The Four Stooges

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This is what four guys look like after talking theology until 1:30 in the morning. Precious times with three of my favorite guys in the whole world!

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Happy Monday!

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Country Profile: Bangladesh

A few facts on Bangladesh:

1). It has the largest single unreached people group in the world - the Shaikh muslim people. See Joshua Project here and here. There is a 0.00% status of professing evangelical Christians among their 130 million. And that's a very broad accounting considering we are using the two terms "professing" and "evangelical." But even still 0.00%.

How does that break down practically? That means, you won't find 1 professing Christian among ten thousand people, nor would you find 100 professing Christians among 1 million of the Shaikh muslims. Perhaps the statistics are way wrong... that would be great, but it's probably wishful thinking.

2). Surprisingly this is the same people that William Carey went to in 1793. Technically he was right across the border in Calcutta, but essentially it was the same people and same language, Bengali/Bangla. He translated their bible in 1801 with revisions in later years.

3). Bangladesh has the highest population density of any country in the world. It's a bit smaller than Missouri, but 30 times more populated. For all my Missouri friends, imagine 30 St. Louises, 30 Kansas Cities, 30 Springfields, 30 Bransons, 30 Jeff Cities, 30 Columbias, 30 Kirksvilles, and 30 La Platas. That's alot of people. 90% Muslim, 10% Hindu, 0% Christian.

4). It's extremely impoverished. I'm told the capital city, Dhaka, which is bigger than Missouri alone (6 million people) has 1/3 of the people living in the slums.

5). Currently HCMS supports 5 local evangelists in some of the tribal Hindu villages. Though apparently in the cities things are somewhat safe and Christianity is not illegal, in these tribal Hindu villages there is much persecution. Pray for these brothers literally risking their necks for the sake of the name! Through the limited involvement our local church has had with these men, we know that the believers among the tribes are beaten and threatened frequently.

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Here are some pictures. What is the Lord up to in this part of the world and with this people? Believe me, he sees and watches all that happens and knows each person by name, and even each hair on their head. Is this the next Nineveh that will receive the Lord's mercy in the gospel? My question is, why has the gospel not taking hold here? 200 years ago they had William Carey the "father of modern missions" translate their bible! Today among the muslims ... 0.00% Christian.

May God be glorified through Jesus Christ among these people.

Three Sweet APODs

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There have been several really nice Astronomy Pictures of the Day over the last couple of weeks. Here are three that I thought were especially good:

Smile in the Sky

A Happy Sky Over Los Angeles

Fireball Over Edmonton

If you haven't already, this is really a site you should bookmark especially if you have any interest at all in astronomy.

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An Especially Breathtaking APOD

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See it here.

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Autumn Around the World

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34 Autumn Photos From Around the World

HT: Challies

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Earth From Above - Must See!!!

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"Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand will bring his work back to the United States - to New York City for the first time in 2009. Aiming to inspire people to think globally about sustainable living, Arthus-Bertrand has been photographing unique views of our planet, seen from the sky, since 1994 - and has produced an exhibit of over 150 4-ft. by 6-ft. prints which will be on display in New York City at the World Financial Center Plaza and along the Battery Park City Esplanade from May 1, 2009 to June 28, 2009. When completed in New York City, the Earth From Above exhibit will also move on to California in 2010."

Here is a sample of 38 pictures from the exhibit. Breathtaking!

HT: Challies

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Pictures of Fire and Ice

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My friend Mike (whose pictures adorn our blog) recently returned from a trip to Iceland, the "land of fire and ice," and has now begun posting from pictures from his trip on his photoblog. Below are a few of my favorites.

When he posted the first photo above, Mike included this quote from Ansel Adams, which I appreciated:

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”

And then I found this quote from Adams independently, which I thought was appropriate as well:

“Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.”

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Who'll Stop the Rain

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Here are some amazing pictures of part of the flooding that took place over the last couple of weeks up in Iowa. Having grown up in northeast Iowa, I spent quite a bit of time in several of the hardest-hit cities, like Waterloo/Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids. Seeing these pictures is shocking, to say the least.

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More Rocks

I've still been thinking about really big rocks ever since I read Psalm 61. What amazing creation!

A Cool Shot from Mikero.com