Dear Friends, Like so many of you, Christian History has faced the difficult decisions and hard questions brought on by a worldwide pandemic. While much of our magazine production team already works from home, some of us work in the beautiful red barn you see in the line drawing on our editor's page (above). Our excellent customer service team also works in the barn and adjacent buildings. Though we don't necessarily need to be in the barn, we enjoy being in this creative and collaborative space. Then in early March, our county became the first and lasting hot spot in Southeastern Pennsylvania. We quickly closed down the barn and moved to our homes, continuing to take calls, fulfill orders, and create Christian History magazine with the highest quality content possible. When an important international art source shut down for quarantine, we chose to delay our summer issue in order to acquire the quality images you expect from CHM. For this reason, you'll see issue #134: Science and Technology in your mailboxes in mid-June instead of late May. (But you can read it here and share it easily online now!) Meanwhile, God has provided CHI greater opportunities to share the story of our faith. The current pandemic immediately reminded us of a Christian History issue topic that has been on our "wish list" for years: The Christian response to plagues and epidemic throughout history. Thanks to the hard work and incredible efforts of our editorial team, this bonus issue will finish in record time and arrive in your mailbox in mid-summer. We pray it will help you reflect on God's work through his people during the most desperate times in history. You can get a sneak peak at some of the content through these reflections by Dan Graves and Edwin Woodruff Tait on our blog. In addition, we were planning to launch Redeem TV, a new donor-supported digital streaming service, this summer with many of the programs you've seen featured in our Recommended Resources pages and hundreds more from our extensive collection. But as the pandemic forced families inside for weeks on end, we decided to release a Beta version of the service in early April. Now this redemptive, Christian content is available wherever the Internet reaches and all of it is currently free. We invite you to join the more than 13,000 viewers in 140 countries that have subscribed! As always, CHI's resources are free to access on our website. We encourage you to use our materials and adapt them to the "new normal," and would love to hear from you on how CHI has helped you share the story of the faith. We are exceedingly thankful to those who are able to support this ministry financially; your gifts are especially treasured now when many regular donors are unable to give due to unexpected hardships. We trust God to provide both for us and for you like he has provided richly for his people in the past. Just as Paul exhorts us in Philippians, may you "not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6-7 ESV) Sincerely, Your Friends at Christian History Institute |
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