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## Rebuild, Pray, Pay Attention

_"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house?" (Isaiah 58:6–7)_

Father, today we bring You Franciscan friars in war-torn Syria who turned a bombed-out school into a place where children learn the trade of peace. We bring You 682 cities worldwide where Christians are standing outside abortion facilities today and praying for the babies inside. And we bring You a Netflix film that plans to give Aslan, C.S. Lewis' Christ figure, a female voice and a David Bowie-inspired redesign. Give us the joy that the first two deserve and the clear eyes the third one requires. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Today's issue covers the reopening of two Christian schools in Syria after nearly six decades of closure, the launch of the 40 Days for Life campaign today in 682 cities worldwide, and the confirmation that Netflix's Narnia film will cast Meryl Streep as a female Aslan, with the Lewis family reportedly upset. Go well.

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## Three Headlines to Watch

### Franciscan Friars Turned a Syrian School That Had Been Bombed, Looted, and Used as a Military Shelter Back Into a Place Where 80 Children Are Learning. They Call It a Miracle of Rebirth.

Two Christian schools in the Syrian villages of Knaye and Yacoubieh in Idlib governorate reopened on September 20 under the care of the Franciscan friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, nearly six decades after the Syrian government seized them in 1972. The Franciscan friars had originally built and operated the Terra Santa schools since 1958. After the seizure, the buildings were used for decades by the military, then as refugee shelters for a decade after the military withdrew. Father Khukaz Mesrob, who returned to his home village of Knaye to serve his parish, began asking why the buildings could not be restored. Working with Pro Terra Sancta, the Custody, and church associations, the friars completed approximately 80% of the restoration. The rebuilt schools now run a full school cycle: Yacoubieh serves children ages 3 to 10, Knaye serves students ages 10 to 17. Twenty-five teachers have returned to the villages, all Christian, all raised there, covering subjects from English and mathematics to chemistry and biology. Currently 80 children are enrolled. When restoration is fully complete next year, the schools will accommodate nearly 300 students, including children from local Muslim families. The rebuilding generated employment for nearly 100 local workers across multiple trades, providing steady income to a hundred families during a fragile period of national reconstruction. Roughly 200 families now live across the villages and their surroundings, double the number present during the war. Father Mesrob noted that the imam of a local mosque told him he had attended the Terra Santa school before its closure, with the Franciscan's own father as his English teacher. At the inauguration, with civil and religious leaders, ambassadors, Christians and Muslims present, Father Mesrob said they were like a mosaic, every small stone necessary in its exact place and colour, none able to take another's place. [Read the full story at Vatican News →]([link removed])

“**Doorpost Reflection:** Bishop Hanna Jallouf of Aleppo said that through years of war, young people have only learned the trade of war, and that the task now is to ensure they learn the trade of peace and coexistence instead. That is exactly what Knaye and Yacoubieh are doing. Father Mesrob went back to a village the war had emptied, looked at a bombed-out school that had been a military barracks and a refugee shelter, and asked why not. The answer is 80 children in school, 25 teachers home in their villages, 100 families with steady work, and a Muslim imam whose teacher was a Franciscan friar. The Gospel does not always arrive as a sermon. Sometimes it arrives as a restored classroom and a school that opens its doors to everyone.

Pray for Father Mesrob, Father Bisharat, and the Franciscan friars serving in Idlib governorate, for their continued safety and for the completion of the restoration next year. Pray for the 80 children already enrolled and for the nearly 300 who will join them. And pray for Syria in this period of rebuilding, that more communities would find their way back to the kind of life together that a school full of children represents.“ —

**Scripture:** "They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations." — Isaiah 61:4

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### Today, 682 Cities Around the World Will Station Christians Outside Abortion Facilities to Pray for 40 Days. Find Your City and Go.

The 40 Days for Life fall campaign launched today, September 23, with participants in 682 cities across the world standing in peaceful prayer vigils outside abortion facilities for the next 40 days. Participants can find their nearest vigil and sign up at 40daysforlife.com/locations. In Kalamazoo, Michigan, participants gathered for the city's 19th consecutive 40 Days for Life campaign, holding their prayer vigil in the rain after a planned candlelight service was washed out. Leaders from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Canada gathered in Seattle on Saturday for a regional training workshop ahead of the campaign launch, with attendees receiving instruction on recruiting participants and a legal briefing for their respective jurisdictions. A video of a grandmother who saved her own grandchild from abortion through her presence and prayer at a vigil has been viewed more than 100,000 times. The 40 Days for Life campaign, which runs from today through November 1, is built around three components: prayer and fasting, community outreach, and peaceful vigil outside abortion facilities. The campaign has documented thousands of women who have chosen life because someone was present, praying, outside the door. [Read the full story at LifeNews →]([link removed])

“**Doorpost Reflection:** Kalamazoo stood in the rain. That is the story. Nineteen years of showing up. A grandmother who prayed and her grandchild lived. Hundreds of thousands of people across 682 cities standing outside the doors of abortion facilities for 40 days to say that the children inside matter. This is the pro-life movement doing the specific, quiet, faithful work that does not make headlines but saves lives. The Church should be represented at every one of those 682 locations. If you live near an abortion facility and you are not signed up, go to 40daysforlife.com/locations today and find your city. This is not a spectator campaign. It is a prayer vigil. And prayer vigils require people who show up.

Pray for the 682 campaigns launching today, for the safety and faithfulness of every participant. Pray specifically for the women who will approach those facilities in the next 40 days, that they would encounter someone who can offer them a real alternative. And pray that every child who is alive today because someone stood in the rain at a 40 Days for Life vigil would grow up knowing that someone loved them enough to show up.“ —

**Scripture:** "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are desolate." — Proverbs 31:8

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### Netflix Is Casting a Woman to Voice Aslan and Redesigning Him With David Bowie Influences. C.S. Lewis Made Clear That Aslan Is a Christ Figure. Parents Should Know This Before They Go.

Director Greta Gerwig has confirmed that Meryl Streep will voice Aslan in her upcoming Netflix adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia, ending months of speculation. Gerwig explained her choice by saying she wanted someone profound but not pretentious, with gravitas but not morose self-seriousness, older than 70 with the wisdom of experience but also the capacity of fresh wonder like a child, and one of the greatest actors ever. Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide and a figure with close ties to C.S. Lewis's family, reports that the Lewis family is very upset and concerned about what the change could mean for the beloved Christian allegory. Baehr says the decision raises serious theological questions and urges parents to pay close attention to how Aslan is ultimately portrayed. Reports have also surfaced that the character's visual design is partly inspired by David Bowie, which critics say suggests an intentional effort to reshape the character's identity. Lewis himself stated explicitly that Aslan is not an allegory but a supposal: what might Christ be like if He had entered the world of Narnia? The lion is unambiguously a Christ figure by the author's own description, dying on the Stone Table and rising again, and serving as the son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Gerwig is the director of Barbie, a film whose treatment of men drew significant controversy. CBN's Billy Hallowell noted that Gerwig's stated reasons for casting Streep raise their own questions about whether the choice was driven by artistic judgment or by a desire to reimagine a character the author created with deliberate theological intention. No release date for the Netflix film has been confirmed. [Read the full story at CBN News →]([link removed])

“**Doorpost Reflection:** C.S. Lewis was not subtle about who Aslan is. He told a child who wrote to him that Aslan is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, what might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia? The lion who dies on the stone table and rises again is not a generic wise deity. He is the Son of God, in a different form, in a different world. Casting a woman to voice him, and redesigning him with the aesthetic of a rock star known for gender-bending performance, is not a neutral artistic decision. It is a revision of the theological content of the character. Lewis's family is reportedly upset. They should be. This is not about Meryl Streep's talent. It is about whether Netflix intends to present what Lewis actually wrote or something that uses his story as a vehicle for its own imagination. Christian parents who plan to take their children to this film should read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with them first, so the children know who Aslan actually is before they see who Netflix decided to make him.

Pray for the Lewis family and for those who steward Lewis's estate, that they would have the courage and the legal standing to hold the line on what his work actually says. And pray for Christian parents, that they would be the ones who teach their children who the Lion of Judah is before Hollywood gets the chance to teach them something else.“ —

**Scripture:** "For the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered." — Revelation 5:5

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## Verse of the Day

_"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house?" — Isaiah 58:6–7_

Isaiah 58 was written to a people who thought the right religious activity was enough. They fasted and prayed and asked why God was not responding. And God said: the fast I choose is not the ritual. It is the action. It is going to the place where the oppressed are and doing something. The Franciscan friars went back to Knaye, looked at a ruined building, and rebuilt it so children could learn. The participants in 682 cities went to the sidewalk outside the abortion facility, stood in the rain, and prayed. Those are the same impulse: the faith that does not stay in the building but goes to where the need is and does something. The Narnia story matters in this context too. Lewis wrote it because he wanted to sneak the Gospel past watchful dragons, to get the truth about Jesus into the imaginations of children before their defenses went up. Netflix is trying to replace that truth with something of its own. The Church's response is to do what Lewis did: tell the real story, clearly, to as many children as possible, before someone else tells a different one.

_Father, we give thanks for the friars in Knaye and Yacoubieh who went back when no one would have blamed them for staying away. We give thanks for the 682 cities standing in prayer today. And we pray for the parents and churches who are trying to give their children a true picture of Jesus before the culture gives them a false one. This is the fast You choose: to go, to stand, to rebuild, and to tell the truth. Help us do it. In Jesus' name, Amen._

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## Scripture Stumper

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