HappyMama

Whenever I find myself getting too absorbed in my own little life, it certainly helps to read and pray about global issues.  I have heard about 2 small corners of the world lately that have been most inspiring.

First was the story of a Catholic priest named Zakaria Botros,who is regularly on Egyptian television explaining the teachings of Islam.  He deeply researches each topic, and after thoroughly explaining it to the audience, he invites Islamic spiritual leaders to call into the show and tell him if he is right or wrong.  What is interesting is that he picks embarrassing or little-known teachings of Islam, for example, an ancient teaching that women are required to breast-feed adult men if asked to do so.  (!)  And get this, the spiritual leaders admitted that this was indeed a teaching.  Father Botros ends his program by comparing these teachings to those found in the Bible, resulting in a huge surge of interest in Christianity by all reasonable listeners.  This priest will most certainly be martyred for his work, there is already a $5 million bounty on his head.  Yet he continues his successful work.

Secondly, I’ve read about the work of the Catholic church in the Ukraine, which survived decades of being underground under communism.  Finally, there is a Catholic University in the Ukraine.  It has been a huge leap of faith to start this school, because of the poverty of the people.  Because of outstanding leadership, it appears that the school is doing a lot of good work already.  You can read about it here. 

CNEWA is a charity that we like to support.  They publish a beautiful little magazine called One that explains social problems of the Middle East from a Christian perspective.