Is God Good?

Is God Good?

(A true account)

1

On Nairobi’s over crowded street,

Where poverty and danger meet;

Four young friends in a minibus,

Squashed in tight with noise and fuss.

About God’s work - a taxi ride,

Crushed and poor they swallow their pride.

2

To share the Gospel with Nairobi’s youth,

To tell rich and poor the hearfelt truth.

This is their mission, their purpose and joy.

But thoughts disturbed by sudden cry,

Broken down truck had blocked their lane,

Nowhere to go – two young friends slain.

3

No traffic police to warn or care,

No one to offer a final prayer.

One’s brother is dead and he almost,

With broken neck and nearly lost.

The two friends are together no more,

Such is the lot of the travelling poor.

4

Two bothers, the apple of the parent’s eye,

O how to break the news and cry

Together with them, and share their woe.

Of the four only one walked away to go

To kneel and cry a fountain of tears;

Assail the heavens with questioning prayers.

5

Who will help the injured brother?

With costly care will he ever recover?

Our foreign friends, will they meet the cost?

Will our remaining son be the third one lost?

The church cannot help and we are so poor,

Will God provide and open a door?

6

Two thousand gather – for sad, sad memory,

How could this happen, how could it be?

The Pastor stands with solemn face.

What can he say about God’s grace?

Each tear filled eye towards God’s man,

How can he say ‘This is God’s plan?’

7

He asks the question - ‘Is God good?’

Two thousand reply from where they stood,

‘Yes, God is good’ their cry rang out.

They trust their God and do not doubt.

‘All the time?’ was his next cry.

‘Yes, all the time – triumphant reply

8

A year gone by but wounds are still raw.

Praise God He came and opened that door.

One brother restored, his faith still strong

This story is an African song.

With sudden death, and life seems cheap;

But their faith in God runs ever deep.

Boy soldier - God's amazing grace

From Josh Shaada - IT Missionary in Soroti.

About a month ago David showed up in Soroti (Uganda) with one of the saddest stories I know. When he was 9 years old he was abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA, a rebel group) together with his parents and friends. After they killed his parents, David was marched to Somalia where his friends were sold as slaves in exchange for weapons and bullets. David was then taken to Sudan where he was trained to become a soldier. He was beaten and treated harshly until he became a soldier. He was forced to kill, steal, abduct children, and get married. Once he was caught trying to escape. As a result, he was tortured, shot, and cut with a bayonet. It was not until his fifth year with the LRA that he successfully
managed to escape. After turning himself in to government soldiers in Congo, he was brought to an army barracks here in Uganda. Sadly, soldiers there also abused him. Finally, one soldier from Teso region noticed him and brought him back to Soroti. David was staying with the soldier’s aunt, but continued to be tormented by demons. David was accused of lighting a house on fire and was driven away from home.
Josh recently went through the 7 steps to spiritual freedom with David. As they went through the first step of confessing counterfeit religious experience, David had much to confess since he had been the victim of much satanic ritual abuse. David also confessed great bondage to fear. The most powerful time of their day together came during the step on forgiveness. One by one he forgave the man who abducted him, the man who killed his parents, the man who sold his friends into slavery, the man who forced him to kill others, and so on. By walking in the truth of God’s word, David’s life continues to be transformed. Satan had him bound but Jesus set him free. David is now living with a local pastor and his family. We also helped David return to school
this week so he can finish his education

Terrorist comes to Christ

Palestinian native Tass Saada ran away from home and joined the Fatah movement when he was just 17. Once a member of the Fatah party, Tass Saada now sows 'Seeds of Hope' in Gaza and the West Bank(Photo via CBN News website). "I joined the Fatah movement, basically, because (Yassar) Arafat was my hero," Saada told Erick Stakelbeck, CBN News Terrorism Analyst in an interview with CBN News. Israel's resounding victory over the surrounding Arab nations in the Six Day War of 1967 devastated young Tass. He was soon drawn to the militant views of Fatah founder and Saada family friend, Yasser Arafat. "I used to sit right across from him and just stare at him, just mesmerized," said Saada. "He was such a charismatic character." In the CBN News interview, Saada said he believed the Jews had stolen Palestinian land. He was determined to help Arafat and Fatah push Israel into the sea. "Our training was specialized, basically, in intense, marine-type fighting skills," he recalled. "We used to call ourselves guerilla fighters, commando fighters." Saada became a Fatah sniper, picking off and killing Israeli soldiers. His nickname was "Butcher." "My job was to knock off whoever was the commander of the unit," he said. Saada told CBN News he took part in bloody battles against the Israeli army. He even attempted to assassinate the Crown Prince of Jordan, who he saw as unfriendly to Palestinians. But Saada his most prestigious job was as a personal driver for his hero: Arafat. "Everybody knows I was a fierce driver," said Saada. "And so when it came a time and need for Arafat to be transported from one area of Jordan to the other, they called me to do that." Saada told CBN News he eventually made his way to the United States to attend school. By that point, he had given up on waging violent jihad, but he still hated Jews.He became a successful restaurant manager, married an American woman and had two children. But he was miserable -- living a fast lifestyle of mistresses and booze. Until a longtime friend told him about Jesus Christ. "He put the Bible in the middle, between the two of us. And I just got scared and I jumped away from the Bible," Saada recounted. "I said, 'I cannot touch that! It's got the name of God, the word of God in it!' He said, 'So you believe this is the word of God?' I said, 'Yes.' "Why did I say 'yes,' when we as Muslims don't really believe that the Bible is valid as the word of God?" He says he momentarily lost consciousness at that point. "The next thing I know, I'm on my knees with my hands lifted up, inviting Jesus. And the rest is history." When Tass told his Muslim family back in the Middle East of his conversion, his brother vowed to kill him, he told CBN News. In the meantime, his Christian friend threw him for yet another loop. "He said 'Tass, to have the peace that I have, you must love the Jew.'" remembered Saada. "I literally froze, turned around and looked at Charlie. Charlie knew how much I hated Jews." Saada told CBN News he soon got past that lifelong hatred. He developed close friendships with Jews and began to look at Israel in a brand new light. His book, 'Once an Arafat Man' recounts his transformation. "I don't believe in the two-state solution," Saada told CBN News. "I don't believe in that. Because I believe that land belongs to the Jews. It doesn't belong to us." "But, on the other hand," he continued. "I believe that we have the right to live in that land, as is recorded in the Book of Ezekiel, where the Lord redivided the land among the Israelites and told them to give the foreigners living among them an equal share of the land." Meanwhile, in its push to establish a Palestinian state, the Obama administration is counting on the Palestinian party known as Fatah to be Israel's partner for peace, Stakelbeck reports. "But judging by a major conference held by the group in Bethlehem last month, President Obama's vision is a long way from being fulfilled," Stackelbeck says. Stakelbeck added: "In Bethlehem, Fatah leaders reaffirmed their commitment to what they call 'armed resistance.' They refused to recognize Israel's status as a Jewish state. Fatah, which rules the West Bank, also restated its desire to take control of eastern Jerusalem and make it the capital of a Palestinian state." These rigid views now sound all too familiar to Saada, says Stakelbeck. Today, Saada spends much of his time in the West Bank and Gaza, helping provide modern necessities to Palestinians through his charitable organization, Seeds of Hope. He says Muslims in the Middle East are turning to Christ in record numbers. "Millions of Muslims around the earth -- especially the Arabs in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar," Saada marveled. "In all these 12 nations of Ishmael, all of these nations, there is so much conversion in that land." CBN's Stakelbeck says that's why Saada is confident that peace will one day come to the region -- the kind of peace that politicians can never bring.

Generation Me continued

One of the saddest effects of the Gem's mindset is the effect on them when they get married. They fall in love - but they have little idea of what love really is. Marriage is going to be like being single, except much more fun. The idea of commitment and sacrificing for someone else, bending to an other's ideas of what their life might be like is so foreign, problems soon arise. All of a sudden, there is another person, with their own needs and wants to consider. Now, they are not the only centre of their attention.

Then, shock horror, sex is not exactly like it is portrayed in the films from Hollywood. Even this requires consideration of someone else's needs.

Sadly this is leading to a shocking amount of divorce at an early stage of the marriage. Finding out that their spouse may have something different they want to do next weekend comes as a shock. They have always done what they wanted and don't see why it can't be the same now they are married.

The various pre-marriage courses do not deal anywhere near enough with this condition, mainly because it is not recognised. An African friend who preached at my son's wedding siad an interesting thing. "When you go to college, you study hard and then get a certificate. In marriage, you get the certificate at the beginning and then you have to begin to study hard!"