Faith News Network

The 2018 Ministerial Internship Program (MIP) Commissioning Celebration was an outstanding success with tremendous preaching from Dr. Tim Hill, general overseer, and Dr. David Ramírez, assistant general overseer. Dr. Ramírez preached a challenging message to go into the world to reach the harvest on Friday night, and Dr. Hill preached a powerful message on being empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit on Saturday morning. After the message, Dr. Hill led the administrative bishops, international office leaders, state leaders, and supervising pastors in praying a commission prayer for the MIP candidates and their spouses.

Each year I try to think of how to depict Memorial Day in Israel in a way that’s meaningful and juxtapose it in relation to how it’s observed in the US. Many thoughts race through my head. And each year I see Memorial Day through a different prism.

After Elisha watched Elijah ascend into heaven, the prophet went to the city of Jericho and performed his first miracle. The men of that city faced an environmental crisis: Their water was toxic, most likely because of the sulfur and other chemicals that had rained down upon nearby Sodom and Gomorrah years earlier. This poison had made the land barren (see 2 Kings 2:19-22) and it was affecting people and animals as well as plant life.