Traveling the world with a ministry based on Christian love gives one a stri
king perspective on the Christmas season. It makes us especially grateful for your support!
It is not just the incongruity of Ugandans decorating artificial pine trees (as live Christmas trees do not grow in Uganda’s very tropical climate), nor the sight of a Christmas tree outside shops in very non-Christian India.
Rather, what strikes me as we teach Jesus’s love throughout Africa and India is the huge difference that Christ makes in the lives of His followers. If you read our earlier reports about the “hyenas” you can clearly see have that, without Christ, the world is a very different place.
“Traditional” religions – like the ones that require “widow cleansing” and the rape of young girls to appease the village ancestors – have no ethical requirements, let alone an injunction to “love one another” as God loves us. Indeed, the traditional gods do not really care about human beings. And in turn, as Evangelical Fellowship of India General Secretary Dr. Richard Howell says, “The kind of God you worship is the kind of person you will be.” If your god does not love you, there will be little love wasted between human beings.
This is what disturbs us when we visit areas that are dominated by traditional religions: We can feel the lack of love. We can feel the indifference, the fear and insecurity, the entitlement and greed. We can feel the evil that lurks below the surface.
Jesus’s coming and His teachings changed the world in a very real way. We feel that, too, where Christ prevails. But too often, Christians have not been taught the full meaning of Jesus’s teachings. Often, the Spirit teaches them to love each other, but, because they are still caught up in their traditional cultures, people are afraid to act as the Spirit
instructs them. Remember, until they heard our message, even the Christian pastors supported the practice of the hyena. But because of our message, things in these places have begun to change. Girls are being protected instead of exploited. Marriages are healed and changed.
At Empower, we give biblical support to what the Spirit teaches us about loving each other. About protecting the vulnerable among us. About cherishing and caring for each other in marriage, family, church, and community.
This is the true meaning of Christmas. “For God so loves the cosmos that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
We are able to bring this life-changing good news to people all over the world because of you! Your generosity has enabled us to reach hundreds of people this year, and with your continued help, we’ll be able to reach even more in 2017. So much is at stake: the welfare of vulnerable women and girls, the very structure of the family, the strength of the local church.
Your donation will enable us to bring the good news of a loving God, who invites his followers to love one another, to people all over the world. Please join us in bringing the life-changing message of God’s love to those who need it. Click here to donate today, or send your gift to Empower International Ministries, 14032 Enderle Center Drive, Suite 201
Tustin, CA 92780.