Scott Bessenecker is associate director of missions for Global Projects at Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in Madison, Wis. As a member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, the organization sends teams of students to work with African churches in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana on short-term projects. Contact  him via the website.

Amy Parodi is deputy director of media relations for World Vision, based in Federal Way, Wash. The Christian relief and development organization’s activities include building health clinics, sponsoring peace-building initiatives and addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa.

John Granger of Port Hadlock, Wash., is the author of The Hidden Key to Harry Potter: Understanding the Meaning, Genius and Popularity of Joanne Rowling’s Harry Potter Novels (Zossima Press, 2002). Read “Harry Beasts,” an excerpt from his book Looking for God in Harry Potter (Tyndale House, 2004), about how the animals in Harry Potter support a Christian reality. […]

The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Richmond, Va., sends missionaries “sharing the good news of Jesus Christ” in Africa.

• Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., has an HIV/AIDS initiative to bring churches together to help stop the spread of HIV and AIDS globally. Contact initiative founder Kay Warren.

Steven Walker is a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He wrote the article “Humor in the Bible” for the journal Perspective (autumn 2003). He has also spoken extensively on the subject.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin was spiritual leader of the Synagogue for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. He wrote Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews, as well as several books on Jewish ethics, such as The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living and The Ten Commandments of Character: Essential Advice for Living […]

Alex Riggle is a devout Greek Orthodox from the Tacoma, Wash., area and creator of The Onion Dome, which pokes fun at Orthodox Christianity.

The Rev. Dermot S. Roache is director of the Society of African Missions House of Studies in Dedham, Mass. The American province of the missionary group, based in Tenafly, N.J., has priests tending to the spiritual and social needs of Africans in 16 countries, including Liberia, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania.