Thought For the Week

Dear Friends, Today, instead of passing along a thought from a published book, I wanted to offer two different “thoughts” from two personal friends presently ministering in other parts of the world. They attended my church in Honduras at some point between 1994-2005 (on occasions when they were not doing their mission work there). I still follow their ministries with a little bit of envy – just a little, not a sinful amount! The first is by Rick Morgan. Rick now resides with his wife Kim in El Salvador and continues to minister throughout Latin America and Spain as a traveling Pastor/Evangelist/Encourager to pastors and churches. The second is by Wendell and Melanie Nofziger who serve with EMM (Eastern Mennonite Missions) mentoring and making disciples as they direct VidaNet (LifeNet) in Costa Rica. I enjoy ge...

Dear Friends, Today I thought I would offer you some “thoughts” from Amy Carmichael (1867-1951). Amy was an Irish-born missionary to India, where she served from 1893-1951. Initially she landed at Bangalore, but the lifestyles and priorities of the English missionaries there lead her to leave Bangalore with one other missionary family (the Walkers and their children) to go to the southern tip of India. There she started a ministry to young girls (and later young boys) who served as temple prostitutes. She would spend the rest of her life there ministering to the children she rescued. Amy dressed herself in Indian clothing and dyed her skin with dark coffee, so as to blend in more with the local people. Also, with one of her heroes of the faith being George Mueller, she never asked for any funding, but simply brought her needs before God in prayer and left them there. She wrote nearly 40 books (the profits from which she funded the work with the children). H...

Dear Friends, As one who has lived to see our culture move from the Modernist Era (where people believed in the concept of absolute truth, and one of our goals in life was the pursuit of that truth) to the Postmodernist Era (where it is assumed everything is relative, there are no absolutes, and no one’s viewpoint is any better than anyone else’s) – it has been a difficult transition. It is true the absolutist mindset could be bigoted and most definitely needed changing, for there were far more things that were culturally relative than the vast majority in the Modernist Era ever thought. Yet, going to the opposite extreme and suggesting, “there are no absolutes” and “everyone’s truth is equally valid,” was equally unwise and will lead to the devaluation of life and horrific consequences if taken to its logical extreme. A better way to put it would be, “There are a tremendous number of things that are culturally relative, and a good number that are absolute and without which a hu...

Dear Friends, Today’s “thought” has to do with forgiveness. The forgiveness offered by a husband to his wayward wife. A forgiveness which led to her own restoration. In fact, it was a forgiveness so profound that she would later confess that if it were her, and the situation were reversed, “I do not think I could have done that.” It is found in the book, “Everybody Needs to Forgive Somebody” by Allen R. Hunt, a collection of 11 stories of forgiveness. As Christians we all need to hear such stories. We need to be challenged by them. As followers of Jesus who are told, “If you do not forgive people their sins, Your Father will not forgive your sins,” (Mt. 6:15), and are people called to “forgive 70 times seven” (which means a limitless number of times - Mt. 18:22) we have often found every excuse not to. Here is the true story of one man who took Jesus’ words seriously – as we all should – and changed the lives of at least 6 people forever. Enjoy. Millie “Married at ...