The demise of the City of Detroit deserves at least a word of comment.
From the fourth largest city in America in 1950 with 2,000,000 people Detroit's population now registers 710,000.
In it's hey day "Mo-Town" produced eight out of every 10 cars in the world.
Now the city stands like an industrial ghost town, a sad sentinel on the South side of the Canadian border.
Yesterday the city auditor declared Detroit bankrupt with debts totaling 20 billion dollars.
Holders of 'muni-bonds' have been offered 10 cents in the dollar, pension plans for city workers have been suspended.Thousands of houses stand derelict and the crime rate stands at an all time high.
When the auto industry went into decline there was a 'White- flight' from the city which caused "EBONY" magazine to boldly pronounce in 1967 that Detroit would be the first totally black run city in America.
Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, promptly set up Head Quarters to help this Black Muslim Mecca towards it exciting destiny.
Now the city mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick is in jail on embezzlement charges, Farrakhan has disappeared and Detroit has officially been given 'Third World' status.
So much for the Brave New World of America's first African city and so much for the power of Islam to bring about a 20th century miracle.
Advice. Stick with your faith in Christ, stick with your church and stick with your job. All will be well.
Ian
Two connections this week. Both with old friends, neither of whom are expected to live out the Summer.
Strangely enough I worked with both of these men in a rough part of Liverpool in the 1960's establishing a church for the City Mission.
When I moved to Canada, Bill and his wife, Carol, followed me and later pastored in Goodlands, Minnesota. Bill is in the terminal stages of cancer.
Roy and his wife, Beryl, stayed in Liverpool and faithfully looked after a growing flock of believers.Roy has tumors in his lungs and has been given only limited time by the doctors.
Both men when I spoke to them were triumphant in the midst of their affliction, both serene at the prospect making their departure from their earthly home and both agreed to look out for me when I arrive on the "other shore".
When I told Bill that our mutual friend Wally had died in February, he readily agreed to pass on my regards to him in Heaven.
The heart of the Christian Faith is an empty tomb in Jerusalem and
it is both mighty and relevant when the doctor has told you that you have 10 weeks to live.
Jubilate.
Ian
It must be the Taliban's worst nightmare.
Malala Yousfzai, the girl that they shot through the head and left for dead nine months ago, stood last week and addressed the United Nations.
She was eloquent, dignified, powerfully persuasive and exuded the authority of pure conviction.
When I heard her speak of her mission to bring education to millions of girls in the Muslim world, denied it because of the stone-age dogmas of Islam, I stood to my feet and applauded her.
The man who shot her was probably promised eternal bliss with the virgin of Allah's choosing.
But here was one sixteen year old virgin who promises to bring the whole of that house of lies crashing to the floor by one invincible instrument: education in truth.
John 8:32.
Ian
