Love Them with Me
In March 2007, I was standing in an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in northern Uganda gazing at hundreds of young refugees who were staring back at me. As I looked into their eyes, saw their malnourished frames, and witnessed their deplorable living conditions, the Holy Spirit filled me in a way I’d never experienced before. I sensed God was telling me, “I love these children. I love them!” And then, it was as if He extended this invitation: “Come love them with me.”
Offering Refuge and Hope
My friends Shelah and Jade Acker are the founders and directors of Refuge and Hope, a faith-based ministry serving the urban refugee community in Kampala, Uganda.
On the Fringe
I was once invited to an authors’ party in London. It was a posh affair with caviar and oysters and a private view of a fashion exhibition. Celebrities milled through the crowd and everyone else looked like a celebrity due to their chic fashion sense.
don’t be evil
How does a cute, little baby grow up to become the face of evil? How does an Austrian boy become Adolf Hitler or a son of privilege turn into Osama bin Laden? And what makes one group of people slaughter members of a neighboring group? How could they possibly think that was a good idea?
one before the other
The question I felt needed to be answered affirmatively before I married Miska was this: Can I live without her? My intentions were romantic and chivalrous, but my focus was dead wrong. I discovered that there was probably nobody that I literally could not live without. In time, I found the better question to ask myself: Do I want to live without Miska?
dangerous concessions
In 1857, a few white members of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in South Africa asked permission to celebrate the Lord’s Supper separately from their black brothers and sisters. The General Assembly believed their request was wrong, but acquiesced “due to the weakness of some.” This concession soon became the norm. And this racism prompted the unwanted black Christians to leave and start their own churches. So the South African church, divided by race, eventually became a vocal supporter of apartheid. In 1924, the DRC argued that the races must remain separate, for “competition between black and white on economic levels . . . leads to poverty, friction, misunderstanding, suspicion, and bitterness.”
a song of hope
Fearful of its subversive text and implications, the Guatemalan government of the 1980s banned the public reading or singing of Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:47-55). It’s the poetic hymn Mary sang after the angel had announced that she would give birth to a baby from God. One might wonder how a tender song from sweet Mary about a little baby could possibly be a threat to powers of any political regime. We typically hear this text in beautiful choral arrangements during Christmas holidays, and the whole affair seems quite docile. We need to hear it again.
you choose Q: What does Scripture reveal of God's care, compassion, and faithfulness for oppressed people?
Q: What does Scripture reveal of God's care, compassion, and faithfulness for oppressed people? —Trish
The Scriptures tell us that God is the defender, protector, and provider of the poor, the helpless and the oppressed (Deuteronomy 10:17-19; Psalm 9:9, 10:17-18, 103:6-8, 146:7-9). His care and compassion for these is seen in the protection and the provisions He made for the aliens…
persistence
It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who said, “Perseverance is a great element of success. If you knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” I don’t know if Longfellow had the persistent widow in mind when he wrote those words, but I believe he’s right.
In Singapore, where I live, 85 percent…
gaia needs God
I had mixed feelings watching the film Avatar. Like most, I was overwhelmed by the beauty of Pandora. Like some, I was put off by the film’s political preachiness. The portrayal of the Na’vi people’s perfect harmony with nature and each other seemed naïve. But make no mistake, the movie gripped me from beginning to end.
What really caught my…
have mercy
Within a week of moving to East Africa, I was summoned to a northern Ugandan hospital to help an orphaned boy named Olwa Elly. I’d befriended him months earlier on a short-term visit to Uganda. Sorrow consumed me when I arrived and found the 9-year-old lying listlessly on a filthy cot in an overcrowded, understaffed, fly-infested ward. The healthy and…
1.8 million
We’re talking 1.8 million. That’s the record-breaking number of people who swarmed the US Capitol grounds on January 20, 2009, to watch the inauguration of President Barack Obama. That number—1.8 million—is also the heart-wrenching number of orphans struggling to survive in Uganda, the small country in East Africa where I live.
Daily, I witness some of Uganda’s parentless children striving…
