Middle East

What happened?

On January 2, the United States killed a well-known military commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Major General Qasem Soleimani, who was designated by the U.S. as a terrorist. This event has significantly increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran. 

I’ve just returned from my first trip to the Holy Land, and I’m now entering the season of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany with a new outlook on the land where Jesus was born. The trip was a collaboration among the Reformed Church in America (RCA) Women’s Transformation and Leadership, RCA missionaries Sally and Josh Vis, and PhD candidate and RCA minister Dustyn Keepers. We climbed Mt. Arbel and walked the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.

Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever.  They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.  - Psalm 112:6

1) The church in the Middle East has been persecuted for thousands of years. 

Right now, I am sitting in the Logos Center at the Saint Bishoy Monastery of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Wadi El-Natron, Egypt. Coptic and Egyptian Christians have suffered persecution for thousands of years. The Coptic (Egyptian) Church began with the martyrdom of Saint Mark in the streets of Alexandria in the first century. The persecution of Christians in the Middle East continues to persist to this day. 

Lord, hear your Easter people's prayers! We live in hope, because He lives. 

Lord, in this Holy Week as we walk with your Son to the cross and wait for resurrection, hear our prayers!

We bring our prayers to Creator God, who both "takes up our pain and bears our suffering" and will "let justice roll down like a river."

We bring our prayers to Creator God, who both "takes up our pain and bears our suffering" and will "let justice roll down like a river."

It’s been quite the year! Thanks for reading and learning along with us, as we wrestled with faith and justice with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other (Karl Barth).

Here are the top Do Justice articles (ranked by top pageviews) that got you thinking and acting in 2018: 

I currently live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the traditional home of the Anishinabe people for thousands of years. I am the daughter of colonizers and settlers, a white, American-born woman on this land. I’m not a first generation settler, but I’m a settler all the same.