Wednesday, November 21, 2007

So what am I doing here at 10:00pm?

Alright, so it's not really that late... still I'm just about falling asleep so if this post is so utterly incoherent then ash mblag ergh...

*ahem*

So I haven't really been writting here very often hey... as one of my friends put it the other day "You must be feeling very relaxed... no blog posts for ages!"

And the odd thing is, I am actually relaxed! I've only got four assesments to go (one exam and three assignments) and the end is in sight! Hoorah!

Mum, as with everything, puts this new state of mind down to my new gluten freeness but I don't know that it's entirely the reason... but I think that may be a topic for another blog... oh yes, I actually have direction in this one :)

Tonight, instead of the usual bible study at Flo, we took a brief (too brief) look at the persecuted church. It was so humbling to hear about some of the things a Christian in the Sudan or Indonesia has to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

To give you an idea of the sorts of things we looked at, Christians in China are at risk of being arrested purely for hosting a home group in their homes. They are tortured and forced to give up names of the others in their group. In the Sudan, southern christians (there are none in the North as it's the muslim demographic) are displaced, forced to leave the country or enslaved by the jihad which is sponsored by the government. Oh and forced conversion to Islam is legal. In Indonesia, the largest muslim country by percentage in the world, churches are frequently attacked and destroyed along with the people...

The thing that struck me was that the most I have to deal with in my average day, is a brief flicker of a disgusted expression across someone's face the minute I mention Christianity. To think that the thought of someone not liking me terrifies me, I wonder what I'd do, faced with the possibility that I could be arrested or killed for the Bible...

I definitely take the fact that I live in a free country (don't scoff; no matter how bad IR laws are treating you, it's true.) and that we are free to believe what we want to. I need to be more thankful for the fact that the most persecution I have to deal with now is someone "christian-bashing" to my face or indirectly.

God is so good.

Nehoo, I'll get down off my soap box now and go and sleep... I have an exam on Friday....

:)