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In the early church, witnessing to the resurrection of Christ and meeting needs by the power of the Holy Spirit were just part of living a normal Christian life.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini befuddled the West once again early this year, when he offered millions to anyone who would kill Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. While diplomats, publishers, and writers fumed about the outrageous murder contract, no doubt the public’s vision of Islam — and that of many Christians as well — was further blurred.

I had been in West Africa only three months when the worst thing I could imagine happened — an African worker was killed in a horrible accident in the front yard of our home. A band of armed policemen broke through the angry mob that quickly surrounded our house and arrested me, declaring that I was a criminal and would go directly to prison.

Much is being said about contextualizing our material in theological education. Scholars tell us to “Africanize” or “Asianize” our courses. We readily admit that our courses should be contextualized within the constraint of biblical absolutes, of course.

In this time of increasing concern about the welfare of the children of missionaries (MKs), we have to look at al of the significant factors, even if our search uncovers some unpleasantries.

Major Trends in the World and the Church

The decade of the 1980s was born with the sound in its ears of an indistinct rumbling as of distant thunder. As the decade winds to a close, the deadly juggernaut of AIDS, virtually unknown ten years ago, rolls relentlessly across the face of continents, threatening not only the health of their inhabitants, but the political and economic future of entire nations.

A newspaper in Ohio runs an advice column entitled “By George.” One question ran like this: “Dear George, I am looking for proof that Unidentified Flying Objects exit. Someone said you had information on this matter. Do Unidentified Flying Objects exist? And what, exactly, are they?”

Back on furlough and feeling pretty much recovered from his bout with Hepatitis B, missionary Phil Smith (not his real name) doubted it was really necessary to have his blood tested for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)—the virus that causes AIDS.

Winston Churchill spoke of that “special moment” when a person is “figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to him and fitted to his talents; what a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for the work which would have been his finest hour.”