Trinity Magazine, Fall 2005

Finding Hope

Emerging from a painful childhood, a young woman finds Christ in a family.

Only eighteen years old, Jessica Krampen suddenly found herself homeless. With the help of a social worker, she moved into a rundown motel to avoid the streets. There, she celebrated Easter alone.

Unafraid

Despite threats, Watson Jones speaks out against Chicago gangs. He wants his neighborhood to trade fear for hope.

As the gang leaders in his Chicago high school watched him, fourteen-year-old Watson Jones stood up and told them that what they were doing was stupid. They were trading their lives for gang membership, wasting their minds with drugs. One classmate stood up to threaten the sophomore, but Watson kept going, passionate and undaunted. He wanted them to recognize their own potential, to see how their decisions stole the life right out from under them.

When Love Is Impossible

How can you love your neighbor when your neighbor is your enemy?

It was nearly midnight. Bible college professor Yohanna Katanacho (MDiv ’99) closed up his church in Bethlehem and stuffed the stack of pamphlets he’d just finished photocopying inside his jacket. Then the young Palestinian Christian began an uneasy walk home. Under a new law, if an Israeli solider called out to a Palestinian and the Palestinian did not respond, the Israeli could regard the Palestinian as a terrorist and shoot him.

The Final Apologetic

Why can non-Christians dismiss Christianity so easily?

Dr. John Woodbridge tells Trinity Magazine editor Melissa Stratis why love and the gospel should be inseparable.

Jesus commanded us to love one another (John 13:34-35). It is through seeing our love for each other that our neighbors will be able to recognize that we are Christ’s disciples. Moreover, Jesus taught in John 17:20-21 that the unity of true believers helps the world to understand that the Father sent the Son. Schaeffer writes, “In short, we are to practice and exhibit the holiness of God and the love of God, for without this we grieve the Holy Spirit. Love—and the unity it attests to—is the mark Christ gave to Christians to wear before the world.”

What Did We Learn from Terri Schiavo?

By John Kilner, PhD

By now, Terri Schiavo’s saga is well known—a 1990 collapse, years of deliberation in the court system, a very public family feud, and serious doubts about Terri’s true condition and wishes. Much discussion has been focused on advance directives, the "right to die," "quality of life," and civility in civic discourse. In the end, these sad events remind us to think about why a patient’s wishes matter, what should be done when the patient can’t communicate, and how we can be prepared in advance of unexpected tragedy.

Opinions expressed are those of the contributors or the editors and do not necessarily represent the official position of Trinity International University.