Christians Respond To COVID-19’s Toll On The World’s Children

By Carol Lowes and ChristianWeek | May 29, 2020

Mission, relief, and community development charities stand at the ready to act in crisis globally. They are always prepared for what form crisis will assume and what will be required to help others. With a pandemic of the scale of COVID 19, the response must be massive because the impact and ripple effect of deaths on the world and its children, especially those living in poverty, will be extreme.

Children will be orphaned. Families with precarious livelihoods or without the ability to find work will go hungry. People will be sick without access to hospitals. All scenarios that routinely occur throughout the world will be going on in staggering numbers. 

In addition to the immediate impact of a pandemic of this scale, is the lasting turmoil. A virus like this threatens to reverse 30 years of poverty reduction that corporately Christians and others have been engaged in. In response, the Church and para-church groups have acted starting with prayer.

“We have launched the largest response in our history. Some boys will be stuck in child labour. Some girls will marry early and never return to school. The after-effects of a pandemic like this in other parts of the world will be long-lasting,” says Simon Lewchuk, senior policy analyst for World Vision Canada.

A child bride in India. An orphaned street child homeless in Brazil, the second-most highly infected country in the world. A hungry child amid Venezuela’s food shortages. Refugee children throughout the globe. Children like these are among the 85 million children in immediate danger from domestic violence from COVID 19 in the next three months, according to its recent report.

Although cases of COVID are not as high in the continent of Africa, reported cases throughout Asia and South America are growing. In countries where there is no healthcare system and access to safe drinking water, it is concerning to Christian groups like The Salvation Army Canada, World Vision Canada, Compassion Canada and SIM Canada because they stand ready in these places to help the hurting. Their frontline staff have been developing contingency plans and most already had them, since crises like famine and hurricanes are what they work amid. 

“In the Ebola outbreak we learned lessons in preparedness for a crisis like this,” says Lewchuk. “Christians in Canada can pray, fund raise, and we should talk to our neighbours and especially our children about how deeply this influences people like a Syrian girl child in a refugee camp who does not have the same technology or government support we do. Some face violence and many isolation.”

The Salvation Army is working in 131 countries to address COVID. 

Lt-Colonel Brenda Murray, who is the Director of World Missions, says the Church took immediate action: “In the last few weeks we have also funded nine Covid 19 rapid response projects which provide various items such as PPE equipment, COVID awareness posters and flyers, hand sanitation stations, hand sanitizer, food relief, hospital gowns and masks.”

The Salvation Army’s community sponsorship development projects work a little differently than WVC’s or others, because like SIM they are evangelical church-based. The Salvation Army works in 131 countries and has had to stop the activities of some of its development projects because of local government restrictions on holding gatherings.

As projects have clear target dates and objectives like helping reduce the child mortality rate the timeline of some will be extended and costs incurred, explains Lt-Colonel Murray.

Compassion has raised more than $200,000 but its immediate and long-term goal is $1.5 million to impact its child sponsorship enrolled children. It is encouraged by the actions of Christians and its workers in Colombia who have been delivering groceries to families. 

In the early months of this pandemic this is how Christians and churches have responded to try to change the outcome for the world’s children, families and communities.

Please continue to pray for the children affected by COVID-19. Especially for the little ones in countries that don’t have access to healthcare and government systems like we do in the West. 

About the author

Carol Lowes and ChristianWeek

About the author

Carol Lowes and ChristianWeek

Jesus Didn’t Come to Make Christians, He Came To Make Disciples

Revelation Discipleship – Part 1

By ChristianWeek | April 30, 2020

Before we jump into Revelation Discipleship, we need to begin with what “discipleship” means. So often in our modern church language it has come to be equated with certain classes we take, or subjects that we learn. Many in the North American Church view discipleship as a luxury rather than a necessity; we see discipleship like heated seats in our car, nice to have but not really essential.

There has been a significant cultural shift where “discipleship” has been eroded to the point where simply attending a worship service 3 out of 4 Sundays is the new normal. We keep lowering the bar and now, with how things have shifted during the pandemic, there is the possibility that we don’t even have to actually show up, we can simply pop in our earbuds while we mow the lawn or walk on the treadmill.

The larger our churches have become, the more prevalent un-discipled Christians have become. In small churches there was no opportunity to “hide in the pews”, everyone was needed and expected to serve. You were missed if you weren’t there for the Sunday night classes or the Wednesday night prayer meetings; the places where much actual discipleship used to happen.

I grew up learning about how to walk with Jesus by going to church whenever the doors were open and watching how my elders worshiped and learned about Jesus. I was a sponge ready to soak up everything around me. We had church services on Sunday morning, “Discipleship Training” classes on Sunday night, and on Wednesday there was always a lesson of some sort and a prayer meeting. 

I was blessed to have a father who was always learning new things and then teaching them to our church, so I went to many classes taught by my Dad. I learned under him about “Experiencing God” (discipleship), “Fresh Encounter” (revival), “The Baptist Faith and Message” (what our denomination believed about doctrine), “Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses” (Cults and how to recognize things that were unbiblical), “The Sanctitiy of Life” (abortion), and these are just a few I remember. (Thanks, Dad!)

Youth group time was Bible teaching. We had a lot of fun together as a group – movie nights, sports, camps, just being together; but our church time together was about discipleship. As a teenager I remember sometimes thinking that was boring (let’s be honest), but now that I have teenagers I see it as such a blessing. It’s just not the same today.

Looking back, I realize now that my generation was one of the last generations where discipleship was highly prized. My husband and I worked with college students for 10 years before pastoring, and we saw over and over the chaos that can come upon one’s life when they don’t really know what they believe, so they can’t properly filter what is Godly and what is not.

Undiscipled Christians are easy prey.

So what exactly is discipleship? Is it going to church on Sunday? Is it having a “quiet time” with God every day? Is it taking a “discipleship” class?

Yes… and no….

Wikipedia says “It is not the same as being a student in the modern sense. A disciple in the ancient biblical world actively imitated both the life and teaching of the master. It was a deliberate apprenticeship which made the fully formed disciple a living copy of the master.”

So, when someone says that being a disciple is living like Jesus, that is TRUE! But there are so many steps to take in order to know what that means…

David Platt says about discipleship, “In light of Jesus’ authority, every disciple is to share the Word, show the Word, teach the Word, and, for the glory of God, serve the world.”

Yes! In order to do that we need to KNOW the Word. You don’t get to know the word of God in 30 minutes every other week or so.

Robbie Gallaty states “At the very core, a disciple is a learner, one who is set on growing and developing. In nearly every sphere of life, people learn specific skills from someone else that has developed those skills. An electrical certification is attained only after an extensive apprenticeship with a more experienced electrician. When a prospective doctor finishes medical school, he or she invests several years in a residency, a time of shadowing an experienced physician. This concept of learning directly through the expertise and experience of another is the foundation of what Jesus envisioned when He used the term “disciple.”

The term “Christian” is used only 3 times in the Bible (twice in Acts and once in 1 Peter), but the term “disciple” is used 269 times! Jesus didn’t come to make Christians, he came to make disciples. 

The implications of being a Christian, but not being a disciple are far-reaching. First, when we don’t know what the Bible says, and therefore what we are to believe about something, we can easily be swayed by all sorts of false doctrines. I don’t mean crazy, “out-there”, kind of doctrines like cults and such. I’m talking about every day things like what the Bible says about sexuality or sanctity of life, for example. 

We see it all the time in the  Christian media. A popular Bible teacher suddenly takes a stand that is not biblical and they lead literally millions of followers down the same path because those followers were not grounded biblically themselves, and so are easily swayed by a charismatic personality.

The Bible calls them “wolves”. Paul warns the Ephesians, in his final goodbye to them, to expect teachers like this to come and seduce some away from the truth. He warns them to watch out for such “wolves” and to oppose them. 

Those wolves are still around today, prowling around the flock of Christ and teaching doctrines that are subtly skewed from the truth.

The most dangerous lie is partially true. 

We always have to remember that we have an enemy. The Church is the greatest threat to Satan, and why wouldn’t he send in wolves to confuse us? We aren’t looking for red horns and a pitchfork, people, we’re looking for smooth talking, just-slightly-off-doctrinally, wolves in church-goers clothing.

Secondly, being a Christian but not a disciple keeps us from following the commandment Jesus left us with in Matthew 28:19-20 “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This wasn’t a commandment meant for the super-christian, the minister, or the uber-devout amongst us – this was meant for every single follower of Christ. We are to go make disciples. Period. In order to make disciples, we must be disciples. Period. 

The 21st Century Church in North America has more professionally trained ministry leaders than ever before, we have more programs than ever before, and yet you can make a case that we are producing fewer disciples. Disciples of Jesus are never mass produced, they are individually handcrafted.

Now that we know the goal, and the roadblocks along the way, let’s jump into the letters to the churches in Revelation and see if we can find a blueprint for how we are to undertake this lifelong journey to discipleship.

Next: Revelation Discipleship: He Wants Our Hearts – Letter to the Church in Ephesus

About the author

ChristianWeek

By Canadian Christian News Service | June 19, 2015

On June 21, pastor John Burns of Relate Church in Surrey, B.C. will tee-off on White Rock’s Peace Portal golf course. He will spend Father’s Day – and beyond – attempting to golf for 24 hours to raise money and support for two charities: Mercy Ministries of Canada and Watoto Childcare Ministries International.

Burns hopes to raise $1 million. He will try for 200 holes of golf – double the 100 holes that he played over a day in previous years when he has raised money for charities in the past.

“I will tee off at 8:30pm Sunday evening, carrying my own clubs, and will attempt to run and play as many holes of golf as I can in 24 hours,” explains Burns. “I will play through the night using golf balls that light up and wearing a head lamp. I’m expecting to run about 65 miles while climbing the equivalent of 400 flights of stairs and stopping some 1000 times to swing a golf club to hit my ball. I am asking people to sponsor me per hole, or hour, or for the total event.”

Mercy Ministries of Canada is a free  Christian residential program for women aged 19 – 28  dealing with life-controlling issues such as self-harm, eating disorders, sexual abuse, unplanned pregnancies and addictions.

Watoto Childcare Ministries is a holistic-care program, initiated as a response to the overwhelming number of orphaned children and vulnerable women whose lives have been ravaged by war and disease in Uganda.

John Burns shares his vision – and his concerns about being awake for 24 hours – in this brief video.

About the author

Canadian Christian News Service

CCNS is a press release distribution network designed specifically for the needs of faith-based organizations in Canada.

Israel Experience makes history come alive

By ChristianWeek Editor | June 18, 2015

Picturing the land where Jesus and His disciples travelled can be difficult when one has never been to Israel. We read the Bible, but it is hard to visualize those famous landmarks.

Imagine if you could get an up-close view of where Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, if you could sail the historic Sea of Galilee where much of Jesus’ ministry occurred, or have a transformational worship experience at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.

“Visiting Israel allows me to actually visualize the Bible as I read,” says Back to the Bible Canada radio teacher John Neufeld. “To walk in the places that Jesus walked and experience the culture Jesus experienced. The Bible references Jerusalem but also the New Jerusalem that is to come. Being in Israel allows me to anticipate what God will yet do.”

This fall, Back to the Bible Canada is offering the opportunity to join Neufeld, Laugh Again’s Phil Callaway, CEO Ben Lowell, and musical guests The Wiebes to visit the places read about in the pages of Scripture.

Taking place October 30- November 9, The Israel Experience will be an unforgettable 11-day journey featuring four-star accommodation, as well as daily breakfast and dinner buffets. Participants will be able to taste a cultural St. Peter’s fish lunch, visit the City of David, see the powerful temple of prayer, visit the Wailing Wall and take a dip in the Dead Sea as well as much more.

When travelling to Israel, whom you travel with is a high priority. Back to the Bible Canada, in partnership with Premiere Journeys, offers the experience and insight that allows visitors to gain all of the benefits Israel has to offer.

To book your Israel Experience, call 1-877-277-2122 or for more information, call 1-800-663-2425.

– Submitted by Back to the Bible Canada

View the full PDF of this article: SOM-Back to Bible 29-04

By Steven Sukkau | June 14, 2015

To impact a country for Christ, LeaderImpact believes one must start with its leaders. For that reason, the organization will bring together Christians from Winnipeg to share a vision with Central American leaders during the 2016 Panama Exchange.

LeaderImpact, a Power to Change ministry, trains Canadian Christian leaders how to share their faith at evangelistic dinner parties, during sector outreaches and during one-on-one opportunities. Participants connect with non-Christian leaders in other parts of the world through Global Exchange events, all with the vision of making a difference in the future of the cities they visit.

In 2014, on a similar Global Exchange to Panama, LeaderImpact held 50 events and saw more than 700 local leaders in one city make commitments to Christ.

“There are precious few organizations around the world working to reach business leaders with the gospel,” International Director Ron Carrothers explains. “But we’ve really seen it takes a business leader to reach a leader.”

Carrothers says LeaderImpact does about three or four exchanges each year, with leaders from across Canada.

“They don’t realize the God-given talent of leadership,” Carrothers says. “Not realizing it is like hiding their talent under a rock.”

Instead LeaderImpact works to train Canadian teams, teaching participants how to share best practices with leaders from around the globe, as well as how to share their faith and how they came to Christ themselves.

It’s not always easy to step out in faith, especially in a foreign land, but God honours that sacrifice, Carrothers says.

“When you reach a leader, you can change a city, and change a nation based on the influence of a leader,” he says, starting with their business, their home, their political leaders, and then a nation.

Western participants end up changed and blessed as well, says International Director Ron Carrothers.

“They see God work through them, and everyone on the team is seriously impacted,” Carrothers says. “They’re changed people, on fire for what they can do as Christian leaders.

“Leaders often don’t see that leadership is a great gift, and what God can do with your gift,” he says.

The Global Exchange to Panama is open to leaders in Winnipeg, and takes place April 9-17, 2016. A Global Exchange to Columbia takes place October 24 to November 1, 2015, and is open to leaders from across Canada.

To learn more visit leaderimpact.com

About the author

Steven Sukkau

Hope for Kenyan orphans

Charles Mulli documentary in the works

By Allison Barron ChristianWeek Correspondent | June 14, 2015

Abandoned by his family at age six, Kenyan Charles Mulli survived alone until age 16, got a job and became a successful businessman. He then gave up his wealth to provide for slum children, calling them his own.

When the team of Scott Haze (Director), Elissa Shay (Producer) and Lukas Behnken (Producer) of Sterling Light Productions read Father to the Fatherless—a book documenting Mulli’s story and written by Canadian Paul Boge—they were deeply moved.

“There is nothing I am more committed to than using the medium of film to ignite minds and affect hearts of people across the world,” says Haze. “I couldn’t have been blessed with a more potent story than that of Charles and Esther Mulli.

“It’s stories like these that create global change and inspire us and generations to come. I just feel truly fortunate.”

John Bardis of Bardis Productions read the book, which inspired him to finance the film and set the project in motion.

Author Paul Boge is encouraged that Bardis Productions decided to take on the project and produce a documentary, entitled Mully, with plans for a Winter 2015 / Spring 2016 release.

“The Mully documentary will give audiences an opportunity to see why a man like Charles Mulli, who rose from the ashes of African poverty to become wealthy, would give it all up to rescue street children,” says Boge. “Scott Haze, Lukas Behnken and Elissa Shay are creating a critical film that will inspire us to examine how we look at our lives.”

In the making of this film, Sterling Light Productions spent many months on the ground in Kenya with Mulli and his Mully Children’s Family. Many of the rescued children are part of the documentary, as well as Charles, his wife Esther, their biological children, immediate family, and many other people who know him or know of him.

“All of our lives have been changed for the better as a result of working on this project,” says Behnken. “Traveling to Kenya for two very long journeys, filming in major international cities like Nairobi and in desperately poor slums, seeing beautiful new cultures and poverty on a level we had never known changed us on its own.”

Haze, Behnken and Shay hope the documentary will inspire people to incorporate more acts of service into their lives as well as highlight the huge impact Mulli has had in his home country.

“So much work is needed all over the world, and we can all make great impacts in our own local areas,” says Behnken. “We believe this film will lift hearts and eyes to a new level, taking viewers momentarily out of their own stories and reminding them of the beauty and transforming power of faith in action.”

“We hope everyone who sees it or hears of it shares it with others.”

About the author

Allison Barron
ChristianWeek Correspondent

Allison is a writer, editor, and graphic designer with a BA in English from Canadian Mennonite University and a Certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. She currently manages Area of Effect magazine and is a missionary with Geekdom House in Winnipeg, MB.

Christian professors help Omar Khadr face life outside prison walls

“For me and my colleagues, this is the call God has put before us,” says Arlette Zinck.

By Allison Barron ChristianWeek Correspondent | June 14, 2015

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EDMONTON, AB—Known by some as a wrongfully imprisoned child soldier and by others as a terrorist and murderer, Omar Khadr is free after nearly 13 years in prison.

The 28-year-old, accused of war crimes and imprisoned since he was 15, was released on bail on May 7. A group of Christian educators is applauding the decision, and continuing their quest to help Khadr upgrade his schooling.

Arlette Zinck, a professor at The King’s University in Edmonton, Alberta, first heard about Khadr’s story from his lawyer, Dennis Edney, when he came to speak at the university in 2008.

“He [Edney] spoke of a profoundly wounded teen with a fist-sized bullet hole in his chest who was nicknamed ‘buckshot’ by guards because of the many shrapnel wounds in his body, and made to carry heavy pails of water until his wounds wept,” Zinck writes in “Love Knows No Bounds: A Christian Response to the Omar Khadr Story,” a briefing written for the Chester Ronning Centre.

“He talked about sleep deprivation and the petty cruelties of cold temperatures. He told the students how, despite all of this, and in the context of years of conversations, he had never heard Omar Khadr speak an ill word about anyone.”

Zinck, along with many students and faculty at King’s, were moved to action by Khadr’s story. Some students organized events and rallies to support him, others began correspondence with him through his lawyer.

A small group of the faculty, including Zinck, made a curriculum for Khadr so he could study in prison. Khadr is still studying with them now while he is on bail.

Zinck tells ChristianWeek that Khadr plans to continue his education and they are just taking it one step at a time.

“He’s come a long way with his studies that he began as a student who left off at approximately Grade 8,” says Zinck.

Zinck sites Matthew 25 as a metaphor for their relationship with Khadr. “That’s the passage where you’re supposed to feed the hungry,” she says. “It doesn’t ask you to become judge and jury. It just says to be faithful and answer the call that God has put before you. For me and my colleagues, this is the call God has put before us.”

Zinck says it’s important for Christians to look at what’s happening in Canadian prisons, to think about corrections and our Christian understanding of reconciliation.

“All of us as Christians are pressed to use both our hearts and our minds when we engage with the world,” Zinck says. “So often it’s one or the other—rationalizing miserable ways of behaving or reacting emotionally instead of using a more thoughtful approach.

“A third way between the voices of culture is using a spirit of intelligent charity. This is an hour of history where we can pay attention to ways that revenge is used as a substitution for justice. I’m grateful for the experience working with Omar… I think we’re called to think carefully to think about the Christian perspective on corrections in Canada.”

Captured as a 15-year-old in Afghanistan, Khadr is the only juvenile tried for war crimes since the Second World War. A Canadian citizen, he was taken to Afghanistan by his father who had ties with al Qaeda. Among other charges, he is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight.

After being picked up in the battlefield, terribly wounded, Khadr was held at Bagram, and subsequently at Guantanamo Bay, before being moved to Bath, Ontario, in 2012 and then to a maximum-security prison in Edmonton in 2013. He applied for bail while his Guantanamo conviction is appealed in the U.S.

In the CBC documentary titled Omar Khadr: Out of the Shadows, Khadr reflects on his time in Guantanamo and in prison, where he was interrogated and abused.

“This one guard in Guantanamo, he would go out of his way to just humiliate me, antagonize me…” says Khadr. “I thought, I wanna know who that guy is… so I can get back at him the next time I get an opportunity… And then I was thinking, you know… I’m giving him a place in myself that he doesn’t deserve. He’s not worth me caring about him.

“You can only imagine what this guy is going through. The thing is, if a person can inflict pain on another person and find pleasure in that… he’s probably living in worse pain than me. What he’s causing me is temporary… but he’s the one who’s gonna have to deal with his conscience later.”

While on bail, Khadr lives at his lawyer’s home.

“I try not to dwell on the past,” Khadr says. “It was either that or me engulfed in hate and misery and thinking of how bad life is. But that’s not going to get me anywhere. I try to think of things that will hopefully make my life and hopefully the life of people around me better.”

About the author

Allison Barron
ChristianWeek Correspondent

Allison is a writer, editor, and graphic designer with a BA in English from Canadian Mennonite University and a Certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. She currently manages Area of Effect magazine and is a missionary with Geekdom House in Winnipeg, MB.

Trinity Western professors explore science and faith

“There are believers who have reconciled excellence in science with a vibrant Christian faith”

By Craig Macartney Senior Correspondent | June 14, 2015

LANGLEY, BC–Trinity Western University (TWU) is celebrating academic recognition amid the broad campaign to delegitimize its proposed law school. Two of its professors are among 25 successful international applicants selected to participate in an elite seminar at Oxford, exploring the interaction between science and faith.

The seminar, titled “Bridging the Two Cultures of Science and the Humanities,” includes funding and scholarly support for individual research projects proposed by each professor, as well as funding to establish a science and religion club at the professor’s home campus.

“Of the 25 recipients in this seminar, Trinity Western is the only school that received two applicants,” says Myron A. Penner, professor of philosophy at TWU and one of the seminar participants. “That speaks to the climate here for exploring science and religion.”

Penner’s project is a manuscript focused on helping students from conservative Christian backgrounds overcome any fear in engaging science.

“There are Christians who have a fear of what is being claimed by the scientific community, especially when it comes to implications of a scientific worldview in the age of the Earth and the nature of human origins. The book I am working on isn’t specifically about evolution, but evolution is one case study that is helpful in understanding the larger phenomenon of this science fear.”

Penner explains the tension is not necessarily between science and religion, but between science and specific interpretations of Scripture. There are good reasons, he says, to believe scientific claims like the Big Bang, evolution and the age of the Earth.

“Our unshakable commitment to [the gospel] needs to be distinguished from our own interpretations of what the Bible says on any particular point of doctrine,” says Penner. “Right through the present day, there are believers who have reconciled excellence in science with a vibrant Christian faith. It seems the height of ego for someone who doesn’t have the ability to navigate the data to ignore what science is saying because they don’t like it.”

The other TWU participant is biology professor Dennis Venema, who is writing a book to help Christian professors who are not biologists better understand the scientific basis for evolution and how the theory of evolution can be complementary to a Christian worldview.

“Many Christians oppose evolutionary biology because they feel it conflicts with the Genesis account,” he says. “There is good evidence, however, that the Genesis narratives are not speaking in terms of modern science. We need to recognize that we not only need to translate the language of Genesis, but also the culture and expectations of the original recipients of the text.”

Venema says many Christians don’t understand how drastically recent discoveries support evolution.

“Evolution is so well supported, and the evidence for it so compelling, that one cannot reject evolution and claim to have an up-to-date view of science.”

Of the 25 projects being funded by the grant, seven are overtly connected to the evolutionary view, while none approaches human origins from a traditional creationist perspective.

Venema says this is because the Templeton Religious Trust, the foundation funding the seminar, “typically doesn’t fund anti-evolutionary work, because of its many scientific shortcomings.”

Stan Rosenberg, executive director of SCIO, the group organizing the seminar, says it is focused on the broader dynamics of the cultures of science and humanities, rather than simply the science of human origins.

While he identifies himself also as a theistic evolutionist and believes that modern science cannot genuinely be used to support a traditional creationist view, he is clear that applicants views on the subject were not considered in selecting proposals.

“I think [theistic evolution] makes the most sense of reality. That doesn’t presume that I’ve found all the answers. I’m interested in engaging with deep, reflective thought wherever I find it. I’ve changed my views on this over the years and it’s because of trying to listen to others.”

Critics of the theory of evolution, however, highlight that it remains unproven, despite the tremendous amount of time and money being dedicated to exploring it. They also emphatically state that there is substantial, modern scientific support for the biblical narrative of creation.

Gary Chiang, professor of biology at Redeemer University College, says, “There is a wealth of scientific knowledge that fully supports creation as written in Scripture. The existence of living fossils [such as the platypus or crocodile] tells us that organisms have the capacity to stay the same. Species reproduce generation after generation as the same species, as described in Scripture.”

While the debate about human origins will likely continue for the foreseeable future, Penner says one thing he appreciates most at TWU is the openness to embrace differences.

“Among the staff and students, there are a variety of perspectives. We are a climate of freedom and safety to pursue both scientific expertise and a vibrant faith in a complementary way.”

About the author

Craig Macartney
Senior Correspondent

Craig Macartney lives in Ottawa, Ontario, where he follows global politics and dreams of life in the mission field.

Malaria society researches unique tea to combat disease

Efforts could lead to drop in malaria cases around the world

By Allison Barron ChristianWeek Correspondent | June 14, 2015

VANCOUVER, BC—A Canadian organization is determined to eliminate malaria one cup of tea at a time.

Artemisia annua, a plant native to Asia, is used to produce anti-malarial drugs; the Bye, Bye Malaria Society maintains that regularly drinking tea steeped from the plant can cure and prevent malaria. It is an inexpensive solution for the poor, and the Society is conducting experiments in India to determine its effectiveness.

Stuart Spani, president of the Bye, Bye Malaria Society, learned about simple malaria clinics, called ZoClinics, operating in Mizoram, India in 2005. He was inspired to help. In 2012, Spani and his grandson visited five countries in Africa to set up a network for establishing ZoClinics there.

“It was at this point I recruited four friends and formed the Bye, Bye Malaria Society,” says Spani. “The name came from the fact that when the first African ZoClinic technicians received their microscopes, one held hers up and proclaimed ‘Bye, bye malaria!’”

Spani learned about Artemisia annua from missionaries at Mission Fest Vancouver; one was from Africa and another from Indonesia. They were both using the plant as a cure and preventative for malaria.

“I began to research this plant and our society started to work closely with a German group called Anamed,” Spani says. “The founder, Dr. Martin Hirt, has a doctorate in pharmacy and had worked as a medical missionary in Congo for six years. While there he found modern medicines were either unavailable or too expensive for the poor to use and he made a deep study of traditional medicines.”

Spani says he was encouraged by Anamed’s success stories, among them a patient who had repeat malaria every month for 10 years, but who has been free of malaria for more than four years after being treated with Artemisia.

“I traveled to Mizoram this past March with the plan to conduct an experiment in one village this year, and begin to build a network to attempt to eradicate malaria in the entire state by 2016,” says Spani.

The Society initially went to the village of Darzo, though the experiment grew when two villages nearby heard about it and wanted to be included.

“A similar experiment has also been set up and planting has started in five Anglican dioceses in Rwanda, Africa, and we are in early talks to do the same thing in both Togo, Africa, and Sierra Leone, Africa,” says Spani.

As a Christian organization, Spani says the Bye, Bye Malaria Society believes Christian principles can solve problems and are determined to make agricultural villages better places to live.

“No one has tried using [the tea] for eradication on this scale, but we do know that even if it doesn’t eradicate malaria it will reduce the amount dramatically,” says Spani. “We will use the internet to let the world know the results and pray that many others will follow the example.”

See www.malaria-defeated.org for more information.

About the author

Allison Barron
ChristianWeek Correspondent

Allison is a writer, editor, and graphic designer with a BA in English from Canadian Mennonite University and a Certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. She currently manages Area of Effect magazine and is a missionary with Geekdom House in Winnipeg, MB.

The lost art of rest: Why we all need the sabbatical

Leaders need to be “a living sacrifice…not a burnt offering.”

By Steven Sukkau | June 14, 2015

In a culture obsessed with productivity, and enamoured with work ethic, what has become of the sabbatical? Taking an extended leave to deliberately cease work-related activities is more often seen as a quaint notion, almost outdated, for another time and place.

Yet, when a weekly day of rest was handed down from God through Moses to the Israelites, (Exodus 16:23-30) their feet still soggy from crossing the bottom of the Dead Sea, the mandated Sabbath was a shocking commandment in comparison to the orders of their slave drivers.

Pharaoh, the self-styled god of Egypt, ruled over a culture obsessed with production, work for work’s sake, in sharp contrast to Israel’s God who now demanded a cessation of work every seven days.

Modern Christians are faced with a similar shock when it comes to the Sabbath time and the sabbatical.

“Our culture is closer to Egypt than we’d like to admit,” says Mark Buchanan, author of The Rest of God: Restoring your soul by restoring Sabbath. “Our work culture is defined by productivity and accomplishment.”

While North American culture isn’t obsessed with building pyramids, the comparison remains.

“We don’t have glowering task masters,” Buchanan says. “But we have a system that says, “Produce, or be labeled as lazy.””

The sabbatical becomes almost an act of defiance and subversion, and takes “a tremendous amount of courage,” Buchanan says. “It has to do with how we define ourselves. Our culture places value on producers, we believe we are what we do, but God says we are beloved children.”

Like the baptism of Jesus, Buchanan says God affirmed His favour and blessing on Jesus and His identity, before Jesus began his ministry, before He did anything.

Christians need to rediscover the art of rest through Sabbath time, moving from a position of producing to a position of receiving, which goes beyond a simple vacation or lying on a beach with the phone turned off.

The concept of the sabbatical comes from the Hebrew word, “Shabbat” which means to stop or cease.

While some may be tempted to use their sabbatical to pursue education, or visit other churches, as some pastors might be, Buchanan says it’s really a calling to cease any work-related activities.

A better picture is the concept of letting the farmland lie fallow, Buchanan says. “In that rest there is replenishing. The rain falls, nitrogen seeps into the soil… farmers are quick to see the imagery and importance of the sabbatical.”

It’s waiting expectantly, letting your heart lie open under heaven like a field lying fallow, to receive what God has for us.

Some employers may not provide set sabbatical times. But that shouldn’t let anyone off the hook, says Wanda Malcolm, professor of pastoral psychology at Wycliffe College in Toronto. She explains anyone can become deliberate with time set apart for ceasing work.

“Not everyone has the luxury of a sabbatical,” Malcolm says. “But our leaders ought to be really intentional about Sabbath time, within our day, week or season, and where work permits.”

Whether it’s an hour in the morning, half a day once a week, set aside for ceasing our work and looking to receive from God.

“I tell my students they need to be a living sacrifice,” Malcolm says. “Not a burnt offering.”

Winnipeg-based author and pastor Jamie Arpin-Ricci is currently preparing to leave on sabbatical and says as someone who serves in full-time ministry, this kind of rest is especially important.

“We often find ourselves serving and giving from our whole person to the needs of whole persons,” he says. “In truth, we are all human. This is why so many pastors and missionaries burn out.”

If Christian leaders are to continue serve and be healthy individuals, Arpin-Ricci says, the space for lying fallow, for Sabbath time, is essential.

It’s the reason Malcolm has also started the Wycliffe Wellness Project, what she hopes to become an online resource for those who are interested in understanding more about what it means to be well in order to serve well over the whole lifespan of one’s ministry life. Currently she is also working on an assessment tool, to help people see the pattern of stress and satisfaction in their lives.

“It gives them a chance to stop back and say, “What can I change?” Malcolm explains, whether it’s creating more space for reflection, working on relationships or saying “no” to certain opportunities. “Many see things they could adjust to enjoy ministry more.”

Malcolm hopes ministers especially realize they are not exempt from the need for rest, and instead take the lead when it comes to Sabbath times.

“They need to model the importance of Sabbath rest,” she says.

About the author

Steven Sukkau