So my latest ultrasound checked for kidney stones. What showed up?

Not the first, that caused the attack in November, 2006. It disappeared.

Nor the second and third, which showed up at the same time, and were still visible in August, 2007. They, too, have disappeared.

Nor the fourth, that was the last, in my right kidney. The technician can’t understand it. Gone.

It’s like the x-ray of my head — the tests showed nothing! I can leave for the international missions conference in peace.

I may take kidney stones for granite, but I don’t take God for granted.

Ken & Marge MacGowan

His return to Malawi shook him. In the December 27 edition of The Times, Matthew Parris, a self-proclaimed atheist, returned to Malawi after 45 years. “Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa…”, he admits. He goes on to say,

• “faith does more than support the missionary; it is transferred to his flock”;
• “the (African) Christians were always different… their faith seems to have liberated and relaxed them”;
• “they stood tall”
• “whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people…”

He discusses the effect of the Christian faith on African work ethic, and anxiety and fear of evil spirits. Marge and I first moved to African 39 years ago. We agree. Faith in Jesus Christ helps Africans — and Canadians!

Ken MacGowan