NEWS MID JANUARY 2016

Dear Friends,

As a young Christian man, I seemed to face a serious dilemma. I was brought up believing in ‘Christianity’. But, we were told, actually ‘Christianity’ was only one of many options. That is, there were (are) more ‘religions’, and other people in other parts of the world are brought up believing in other religions. So, how do you know (i.e. how should I know) that you are right? Had I been brought up in India, well then I would just as emphatically be ‘believing in’ Hinduism . . . I guess that’s why some of my friends gave up on faith in Christ; it seemed to be just an arbitrary option amongst many. This makes it fascinating to investigate recent scholarship on this issue, and to discover that to say that there are other ‘religions’ around the world is an invented myth. What we have, are here.

An American colleague recently asked me, apparently a little exasperated; “are you going to spend the rest of your life in Kenya?” In around 1990, a situation came to my attention, that amazed me. It was a travesty. The whole of the West, including even missionary colleagues of mine in Zambia at the time, seemed to be severely UNDER-ESTIMATING the role of the Gospel of Christ in people’s lives. Limited intercultural understanding contributed to situations which were at times accentuating problems for African people, who themselves were loving the Gospel and wanting more and not less of it. That realisation left me with no moral alternative, more here,

Last Sunday I joined a church attended by over 500. Three KIST graduates were there in the leadership. Over 150 people had been baptised early the same morning. Give thanks!

Jim

PS Unfortunately the Swahili course that I was to teach 25th January to 13th February will almost certainly not go ahead. This is because only two students have registered.

For information on my latest book see: here.