Sudan Threatens Soft Drink Industry If Sanctions Imposed

Corrected Version

In former days, men such as William Carey went without cane sugar because the product benefitted the slave trade.

Today, the world soft drink industry enriches the Sudanese goverment through sales of gum arabic, a key ingredient in the mix.

As a result the Sudanese government threatened to hold drinkers of Coca Cola hostage if sanctions are imposed. (In reality there is no substance to the claim that Coca Cola will suffer according to the article I've linked to, but Pepsi declined to comment!)

How odd that our appetites for soft drinks and oil enrich those who hate the West so much!

I doubt that those who are so passionate about Darfur care enough to stop drinking soft drinks voluntarily to cripple the Sudanese regime if it could be shown to have an impact.

We're all outrage but no action...Our consciences are crippled by our appetites and we have no will to chage. Isn't that the definition of an "addict" when applied to an individual? If so, we have become the "Addict Culture".

On another note, I wonder how many who are so outraged about "Darfur" and "Tibet" and want something to be "done" are also against the "War in Iraq"?

And if not war... what is to be "done"? We can't even stop drinking soft drinks when the sodium benzoate is linked to Parkinson's, premature aging, and liver damage! We want "someone" to take "decisive action" without any personal cost to ourselves or any interruption in our conveniences.

We have no common worldview and as a result can arrive at no common moral consensus.

Rest in the Peace of Christ: German Missionary Martyr Tilmann Geske

This link describes the funeral and life of martyred German Missionary Tilmann Geske. Two other local Christians converts were killed as well in the name of "protecting" Islam according to their attackers.

Susanne and Tilmann Geske met at a church in Lindau, Germany, when he was working mornings as a pastor at a Protestant church and afternoons as a forklift operator, and she was looking for a job. They first came to Turkey in 1992 on their honeymoon.

The next year they returned, spending three weeks in Turkey's undeveloped east, the setting for fighting between Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish government forces. The Geskes were undeterred, and a few years later decided to settle permanently in Adana, near the Mediterranean coast. They learned to speak Turkish and raised their two girls and a boy there: Michal Janina, 13, Lukas, 10 and Miriam, 8.

A letter to Christians around the world was released from the Protestant Church of Smyrna.

Though the whole letter deserves your attention, I end with this quote:

In an act that hit front pages in the largest newspapers in Turkey, Susanne Tilman in a television interview expressed her forgiveness. She did not want revenge, she told reporters. "Oh God, forgive them for they know not what they do," she said, wholeheartedly agreeing with the words of Christ on Calvary (Luke 23:34).

In a country where blood-for-blood revenge is as normal as breathing, many many reports have come to the attention of the church of how this comment of Susanne Tilman has changed lives. One columnist wrote of her comment, "She said in one sentence what 1000 missionaries in 1000 years could never do."

The 5 murderers surrendered at the scene and are in custody.

Comfortable Christianity Depresses Me - Baroness Cox

The TimesOnline (UK) writes about Baroness Cox's work articulating the plight of the world's persecuted Christians. Her latest book is Cox’s Book of Modern Saints and Martyrs. They write:

It is not an easy read. We hear of walking 12 miles of scorched earth littered with corpses of women and children in Sudan; of beheaded teenage girls in Indonesia; and religious persecution in the shape of rape, torture and murder elsewhere.

But we also hear the story of 15,000 people fleeing violence in East Timor, who are fed for a week from one bag of rice by Sister Maria Lourdes; and remarkable instances of courage, such as when Lady Cox sat beside the Rev Rinaldy Damanik in an Indonesian court and heard him choose the scaffold over renouncing his faith (he was later released after serving a prison sentence, during which time he handed out to injured Muslim inmates plasters that contained verses from the Bible).

The Ministry of Presence

John Wesley the Anglican is one of my favorite characters because of his holistic approach to ministry.

Here, some of those to look to Wesley as their inspiration, practice the ministry of presence and lead others to Jesus Christ outside of "adult" venues. Help me Lord to follow their good example.

In my short time there one of the managers came out to threaten harm, yell, call police and laughingly promise a law suit. Even so, wearing a dress shirt and tie and holding a sign that read “We are praying for you” it was interesting to see pricey vehicles drive up, see that respectable citizens were standing outside and decide to drive on and do something else with their evening.


Not long after my visit Dr. Knight sent an e-mail that certainly encouraged:


I just wanted to tell you some good news. Today in chapel one of the security guards from (one of the clubs) showed up. He cried during the service and wants to come again. He shared that he had quit his job and desired a new life. He also said that another security guard had quit and that an assistant manager had quit. He said it was all due to the fact that we had started coming down there. Praise the Lord!

The secret? No secret, really. There is so much about effective ministry that is easily understood. Prayerfully show up. Play it by ear. Be willing to stay kind, gentle, reasonable. Be courteous but also be able to challenge. Don’t back down. Meet bullying with a heart of love.

Iraqi Christians Flee Persecution

In this article from the New York Times dated today, October 17th, reaffirms a stark conclusion that the war in Iraq has done little to establish any sort of religious freedom from persecution for Iraqi Christians.

Though the Christian faith in Iraq dates back to the first century, and the land of modern Iraq is steeped in biblical significance dating back to the first pages of the Christian Scriptures, as many as 100,000 Christians have been forced to flee for their safety in the last 3 and one-half years. At least under the former regime, they had some safety. That safety diminishes daily under the present system and due to the unwillingness of American forces, let alone the Iraqi's, to protect this minority.

Recent statements by the Pope regarding Islam have inflamed the situation making many of the 600,000 to 800,000 remaining Christians unable to even work to provide for themselves. Many are trying to escape the country.

Though it remains to be seen if the War in Iraq will wipe out terrorism from the world, it seems to have been very effective in wiping out Christianity from one of it's most ancient homelands.

May the Lord be with those who remain and energize their brothers and sisters in Christ in the rest of the world to come to their aid and not leave the task to secular governments whose wills in this matter are weak to say the least.

Ministries serving Iraq despite the troubles are:

Classical School of the Medes

Sisters in Service

Posted by Rev. Chuck Huckaby - Mission Lawrence