The news is interesting, usually, but did you know that some things happen, but then they don’t get mentioned in the news media. Apparently, some people are complaining that there is a partial block of news about the civil uprising in Iran. I am not an expert on that topic, but there does seem to be something happening in that country, and it’s not easy to know many details. 

Possibly it is too dangerous for foreign reporters to visit the places where the trouble is happening. I hope everyone involved can find a good solution to that strife, and I hope we can receive good news coverage.

If we believe the rumors, some news stories are amplified and others are hardly mentioned in the news media.

You can decide how you feel about media coverage of actual events, but here is a story that we should know about: Younger generations, in modern societies, are making different choices about their personal beliefs, than older generations.

I know a young man who lives in Canada, near the U.S. border, and he wants to move his wife and their new baby across the border, to start a new life in the U.S. 

This is not a story about ICE and illegal immigration, both husband and wife are highly skilled, and they want to find jobs south of the border, from where they are living now. We had a phone conversation, and he told me that young adults where he lives, are feeling helpless. He said most of them don’t expect to have a good career and to own a house and have a stable marriage and a happy family, in their lifetime. 

The young man that I talked to believes that his friends are living a very different life from older generations.

My friend believes that young adults, that he knows, are becoming more radical with their political beliefs. He mentioned the radical political left and right. He also believes that he and his wife are exceptions to that generational stress, and they want to move to another country.

If that young man is correct about younger generations, the news that we are missing is not just the news about what is happening now, but also about what is going to happen in the near future. People who are frustrated, will make new life choices.

One choice, that many young adults are making, is religion. There is a strong trend, in the U.S. and Britain, to search for a spiritual life in religious ideas that older generations have lost interest in.

There is a very large increase in Britain in the purchase of Bibles. Bible sales have increased by almost ninety percent in a few years, and apparently most of the new customers are you adults and teens.

Something is happening.

A huge increase that comes mostly from one young generation, shows that something radical and large scale is happening in that generation. This is easy math; the numbers are up, for all generations, and that increase belongs mostly to one group. 

This may be one of the news stories that we should learn more about:

From my experience, books like the Christian Bible, are not only sold as paper volumes. The same books are available, for free, online, and they can easily be installed on cell phones. And most young adults and teens, in the world, have access to cell phones.

If there is a growing spiritual movement, or a revival, among young adults, we can’t measure the volume just from the sale of ink-and-paper volumes of the Bible.

That trend may be just a rough indication of something that is much larger.

Also, I have worked as an English language instructor, mostly to foreign students who wanted to attend colleges and universities, in other countries. I am writing as a Christian, and about the time when I was teaching the language, I led a Bible study group in a large church, for people who were not fluent in English. The technical name for our method is LEP (Limited English Proficiency) and not the more common ESL (English as a Second Language).

Our Bible study group was cheerful and friendly, and our meetings helped people to improve their language skills, while they learned more about the things they believed, as Christians. 

LEP (or insert any other language) means people can participate when they are not fluent in the language, and as a side effect, they can improve their skills in the new language. It is in interesting learning model, in our modern world.

If you don’t know, all those low-cost paper volumes of the Bible, and the free online volumes, are available in many languages, including simple and modern English. Our LEP Bible study was a success.

One thing that surprised me was that people would join us who possibly were not Christians. They were welcomed, and sometimes they were happy to join our religious meetings in an LEP format. We were honest about our purposes, and some of them seemed happy to attend each week.

In my experience, the potential for finding new Bible readers and students is a trend that could change the world.

About two thousand years ago, a man named Jesus spoke to one of his followers named Peter. The name “Peter” comes from the word “petros” which means rock. Jesus used a play on words, when he said “I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” (Matthew 16:18)

I learned the older words, when I was young “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” That has been a trend in history, and we may be seeing more expansion, among young adults, in many parts of the world.

This is something to watch for, and you might notice in the attached video, that a member of an older generation seems to be interested in other topics: