Bridge of Grace

In December of 2017 I made my first visit to the nation of Pakistan.  It was during this visit that I witnessed slavery with my own eyes.  On several occasions, I accompanied my hosts to visit Pakistanis working in brick kilns.  I learned during my visit that families who live in these kilns are forced to work 14-16 hours a day, 7 days a week, to make bricks.  Each family is only paid $10 a day for their labor.  It is impossible for families to survive on such a low wage, which forces them to borrow money from the landlord who owns the kiln, placing the family in permanent debt that they can never pay off.  I was even more horrified to learn that children as young as 7 are also forced to work as slaves.   Visiting Slave Children During My Second Trip Prior to my trip, I had read Malala's Yousafzai's book and was deeply moved about how this courageous young Pakistani girl It was upon witnessing this that my Pakistani friends and I made th...

During my studies of the Bible, I became confirmed of something that I had already known for some time: Church Leaders don't always tell the truth.  Many of these lies, both past and present, are taught be various pastors and laymen for numerous denominations all over the world.  In most cases, these lies are told because they fail to understand what Jesus is actually telling us.  They only read portions of the scriptures and fail to read it in its entirety, or they read the Gospels and come to the wrong conclusion about what is being said to us.  Steve McVey's books serves to illustrate to us that even to this day, Church leaders and laymen alike can often misinterpret or distort the scriptures, but the scriptures themselves remain unchanged because God's eternal Truth never changes.  The message of God is straightforward it is a message of eternal love.   Let us take a look at a few of the lies that are we may have heard over the years:  Li...

Dilek is a Christian from Sudan who fled to Egypt to escape the ongoing persecution within his native country.  During his last incarceration in the Sudan, Dilek was imprisoned and beaten by Sudanese authorities for three days.  Though released, Dilek was kept under constant surveillance for months, which ultimately made him decide to leave his country.  Prior to this arrest, Dilek had been born to a Muslim household.  His father had three wives, who bore him 24 children.  All of his life, Dilek's parents taught their children to hate Christianity.  When he was a teenager, Dilek acquired a Bible.  His purpose was to disprove it so he could convince his Christian classmates that Islam was the truth.  Instead, the opposite happened.  Dilek became a believer.   Dilek's conversion was soon discovered by his family.  His father began to beat him regularly and even had his brother, a government official, to throw his own son in jail....

In the year 2013 Dominia's husband passed away.  Poverty and lack of care from her husband's parents forced Dominia & her three preteen children to move into a poor neighborhood and live with little income.  Making matters worse, Dominia fell into illness and none of the medical treatments seemed to be working.  Her physician, who happened to be a Christian, suggested an alternative treatment method: prayer.  Dominia took her physician's advice, and asked Jesus to heal her of her ailment.  Amazingly, Dominia began to feel better and her illness went away.   Stunned by this, Dominia began to reconsider her long-time Islamic faith and began praying for God to reveal Himself to her.  Soon afterward, Dominia witnessed a vision of Christ and felt immediate peace.  Noticing her change, Dominia's children also turned to Jesus, and the family soon began to attend church in Cairo.   Sadly, Dominia's struggles were not over.  Within ...

Krystafer is a Church leader for the Coptic Christian Church in Egypt.  The church is one of the oldest in the world.  They trace their lineage to the First Century AD with the ministry of Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark, widely considered to be the earlies of the Four Gospels of the New Testament.  Today, the Coptic Church composes roughly 10% of Egypt's population and the face ongoing discrimination within their homeland.  Coptic Christian girls are routinely kidnapped and forced to covert to Islam and marry Muslim men.  Islamist terrorists continually target their churches or kill groups of Christians.  Many Copts choose to keep to their own communities.  Few are willing to share the Gospel with their Muslim neighbors out of fear of violent reprisal, but their are some, like Krystafer, who are not afraid. Many Coptic Priests will not baptize Muslims who choose to turn to Christ, but Krystafer does so, for he sees his work as fulfilling Jesus'...

Sanjana grew up in an Islamic household in an agricultural community in Upper Egypt.  In her family, violence was a way of life.  They had a reputation of being a family of fighters, who used guns to settle conflicts.  However, Sanjana was always moved by how her Coptic Christian classmates humbly accepted beatings and never struck back, or even gave in to hate.  At age 13, Sanjana began to ask one of her Christian neighbors about their faith.  Sanjana's neighbor explained their faith to her for the next two years and gave her a copy of the Gospel of Matthew, which she hid from her family.  Eventually, Sanjana became convinced about the Truth of the Gospel and chose to give her life to Christ.   Sanjana's family soon realized that something was off when she had stopped saying her daily Islamic prayers.  When Sanjana decided to confess to them that she has accepted Christ, her father immediately began to beat her and demand that she conve...