I have really been encouraged this lent season to remind myself who Christ was and is. Thanks to our modern age it is made simple with daily emails. Today’s had a quote that I wanted to pass along…

The Lord, though he was God, became man. He suffered for the sake of those who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the dead, and cried aloud:

“Who will contend with me? Let him confront me. I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised men from their graves. Who has anything to say against me? I,” he said, “am the Christ; I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one, and taken men up to the heights of heaven: I am the Christ.”

“Come, then, all you nations of men, receive forgiveness for the sins that defile you. I am your forgiveness. I am the Passover that brings salvation. I am the lamb who was immolated for you. I am your ransom, your life, your resurrection, your light, I am your salvation and your king. I will bring you to the heights of heaven. With my own right hand I will raise you up, and I will show you the eternal Father.” –Melito of Sardis, 2nd century church father

There are a few quick and easy online devotionals I look at from time to time, upper room is one of them. Today’s devotional was about what one reader gave up for a past Lent. I appreciate this idea rather than giving up chocolate, pop, or coffee. Not to get caught up in an act, but I would like to encourage others to take this Lent season to focus on the life of Jesus and prepare our hearts for Easter. Perhaps that would be in choosing to give something up or add something like spending more time in the Word. Another site, Our Daily Bread, has some email devotionals for the Lent season.

Here is the Upper Room Devotional which can be found at, http://devotional.upperroom.org/devotionals/2012-02-19
A Sacrifice of Silence
Read James 3:2-12

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.
— Matthew 15:11 (NRSV)

As the Lenten season approached, I wondered what I ought to give up for 40 days. I once did without chocolate. Another year I fasted from popcorn, which led me to give up going to movies also since the smell of popcorn might prove too great a temptation. These small sacrifices challenged me but didn’t promote deep spiritual reflection.

Then I thought about politics. The political climate in our country was especially bitter. People yelled at each other on television and radio. Many in our community demonstrated on the streets or wrote angry newspaper editorials. But none of these built people up or brought any grace. People made in the image of God were being cursed. Although I had strong feelings too, I decided not to talk about politics during Lent.

At first, I found keeping my mouth shut difficult, but it became increasingly easier. As time passed, I felt that I more fully understood God’s ultimate sovereignty in world affairs, and I learned to listen more carefully to the opinions of others. In so doing, I realized that speaking in love matters far more than convincing people I am right.

The Author
Deanne Overstreet (New Mexico, USA)

Thought for the Day
The love we show matters more than the good we only talk about.

Living in Africa, moving between a few countries, we deal in a lot of different currencies. Unfortunately for those of us who are American missionaries and expats, since we start with US Dollars for all transactions and currency conversions, we are hit hard by the weakening of the US Dollar. I’m sure everyone living at home in the States feels this as well in a less direct way.

As the dollar weakens, it becomes more expensive to live and work around the world, not just for us in Africa.

On the bright side, our missionaries from other countries are stronger financially because of the weak dollar. However, SIM’s financial system is in Dollars. When someone raises their money and moved to the ‘field’, their funds are held in dollars, and as the dollar weakens, their funds shrink just like ours.

At the end of the day, stability is the key. Whether the dollar goes up or down, we need stability so that our support is stable. No doubt God has provided well for us, via all of you, and He will continue to do so even in the hard times.

We thank you for your continued support!

I have to find a new web site host. I am using GoDaddy at the moment and have quite a few domains and hosting plans with them. I’m looking for an easy way to transition all these domains and hosting to a new service.

The reason for the change has been spurred by the fact that GoDaddy blocks it’s servers from being accessed from a number of countries, one of which is Sudan. The rumor is that they do this because of US & UN Sanctions on Sudan, but everything I read says they don’t really have to be doing this. Either they are being very cautious legally, or have a financial incentive that makes blocking the countries a lucrative decision.

So, all of that to say I need a new hosting service. I have shopped this in the recent past to folks on twitter. Ideally I’m looking for a service that has servers in the US and Kenya (or Europe, Middle East, S. Asia).

To date, I have not found a single service that has servers in both of these locations. I need this so that access from the US is fast and access from E Africa is quick. It’s not to slow as is (only hosted in US) but would be nice to have mirrored servers closer to us.

If you know of any good options or advice on an easy way to migrate all my domains and hosting, please let me know! Make a comment on this post or shoot me an email.

Often times churches and small groups get together a box of clothes, and other random things to ship overseas as a donation. This are very well intended and show the generous hearts of all those involved.

The problem is that more often than not, even a small financial donation would have gone much further and been far more appropriate (the biggie). A ski bib, mask, or gloves from a group in Colorado is a kind donation, though will never find a use in Sudan.

As you’ll read from the story below, even the color of something can have very unintended side effects and not only be unusable, but be hurtful. I continue to learn little things like this in my local community.

‘when a bucket is not a bucket’ http://bit.ly/G7WeK

For further reading on giving without hurting, read When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves’ by Brian Fikkert & Steve Corbett. Or the cheap and more direct route, hook up with someone local (who lives there on the groud) and ask for their advice (preferably long-term missionaries). More often than not, they will have a lot of insight as to the best way to help a community and what not to do.

By Taylor:

- Ethiopian food has replaced Mexican food

- Popcorn is a nice cheap treat

- I drink a lot of tea the British way (though my craving changes depending on time of day and country)

- Board games have replaced all other game play (mainly Settlers)

though we do use our Wii during SIM Sudan functions

- I still love Mac computers

- I’m shooting way more photography than video these days

- The occasional ‘western’ candy bar shows up in shops and we buy cases of them, if we don’t, the NGOs buy the ALL up (same goes for corn flakes)

- Ketchup goes with everything (yes, I didn’t know that already)

- Tony’s Cajun seasoning goes well on everything

it’s funny what you favor in traveling here with tight weight restrictions on flights

- who needs a tooth brush & paste when I could take a box of candy instead? (weight restrictions on flights make you make odd decisions)

- I swore I’d never drink powdered milk or eat SPAM, I do both daily almost

I drink gallons of real milk when in Nairobi on R&R

- I wish I knew how to make sausage, plenty of domestic pigs, but not eaten by anyone
I’m a sausage connoisseur, but I guess a connoisseur of anything would probably know how to make their item

- Birthday and well wishes come for 2 days (b/c of time zones)

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!

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.