becoming

The speech that Malala Yousafzai gave to the United Nations on 12 July 2013, the date of her 16th birthday and “Malala Day” at the UN.

Dear friends, on 9 October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends, too. They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And out of that silence came thousands of voices. The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born…

…I want education for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all the terrorists and extremists. I do not even hate the Talib who shot me. Even if there was a gun in my hand and he was standing in front of me, I would not shoot him…

…let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first. Thank you.

Full transcript of the speech can be found here.

Gorbachev on Thatcher:

Why is it that we were able to reach an understanding in the end? I believe one reason is that we gradually developed a personal rapport that became increasingly friendly over the years. Eventually we reached a degree of mutual trust.

Sometimes our outlook might be different, but our common need to look for a way out can bind us and help us build trust with one another. Friendship remains.

[NYTimes: Doing Business With the Iron Lady]

A week ago, I learned from my friend Alan Yu’s FB page that “80% of Muslim conversion narratives reference to a dream. Not a dream about Jesus but meeting Jesus in a dream.”

And then today, I come across this:

Alarming reports have been coming in for years: Christianity is being expelled from the Middle East. According to Walter Russell Mead, more than half of the Christians in Iraq have fled the country since 2003. Today it’s happening in Syria. Swedish journalist Nuri Kino reports on a “silent exodus of Christians from Syria” in the face of “kidnappings and rapes.”

It’s a regional trend. Two years ago Caroline Glick reported that “at the time of Lebanese independence from France in 1946 the majority of Lebanese were Christians. Today less than 30 percent of Lebanese are Christians. In Turkey, the Christian population has dwindled from 2 million at the end of World War I to less than 100,000 today. In Syria, at the time of independence Christians made up nearly half of the population. Today 4 percent of Syrians are Christian. In Jordan half a century ago 18 percent of the population was Christian. Today 2 percent of Jordanians are Christian.”

That’s only half the story. At the same time that traditional Christian populations are being driven out, Muslims are converting to Christianity at what missionaries and other Church leaders describe as an unprecedented rate. Joel Rosenberg claims that “more Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ today than at any other time in history.”

Read the rest here:

Jesus is certainly at work in this world, and in ways that you can’t even imagine!

What a friend we have in Jesus!

[link: first things]

各位同學仔、同學女：

在一小小茶餐廳的窄窄通道間，左右都坐滿了食客。
在這時候，煩請不要背著你的大書包，在其中走來走去。

殊不知，你的大書包，也可變作兇狠異常的
血滴子。

[link]

讀到羅秉祥的這篇「教會應雍容大度對待同性戀者公民權」，再讀到 Louie Giglio 應邀為Obama 就職領禱卻被人拉下馬，我覺得很難過。

我難過，不是因為不同意，而是因為我同時同意兩篇文章的呼籲。

我明白所有的考慮，問題有多複雜，要有獨立思考，不應人云亦云…但在這一切之後，我們仍然要問：「教會應該做甚麼」？「跟隨主的人應該做甚麼？」

我應該做甚麼？

咁你做乜仲喺度睇埋晒d 甚麼甚麼「求生錦囊」，走去糴米、搶食水，把鬼？

哥哥，講緊「世界末日」呀，要諗都諗「死之後點」，同「今日點過」啦。

我哋蠢成咁，唔好話後日，聽日都唔知過唔過到。

我點睇？我買咗飛聖誕日去教會聚餐，你話我點睇呢，呵？

No, don’t even try to explain it.

No, don’t tell me who or what understands.

No, don’t give me inspiring spiritual insights, your damn observation of life,

Or what you are going to do about it.

Let me grieve.

Let me mourn.

Tears first.

Pain first.

Join me if you want.

But at least,

give me that.