In the country's most secular state, tiny congregations have made a big impact by their disaster response.For weeks, Tárik Rodriguez had been working on bringing a guest preacher and worship leader from across the country to help his church celebrate its third anniversary. In 2021, Rodriguez and a small team launched Viela da Graça Igreja in Novo Hamburgo, a small city in Brazil’s most southern province, Rio Grande do Sul.Then, it started raining.The floods have done more than interrupt the small Reformed congregation’s celebratory plans. They’ve devastated the community. The storms that began at the end of April struck Rio Grande do Sul’s most densely populated areas and have killed at least 116 people. Around 130 people are still missing. The high water has closed roads and even the airport, which has grounded flights until May 30. As of Friday, May 10, nearly 400,000 people have been displaced from their homes and 70,772 are in public shelters.Some of those have found their way to Viela da Graça, which is located on higher ground and has been largely protected from a water breach. Since May 4, Rodriguez and members of the 75-person congregation have been hosting around 50 people in a two-bathroom, 3,500-square-foot building.“As Christians, we needed to open our doors,” Rodriguez says. “And that’s what we did.”Beyond the bathroom constraints, the situation has been less than ideal. There are frequent power cuts (1.2 million people have been affected by outages) and the building has lost access to both running and potable water because the sanitation company cannot treat the dirty floodwaters. A nearby residential condominium, which gets its water from a well, has provided drinking water and showers.Continue reading...

One of the founding leaders of Victory megachurch, he never stopped running to share the gospel.Ferdinand “Ferdie” Cabiling, a bishop at one of the Philippines’ largest megachurches who ran across the Philippines to raise money for disadvantaged students, died April 1, the day after Easter. He was 58 years old.Dubbed “the Running Pastor,” the moniker describes not only Cabiling’s epic race but how he lived his life and served as an evangelist. For 38 years, he was a vocational minister of Victory Christian Fellowship of the Philippines, which has nearly 150 locations in the country. The branch he led, Victory Metro Manila, averaged more than 75,000 people each Sunday. [Note: The author is a member of Victory Church and was a part of the late pastor's small group in 2014.]In the past two years, his focus was on teaching evangelism to Victory leaders. Every time he received a teaching invitation, his answer was always yes, said his assistant, Faye Bonifacio.“He was a maximizer,” Bonifacio said, noting that Cabiling developed a habit of taking short naps while parked at a gas station between long drives. “Because he liked to drive, he did a lot in a day.”Hours before his death, Cabiling had visited a church member at a hospital an hour away from his hometown of Cuyapo before parking his car at a gas station, likely for a break before heading to his next destination. It was there that an attendant found his lifeless body and rushed him to the hospital he had just visited. Cabiling had died of a heart attack.“He was a serious man of passion, action, and conviction,” wrote Steve Murrell, the founding pastor of Victory, the flagship church for the charismatic-leaning Every Nation Churches and Ministries, which has churches and campus ministries in ...Continue reading...

Two young women were slightly wounded when a mob of Muslims on Sunday assaulted a group of 15 students engaged in a Catholic ritual prayer at a rented house in Banten Province, on the Indonesian island of Java, sources said.

In the country's most secular state, tiny congregations have made a big impact by their disaster response.For weeks, Tárik Rodriguez had been working on bringing a guest preacher and worship leader from across the country to help his church celebrate its third anniversary. In 2021, Rodriguez and a small team launched Viela da Graça Igreja in Novo Hamburgo, a small city in Brazil’s most southern province, Rio Grande do Sul.Then, it started raining.The floods have done more than interrupt the small Reformed congregation’s celebratory plans. They’ve devastated the community. The storms that began at the end of April struck Rio Grande do Sul’s most densely populated areas and have killed at least 116 people. Around 130 people are still missing. The high water has closed roads and even the airport, which has grounded flights until May 30. As of Friday, May 10, nearly 400,000 people have been displaced from their homes and 70,772 are in public shelters.Some of those have found their way to Viela da Graça, which is located on higher ground and has been largely protected from a water breach. Since May 4, Rodriguez and members of the 75-person congregation have been hosting around 50 people in a two-bathroom, 3,500-square-foot building.“As Christians, we needed to open our doors,” Rodriguez says. “And that’s what we did.”Beyond the bathroom constraints, the situation has been less than ideal. There are frequent power cuts (1.2 million people have been affected by outages) and the building has lost access to both running and potable water because the sanitation company cannot treat the dirty floodwaters. A nearby residential condominium, which gets its water from a well, has provided drinking water and showers.Continue reading...

John Sanqiang Cao shares how hand-copied Bible verses, prayers, and a mother's love buoyed him during his imprisonment.When pastor John Sanqiang Cao, 64, crossed the border back into China from Myanmar’s Wa State on March 5, 2017, Chinese officials were waiting to arrest him. For years, he had traveled across the porous border from Yunnan Province to the impoverished Wa State, where he founded more than 20 schools, established drug rehabilitation centers, and provided medicine, books, school supplies, and Bibles to locals. Wa State is part of the notorious “Golden Triangle,” one of the world’s largest producers of methamphetamine. Yet the courts in Yunnan sentenced Cao to seven years in prison for allegedly “organizing illegal border crossings,” a crime usually applied to human traffickers. His case garnered widespread attention as Cao’s wife and two sons are US citizens, and Cao has permanent residency in the US. While he could have applied for US citizenship, Cao decided to keep his Chinese passport so that he could return to China for ministry work. He split his time between pastoring a Chinese church in North Carolina and training Chinese house church leaders and mobilizing them to do missions.Various international religious freedom groups and US lawmakers have long advocated for his release. In 2019, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Cao was targeted due to his Christian faith.Chinese authorities released Cao on March 5 after he finished serving his sentence. Four police officers escorted him to his hometown of Changsha, where he is now subjected to supervision and “thought reform” by the local government for five years.CT spoke with Cao about his time in prison, the Bible verses that sustained him, his views on persecution, how it feels to be released to ...Continue reading...

Drake and Kendrick Lamar's rivalry reveals our craving for controversy—and what's lost when community is based on shared hatred, not love.This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here.Not since Tupac died have we seen the country quite as fixated on a feud between rappers. Over the past several weeks, artists Drake and Kendrick Lamar kept the news cycle abuzz with their dueling diss tracks—ridiculing each other in trivial matters of height and weight and popularity before getting nastier with implications of secret love children and the possible grooming of minors.As the lyrics amped up, police even investigated whether the argument was related to a shooting of a security guard outside Drake’s home in Toronto. For most people, though, the feud didn’t seem dangerous; it just seemed fun. And that’s what worries me.I am far from qualified to judge who the better artist is between Drake and Lamar. My dogs were named Waylon and Willie, but, come to think of it, the Outlaws wrote a diss track or two themselves. Even so, if this were just a story about musicians’ egos battling, it could be quickly forgotten. The greater concern is not that these two artists have diss tracks, but that we are all living in one ourselves.Drake and Lamar obviously do have some genuine dislike of each other. I share sarcastic barbs with a good friend sometimes, but I’ve never accused him of being a pedophile or of neglecting his child support. And yet, it also seems that much of this feud is theatrical—meant to mutually benefit them both.After all, the question in the music industry press right now is not whether restraining orders will be sought but whose tracks are beating whose on the charts. The truth is, no matter who is “winning” or “losing” in that competition, both are winning. People ...Continue reading...

Aaron Renn outlines individual, institutional, and missional strategies for adapting to a hostile culture.Rarely does an essay cause such a stir as Aaron Renn’s “The Three Worlds of Evangelicalism.” Published in First Things in 2022, Renn’s framework for describing Christianity’s fall into cultural disfavor since the 1960s elicited a wide range of responses, from wholehearted agreement to sympathetic skepticism to vociferous disagreement, and seemingly everything in between.Renn’s essay categorizes the recent history of evangelicalism in the United States into three periods, or worlds. In the positive world, Christianity was in a position of cultural dominance; most Americans, even those who were not particularly religious, recognized the importance of Christianity to the country’s collective moral fabric. In the neutral world, the broader culture came to see Christianity not as uniquely good, but still as a belief system and worldview doing more good than harm.Since the early 2010s—the dates themselves, Renn admits, are not binding—evangelicalism has been in the negative world. Here, culture and its elites are inherently suspicious of evangelical Christianity, especially when it challenges or conflicts with emerging, more attractive ideologies. Christians in the negative world, according to Renn, will encounter resistance to previously acceptable beliefs and behaviors. This resistance could take many forms, from simple yet pronounced disagreement all the way to the dreaded C-word: cancellation.Less than two years after his essay, Renn’s book, Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture, updates and elaborates on his framework and provides tangible resources for Christians concerned about this cultural transformation. Renn’s ...Continue reading...

A dozen states could vote on the issue come November. Rosie Villegas-Smith was spending a Saturday handing out flyers with volunteers from Voces Unidas, a pro-life nonprofit, when she noticed a group gathering signatures.The woman who approached her never mentioned the word abortion, only referring to women’s rights, but she quickly realized what they were campaigning for: a ballot measure on expanding abortion access in Arizona in the November elections.The southwestern state is one of up to a dozen across the country that will vote on abortion later this year, part of the continued reshaping of the legal landscape following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.Arizona’s measure would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution, overriding its current 15-week ban and allowing the procedure at any point in a pregnancy if a health care provider determines it is necessary to protect either the life or the physical and mental health of the mother.The state has been in a back-and-forth over abortion policies for weeks, with pro-life groups ramping up efforts to reach out to women who may be considering abortions and to voters who may consider supporting expanding abortion access.Last month, Arizona’s top court ruled that an 1864 law prohibiting abortion could go into effect as a result of the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The controversial ruling came under fire nationally; even former president Donald Trump and other high-profile Republicans suggested it went too far. Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the law as putting women in a “state of chaos and cruelty caused by Donald Trump.”A legislative repeal narrowly passed the state Senate 16–14 after two Republicans crossed the aisle to side with Democrats. ...Continue reading...

? Temple Baptist Church - 5-8-2024John 14:15-19; 15:26-16:7? Introduction:? John 14:15-19 If ye love me, keep my commandments. (16) And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (17) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.? John 15:26-27 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: (27) And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.? John 16:1-7 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. (2) They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. (3) And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. (4) But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you. (5) But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither goest thou? (6) But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. (7) Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.? A. As we continue to look at the prophecy of? Christ's work on earth ending, it has caused great consternation to His disciples.? 1. The Lord has said that He is going away and they cannot go with Him but promises that they can come to where He is later.? John 13:36 Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards.? 2. The Lord has foretold that His disciples will be hated for His name's sake as they hated Him first.? John 15:18-20 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. (19) If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. (20) Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.? 3. The Lord has foretold that His disciples will be persecuted and put out of the synagogues and ultimately will die for the cause of Christ.? John 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.? 4. Sorrow has “filled” their hearts. “Filled:” A sorrow that consumed them at this time.? John 16:6 But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.? B. The Lord is now telling His disciples that it is “expedient” that He go away.? 1. “Expedient” – a means of attaining an end. Something good and profitable. In their best interest! Oft times, troubles, and trials in the child of God's life are expedient. They are necessary in the short term to bring about something good in the long run.? 1 Peter 1:6-7 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: (7) That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:? 2. They did not understand now but, when the fulness of the Person of the Holy Ghost will come, they will realize the expedience of Christ's going away.? C. Why expedient?? 1. Because the price for sin had to be paid, the resurrection of the dead had to be accomplished, and the two ascensions had to occur. The first ascension to place the blood of Christ upon the Mercy Seat in heaven and the second ascension so as to produce our High Priest, Advocate, and Mediator.? 2. Because God dwelling with man was not sufficient as God dwelling in each man individually. Christ in the flesh was limited because He became flesh and flesh cannot be everywhere at one. The Holy Spirit of God could indwell each individual man.? 3. Because of the empowering of each believer to bring about boldness in witness.? D. I do not want to preach a series on Pneumatology, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but do want to do justice to what is said in these verses. In verse 7, we find that the Lord will send the “Comforter” to them. “Comforter” –? παράκλητος? paraklētos? par-ak'-lay-tos? – Summoned or called to one's side, especially called to one's aid. An intercessor, succorer, assistant.? 1. The Promise of the Comforter.? John 14:16-19 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; (17) Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.? a. Verse 16. The Promise of His Coming. “I will pray the Father, and He shall give”? b. Verse 16. The Promise of His Comforting. “Another Comforter” To take the place that Christ had before His death, burial, and resurrection.? c. Verse 16. The Promise of His Continuing. “abide with you for ever” He will never leave nor forsake the child of God. “I have Somebody with me, to bear my heavy load!”? d. Verse 17. The Promise of His Counsel. “The Spirit of truth”? e. Verse 17. The Predicament of His Presence. “whom the world cannot receive”? f. John 15:26. The Purpose of His Work. “He shall testify of me” A lot of religionists speak much of the work of the Holy Ghost, but the work is not His entire purpose. The Holy Spirit, in His Person, and the Holy Ghost, in His Word, ALWAYS POINT THE BELIEVER TO CHRIST AND NOT TO HIMSELF!? 2. The Person of the Comforter. He is God! At this point, I want to look at a theological statement that shows the Equality of God the Holy Spirit..? “God is one God, manifesting Himself in three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. These Three are all co-equal in all power and attributes.”? a. He is One with God. “God is one God, manifesting Himself in three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.”? b. God is one God! “One God” shows the absolute truth of the unity of the Godhead or Trinity. The word “Trinity,” like the word “Rapture,” is not found in your Bible but the truth of the Trinity is all through your Bible.? 1) The word “Godhead” is used three times in the Bible with the number three speaking of perfect unity. “Godhead” speaks of divinity and comes from a root word meaning “perpetual.” The word “perpetual” means unending or continuing forever.? Acts 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the? Godhead? is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.? Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and? Godhead; so that they are without excuse:? Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the? Godhead? bodily.? 2) In the Old Testament, we find the unity of God established. the First Mention of God is found in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God” with the word “God” being plural. This Hebrew name for the Trinity was used in the plural form:? 'ĕlôhı̂ym? el-o-heem'? 3) In Genesis 1:26 and 11:7, we fine the? phrase? “let us”? used when speaking of the Godhead or Trinity.? 4) In the New Testament, we find the three-fold work of the Godhead? separated? and explained.? 1a)? God the Father sent? His Son to die for the? sin of the world;? 2a) God the Son gave His life for the payment of the sins of the whole world;? 3a) God the Father sent? the Comforter (Holy Spirit)? to indwell and teach the believer.? c. In the New Testament, we find the separation of offices.? 1) As the United states has three branches of government, the Godhead has three Persons with distinct works.? 2) The Holy Spirit has every attribute (Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Omnipresence) of God the Father and God the Son making Him also Almighty God.? 3) “These Three are all co-equal in all power and attributes.”? 3. The Purpose of the Comforter.? a. He was to be their Comforter! I thank God every day for the amazing grace that He has extended to us in salvation and given to us in our earthly sorrows. My beloved sister, Sharon, who has cancer has been one of the greatest examples of God's grace that I have ever seen. We love and may miss her for a little while here but will spend eternity with her there. We then comfort others with the comfort that we have comforted of God.? 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. (5) For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.? b. He was to be their Teacher. “Spirit of Truth.”? 1) The world cannot discern the Truth of the Word of God.? John 14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.? 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (13) Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (14) But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.? 2) The Believer can know the Truth of the Word of God.? John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

A faith-based film has made it into the Netflix Global Top 10, prompting one of its producers to proclaim that “God is not finished” with the movie even though it was released nearly two years ago.?

Country rap musician Colt Ford, whose real name is Jason Farris Brown, has given credit to God for his survival, saying he died two times following a heart attack last month.?

By Julian Rose Just under the surface of daily life two starkly opposing forces are at work:? ‘the will for life' and ‘the will for...Madkind-v-Mankind — A Race Against Time

By Julian Rose Just under the surface of daily life two starkly opposing forces are at work:? ‘the will for life' and ‘the will for...Madkind-v-Mankind — A Race Against Time

By Julian Rose Just under the surface of daily life two starkly opposing forces are at work:? ‘the will for life' and ‘the will for...Madkind-v-Mankind — A Race Against Time

The United Methodist Church General Conference voted to drop a ban on funding LGBT advocacy groups and removed a required punishment for pastors who officiate gay weddings after thousands of theologically conservative congregations left the mainline Protestant denomination in the last two years.?

By Julian Rose Just under the surface of daily life two starkly opposing forces are at work:? ‘the will for life' and ‘the will for...Madkind-v-Mankind — A Race Against Time

By Neenah Payne Dr. David Martin was featured in Plandemic I — the most-watched film in history. In the two-part video below, Dr. Martin says...Who Pulled Off The COVID Plandemic?

A dozen states could vote on the issue come November. Rosie Villegas-Smith was spending a Saturday handing out flyers with volunteers from Voces Unidas, a pro-life nonprofit, when she noticed a group gathering signatures.The woman who approached her never mentioned the word abortion, only referring to women’s rights, but she quickly realized what they were campaigning for: a ballot measure on expanding abortion access in Arizona in the November elections.The southwestern state is one of up to a dozen across the country who will vote on abortion later this year, part of the continued reshaping of the legal landscape following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.Arizona’s measure would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution, overriding its current 15-week ban and allowing the procedure at any point in a pregnancy if a health care provider determines it is necessary to protect either the life or the physical and mental health of the mother.The state has been in a back-and-forth over abortion policies for weeks, with pro-life groups ramping up efforts to reach out to women who may be considering abortions and to voters who may consider supporting expanding abortion access.Last month, Arizona’s top court ruled that an 1864 law prohibiting abortion could go into effect as a result of the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The controversial ruling came under fire nationally; even former president Donald Trump and other high-profile Republicans suggested it went too far. Vice President Kamala Harris slammed the law as putting women in a “state of chaos and cruelty caused by Donald Trump.”A legislative repeal narrowly passed the state Senate 16–14 after two Republicans crossed the aisle to side with Democrats. ...Continue reading...

One of the founding leaders of Victory megachurch, he never stopped running to share the gospel.Ferdinand “Ferdie” Cabiling, a bishop at one of the Philippines’ largest megachurches who ran across the Philippines to raise money for disadvantaged students, died April 1, the day after Easter. He was 58 years old.Dubbed “the Running Pastor,” the moniker describes not only Cabiling’s epic race but how he lived his life and served as an evangelist. For 38 years, he was a vocational minister of Victory Christian Fellowship of the Philippines, which has nearly 150 locations in the country. The branch he led, Victory Metro Manila, averaged more than 75,000 people each Sunday.In the past two years, his focus was on teaching evangelism to Victory leaders. Every time he received a teaching invitation, his answer was always yes, said his assistant, Faye Bonifacio.“He was a maximizer,” Bonifacio said, noting that Cabiling developed a habit of taking short naps while parked at a gas station between long drives. “Because he liked to drive, he did a lot in a day.”Hours before his death, Cabiling had visited a church member at a hospital an hour away from his hometown of Cuyapo before parking his car at a gas station, likely for a break before heading to his next destination. It was there that an attendant found his lifeless body and rushed him to the hospital he had just visited. Cabiling had died of a heart attack.“He was a serious man of passion, action, and conviction,” wrote Steve Murrell, the founding pastor of Victory, the flagship church for the charismatic-leaning Every Nation Churches and Ministries, which has churches and campus ministries in 82 countries, in an Instagram post. “For 40 years, he was a part of every major decision made by Victory ...Continue reading...

Amid the continued declines, Southern Baptists are celebrating back-to-back years of growth in worship attendance and baptism.Despite years of record-setting declines shrinking the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to its lowest membership in nearly half a century, Southern Baptists have begun to see some signs of life within their 46,906 churches.Worship attendance, small group attendance, and baptisms were up last year in the SBC’s annual statistical report, released Tuesday, while membership fell below 13 million.2023 marks 17 straight years of decline for the country’s biggest Protestant denomination. It’s down 3.3 million from its peak, with the steepest drops coming during the pandemic. The SBC lost 1.3 million members between 2020 and 2022 alone.Beyond COVID-19 disruptions, Southern Baptists have recently confronted some contentious issues within their convention, responding to sexual abuse and clamping down on female preachers, which have led some congregations to leave the SBC (including prominent megachurch Saddleback Church).But statistics indicate that church departures aren’t a significant driver of membership decline; the SBC was down 292 churches last year, just 0.63 percent of its total.In 2023, membership fell by 241,000, its smallest decrease since 2018. Yet attendance at SBC churches increased 6.5 percent, reaching above 4 million a week for the first time since the pandemic.Attendance at small groups and Bible studies ticked up 4 percent to 2.4 million.With fewer Americans than ever attending church and religious disaffiliation on the rise, leaders see even small increases in engagement and discipleship as worth celebrating.It’s the first time in over a decade that SBC worship attendance has grown two years in a row, though it still lags behind pre-pandemic numbers. Back in ...Continue reading...

Indonesia's Compassion First isn't knocking down doors, but caring for victims and tutoring at-risk youth living in cemeteries.Inside a cemetery in West Java, a woman rests on a mattress laid on top of a gravestone beneath the oak trees. The graveyard is home not only to the dead but to the living poor, who have nowhere else to go.Residents of the Rose Cemetery community collect garbage, drive pedicabs, or clean graves by day. In the northern section of the cemetery, about 200 families live in brick and tin buildings lining a ditch filled with trash and milky sewage water. At night, many women resort to prostitution to provide for their families. Their daughters are often sold—or kidnapped—into the sex trade. (CT changed the names of the cemeteries and only used the first names of its residents for security reasons.)Compassion First (CF) offered tutoring, parenting classes, and cooking classes for the community on a blue covered porch in the cemetery complex. Recently they moved to a new community center nearby. CF focuses on fighting sex trafficking in Indonesia, and here at the cemetery, that means community development among families vulnerable to exploitation.Susi and Mala, two mothers who have lived in the community their whole lives, noted that neighbors rarely knew one another in the past. CF arrived during the COVID-19 pandemic—initially to provide food for the community and scholarships to the children. Since then, the neighborhood has become much more close-knit and better resourced. For young girls, this could make the difference between whether they are trafficked or not.Susi learned from the cooking class how to make seblak (a spicy dish made of wet crackers and meat or seafood, smothered in sambal chili paste) and now sells it to supplement her income. Mala learned about the five love languages in the parenting class ...Continue reading...

Amid the continued declines, Southern Baptists are celebrating back-to-back years of growth in worship attendance and baptism.Despite years of record-setting declines shrinking the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) to its lowest membership in nearly half a century, Southern Baptists have begun to see some signs of life within their 46,906 churches.Worship attendance, small group attendance, and baptisms were up last year in the SBC’s annual statistical report, released Tuesday, while membership fell below 13 million.2023 marks 17 straight years of decline for the country’s biggest Protestant denomination. It’s down 3.3 million from its peak, with the steepest drops coming during the pandemic. The SBC lost 1.3 million members between 2020 and 2022 alone.Beyond COVID-19 disruptions, Southern Baptists have recently confronted some contentious issues within their convention, responding to sexual abuse and clamping down on female preachers, which have led some congregations to leave the SBC (including prominent megachurch Saddleback Church).But statistics indicate that church departures aren’t a significant driver of membership decline; the SBC was down 292 churches last year, just 0.63 percent of its total.In 2023, membership fell by 241,000, its smallest decrease since 2018. Yet attendance at SBC churches increased 6.5 percent, reaching above 4 million a week for the first time since the pandemic.Attendance at small groups and Bible studies ticked up 4 percent to 2.4 million.With fewer Americans than ever attending church and religious disaffiliation on the rise, leaders see even small increases in engagement and discipleship as worth celebrating.It’s the first time in over a decade that SBC worship attendance has grown two years in a row, though it still lags behind pre-pandemic numbers. Back in ...Continue reading...

By Julian Rose Just under the surface of daily life two starkly opposing forces are at work:? ‘the will for life' and ‘the will for...Madkind-v-Mankind — A Race Against Time

A former girl's basketball coach for a Christian high school in Ohio? died by suspected suicide last week as he faced accusations that he had sex with two female students on his team.?