West Texas Missioner

Monday, August 24, 2015

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: August 24, 2015

KOREA (continued) - As Young Adult Volunteers in Daejeon, South Korea, we began our year of service with a limited knowledge of Korean culture and language but were expected to teach 10–30 children every week who had a limited knowledge of English. Needless to say, we were all a bit overwhelmed. We began our lessons and activities as if we were mimes, attempting to show rather than say what we were hoping to accomplish over the course of a few hours ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

PCUSA ... and PRO-Fossil Fuel ... Part 1

Consider how Christians might respond to a call for a blanket divestment from Christianity, inspired by a variety of things that have taken place in the past, or are taking place right now ... things that had (or have) nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus Christ and the kingdom He proclaimed, yet were done (or are being done) in His name, and in pursuit of a very worldly and wrongful pursuit of His kingdom.

How might Christians respond to such a call?

Me? My response is that a blanket divestment from Christianity is NOT the answer ... and would suggest, rather, a reinvestment. That process would begin with a thoughtful and considered look at Christ’s message, and how that message – and Christ’s love – is being lived and shared by others. Based upon that search, and upon what that search revealed about other Christian gatherings, I would reinvest my heart and my mind, my body and soul into where those others are gathered, and join them in their mission.

This is what comes to mind when I read about those within the Presbyterian Church USA who demand an immediate and total, blanket divestment of the denomination’s investment funds from “fossil fuel producers.” I have to ask ... is blanket divestment the answer? Shouldn’t we, instead, consider reinvestment of those funds into responsible – even moral – fossil fuel producers?

Before I go any further, let me give you some idea of the context in which I am composing this post. It’s important to the consideration – if any! – that you will give to what follows ...

For the past 31 years, I have lived and worked in and around the city of Midland, in the western region of Texas ... smack-dab in the middle of what they call ‘the oil patch.’ There is some cattle and some cotton in the foundation of this community, but most of Midland today is built upon the energy industry, and the production of oil and natural gas plays a major, even predominant role in our local economy.

I do not work directly for the energy industry ... though I have been happily married those same 31 years to someone who is. As for me, I first worked in in this part of Texas as a contract archaeologist ... but my vocation has changed more than once with the ups and downs – especially the downs! – in the energy industry over the past three decades. So I have also worked as a television writer/producer, a newspaper reporter/editor, a website/social media manager, and for the past seven years in the public information and media office of a community college.

This has given me a tremendous opportunity to observe the industry ‘up-close and personal,’ as we used to say in the news business. I suggest that I might have more insight than some others into the industry, its people, its technology and practices, and the changes in said technology and practices. I have seen, reported-on and learned from – to borrow a phrase from a movie title – the good, the bad and the ugly of fossil fuel production ... and the beautiful, as well.

Let me qualify that last paragraph, though ... my experience observing fossil fuel producers has been exclusively with oil and natural gas. I have no such experience with the coal industry, and I am not qualified to comment upon changes that may have taken place in their technology and practices. When it comes to coal, all I have to go on are the 50-year-old memories I have of that industry – actually, the remnants of that industry – in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area of northeastern Pennsylvania ... which helped set my course down the environmentalism path as a teenager way-back-when.

Anyway, that is where I come from. Where I am going, in the weeks ahead, is to develop my pro-fossil fuel thesis, and to suggest options for a position within the Presbyterian Church USA that still promotes protection and restoration of God’s creation, yet encourages responsible – even moral – energy production that includes fossil fuels. Beyond that, I am hoping that those options might make their way into a ‘fossil fuels reinvestment’ overture that would be submitted to the next PCUSA General Assembly for their consideration/approval.

Thank you for your time in reading the above. I welcome any comments you wish to make in the space below ... regardless of your stance on fossil fuel production. It is my hope that this will be the start of a discussion among those who ultimately share a common goal, a common destination ... though for now, we may be reaching it by different paths.

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

They were all still wondering what to do next, when Lucy said, “Look! There’s a robin, with such a red breast. It’s the first bird I’ve seen here. I say!—I wonder can birds talk in Narnia? It almost looks as if it wanted to say something to us.” Then she turned to the Robin and said, “Please, can you tell us where Tumnus the Faun has been taken to?” As she said this she took a step toward the bird. It at once flew away but only as far as to the next tree. There it perched and looked at them very hard as if it understood all they had been saying. Almost without noticing that they had done so, the four children went a step or two nearer to it. At this the Robin flew away again to the next tree and once more looked at them very hard. . . .

“Do you know,” said Lucy, “I really believe he means us to follow him.”

“I’ve an idea he does,” said Susan. “What do you think, Peter?”

“Well, we might as well try it,” answered Peter. . . . They had been traveling in this way for about half an hour . . . when Edmund said to Peter, “if you’re not still too high and mighty to talk to me, I’ve something to say which you’d better listen to. . . . [H]ave you realized what we’re doing? . . . We’re following a guide we know nothing about. How do we know which side that bird is on? Why shouldn’t it be leading us into a trap?”

“That’s a nasty idea. Still—a robin, you know. They’re good birds in all the stories I’ve ever read. I’m sure a robin wouldn’t be on the wrong side.”

“If it comes to that, which is the right side? How do we know that the Fauns are in the right and the Queen (yes, I know we’ve been told she’s a witch) is in the wrong? We don’t really know anything about either.”

“The Faun saved Lucy.”

“He said he did. But how do we know?”

• From The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: August 23, 2015

MINUTE FOR MISSION: PUBLIC EDUCATION - In the summer of 2013, Nikkitta Jacobs of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, received news that her son, Jaden, who had just turned three, would not have a spot at the Clara Hearne Head Start Center that fall. Facing a $267,000 budget reduction, the center had to cut 37 children from its incoming class ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

On Time

[The demon Screwtape writes:] The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present—either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.

Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present. With this in view, we sometimes tempt a human (say a widow or a scholar) to live in the Past. But this is of limited value, for they have some real knowledge of the past and it has a determinate nature and, to that extent, resembles eternity. It is far better to make them live in the Future. Biological necessity makes all their passions point in that direction already, so that thought about the Future inflames hope and fear. Also, it is unknown to them, so that in making them think about it we make them think of unrealities. In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time—for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.

• From The Screwtape Letters
• Compiled in Words to Live By

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: August 22, 2015

SOUTH KOREA - Rev. Sootaek Kim founded Saenaru Church, which also houses a children’s center and a soup kitchen, in the city of Daejeon 20 years ago. I have come to know Rev. Kim, as Saenaru is one of the locations where our Young Adult Volunteers serve for a year. After graduating from college in 1978, Rev. Kim worked in the Korean civil service, participated in the democracy movement of the ’70s and ’80s, and eventually studied theology, which connected his sense of justice to God ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Friday, August 21, 2015

From ServLife International: "Journey"

ServLife International is a movement defined by values of God’s kingdom, not programs built around human efforts and activities. The reign and rule of God should be made apparent to every person on the planet, despite their religion, race or socioeconomic status. We believe that issues of justice are inseparable from the good news that Jesus Christ came to proclaim. ServLife exists to take the gospel of Christ and the hope of a better, more just, world to the lives of people we touch. This happens through individual contributions of time, creativity, resources and dreams.

Journey

Pastor Kamal’s journey with Christ has taken him all over South Asia. He first heard the gospel in India while visiting a cousin, but at the time he did not want to accept the Good News. He was not ready to let God into his heart, but rather kept seeking worldly fulfillment. Later he traveled to both Qatar and Malaysia in search of work because Nepal did not offer enough opportunities. In Malaysia he heard the gospel for a second time, and in this instance his heart was opened to receive God. He accepted Jesus into his life and journeyed back to Nepal with a desire to do God’s work. He enrolled in the ServLife training school. “We started our journey of ministry with sharing small Gospel brochures in the day time and in the evening we showed them Gospel films,” Kamal says. “After the film was shown we could share our thoughts and discuss it in a small group. In this way we were able to share the Gospel with many people.”

Now, several years later, Pastor Kamal’s congregation has grown to over 100 believers. However, they are again facing a journey of both a geographical and spiritual nature. The recent earthquakes in Nepal destroyed Pastor Kamal’s entire village. “We all lost our animals, foods, dishes and documents under the rubble of our houses,” Kamal explains. “The government told us not to go to our village due to the huge rocks still falling in landslides from the mountains around us.” So, Kamal’s entire village, made up of 44 families, must relocate and find shelter. They are restarting from scratch, a journey that will test their endurance and their faith. Pastor Kamal is asking for prayer that his community would be safely housed before the rainy season, and they would stay safe and healthy in their temporary homes. He also would like prayer for his congregation to grow spiritually through this trying time of journey and transition.

ServLife is currently building 44 long-term temporary homes for the occupants of Pastor Kamal’s village, racing against time to ensure they have shelter for the monsoon season. Each family will receive a corrugated steel shelter with a brick foundation and solar powered lighting. ServLife staff will be visiting Pastor Kamal’s community at the end of July, so stay tuned for an update on this project in August.

This relief work will make all the difference to those displaced by the earthquake. To contribute to similar projects please visit • servlife.org/earthquake/

Thank you,

Adam Nevins

From Adam Nevins
Executive Director
ServLife International Inc.

Join Our Mission

ServLife International propels reconciliation and justice by building global community to plant churches, care for children and fight poverty. Compelled by the message, life and love of Jesus Christ, we seek to care for the spiritual, physical, social, and economic areas of life in northern India and Nepal. Learn more about our latest news, featured stories, and how to get involved at servlife.org


Support a Pastor Our church planters spread the love of Christ in some of the most difficult environments in the world. • Support Them ...	Sponsor a Child For only $30 per month you can help give a child food, education, care and, most importantly, hope. • Sponsor Now ...	Fight Poverty The HOPE Fund, our micro-finance program, provides start-up funds for a small business, paving a way out of poverty for families in need. • Learn More ...

ServLife International, Inc.
P.O. Box 20596
Indianapolis, IN 46220
USA

From @FWMission ... Friday Story: "Two Wheelchairs for Two Sisters"

COMING THIS FALL ... double-down with Free Wheelchair Mission and 1st Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas. Turning 1 wheelchair into 2, then 4!
Details to come in the weeks ahead.

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: "Two Wheelchairs for Two Sisters"

Greetings, and Happy Friday!

I want to share with you a story of two sisters from Cameroon. Their lives and the lives of their family who supported them changed dramatically when they each received their very own wheelchair. But more than that, their understanding of God and their love for Him changed because of the simple gift of mobility ...

• read the rest of this story ...

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."

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE: On the need to cry; on the need to remember God’s past mercies; on the suitability of his Ransom trilogy, especially That Hideous Strength, for children; and on the kinds of snobbery. Lewis asks if he may dedicate The Magician’s Nephew to her friends.

22 February 1954

I am very sorry indeed to hear that anxieties again assail you. (By the way, don’t ‘weep inwardly’ and get a sore throat. If you must weep, weep: a good honest howl! I suspect we—and especially, my sex—don’t cry enough nowadays. Aeneas and Hector and Beowulf and Roland and Lancelot blubbered like school-girls, so why shouldn’t we?) You were wonderfully supported in your worries last time: I shall indeed pray that it may be so again.

Would the Kilmer family like to have the next story but one dedicated to them? Let me know: the site is still vacant.

I didn’t object to the family reading the trilogy on the ground that it would be too difficult—that would do no harm—but because in the last one there is so much evil, in a form not, I think, suitable for their age, and many specifically sexual problems which it would do them no good to think of at present. I daresay the Silent Planet is alright: Perelandra, little less so: T.H.S. most unsuitable.

I don’t think that an appreciation of ancient and noble blood is ‘snobbery’ at all. What is snobbery is a greedy desire to know those who have it, or a mean desire to flatter them, or a conceited desire to boast of their acquaintance. I think it quite legitimate to feel that such things give an added interest to a person who is nice on other grounds, just as a hotel which was nice on other grounds would have an added charm for me if it was also a building with ‘historic interest’.

I write in great haste—I can’t, like you, do it in working hours! But you’re nothing to [Charles] Lamb: as far as I can make out all his letters, which now fill two volumes, were written in the office. Happy days those.

Well I hope I shall have better news in your next. God bless you.

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

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: August 21, 2015

HONG KONG - Hong Kong takes pride in being a vibrant, cosmopolitan city where East meets West. With Chinese roots and a British colonial heritage, Hong Kong has preserved its cultural traditions while keeping abreast of the latest international trends. One issue that still demands attention is equality between women and men. Despite advances in overcoming discrimination, significant work still needs to be done to achieve gender justice. ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

ECPAT-USA: New PSA asks, "Does your hotel know?"

ECPAT USA is part of a global network of organizations and individuals working together for the elimination of child prostitution, child pornography and the trafficking of children for sexual purposes. It seeks to encourage the world community to ensure that children everywhere enjoy their fundamental rights free and secure from all forms of commercial sexual exploitation.

Does Your Hotel Know?

ECPAT-USA's new Public Service Announcement

"Does Your Hotel Know?"

calls on hotels and travelers to learn the signs of sex trafficking.

WATCH 'Does Your Hotel Know?'

Learn now what you can do as either a traveler

or as a hotel to combat sex trafficking.

http://www.ecpatusa.org/code

Stay connected and share our new PSA, and use the hashtag ... #doesyourhotelknow

For more information on this and other ECPAT USA efforts, please email us at info@ecpatusa.org

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

When [Digory] had come close up to [the gates] he saw words written on the gold with silver letters; something like this:

Come in by the gold gates or not at all,

Take of my fruit for others or forbear,

For those who steal or those who climb my wall

Shall find their heart’s desire and find despair.

“Take of my fruit for others,” said Digory to himself. “Well, that’s what I’m going to do. It means I mustn’t eat any myself, I suppose. . . .

He knew which was the right tree at once, partly because it stood in the very center and partly because the great silver apples with which it was loaded shone so and cast a light of their own down on the shadowy places where the sunlight did not reach. He walked straight across to it, picked an apple, and put it in the breast pocket of his Norfolk jacket. But he couldn’t help looking at it and smelling it before he put it away.

It would have been better if he had not. A terrible thirst and hunger came over him and a longing to taste that fruit. He put it hastily into his pocket; but there were plenty of others. Could it be wrong to taste one? After all, he thought, the notice on the gate might not have been exactly an order; it might have been only a piece of advice—and who cares about advice? Or even if it were an order, would he be disobeying it by eating an apple? He had already obeyed the part about taking one “for others.”

• From The Magician's Nephew
• Compiled in A Year with Aslan

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: August 20, 2015

CHINA - In order to tackle the serious problem of drug addiction in Baoshan City in Yunnan Province, the Baoshan Christian Council started a drug rehabilitation center in 2007. This highly successful program combines intensive Bible classes with physical exercise and vocational training to help addicts overcome drug abuse and start a new life ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

**WAW Wednesday: "Pictures worth a thousand - or MORE! - words"**

"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."

Pictures worth a thousand - or MORE! - words

Hi Friends ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: No words from Tim in this week's email ... just the following pictures ... but, WOW, what pictures! If any images gave proof to the old saying about 'one picture being worth a thousand words,' it's these! Over the past couple of years, I've posted about FPC-Midland's Belize Mission Team, and their contributions to building a church in the village of El Progresso ... well look at the roof they've added, literally topping off the efforts of our team, other teams around the southwestern United States, and the villagers of El Progresso!

... Blessings,

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!

FBR Report: "Baptism: New Life for a Karen in America"

COMING THIS FALL ... David Eubank, founder of the Free Burma Rangers, will be visiting 1st Presbyterian Church of Midland, Texas, in September, and giving us a first-hand
account of what's happening in Burma/Myanmar.
Details to come in the weeks ahead.

The Free Burma Rangers (FBR) is a multi-ethnic humanitarian service movement. They bring help, hope and love to people in the war zones of Burma (Myanmar). Ethnic pro-democracy groups send teams to be trained, supplied and sent into the areas under attack to provide emergency assistance and human rights documentation. Together with other groups, the teams work to serve people in need.

"Baptism: New Life for a Karen in America"
Distributed by Free Burma Rangers, August, 2015

Dear friends, family and team mates,

Thank you for all your love, prayers and support. We are in the US now speaking and sharing what we see God do in Burma, Sudan, Kurdistan, Iraq and in our lives. One story I would like to share is about the baptism of a Karen man, K’paw Htoo (Shining Gold), in Denver, Colorado. K’Paw Htoo is the first of his group of refugees to be baptized in the 1st Baptist Church of Denver, completing a full circle of missions started back in 1813.

1813 was when America’s first missionaries, Adronium and Ann Judson, sailed to Burma to share the love of Jesus. Their mission resulted in many people coming to the Lord and especially the Karen people. The Karen began a powerful church movement that evangelized much of Burma. Since that time wars and oppression have displaced millions of people; some of whom, like K’ Paw Htoo, have made their way to the U.S.

Now here we were in the church baptistery, K’Paw Htoo and I. The pastor who graciously allowed me to have a part in this service, Dr. Brian, asked K’Paw Htoo to declare his desire to be baptized and K’Paw Htoo affirmed his decision to follow Jesus. I conducted the baptism and felt a deep peace and satisfaction as we both walked up out of the baptistery. We were both happy.

After the service was over a woman asked if she could tell me something. “You may think I am crazy but I saw someone else in the baptistery with you two and He was shining.” “Was it Jesus?”, I asked. “Yes”, she said. “Wow! That is what I have wanted all my life. To be His servant, to have His presence and approval.” Jesus’ presence means He approves and is blessing the baptism. It meant to me that in spite of my weaknesses, sins, unanswered prayers, unhealed relationships and unfinished business, everything was ok. I felt a deep joy and peace as she told me what she saw and thanked God for this.

I want to share this story with you all as a witness that in spite of our failings and the failings of others toward us, Jesus is with us as we serve Him. We need to trust Him and put our trust with Him and love each other. People will let us down and we will let others down, but we all are people God made, and are not any better ones. We need to stick tighter, forgive each other and build each other up. Jesus is with us as we do this.

God bless you all,

Dave, family and FBR

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. There is, indeed, one exception. If you do him a good turn, not to please God and obey the law of charity, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, and to put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his ‘gratitude’, you will probably be disappointed. (People are not fools: they have a very quick eye for anything like showing off, or patronage.) But whenever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less.

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

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: August 19, 2015

INDONESIA (continued) - In January 2014, a major flood hit the city of Jakarta. One of the worst hit areas was less than a mile away from Jakarta Theological Seminary, along the Ciliwung River. On its banks is a Muslim neighborhood where seminary students and alums have long been working: teaching adults to read, tutoring elementary school students, and counseling teenagers in order to prevent drug abuse. They have built a mutually rewarding relationship with the residents, so when the floods hit, there was no question that the students and alums would come through for them again. ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

In the News ... "Life experiences shape ministry"

OA Photo by Mark Sterkel

• Pastor Thomason went from rowdy child, to young business success, to a preacher

By Bob Campbell, Reporter
Odessa American

ODESSA, TEXAS - The Rev. Johnny Thomason turned from rowdy behavior as a youth and then from business success as a young man to become a preacher.

The pastor of Life Change Baptist Church at 1003 N. Texas Ave., still doesn’t consider himself a natural speaker, countering his reticence with study and prayer and approaching the pulpit with a taut blend of humility and resolve ...

• read the rest of this OA report ...

C.S. Lewis Daily - Today's Reading

Presented by Bible Gateway

Today's Reading

TO HARVEY KARLSEN, who seems to have written Lewis about a habit of masturbation: On the remedies for sexual temptation—frequent and regular prayer and communions, monthly confession, avoiding discouragement, not exaggerating nor minimizing one’s sins, avoiding either trains of thought or social situations that lead to temptation, and applying the brakes, gently and quietly, while the danger is still a good way off.

13 October 1961

Your letter did not reach me till to-day. Of course I have had and still have plenty of temptations. Frequent and regular prayer, and frequent and regular Communions, are a great help, whether they feel at the time as if they were doing you good or whether they don’t. I also found great help in monthly confession to a wise old clergyman.

Perhaps, however, the most important thing is to keep on: not to be discouraged however often one yields to the temptation, but always to pick yourself up again and ask forgiveness. In reviewing your sins don’t either exaggerate them or minimise them. Call them by their ordinary names and try to see them as you would see the same faults in somebody else—no special blackening or whitewashing. Remember the condition on which we are promised forgiveness: we shall always be forgiven provided that we forgive all who sin against us. If we do that we have nothing to fear: if we don’t, all else will be in vain. Of course there are other helps which are more commonsense. We must learn by experience to avoid either trains of thought or social situations which for us (not necessarily for everyone) lead to temptations. Like motoring—don’t wait till the last moment before you put on the brakes but put them on, gently and quietly, while the danger is still a good way off. I would write at more length, but I am ill. God bless you.

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

Today in the PC-USA Mission Yearbook

Today in the Mission Yearbook: August 18, 2015

INDONESIA - W hat is it like to live in a country where everyone believes in God? In Indonesia, the national ideology proclaims “the Great Unity of Deity.” No one doubts that God exists, but everyone wonders how different religious groups, who some see as implacable enemies, can get along. Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population as well as 25 million Christians, and a renaissance of Islam is occurring alongside growth in the Christian church. In some places, this causes conflict and even violence ...

• CLICK HERE to read more.