Magazines 2013 Nov -Dec Love dispels fear

Love dispels fear

01 November 2013 By FT Staff

Our stories this issue challenge us to think Christianly.

We really did go behind the scenes for this issue, to the streets of Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Our writers were assigned to get a glimpse of what life on the street is like for prostituted women and the Christians who try to serve them.

Senior editor Karen Stiller handled the Toronto segment only three nights prior to her departure for another story in Senegal (see “Operation Christmas Child” on p.12).

“Driving home from downtown Toronto in the early hours of the next day, I thought that the enormous challenges in West Africa might actually be easier to write about than what I saw that night,” says Stiller. “As a mother and a woman, I found it extremely painful to see girls who looked as young as my 15-year-old daughter and women who looked like my friends caught in this terrible cycle.”

Faith Today columnist Doug Koop handled the Winnipeg segment. “It took me out of my comfort zone and forced me to confront some hard truths about my city and the harsh circumstances some of its citizens must endure. It was not at all frightening because love was abundantly present and love dispels fear. I’m glad I went.”

We hope you’ll be glad they went as well, when you read the challenging accounts of three nights on the mean streets of three of our cities.

We’d also like to wish you a Merry Christmas! May God bless you throughout Advent with the time to reflect on the Incarnation – how the God of the universe humbly became a human baby – and to look forward to His return!

We have a great gift for the young people in your life: Love In Action magazine, an exciting new initiative from the Love Movement. For the first issue of this free, interactive 16-page magazine, point your young friends to www.TheEFC.ca/LIA.

For other gift ideas, check our guide to charity gift catalogues. Or perhaps you’ll consider giving a Faith Today subscription to someone you love? We promise to keep producing thought-provoking, truly Canadian, Christian reading in the year ahead.

For now you can challenge yourself with Mark Buchanan’s “Grouchy God” essay or our interview with social justice leader Ron Sider or with a C. S. Lewis book you’ve never read before, as another feature suggests.

May the Holy Spirit fill us all with peace and joy – and challenge us to think and act more like Jesus.