like western black rhinos

As it has been almost a month since the last post on here, I would firstly like to warmly welcome a new team member! Daniel Briscoe will be joining us now, and we couldn't be more excited. Dan is a second year business student at Trinity and one of my close friends. I can't wait to watch him give and receive blessing in an entirely different environment.  Myself and Emily are tickled that he felt convicted to jump into this, and there's a lot of peace around the decision. 

Anywhoo, what I wanted to post about was this (click the links if you're interested): 

YNET NEWS - CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

BBC NEWS - CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

and finally...

DISCOVER MAGAZINE - (opinion) CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

I know that some people reading this probably consider themselves to be anti-religious or non-religious, thus meaning that they don't really care if the Christian presence is evaporating. I would like to propose that even if you're not concerned about the spreading of the gospel message and love, the traditional Christian presence has been important in supporting a lot of humanitarian work - social service establishment, education, and medical care as well. Additionally, the last article offers an interesting perspective:


..."Finally, there’s the principle. Who cares? I don’t believe in any religion, let alone the Christian religion, so what does it matter that a particular ethno-religious group loses its coherency in the face persecution if they persist as individuals? I think this is a fair logical point, and I don’t have a fair logical defense. I’m in fact broadly skeptical of the proposition that groups have collective “rights” as opposed to individuals. Rather, let me simply observe as a descriptive matter that just as we live in the age when the Western Black Rhino goes extinct, so we live in the generation that will likely see the passing of the ~2,000 year old living Christian communities of Iraq and Palestine. Of course the scions of these communities will continue to make pilgrimages to their ancient holy sites, but without a living community to care for them they will become as the ruins of Nineveh, a testament to memories and ages forgotten."

I wasn't expecting this, but it really makes the situation that much more unsettling for me.

Just some things to munch on for our Thursday morning. 

Chels