Islamic ruminations

Hi Folks,

 

     The necessity of my travels to Saudi Arabia lately have caused me to look into the difference, and similarities, between Christianity and Islamic faith.

 

     The main difference seems to be that those following after the Islamic faith see God as a being alone, with no son or holy spirit.  Their faith leads them to believe that their God is sufficient in and of himself, and there is no need for him to have a son, or spirit which reaches out to us.

 

    As Christians, obviously we differ in that respect.  We believe that God in His mercy, granted us the gift of His Son to give us hope and joy and mercy. 

 

    I would be interested in hearing how YOU see the differences since I am, by far, no expert on this subject.

 

God bless you!

 

Richard

 

It has been awhile

HI Folks,

All I can say is that it hasn't been from a lack of activity...but it HAS been awhile since I have been able to jot off a blog. For those of you that enjoy receiving word of our school, and our mission in Nicaragua, I apoligize for the delay.

We have lately become reacquainted with just how much our friends and family means to us, not that we ever doubted it, or lost track of it. After my almost month-long trip to Saudi Arabia, I was really (really, really, really) ready for a little "time off". Carolyn and I had planned to sneak off and spend a week on some beach somewhere with our phones turned off (It probably would have driven me to distraction anyways). Of course THAT plan never came to fruition, but God's plan most certainly DID! Praise Him!

Before I even got back to the good ole USA I had to arrange to take a small detour to Phoenix to visit with Carolyn's 103 year old grandfather. Some time in the last couple of weeks the poor ole feller managed to fall down in his house, and break his arm. Carolyn's father, lives just a couple of miles away and he was able to go over to Grandpa George's house and help him out, but we were obviously worried about him. So we used the incident as a good excuse to drive the recently donated van out to Phoenix, from San Antonio, and back. Sort of a "shake-down cruise" on the van, with the side benefit of being able to check in on Grandpa George. Grandpa George is fine by the way. He really hates losing his autonomy, and being able to live on his own, but he is reconciled to the fact that it is a dangerous situation in which to find himself. Last year he found he could no longer drive his car too, so it was a double whammy for him. But...life goes on, as Grampa George often says. We often think of Grandpa George as a walking miracle. We sure do love that old man!

On the way back to Texas, from Phoenix we received a call from someone who is quickly becoming a very good friend of ours, Pastor Mike Grove of NorthEast, Pennsylvania. Pastor Mike advised us that his church Praise Cathedral (http://www.pccog.com) was having a missions service and they were gracious enough to invite us to their service. We leapt at the opportunity to see the missions team which had recently returned from Nicaragua! This team was the predominant reason that the school which the Church of God is building in Puerto Cabezas is still viable. This team came down in January and almost single-handedly rescued the school with their hard work, and Spiritual intercession! So we absolutely LEAPT at the opportunity to visit with them on THEIR home turf.

By the time we spent five days in North East, PA we were running up against a three day congress which is starting in Puerto Cabezas and so we had to "hot foot it" back here home to Nicaragua.

So here I sit, on my front porch in Puerto Cabezas. I am smelling the tropical flowers, sweating in the sun and thanking God for every spare breeze that comes our way. We are humbled by the priviledge to serve Him here, in this way....we don't need a vacation...we are MUCH HAPPIER to be "in harness" and working for the Lord.

God bless!

Richard and Carolyn Becton