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I'd like to give you my e-book The Ministry Driven Church, but first let me tell you a little about myself: 66 years ago yesterday, in 1957 when I was 14, I committed my life to serve Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. The next summer, 65 years ago, while taking care of lawns at an apartment complex, the Lord gave me a vision: I saw a map of the Soviet Union in the sky and a voice said: "Remember this apartment complex plan - you'll build it when you're an old man." And I remember that there was something special about the stairs, but I didn't understand what it was. Now I'm around 80, so I guess I'm old enough to start this new project!
The next year, I preached my first sermon at an inner-city mission, then I led our high school debate team to the state championship, I was elected president of our high school's YFC (Youth for Christ) club, I won the city-wide Denver YFC "preacher boy" contest and led and won the Bible quiz team contest on St. Paul's letter to the Galatians (I memorized all six chapters so I knew the answers). I won second place in a national German language contest. I also memorized lots of Shakespeare – big chunks of MacBeth, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet – for English class.
Right after high school I went into the Army and learned Russian – we had to memorize 4-6 pages of conversational Russian every day. Realizing I was good at memorizing, I started memorizing Scripture: by now I've memorized most of the New Testament, many selections from the Old Testament, and just recently I've finished up memorizing the Book of Psalms, rotating between four languages.
After active duty in the Army, I enrolled in university and studied more languages, history and political science of Central and Eastern Europe. In my first two semesters I took 41 credit hours and got a 4.0 GPA. By receiving 15 credit hours for my Russian training in the Army and by taking summer courses at the university, I had completed two years of coursework in one year. But then the next year, while serving as president of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter on campus, I became acquainted with a wonderful, amazing young lady who was the IVCF chapter secretary and as they say, "the rest is history!" I graduated in three years with a 3.4 GPA.
After working for a couple of years to pay off college loans, my wife Cheryl and I served as missionaries to Central and Eastern Europe for 3.5 years, preaching, translating, proofreading, editing, and printing Christian literature in many languages, taking Bibles, New Testaments, and other Christian literature to Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians behind the Iron Curtain. Both of our children were born abroad.
Then we returned to the U.S. to raise our family, earned more degrees (I got a 4.0 GPA in computer programming, Cheryl got a Master's degree in the Psychology of Rehabilitation), and we both got into consulting: Cheryl in vocational rehab and I as a software consultant. I managed projects ranging from about $100 million to $1 billion in annual cash flow. So we earned enough to vacation all around the U.S. and Europe, and send our children off to private colleges.
But as the Soviet Union was falling apart in 1991-93, we sold our passive solar house I had designed and where we had lived for 15 years, invested in an apartment building, and we "semi-retired" and returned to full-time mission work in Russia just before I turned 50, living on 1/10th of our previous income and starting several Evangelical churches there.
In 1996 I began work as General Editor of Agape-Biblia, a revision of the Russian Synodal Translation of the Bible. It was the first online Russian Bible for the Windows Operating System and for several years when you searched for "hypertext Russian Bible" it was on the first page of Google. In 2006 the second printed edition of this revised Russian Bible was published.
While teaching at a university in the provinces of Russia, we met a very bright disabled young man and I finally understood that vision: the stairways should be ramps! Why not an elevator or a stair lift? In an emergency such as a fire or when the electricity goes out or the elevator breaks, they could be trapped if depending on an elevator or a stair lift. Disabled people can't use the stairs and it's awfully hard to carry them in a wheelchair down the stairs – we've learned that the hard way! With most older couples it's the man who ages first and becomes disabled: he very likely weighs more than his wife who often injures her back or knees trying to lift or carry him. Also, we've met many older people – able-bodied and disabled – who have been trapped in an elevator so now refuse to ride them.
In 2006, we reached a few important milestones: I completed my doctorate degree and published my dissertation in book form as The Ministry Driven Church. You're welcome to buy the printed version that normally sells for $10 + S&H, or the e-book version for $2.99 ...but right now I'm offering it to you for free if you'll take the brief survey below.
I've pretty much completed my editing of Agape-Biblia (an editor's work is never done – there are always typos to fix and other corrections to make). We average over 1,000 visits per day to three www.Agape-Biblia.org websites that now include seven interlinked Bibles in various languages, Daily Prayers, Journals and Scripture Memory Systems in English, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, German and French, our "Social Ministry of the Church" courses, an e-newsletter and blog, plus lots of Free Literature.
Also in 2006, Cheryl joined me starting to receive Social Security. While in Russia, we Discovered Original Christianity – the fullness of the Christian faith. We moved back to the U.S. in October 2007 for health reasons, after serving almost 17 years in Russia, and joined the Orthodox Church in 2008: see Our Homecoming.
But as we tell people: we're not retiring (and we're not shy, either)! You know what Jesus Christ said in Revelation 2:10b about retirement? "Be faithful unto retirement, and I will give you a nice fat pension with 100% health insurance benefits." NOT! That Bible text says – "Be faithful unto death" – it doesn't say anything about retirement plans! So we're "semi-retired – we put on a new set of semi-tires and we'll keep on trucking" until we reach our heavenly destination – we might have to make more frequent stops for rest and maintenance along the way, though. We exercise when we get up every morning, and before the Covid-19 pandemic we worked out at the health club three times a week – Cheryl on the exercise machines and I in the pool where I tried to swim a mile or more each time. Most weeks I made it!
After we returned to the U.S., partly because of Cheryl's surgeries – she isn't be able to lift patients any more – we began to devote much more of our time to teaching Cheryl's one-year, six-course program "Social Ministry of the Church" online in Russian and English. We've also done job counseling at FOCUS+Pittsburgh, an inner-city Orthodox mission. Also, we're available to speak at churches and elsewhere – wherever we're invited – to explain our vision of Agape Restoration Communities. We'd like to tell you a bit about this concept now, and give you some more information that you can read at your leisure.
We envision Agape Restoration Communities as Christian co-operatives that provide the physical facilities for a Ministry Driven Church. See our six sketches for an 12- to 14-living-unit building including a community room/chapel and restrooms: most of these homes are wheelchair-accessible from ground level. When a family sells its old house or condo to move into one of our homes, the money from the sale of their old home will be used to pay for their shares in the ARC housing co-operative: thus, the ARC becomes self-financing.
Why co-ops? Several well-known businesses are actually co-ops, including REI, Ace Hardware, Land'o'Lakes, Ocean Spray, Blue Diamond and every credit union. They are distributed ownership organizations that create economies of scale, and are especially empowering for economically disadvantaged groups such as women, minorities, and people with disabilities: by creating ownership – owning instead of renting – it changes lives!
Because shareholder-residents of the co-op community purchase shares for their living unit and jointly own the common areas, land and parking facilities, this also greatly reduces The Ministry Driven Church's cost of operation and it gives the church a wonderful opportunity to minister to "the poor, the lame, the maimed and the blind, to widows and orphans." Rick Warren, who wrote a nice recommendation for my book, wrote on pages 78-79 of his best-selling book The Purpose Driven Church -
Winston Churchill once said, "We shape our buildings, and then they shape us." Too often a congregation is so anxious to have a nice building that the members spend more than they can afford. Paying for and maintaining the building becomes the biggest budget item. Funds needed to operate ministries must be diverted to pay the mortgage, and the actual ministry of the church suffers. The tail ends up wagging the dog.
Our son Rob, when he was studying for his master's degree in architecture, wrote a paper on this topic. While reading it, I was deeply struck by the degree that human society and culture are enormously influenced by its architecture. The shape and design of our buildings greatly influences how people live and function in them – as Churchill said, "We shape our buildings, and then they shape us."
But you may ask, "Isn't this just a bit far-fetched?" This concept is do-able: the idea of co-op housing communities has already been embodied by Realife, Inc. in 25 such non-profit housing cooperatives in the U.S. Midwest. (I have no affiliation with Realife, we've just heard about them and then visited one of their cooperatives in Eau Claire, WI.) We lived in a shared community in Austria in our early mission work, so we know how it works. We have signed a proposal for professional architectural drawings and have funds for this and other preliminary legal work required so we can begin finding potential residents who promise to purchase shares in this unique living cooperative / worship center.
Maybe you're young, going to college or starting your career: you don't want to pour rent money down the drain, but buying a house is just too expensive. You could live in a faith-based community and build up equity in your co-op living unit! Perhaps you have a child or an elderly parent with a disability – how will you manage your life with them?
Or perhaps you are "empty nesters" like us, and you'd really like to take a mission trip for a month, or three or even six months, but who would take care of your house? You may have begun thinking more about the reality of old age and death: it may come swiftly... but more likely it will come slowly: 70% of elderly people spend three years on average disabled, in expensive assisted living or a nursing home before they pass away.
The average savings of retired people is about $250,000, but that includes the very wealthy people who have much more. So the median (mid-point) is less than $50,000, and many people have almost zero savings. If the end of your earthly journey comes slowly, who then will minister to you? Will not most or all of your resources then be quickly used up to live in an assisted living center or nursing home at $5,000 per month or more? That's essentially like paying for a nice hotel with room service, pouring your money down the drain for rent! And when your money runs out, you go to a "third-tier" Medicaid-paid nursing home with double-occupancy rooms and two TVs, three basic meals per day, and under-staffed nursing care.
Isn't it time instead to go through this open door now, using your limited resources to build up the kingdom of God? Why give away your life savings to a secular assisted living center or nursing home? A caring Christian co-op community can greatly reduce this expense and at the same time build up the kingdom! Be honest with yourself: are you going to hand over your retirement savings to a secular nursing home, or will you use it to minister to the building up of the Body of Christ... and provide a home for yourself where you can eventually age-in-place?
In Rev. 3:8 the Lord says, "I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little strength, and have kept My word, and haven't denied My name." Isn't it time to be pro-active about what may happen in the future, and use the "little strength" and limited resources you have to minister for the Lord to "the poor, the lame, the maimed and the blind, to widows and orphans"?
As St. Peter said to the crippled man at the Temple gate (Acts 3:6), "Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!" My wife and I are semi-retired, so we have very limited financial resources, but we are freely sharing our skills and experience with you so you can help others gather together their limited resources, rise up and form Christian Co-operative Communities. See below about how to contact us. Also, enroll in our free courses to see how YOU can do diakonia-ministry. And Join "The ARC" Chat/Video Forum to Build the ARC!
Here's a special treat for you: If you've read this far, click HERE and fill out a quick, 3-question survey to get a free electronic copy of my book The Ministry Driven Church!
Your fellow-servant,
"Dr. Bob"
Robert D. Hosken, M.Min., M.Th.S., D.Min.
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My wife and I left our careers 30 years ago to serve in Russia as missionaries: we're now "semi-retired" – we've put on a new set of semi tires and keep on trucking! We live on our retirement income and volunteer our time: we receive no financial support from Agape Restoration Society. Our websites and ministry are funded by us and just a few friends. So if 5% of the people who see this would give $5 per month (just 17¢ per day!) – two cups of coffee with your favorite friend at your favorite coffee shop – we could cover our operating expenses and do much more in spreading the word, serving and providing accessible housing for the disabled. ...thanks in advance!
NEXT, THE NEWS:
TRANSGENDER ACTIVIST WANTS UTERUS AND OVARY TRANSPLANT… TO GET PREGNANT AND ABORT A CHILD
from: LiveAction News
(12 Jul.) A transgender activist stated on social media this week that he wishes to be the first biological male identifying as a female to have an abortion – and that he would get pregnant on purpose in order to kill the baby by abortion. In a video shared by Libs of TikTok, the activist said, "I want to be the first trans woman to have a successful uterus transplant – ovaries and eggs included – and I want to be the first trans woman to have an abortion."
The activist went on to explain that he wants an ‘experienced’ doctor to "cut the organs out of a willing, healthy, trans-masculine donor, place them in my body. I will devote myself heart and soul to their aftercare. I will have as much gay sex as it takes with as many trans women as it takes and let the transphobes and homophobes scratch their heads wondering what to make of it. And I want to be the first transwoman to have an abortion."
It is a head scratcher in more ways than one. Even a surgically constructed "vagina" would not have the functionality of an actual, biological vagina/vaginal canal. Aside from this, the activist would apparently have to be sexually active with other biological males identifying as females (who are still biologically intact males and possibly not even on hormones)… and one of them would somehow need to get the activist pregnant using the donated eggs, ovaries, and uterus of a biological woman who identifies as male.
And each of these people would have to be willing to help create a baby with the sole intent of killing that baby.
The likelihood of this all happening is slim to none, of course. While the first uterine transplant in the United States in 2016 failed and the uterus had to be surgically removed after the 26-year-old female recipient developed a serious complication, about 30 have been carried out in the U.S. since then. However, none have been carried out on a biological male, whose body is not designed to grow or birth a child.
Getting pregnant requires a complex balancing of female hormones. If even one factor is off, it is difficult for a biological female to achieve pregnancy – nevermind a biological male taking a cocktail of estrogen, progesterones, and testosterone blockers. Of course, that doesn’t mean transgender activists and money-hungry experimenting doctors won’t try.
The fact that any person would want to get pregnant specifically to kill an innocent child just to make those who disagree with them "scratch their heads" points to an internal narcissism and evil that is difficult to comprehend – as commenters to the video pointed out. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: Several people commented about this unspeakable evil, among them – @LegalBlondy52 wrote, "Absolute satanism. What an abomination" and @LibertyDentOn called it, "Literal evil. We should not be tolerating these people as a society." Agreed.
WHY ARE SCIENTISTS BOASTING OF CREATING 'SYNTHETIC HUMAN EMBRYOS'?
from: BioEdge.org
(20 Jun.) A scientist working in Cambridge and California has just announced that she and her colleagues have made a 'synthetic human embryo.' They took a human embryonic stem cell line and used it to make what looks like an early human embryo. This 'synthetic human embryo' has been cultivated past the legal limit for experimenting on human embryos in the United Kingdom, which is 14 days.
If this really is an embryo, and it looks a bit like one, then this is a new way of generating an embryo without fertilisation. If cells from an adult could be used, then synthetic embryos would be a new form of cloning. This would be wrong for all the same reasons that the old way of cloning a person (the cloning used to make Dolly the sheep) was wrong. It fails to respect the dignity of human procreation. It fails to respect the dignity of the human being in the first stage of our development. It instrumentalises a human person destroying him or her in lethal scientific experimentation.
This is being reported as though it were a scientific breakthrough but it is not clear what has been achieved, if anything. We should also be very sceptical of claims that this kind of research will help understand or treat genetic diseases. Similar claims are made every time a scientist wants to push the ethical boundaries but we should remember what happened on such occasions, for example, the purported promise of saving 150 lives each year by allowing 'three parent' IVF.
Extraordinary claims were also made about animal-human hybrid embryos being the supposed doorway to cures for every disease from Parkinson's and Motor Neurone Disease to Alzheimer's, but these were cruel and empty promises, hype not hope, and once legalised, this avenue of research was quickly abandoned. The bigger and more general the claims the more we should be sceptical. A cure-all cures nothing.
A synthetic embryo is not a 'model' of an embryo, it is an attempt to make an embryo. If this attempt is successful, scientifically, then it will be wrong ethically, but if it is not successful scientifically then it will not be able to tell us much about normal human development. So far they have not succeeded even in mice in getting 'synthetic embryos' to develop to birth. So perhaps this is not an embryo but an uninteresting clump of cells. On the other hand, if we have any doubt then the embryo-like being should be given the benefit of the doubt.
We all began life as an embryo and to manufacture, experiment on and destroy human embryos is to manufacture, experiment on and destroy human beings. It is unjust. We should not be trying to make human embryos in this way. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: It is an illogical and in this case a fatal mistake to think: "If our scientific knowledge says we can do something, then we should do it." Might does not make right – that is just as true in science as it is in modern warfare.
KAZAKHSTAN: PARISH OUSTED FROM CHURCH BUILDING AFTER 31 YEARS
from: Forum 18 News Service
Hebrews 13:3 – "Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body."
(30 Jun.) The Holy Apostles Peter and Paul Orthodox parish in Oktyabrskoye, Kazakhstan, held its last Sunday service on 28 May in the church where it has worshipped since December 1991. On 2 June, court executors and police ousted the parish, handing the building to the Russian Orthodox diocese. "This was done on a legal basis," officials told Forum 18. The parish moved from the Moscow Patriarchate to the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1997. Official documents appear to attest that the parish owned the church, not the Moscow Patriarchate Diocese.
On 2 June, court executors and police ousted an Orthodox parish in the village of Oktyabrskoye in Kostanai Region from the church where its members have worshipped since it took over and renovated the derelict building in 1991. The parish lost a legal challenge lodged by the local Russian Orthodox Moscow Patriarchate diocese.
The parish of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul belongs to the part of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad that did not join the Moscow Patriarchate in 2007 and which is led by Odessa-based Metropolitan Agafangel (Pashkovsky).
The parish's last service in its church building was on Sunday 28 May 2023. "Our parishioners had decorated the church for the feast of the Holy Trinity," parish priest Fr Gennady Subbotin told Forum 18. By the time the feast of the Holy Trinity came on 4 June, court bailiffs had ousted the parish from its church.
When the parish was established in 1991, it was part of the local Russian Orthodox Moscow Patriarchate Diocese. However, it chose to leave the Russian Orthodox Diocese in 1997 and joined the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. The parish maintains that the church building was and remains the property of the parish, not of the Moscow Patriarchate Diocese. The Moscow Patriarchate Diocese argued that it owned the church building.
"No-one took the church away," Indira Nurgabulova, head of Oktyabrskoye Rural District, told Forum 18. "It's open and is functioning," she claimed. Told that Forum 18 had seen official documents that appear to attest that the parish had owned the church, not the Moscow Patriarchate Diocese, she responded: "There is a court decision."
Lyazzat Kompyshova, the head of the Department for Work with Religious Organisations at Kostanai Region Akimat's Religious Affairs Department, similarly defended the forcible ousting of the parish community from its church building. "This was done on a legal basis," she told Forum 18. "They're not the legal owners."
Forum 18 has reviewed more than 70 pages of official and parish documents, as well as the court decisions which found in favour of the Moscow Patriarchate Diocese. Documents issued by a range of state agencies appear to back the parish's contention that it owns the church building where it worshipped between December 1991 and late May 2023. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: There exist several factions among the Russian Orthodox people, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, formed by Russian emigres in France after the 1917 Russian revolution, mentioned in this article, but this body has now split in two, one part linked to Moscow and the other separate. Then there's the Moscow-affiliated "Ukrainian" Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate, the most in the news these days. In this issue you can also read about the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formed in 2018. There are also the True Russian Orthodox Church and the Old Believers Orthodox Church in Russia. It's a sad situation!
PEDIATRICIANS GET GUIDANCE ON ASSESSING KIDS AT RISK FOR DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES
from: Disability Scoop
(14 Jul.) New guidance is spelling out how pediatricians should monitor young children who are at especially high risk for developmental disabilities. In a clinical report published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics is offering up a framework for primary care pediatricians on treating premature infants.
Some 1 in 10 babies are born before 37 weeks gestation and considered premature, leaving them with greater odds of developmental issues, according to the pediatrics group. But, once they leave the neonatal intensive care unit, most of these children rely on general practice pediatricians exclusively.
The guidance, which is based on research over the last 20 years on preterm outcomes, encourages primary care pediatricians to take a more active role in assessing development and in connecting children with both medical and community supports.
"Although a substantial amount of literature addresses severe neurodevelopmental disabilities associated with preterm birth and its complications, such as cerebral palsy, intellectual disability (ID), visual impairment and hearing loss, extrapolating large studies about the risk and clinical decision-making for individual patients can be challenging," the guidance states.
"This clinical report links preterm birth and its complications to early childhood developmental disability prevalence data and consolidates them into an easy-to-use, point-of-care framework that supports pediatricians with enhanced childhood surveillance and clinical decision-making for infants born preterm."
In the report, the pediatrics group includes a chart detailing the risk for various developmental disabilities for children born at different points as compared to the general pediatric population. For example, it indicates that children born before 32 weeks are considered to be at very high risk of cerebral palsy, while those born at 32 to 37 weeks face moderate-low risk for the condition. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: This new guidance is a real blessing for parents and for the child who is born pre-term. Thank the Lord for this proper use of science to help humanity prosper, and may this science not be used to advance the abortion of pre-term babies.
SBU ISSUED A NOTE OF SUSPICION TO THE UOC-MP ARCHDEACON FOR PRAISING NAZISM AND GLORIFYING KADYROV
from: Religious Information Service of Ukraine
(10 Jul.) The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has announced the suspicion of an archdeacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) in Cherkasy, who praised Nazism and glorified Kadyrov. According to the SBU press service, the archdeacon called on Russia to seize the entire territory of Ukraine.
In his conversations with parishioners and acquaintances, he repeatedly praised the top military and political leadership of Russia, including the Kremlin's leadership.
Furthermore, he glorified Kadyrov and justified the war crimes committed by the Russian aggressors. During the investigation, it was revealed that the archdeacon supported Nazism and, at the same time, propagated the ideas of "renewing" the Soviet Union and called for the occupation of the entire territory of Ukraine by the Russian invaders.
During searches conducted at the suspect's place of residence, the following items were discovered:
- Computer equipment containing materials of enemy propaganda
- Prohibited symbols and printed publications with Nazi and communist symbolism.
Based on the collected evidence, the investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine informed the clergyman of the suspicion under Part 1 and Part 3 of Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants).
The investigation is ongoing to establish all the circumstances of the crime. The suspect faces up to 8 years in prison. The comprehensive measures were carried out by the SBU officers in the Cherkasy region under the procedural guidance of the regional prosecutor's office. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: Both sides of this war in Ukraine regularly accuse the other side of Nazi sympathies. My wife and I have personally experienced resistance by a band pro-Nazi Russians during our time as Evangelical missionaries in Russia. But it isn't unusual for people to have "nationalist" sympathies – love for their own culture and people: this is not equal to Naziism and shouldn't be confused with actual Naziism that denigrates, persecutes, and tries to exterminate people of a different ethnicity or culture.
NEW BIONIC IMPLANT ALLOWS CONTROL OVER ALL BIONIC HAND & FINGERS
from: Disabled World
(13 Jul.) This photo illustrates a patient wearing a prosthetic limb directly attached to the skeleton with an overlay showing the surgically created electro-neuromuscular constructs, allowing him to control individual fingers of a bionic hand. Prosthetic limbs are the most common solution to replace a lost extremity. However, they are hard to control and often unreliable with only a couple of movements available.
Remnant muscles in the residual limb are the preferred source of control for bionic hands. This is because patients can contract muscles at will, and the electrical activity generated by the contractions can be used to tell the prosthetic hand what to do, for instance, open or close. A major problem at higher amputation levels, such as above the elbow, is that not many muscles remain to command the many robotic joints needed to truly restore the function of an arm and hand.
A multidisciplinary team of surgeons and engineers has circumvented this problem by reconfiguring the residual limb and integrating sensors and a skeletal implant to connect with a prosthesis electrically and mechanically. By dissecting the peripheral nerves and redistributing them to new muscle targets used as biological amplifiers, the bionic prosthesis can now access much more information so the user can command many robotic joints at will (see video).
The research was led by Professor Max Ortiz Catalan, Founding Director of the Center for Bionics and Pain Research (CBPR) in Sweden, Head of Neural Prosthetics Research at the Bionics Institute in Australia, and Professor of Bionics at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
"In this article, we show that rewiring nerves to different muscle targets in a distributed and concurrent manner is not only possible but also conducive to improved prosthetic control. A key feature of our work is that we have the possibility to clinically implement more refine surgical procedures and embed sensors in the neuromuscular constructs at the time of the surgery, which we then connect to the electronic system of the prosthesis via an osseointegrated interface. A.I. algorithms take care of the rest."
Prosthetic limbs are commonly attached to the body by a socket that compresses the residual limb causing discomfort and is mechanically unstable. An alternative to socket attachment is to use a titanium implant placed within the residual bone which becomes strongly anchored - this is known as osseointegration. Such skeletal attachment allows for comfortable and more efficient mechanical connection of the prosthesis to the body. [read more...]
COMMENTARY: It is amazing to see how cutting-edge surgical and engineering innovation provides such a high level of functionality for an individual with an arm amputation. We should be thankful for the God-given talents of researchers who devise such medical solutions for people with disabilities.
NOW, OUR VIEWS:
IS THE NICENE-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED SCRIPTURAL?
Read "Is The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Scriptural?" online, or get it as a PDF, 2 pages. The online version links to the Scripture references for each word or phrase in the Creed which affirm that this concise summary of Christian doctrine, accepted by Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestants, is indeed Scriptural!
Most of the Creed was written in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicea [the definition of the Holy Spirit was added to the Creed at the Council of Constantiniple in 381 A.D.]. It was at Nicea where Athanasius of Alexandria led the debate against the heresy of Arianism, 68 years before the 27 books of the New Testament canon were officially recognized as Scripture in 393 A.D. at the Council of Hippo. Many holy writings were widely read and accepted by the early 300s, and in about 360 A.D. that same Athanasius, now Bishop of Alexandria, composed the list of 27 books of true apostolic origin that would become the New Testament.
So when people say – "I only believe in the Bible, not human tradition!" – thereby denigrating the holy men of God who rightly interpreted Scripture, they are putting down the very same holy men of God who decided which writings were inspired Scripture! The issue isn't Scripture vs. tradition, but rather Holy Tradition being the correct interpretation of Scripture. This Creed has been a unifying factor for Orthodox Christians over the past 18 centuries. But sadly, disunity creeps in due to all-too-human ethnic pride, lusts, and greed.
As you may know, ever since Russia's greedy 2014 invasion of Ukraine's Donbas region and takeover of Crimea, I have been following closely and reporting on events in Ukraine in my newsletters and social media posts to tens of thousands of readers. In early 2018, I was asked to write an article about religion in Ukraine for an upcoming edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia.
In May 2023, a copy of the World Christian Encyclopedia, Third Edition was presented to Pope Francis in Rome. There's much in it about the Carpatho-Russian Church. The date of my last draft of the article was dated "June 8, 2018" which is before the Ecumenical Patriarch issued the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in December 2018.
The published article, with photos and maps added, is dated April 4, 2019. You'll note that at the end of this final version of the article (just before the bibliography), it says – "Contributions by Anatole Glukhovskyy and Robert Hosken" but as you'll see by comparing my draft with the published article, most of it is my work, as the June 2018 draft indicates.
The religious basis for the current war in Ukraine goes very deep: Two Greek Orthodox Christian brothers, Methodius and Cyril (after whom the Cyrillic alphabet is named) who lived in Crimea – at that time part of the Greco-Roman Empire – had learned the Scythian language spoken by proto-Slavic peoples just north of Crimea. These two brothers were sent to evangelize the Scythians. In 988 A.D., over 1,000 years ago, Prince Vladimir was converted to Orthodox Christianity and had the whole nation of ancient Rus' based in Kyiv baptized in the Dnipro River. At that time, Moscow was just a small village on the side of a river. Only about 200 years later did the principality of "Muscovy" – the territory ruled by Moscow's princes – grow big enough to fight against and conquer Kyiv, eventually shifting the center of Slavic Christianity to Moscow and renaming itself as "Russia." So this religious rivalry between the two capitals is almost 900 years old by now.
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Please uphold in your prayers the Christians in Africa and Asia undergoing persecution. Maureen, our "Morning Prayers" contact in Nairobi, Kenya, writes: "Remember to pray for us and my neighbor who was shot in her thighs and arm while coming from the market. She has been hospitalized and she has left her 2-month-old baby that she cannot breastfeed. Remember us as we look after the baby, thanks." There is much political unrest and rioting in Kenya at present. We've sent her enough money to buy 2 tins of baby formula to last 2 weeks, and she replied: "Asante, nimepata na nimenunua" in Swahili, which means: "Thank you, I found it and I bought it."
