My mother was showing me this
wonderful new knife she bought to cut cheese with. Although she
seemed to be very pleased with this purchase, I couldn’t
understand the difference between this knife, which was made specifically
to cut cheese, and any plain old knife that I would use to cut
cheese in the Middle East. Am I missing the point? Or, perhaps,
could it be that everyone else is just getting lost in a type
of material extravagance. I know that all of the things that people
are buying have a purpose, but what did we do before all of these
great things came about?
Something during a recent church visit made us feel warm inside.
The pastor was using my April newsletter in his sermon to the
children. He told them the story about the little girl and her
brother at the military check-point in Bethlehem that I wrote
about a couple of months ago. Our newsletters, it seems, are used
in other ways in the church as well. My first reaction was, “Wow,
people are actually reading these things that I write.”
My second reaction was one of joy and a little pride too. The
idea that our ministry is working as a force to educate congregations
here in the United States is certainly a goal, but to see it in
action and hear that that is happening often is a great feeling.
We don’t hear from too many people in response to these
newsletters, so it was a bit surprising to learn this.
Beside visiting church congregations and talking about our ministry,
we are also trying to do things with Nadiim and Adeeb that will
be fun for them and serve as quality time with the boys. We’ve
been riding bikes and going to movies and visiting family. We
will be going to the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York
for a few days. We will also be going across country via train
to Iowa to visit the Presbytery of Des Moines. Then we’ll
visit the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta in Georgia and drive back
to New York with stops in-between. It should be fun.
I will end this note with a promise to keep everyone informed
about how our three months here in the United States are going.
I encourage everyone to keep in touch with us and to let us know
your thoughts about our ministry. Your reactions and thoughts
on what we are doing are very important for us to know about so
that they can encourage us when we feel we’re on the “far
side.”
Many blessings,
Chris, Hala, Nadiim & Adeeb
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, pp.
318, 321, 323 |
