Could you do this?

You do get the name, right? The Church exists on both sides of the red doors?" As in both inide and ouside, members and nonmembers?

Just checking. One of my friends asked, "What, the right and the left?"

From time to time, I'll point out where God is working way outside of St. Johns'.

Meet Rais Bhuiyan.



     He came to the U.S. from Pakistan hoping to further his education. In 2001, he was working in a convenience sture in Dallas.

     Enter Mark Stroman. Distressed over a percieved lack of government response to 9/11, he embarked on a one man crusade to, "to retaliate on local Arab Americans, or whatever you want to call them." He killed two men, one Indian Pakastani, one Indian.

     The night he came into the store where Bhuiyan worked, he asked "Where are you from?" and then shot Bhuiyan in the face. 

      After multiple surgeries, Bhuiyan remains blind in one eye.

     As he recovered, he realized that it wasn't just his body that needed healing. He is a Muslim, and he knew that he needed to forgive. So he is now working to have Stroman's death sentence (he is scheduled to be executed on the 20th of this month) commuted to life in prison.

     "According to my faith in Islam, there is no hate, no killing. It doesn't allow anything like that," says Bhuiyan. "Yes, Mark Stroman did a horrible thing, and he brought a lot of pain and disaster, sufferings in my life. But in return I never hated him."

     Sura 5, verse 32 from the Quran, states, "If someone slays one person, he has slain mankind entirely. And if someone has saved one person, he has saved mankind entirely."

     Visit his website at worldwithouthate.org. Learn a bit about compassion and mercy.