Last fall, I met a young man in San Antonio who was from a Christian village in Pakistan.  I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a Christian village in Pakistan. He said there almost aren’t.  Most Christians have left the country.  For those who remain, life is hard and treacherous.

Which is why I was so intrigued by a recent message I got from a Pakastani woman I’ll call Aarya:

“Please pray for my family because you know the circumstance in Pakistan about Christians. A few days ago the Muslim people is teasing and abusing my family, and they start to threaten us with their gun fires.”

Not an unusual occurrence, she said.  Except that her husband was in another village, so there was no one to protect her and her little ones.

“Some of the people they threw stones and bricks at our home.”

When her husband came home, he and Aarya went to the police, who promised to come to their house and take a report later. But it was the abusers who came back that night. After beating Aarya and her husband, the intruders said, “If you go to the police again, we will kill you!”

“They are very cruel people,” Aarya wrote.  “They killed many people. I am glad my husband could go to villages and preach, but I am very upset. My life is in danger and my husband too. We are waiting for help of the Lord to save us from the dangers.  Please, Sister, please pray for us. What will happen to us? What should we do?”

Oh, Aarya, how can I answer your questions? I do not know. But, my sister, I will pray.

Who will pray with me?

Slavery is not a problem for the history books.  It happens today, every day.  Around the world and right in our own communities.

I had the honor of leading a conference on Human Trafficking this past weekend along with Ruth Hill, past Director of National Awareness for Shared Hope. From my travels and writing, I talked about the problem worldwide.  From her expertise, Ruth showed us what we can do to help heal, but also to protect.

• Stories
• Pictures
• Experience
• Expertise
• A hands on training program with engaging activities

Are you interested in such a program for your church or group?  If so, let me know through the contact page and we’ll talk~

During Divali, the Indian festival of lights, my friend and I ventured out into the Calcutta night.  We weaved our way among the crowds of people singing and dancing.  Treats sizzled over open fires, and bursting firecrackers kept us jumping.  It wasn’t until the next morning that we heard about the explosion in a house not far from where we walked. Five children died and others were maimed.  They had been at work making firecrackers.

I“Why in the world would children be making fireworks?” we exclaimed.

How little we knew.

Hundreds of thousands of children as young as 5 or 6 toil in India, many of them performing dangerous work.  Besides making firecrackers for the endless festivals, they chop tobacco and make bidis—thin brown Indian cigarettes.  They work in rock quarries and in brick factories. They labor in pesticide-laced fields.

A 1986 law does bar children under 14 from working in hazardous industries.  Trouble is, a huge loophole in the law permits children to work at home with their families.

“These people are very poor,” a man explained to us.  “They can’t survive without their children’s work.”

But what of the children?

The man shrugged. “The government is discussing it,” he said.  

Nevermind that a company owner sits in the national Cabinet.

Just over a year ago last month, Shahbaz Bhatti was assassinated. As Pakistan’s Minister of Defense of Minorities, he was the only Christian member of that country’s government.  He was a man of great courage and faith who spread the truth of Christ and stood up for the rights of Christians in Pakistan. Despite death threats, he spoke out against Pakistan’s terrible blasphemy law that makes it a crime to say anything that can in any way be interrpreted as speaking against Islam, the Koran, or Muhammed.  The law is routinely used to persecute Christians.

Bhatti knew that by taking such actions he was signing his own death warrant. That’s why he never married. He felt it wouldn’t be fair to put a wife and children in such danger.

On March 2, 2011, he visited his mother. He was shot to death as he left. Al Qaeda and the Taliban both claimed responsibility.

Surely Jesus Christ met him with open arms and the words, “Well done my good and faithful servant!”

Easter Sunday was John Newton’s 264^th re-birthday.

On April 8, 1748, three agonizing months after a horrendous storm all but ripped apart the merchant ship Greyhound and swept all supplies overboard, the wrecked hulk drifted close to the shore off Lough Swilly, Ireland. When the good people of the village caught sight of it, they rowed their longboats out in search of survivors. There were only nine. One was John Newton.

But John was more than a survivor. Notorious as an obnoxious blaspheming troublemaker, the worst of the worst, he had encountered God’s Amazing Grace. John Newton was a new man.

From my acquaintance with John Newton. Yes, yes, I know he was born centuries before me. But I have been privileged to explore his story in depth for the two books I wrote on his life. And after so much research, after delving so deeply into his own writings, I feel as though he is a dear friend.

John Newton was a vile slave ship captain who became a hard-hitting evangelical preacher in the garb of an Anglican clergyman. He was also an unabashed and unstoppable abolitionist who passionately spoke and wrote from his own slave trading experience. In the end, he risked everything—his reputation, his wife’s emotional well-being, even his cherished right to preach—in order to bear witness to the slave trade horrors he knew to be true. He had been a part of it. Determined to help bring about laws that would stop the slave trade, he shocked England with the truth, and he helped to turn the nation’s heart against the African slave trade.

Today, most people know John Newton as the author of Amazing Grace. The words, sung to the soul-wrenching tune of an old slave song, are his testimony. They are the story of his life.

John Newton lived to see the first anti-slavery law passed inEngland in March of 1807. He died nine months later at the rich age of 83.

Happy re-birthday, John. I look forward to spending 800 years or so chatting with you in heaven.

Yay! For a limited time, you can get free downloads of both The Call of Zulina, book 1 of the Grace in Africa trilogy, and The Hope of Shridula, book 2 of the Blessings in India trilogy. Such a deal!

If you own a KINDLE or NOOK, you can download an EPUB version from: http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=928515&sp=110934

or from Amazon, The Hope of Shridula: www.amazon.com/Hope-Shridula-Blessings-India-Book/dp/1426709099

Oh, and if you get one of these, or if you have already read books in the two series and like them, I would love to have you write a review and post it on Christianbook.com, Amazon.com, and wherever else you would like.

 

The Call of Zulina

 

The Hope of Shridula

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV)

Fawzia is an Afghani woman, and an amazing one at that.  Not amazing because she lost her father, a brother, and her husband in the endless conflicts that afflict her country. That’s all too common.

Not even because as a newborn she was left outside to die. Many fathers and mothers in the area don’t want a girl. 

Partly, perhaps, she is amazing because of her endless determination. Baby Fawzia didn’t die, so her mother gathered her up and brought her back inside the house. Her father tolerated her, but she can recall only one time he ever spoke to her.  He told her to go away.

But here is the really amazing part: In 2001, after the fall of the Taliban, Fawzia Koofi began a political career by promoting the right of girls to get an education—her “Back to school” campaign.  Today she is a member of Afghanistan’s parliament.  In fact, in three years she hopes to run for president.  “If I am still alive,” she says.  “In Afghanistan, you never know.”

Want to know more about this amazing woman?  Check out her new book, The Favored Daughter.  

Say what??

Could it be true that this billboard was actually erected in a racially diverse neighborhood in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania?

I’m afraid it is true. Seems an atheist group put it up, supposedly to show how evil the Bible is.  Well, the display definitely does show evil, though the accusing finger seems to point right back at the perpetrators. At the angry insistence of many voices and several groups, the billboard was quickly pulled down.

But the whole episode begs the question:  How is it possible that our nation has become so horribly polarized?  And cruel?  And where will it end?  And what terrible episodes must we still endure before then?

God, forgive us.

I have been so, so encouraged by all the comments I’ve received about the Grace in Africa trilogy, and now the newly releasing Blessings in India books. Thank you everyone!

All this week, you will find free Amazon Kindle downloads on a couple of the books:

• The Call of Zulina, book 1 of the Grace in Africa series, will be available for FREE download Monday the 19^th through Wednesday the 21^st.
• The Faith of Ashish, book 1 of the Blessings inIndia series, will be available for FREE download March 22 and 23.

If you haven’t read them, please… help yourself on those days.

If you have read them, you might consider urging your friends to get them as well. Or perhaps your book club. Both of the books have discussion questions in the back.

If you like the books, I’d love to have you write a review for Amazon or CBD or Barnes and Noble.

Thanks so much!

The Call of Zulina