SLAVERY CONTINUES IN CHINA
Oct. 22, 1998. A Christian wants his imprisoned friends freed. Shen Xianfeng protested the Chinese government's labeling his house church movement a cult and called on officials to release his fellow believers from forced-labor camps. Sixteen leaders of the China Evangelical Fellowship, including Shen, were given 2-to-3 year sentences in labor camps in 1998. Shen, who was released for medical reasons, said Christians are abused in prison.
..."We were constantly interrogated, beaten, and exposed to the cold wind of an electric fan in severe winter conditions," he told Compass Direct News. Shen, from Henan province, said his group is not a cult but is orthodox in faith and patriotic in outlook. Protestant churches not connected with the government-sponsored Three-Self Patriotic Movement are often labeled cults to justify legal action against them, he said. Henan has seen the largest church growth of all China's provinces, and it is estimated that 10-to-20 million believers may live there.

ATTACKS ON AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCHES DECREASING.
Oct. 22, 1998. Attacks on U.S. churches have decreased but still are numerous. The National Church Arson Task Force reports that arsons, bombings, and attempted bombings are down since 1996, when there were 297 violent incidents against churches; there have been 114 in 1998. The task force said it has not uncovered evidence of a national conspiracy to burn churches, particularly African-American ones in the South, United Press International said.

EMBRACING "ENEMIES" WITH LOVE
Oct. 22, 1998. The U.S. ambassador to Vietnam is a Christian and former prisoner of war. Douglas Peterson, 63, spent six-and-a-half years in Hanoi's Hoa Lo prison. He lives and works at the U.S. Embassy, 15 minutes away. Peterson said his faith helped him overcome hatred caused by torture and solitary confinement. "I was taught in church to forgive. During my stay in prison, my faith in God was all that sustained me. How could I be true to my Christian faith if I did not come back and try to bridge the river of pain between America and Vietnam?" Peterson visited his former captors a few months after arriving in the country last year. About 4,000 people in An Doui village came to see the former Air Force fighter pilot. He and the Vietnamese soldier who captured him embraced and became friends.

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What does it mean to grow up "less than human" as a slave?

What does slavery do to the human soul?

What happens to the mind?

What about deviating memories that haunt victims into a peace-less existence?

Most of us have painful memories that haunt us. Bad things have happened to us through the hands of others. We have made bad choices. Such incidents are painfully imprinted into our memory and soul. We can replay those memories and feel them all over again. It takes time to work through these things. But work through them we must. Or, they will ruin everything else in our life. Such memories can grow and dominate just as pregnant Beloved did in the film.

We can not win in isolation. We need to expose our problems to the light of day and gain the help of those who care.

Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room. Luke 11:33-36 Msg.
Jesus said, "No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It's put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they're going. Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar.  Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don't get musty and murky.   Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room."

This is the crisis we're in ...addicted to denial and illusion. John 3:19-21 Msg.
Jesus said, "This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God.  Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure.  But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is."

Hate and God's light. 1 John 2:9-10 Msg.
Anyone who claims to live in God's light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark.  It's the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God's light and doesn't block the light from others.

But if we walk in the light...  1 John 1:7 Msg.
But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God's Son, purges all our sin.

The difficulties in life are intended to make us better not bitter.

The best way out of difficulty is through it.

Despite all the pain and trouble, life is still better than the alternative.

A person's most fervent prayers are not said when on their knees, but when they are flat on their back.

Invite trouble and it will usually come.

Troubles are like babies -the more you nurse them, the larger they grow.