clipped from www.desiringgod.org

Are You Called to Papua New Guinea?

On Saturday we received the following prayer request:

Firstly, I thank God for the Desiring God ministry. I come from Papua New Guinea. My prayer and request for prayer is God give us true servants of the gospel. We (the country) need well-educated men who hear the call of God to make earthly sacrifices for the sake of the cross to take servant leadership roles in our churches. Thank you for praying with us.

-Pana

If you are interested in missions in Papua New Guinea, check out To Every Tribe Ministries. The founder, David Sitton, was a speaker at our 2006 pastors conference. You can listen to his message Missionary Martyrs: Fools for Jesus for the Nations.

clipped from www.reuters.com

Squirrel goes on rampage, injures 3

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BERLIN (Reuters) - An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.

The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said Thursday.

With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.

The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

"After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man's garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh," the spokesman said. "Then he killed it with his crutch."

The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.

clipped from king.typepad.com

Tragic news

18-year-old Kelsey Smith, who was abducted coming out of a Target Store four days ago, was found dead this afternoon.  Kelsey was very involved at Hillcrest Covenant Church where our good friend Nate Severson is the youth pastor.  We have been in tears over Kelsey's situation several times over the last couple of days.  Our Jessica was in this Target the other night on her way to camp.  I can't imagine how parents can go through this.  Kelsey's father has spoken several times with extraordinary wisdom and grace.  The Grace of God is the only explanation for the amazing response from Kelsey's family.  Please pray for Kelsey's family, friends, for Nate Severson and the rest of the staff at Hillcrest Covenant Church.  Our hearts go out to the whole church family.

clipped from www.theocentricpreaching.com

Christless Christianity

Michael Horton reminds us of the absolute importance of preaching Christ:

What would things look like if Satan actually took over a city? The first frames in our imaginative slide show probably depict mayhem on a massive scale: Widespread violence, deviant sexualities, pornography in every vending machine, churches closed down and worshipers dragged off to City Hall. Over a half-century ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse, pastor of Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church, gave his CBS radio audience a different picture of what it would look like if Satan took control of a town in America. He said that all of the bars and pool halls would be closed, pornography banished, pristine streets and sidewalks would be occupied by tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The kids would answer ‘Yes, sir,’ ‘No, ma’am,’ and the churches would be full on Sunday … where Christ is not preached.

From the May/June 2007 issue of Modern Reformation