South Asian interchange
Where is home for us?
Rani Joshi
For the first time in my life, in recent months I started feeling unsettled hearing some of the conversations around remigration. As I listened, I couldn’t help but think of what my family experienced in Uganda during the time of Idi Amin.
My grandparents, my mum and her siblings were all born and raised in Uganda. They worked hard, made friends and contributed to the communities they loved. Yet there was a growing fear that Asians were not integrating, that they were taking over the economy, and then the inevitable happened when they were given 90 days to leave everything.
Facing the rise of Islam
Rani Joshi
A question I’m starting to challenge more people with when they say they are concerned about “the rise of Islam” is how are you engaging with Muslims?
It’s a reminder that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind. Most Muslims, just like any other human being, have normal desires like education, to build a good life, have food on the table, a roof over their head and, for some, to be successful. So why do we sometimes treat others like they are alien to the human experience, even if we do have different beliefs?
Revival, New Age and cultural Christianity
Rani Joshi
As we head into the Advent season, I’m excited to share that we’ve just launched Discovering Jesus. This is a new eight-session video series designed to engage and invite people to watch, covering who Jesus is, the Bible, and topics around faith, identity and culture. It’s particularly helpful for people of Asian heritage, and those of different faiths (or none!) to explore these topics.
The past few months have been busy, writing scripts for this series and speaking at several conferences. Over that time, I’ve been reflecting deeply on what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus versus a cultural Christian. One of the sessions explores what it looks like to genuinely follow Jesus and why some Christians may not necessarily reflect His likeness. Interestingly, this very question arose during the first edition of Discovering Jesus from participants who were curious about what authentic discipleship looks like.
