Linda and I sponsor a 9 year old girl in rural El Salvador, and now we’ve “adopted” an al-Qaeda operations planner, location unknown. Yes, we’ve adopted a terrorist… for prayer.
Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Now there’s a web site that helps us do that: www.atfp.org
“Adopt a Terrorist fro Prayer” allows you to focus prayer on a known terrorist, resulting in spiritual transformation for yourself and contributing to the decline of terrorism (and possibly terrorists coming to know Christ!)
From the atfp.org web site:
“Where is the Christian response to terrorism? If the struggle against violence done in the name of Islam is primarily spiritual, then defeating it requires a spiritual response.
This site features FBI and State Department identified terrorists and terrorism sponsors. Terrorism inspires fear. According to Jesus, the antidote to fear is love.”
Can you adopt a terrorist for prayer?

There’s no denying the reality – you and I are connected to the world.
Today, because of a leader in Libya (Gadhafi) chose to remain in office in defiance of the demonstrators, you lost money because the stock market reacted and went down by 180 points. And your gas will become more expensive because the price of oil rose 9% today because of Libya’s unrest. You and I cannot avoid the impact of living in a globally-connected reality.
As followers of Jesus we cannot isolate ourselves and be unconcerned about the world. God points his people to the world (“Go into all the world…”) – so how are you engaging globally? It might be praying for the headlines, or supporting a missionary, or bringing an exchange student into your home. Or perhaps you might take a short-term mission trip. God so loved the world… let’s make sure we reflect his heart.

I’m getting excited about the first-ever IGNITE conference set for April 2 at our Cranberry campus. Yes there’s going to be great teaching, but we’re praying for an encounter with God so that the Holy Spirit lights a passion within us; a passion to know Christ, to take major risks of obedience to reach our communities and renew our churches.
Dave Browning is going to be a keynote speaker- Dave is the visionary leader for the Christ the King movement of churches, recognized as one of the most innovative and fastest-growing in the country. I’ll be teaching a session too. And I am really looking forward to the time we’ll spend in worship; when we’ll  allow God access to our hearts, which is where the deepest changes are needed.
Waves of calls have already started coming in, so jump on board! It’s just $10, which includes lunch and a free book by Dave Browning  (such a deal!) We should have a link to register real soon, but in the meantime, you can register by calling the Crossroads office: 412-494-9999.

In France on an exploratory trip, I visited 4 cities in one week: Paris, Montpellier, St. Raphael, and Marseilles.
Frane is one of the least evangelized nations in the world. Less than 1% of the country has a relationship with Christ. There are 10 times more Muslims than evangelical Christians, and 10 times more professional occultists (clairvoyants, mediums, etc.) than pastors. Protestants were virtually driven out of the country by violent persecutions in the 17th century.
I stayed for a couple of days  at the home of Bertrand de Maldeprade – a pastor I am coaching.  Here’s a short interview with him.

Didier Vallée is the pastor of Chapelle Protestante in Montpellier, France. The church is located in a university town in the south of France. Here he shares a bit about his vision for the church.