Today marks عيد الفطر ‘Īdu l-Fiṭr or ‘the festival to break fast.’ For the last month Muslims have been fasting during the day to celebrate Ramadan. On this first day of breaking fast, they are to constantly recite Allāhu Akbar (God is great).

From our home in Malakal we occasionally hear a faint call to prayer occasionally. Sometimes, usually in the morning, it is very loud. This morning was one of those exceptional days. So far I think I’ve heard Allāhu Akbar recited a few hundred times. We’ll have church in a few hours and it will be interesting to see if they continue this through the day and we listen to it during the entire church service.

The call to prayer we often hear is a constant reminder to pray for those in our community who are in bondage to Islam. Will you pray today for the Muslims in your community.

God truly is great!

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.