Why Short Term Missions are so dangerous

Here is a great new article on Short Term Missions (STM), and how they can be quite harmful and disastrous. I'm happy that someone has written this article! It really needed to be said.

Read it all at The Gospel Coalition

Here is one part I liked:

Imagine a team from France calls your church and says they want to visit. They want to put on VBS (which you have done for years), but the material is in French. They have heard about how the U.S. church has struggled and want to help you fix it. They want to send 20 people, half of them youth. Only two of them speak English. They need a place to stay for free, with cheap food and warm showers if possible. During the trip half of the group's energy will be spent on resolving tension between team members. Two people will get sick. They'd like you to arrange some sightseeing for them on their free day. Do you want them to come? Most trips I know focus on those who are going, not on those receiving the teams. We send youth so they can have an experience or so God can really grip their heart. You may want your adults to gain a larger heart for the nations. Even if research shows that short-term trips do not affect the lives of participants in the long-term, we still send teams.

A Political Refugee From the Global Village : Romania publishes as many books as all the Arab countries put together

Well, here is some depressing news about just how little publishing takes place in the Arab world. Sheesh...

Check it out at:

A Political Refugee From the Global Village : Romania publishes as many books as all the Arab countries put together

What countries have the smallest Christian population by %?

The folks at Pew Research have provided us with another great chart that provides information on religious composition by country, and it can be viewed by percentage, or by number. A bit of clicking got me the countries of the world with the lowest percentage of Christian populations. And guess what? Not until you get to place 13 do you find a country that is not Islamic. Here are the top 13 places:

1. Morocco
2. Somalia
3. Afghanistan
4. Iran
5. Tunisia
6. Western Sahara
7. Yemen
8. Algeria
9. Bangladesh
10. Mauritania
11. Maldives
12. Turkey
13. Cambodia (Buddhist majority)

What does this mean? I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but one possible factor (of many, I would think) is that Muslim countries do a good job keeping the Gospel out, or making sure that converts leave (or die).

Please pray for those top 13 countries, and do visit the Pew site, HERE.

The Islamic State (by VICE News)

From VICE News, a penetrating and unique insight into the Islamic State:

Inter-Muslim violence spills over into Hamburg

I have long believed that inter-Muslim violence (a relative constant among Muslims, since the death of Muhammad) would inevitably come to Europe as the governments there (in spite of democracy) seem hellbent on unhindered Muslim immigration.

And now we have proof. Kurds and Salafis in Hamburg clash.

Yes, yes. I know. Everyone will say this is not about Islam at all, but about ethnicity. But I'm not buying it, because Islam is supposed to make ethnicity irrelevant. Ethnicity here is relevant, ergo Islam has failed.

But here is some good information about Germany--a nation that appears determined to destroy itself:

Germany is home to an estimated 4.3 million Muslims, one million Kurds and 60,000 Yazidis. According to the 2013 annual report (published in June 2014) of the German domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt Verfassungsschutz [BfV], Germany is also home to 30 active Islamist groups and 43,000 Islamists, including 950 members of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, 1,300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood and 5,500 Salafists.

But you read the article on your own and let me know what you think.

Islamic War Erupts in Hamburg, Germany.

New Bible Translation in Farsi (Persian)

Here is some wonderful news for our brothers and sisters in or from Iran. Elam is glad to announce a new translation of the Bible in contemporary Farsi!

The recently launched New Millennium Version of the Bible has been eagerly anticipated by the Iranian church, ever since Elam began the translation work in 1995.  Prior to the publication of the new translation, Persian Christians have been reading the Old Testament in the old standard version. This translation is over 100 years old, and uses obscure and archaic words and phrases, which render the text difficult to comprehend.

Did you know that Christian missions is the main force in the world today that helps to preserve indigenous languages? This is indeed the case, because missionaries are often the first to provide an alphabet (normally a modified version of Latin alphabet, but not always) for indigenous languages that don't have one.

Praise God! And God bless our brothers and sister in and from Iran.

Read more HERE.

New research on contextual theology and Christian converts from Islam

Hi All,

Well, it's not light reading, but here is a new doctoral dissertation about Christian converts from Islam. The focus is on field studies of some Arab believers in the Middle East, and some Iranian congregations in the West.

The title is Living among the Breakage: Contextual Theology-making and ex-Muslim Christians, from the University of Edinburgh by Dr. D A Miller.

Download the PDF from his academia website, HERE.

Why the rapes of the Islamic State are Hallal

I have heard people who don't know about Islam comment that the Islamic State soldiers 'rape' women, and that this is against Islam.

This, however, is incorrect. These are not men committing rape, or if they are committing rape then Allah does not mind. Specifically, slaves are part of the booy (anfal) of jihad, and we know from the Prophet himself that Allah has no problem with men having sex with their female slaves. That is outlined clearly in the Qur'an, but also in this hadith:

Volume 7, Book 62, Number 137:

Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:

We got female captives in the war booty and we used to do coitus interruptus with them. So we asked Allah's Apostle about it and he said, "Do you really do that?" repeating the question thrice, "There is no soul that is destined to exist but will come into existence, till the Day of Resurrection."

 The Prophet had no problem at all with them men having sex with their new slaves. He was, however, troubles by their practice of coitus interruptus. For the life of me I wish more Muslims knew about the life of this man, because a lot of them would leave Islam and find a better man to follow.

"September Eleventh" by Penny Cagan

September Eleventh
by Penny Cagan
1. I could tell you what it was like to be there - the sky black with bodies - humanity colluding with gravity - people jumping in pairs - linked lives spent working together in towers so tall it must have felt like heaven to sit at a desk and watch the city transform with the light of the seasons - the moment sealed windows were liberated with office furniture, the moment of shattered glass when doomed colleagues linked hands and decided to jump - the early fall air washed with morning coolness - the escape from the rattling of downtown, suffocating smoke, the heat - to be a witness to all this, on the ground, not quite safe, but spared from all but the watching, yes, I could tell you what it was like, but that would require the crafting of a narrative from the singed paper raining down like confetti, the sky blackened with terrorist graffiti, the towers stricken, and then stricken again, their dark shadows erased from the sky, my clothes soaked with dust and ash - that gorgeous autumn day - the kind that makes late August bearable because of the promise of its crisp breath, and the light, the pure sweet morning light of September Eleventh, the event that I could speak of - if there was something here to say. 2. September was my favorite month the sun suddenly different than it was the day before, somehow gentler and sunken in the sky, its reflection elongated against the towers, languorous August now in retreat, both the unease and promise of longer nights, the new season upon us with all that it brings, the residual memories from our school days, the purchase of new school supplies - the lure of a sharpened pencil, a notebook neatly divided into subjects, the fine lines of green graph paper, the anticipation of unopened textbooks, the comfort of a light woolen sweater slung low on the shoulders, slung low like the month itself - hope embedded in a porous rubber eraser. ©2001, Penny Cagan

Economics and Jihad

I hope this quote will give us some insight regarding the growth of the Islamic State and why people are attracted to it.

"We are at a time of Jihad; Jihad for the sake of Allah is a pleasure, a true pleasure. Mohammed’s followers used to compete to do it. The reason we are poor now is because we have abandoned jihad. If only we can conduct a jihadist invasion at least once a year or if possible twice or three times, then many people on Earth would become Muslims. And if anyone prevents our dawa or stands in our way, then we must kill them or take as hostage and confiscate their wealth, women and children. Such battles will fill the pockets of the Mujahid who can return home with 3 or 4 slaves, 3 or 4 women and 3 or 4 children. This can be a profitable business if you multiply each head by 300 or 400 dirham,. This can be like financial shelter whereby a jihadist, in time of financial need, can always sell one of these heads (meaning slavery). No one can make that much money in one deal (from hard work) even if a Muslim goes to the West to work or do trade. In time of need, that is a good resource for profit."

--Abu Ishak al Huweini

Matthew Hanley: How Islam Set Back Western Civilization

Wow. Check this out and then read the whole article:

Pirenne stressed that the source of the Roman Empire’s vitality cannot be disassociated from its essentially Mediterranean character and orientation; that clearly remained intact for quite a while. Western trade flourished as before, connected with the great cities of the East – where prosperity, population, and learning were concentrated. The overall features of life throughout the region in 600 were similar to what they had been in 400.

It was not until the advent of Islam in the 7^th century, precisely then and only then, that destruction really arrived. Recurrent Islamic raids altered the very orientation of the littoral peoples; they fled the Mediterranean and for the first time looked to the north. East was severed from West, and the previously unified Mediterranean, “having become a Musalman lake, was no longer a thoroughfare of commerce and of thought which it always had been.”

Unlike the German invaders, wherever the Arabs went they ruled. This was a dimension of their religious claims. They sought not conversion per se, but demanded subjection, creating an insuperable barrier between the conquered and the Muslims: “What a contrast between them [the Arabs] and Theodoric, who placed himself at the service of those he had conquered, and sought to assimilate himself to them!” The whole region was thereby transformed, as the Arabs ushered in “a complete break with the past.”

Egyptian papyri, which had been widespread in the West (and a solid indicator of literacy), disappeared, as did distinctive coins that were in use right up until the Arab conquest – leading to the barter system. Despite the literary and archaeological sources, however, Pirenne’s arguments were dismissed in favor of the view that Islam had been (unlike “repressive” Christianity) an enlightening force.

A brilliant and important article. Read it all HERE.

Raqqa, capital of the Islamic State, is 'full of Europeans'

From HERE:

It has become "flooded" with foreign jihadists: "There are many Europeans here. The men are bringing their women and children with them," said Abu Ibrahim. "You see them everywhere in the city. There are a lot of Dutch women. It's shocking."

Islamic State veterans back home in the UK

Well, veterans from the jihad taking place in Caliph Ibrahim's Islamic State are back home in the UK, safe and sound. Is there any way this ends up happy? The answer is no:

Serious questions have been raised as to whether enough is being done to stem the flow of fighters after the Government revealed it has only seized 23 passports this year to prevent them travelling to the war zone.

The Government says there are around 500 British among the fighters while a further 250 are thought to have already returned to the UK where the police and security services are attempting to watch them. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2730602/The-homegrown-jihadists-fighting-ISIS-How-one-four-foreigners-signed-Islamic-State-British-half-ALREADY-UK.html#ixzz3B82Q7HiY