“How long have you been driving for?”

Anytime I’m in a Taxi, this is typically one of my go-to questions. It also inevitably turns into an opportunity for the cab driver to share their personal story with me (this is one of the 5 BLESS steps in missional living). Last time I asked this question, the driver opened up the internal world of the taxi industry, and gave me insight into how and why companies like Uber and Lyft are gaining so much ground.

“It costs $300,000 to buy a permit to drive a cab in this city…”

I couldn’t believe my ears when the cab driver told me how it cost to drive a cab in Edmonton (Canada). As I continued to pry into the industry, he continued…

“A limited number of permits are issued once every few years, and when they are, it’s a complete lottery. Here’s the catch though, in order to enter that lottery, you need to have already been driving a cab for a couple of years, which is why I’m leasing this cab from someone else. If you’re lucky enough to have your name drawn, then it’ll cost you less than a $1000 to buy the license through the city. Once you get that license, you can either use it yourself, lease it out to someone else, or you can sell it for $300,000 – that’s the going rate these days.”

Once again, ISIS has orchestrated and filmed the dramatic mass killing of African Christians who refuse to deny their faith.

This time, the approximately 28 men targeted by the Libya affiliate of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (also known as Daesh) were Ethiopian Christians. In February, the killing of 21 mostly Egyptian Christians drew widespread horror and fears of future massacres, but also led to Egypt's largest Bible outreach.

Describing the 30-minute propaganda video released Sunday, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) explained:

The exact numbers of victims in the latest incident cannot be confirmed. The video of the executions, entitled “Until there came to them clear evidence”, switches between a scene on a beach in eastern Libya, where an estimated 15 men in orange boiler suits are beheaded by masked militants in camouflage, and a scene in a desert area in southern Libya where similarly dressed Daesh members execute a similar number of men in black boiler suits by shooting them in the head. A subtitle refers to both groups of victims as "worshippers of the cross belonging to the hostile Ethiopian church."

The video also includes scenes depicting the destruction of churches in Syria and Iraq and condemns the doctrine of the Trinity as a form of apostasy. Prior to the executions, an English-speaking masked narrator dressed in black warns that "the nation of the cross" must either embrace Islam, pay the jizya tax or face death.

For the first two years of my son’s life, I felt like a complete failure.

As Rowan’s parents, Erik and I battled. We battled delayed speech. We battled meltdowns and tantrums that made no sense, even for a two-year-old. We battled his panic attacks in Target, Costco, and the grocery store. We battled self-injury. We battled each other because we didn’t understand how to parent our kid.

We finally asked ourselves, “What’s happening here?” Was Rowan just an unusually difficult child, or was it something else? For too long, we battled against something that didn’t have a name. But, after a series of appointments, tests, and evaluations, we found one: autism spectrum disorder, or ASD.

Chances are, you know someone affected by autism. This month is Autism Awareness Month, so parents like me are blogging and posting on social media about the disorder. With 1 in 68 children being diagnosed with ASD—and 1 in 42 boys—it’s becoming more common, the fastest-growing developmental disorder in the United States.