About the Book The Diaspora Returns II, the Healing Continues is the fourth part of a fictional series that continues to trace the movement of this group of outcasts. After two and a half years of hiding out while performing their own investigation, the bureau have located their exiled location and the outlaw agent-group has been summoned by the bureau to return home to answer some questions about their private ten-year bounty hunting business. The focused questioning is on the death of one of the groups via internet security guards that the sub-agency hired for their families. The bureau believes that the outlaws have confiscated tapes and downloads that will help them solve other open and troubling cases. An unfair trade is about to take place between the group and the bureau in the form of information for leniency, on Slapps behalf. The ole Catholic Priest hasnt lost faith in the renegades as he continues to intercede for them with prayer and counseling. Personal relationships have been affected and now getting their lives back in order has finally reached to top of the priority board. There is another generation watching them, inside the bureau and at home. Continue to witness their enlightenment and healing process as they get their lives back on solid ground in The Diaspora Returns II, the Healing Continues Amen.

****Back Cover Page Introduction ‘The Diaspora Returns is the third part of a fictional series that allows a glance into the lives of a small and possibly an insignificant group of people, by sociality’s standards. The word ‘Diaspora’ is usual reserved for a large group of people that have been forced into a far distant land with their language, culture, and family members intact and with the hope of returning one day to their ancestral origin. This small entourage, in spite of its size, has been forced to face some of the similar uncertainties as a true Diaspora. They are scattered, in exile and embrace the hope of returning to their established homeland. While in exile, they are enlightened by more truths about themselves and other members of this assortment. In addition, the group increases in size as they discover others that have migrated to this part of the world years before they arrived, for various reasons. This amalgamation of friendships has created a renewed spirit of hope in them as the Irish Catholic priest continues to pray and anoint them while he demands that they improve their relationship with the Divine One as well. Continue to track their discoveries and healing process as the story unfolds in ‘The Diaspora Returns, a Healing for the Soul’.

Cure a nosebleed by holding a silver quarter on the back of the neck. Treat an earache with sweet oil drops. Wear plant roots to keep from catching colds. Within many African American families, these kinds of practices continue today, woven into the fabric of black culture, often communicated through women. Such folk practices shape the concepts about healing that are diffused throughout African American communities and are expressed in myriad ways, from faith healing to making a mojo. Stephanie Y. Mitchem presents a fascinating study of African American healing. She sheds light on a variety of folk practices and traces their development from the time of slavery through the Great Migrations. She explores how they have continued into the present and their relationship with alternative medicines. Through conversations with black Americans, she demonstrates how herbs, charms, and rituals continue folk healing performances. Mitchem shows that these practices are not simply about healing; they are linked to expressions of faith, delineating aspects of a holistic epistemology and pointing to disjunctures between African American views of wellness and illness and those of the culture of institutional medicine.

Americans have long been aware of the phenomenon loosely known as faith healing. Such practices most often received attention when they came into conflict with biomedical practice. During the 1990s, however, the American cultural landscape changed dramatically and religious healing became acommonplace feature of our society. The essays in this book chart this new reality. Insofar as healing traditions constitute the meeting ground or point of conflict between different groups, argue the authors, they provide a powerful lens through which to examine cultural changes at work. Each ofthe papers offers a particular case study. Many emphasize gender, race, ethnicity, and class as key components of healing experiences.

The centerpiece of the book Is There Still a Place for God? offers a psychological interpretation of the Old Testament story as told by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack Miles (God: A Biography). This book’s interpretation displays how Judaism fostered the inner strength of the “chosen” people. A quantum view of the universe and the understanding of the power of projection are used to make the case that there is still a place for God. As a starting point, the uncertainty of an Anglican bishop concerning belief and faith is used as an example of present day doubt regarding religious belief and practice, as well as demonstrating the part that projection can play. The author wrote this book with the concern that we may be losing religious sensitivity, without recognizing the cultural losses that may result.

In recent years, the Vietnamese diaspora, including some of whom are Protestant Christian Việt Kiều, have returned to their natal homeland of Vietnam in large numbers. This book investigates the phenomenon of the Protestant Christian Việt Kiều who have returned and reestablished belonging in Vietnam with a missional purpose and the perspective of non-migrant local Protestant Christian leaders as a case study of diaspora missiology. It is based upon doctoral research utilizing in-depth interviews which sought to answer the following questions: 1) What are the motivating factors of Protestant Christian Việt Kiều returning to Vietnam for mission-related purposes? 2) What has been the experience in ministry of the returning Protestant Christian Việt Kiều regarding mission-related reasons for returning? 3) How have the non-migrants experienced the phenomenon of return? This book explores the answers to these questions as a case study of diaspora missiology. Findings suggest that the Protestant Christian Việt Kiều are welcomed back in Vietnam and contributing in many dynamic ways in the homeland. At the same time, the return journey is a road layered with complexities, contradictions, opportunities, and unique challenges. Findings from this diaspora community engaged in missions by and beyond the diaspora give insight into the paradigm of diaspora missiology and temper the enthusiasm for widely promoted theory. Important questions arise regarding how far diaspora as a framework can carry us.

The Global Christian Forum brings together the widest variety of global church families as an open space to foster mutual respect and address common challenges. Its Third Global Gathering of leaders took place in Bogota, Colombia in April 2018, at a time of increasing diversity and change in global Christianity. This book contains the papers, perspectives, and prayers from this significant event.