As I begin writing the current Mideast Update, I think of the confluence of events in the Middle East today. I have stacks of papers scattered on my desk covering the so-called “Arab Spring”, the Syrian civil war, the escalating military involvement of numerous world powers in the Mideast, the resulting ever-deteriorating refugee crisis, and then of course the fearless […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 8/6/2016
One of the things I’ve noticed while writing these Mideast Updates for the last 53 months, is that if I am not careful, the updates become “routine” reports. This is a grave mistake because these are not “numbers” being reported, but rather a written record of events and the people who are the subjects of these same events. These people […]
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 […]
HARVEST STORIES: Overcomers, 6/25/2016
We share here another story from the harvest fields in the Middle East. We believe that Father has a purpose in our hearing how some of our brothers and sisters in the Lord experience His love and His presence. Perhaps we will have a deeper grasp of that love and presence. Perhaps we will come to see how we too […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 5/2/2016
I have always thought that one of the fascinating privileges we will have as we begin an unending eternity in the presence of our glorious LORD and God, will be access to the millions upon millions of individual stories, recorded with intricate, accurate detail, of the lives of God’s faithful people as they navigated life on this fallen planet. I […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 4/18/2016
The update is not going to be a long one today, but I do want to get out the latest information that I have received. I was very happy to receive a phone call from Pastor R this weekend. His voice was not quite normal, but that is to be expected due to the chemical poisons he was exposed to […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 4/5/2016
At the beginning of today’s Mideast Update, I would like to include the 23rd Psalm and some brief observations. It reads like this in the New King James version of the Scriptures: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 3/21/2016
A second century Church father was quoted as saying this: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” From the time that Stephen, the first official Christian martyr, was stoned to death in AD 36, Christians have been laying down their lives for the One who gave His life for them. I believe God has a special […]
MIDEAST UPDATE, 3/11/2016
After receiving the tragic news of the death of brother Omar and his wife a few days ago, I decided that I would write an update this week around them and what their lives have meant to the Kingdom of God as they worked as missionaries through House of Blessing. As regular readers will know, our contact with House of […]