Doing Short Term Missions Well, Part 1
Few things can breathe life into a church and help believers rediscover their purpose quite like doing ministry in cross-cultural settings. On mission trips, life is so different that we can’t take anything for granted and serving others in the name of Jesus there changes us. Something about having our routines and expectations shaken by being in a place we don’t understand, and cannot manage well, opens up a path for God to grab ahold of us and us to grasp him back in fresh ways. Being useful to God among people who don’t look like they can do anything for us does much for us and we come away with the greater blessing. However, sometimes getting the benefits that come from going on mission becomes the goal instead of the serendipity and we become a burden on those who provide us access to other countries and settings.
Michael Jensen asks: Is Chastity Possible?
It is the grace of God that is the key to sexual purity in and out of marriage, just as it is the key to all discipleship. God’s grace means his undeserved favour to us in Jesus Christ. We have from him forgiveness of sins—including our sexual sin—and healing of our broken selves. We learn from God’s mercy to say “no”, and to truly wait: not for our knight in shining armour or for our princess from the palace, but for the return of Jesus, our blessed hope. We have the promise of God to which our lives are to point.
Confessions of a US drone operator: ‘I watched him die. It took a long time’
Confessions of a Drone Warrior
Bryant said he became numb to the remote-controlled killing as he operated from a padded cockpit chair, wearing a green flight suit while never taking off.
He said his life has been plagued by drinking and depression since leaving the air force. But to the scorn of some former colleagues, he said he wanted to speak out about his experiences to show that the role of drone operators in war is “more than just a video game”.
By the spring of 2011, almost six years after he’d signed on, Senior Airman Brandon Bryant left the Air Force, turning down a $109,000 bonus to keep flying. He was presented with a sort of scorecard covering his squadron’s missions. “They gave me a list of achievements,” he says. “Enemies killed, enemies captured, high-value targets killed or captured, stuff like that.” He called it his diploma. He hadn’t lased the target or pulled the trigger on all of the deaths tallied, but by flying in the missions he felt he had enabled them. “The number,” he says, “made me sick to my stomach.”
Total enemies killed in action: 1,626.
Luker is bullish about the rise of MLS, given that 7.2 percent of Americans describe themselves as fans of the league. “That is 25 million people, of whom MLS can only currently account for about 5 million, a fifth of their potential audience,” he said. “If the league gets its marketing right, there will be massive growth.” Luker reinforces this bold claim by revealing a remarkable 50 percent of those who declare any interest in soccer ask to know more about the MLS when three percent is considered a positive response rate in the consumer product industry. “MLS’s problem is they only have 19 teams and no regular national television presence,” Luker said. “Right now, you are not going to bump into their product but they are working hard to change that.”
Chicken Decoy Helps Police Nail 31 Drivers In Lake Elsinore
Lake Elsinore motor officers monitored crosswalks as the decoy walked through, explained the department’s Sgt. Peter Giannakakos.
In total, officers ended up citing 31 drivers for failing to give way to a pedestrian in a crosswalk as well as one citation for speeding, the sergeant reported.