From the Editor
Change. A favorite slogan during any election campaign, change is a word we dread as much as desire. We long for change to make things better. We fear change will make things worse. And too often, even when we get the change we’ve fought for, whether geographical, political, economic, or social, we find ourselves disappointed. Why? Because though our circumstances may be changed, we ourselves are still the same and so are those around us.
You see, change that truly transforms society comes through changed hearts, not circumstances. And hearts change only when they are restored to personal relationship with their Creator and heavenly Father through the love of Jesus Christ and transforming power of the Holy Spirit. When God promised restoration to an idolatrous, wicked Israel, He described it this way: “I will give you a new heart . . . I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). When enough individual hearts change from hate to love, cruelty to kindness, greed to selflessness, their society will never be the same.
In this issue you will meet some of the BCM family worldwide who are changing their societies, one heart at a time. In war-torn Congo, 15,000 newly-printed Footsteps of Faith series on Christ’s life, death, and resurrection in Bangala and Swahili offer more hope than guns or aid packages. A Ukrainian couple just can’t keep to themselves how God’s love changed their lives. In the midst of persecution, Orissa Christians choose courage over fear as thirteen hundred show up for a BCM lay leader training conference. Whether Bolivia, Peru, Ireland, South Africa, or a Navajo reservation, changing children’s hearts is also giving them a future. Indeed, you might say change is what BCM is all about.
Change a heart, change a nation.
Jeanette Windle
Editor
