regarding the Eucharist and the nature of Christian priesthood. Please do drop by and share your ideas. The most recent installation of said dialogue is overt at Don's blog, Positive Infinity. Check it out.

--Abu Daoud

Should governments control family size?

A question. That's what I'm asking. This author says YES, and that each woman should have one child, world-round. In a way I agree because Islam will take over europe by birthrates and migration, but still...I'm not sure how that works with my Christian ethics though. Am curious to hear your thoughts.

Here is a segment, do share your thoughts on the matter:

For those who balk at the notion that governments should control family sizes, just wait until the growing human population turns twice as much pastureland into desert as is now the case, or when the Amazon is gone, the elephants disappear for good and wars erupt over water, scarce resources and spatial needs.

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2314438#ixzz0ZJk3GLVL
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Anyone want to pray for mission to the unreached peoples?

Dear Readers,

I recently learned that one missionary agency which is active among groups who have NO witness witness to the Gospel is looking for prayer partners. This means you will pray for them each and every day. They supply a calendar each month (by e-mail) with a different prayer point each day. Said group is Anglican so their goals should be (I hope) amenable to Catholics, evangelicals, and Orthodox. If there is one thing all Christians can unite in, it should be prayer.

Please do e-mail me if you are interested: winterlightning [@+] safe-mail [d0+] net

This is a real opportunity to contribute to the Church's work among the unreached, many of whom are Muslims.

Salam,

Abu Daoud

American Lives and Funds Expended to increase persecution of Christians in Iraq

Tragically, liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein meant liberating some of the worst sectarian passions, which he had brutally held in check. Roughly half of Iraq’s historical Christian community has been displaced, many to Jordan and Syria, another secular Arab dictatorship. Although the government does not persecute, reports State, “violence conducted by terrorists, extremists, and criminal gangs restricted the free exercise of religion and posed a significant threat to the country’s vulnerable religious minorities.” Although overall violence is down, Christians and other religious minorities continue to be targeted by radical Muslims.

From HERE.

Vision of St Mary and Conversion from Islam

From an interview with an ex-Muslim:

What was your first exposure to Christianity or Jesus or the Bible or any of those things?

Samira: Well, my first exposure was when I was six and had a vision of the Virgin Mary. And at the time I didn’t know who Mary was or who Jesus was or who Muslims were—I didn’t know anything about anything. I was in a mountain place, it was dark, I fell and I couldn’t get up. And there was this huge rock, this lady came from behind the rock, she was all in white, and she held my hand and picked me up and said that she was Mary. And when she held my hand something stayed with me and I just loved her and I asked my mother who she was and she said she was the mother of Prophet Jesus, as Muslims knew her. And I just knew since then that I wanted to be where she was which was the church. And then when I was nine I learned about St Bernadette, there was a movie called The Song of Bernadette and that is when I received my calling into ministry because I knew that my life belonged to the church. And that was the place to go to [inaudible]. And the interesting [thing] about that is I didn’t know anything about Jesus and—or the Bible. It was all the love of the church through the Virgin Mary.

HT to Dar al Masih. Read more HERE.

A Damning indictment of House of Saud (بيت سعود)

The state of our country is best exemplified by the Musk Lake, where 1,200 tankers of human waste from Jeddah sewage have been dumped daily for the past 25 years. Naming this chasm of foulness "musk" gives great insight in how Saudi rulers distort the simplest of realities. Musk Lake, not the only lake of human waste in the country, has been the source of diseases such as dengue fever, which has killed dozens and afflicted thousands for years.

From HERE. The main portion of the article is about the recent flooding in Jeddah, which doesn't even have a sewage system.

Photos of Dubai

Great photos of Dubai here. I am so fascinated by that city, God willing we will visit it some day.

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/showcase-85/?hp

Still alive

Hi All,

Been a while. I was in Scotland where I was quite busy and had irregular internet access. Will be posting stuff this week.

Salam,

Abu Daoud

PS: New blog added to the blogroll: Circumpolar: a blog about Muslim Ministry.

Appeal to President Obama for help from a 15-year old apostate in Egypt

Let us see how much courage the President has now:

A 15-year-old Egyptian girl, Dina el-Gohary, has written an emotional appeal to President Obama asking him to use his influence to save her father, Maher el-Gohary, who is being persecuted for his beliefs. "Mr. President Obama, we are a minority in Egypt," Dina writes, according to a report from the Assyrian International News Agency. "We are treated very badly. ... We are imprisoned in our own home because Muslim clerics called for the murder of my father, and now the Government has set for us a new prison, we are imprisoned in our own country."

Dina and her father are Christian converts in a part of the world where conversion can mean death.

The Muslim-majority countries of the Middle East are among the world's greatest offenders against freedom of conscience. Religious liberty does not exist or is severely curtailed based on Shariah supremacy. Egypt is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which commits signatories to respect a variety of liberties, including religious freedom, but a court considering whether Mr. el-Gohary could legally change his religious affiliation ruled that Egypt was only bound to honor those provisions that did not contradict Islamic law, and "in the event of a contradiction, Shariah takes precedence."

From HERE.