Thoughts on human trafficking--how you can help and Bible translations

I guess today could be called random Friday! Sometimes, it just seems to happen that way.

A couple of weeks ago, Denise and Nina Mixon represented our Promise 139 Orphan Hosting Program as they had an opportunity to meet with members of the staffs of Mississippi Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker to lobby for their support of the Child Protection Compact Act of 2010 (CPCA). The CPCA will go a long way to strengthening the US position as a world leader in protecting children in targeted countries from slavery and sex trafficking. Denise, Nina, and the rest of the group were well received, and Senate committee hearings are underway considering the bill. Now is the time for the rest of the Church to be heard!

How can you help. Your Senator’s need to hear your voice clearly. They need to know that we expect our government to enact laws to restrict trade and international aid to countries who turn a deaf ear to the plight of enslaved children. International Justice Mission has prepared a website to tell you what to do. This Monday, September 20 has been set aside as a call-in day for us all to call in to our Senators’ offices and be head on this issue. Please follow this link to the IJM website for more details and make the calls on Monday on behalf of the fatherless! http://www.ijm.org/nationalcallinday

Also this morning I ran across a blog that I wanted to share. It comes from Bill Mounce. He served as the New Testament chair of the English Standard Version Bible translation, and is currently on the Committee for Bible Translation for the NIV. Mounce is a co-author of one of the best selling biblical Greek texts of all time, and he is one of the most gifted linguistic scholars we have ever known.

His blog from this past week is a great introduction for common men and women like us who try to understand the nuances of what makes a biblical translation accurate. It is worth your time to read. And, his blog is worth your time to check out periodically. It can be found here: http://www.koinoniablog.net/2010/09/mounce75.html

My source for this and many other thought provoking little tidbits is Tim Challies’ blog A La Carte which can be found at http://www.challies.com/ or you can follow him on twitter as “challies.” Thanks Tim for keeping many of us in the loop!

I hope you Friday is a great one. Look for opportunities today to be a Kingdom builder and to use your life to bring the glory to the King that He deserves!

Blessings,

Rick

One step closer to our next adoption

Just a quick update. Denise and I got word this week that we have received our appointments for fingerprinting with USCIS (the immigration service) in Jackson, MS for next Wednesday. That means that Denise, my mom and I will be heading to Jackson for a 9 a.m. appointment to have an electronic scan taken of our fingerprints so that an FBI background check can be run on us. Typically, the review takes 2-3 weeks from this point until we should receive final approval from the US government to travel.

Anyone who has followed this saga knows the story of my mom’s fingerprints, and the hassle we went through with the FBI and USCIS the last time since her prints we not readable. We are hoping to avoid a long delay and were given great reason for that hope this week! Please pray with us that the delay will be minimal. We want to be on our way, but we don’t want to be in Ukraine a minute before God has appointed for us to be there. It is a balancing act emotionally sometimes....

From the point of our approval from the US government, we could be in Ukraine within 5-6 weeks! Much has to happen, and we are just praying and waiting.

Excellent Blog on Relativism and the Ground Zero Mosque

Nancy Pearcey, the author of Total Truth, has just posted an excellent blog on moral relativism and the secularization of America and its relationship to the controversy surrounding the Ground Zero mosque. She has an excellent eye for culture, and God has gifted her with the ability to look deeply into the heart of the soul of the matter to draw out how the encroachment of secularism has provided an open forum for the incipient agenda of radical Islam in America. It is a must read for evangelical Christians. The blog can be found here: http://www.pearceyreport.com/archives/2010/09/secular_values.php