Ramadan رمضان‎ is upon us. It is the month when Muslims fast from food, drink, sex and other pleasures. Some Christians even fast for periods of time as a symbol of their devotion to their faith in Christ.

This year Dallas churches have invited Muslim congregations to share in fast-breaking dinners called iftars. The moderate Muslim congregations, mostly Turkish, have a long-standing quality about them to unite with their communities.

Read more about the ‘breaking of bread’ they are doing together in the DallasNews.com article.

I invite you to do something a bit radical. It is common for Muslims to invite others into their home for iftar, but would you consider inviting a Muslim or his whole family into your home for the fast-breaking dinner.

It sounds scary, but I promise it just takes a bit of courage. As I mentioned, it’s normal for them to share this dinner with people outside of islam. If you meet a Muslim, just ask if he has ‘iftar’ plans or in America, if you just say dinner plans, he’ll know what you mean. Just be sure not to serve dinner until after sundown.

I look forward to doing this myself back in Malakal. No doubt our team has already considered this and may be doing it already.

On that same note, visit http://www.30-days.net/ to get prayer points for the 30 days of Ramadan.

Once in a while media/communications/marketing does something really good. Problem is that ‘good’ is completely relative. MSF has come under some heat on a recent video they did.

MSF, better known in the US as Doctors Without Borders, does some amazing awareness campaigns. To say the least I am very impressed with the quality of their advertising projects. No doubt this turns into dollars and volunteers for them. I’m sure you can understand that this particular component of an organization is of great interest to me as it’s the very reason I am in Sudan with SIM.

Just before we left for Sudan they came through Dallas with their ‘A Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City’ project. Though Allison and I did not get the chance to experience the ‘camp’ we did sit through some Q&A sessions they held at REI to find out more about the organization. They do a lot in Sudan and we see them often.

Recently they released a video titled ‘boy’. I want to give warning as this can present a VERY difficult viewing, so do so at your own risk of having many emotions to deal with at the end.

While this clip evokes some strong emotions, this was no doubt the intended effect. I often use my emtions as my gauge to find if something has grabbed my very inner being to be stretched. MSF has fully reached into my heart, perhaps to the point of intrusion. Have they gone too far? Have they taken too much emotion from me? How will my emotions impact my actions? How will I react? Should I react? Do they want me to react? I offer no answers, only the suggestion that we know ourselves deeper after seeing and engaging something like this. Engage God, ask, pray & request that He reveal himself to you in a new way. Seek answers in his Word.

On the flip side, MSF has done an equally well produced video ad with a very positive spin on it. Though it does show some short clips of theatrical pain, overall the piece is very ‘light’.

This clip evokes much less emotion to search through. We just enjoy the good work someone is doing and give them a slap on the back, maybe a few dollars.

Thanks to @bill_easterly for giving me a heads up to the video.

After two weeks in Nairobi the family is almost back to 100%. Avery is doing well but Allison continues to deal with a weird bug that only effects her every few days. We hope to get a little more relax time now that we’re better and mix in some business as we plan for SIM’s Spiritual Life Conference coming up in January.

We look forward to getting back to Malakal, our real home, and continuing our Arabic learning and making friends.

As many of you know the family has been dealing with some illness for the last few weeks. The girls were not able to shake it and after a run to the UN’s ER for Taylor (chest pains) it was decided that we should take an early R&R. We had been planning to go just next week, but after receiving advice from our medical advisors, we decided to get to NBO as soon as we could.

After a 2 day trip with the UN’s WFP, we’ve arrived in chilly Nairobi. This actually isn’t so good for Taylor as cold weather isn’t so great for his lungs. And being that our flat is 6 stories up with no elevator, it’s quite a workout for the lungs.

We hope to all get into the Doctor this week to get some thorough checkups. We’re all doing better already. I have little doubt that the stress of life in Sudan is more than half the cause of our pains.

We thank all of you for your prayers. Recently our fellow missionaries with AIM AIR suffered two deaths. We are looking forward to loving on those brothers and sisters of ours.

We’ll get some photos up soon. Fast internet, yea!