Local church hosts two different stories on spreading Christianity
The spread of Christianity in an African nation, and a personal call to a faith once regarded as hostile will be the focus of talks next week at St. Patrick Catholic Church, 408 Cedar St. in downtown St. Charles.
The Rev. Dave Bohnsack will discuss his experiences as a Comboni missionary for ten years in the Darfur region of Sudan at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22. The Comboni International Missionary Order was founded in the 1940s.
Bohnsack was raised Lutheran and became a Catholic while in college. While volunteering at a homeless shelter in Chicago, he became friends with Comboni seminarians, an encounter that led him to the priesthood.
The talk is presented by the church's peace and justice committee.
Hicham Chehab, who came to the United States from Lebanon in 2004, will share the story of his journey from Islam to Christianity at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25.
As a teenager and as a young man, Chehab was caught up in the bloody conflicts between Christians and Muslims that raged in Lebanon during the 1970s and 1980s.
"I will be telling my story and also talking about how we have founded an Arabic Church," he said. "Salam Church meets at Peace Lutheran Church in Lombard. The name means peace, and it is not because of Peace Church, but because peace is very meaningful to the Middle East. We minister to people from Iraq, Iran, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Sudan.
"We have about 40 people," Chehab added. "Ten have been baptized as Christians. We have converts, and others who are seekers. It's more of a fellowship than a church."
Chehab works for People of the Book, a mission society of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that reaches out to Muslims. He has an office at Trinity Lutheran Church in Roselle. He has also founded a student ministry at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn that reaches out to Muslim students.
For information on Chehab's talk, call (630) 513-3314.
Day of Peace and a Peace Pole: The Congregational United Church of Christ, 40W451 Fox Mill Boulevard in St. Charles, will dedicate its new Peace Pole on Sunday, Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace. The church is at LaFox Road and Fox Mill Boulevard between routes 38 and 64.
The church will celebrate the diversity and commonality of human beings in services at both 9 and 10:30 a.m. filled with music and peace messages.
During the dedication, children will carry peace chains with messages from all over the world. The prayer, "May peace prevail on earth," will be said in different languages.
The Peace Pole is located in front of the church and displays messages in English, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and Chinese.
There are over 200,000 Peace Poles throughout the world in over 200 countries. The Peace Pole Project began in Japan, under the auspices of the World Peace Prayer Society, a nonprofit, nondenominational organization founded in 1955.
For information, call the church at (630) 584-0929.