Reaching the Muslim...

Hope you had a great Christmas! I have a new growing interest and a growing concern which I believe the Spirit of God is building inside of me...

My growing interest...? Muslims. Reaching muslims with the gospel of Jesus. I've been reading quite a bit lately about ministry in predominantly Muslim settings. Some say there are 1.2 billion muslims in the world; Wikipedia says 1.8 billion (just less than the amount of Christians).

My growing concern...? Should there be more of us reaching the muslims? Specifically, what is The Salvation Army doing to reach the muslims? What can we be doing to reach the muslims? The Salvos are in 113 countries, and without doing the research, do many of the other 'untapped' countries have mainly muslims living there?

Revolution Earth is not just about Western Civilization. It is not just about sharing a gospel which ties in a heap of western culture, which may or may not relate necessarily to the foundational commands of the Word of God, e.g. clothing, how we position ourselves when we pray, our buildings, etc. Muslims have a particular culture which has developed since the 7th century days of Mohammad and which we need to learn to not be afraid of but to learn, so as to communicate the message of Jesus is an uncompromising but contextually relevant way.

Since entering college at the beginning of 2007, the Lord has grown in me a greater appreciation and burden for the wider Salvation Army, and Universal Church. Only recently are my eyes being opened to the potential that The Salvation Army has in ministering to muslim communities and witnessing the growth of the Kingdom in these settings.

Stay tuned for more interesting bit-sized blogs on reaching muslims for Jesus.

It's time for a Revolution. Are you ready?

* Our prayers go out to Pakistan at this time, with the murder of Benazir Bhutto and the political and social unrest in this country.
* Our prayers go out to the survivors of the 2004 Tsunami disaster in South East Asia, for the rebuilding of lives, communities and the traigc memories of the past.

Merry Christmas!

Well, it's Christmas time... Hope you enjoy the moments with family and friends. As the well known cliche' goes: Jesus is the reason for the season.

I'm on holidays for the next month. So don't expect a heap of blogs during this time. Have a great Christmas, and a fruitful and blessed New Year.

A Big Weekend

Saturday morning: Collected for Carlton Corps in Lygon St., and Jo and I collected $696 in 2.5 hours. Praise God.

Satuday afternoon: My sister-in-law Lisa had an engagement party with her fiance Scott (from Scotland). We're praying for an awesome marriage and heaps of blessed years together serving the Lord!

Sunday morning: An 'In-Sunday' at the Training College, where we joined together with the kids and sang carols, read from Luke 2 (Jesus' birth!), Mjr. Greg Morgan preached on our 'Unfinished business', there's still salvation to be sought after by people, and we still need to work for peace.

Sunday early afternoon: My parents got back from America, and so we cuddled and cried and spent quality time together. My sister baptised her baby 'Ella' at an Anglican Church in Williamstown... I pray that my niece will grow up and choose to follow Jesus when she's older. What an opportunity sometimes we have to share about Jesus and pray for our families.

Sunday night: A Carols night at Wyndham City Salvos. 150 people, lots of carols, a unicycle, sausauges, magic tricks, a drama, a DVD clip about Christmas, a message, and lots of connections with the community.

The message of Christmas is Revolutionary. God came to earth as a human in the form of Jesus and lived to set people free...

It's time for a Revolution. Are you ready?