What in the World is Going On?

Helen — Thu, 10 May 2018 01:04:20 +0000

Recently I was asked where I look for trustworthy news. The answer is, “it’s complicated.” A single reliable source for news is not really possible now and it requires work and reviewing multiple articles to develop a robust picture of what’s going on in the world. That being said, I do have my favorite “go to” places on the Internet, and here are some of them.

World News

BBC news covers much more international news than any domestic news sources, which I find woefully circumscribed in scope. I subscribe to BBC Africa, which has especially wide-ranging coverage of this vast continent.

news.google.com provides a customizable listing of headlines that is a great way to scan topics in areas and countries that interest you. Google has a default layout, but at the bottom of the section list on the left-hand side is a link for managing sections.

You can hide default sections you aren’t interested in.
You can also specify your own interests, which Google uses as search strings for displaying headlines. Some of my interests are Ethiopia, Liberia, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, and Arab Gulf.
Finally you can specify sources to search first and sources to block (I block the ones that require subscriptions to see articles or that I know are untrustworthy).

Al Jazeera provides a different perspective on news and they do some really interesting in-depth articles on topics.

Christian News

For the persecuted church, I subscribe to World Watch Monitor.

The Christian Post provides a good summary of events of interest to Christians in different areas of culture, politics, and US and world news. The articles are not deep analysis, but useful overviews.

For general Christian news, I love Tim Challies blog where he daily finds interesting articles and low-priced Kindle deals, as well as writing his own articles. I also subscribe to The Gospel Coalition. I enjoy their articles and respect their opinions on wide-ranging topics from news to Christian doctrine to movies to book reviews.

Facebook

Yes, Facebook can be a big time waster, but there are ways to filter out time wasters. I follow a number of individuals who post links and updates that are important to me. For example, Norine Brunson, Andrew Brunson’s wife, often posts updates before the news sources do.

And Just for Fun…

The Babylon Bee is my go to resource when I need a laugh. Some of the articles fall flat, but some of them are really funny. You don’t need to read the article; the headline is enough, like this one posted during the romaine lettuce scare.

The post What in the World is Going On? appeared first on Make The Vision Plain.

A New Season

Helen — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 06:03:17 +0000

It is time to take up the virtual pen once more. Three years ago I took a class at Santa Barbara City College to learn about Web site development. I did learn some skills and created a not very attractive class project. Recently I have been working on converting another site to WordPress and enjoy the freedom that using this platform brings. Once you’ve got the site set up, you can concentrate on actually writing content.

So I have begun the process of converting my old Web site to WordPress so that I can more easily keep it up to date. I plan to include regular updates to articles and discussions that I have found to be significant as well as book and film reviews. I hope my site is helpful for those looking for resources on missions and prayer. It is also a place I can feature the work of other groups who are “running with the vision.”

The theme of my site is Habakkuk 2:2. “Write the vision and make it plain that those who read may run.” I hope that those who read my blog will be inspired to run the race with clear direction and their eyes on the prize.

…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1