Christ Returns from the Jungle


Book Description

After more than 450 years of European intrusions into South America's rainforest, small groups of people across Europe now gather discreetly to participate in Amazonian ceremonies their local governments consider a criminal act. As devotees of a new Brazil-based religion called Santo Daime, they claim that they contact God by way of ayahuasca, a potent psychoactive beverage first developed by native communities in pre-Columbian Amazonia. This bitter, brown liquid is a synergy of plants containing DMT, a mind-altering chemical classified as an illicit "hallucinogen" in most countries. By contrast, Santo Daime members (daimistas) revere ayahuasca as a sacrament, combining it with rituals and theologies borrowed from Christian mysticism, indigenous shamanism, Afro-Brazilian spiritualism, and Western esotericism. The Santo Daime religion was founded in 1930 by an Afro-Brazilian rubber tapper named Raimundo Irineu Serra, now known as Mestre (Master) Irineu. Presenting results from more than a year of fieldwork with Santo Daime groups in Europe, Marc G. Blainey contributes new understandings of contemporary Westerners' search for existential well-being on an increasingly interconnected planet. As a thorough exploration of daimistas' beliefs about the therapeutic potentials of ayahuasca, this book takes readers on an ethnographic journey into the deepest recesses of the human psyche.




Christ the Cross and the Concrete Jungle


Book Description

Many communities are ravaged by problems associated with poverty, crime and drug and alcohol abuse. Substantial answers to the urban crisis are all but non- existent. 'Christ, the Cross and the Concrete Jungle' is the story of a young man's deliverance from a lifestyle of desperation and delinquency to a new life of freedom and hope. This books reveals the remarkable journey of transformation and redemption that is made possible through the gospel of Jesus Christ.




Bruchko


Book Description

What happens when a nineteen-year-old boy leaves home and heads into the jungles to evangelize a murderous tribe of South American Indians? For Bruce Olson, it meant capture, disease, terror, loneliness, and torture. But what he discovered by trial and error has revolutionized then world of missions. Bruchko, which has sold more than 300,000 copies worldwide, has been called “more fantastic and harrowing than anything Hollywood could concoct.” Living with the Motilone Indians since 1961, Olson has won the friendship of four presidents of Colombia and has made appearances before the United Nations because of his efforts. Bruchko includes the story of his 1988 kidnapping by communist guerrillas and the nine months of captivity that followed. This revised version of Olson’s story will amaze you and remind you that simple faith in Christ can make anything possible. “[Bruchko is] an all-time missionary classic. Bruce Olson is a modern missionary hero who has modeled for us in our time the reaching of the unreached tribes.” --Loren Cunningham Co-founder, Youth With A Mission




Rachel Saint


Book Description

A biography of Rachel Saint, a missionary who worked among the Auca Indians of Ecuador after members of that tribe murdered her brother and four other missionaries.




Indestructible Daughters


Book Description

An army is on the horizon sending forth a warrior's cry. Its mission is indestructible. Are you one of those warriors? An indestructible daughter stepping forth in full revelation of all God created you to be? In Indestructible Daughters, author Karen Schagunn guides women into overcoming the most vulnerable and prevalent challenges they are facing today. With a powerful life story interwoven with biblical wisdom and a down-to-earth bootcamp approach, Karen breaks through the barriers of culture, religion, fear and unbelief to shine a light of truth into the hearts of women about their rightful place in the world. Indestructible Daughters reveals the global vision of a woman's role in the kingdom of God and the power of the gospel that will set you free from bondage and brokenness and equip you to live life as a warrior-chosen, loved, and indestructible. This book embodies the ripple effect of one woman; set free in God's power and healing, mobilizing an army of unshakable women. Her story, woven into practical biblical teaching, empowers those reading it to go forth boldly in faith and confidence; it is a message all generations need to hear! -Whitney Bunker, Executive Director/Co-founder at City Without Orphans Karen's personal story is so powerful . . . the most compelling part of the book/study. This is a good guidebook for Christian women. -Liz Harrison, Co-anchor, ABC30 News, and Emmy-winning reporter With Biblical authority and straightforward reasoning, Karen Schagunn lays out the roadmap for women of God to overcome the past, empower the present, and propel into the future. You will be challenged and emancipated for personal growth and entitlement of all God's desires for your life. Ladies, there will be no excuses left as we work to finish God's work. -Bonna Rogers-Neufeld, MD




God in the Rainforest


Book Description

In January of 1956, five young evangelical missionaries were speared to death by a band of the Waorani people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Two years later, two missionary women--the widow of one of the slain men and the sister of another--with the help of a Wao woman were able to establish peaceful relations with the same people who had killed their loved ones. The highly publicized deaths of the five men and the subsequent efforts to Christianize the Waorani quickly became the defining missionary narrative for American evangelicals during the second half of the twentieth century. God in the Rainforest traces the formation of this story and shows how Protestant missionary work among the Waorani came to be one of the missions most celebrated by Evangelicals and most severely criticized by anthropologists and others who accused missionaries of destroying the indigenous culture. Kathryn T. Long offers a study of the complexities of world Christianity at the ground level for indigenous peoples and for missionaries, anthropologists, environmentalists, and other outsiders. For the first time, Long brings together these competing actors and agendas to reveal one example of an indigenous people caught in the cross-hairs of globalization.




Sparkling Gems from the Greek


Book Description

Rick Renner unearths a rich treasure trove of truths in his remarkable devotional. Drawing from an extensive study of both the English Bible and New Testament Greek, Rick illuminates 365 passages with more than 1,285 in-depth Greek word studies. Far from intellectualizing, he blends his solid instruction with practical applications and refreshing insights. Find challenge, reassurance, comfort, and reminders of God's abiding love and healing every day of the year.




The Consummation of the Ages


Book Description

Full length commentary on Revelation; interpretive approach advocates first century fulfillment, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.




How to Survive the Apocalypse


Book Description

Incisive insights into contemporary pop culture and its apocalyptic bent The world is going to hell. So begins this book, pointing to the prevalence of apocalypse — cataclysmic destruction and nightmarish end-of-the-world scenarios — in contemporary entertainment. In How to Survive the Apocalypse Robert Joustra and Alissa Wilkinson examine a number of popular stories — from the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica to the purging of innocence in Game of Thrones to the hordes of zombies in The Walking Dead — and argue that such apocalyptic stories reveal a lot about us here and now, about how we conceive of our life together, including some of our deepest tensions and anxieties. Besides analyzing the dsytopian shift in popular culture, Joustra and Wilkinson also suggest how Christians can live faithfully and with integrity in such a cultural context.