Week after week in these updates, I share a little bit of the news coming out of the Mideast. One of the reasons I do so is because many people do not pay much attention to the news. I was talking to a banker friend a couple of days ago and asked her if she was aware of the latest […]
MIDEAST UPDATE 2/28/2017
As we come to the end of February 2017, I received news for this update through a phone call as I was traveling south along the Dead Sea. As is usually the case, I have received both good news and also tragic news. Before I get to the actual House of Blessing update, it will be helpful to give a […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 8/16/2016
The death toll in Syria is now nearing 600,000 according to some estimates. I have not been able to find any statistics for Aleppo and its surrounding area. The reports coming out of this region of Syria, however, are horrific. Clarissa Ward, a CNN correspondent who has reported on wars for more than a decade, provided a testimony to the […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 8/1/2016
In my morning devotion time yesterday I was reading in Philippians. I would like to include a portion at the beginning of today’s Mideast Update: But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 7/24/2016
For the House of Blessing missionaries, as well as Pastor R, the founder, it has been both a trying, yet miraculous past two weeks. Anyone having read recent update articles will know that, not only have many of the HOB missionaries and new believers lost their lives, but the founder of House of Blessing, Pastor R, was nearly himself if […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 6/26/2016
As I began to write this Mideast Update, the Iraqi military was involved in an all-out effort to free the city of Fallujah from ISIS. As I look at the news reports I have on my desk, officials estimate that approximately 84,000 people had been forced to flee their homes since the start of the government offensive in May against […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 5/18/2016
(caution, some photos below are pretty graphic) In the fourth chapter of John we find a passage of Scripture that I would like to use as an introduction to today’s Mideast Update. It begins in verse 31: …His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” […]
CRUCIAL MIDEAST UPDATE, May 17, 2015
Over the past three years, I have become used to receiving calls from the Middle East; calls telling me of some of the most amazing happenings. Then in the same call or a day or two later, I hear the stories of HOB missionaries who paid with their lives for daring to share the love of God for the human […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 3/23/2015
Jesus had a way of doing things that often struck people as odd. One of these times was with a miracle He performed on a blind man in John 9:1-12. Here is how the account reads: Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this […]