I was recently reading a newsletter authored by Jackie Howcroft, who died last year, published in time for Easter '08. In its introductory article I was struck by the profound sincerity of someone who had been faithful to the end. It's worth repeating:

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God._{Hebrews 12:1-2}

Burma (Myanmar) has been devastated by the deadliest natural disaster in living memory. When Cyclone Nargis hit on Saturday 3rd May the destruction was magnified by a storm surge which sent a wave 3.5 m high across the low-lying Irrawaddy Delta region, flattening homes and cutting power-lines. The Christian minority, numbering nearly four million, has been severely persecuted for decades and Barnabas Fund is sending aid to ensure that they do not miss out on the help they need at this time of crisis.

 ¹ Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

² You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

³ clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
  
⁴ And we have such trust through Christ toward God.

⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

⁶ who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.