When Randy Alcorn told the story of Graham Staines holding his two sons—ages ten and six—in his arms as all three of them were burned to death for their faith in Christ, I was moved to tears.

A play based on Randy Alcorn's book, Safely Home.

Without a doubt, in terms of their global impact the two most significant countries on the planet are China and the United States. As recent events have shown, the countries have a profoundly uneasy relationship. Safely Home is a tale of two countries, embodied in two men, Ben Fielding and Li Quan. These characters and their families came alive for me, and I pray they will for readers too.

Three men watched intently as peculiar events occurred, one right after the other, on opposite sides of the globe. "What's happening?" asked the first, tall and dark skinned.

When Gianna Jessen spoke at our church a few weeks ago, she said many memorable things. The one that I've been thinking about is that to be a follower of Christ you need to be willing to be hated.

The protests of China as host of the Olympics come from a wide variety of people from many countries, on a variety of issues, ranging from Tibet to supplying arms to the corrupt government of Sudan in its genocidal war on Darfur (see previous post), to religious liberty.  

Sadly, last week China revoked the visa for Joey Cheek, Olympic gold-medalist and co-founder of Team Darfur, a coalition of 400 athletes from around the world speaking out about the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan.

On January 23rd of 1999, Graham and his two sons, Phillip (11 yrs.) and Timothy (6 yrs.) were murdered by a large mob of militant Hindus. They had gone to a Christian camp in the jungle, where Graham was ministering. At midnight the mob attacked, setting fire to the jeep in which Graham and his sons were sleeping. They were burned alive. When the fire finally cooled, they found the charred body of Graham Staines with his arms around the bodies of his sons.

I have very mixed feelings about the Beijing Olympics.