Two Ways to Face a Problem

Invited to be present as a small book club met to discuss “In Borrowed Houses,” I answered some question by explaining that in Lebanon all the big political leaders had their own militias. The group could easily see that this created a ready-made civil war situation, and this caused a few people to feel immediately […]

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In What Do We Hope?

Two months ago I posted a blog called, “A Propitious Moment.” (You can see it on this page.) In that article I named six things I really want for our world, things I believe in enough to take a stand and sacrifice for. At the end I asked readers to comment, stating their own wishes. […]

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Egyptian Christian Martyrs

I am sharing with you an English translation of a poem written for and published in a tract from the Egyptian Bible Society. It will help readers see the heart of our Christian comrades in Egypt. Two rows of men walked the shore of the sea, On a day when the world’s tears would run […]

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Snow, Then and Now

“On Sunday rain and sleet and snow fell all day and the hills around us turned white—from a few kilometers up the road, all the way to the top of Mt. Sunnin, and along the road to Damascus. Our house was oblivious to the cold.” This is the final paragraph of a tiny section called […]

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A Propitious Moment

February 18, 2015 A CNN poll has come up with an astonishing statistic: 62% of the American people want the US to be neutral in Middle East conflicts! For fourteen years this country has been sending its young people into Afghanistan and Iraq to kill or be killed. We have been fighting dictators, defending the […]

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ISIS Is Testing My Resolve

February 4, 2015 ISIS is testing my resolve. I determined a long time ago to see everyone as part of the human race. Some people are different and hard to understand; some are mean spirited; some are thieves; some are murderers; some seem to lack all empathy with others; some are devious liars; some are […]

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Today’s News

January 20, 2015 Today’s news from the Middle East resonates powerfully with emotional memories for people who lived in Lebanon during the era of In Borrowed Houses, and illustrates the way current events are the down-stream flow of what happened in the past. The Beirut Daily Star tells me that early today a sea of […]

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Let the Children Be Children

November 24, 2014 He was just a little kid, maybe nine years old, no more. You might have seen him on television. He stood facing the camera, raised a skinny arm and his childish voice and recited an Arabic slogan he had memorized, something to the effect that what they have done in Iraq they […]

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Why ISIS Will Never Die (A Guest Blog)

November 4, 2014 The following essay is really a letter written to my husband, Wayne, by Tim Smith, who was a missionary kid in the Middle East when we were there.  I like what he said and can’t say it better.   FF ****** I have been mulling over ISIL for a while and finally […]

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Why I Can’t Be Silent

October 10, 2014 So long as there is evil in the world, there will be bad people who claim to be Muslims and bad people who claim to be Christians. Nevertheless there will be religious and social principals that caution us against maligning either as a group. Though I believe in these and in lots […]

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