Samaritan’s Purse has a long history in Sudan having spent over $100 million to help the Sudanese people. The organization has rebuilt 478 churches in South Sudan that were destroyed during the country’s long civil war.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Christian author Eric Metaxas says that as a young man he rejected religion, in part, because he hated the hypocrisy of people who claimed to be religious. But Metaxas told thousands attending the National Prayer Breakfast that when he trusted Jesus Christ, he realized that the real “Jesus was, and is the enemy of dead religion.” Today, he said Jesus expects Christians to love antagonists who may call them bigots for upholding biblical morality.

UNDATED (FR) – It’s time for the “Big Game”. But it’s not all about football. Many fans will also be participating in the SOUPER BOWL. The youth led movement to help hungry and hurting people around the world grew out of a prayer offered at a Presbyterian church in Columbia, South Carolina more than two decades ago. Youth involved in the Souper Bowl of Caring are asked to collect money at their churches or schools and then send every dollar to the charity of their choice. Since 1990–$81 million dollars has been raised for soup kitchens and food banks across the country. The National Souper Bowl of Caring organization only asks for the total amount collected to be entered at the website.
www.souperbowl.org

EL CERCADO, Mexico (AP) – The bodies of John and Wanda Casias have been brought one last time to the Baptist church they founded in a violence-plagued region of northern Mexico. Mourners paid tribute Thursday to the Texas couple who were found strangled in their home. John and Wanda Casias were originally from Amarillo, Texas, but relatives said they moved to an area outside the city of Monterrey in the late 1970s and founded the First Fundamentalist Independent Baptist Church. John Casias said his parents devoted 29 years of their lives to their ministry in Mexico and spent each day in prayer and saving souls. He added that they were aware of the violence around them and the risks, but were so secure in their faith that they did not fear it.

BOONE, N. C. (FR) – Franklin Graham has issued a statement on the bombing of a Bible College in Sudan.
My staff and I are deeply concerned for the welfare and lives of the people in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan who were terrorized by yesterday’s bombings of the Heiban Bible College. The attack was carried out by Sudanese Air Force planes that dropped eight bombs on the school that Samaritan’s Purse, built and dedicated in 2007 to train local pastors. It was a miracle that no one on campus was injured or killed in the attacks.
Samaritan’s Purse has a long history in Sudan having spent over $100 million to help the Sudanese people. The organization has rebuilt 478 churches in South Sudan that were destroyed during the country’s long civil war.

Prepared by Don Rupp – derupp@nwc.edu – 651-631-5031

Come hear the story from the gospel of Mark during an evening with Michael Card in Maranatha Hall Thursday March 22nd at 7pm.

Michael Card is an award-winning musician, performing artist and writer of “El Shaddai,” “Immanuel” and many other songs. He has produced over twenty albums. He has also written numerous books, including A Sacred Sorrow, A Violent Grace, The Parable of Joy and Sleep Sound in Jesus (a children’s book). A graduate of Western Kentucky University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biblical studies, Card also serves as mentor to many younger artists and musicians, teaching courses on the creative process and calling the Christian recording industry into deeper discipleship. Card lives in Tennessee with his wife and four children.

The couple’s son, Judah Casias said, “There’s no doubt that they’re going to be remembered as martyrs…they loved God and died in the battlefield for God.” A safe and electronics were discovered missing from their home after the two were killed. Their deaths mark the second slaying of American missionaries in that region of Mexico in a year.