A court in Sudan on Thursday found a British teacher guilty of inciting religious hatred by allowing her class to name a teddy bear “Mohammed” and sentenced her to 15 days in prison and deportation. This is definately an eye opening experience as it relates to cultual sensitivities. Read more on the story by clicking the image or here, at CNN.com.

A British woman living in Khartoum, Sudan was recently put in jail for blasphemy because she named a stuffed bear Mohammed. Click here to view the story. In the Muslim faith, any image of Mohammed is blasphemy. She made the bear an image of Mohammed by naming it after him.

She took suggestions from the class and ended up naming it after a boy. So now I’m wondering, since the boy’s name is Mohammed, would he be destroyed? If you have any thoughts about this, I’d love to hear them.

I wanted to announce to everyone that we have reached 100% of our minimum needed for our upfront support. I can’t tell you how much joy Allison and I have knowing that many of you are praying for us, for our ministry. We know God uses all of us in unique ways for HIS PURPOSE.

AMEN!?!

PS. We will continue to use the monthy support for other upfront needs that we would not otherwise be able to afford.

Most of you are aware of the HIV/AIDS explosion in many parts of the world. The highest rates, by a large margin, are in subsaharah Africa, of which Sudan is a part.

I recently found out that SIM parterned with e3 Partners, famous for the EvangiCube, to create a new cube for HIV/AIDS. They are going to announce it at this years HIV/AIDS conference at Saddleback, Rick Warren’s church. To read more about it, click the image to the right.

Good news came today from the UN regarding HIV/AIDS. They have lowered their estimates of infection from 40 million to 33 million. While large areas like India have reduced thier infection rates drastically, areas in Asia are continuing to increase. Read more about the recent changes at BBC.com.

To find out more about SIM’s involvement in the HIV/AIDS ministry, go to Hope for Aids.org. There you’ll find information about how to get involved and how SIM is sharing Christ love for the least of these.

Our church held a Harvest Festival in place of halloween 2 weeks ago and used the event to highlight the missionaries and initiatives of the church. For the first time Allison and I set up an event booth. We had a lot of people come by and talk with us, many asking to stay informed and are now receiving our email newsletter.

At one point that morning, an African gentleman approached Allison and asked if she knew why ‘America’ was in Sudan. Sensing entrapment, Allison explained the mission work she and I would be doing in South Sudan. After some back and forth he said ‘America is there for the oil’ with a forceful tone. Allison was loving and explained that we were there to share God’s love. He then walked away.

Because of our passion for the people of Southern Sudan, and my patriotism, my soul was injured while watching this exchange between Allison and the African. It truely feels like a spiritual attack.

I will always steer clear of any political talk as our ministry has nothing to do with that and desires to work with the Sudanese people, no matter the politcal situation. But I wanted to share the true disinformation that is spread among people and what it can do to rip people apart. As many of you know, there’s a lot going on right now with the CPA and it’s a very tense time. I just read an article today that quoted the President of Sudan, talking to the military, saying that the west only wants to be involved b/c they want the resources in the South and then goes on to say “Those Americans, those British, and those Europeans are not keen about the people of Darfur, or the people of southern Sudan or the Sudanese people.” Wow, that hurt. There are so many people, just in Dallas, who are specifically working in Darfur and other areas of Sudan to help the people. NONE of them have an alterior motive such as oil or any other financial reason.

This cuts deap into our hearts and those doing work in Sudan. I would ask that you would pray for the spiritual battle which has already started for Allison and I.