¡Viva la Vida!

"Generation Islam" - Christiane Amanpour's CNN Special Report

CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour recently filed a special report on the upcoming generations across the Muslim world in Generation Islam.  Here are the youtube links to the special:

GENERATION ISLAM PART 1

GENERATION ISLAM PART 2

GENERATION ISLAM PART 3

GENERATION ISLAM PART 4

GENERATION ISLAM PART 5

GENERATION ISLAM PART 6

GENERATION ISLAM PART 7

GENERATION ISLAM PART 8

GENERATION ISLAM PART 9

GENERATION ISLAM PART 10

GENERATION ISLAM PART 11

Murder's Thirsty Slake

For the second time this month

gunman gunman gunman gunman gunman

Have burst into a rehab center

And murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered

And murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered

And murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered

And murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered

And murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered and murdered

And murdered and murdered and murdered

Go ahead and count them:

Eighteen + ten more in murder's thirsty slake.

-The News Story Here

Duck, Duck, Goose ... (Pato, Pato, Ganso)

Peeps, II: J-Mo

Continuing on with the theme of "getting to know our peeps," we thought we'd stay in the artistic vein and present to you another very interesting character known to us as "J-Mo."  His real name is Jeziel Molina García and he's a musician who loves to compose great music.  While J-Mo prefers heavy metal to pop, his musical abilities are actually quite versatile.  He composed the musical score for the popular Easter play "La Espina" (The Thorn) as well as his own project called "Azmaveth" (a Hebrew word which means stronger than death) which is an album focusing on spiritual warfare.  In putting together the Azmaveth project, Jeziel has involved my family - Jan sang while the boys and I did voice-over narrations.  J-Mo is a good friend to our family and it's a delight to know him.  We'll keep everyone posted when the album comes out! 

Foto at right:  Xochitl getting ready to record a song to be put on the "Azmaveth" album while J-Mo coaches her on the finer points of what he's looking for.   

One of our peeps

We thought we'd do some profiles of some of the people we are personally discipling.  We'll start with Candy, a talented and vivacious girl who is part of our Thursday night Missions Discipleship Group.  Candy grew up in our church, El Centro de Fe "El Carmen," and is the oldest of three sisters.  Something that really defines Candy is her creativity - she loves drama, photography and writing. 

One of the things that makes our life interesting is the mix of personalities and giftings of the people who surround us.  We encourage our peeps to be themselves and to avoid the "cookie cutter" Christian mentality.  We are all striving to be imitators of God, as the apostle Paul exhorted us, and it's a beautiful thing to see how each person embodies this in different ways.  We are truly fortunate to have Candy in our life and we're encouraged daily by both her godly example and her quirky originality.