be.encouraged

be encouraged by stories from around the world

Imam Goes To Church In Egypt

An Imam, accompanied by hundreds of Muslims, visits a church in Egypt to express their solidarity with Christians. Watch what happens… Imam Goes To Church In Egypt

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Argentine Mum Rescues Sex Slaves

Associated Press/Victor R. Caivano – President Cristina Fernandez, right, applauds as Susana Trimarco, left, lifts a human rights prize given by the president during a rally to mark the 29th anniversary of …more By EMILY SCHMALL | Associated Press – Tue, Dec 11, 2012  LA PLATA, Argentina (AP) — Susana Trimarco was a housewife who fussed over her family and paid scant attention to […]

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Imam And Pastor Pray At Bomb Site

Faith leaders pray at scene of bomb blast in Kenya 27 Nov 2012 Alan Channer Seven people were killed by a bomb that tore through a bus in the Nairobi suburb of Eastleigh on Sunday 18 November. Imam Muhammad Ashafa training faith leaders in Nairobi At the time of the explosion, Imam Muhammad Ashafa and […]

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The World’s ‘Poorest’ President

Jose Mujica: The world’s ‘poorest’ president By Vladimir HernandezBBC Mundo, Montevideo It’s a common grumble that politicians’ lifestyles are far removed from those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay. Meet the president – who lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay. Laundry is strung outside the house. The water […]

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Malala: “I Want To Serve Humanity”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai ( born 12 July 1997)[2][3] is a school student from the town of Mingora in Swat District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. She is known for her education and women’s rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban has at times banned girls from attending school.[4][3] In early 2009, at the age […]

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Violence Is On The Decline

As surely as you are reading this, you will have recently read about some shocking act of violence. Somewhere in the world there will be a terrorist bombing, a senseless murder, a bloody insurrection. It’s impossible to learn about these catastrophes without thinking, “What is the world coming to?” But a better question may be, […]

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Remembering Walter Wink, Peacemaker And Teacher

For more than 30 years, Walter Wink preached about the dangers of violence and unchecked powers in our world. He influenced countless men and women. Simply mentioning his name in a community—and seeing what response one gets—signals a lot about the culture of peacemaking in that community. Know Wink’s work? Then, this is a group […]

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Heat, Hope, & Hootenanny: The Holy Spirit Gets Cooking At Wild Goose

by Andrew William Smith 06-26-2012 On a swelteringly hot solstice weekend in the southeast, a couple thousand folks gathered in the woods of North Carolina to get their collective goose cooked. An early summer camp like no other, this second annual festival invokes a Celtic image of the Holy Spirit and sparks unlikely convergences inside […]

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House of Hope

TIM ELLIOTT Lisa and Jon Owen at the Bidwill Community Centre, which they help run. Photo: Damian Bennett In one of Sydney’s toughest suburbs, a remarkable couple have thrown open their doors to whoever needs shelter, food and love. Tim Elliott meets good neighbours Lisa and Jon Owen. Heroin has a way of complicating your life, […]

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How Keir Hardie Kept the Faith

Bob Holman In 1899 in Glasgow, Keir Hardie, arguably the main founder of the Labour Party, launched a furious attack on Lord Overtoun in a pamphlet called White Slaves. Overtoun was a rich factory owner, a donor to charities and an evangelical Christian who criticised the local authority for allowing trams to run on Sundays. […]

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God’s truth, believers are nicer

Simon Smart September 9, 2011 OPINION   I’m getting ready to duck, but don’t shoot the messenger. The results are in: religious people are nicer. Or so says Robert Putnam, professor of public policy at Harvard. Described by London’s Sunday Times as the most influential academic in the world today, Putnam is not a religious […]

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The Muslim Who Saved Jews

21 December 2011 Last updated at 00:58 GMT By Brian Wheeler BBC News, Washington Thousands of Iranian Jews and their descendants owe their lives to a Muslim diplomat in wartime Paris, according to a new book. In The Lion’s Shadow tells how Abdol-Hossein Sardari risked everything to help fellow Iranians escape the Nazis. Eliane Senahi […]

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