Genocide Archives

Art Lessons

I have long admired the painters amongst us and the art lessons they provide. My Godmother Nola was a painter. Frankly, she was an artist of many talents — painter, wordsmith, dancer. That’s her magnificent tree giving shelter to a young couple on the left. I admired this painting for years, and now it hangs in my entry way, reminding me daily of the many lessons Nola left behind. Art lessons and life lessons.

One of those lessons was this: notice all the beauty of God’s handiwork.

Tears of Gold

Of course, each one of us is God’s handiwork (Ephesians 2:10), and as the ultimate artist, God makes a masterpiece of all our lives. This is a truth that guides Han nah Rose Thomas‘ artwork. I had the very good fortune of spending an afternoon with this young British artist and human rights activist a few weeks back. Hannah is trained in the early Renaissance and iconography style. Those are two of her portraits above, next to Nola’s tree.

Hannah has climbed deep into the pain and sadness of some of the world’s most desperate women, listening to their stories and helping them process traumatic memories, heal, and rediscover a sense of self-worth and dignity. She has conducted art workshops with survivors of rape, religious persecution and genocide in Jordan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Romania.

“Art is a way to express that which we cannot find words to express,” she says. Hannah has recently released a collection of her portraits in a volume titled, Tears of Gold from Plough Publishing. It includes a foreword written by His Majesty King Charles III.

Anniversary of Yazidi Genocide

Anniversary of Yazidi Genocide I enjoy the algorithm-generated post Facebook hits me with each morning — recycled digital memories of happy times with people I love. It’s my daily scrapbook moment, like pulling the photo album off the shelf for a quick peek at the past.

A memory popped up recently from five years ago. It shows our family gathered to celebrate my youngest daughter’s high school graduation. An assortment of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents gleefully surrounds my daughter, clothed in cap and gown and a broad smile. It was a good day, a milestone day.

A grimmer memory from five years ago also popped up — this one on my news feeds. It was not a good day, but it was a milestone. August 3rd marks the 5th anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide in Syria and Northern Iraq. Continue reading “Anniversary of Yazidi Genocide”

BOOK REVIEW: Is Jesus Worth It? A Review of ‘The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected’

“The Insanity of God” is an intense book depicting the struggles, heartbreak and power of God evident in the lives of Nik and Ruth Ripken.

(This article originally appeared at The Philos Project)

As midlife crises go, Nik Ripken’s was a whopper. After years of blood, sweat and toil, his life’s work lay in ruins. His enterprise had failed, he was forced to flee his home, and he buried his beloved son, all in the span of a few months. Not surprisingly, Ripken was left with hard questions – just not the questions one might expect.

Ripken is a missionary. He and his wife Ruth followed their hearts to Africa in the mid-1980s, serving first in Malawi and then in South Africa. In 1991, with a young family in tow, they traveled to Somaliland, a region in northwestern Somalia devastated by drought and civil war. In the face of total societal collapse, the Ripkens aimed to bring humanitarian relief to a desperate people, and in so doing, demonstrate the love of God to an un-churched people.

Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW: Is Jesus Worth It? A Review of ‘The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith Resurrected’”

ARTICLE: Will Pope Francis Raise Awareness of Today’s Genocide in the Middle East?

(This article originally appeared in The Christian Post)

When Pope Francis arrives in the U.S. this week, there are many who hope he will again speak the word that global leaders have been reluctant to speak: Genocide. In remarks made last June while in Bolivia, the Holy Father proclaimed, “Today we are dismayed to see how the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus…a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end.”

It is hard to ignore the horrifying images of the humanitarian crisis gripping northern Iraq and Syria in recent years: families struggling atop Mount Sinjar in a desperate attempt to flee ISIS death squads…ethnic minorities gunned down en mass for refusing to abandon their faith…the wholesale destruction of historical monuments and holy places.

Yet these images are incongruous with our modern sensibilities. Such barbarous accounts are more consistent with the brutality of the Middle Ages. Surely in the enlightened 21st Century we have learned from past mistakes.

Continue reading “ARTICLE: Will Pope Francis Raise Awareness of Today’s Genocide in the Middle East?”