On behalf of RZIM and our global team, thank you for all your prayers. I received an email today from a young person who wanted to draw my attention to a video on the internet called "The Blasphemy Challenge." The group, self-titled the "Rational Response Squad," was encouraging young people to send in videos of themselves denying God. It was truly sobering, even eerie, to watch. We know that our hope for this world is found only in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and more than ever we desire that God's Word be seen and heard across our globe.

Each day is filled with unique challenges for our team of nearly 100 spread across 7 countries. We are called to engage hearts and minds for Christ, and we do this sometimes running at a hectic pace and covering a lot of ground. None of this would be possible without God's grace and your faithful support and heartfelt prayers. And I am thrilled to report to you that the newest book just released, "The Grand Weaver," is doing better than any book I have penned. It is a beautiful and timely reminder to me of how important it is to touch the heart. As much as that seems obvious, I'm afraid we as speakers don't always succeed in that. So to see the incredible rise to the charts of this book is deeply gratifying. I earnestly pray this will touch tens of thousands of lives and help them see the marvel and magnificence of God's tapestry even through dark nights of the soul.

I want to thank you for how you have touched our hearts by your generosity and your prayers on our behalf. My hope is that these stories will bless you even as you have blessed us.

May God be with you in all your needs and successes.

Engaging Today's Culture with RZIM:

• Atlanta Civic Center, Thursday September 13th, 7:00pm - Is America Really Christian? Join RZIM's internationally itinerant speakers Ravi Zacharias and Michael Ramsden as they take a candid look at how American spirituality, values and actions relate to the teachings of Christianity in today's diverse and global culture. To begin, Michael will tackle what it means to be a Christian, followed by Ravi who will look at our current cultural moorings. The evening will end with a Q&A with the audience. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster.
• Critical Questions Discussion Guide - RZIM has partnered with InterVarsity Press to create discussion guides to some of our most asked for booklets in the original Critical Questions series. Using engaging questions for discussion, insights from experts in their fields, and helpful notes for leaders, The Critical Questions Discussion Guides provide a forum for exploring these questions in groups or individually, guided by the engaging insights of world-class philosophers and theologians. Please visit this page and scroll down to see the discussion guide choices.
• Faith and Reason - Are they Compatible? - LT Jeyachandran tackles whether faith and reason are diametrically opposed in his article from Truth for the Times, a supplement publication from The RZIM Life Focus Society in India. Please click here to read what he has to share.

Where in the World is RZIM? Highlights from across the globe...

 United States

Ravi Zacharias spoke at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, and was at the show throughout the week for interviews on his latest book, The Grand Weaver. Together with Joe Boot, Ravi traveled to Speculator, New York to speak in the morning chapel services at Camp of the Woods.

Stuart McAllister spoke in a joint event with Elam at Christ Community Church in Kansas City on topics of apologetics in the Middle East. Stuart also traveled to Massachusetts to speak at Grace Gospel Church's Bible Conference and both Sunday services.

Alison Thomas writes from Hume Lake Camp, where she is teaching apologetics to teens in California for the summer. Each week there is a new group of students and leaders.

Each Wednesday, she speaks for an hour at the morning chapel session, followed by a 30-minute seminar for the main high school group of 1,000. She reports, "I spoke to my first group of a thousand teens yesterday. I "grilled" the students during chapel and they really enjoyed it - they were cheering when students had good answers and booed when they didn't. The room was filled with so much energy and excitement. After they realized how hard it was to answer tough questions, they listened intently as I explained in the end how to do so."

An optional seminar followed the morning chapel session, where Alison conducted a Q&A session for a large gathering of students. She writes, "They had so many questions [and] asked things like: Can demons possess Christians? How do you explain ghosts? What about Pangea? Did Jesus return in 70 AD? What happens if a Christian repents before committing suicide? Will our pets be in heaven? What do you tell people who think there are only perspectives? What's worse, the mindset of sin or sin itself? Why would God allow the Holocaust? What do I tell my biology teacher about evolution? What do you think about separation of church and state? What will heaven be like? Why doesn't God just destroy Satan? How do we explain the existence of God to agnostics?" Alison has made herself available to students in informal settings as well, and reports answering student questions at the café "non-stop from 11am to 5pm".

The enthusiasm and excitement of the students for apologetics has been eye-opening for the program directors, and Alison is so thankful God has opened up this amazing opportunity.

 United Kingdom

Summer School at Oriel College, Oxford was a great success. The team received a lot of very positive feedback. They shared "Thank you so much for your prayers; we really appreciated them."

Amy Orr-Ewing and Michael Ramsden are preparing for Soul Survivor where they will be speaking for five days, starting August 15th. Soul Survivor seeks to reach young people and impart a vision of Jesus and then equip, train and empower them into his ministry in their every day lives. The first annual conference launched in 1993 with some 2,000 delegates, and has grown in attendance to around 22,700 (2005).

They also participated in Momentum, speaking at several occasions for this five-day event for students which began July 20 and is a part of Soul Survivor. The team ran an Apologetics Clinic every day, giving people the opportunity to come ask their questions and have some meaningful discussion.

 India

The India team of associate and adjunct apologists continues to fulfill requests for speaking engagements:

The Fingerprints workshop was conducted in Hyderabad on July 14-15. The workshop is designed to equip Christians for the challenges that are coming to Christianity from Islam. It was attended by 42 people from various backgrounds, including the IT field, business, teaching faculty, and people working among Muslims. The topics were addressed by Neil Vimalkumar and Jose Philip, along with local non-RZIM resource persons Dr. Spurgeon Anandaraj, Dr. Rajkumar, Mr. Roland Johns, Mr. Malcolm Ezekiel, and Mr. Azgar Ali.

One participant described the event as an "eye opener for the challenges that exist in reaching out to my Muslim friends and postmodern people." Others claimed that they learned new ways of defending their Christian faith and that they now had a better understanding of the worldviews of people of other faiths.

Cyril Georgeson spoke to the youth of the City Fellowship Centre in Delhi on "Witnessing at the Workplace".

Rampert Ratnaiya addressed a group of Christian professionals at a half-day seminar in Trichy, on "Safeguarding against Cults". Please pray for wisdom and anointing for both of these men.

Balajied Nongrum traveled to Shillong, where he spoke at a Bible study at the Lydia Hostel on "Spiritual Disciplines," and also ministered at the South Evangelical Union's worship service on the topic "God, Health, and Studies".

Tejdor spoke at a three-day evangelistic meeting for a Baptist church in Tura. Along with five evangelistic meetings, he also led three seminars on the topic "Role of Women in Family, Church, and Society."

Prakash Yesudian, Evangelist at Large, writes: I have just come home after facilitating five lectures on "Biblical Mandate for Evangelism" at the advanced leadership course of the Haggai Institute. I came back refreshed after talking about God, who is sovereign in evangelism as we fulfill God-given responsibilities. There were 60 participants from 28 countries. Pray that they will be "change agents" in their own context when they go back to their countries."

This week Prakash will be in Tata Nagar (Jamsherpur) at a school on evangelism.

 Canada

Joe Boot spoke at the Oxford summer school as well with other members of the RZIM team. His topics were: "Justice - God as Moral Law-Giver," "Pantheistic Ethics vs. Biblical Vision," and "Sex." He and Michael Ramsden also teamed up for an "On the Spot" session together, answering questions in a small group setting.

Rachel Tulloch is in the midst of an exciting summer teaching youth apologetics. She returned from her second week of speaking at Hume Lake Christian Camps in California on the topic of World Religions. The week went very well and there were many good questions coming from the students as well as from many of the youth leaders. They are very excited that Alison will continue these seminars.

Rachel recently spoke at the CYAWL (Christian Youth and World Leadership) camp. This is a worldview and leadership training camp for young people. She taught on worldviews in conflict, postmodernism, relativism, and several sessions on general apologetics.

Next week, July 30-August 3, Rachel will speak to youth at Aush-Bik-Koong Bible Camp in Northern Ontario.

 Singapore

L.T. Jeyachandran and I'Ching Thomas had a full itinerate schedule this month, with many opportunities to share the gospel and train believers in evangelism and apologetics.

Together, they conducted a two-day seminar on apologetics at Multimedia University Christian Fellowship in Malacca, Malaysia.

They both had an exciting opportunity to present at Operation Mobilization's Missions Conference, where LT taught on Hinduism, and I'Ching spoke on the topic of "The Uniqueness of Christ; Understanding Buddhism."

LT traveled to Penang, Malaysia, to conduct a workshop on apologetics for university students and young adults. He has been invited to speak at the Spiritual Emphasis Week of Singapore Bible College. LT also accepted an invitation by the Network of Marketplace Christians to speak on "God in the Public Square".

They have both been involved in strengthening local churches through teaching. I'Ching spoke at City Community Church in Malacca while LT travelled to speak at a Sunday service of Cornerstone Community Church in Singapore. Also this month, LT spoke at a Sunday service at Hng Hwa Methodist Church, while I'Ching taught apologetics at Jurong Christian Church, covering the topic "Popular Buddhism." And LT recently taught apologetics at Chapel of the Resurrection Anglican Church.

Please pray for both LT and I'Ching in their travels and that the message of the Gospel will change lives in the Asia-Pacific region.

 Middle East

RZIM is currently developing a specific strategy for increasing our presence and impact in the Middle East. Today, perhaps like never before, the region is ripe for harvest. Exciting progress is being made as we bring together multiple fronts, uniquely situated initiatives, and key individuals to provide strategic leadership.

Please continue to pray for them and all who are ministry and that are sharing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We appreciate your prayers and support for RZIM as our team continues to proclaim the beauty and credibility of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the university, the arts, politics, business, and the church throughout the world. Through open forums, community outreach, radio, and the ministry of Wellspring International, we seek to remove the barriers to the Cross for the skeptic as we prepare Christians to give a reason for the hope within us.

Please know that we are here to serve you in any way that we can. Feel free to contact us by phone at (770) 449-6766 or via our website, www.rzim.org.

God bless,

Ravi Zacharias
President
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
4725 Peachtree Corners Circle, Ste 250
Norcross, GA 30092
770.449.6766

P.S. If you're interested in learning more about making a gift to support the ministry of RZIM or learning more about various unique gift opportunities through gift annuities, Estate Planning, or stock gifts, please contact Jeanette Chuquiure at (800) 448-6766 or click here if you would like to donate online.