West Texas Missioner

Sunday, May 10, 2015

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep picking our- selves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, & the clean clothes are in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence.

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Words to Live By

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

The Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is a daily devotional with 365 inspiring mission stories that come from next door and all across the globe. It inspires thousands of Presbyterians daily as they uphold the mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in intercessory prayer. How often have you wondered, where are the young adults in the PC(USA)? Wonder no longer. The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study is devoted to the theme of young adults in the church. Its stories, many told by young adults, lift up how Presbyterians of all ages are engaging and joining with Presbyterian young adults in reforming the church for Christ’s mission.

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 10, 2015

MINUTE FOR MISSION: PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY - We church folk love our old songs. We bear with our music directors and pastors as they gently encourage us to try new hymns, but most of us prefer the ones we know so well that we can sing them from memory.

The psalmist reminds us, however, that sometimes we are called to sing a new song in response to what God is doing in the church and in our liveS ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Special delivery to help "Stamp Out Hunger"

Got a two-fer from my postal carrier this morning ... he dropped off my mail AND picked up a bag full of canned and dry foods for delivery to the West Texas Food Bank, as part of the NALC's annual "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive.

Press release from the National Association of Letter Carriers

The NALC will conduct its 23rd annual food drive on Saturday, May 9. Letter carriers will collect non-perishable food donations on that day as they deliver mail along their postal routes.

It is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, and is held annually on the second Saturday in May in 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

With the extreme weather experienced this winter by much of the country, along with the economic struggles many Americans face, the Letter Carriers’ Food Drive never has been more important.

Letter carriers are honored to be able to help people in need,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. “We see the needs in the communities we serve, and we believe it’s important to help meet those needs.”

Hunger affects about 49 million people around the country, including millions of children and senior citizens. And one in four households with a member currently serving in the U.S. military turns to a food bank for food assistance.

Pantry shelves filled up through winter-holiday generosity often are bare by late spring. And, with most school meal programs not available during summer months, millions of children must find alternate sources of nutrition.

On Saturday, May 9, as they deliver mail, the nation’s 175,000 city letter carriers will collect donations left by residents near their mail boxes. They will be joined by retired letter carriers, by family members and friends, and by countless volunteers to help collect and distribute the sacks of non-perishable food items that get left next to generous customers’ mailboxes that morning.

People are encouraged to leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods such as canned soup; canned vegetables; canned meats and fish; pasta; peanut butter; rice or cereal next to their mailbox before the regular mail delivery on Saturday.

Carriers will bring the food to local food banks, pantries or shelters, including many affiliated with Feeding America, which is a national partner in the drive, as are the U.S. Postal Service, United Way Worldwide, the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association, the AFL-CIO, Valpak and Valassis.

People who have questions about the drive in their area should ask their letter carrier, contact their local post office, or go to nalc.org/food, facebook.com/StampOutHunger or twitter.com/StampOutHunger (hashtag #StampOutHunger).

In the News ... "Ministry hosting block party, benefit for girl with cancer" ... TODAY

Courtesy Photo

• “We’re just asking for the community that I love to come together”

Megan Lea Buck, Reporter
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - Zadee Lopez of Lubbock will be the guest of honor Saturday at the Blockfest and Hope for Zadee event at Beal Park. The 3-year-old will make an appearance at the event held in her honor before going back to Cook’s Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth for treatment. Zadee was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer in April 2014 and she’s endured nine rounds of chemotherapy ...

• read the rest of this MRT report

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO MARY VAN DEUSEN, who had written him of her diagnosis of cancer: On his empathy for her and even more for those in her situation who do not have faith; on the right to happiness; and on how fear of cancer may be worse than the reality of cancer.

9 October 1955

I have just got your letter of the 3rd. The news which it contained came like a thunderbolt—especially as the letter began (and it was rather wonderful that it did begin) on such a trivial subject as my book. And if that first sentence flattered my egoism, imagine how I was rebuked when I came to the next, and was suddenly brought up against the real great issues.

It is difficult to write because you must know by now what I do not yet know. I can’t tell whether I am writing to one who is giving thanks for an escape (oh how I hope you are in that position) or to one who is right up against the Cross. Thank heaven it is His Cross and not merely ours. I was most struck by your saying ‘It doesn’t seem too bad: for me, that is.’ So I am sure you are being supported. (What must such a situation be to those who are the majority, who have no faith, who have never thought of death, and to whom all affliction is a mere meaningless, monstrous interruption of a worldly happiness to which they feel they have a right?)

God bless and keep you: and your husband too. You will indeed, indeed, be in my prayers. I once had a bad scare about cancer myself, so that part I can, I think, imagine. But of course it is now, for you, either better or worse than a scare. If the reality is worse. At any rate it must be different. (The Litany [in the Book of Common Prayer] distinguishes ‘thine agony and blood sweat’ from ‘Thy cross and passion’, the fear from the reality). You know how I shall await your next letter.

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 9, 2015

MINUTE FOR MISSION: FAIR TRADE DAY - Dsenyo is a fair-trade enterprise creating sustainable livelihoods for communities in Malawi. Since 2009, we have partnered directly with artisans to develop and distribute handcrafted products. In a country where 51 percent live below the national poverty line, our partnerships create much-needed employment for the most vulnerable members of society, including women, widows, refugees, and people who are HIV positive.

In October 2013, we conducted an innovative social-impact survey to better understand how our work affects the livelihoods of women. The survey gave us insight into the daily realities faced by our partners ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Friday, May 8, 2015

From @FWMission ... Friday Story: "Send Emergency Wheelchairs to Nepal"

Founded in 2001, Free Wheelchair Mission

is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to providing wheelchairs for the impoverished disabled in developing nations. Headquartered in Irvine, California, FWM works around the world in partnership with a vast network of humanitarian, faith-based and government organizations, sending wheelchairs to hundreds of thousands of disabled people, providing not only the gift of mobility, but of dignity, independence, and hope.

Friday Story: "Send Emergency Wheelchairs to Nepal"

As you know, Nepal experienced a magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Saturday, April 26th that killed nearly 5,000 people and injured more than 8,000. Rescue and recovery efforts are underway and the numbers are expected to rise as these efforts intensify. Many charities and NGOs are already on the ground providing essential aid and medical assistance.

Free Wheelchair Mission can help and we are ready to act. We are in communications with Nepal Disabled and Helpless Empowerment Center (NDHEC), who has been our partner in Nepal for 10 years and has received 4,440 wheelchairs to date. We stand ready to ship wheelchairs as they are able to receive them.

As the number of injuries grow, the need for wheelchairs increases. We would like to ship at least three containers (1,650 wheelchairs*) directly to Nepal as soon as possible―but we need your help to provide this support and supply urgent relief to the people in need ...

• learn how you can help ...

Want to take one of these wheelchairs for a test drive? During normal business hours, visit the lobby at the Texas Street entrance of First Presbyterian Church-Midland, at the northwest corner of Texas and A streets, on the west side of downtown Midland. You can give the gift of mobility. The cost of $72.00 is a bargain to us ... but it is a life-changing gift to impoverished and disabled recipients ... and there are times when your contribution will be matched, reaching not one - but TWO, and sometimes FOUR recipients. Please note on your check "Wheelchair Gift."

In the News ... "A focus on faith, family, relationships"

OA Photo by Mark Sterkel

• Desire to be all he can be for Jesus Christ

By Bob Campbell, Reporter
Odessa American

ODESSA, TEXAS - The Rev. Terry Tamplen started out to work in finance and earned a degree in agricultural economics, but an unshakeable feeling that he should go into the ministry led him to a career with the United Methodist Church and the discovery of a talent for church-building.

The 59-year-old native of Crowell, in the southeastern Texas Panhandle near Oklahoma, grew up on his parents’ farm, played football, ran track, graduated from Texas Tech University and became a management trainee with the Vernon Savings & Loan Association.

But when his father, Thomas Lee Tamplen, died, he returned to the farm for two years until he began talking with the Rev. Steve Martyn about his “sense that God was calling me to something” ...

• read the rest of this OA report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Morality

I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Everyone there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes. But this is near the stage where the road passes over the rim of our world. No one’s eyes can see very far beyond that: lots of people’s eyes can see further than mine.

• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in Words to Live By

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 8, 2015

AFRICA / NIGERIA - Nigeria is a country of divisions: North/South; Muslim/Christian; Hausa and Fulani / Yoruba and Igbo; cattle herders / farmers; the poor majority, which earns $2 per day or less / the wealthy minority, enriched by the billions in annual oil revenue. (About 25 percent of Nigeria’s oil is exported to the United States, so American money is fueling some of this division.)

In recent years, Nigeria has witnessed considerable strife and violence that seems to be religiously based ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

In the News ... Food 2 Kids' new director to oversee growing program"

• When asked about the nonprofit’s needs, his response is simple: money and volunteers

Staff Report
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MRT Photo by Tim Fischer

ODESSA/MIDLAND, TEXAS - In 2010, the Education Foundation of Odessa partnered with the Odessa Junior League and the West Texas Food Bank to provide a sack of food items to be sent home in the backpacks of food-insecure children in Odessa. Food 2 Kids started out feeding 150 elementary school kids. That number doubled in 12 weeks and by the next year the group was providing sacks of food for 1,200 students.

Now the program has expanded into 17 schools in Odessa, and a handful in Midland and the surrounding areas — feeding more than 2,300 kids. The board-run nonprofit that is supported by the food bank has hired its first paid staff member. Odessa native and former Food 2 Kids board member Craig Stoker took over in March as the first director of Food 2 Kids ...

• read the rest of this MRT report

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

And where are we heading for?” asked Edmund.

“Well,” said Caspian, “that’s rather a long story. Perhaps you remember that when I was a child my usurping uncle Miraz got rid of seven friends of my father’s (who might have taken my part) by sending them off to explore the unknown Eastern Seas beyond the Lone Islands.”

“Yes,” said Lucy, “and none of them ever came back.”

“Right. Well, on my coronation day, with Aslan’s approval, I swore an oath that, if once I established peace in Narnia, I would sail east myself for a year and a day to find my father’s friends or to learn of their deaths and avenge them if I could. ... That is my main intention. But Reepicheep here has an even higher hope.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to the Mouse.

“As high as my spirit,” it said. “Though perhaps as small as my stature. Why should we not come to the very eastern end of the world? And what might we find there? I expect to find Aslan’s own country. It is always from the east, across the sea, that the great Lion comes to us.”

“I say, that is an idea,” said Edmund in an awed voice.

“But do you think,” said Lucy, “Aslan’s country would be that sort of country—I mean, the sort you could ever sail to?”

“I do not know, Madam,” said Reepicheep. “But there is this. When I was in my cradle, a wood woman, a Dryad, spoke this verse over me:

Where sky and water meet,
Where the waves grow sweet,
Doubt not, Reepicheep,
To find all you seek,
There is the utter East.

“I do not know what it means. But the spell of it has been on me all my life.”

• From The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 7, 2015

AFRICA / NIGER - Niger is a semiarid, landlocked country that constantly struggles with food security. The population continues to grow by leaps and bounds, putting added stress on already limited resources. Over the past decade, the country has faced almost annual problems with malnutrition, especially among children. In response, the Evangelical Church of the Republic of Niger (EERN) has begun working with communities to address this problem ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

WAW Wednesday: Tour and More

"The Word at Work is a ministry that mobilizes churches and individuals to answer God's call to minister to those in need," writes Rev. Tim Tam, Director of the Amarillo, Texas-based ministry. "Through our relationships, God reveals needs and opportunities for service. As we come along side the poor, new friendships develop and doors for ministry open. As we serve, God provides the resources to supply for the needs he reveals."

Tour and More

Hello, friends,

Many of you responded to last week's message...it's encouraging to see how many of you read our mid-week missive!

I mentioned that we are looking for new blood on our staff to help us reach the next level God is calling us to -- specifically we are looking for a Director of Development -- a faithful, energetic person who will build a fundraising program for us from the ground up. It's an exciting opportunity! Would you share this job description with any qualified contacts you may have? Maybe God is calling YOU to a new chapter?? Email me with any musings you might have on the subject - thanks!

ROAD TRIP!!! We love our friends and partners in the US - so much, we think it's important for them to spend some time with our Belizean staff on the US! If you've been to Belize with us, you'll recognize these two:

Project Manager Kenny Logan (left) and Assistant Project Manager Jose (Chepito) Valencia will embark on a whirlwind tour with me next week! If you live in Roswell, Clovis, Lubbock, Midland, Austin or the DFW area give us a shout at the office and we'll see if we can make connection! We have several churches and partners scheduled to visit as we follow up on an incredibly busy and blessed March in Belize. Please pray for us during our road trip, May 15-23!

I'll leave you with this thought ...
We were contacted this week by a scholarship student; he wrote to tell us how his life was transformed by the encouragement of two gentlemen he met on one of the islands we utilize for our debriefs. He was beaming through his message as he shared his GPA for the past two semesters and the confidence he felt returning to college. This is a beautiful illustration of the truth that poverty is less about money or resources and more about feelings of inferiority and powerlessness. This student has God-given talents and abilities, and a small interjection from others changed his attitude, driving him to succeed. Who will you encourage today?

TT (Tim Tam) The Word at Work

ps: Our Ministry Associate team gathers school supplies, toys, and stuffed animals through out the year ... we've discovered blankets are an ongoing need as well, so please be saving them, too. Click here to learn more about becoming a TW@W Ministry Associate, or get in touch with Tim Hagen for more information!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Speaking from my own first-hand experience - working side-by-side with Tim, Kenny and our brothers and sisters in Belize - won't you give thoughtful, prayerful consideration to supporting the efforts of Tim, the Word At Work staff and their partners? Please please fill out this Commitment Card and return it to their office!

Also, remember that you can follow The Word At Work on their Facebook page!

In the News ... "Helping Hands changes priorities to fit community needs"

MRT Photo by Steve Kuhlman

• "It just seems like the benevolent financial help is drying up ..."

Steve Kuhlmann, Reporter
Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - As aid in the Tall City becomes increasingly valuable — and the financial support for nonprofits that provide it becomes more scarce — Midland’s Helping Hands is doing its best to prioritize the support it can provide to the community.
On March 1, the nonprofit closed its food pantry to the public, reserving the downsized pantry for clients on an at-need basis. It was a move that Executive Director Mary Hardin said was motivated by the current economic climate ...

• read the rest of this MRT report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest thing to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.

It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call ‘ourselves’, to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be ‘good’. We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way — centred on money or pleasure or ambition—and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown.

• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 6, 2015

AFRICA / TOGO - For the past few years, the annual synod of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Togo has chosen a theme based on the concept of human dignity. The 2013 theme was “God of life, lead us to justice, peace, and dignity,” which intentionally aligned the church with goals set by the All Africa Conference of Churches: to have churches actively working to build justice, peace, and human dignity across the African continent ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Word from Uganda: "What have I been up to? "

Missionary teacher Natalie Rolfe writes, "'When He calls me, I will answer ... I'll be somewhere working for my Lord.' My call was Mbale, Uganda and that is where I have returned to serve for another year. Specifically, I am teaching phonics at Lulwanda Children's Home, an orphanage and school for 90 kids." Natalie also keeps an online journal of her service at the weblog, When He calls me, I will answer ...

What have I been up to?

"Oh man, I have said it before and I will say it again … sometimes life is too busy living to have time to post anything on the blog," Natalie writes. "But I do love being able to share what has been going on with you. So please forgive the recap version of the past 2.5 months. (and in no particular order nor fullest detail) ..."

• read the rest of Natalie's post ...

• help raise funds for Natalie's mission ...

In the News ... "Yearlong project is indicative of what selfless kids can do"

Courtesy Photo

• Big Ideas for the Greater Good

Ryan Adams, Midland Christian School
Special to the Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - Tuesday is a BIGG day for young children at Trinity School. We are gathering at Stonegate Fellowship to celebrate a year of service. The children have worked on nearly 30 different service projects this school year -- ideas that have become meaningful to them. They’ve tried on the “mantle” of servant leadership, and been encouraged to think first about the needs of others. At our “red carpet” event, and as a way of inspiring new ideas for the coming year, we’ll premier a movie highlighting what’s been accomplished thus far.

“Inspiring servant leadership” represents an important part of Trinity School’s mission ...

• read the rest of this MRT report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO MRS. JOHNSON: On God’s unique way with each soul, even in the pattern of conversion; and on various Christian nonessentials.

2 March 1955

It is right and inevitable that we should be much concerned about the salvation of those we love. But we must be careful not to expect or demand that their salvation should conform to some ready-made pattern of our own. Some Protestant sects have gone very wrong about this. They have a whole programme of ‘conviction’, ‘conversion,’ et cetera, marked out, the same for everyone, and will not believe that anyone can be saved who doesn’t go through it ‘just so’. But (see the last chapter of Problem of Pain) God has His own unique way with each soul.

There is no evidence that St. John even underwent the same kind of ‘conversion’ as St. Paul. It’s not essential to believe in the devil; and I’m sure a man can get to Heaven without being accurate about Methuselah’s age. Also, as MacDonald says, ‘the time for saying comes seldom, the time for being is always there.’ What we practice, not (save at rare intervals) what we preach, is usually our great contribution to the conversion of others .

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 5, 2015

AFRICA / GHANA - Throughout West Africa, there is a widespread belief among many that good and evil spiritual forces have a profound impact on people’s lives. Good forces, of course, come from God, while bad forces are attributed to the devil and his human agents, who are sometimes branded witches ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Monday, May 4, 2015

From ChinaAid: "China Aid 2014 Annual Report indicates rising trend in persecution cases"

The China Aid Association is a non-profit Christian organization - based in Midland, Texas - with a mission to uncover and reveal the truth about religious persecution in China, focusing especially on the unofficial church. They do this, they explain in their website, by exposing the abuses, encouraging the abused and equipping the saints to advance the kingdom of God throughout China.

China Aid 2014 Annual Report indicates rising trend in persecution cases
Distributed by ChinaAid, April, 2015 ...

MIDLAND, TEXAS – China Aid released its 2014 Annual Report of Religious and Human Rights Persecution in China, The Year of “Persecution and Endurance,” which indicates that religious persecution and human rights abuse by the Chinese government against its citizens has risen 152.74 percent since 2013 based on six specific categories of persecution.

All six categories, which include the total number of persecution cases, the number of religious practitioners persecuted, the number of citizens detained, the number of citizens sentenced, the number of severe abuse cases and the number of individuals in severe abuses cases, increased ...

• more on this story from China Aid

Faces of Children: Prayer Concerns for This Week

Faces of Children is an ecumenical prayer ministry under the auspices of First Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Our mission is to initiate ministries of prayer for children in churches, communities, and neighborhoods. In doing so, we seek to provide an opportunity for people of God to join together, learn about children and their needs throughout the world, and celebrate Christ's love (especially as it relates to children).

Prayer Concerns for the Week of 05/04/15

Please pray for children ...

• Who are filled with fear, prejudice and hate for others that they may receive the peace of Jesus Christ and be free from fear and hate.
• Whose family members have been injured or killed by terror groups that they will not grow bitter as they grieve.
• Who are at risk of being recruited by gangs or other violent groups.
• Who do not have a home where they feel protected, loved and nurtured.
• Who, because of their home and family situation, misbehave at school or other places. Pray that the adults surrounding them would seek to understand the these children’s backgrounds and stories and that God would heal them.

If you have prayer requests about children, those who care for them, those who have authority over them, or those who harm them (the really hard prayers to say sometimes), please send them to info@facesofchildren.net

In the News ... "Love is at the center of MCS’ annual Service Day"

MRT Photo by Tim Fischer

• Teaching students that love is the most important thing

Ryan Adams, Midland Christian School
Special to the Midland Reporter-Telegram

MIDLAND, TEXAS - My favorite pair of shorts rests quietly at the rear of my closet for special occasions, particularly one day every spring. They are older, decorated with paint splotches here and there from different times in the past. Nonetheless, I always excitedly pull them out when this spring day arrives. It’s Midland Christian School’s Service Day.

For the last five years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to take part in Service Day, along with the entire junior high and high school student body. This day is always highly anticipated for so many different, beautiful reasons. Really, if you asked students, they would each give you a different response as to why they adore this specific day above any other one ...

• read the rest of this MRT report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On love ...

Even while we kill and punish we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves—to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, be cured: in fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.

• From Mere Christianity
• Compiled in Words to Live By

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 4, 2015

AFRICA (continued) - The Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM) is doing tremendous work in Ending Violence against Women and Children. Rev. Helivao Poget, with assistance from mission coworker Jan Heckler, works with street families and prostitutes, providing them pastoral care and a pathway to get off the streets. She also advocates at the highest levels to address the trafficking of women and children and its root causes ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

It was, however, clear to everyone that Eustace’s character had been rather improved by becoming a dragon. He was anxious to help. He flew over the whole island and found it was all mountainous and inhabited only by wild goats and droves of wild swine. Of these he brought back many carcasses as provisions for the ship. He was a very humane killer too, for he could dispatch a beast with one blow of his tail so that it didn’t know (and presumably still doesn’t know) it had been killed. He ate a few himself, of course, but always alone, for now that he was a dragon he liked his food raw but he could never bear to let others see him at his messy meals. And one day, flying slowly and wearily but in great triumph, he bore back to camp a great tall pine tree which he had torn up by the roots in a distant valley and which could be made into a capital mast. And in the evening if it turned chilly, as it sometimes did after the heavy rains, he was a comfort to everyone, for the whole party would come and sit with their backs against his hot sides and get well warmed and dried; and one puff of his fiery breath would light the most obstinate fire. Sometimes he would take a select party for a fly on his back, so that they could see wheeling below them the green slopes, the rocky heights, the narrow pit-like valleys and far out over the sea to the eastward a spot of darker blue on the blue horizon which might be land.

The pleasure (quite new to him) of being liked and, still more, of liking other people, was what kept Eustace from despair. For it was very dreary being a dragon.

• From The Voyage of the Dawn Trader
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 3, 2015

MINUTE FOR MISSION: OLDER ADULTS - It’s time to reread John 15:1–8 to remind us of who and whose we are. One of the privileges of becoming older and gaining wisdom is to reflect on and share what God has done in our lives. God is with us in the good times as well as the challenging times of life. It is up to us to continue to spread the good news!

One of the joys of becoming older and wiser is the recognition that God is with us—all the time ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 2, 2015

africa (continued) - Educate a Child, Transform the World (which aims to provide quality education for 1 million children by 2020) supports the work of PC(USA) partners in Africa who realize that a good education is one of the most effective ways to address the root causes of poverty and share the good news of Christ.

The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian manages around 1,000 schools in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Friday, May 1, 2015

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO “MRS. JONES” (identity withheld): On sexual temptation as not only the most recognizable and least disguisable of our temptations but also as the most pleasurable; and on the consequences of the Fall for women and for men.

27 September 1954

‘Why has sex become man’s chief stumbling block?’ But has it? Or is it only the most recognisable of the stumbling blocks? I mean, we can mistake pride for a good conscience, and cruelty for zeal, and idleness for the peace of God et cetera. But when lust is upon us, then, owing to the obvious physical symptoms, we can’t pretend it is anything else. Is it perhaps only the least disguisable of our dangers. At the same time I think there is something in what you say. If marriage is an image of the mystical marriage between Christ and the Church, then adultery is an image of apostasy. Also, all the sexual vices have this unfair advantage that the very temptation is itself pleasurable: whereas the temptations, say, to anger or cowardice, are in themselves unpleasant.

I don’t think I can solve your question about the pains of childbirth. I can only say that vicarious suffering seems to be deeply embedded in the post-fall world so that the Atonement is simply the supreme instance of a universal law. Would the inequality between man’s and woman’s share of the cause be less marked if Man (or selected, fortunate men) had not now managed to evade his share? If he still in person tilled the earth and fought the wild beasts? And has civilisation increased the woman’s pain? I’ve heard of savage women who suffer much less. But I am only offering conjecture. I don’t know the answer .

• From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
• Compiled in Yours, Jack

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: May 1, 2015

AFRICA - W hen I read this year’s yearbook theme verse, in which Jesus shares that his mission is to “preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed” (Luke 4:18 CEB), the words nearly jumped off the page! Jesus’ “mission statement” so clearly resonates with PC(USA) World Mission’s three critical global issues: Evangelism, Poverty Alleviation, and Reconciliation. The parallel should be no surprise, since Scripture forms the basis for how our church engages in God’s mission. We have been sent on the same mission as Jesus (John 20:21): to join God’s ministry of transformation of the world ...

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