Jesus

• Dallas, Sept. 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) recognized top partner organizations at a recent Partner Agency Summit at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson.
• The awards were presented to fourteen of the more than 500 feeding partners and organizations that work alongside the North Texas Food Bank to distribute food to those facing hunger in the Food Bank’s 13-county service area.
• “The North Texas Food Bank could not have provided access to 144 million meals last year without the strategic partnerships of our feeding network of 500 food pantries and organizations,” said Anne Readhimer, North Texas Food Bank Vice President of Community Impact.
• Transformational Partner of the Year: Christian Community Action
  Christian Community Action (CCA) was chosen as NTFB’s Transformational Partner of the Year.

• His Paradise, Your Pursuit;" a guidebook to help readers understand how God provided a way for creation to return to Eden and nurture fellowship with him, by the storytelling of the Old Testament.
• "The stories of the Old Testament offer more than just historical accounts," Ziebka said.
• "They are a roadmap to discover the profound relationship that God intended for us to have with him."
• "The stories of the Old Testament offer more than just historical accounts," Ziebka said.

• The investment is part of the larger Gloo growth plan to serve the Church with a comprehensive marketplace of diverse offerings.
• "We are thrilled about the opportunity to welcome Outreach, Inc. to the Gloo family of brands and partners that are focused on serving the big C Church," said Scott Beck, CEO of Gloo.
• "Outreach has faithfully served the Church for 27 years with best-in-class journalism, growth content, marketing resources, and church engagement capabilities.
• I'm excited about the synergies Outreach and Gloo will bring as we serve the Church now and in the future."

• Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Mongolia, which is home to fewer than 1,500 Catholics, has elicited curiosity among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
• This will be the pope’s 43rd trip abroad since his election on March 13, 2013: He has visited 12 countries in the Americas, 11 in Asia and 10 in Africa.

Prioritizing the poor

• While previous popes have included the poor in their speeches, what has distinguished this pope is that he has focused on the Global South and prioritized immigrants, refugees and the less privileged, from Bolivia to Myanmar to Mongolia.
• At his July 2013 visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa to commemorate migrants who had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, Francis gave a blistering critique of the world’s failure to care for the poor: “In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference.
• And Josefina told me back in 2017 that this pope is “the real deal” in terms of supporting immigrants and the poor.

Francis and liberation theology

• According to Austen Ivereigh prior to his becoming pope, Francis — then Jorge Mario Bergoglio – condemned liberation theology as well.
• He would say “that they were for the people but never with them,” wrote Ivereigh, in his biography of Pope Francis.

Journeying to Mongolia

• How does the pope’s upcoming visit to Mongolia factor into this decade-spanning trajectory of his people-focused liberation?
• Christianity has been present in Mongolia since the seventh century.
• In addition to this branch of Eastern Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism came to Mongolia in the 13th century, as did Islam.
• Today, Buddhism is the dominant religion of Mongolia, while Islam and Christianity remain very small percentages at 3% and 2.5%.

A strategic visit

• And yet, according to the World Bank, the economic forecast for Mongolia remains “promising” because of its rich natural resources, such as gold, copper, coal and other minerals.
• Two rail lines connecting Mongolia to China were installed in January 2022 and a third is being built.
• The pope’s visit will be bold given the challenges before Mongolia and its geographic location between Russia and China.