Welcome to
A R C-N e w s, Oct. 5, 2024
Fortnightly Report on Christian Agape-Care
in Secular Societies, by Dr. Robert D. Hosken
The right to believe and the right to life are inseparable:
Right belief in a loving God enables us to love our neighbor!
Go to: Subscribe | Our Views | The News | Previous Issues
To pray for one article each day, click HERE & add it to your bookmarks: please share it with your friends!
1. Sun. | 2. Mon. | 3. Tue. | 4. Wed. | 5. Thu. | 6. Fri. | 7. Sat.
Join our "Morning Prayers" daily at 7 a.m. & click on "an."
LIVING FAITH THAT WORKS
Go to www.agape-biblia.org/Living-faith-that-works.htm 
– "Faith without works is dead." ... and click on each one of the cross-references after verse 27... then apply those verses to what you read next:
WATCH THE VIDEOS!! We're starting to "Build the ARC"! Vision Complex in Tanzania, an orphanage and school for HIV/AIDS orphans and other young kids, owns the land and has the building permit. Now they need an extra $5,000+ to start digging and laying the foundation, feed the volunteer laborers, etc. CAN YOU HELP? Here's the link: www.agape-restoration-society.org/Vision-Complex/ – share it!
(video:) Vision Complex Orphanage and School in Tanzania provides for 50 orphans whose parents died from HIV/AIDS and kids with Sickle Cell Anemia (a genetic disorder that's most prevalent in East Africa) whose parents have died or can't afford to pay for medical care. Simon John, the director, met us in our online "Morning Prayers" a few years ago. See the photos below of the kids who need a sponsor. Also, write to Simon about visiting Vision Complex in Tanzania. Now, see the latest news:
BUILD THE FOUNDATION: Here's the (video:) land for the ARC in Tanzania
! Agape Restoration Society (ARS) has started the project at Vision Complex to "Build the ARC" – an Agape Restoration Community, a wheelchair-accessible building for disabled kids and elderly people that includes a large community room/chapel, several apartments and classrooms.
ARS has provided funds for (3 videos:) sand, gravel, and large stones
to start the foundation. Local officials have issued a building permit, but Simon needs about $5,000 for the remaining materials to start building the foundation plus a fence and solar lights over the site
(this is the first of many lights). Local volunteers are leveling the site and will dig the foundation... but they need to be fed – that's another $200/week for 3 weeks. So please designate "Vision Complex – build the foundation."
Get this article on our ARC-News blog at blogspot.com... and share it!
A Personal Note: Here's something very good from a book about The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrystostom that I happened to read recently:
"Do you wish to honour the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him homage in the temple [when] clad in silk, only then to neglect him outside where he is cold and ill-clad. He who said: 'This is my body' is the same who said: 'You saw me hungry and you gave me no food,' and 'Whatever you did to the least of my brothers you did also to me'... What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger? Start by satisfying his hunger and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well."
Take a look at our DAILY PRAYERS web page: in the lower part of the screen you'll see verse 27 telling what "pure religion and undefiled" – real Christianity – consists of, with several cross-references. Now, click on the "27" and you'll be able to easily look up all of those cross-references... and meditate on them and obey them!
Here's our next free online course: (click →) Course 100 - Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities (← click). So enroll today, before you forget!
2. GUEST POST: GEORGIA’S PRO-LIFE LAW PROTECTED PEOPLE LIKE ME AND MY MOTHER – UNTIL A JUDGE BLOCKED IT
from: LiveAction
SYNOPSIS: My mother went to six abortion clinics in three different states, desperate to eliminate “the problem” of an unplanned pregnancy. An abortion facility that my mom went to before her second trimester dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion procedure where an ultrasound determined she was 21 weeks and 6 days pregnant, just under the second trimester. I have watched how our society has glorified the freedom of choice, and how much my mother suffered because she thought she was making the right choice, even though I survived. Women are being told that abortion is safe, yet there are countless women like my mom who bear the lies of the abortion industry.
Pray against the lie that an unborn baby is merely a part of the woman's body, not a real, living human being with its own unique genetics. The leftist political establishment and the abortion industry are incessantly harping on this lie in an attempt to indoctrinate the population to believe it is true because "everyone is saying it."
3. THIS ASSISTED SUICIDE MACHINE IS NOT A JOKE
from: Mercator
SYNOPSIS: The media and the police should get serious about locking up Philip Nitschke, the world’s best-known assisted suicide activist. Dr Nitschke is an Australian doctor and physicist who has dedicated his life to promoting "rational suicide." No one could question Nitschke’s energy and ingenuity. He has also published an online guide on how to kill yourself, The Peaceful Pill eHandbook, which is updated regularly on methods involving barbiturates, over the counter drugs, gases, and poisons. "You must be able to control the time at which you die," he told Guardian Australia in 2015. "When it becomes inevitable, why don’t we embrace it?" How many people has Nitschke killed is the wrong question. But morally, apart from these deaths, he is guilty of an offence for which we don't lock people up nowadays – blasphemy against life itself.
Call out to God to stop this insane death wish of euthanasia and abortion that is spreading like a plague around the world. God's will is to share His image and likeness, not that of Satan whose only aim is to steal, kill, and destroy.
4. WHY IS IN VITRO FERTILIZATION EVIL?
from: American Life League
SYNOPSIS: In a recent political debate, the promise to fund in vitro fertilization with federal funds was greatly disturbing, according to HALO, as well as numerous other pro-life and pro-family organizations, churches, medical professionals, and individuals. There are several imperative reasons to oppose IVF. In IVF laboratories semen and eggs are combined to produce tiny human beings in petri dishes. These embryonic children are examined for defects. The following quotations further illustrate the evil nature of IVF and its ramifications for future children conceived with disabling conditions: Between 12-15 embryos are produced per woman per IVF treatment, resulting usually in no more than one viable pregnancy. Then the "extra" embryos – unborn babies – are destroyed.
Ask the Lord to awaken people so they will comprehend that IVF involves the mass killing of many more unique, living human beings than the number of babies that are born due to IVF.
5. STUDY BOLSTERS EVIDENCE THAT AUTISM RUNS IN FAMILIES
from: Disability Scoop
SYNOPSIS: Siblings of children with autism are about seven times more likely than others to have the developmental disability too, new research suggests. The risk was even higher – rising to almost 37% – in children with multiple siblings on the spectrum. "If a family’s first autistic child was a girl, they were 50% more likely to have another child with autism than if their first autistic child was a boy," said Sally Ozonoff of the UC Davis MIND Institute who led the study. "This points to genetic differences that increase recurrence likelihood in families who have an autistic daughter." The study is a follow-up to one released in 2011, which found that the recurrence rate in families that already had a child with autism was 18.7%.
Intercede for the families with autistic children, that parents will learn how to retrain and rewire the minds and behaviors of an autistic child.
6. SUCCESSFUL AGING: A NEUROSCIENTIST EXPLORES THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF OUR LIVES
from: Agape-Biblia Literatura
SYNOPSIS: In Successful Aging, Daniel Levitin explores how our brains change as we age and emphasizes focusing on health span rather than just life span. Drawing from neuroscience and psychology, he argues that life after sixty is a distinct developmental stage with its own challenges and benefits. Levitin offers insights into how to age joyfully and advocates for cultural shifts that recognize the wisdom and experience older adults can contribute to society.
Pray that people will become mindful of ageism – the unconscious "cognitive bias" most of us have toward the elderly and our own growing older, and that the elderly will break free from the restrictions that others unconsciously project on them.
7. DISABLED CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE FACE SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES
from: Disabled World
SYNOPSIS: Research on children in foster care with disabilities found profound impacts, including lower likelihood of permanent placement and higher risk of death. Furthermore, children in foster care with intellectual disability, physical disability, and emotional disturbance had a significantly higher risk of death compared to those without disabilities. "In undertaking this study, we expected to find differential outcomes for children with disabilities," said senior author Jill D. McLeigh, PhD. "We were, however, surprised by the degree to which risk levels remained high for children with disabilities - across several disability types - and for dying while in care for physical disability, emotional disturbance and other medical conditions."
Intercede for disabled children in foster care, that they will be given the respect and care as valuable human beings, not merely as sub-human animals to keep in the home in order to receive money from the government.
WE NEED YOUR HELP! Perhaps you've read this before and are wondering, "Why am I seeing this again?" But millions of other Christians haven't seen it! So please use the "share" buttons above to share it with your social media friends. Thanks!!
DISABILITY IMPACTS ALL OF US: CDC
How can we create Agape Restoration Communities where Christian people really care about each other and support one another... especially people we tend to ignore – people with disabilities and the elderly? 
61 Million adults
Why don't we know about disabilities? It's because we literally don't see most of them: people with mobility or self-care, cognition, and independent living problems can't get out easily to public places like shopping, church, restaurants, etc.: we don't see them because they're not there, they can hardly get out of their homes, so – "Out of sight, out of mind" – we assume they don't exist! Also, we ignore them: we likely have an unconscious bias against disability: it reminds us of our own mortality, so we would rather not think about it.
Then there are the "invisible disabilities": you see the person but you don't see their disability, such as heart, back, or knee problems that limit a person's ability, for example, to carry over 15 pounds or walk more than 50 or 100 feet or a block or two so you think they're lazy; or hearing loss that may make you think the person is ignoring you or is sort of stupid or doesn't understand English. (I have a bad back and shouldn't carry heavy stuff; I also have severe hearing loss – even with hearing aids I often can't understand speech, especially in a noisy environment... although I like to meet people, have a doctorate degree, and know several languages.)
How does disability impact the rest of us? If we could help many of these disabled people to be able to contribute to society, think of the impact it could have. This is an urgent issue for Christians to address: we are ignoring 26% of the people in the world! And these are the very people to whom Jesus Christ directed most of His ministry – "the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind." The Gospel teaches us "love your neighbor as yourself," but if we don't see them, we don't have to love them, right?
Wrong! The Russian verb "to hate" literally means "to not look at" or "to not see" – if we look the other way in the presence of a disabled person or ignore a beggar or a person who can't hear very well... [read more...]
PLEASE CONSIDER GIVING $5, $15, or $25 TO SUPPORT OUR MINISTRY!
Keep our ministry going! Use our QR code or click on "Donate One-Time or Monthly."
If just 5% of the people who see this would give $5 per month (just 17¢ per day!) - coffee with your favorite friend at your favorite coffee shop - we could cover our operating expenses and do much more in spreading the word, supporting orphans, and providing accessible housing for the disabled. My wife and I left our careers over 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. ...thanks!
And please Share Our Vision with your family & friends!
