Author: Riley Gonzalez

By Riley Gonzalez — Rose Renuu loved her religious traditions in Nepal, but she never looked the idols in the eye. “When I was a little kid, I never used to make eye contact with these gods because they were scary, Rose says. When her mother died, nobody talked about it to her, so she never was able to process the grief. Her dad remarried to an American-Nepali, so off they went (with her sister) to Arizona. She knew plenty of English from Hanna Montana and American shows, but still there was culture shock. After a few years, her dad…

By Riley Gonzalez — In his voice, there is conviction and courage. The North Nigerian pastor who dared Fulani militias just had a brush with death — and Muslims killed nine of his relatives. “I cannot run away,” says Pastor Ezekiel Dachomo, the man who pleads to an unhearing world that they have pity upon the Christians of Nigeria after an estimated 100,000 who have been killed in the name of Allah. At midnight on July 11, Fulani gunmen targeted one house, the house of Dachomo’s nephew, in the Kum village in Rim District. The broke in and demanded Dachomo,…

By Riley Gonzalez — I’ve just been flying around the world, buzzing the Great Pyramids of Egypt and the Empire State Building of New York City, hitching a ride on a fingernail moon. This is the dreamscape described in the child’s book, The Finger Nail Moon. It’s a Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride of fantasy that combines charm with science lessons. Greg McKenzie works as a pianist in Japan, where he married and raised children. He is a man of remarkable sensitivity — and while writing has not been his forte, he brings to this tale the magic of music. Finger…

By Riley Gonzalez – Technologist Joanna Ng went to church when she was in school, not because she loved God but because she liked the fellowship. “In one particular meeting everybody shared about their week with Christ, I was the only one that did not share anything,” Ng says. “I felt caught red-handed.I realized I didn’t know Christ.” Because she was embarrassed, she could either abandon church or ask God to reveal himself to her. Today, she’s a prominent pioneer of AI who’s trying to bring God and humanity into the technology revolution. Joanna Ng was born in Hong Kong…

By Riley Gonzalez – Back in September, Hillary Clinton showed the Democrats have nothing new to court voters than the same old trope that white Christian men are to blame for problems in America. “There is a group of people,” said the former presidential candidate on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, “white men of a certain persuasion, a certain religion, a certain point of view, a certain ideology, who want to turn the clock back.” If she would have said Latinos, blacks, Asians or any other group were to be blamed, she would have been lynched. But attacking white, men and Christians…

By Riley Gonzalez — The Burmese orphans were crying begging that God would provide a house for them. But the pastor’s daughter didn’t believe. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Emily McAteer told them. Because her parents overcrowded the house with 40 orphans, the landlord gave them until 9:00 a.m. the next morning to vacate. At 7:00 a.m., Emily’s mother and sister called a Chinese landlord who offered them his large house without background check, without first month’s rent and without seeing them. Emily was astonished. Just the night before, she had accepted Jesus — finally — into her…

By Riley Gonzalez — In 581 Geometry Math class for his master’s degree, Jeffrey Geibel stumbled across one paragraph in his book that shattered his atheistic worldview. “It’s not possible to prove anything because if every statement requires a reason,” said the veteran high school math teacher from Southern California. The geometry had at the back of the book 29 axioms that were considered true without proof. Based on those starting points, you would prove every geometric principle. Without them, you couldn’t prove anything. But the axioms were just assumed to be true. He pondered: why were the axioms just…

Pastor Zhang Rongliang in China says that the Beijing ancient Temple of Heaven actually was dedicated to the Jewish/Christian God Shaddai of the Bible. “At the Temple of Heaven, Heaven here refers to China’s highest ruler, meaning China’s God,” Rongliang says, per translation. “This is the very place that emperors would come to pray. This was their place of worship. Many have observed this place and find that it resembles the temple of the Bible.” As the church in China explodes in growth, Chinese Christian leaders say that the bedrock faith in China is NOT Buddhism, NOT Confucianism, NOT Daoism…

By Riley Gonzalez – As she went to pick up the dead body of her husband in a refugee camp in Nigeria in 2021, a woman was praying for the killers to get saved. “She was asking Jesus to open their hearts for them to know Jesus the same way her husband did,” says Brad Brandon, CEO of missionary group Across Nigeria. “She’s truly the Elisabeth Elliot of northern Nigeria. I have no doubt that God will answer those prayers in the years to come.” Nigeria is the most dangerous country for Christians currently. The Fulani, Boko Haram and IS…

By Riley Gonzalez – After parents underwent a messy divorce, Faith Osler walked away from her faith into drugs, partying, sexual intimacy. She even followed her boyfriend to Hawaii and was living in sin. He became abusive and narcissistic. “That was the most hopeless and empty I have ever felt in my entire life,” she says. “I didn’t even know who I was anymore. I felt numb. That was rock bottom for me.” But God rescued her and today she’s happily married and serving God. Born into a Christian family, Faith Osler grew up knowing about God. “My parents were…