Closing with “Beautiful Things” by the artist Michael Gungor as performed by Synod School musicians, Monday’s worship service held in Schaller Memorial Chapel at Buena Vista University explored how Creation came about and what an act that occurred 4.5 billion years ago means for us today.
Especially during Advent and Christmas, we are reminded to drop our arrogance and selfishness and embrace our call to humility.
I sat next to Rachel Obal outside of her home in rural South Sudan, listening to the story of her uncle who, as a boy, was taken from his home by Arabs to be sold as a slave near Khartoum, Sudan. Obal’s words painted a vivid picture as she spoke of how her father followed his brother to rescue him and had to witness the small boy, with hands tied behind his back, paraded in front of crowds to be sold. I could see the boy with his hands tied, his knees pressed into the dusty market ground. I could even picture his thin, brown body, still bound at the wrists, placed on a boat. In my mind’s vision, no one else was on the boat; he was a child all alone, floating toward slavery. My heart ached as I listened.
A call to action was extended to members of First Presbyterian Church in Sarasota, Florida, in early 2017. Following the encouragement of the 221st General Assembly (2014) “to continue the long history of support in public education,” the church took steps to partner with a local elementary school.
Las clases han comenzado en nuestra ciudad. Observo a los jóvenes de nuestro barrio caminar con esmero hasta la pequeña colina en la parte delantera de nuestra subdivisión para ir al autobús. Debido a que toma un tiempo para averiguar qué autobús es el autobús correcto, a menudo se ven a las madres de pie en frente de sus casas para mirar a sus hijos hasta que el autobús llegue. Luego, una por una, toman sus tazas de café y regresan a sus casas.
Estoy aún más consciente de que algunas de las mamás todavía tienen una gran cantidad de …
The Taliban is threatening to kill a 14-year-old Pakistani girl whom it shot for helping other girls go to school — if she survives a wounding that has made her a hero to many Pakistanis.
Muslims in Kashmir, in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, are supporting the re-building of a Christian school that was destroyed by fire during anti-Christian violence one year ago.
“What happened here is certainly wrong and it should not have happened. I can assure you that our people will not allow it to happen again,” Munshi Mukhtar Ahmed, a Muslim teacher in a government school in the town of Tangmarg, told ENInews on Sept. 20.
On Sept. 13, 2010, the Tyndale Biscoe School was the target of Muslims protesting a reported desecration of the Quran in the U.S. that marked the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The school is in the town of Phulwama and is run by the Church of North India (CNI), the dominant Protestant denomination in North India.