The Persecuted Church

Just about everyone's heard of the genocide in Darfur being carried out by the Islamic Arab regime in Sudan. Less well known is a similar campaign of terror and mass murder that targeted Sudan's Christians in the South (the Darfur victims are black Muslims).

God Grew Tired Of Us is the shocking, yet ultimately uplifting story of a group of young men known as the Lost Boys. Thousands of them became refugees in the late 1980's with absolutely no one in the world to turn to. They walked literally thousands of miles to refugee camps, first in Ethiopia, then Kenya.

This fine documentary follows a group that gets to come to America. They had never used electricity their entire lives! This is a great movie for internationally adopted teenage children. Our daughters watched with fascination as the young Africans saw a refrigerator and a toaster for the first time. I don't think they ever realized that some people in the world actually have it alot worse than they did in Ukraine.

Most compelling to me was to see America through the eyes of strong Christian believers, who are shocked to see the way we live. At one point one of them says, "Who is this Santa Claus? .... Is he in the Bible?"

Moments like that are seen throughout and indeed many scenes are hilarious. But the most important thing about this film is that it reminds me that our Christian brothers and sisters throughout the world are suffering terribly.

Christians are the most persecuted people-group on the planet today. The mainstream media overlooks this fact daily, but if you live in many parts of Africa, South Asia or the Middle East, being a Christian is dangerous and deadly business. Unknown Christians are martyred daily throughout the world.

We need to speak out about this and pray for the more than 200-million Christians who are undergoing active persecution.

Good Movies

It didn't take long to figure out that our daughter's did not learn much about history at the orphanage and much to their father's dismay, they showed no enthusiasm for my attempts to engage them about their own country's history, or any other historical topic. But they love movies, and we've seen some outstanding films portraying important moments in the 20th century, and this has been an effective means of getting them excited about history.

Here are three favorites:


Sophie Scholl is one of the powerful movies I've ever seen. It is the true story of a college-age German woman who demonstrates stunning moral courage in standing up to the Nazis. The end of movie somberly demonstates her Christian faith.

The story of the Rwandan genocide is something I've only been learning about in the past year. Like many Westerners, I had known something terrible happened somewhere in Africa in 1994, but I'm ashamed to say that it didn't have much effect. I've seen three movies that have awakened me to this modern holocaust and in my mind, Beyond the Gates is the best. The great John Hurt gives a memorable and believable portrayal of a Priest ministering to a group of doomed refugees.

Our daughters are one-quarter Jewish and they had never heard about the Holocaust! This 1970's movie stars Patricia Neal as the heroic Corrie Ten Boom and it has stood the test of time well. The Hiding Place is beautifully acted and haunting. I liked it particularly because it shows how Ten Boom faced a crisis of faith in unimaginably horrific circumstances. It is long, but gripping throughout.