CHURCH OF GOD

Evangel NOVEMBER 2012

BUILDING A CITY in CAMBODIA

FRANK ALLEN:

Missionary to the Poor

Clean Water, Mosquito Nets, and Eight Other Ways to

FIGHT POVERTY

Contents

november 2012 volume 102

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issue 11

WHEN A WOMAN anointed Jesus’ feet with a very costly vial of perfume, Judas Iscariot complained, “That perfume was worth a year’s wages. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor” (John 12:5 NLT). Jesus accepted the woman’s extravagant act of worship, saying, “For the poor you have with you always, but Me you do not have always” (v. 8 NKJV). Some people have misconstrued Jesus’ statement as an excuse not to minister to people living in poverty. They overlook Jesus’ personal mission statement in Luke 4:18, which begins, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor” (NKJV). We should be extravagant in our worship of Jesus, which includes being generous to the poor.

Fighting poverty

10 Building a City in Cambodia by Lance Colkmire New life for 8,000 people 12 Missionary to the Poor by Frank Allen Reaching the “least of these” 14 A Refuge for Hurting People by Terry Johns and Kelli Kyle Responding to a Community’s Needs 16 Cost-Effective Compassion by Bruce Wydick Helping people in developing countries 20 Backyard Blessings by Wanda Griffith Feeding hungry kids in Alabama 22 A Worldwide Ministry of Blessing by Lance Colkmire Operation Compassion’s incredible reach columns 5 In Covenant, Mark L. Williams 7 On My Mind, Lance Colkmire 30 Where Are They Now? Joel Trammell departments 4 6 8 26 28

Ministry Snapshot By the Numbers Currents Viewpoints People and Events

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PUBLICATIONS MINISTRIES DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR M. Thomas Propes DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS Terry Hart ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Raymond Hodge MANAGING EDITOR Lance Colkmire

MINISTRY SNAPSHOT Operation Compassion delivering drinking water to the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Isaac

CENTRAL DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Robert McCall CFO Wayne Walston PRINTING DIRECTOR Mike Burnett

EVANGEL STAFF EDITOR Lance Colkmire EXECUTIVE SECRETARY Elaine McDavid COPY EDITOR Esther Metaxas GRAPHIC DESIGNER Bob Fisher

EDITORIAL AND PUBLICATIONS BOARD Stephen Darnell, Les Higgins, Ray E. Hurt, Cheryl Johns, David Nitz , Tony Cooper, Antonio Richardson

INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Mark L. Williams, David M. Griffis, J. David Stephens, Wallace J. Sibley, M. Thomas Propes

If you have a ministry photo to be considered for this page, send it to [email protected]. CHURCH OF GOD congregations meet throughout the United States and in more than 180 other countries. To find a church and times of services near you, access the church website, www.churchofgod.org, or fax your request to 423-478-7616. Publication of material in the Evangel does not necessarily imply endorsement of the Church of God. The Church of God Evangel (ISSN 0745-6778) is edited and published monthly. ■ Church of God Publishing House, 1080 Montgomery Ave., P.O. Box 2250, Cleveland, TN 37320-2250 ■ Subscription rates: Single subscription per year $17, Canada $24, Bundle of 15 per month $17, Canada $28, Bundle of 5 per month $7.50, Canada $11.25 ■ Single copy $1.50 ■ Periodical postage paid at Cleveland, TN 37311 and at additional mailing offices ■ ©2012 Church of God Publications ■ All rights reserved ■ POSTMASTER: Send change of address to Evangel, P.O. Box 2250, Cleveland, TN 37320-2250. (USPS 112-240)

October Evangel Poll How do you plan to vote in the presidential election? Definitely voting for Barack Obama - 7.3%

Definitely voting for Mitt Romney - 83.4%

Probably voting for Barack Obama - 1%

Probably voting for Mitt Romney - 5.7%

Voting for a different candidate - 0%

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MEMBER OF THE EVANGELICAL PRESS ASSOCIATION AND THE INTERNATIONAL PENTECOSTAL PRESS EVANGEL • Nov 2012 ASSOCIATION

Not voting - 2.6%

IN COVENANT mark l. williams general overseer

READ THE WORD

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ROM THE DAYS of my childhood, I have cherished the Holy Scriptures. My mother and father made Bible reading a daily priority for our home. In Sunday school, we sang: The B-I-B-L-E Yes, that’s the Book for me I stand upon the Word of God The B-I-B-L-E. Students in the Vacation Bible Schools that I attended were asked to pledge their allegiance to the Bible and promise to hide its words in their hearts so they might live a life of victory over sin. There were “sword drills,” “Scripture scrambles,” teen Bible quizzing—all designed to transmit the principles of God’s Word to a new generation. But the day has come when the Book that I love has been pen-knifed and emasculated. It has been persecuted by its enemies and wounded in the house of its friends. According to a new survey for the American Bible Society, about half the population in the United States sees little difference between the Bible and other religious texts: 46 percent believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths (TheStateoftheBible .com). Bible reading has declined, making Christians more susceptible than ever to temptation and false teaching. In this day of scriptural illiteracy and biblical innocence, the Lord is calling the Church of God to reaffirm its commitment to the centrality of God’s Word. The Bible is to be the standard of our faith, the source of our preaching, and the medium of our experience. To accomplish this, I am calling upon every believer in the Church of God to join me in a new initiative called “READ.” The goal is to mobilize 100,000 believers

in our global fellowship to commit to daily reading the Bible during 2013. As we read God’s Word, we want to . . . Reflect Engage Apply Disciple. To reflect is to think, ponder, and meditate. To engage is to encounter to the point of active involvement. To apply is to appropriate and put to use. To disciple is to teach others to follow Jesus. In short, we want to read Scripture that we might encounter God in a lifetransforming way, and take what we learn to teach others to become fully committed followers of Jesus Christ. I also call upon congregations in the Church of God to read Scripture corporately during the first seven days of January 2013. There is something powerful that takes place when the Word of God is read aloud. Can you imagine the potential impact from pastors and laity in every language of our movement uniting to speak the Word of God into the atmosphere in sanctuaries around the world? You can receive free downloadable resources, courtesy of Tyndale Publishers, including monthly posters, weekly reading, and discussion guides as well as a leader’s guide on how to facilitate interaction around Scripture. The resource is called “REFLECT,” and can be obtained at www.churchofgod.org. This is also where you can sign up to participate in the READ initiative and to register your church as a participating congregation. God’s Word must again be central to our worship and lifestyle. Let us learn the Word, love the Word, and, most importantly, live the Word! As we stand on the Word, the God of the Word will surely stand by us.

About half the population in the United States sees little difference between the Bible and other religious texts: 46 percent believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths.

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BY THE NUMBERS

TEN PERCENT RADICAL

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N AVERAGE, Christians keep about 97.1 percent of their money for themselves. Total giving, including church offerings and all tax-deductible contributions to any cause or organization, is 2.9 percent. If you only look at the 138 million Christians who attend church regularly, the percentage of zero-givers [is] 4.5 percent and average giving among the church-attending set is 6.2 percent. . . . About 24.8 million of us give 10 percent or more. In other words, if 20 percent of us aren’t giving anything and another 20 percent are giving 10 percent or more, then we’re left with 60 percent (or three out of five) somewhere in the middle. . . . Smith and Emerson (Passing the Plate) conclude that “reasonable generosity” among this middle ground would generate an additional $133.4 billion per year. For comparison, world-renowned economist Jeff Sachs estimates that ending extreme poverty would require $73 billion per year over a span of 10 years. Ending poverty is a global responsibility, and the U.S. share would probably be half or less of that $73 billion—say $36 billion. . . . If the government paid a third of the cost, corporate philanthropy and the super-rich paid another third, that would leave only $12 billion for the American church. In other words, the potential for additional giving ($133 billion) by reasonable generosity is tenfold greater than the church’s portion of the cost of ending poverty. These admittedly simple estimates serve only one point—no matter how you look at it, we have far more than we need to bring an end to extreme poverty. Visit Live58.org to learn more about the movement to end extreme poverty. Excerpted from Fast Living, by Scott C. Todd (©2011 Compassion International). Used by permission.

“if 20 percent of us aren’t giving anything and another 20 percent are giving 10 percent or more, then we’re left with 60 percent (or three out of five) somewhere in the middle.” 6

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ON MY MIND lance colkmire editor

NO TITLE NECESSARY

I

WANT TO tell you all about a minister friend of mine . . . but to protect his identity, I can’t be too specific. Philip (not his real name) and I attended Lee University together. For many years he was a regional overseer for the Church of God in an Asian country. However, for the last two years, Philip and his wife have been living in a nation where Christians face surveillance, harassment, arrest, property confiscations, ordered relocations, and forced renunciations of faith. My friend is working underground, risking his life to plant Pentecostal congregations. When I saw Philip at the Church of God International Assembly this summer, he told me, “Two years ago, the World Missions director offered me some positions to choose from. I said, ‘I am not called to have a position; I am called to plant churches.’” How different would the church be if we all lived by Philip’s philosophy— obeying God’s calling on our lives without being concerned about titles? Some congregations use titles ad nauseam—it appears to be the only way they can entice people to get involved. So they have directors of ministries, assistant directors, and assistants to the assistants. There are committees covering everything—from sanctuary floral arrangements to kitchen care—with committee chairpersons, vice-chairpersons, treasurers, secretaries, and so on. Organization is important, but only when it fuels genuine ministry rather than feed egos. When Jesus Christ called 12 men to become His disciples, He did not say, “I invite you to serve on the Apostolic Board of Directors.” Instead, He simply said, “Follow Me.” Later, He fleshed out this call:

“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it” (Matt. 10:37-39 NASB).

Patsy Trew followed the call of Jesus, yet the only title she carried in our congregation was “faithful mother.” She did not have time for much anything else. Patsy’s daughter, Katie, was born with a severe handicap. She could not walk or talk, feed herself, or clean herself. She was totally dependent on her parents—primarily her mother—to take care of her. Year after year, Sunday after Sunday— except for those weeks when Katie was ill—Patsy would bring her daughter to church. That process alone was challenging: lifting Katie out of the car, placing her in a wheelchair, and rolling her down the aisle to sit next to her mom. Occasionally, Patsy would bring her teenager daughter to the altar, praying fervently for her healing. One of those times, I was thinking how difficult Patsy’s life was when the Lord spoke bluntly to my heart: She is ministering to Me. When Patsy fed Katie, she was feeding Jesus. When she carried her, she was carrying Jesus. Whether we are risking our life for Jesus in an underground church . . . selflessly serving a handicapped child . . . singing on a church platform . . . ministering to a homeless person . . . greeting a church newcomer . . . or doing something else we label “ministry,” if we are doing it out of our love for Christ, it is genuine. And it doesn’t demand a title.

When Jesus Christ called 12 men to become His disciples, He did not say, “I invite you to serve on the Apostolic Board of Directors.”

Four ways to contact the editor: • [email protected] • 423-478-7592 • Church of God Evangel on Facebook • Box 2250, Cleveland, TN 37320-2250

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CURRENTS The purpose of CURRENTS is to inform readers of trends and events influencing the culture.

A church service at one of the campuses of Community Christian Church in the Chicago area

Multisite Churches Mushrooming ■ THE NUMBER OF congregations that host worship services at more than one physical location has grown to more than 5,000 in the last decade, according to a new report. Researchers say these “multisite” churches, which may share worshipers across town or many miles apart, are growing at a much larger pace than traditional megachurches. Without the burden of additional expensive buildings, congregations find they grow faster in new places, said Warren Bird, research director of leadnet.org. “It’s a combination of both evangelism and saying, ‘People may not come to this particular building. How can we take where we are to where they are?’” Bird, the author of books on the multisite trend, has tracked the number of churches meeting in more than one place for his Dallas-based church think tank; he combined his findings with Faith Communities Today surveys. Multisite churches have grown from fewer than 200 in 2001, to 1,500 in 2006, to an estimated 3,000 in 2009, to more than 5,000 today. In comparison, U.S.

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megachurches have grown from about 50 in 1970 to about 1,650 in 2012 in North America. Multisite comes in all kinds of models: Some congregations speak different languages at different locations; some hear from different “campus pastors” on-site and others are preached to by a lead pastor who speaks live or via video. “The more campuses you have, the more likely you are to use video teaching,” said Bird. Sergio De La Mora, senior pastor of Cornerstone Church, preaches five times every Sunday on its main campus in National City, California—with one service in Spanish and another translated into Japanese. After morning services, he hops in his car and drives to the La Jolla campus for a 5 p.m. service before returning to National City for its last service at 6:30 p.m. Meanwhile, videos of his 8:30 a.m. sermon are played in satellite campuses in Escondido, California, and across the board in Tijuana and Mexico City. A campus pastor runs the service at a location in Tucson, Arizona.

So, is one of the disadvantages of multiple sites an exhausted pastor? “You got to remember we’re born to do this,” said De La Mora, comparing his leadership of his “franchised” church to an Apple store manager who works from opening until 10 p.m. “This is the new generation of preachers. People are in transit, so they want options when they come to church.” In all, his nondenominational evangelical church is attended by about 6,500 people. “Our philosophy is, I do the speaking, but my campus pastor, with his leaders, do the reaching into the community,” De La Mora said. At Community Christian Church in the Chicago area, Pastor Dave Ferguson has taken a different approach with its dozen sites. “I can only be at one location at a time,” he said. Each week he gathers in a room with a team of campus pastors to develop a “big idea” into a sermon. A video featuring one of them is created, but the pastors can choose whether to speak from the original manuscript, a version of it they edited, or show the video. In the end, the general message reaches about 10,000 people worshiping at sites that include a community center, a college theater, reopened churches, and office parks. While the vast majority of multisite churches are on the other side of town or at least in the same region, there are exceptions. The Bridge Community Church, based in rural Indiana, has campuses in Anderson, Decatur, and Muncie, but also has one in Bihar, India. Bird said churches that total at least 500 people tend to be the ones that start a second campus, but smaller churches have also created additional sites. “It was the megachurches that pioneered it, and because megachurches tend to be ones people glean ideas from, pretty soon churches said, ‘Why couldn’t we do that? You don’t have to be really big to do that,’” Bird said.—RNS

Christians Adopting Frozen Embryos ■ THE EMBRYO WAS frozen in liquid nitrogen when Gabriel and Callie Fluhrer found it. They didn’t know whether that embryo would grow to be a boy or a girl, or whether it would even grow at all. But to the Fluhrers, it was worth the risk. That tiny collection of cells was a baby, they believed. Of the hundreds of thousands of babies just like it, the Fluhrers believe, many will likely die if someone does not pluck them from the warehouse where they’ve been stored after their biological parents decided they didn’t need or want them any longer. “If we’re going to stand against abortion, it’s not simply picketing a clinic,” said Gabriel Fluhrer, a public relations and publishing coordinator for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. “It’s doing the hard work of adopting the orphans around the world, whether embryos or orphans living in China.” Anna Fluhrer was born in December 2010—from a frozen embryo to a healthy baby girl. Hundreds of thousands of embryos are stored in high-tech storage facilities across the United States. To an increasing number of evangelical Christians, that’s hundreds of thousands of babies. Conservative Christians have long joined hands to oppose abortion, often following the lead of the Roman Catholic Church. But Evangelicals are leading the charge in adopting embryos, and encouraging people who have stockpiles of frozen embryos to make them available for adoption. During a decade-long stretch of federal funding to promote embryo adoption, evangelical organizations received most of the $21 million doled out. That funding was cut in July, but leaders at those organizations say the word is spreading about embryo adoption. “These families are happy, and they tend to write blogs and Facebook,” said

Reg Finger, a doctor affiliated with the National Embryo Donation Center. Vatican officials have stopped just short of banning embryo adoption, but it’s discouraged because of its connection to in vitro fertilization—a practice banned by the Catholic church because it often includes disposal of unused embryos. “It needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice that cannot be resolved,” Vatican theologians wrote in their 2008 bioethics treatise. People who choose in vitro fertilization often create multiple embryos, and select the healthiest to implant. Some families discard the extras, or implant them at a time when they’re unlikely to survive. Those who choose to save them pay upwards of $400 per year to keep them frozen. It’s estimated that there are more than 600,000 embryos frozen in storage in the U.S., but it’s not clear how many of those are available for adoption. Embryologist freezing embryos for storage

Embryo donation and adoption organizations, many of them with evangelical religious affiliations, began forming in the 1990s. The practice gained traction in 2006, when former President George W. Bush invited children who were adopted as embryos, known as “snowflakes,” to join him at the White House. “These boys and girls are not spare parts,” Bush said, as the children and their parents gathered around him. At the White House that day was Maria Lancaster and her daughter, Elisha, who was adopted as an embryo through Snowflakes, the embryo adoption division of Nightlight Christian Adoptions. In 2008, Lancaster opened the doors of her own embryo adoption agency, which is a branch of Cedar Park Church, an evangelical congregation near Seattle. “I wanted to give weight to the idea that it is a responsibility of the church to stand up and defend all human life, including embryos in the freezer,” she said. Federal officials say funding for the embryo adoption awareness campaign was cut because of “limited interest.” In 2004, there were between 1,500 and 1,750 donated and adopted embryos transferred, Finger said. By 2010, the last year for which data is available, about 2,250 embryos were transferred. Finger said his data is provided by the Centers for Disease Control on his special request. Embryo adoption is not a chief issue for many Christians, said Fluhrer, but that may be changing. He has blogged about embryo adoption on Reformation 21, a theology website he edits, and he encourages his church members to consider the option. “The earliest Christians were distinguished by their care for those society discarded,” he wrote on his blog. “Embryo adoption seems to me a seminal way to do such a thing here in the third millennium.”—RNS

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BuILDING A CITY IN CAMBODIA An Audacious Undertaking Is Under Way • by lance colkmire

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MAGINE LOSING your home and your job . . . and being forcibly relocated to an empty field outside the city, left to fend for yourself with no shelter or electricity. There are no hospitals or schools, no trash collection or even drainage pipes. During the rainy season, your garbage and sewage literally float back to you in waist-high water. The dreams of jobs and small businesses float away, as the cost of commuting 15 miles to a job in the city amounts to more than a day’s wages. This is the world of the inhabitants of Andong 3 Village in Cambodia. As many as 6,000 people were relocated from their home territory beside the river in Phnom Penh to make room for land developers. In July 2011, Fred Garmon, executive director of People for Care and Learning (PCL), was looking at some of the houses PCL was building in Andong 3. He said, “In between the houses I saw pathways filled with gray water, sewage, and trash. I thought, I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep taking money away from good people to build another slum.” Garmon asked Bien Raneses, PCL‘s development director for southern Cambodia, “What would happen if we decided to build the entire city?” Raneses answered, “What would that cost?” Garmon replied, “We would want to do it right—infrastructure, drainage. We 10

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need to build a school, a police station, a marketplace, a community center, and a playground. . . . Probably two and a half million dollars”—an amount that would “dwarf” the annual PCL budget. The two laughed, and the next day Garmon flew back home to Cleveland, Tennessee. Meanwhile, Raneses talked with the governor of Cambodia, who loved the idea. Garmon met with focus groups to study the concept. The PCL Board of Directors approved it . . . and a three-year project to build a city for 8,000 people— including 5,000 children—was initiated. The goal is to finish the project by 2015.

First Steps The first Church of God door to Cambodia opened in 2001 when an independent missionary came to the World Missions Department and was pointed to Bob Pace, who had started PCL (originally “Operation Hope”) two years earlier as an NGO (non-government organization). This missionary had a small orphanage with a few children and a little piece of land he could no longer take care of, and the Church of God bought this property from him for $10,000. Men and Women of Action came to Cambodia and built a security wall around the property. Pace asked Garmon, a brick mason by trade who was then pastoring in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to help. Garmon went, and on that trip he met Simon Valenzuela, who had received the call of God to leave the Philippines (where he was a regional overseer for the Church of God) to plant churches in Cambodia. A couple of years later, when Bob Pace was unable to con-

The building plan unveiled (Fred and Shirley Garmon, fifth and sixth from left)

Common Grounds Coffee House

tinue traveling, the PCL Board of Directors asked Garmon to become executive director. They told him, “We are going to set your salary, but we don’t have any money, so you’ll have to raise it.” Garmon answered, “What a deal!” He then resigned his church and accepted the position. Garmon added, “The primary goal was to minister to the poor. The board believed that if we followed the mandate of Jesus to help ‘the least of these,’ God would honor the denomination’s effort.” Moving Forward PCL’s ministry in Cambodia started with the children’s home in Siem Reap. Next, a large donation allowed PCL to purchase a new four-story unit in a Siem Reap shopping area, and the Common Grounds Coffee House and Training Center was established. This state-of-the-art facility serves several purposes: • Promoting micro-enterprise development • Providing jobs (giving locals a “working chance”) • Creating income that helps sustain the children’s home • Serving as a vocational training center, teaching English and computer skills • Providing housing for long- and short-term volunteers and staff

• Offering free Wi-Fi to locals and tourists Garmon said, “People began hanging out at the Common Grounds Coffee House and Cyber Café; that, along with the children’s home, helped us build credibility and earn a right to begin speaking into the Cambodian system.” Julie Martinez, a career missionary, left Africa with her family to develop the coffee house and the learning center, “and that’s when we began to really explode,” Garmon said. “A motto came along with our experience—‘Inspiring Hope and Empowering Potential.’ This is the beautiful thing Jesus does. “John 1:14 became our foundational scripture—‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ [NKJV]. God stepped out of heaven and became like us. Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase says, ‘The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood’ [TM]. “We moved into the neighborhood of Southeast Asia. We’re not going anywhere. Those people began to realize we were there to help them. The government started seeing the favor on what we were doing. They started asking us to help them, and we started working from the top down.” Critical Contacts A few years ago in Takam Village, PCL staff met Anyu—a young man with a four-pound tumor on his face. He was going to die, and PCL medical teams could not help him. After searching for help on the Internet, some French surgeons offered their services if an emergency room could be made available. The Cambodian government provided a place in the capital city of Phnom Penh. After two

Anyu in recovery

Sapoon and her son following surgery

or three surgeries, “Anyu became a poster child for miracles,” Garmon said. “I was able to come back and perform a wedding for him and a beautiful lady. They later had a child. The whole village began to see this great miracle in this man’s life and how change can happen. “This led us to a lady named Sapoon, who lived next door to our children’s home in Siem Reap. She had a tumor on her face as well. Just last month, she had the tumor removed and she looks beautiful. It’s amazing. She was within six months of dying. “We started working with landmine victims, teaching them to do wood carving. We started ESL (English as a second language) courses with Lee University education students helping us. We’ve been able to give them this incredibly talented —Continued on page 25 EVANGEL • Nov 2012

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by frank allen

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OMEHOW, I am able to see Christ in the roughest of criminals, the nastiest of the homeless, and the craziest of the mentally ill. I understand that every person is created in the image of God. In 1992, God called us to serve the poor of Norfolk, Virginia. My beautiful wife and 3-year-old boy moved with me from a nice life in the suburbs into the inner city. The Church of God provided an opportunity through a pilot program, and thus we started the Mission American Urban Outreach Center. Beginning from the trunk of our car, we fed the poor on the street corner and played games with children in the projects, networking and referring the poor to available services. We provided food, clothing, coats, blankets, socks, and hygiene packets, and preached from a milk crate. The original idea was to win these people to Christ and transition them into local churches to become tithe-paying members—giving the denomination and donors a return on their investment. Well, they would “get saved,” but we could not assimilate them. A church van would pick them up, the church would feed them breakfast, and they would sit together in the sanctuary. Everyone was very friendly—too friendly—going out of their way to greet and welcome them every Sunday. The church tried, but it was always the church folks and the poor or homeless people. They were always being prayed for, but never asked to pray. They were always being taught, but never asked to teach. They were always being served, but never asked to serve. They were always going to someone else’s church. The church members did a wonderful job—they really cared; but the poor felt although they were welcome, they could never fit. Imagine having to carefully plan your baptismal service to ensure that HIV patients are baptized last. Then after that careful planning, still losing your largest tithe payer because their son accepted Christ and his family was too afraid for him to be baptized. Or church members not wanting to share a pew with an unbathed homeless person. Outreach to 12

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MISSIONARY TO THE POOR the poor and mentally ill was fine, but worshiping and fellowshipping with them was too much for many people. So we started a church for the poor, Sanctuary of Hope, in Portsmouth. Ready to Quit I remember one man who lost his job, then his wife and daughter; he found himself addicted and homeless. In and out of jail for petty larceny, vagrancy, using illegal substances, and public intoxication, he aggravated us and stole from us. Yet he attended church every week. His repentance would only last for a few days at a time. After we spent 10 years wrestling with him, he died, not even 50 years old. While preparing for his funeral, I knew that his wife, daughter, and brother would be there. Over the years, I had called them time and time again, asking them to give him one more chance. How could I, as a minister of the gospel—a gospel that did not work for this man or his family—face them? What could I say? I brought the man a suit from the clothing closet, coordinated the funeral, and begged for the services of the funeral home, including a free casket so his daughter’s last memory of her daddy was of him clean and neatly dressed . . . though I knew it would end with a cheap cremation and his ashes being discarded.

While preparing for his funeral, I decided to end my ministry among the poor. This dead drug addict proved my ineffectiveness and failure as an inner-city missionary. He was one of hundreds of men, women, and families whose lives had not changed. As I walked into the funeral service, a drug-addicted prostitute came to me crying. Between her sobs, she said she was with this man when he died, and his last words were, “Lord Jesus, please have mercy on me. I believe You are the Son of God and that You love me. I have failed as a man, a husband, and a father, and I need You to save me!” At that moment, I believe the Lord revealed to me that because of the disappointments and traumas of life, this man was not able to accept the grace from God to change his life and live for Christ, but because of our faithfulness, he was able to die right with God. This gave me a peace and confidence about my work among the poor. There was another drunkard with a long list of problems. He had lost his license and could not legally drive, owing a lot in court costs and fines. Now he works a public job every day, takes care of the church’s lawn, drives the ministry’s box truck, and handles the weekly food distribution. He is not as groomed as most church members in the suburbs, nor does

he have all of his teeth. His language can still be colorful and occasionally we will smell alcohol on him, but he is coming to our church, reading his Bible, and praying. He has a long way to go, but he has come much further than most of us. I can now trust him with money and other resources. Multifaceted Ministry Early in my ministry, my first full-time staff member was a young adult with fetalnarcotic syndrome. He was emotionally and intellectually limited, with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. My family and our ministry took him in. Everyone called him my associate pastor. The work of our inner-city mission was conducted with this young man, nine retirees, and a sailor who gave his time and pickup truck every evening and on weekends until we bought our first box truck. I was able to load a truck and set up a tent in the day and preach at night. Now my body is worn out, and I have to seek God more and develop others to do the work of the ministry. Even though our current paid staff has been depleted by this economy and we face many challenges, we still continue our programs for the poor. Our missionary staff, along with a host of volunteers from area churches, the military, and business, makes many sacrifices to serve our church and the elderly, mentally ill, homeless, addicted, and otherwise poor. Our church has less than 100 in attendance, and few of the people we reach have a job. When necessary, my salary is the first item to be cut. As the chief executive officer, I could demand a certain salary and my board of directors would pay me well. But knowing that receiving my full salary would cut programs for poor children, it is not a hard decision. Through our Urban Outreach Center in Portsmouth, we serve meals to some 70 poor children every evening in our afterschool program. We tutor them in reading and math, help them with homework, and engage them with computer labs. Our mentors help build their character and teach necessary life skills. They learn about Jesus Christ in our chapel. Their confidence and culture is expanded as

they engage in performing arts department and take field trips. During the summer, we serve breakfast and lunch to about 150 children every day. Mission teams come from across the United States and Canada to help provide chapel services, academic refreshers, field trips, mentoring, performing arts, and sports and recreation for these overlooked children. We not only change the lives of poor children, but of the mission team members as well. Our soup kitchen serves up to 150 people per meal, and we present the gospel to them. Our outreach team distributes groceries, clothing, household goods, and school

“Most churches have a ministry to the poor, but your ministry to the poor has a church,” is how the late John D. Nichols described Frank Allen’s ministry in norfolk. supplies to more than 300 families each month. Also, medical, dental, and social/ psychological services are provided for the poor. Through our charitable warehouse and supply chain (Hope Charitable Services), we receive, sort, store, distribute, and ship truckloads of life-essential relief goods to inner cities, rural poverty pockets, Appalachia, Native American reservations, and immigrant camps across the U.S. We also ship resources to 26 poor countries around the world. We partner with churches, providing goods to assist them in their ministries to the poor. My philosophy is, “If I can do what others feel they can’t, shouldn’t I do it?” In 2000, I led our inner-city church on a mission trip to Jamaica. I thought this might unite the divide in our urban congregation (the “drive-ins” and those that

live in the neighborhood). Our theme was, “From the Guttermost to the Uttermost!” We carried a team of 14 members from the Sanctuary of Hope to deep rural Jamaica. We prayed and fasted for resources, and we were able to purchase 40,000 pounds of rice, 10,000 pounds each of beans, flour, and cornmeal. We provided 4,000 families with a month’s supply of groceries, treated people in our medical clinics, conducted children’s crusades daily and gospel crusades nightly. Since those early days, I have made 33 mission trips to Jamaica with more than 1,000 short-term missionaries. We have constructed medical clinics, dental clinics, repaired and remodeled orphanages, schools, and nursing homes. We have built 72 homes for poor families. In our clinics, we have treated the sick and provided dental care for thousands. ‘The Least of These’ My heart still breaks and I feel great failure in reaching the “the least of these”—the worst and most hardened of the criminals; those maddened by mental illness; the smelly ones who have been stripped naked by drug addiction and alcohol. These are the ones Christ associated Himself with in Matthew 25, and His mandate rings in our hearts: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (v. 40). In the eyes of a hungry, filthy child wearing a soiled diaper, I have seen Mary’s sinless babe, helpless and dependent. In the homeless mentally ill, I see the broken Christ looking at me, crying from despair. When I become weary with an addict, I see our Lord in their eyes and hear Him calling out to me. When the poor line up for help and I want to quit, I hear Him say, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” As a missionary to the poor, on behalf of the poor that we serve, I thank our supporters and partners. Their faithful generosity allows us to serve the Lord by serving the least of these. Frank Allen and his wife, Wendy, live and minister in Portsmouth, Virginia. Visit hopecharitable.org to learn more. EVANGEL • Nov 2012

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a refuge for hurting people

by kelli kyle and terry johns

Offering a “hand-up” rather than a handout

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T IS ANOTHER DAY at The Refuge Community Centre (TRCC) in Cleveland, Tennessee, and the staff is hard at work. There is paperwork to be done, activities to be scheduled, and phones to be answered. The door opens and in walks a client in need of our assistance. The needs are many: jobs, affordable housing, rent and utility assistance, training. Often, our friends in tough places just need someone to listen: someone who will not judge or act in a condescending manner. They need a safe place. The Refuge strives to be this place of safety where hurting people can enter without fear of judgment and be confident that they will be treated with dignity. It is a place where the love of God flows unconditionally and grace is offered to everyone who knocks at our door. We have found that when people are treated with respect, more often than not, they respond positively.

Our name is taken from the story of the “cities of refuge” in the Old Testament (Num. 35:9-15). Those cities were safe havens for individuals who had killed someone unintentionally. The cities of refuge were located in strategic locations so offenders could escape the wrath of their avengers while awaiting a legal trial. Though TRCC is not necessarily a safe haven for suspected criminals, the concept is the same. We desire to create an environment that serves as a refuge for all who are hurting. We serve one of the more povertystricken areas in Tennessee. Our community has a per-capita income of $8,418; family poverty level of 41 percent; unemployment rate of 9 percent (most employed are in low-paying jobs), and high-school dropout rate of 57.4 percent. TRCC has intentionally chosen to serve in this community. This choice brings with it significant challenges as well as incredible opportunities.

A large portion of our community depends on federal, state, and local assistance programs for sustainability. This varies from food stamps to utility payment assistance. The needs are great and the funds are few. The result is that most assistance agencies must radically limit the amount of help each family receives. With decreasing funds due to budgetary and political decisions as well as decline in giving to non-profits, agencies such as ours face great challenges. To fill this funding gap, TRCC has focused on empowerment as its basic philosophy for addressing the many needs of our community. Though a common misconception continues to persist, poverty is not primarily due to “lazy people who will not work.” This is more an excuse for non-action than it is an explanation for the problem of poverty. The reality in our community is that most people desire to provide for their own needs.

Providing school supplies

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We began this journey three years ago by spending a significant amount of time building relationships, talking with people, and getting to know the community. We were certain that we were being called to this community and positive we had something to offer, but we did not yet know what the needs were. The only way to know a community is for the residents to tell you their stories . . . so we listened. Meanwhile, we provided temporary help for long-term problems: a bag of groceries, diapers, provision of temporary housing, and other basics. However, we continued to bear the weight of the insufficiency of this method . . . so we keep listening to the voices of our community. Our community spoke loud and clear: “We need jobs . . . we need training . . . we need a ‘hand up’ rather than a handout.” Now, every week The Refuge Community Centre is buzzing with activity as our families search for jobs, create resumes on our computers, learn in our literacy classes, and work hand in hand with us to solve their own problems. This is empowerment! Last February we received a call from a man named Larry. He called on a rainy morning as he was walking down a local street. Larry had moved to Cleveland from Mississippi and, through a series of circumstances, ended up homeless. We gave him directions to our office and told him we would help him as best we could. Larry came

into the office pulling a large suitcase behind him. He was tired, wet, and homeless for the first time in his life. He needed everything a person with nothing could need. As we talked with Larry, both of us noticed something about him that caught our attention. He was kind, polite, gracious, and, in our estimation, truthful in all that he told us. With all that he needed at that moment, he wanted most to work. So, we immediately began helping him find a job. Because he earned our trust, we also placed him in a hotel. Larry called daily to update us on how the job search was progressing. In about a week, he secured a job. By week two, his supervisor was already complimenting him on his work, and he was able to pay his next week’s rent at the hotel without our assistance. By week four, Larry was ready to find an apartment. With our assistance, in another week’s time he had his own apartment about three blocks from his job. We continued to stay in touch with him, making sure he was doing well and had all his needs met. He was a new man, full of pride and accomplishment. He even called us when he paid his first utility bill! He was so excited that he could support himself. Larry continued to do very well on his own, continued to work hard, and soon decided to take an additional step. He had always wanted to own a mechanic

shop. So, he decided to look for a college program offering training in auto mechanics and small-business management. In a short time, he was accepted into the University of Phoenix’s business-management program. He even received a scholarship to an on-campus location in Washington. Larry is there now, a year later, working on campus and receiving an education that will help his dream become reality. Larry did it, not us. We merely treated him with dignity and respect and helped him see his own potential. We believed in him and supported him when no one else would, and he surpassed all expectations. Through this journey, Larry attended a church where he made many friends. He had a unique way of blessing everyone he met. We believe that this added component of honoring and trusting God is what made the real difference in Larry’s life. We talked with him often about the goodness of God, and he would smile. And Larry always made us smile. For more information, visit their website at www.therefugecommunity.org or email [email protected]. Kelli Kyle is director of community involvement for The Refuge Community Centre. Her father, Dr. Terry Johns, is director of operations and associate professor of social ethics and holistic mission at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary.

“Clean Cleveland” project

Computer literacy training EVANGEL • Nov 2012

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cost-effective

compassioN by bruce wydick

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ONCERN FOR THE POOR is a fundamental pillar of Christian identity and calling, a constant theme throughout the Old and New Testaments (Deut. 15:4; Prov. 14:31; Gal. 2:10; James 2:2-6). A definitive mark of the Church throughout history is its members caring for the poor in their midst. Today, thanks to economic globalization and the Internet, those who want to care for the poor overseas enjoy a plethora of attractive options: sponsoring a child, donating a farm animal, making a small loan to a budding entrepreneur, installing a well in a village, getting a morning caffeine jolt with fair-trade (instead of free-trade) coffee—among others. But what are the best ways to help those living in developing countries? By “best,” I mean most effective: things that actually help people rise out of poverty, and that carry with them a sizable “bang for your buck”—programs in which the impact on the poor is significant per donated dollar. To answer this question, I polled top development economists who specialize in analyzing development programs. I asked them to rate, from 0 to 10, some of the most common poverty interventions to which ordinary people donate their money, in terms of impact and cost-effectiveness per donated dollar. Sixteen researchers responded to the survey. They are from Cornell, Duke, Yale, the University of Maryland, UC-Berkeley, Stanford, George Washington, UC-Santa Cruz, the University of Minnesota, Brandeis, Michigan State, Tufts, and the World Bank. Of the respondents, five are members of the Association of Christian Economists. And they showed remarkable consensus in their ratings. Virtually none of the highly rated poverty interventions received low marks from any of the responders. Likewise, virtually none of the lowly rated programs received high marks. I did not include my own rankings in the survey, but I do comment on each. The following are the results in order of greatest estimated impact to the least, followed by organizations that use that strategy (†= faith-based).

1. Get clean water to rural villages. (rating 8.3) One million children die from drinking unclean water each year. Clean water can prevent legions of child health problems and dramatically reduce infant mortality. Scientific evidence is overwhelmingly positive on impact. A World Health Organization study estimates that the availability of clean water in a rural village reduces infant mortality by 35 to 50 percent, at a cost of roughly $10 per person per year. Because infant mortality rates in the poorest countries often range from 16

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Clean water can prevent legions of child health problems. 60 to 110 per 1,000 live births, the cost of saving a child’s life by providing clean water alone may lie in the range of only $180 to $400. To development economists, cheap-plus-effective is an endearing combination. A growing number of development organizations working to provide clean water in rural villages now receive online donations. Funds are used to drill wells, lay plastic pipe, and install pumps. • water.cc†, lifewater.org†, globalwater.org†, wateraid.org†, thewaterproject.org†, flowingstreamsministries.org† 2. Fund deworming treatments for children. (7.8) Intestinal worm infestation affects one in four people worldwide and is responsible for chronic poor health, listlessness, and learning impairment among children in developing countries.

Albendazole and other medications are stunningly effective and very inexpensive, making deworming another great case of bangfor-your-buck effectiveness. A study by researchers at Berkeley and Harvard found that regular deworming treatment in worm-infested areas of the developing world can reduce school absenteeism by 25 percent at a cost of only 50 cents per year per child. The only caveat: In most instances, deworming drugs need to be administered repeatedly, especially to shoeless children, as worms typically enter through the soles of the feet. • dewormtheworld.org, childrenwithoutworms.org 3. Provide mosquito nets. (7.3) Malaria is a leading killer of children in developing countries, accounting for nearly one in five deaths of children under age 5 in sub-Saharan Africa. The claim is that every 45 seconds, a child dies from malaria. The good news is that, like health problems from dirty water and worm infestation, malaria can be prevented cheaply and effectively. Bed nets cost only $5 to $10 each. Because of their costeffectiveness, they have created quite a buzz in the nonprofit world in recent years. The scientific community strongly supports the intervention; insecticide-treated bed nets have a proven positive impact on malaria prevention. Modern nets last for years and are proven to reduce instances of malaria by 50 percent and malaria mortality by 20 percent. • hisnets.org†, netsforlifeafrica.org†, nothingbutnets.net 4. Sponsor a child. (6.9) Of all the long-term development interventions, child sponsorship received the highest rating. Sponsors typically pay $25

to $40 per month, which covers a child’s educational fees, school uniforms, tutoring, health care, and, in faith-based sponsorship organizations, spiritual mentorship. Many development economists today favor interventions like child sponsorship that remove practical constraints to education while building a child’s self-esteem, aspirations, and goals. In this way, sponsorship relieves both external and internal poverty constraints. Two researchers and I recently carried out a study (sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development) on the longterm impacts of Compassion International’s child sponsorship program. The study, gathering data from over 10,000 individuals in six countries, found substantial impact on adult-life outcomes for children who were sponsored through Compassion’s program during the 1980s and ’90s. We statistically compared formerly sponsored children to older siblings who were too old for sponsorship when the program started in their village. In adulthood, formerly sponsored children were far more likely to complete secondary school and had a much higher chance of having a whitecollar job. They married and had children later in life, were more likely to be church and community leaders, were less likely to live in a home with a dirt floor, and more likely to live in a home with electricity. There are some caveats: Although the impact in the child’s life is significant, compared with other forms of interventions, child sponsorship is comparatively expensive. In addition, some economists are concerned that some child sponsorship organizations—such as World Vision, Save the Children, and Plan International USA—use sponsorship funds for development projects in the village where the child lives rather than investing them directly in the lives of sponsored children, resulting in diffuse impacts that are more difficult to rigorously assess. • compassion.com†, children.org, child fund.org, planusa.org, worldvision.org†

Insecticide-treated bed nets have a proven positive impact on malaria prevention.

5. Give wood-burning stoves. (6.0) The World Health Organization estimates that 50 percent of all people use biomass fuels (wood, animal dung) for heating and cooking. But biomass fuels lead to two major problems: deforestation, which kills 5.8 million hectares of tropical rainforests each year; and indoor air pollution, which is believed to prematurely kill 1.6 million people each year. Stoves that burn wood efficiently and pipe out harmful smoke through a chimney take care of both problems. Just $150 can buy a new Onil wood-burning stove, which uses 65 percent less wood than most stoves, and pipes toxic gasses out of the house. In a recently published study using a randomized controlled trial, two researchers and I found big impacts from the Onil stove on wood usage and reduced coughing. Only $15 buys a household a new high-tech EVANGEL • Nov 2012

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rocket stove, which uses even less wood than the Onil version, but has less heating power and a lower impact on indoor air pollution (since it doesn’t attach to a chimney). • helpsintl.org, stovetec.net, worldstove.com

to the recipient: the very poor lack the resources to properly care for an animal; those already with many animals (who arguably can care for them best) don’t need another one. • heifer.org, samaritanspurse.org†, donate.worldvision.org†

6. Give a microfinance loan. (4.2) The growth of microfinance in developing countries has been nothing short of breathtaking. Currently 190 million of the world’s poor are microfinance borrowers, up from 13.5 million just 15 years ago. Microfinance has been supported by everybody across the political spectrum: liberals, because it represents grassroots development and empowers women; conservatives, because it promotes capitalism. Everyone loves microfinance—at least until recently, when problems stemming from borrowers’ over-indebtedness have stalled the bandwagon. Serious studies of microfinance find modest impacts: increases in entrepreneurialism and business investment, and a greater ability to smooth out bumps in income. But microfinance is not the magic bullet many once believed it to be. Today one can lend directly to an entrepreneur through websites like kiva.org. A new loan is granted when the previous loan is repaid. Most loans start at $25. • kiva.org, opportunity.org†, visionfund.org†

9. Drink fair-trade coffee. (1.9) Coffee growers are susceptible to large swings in the market price of coffee, rendering millions of coffee-growing families vulnerable to a sudden loss in income. Fair-trade coffee offers a minimum “fair” price (currently $1.41 per pound) to fair-tradecertified growers around the world. Fair-trade coffee isn’t a scam, but is hard to find a development program that has attracted so much attention while having so little real impact. The most recent rigorous academic study, carried out by a group of researchers at the University of California, finds zero average impact on coffee grower incomes over 13 years of participation in a fair-trade coffee network. What is more, fair-trade programs continue to encourage the cultivation of more coffee, but the best thing for coffee growers around the world would be if everyone grew less.

7. Fund reparative surgeries. (3.9) Cleft palates make normal life nearly impossible for 170,000 children in developing countries. Children with cleft palates have trouble speaking and eating, and suffer from social exclusion. Surgery to repair cleft palates and other visible maladies such as cataracts, crossed eyes, and limb disfigurements are typically unavailable or unaffordable to many families in the developing world. They offer new hope to children who would otherwise face a lifetime of discrimination and difficulty. Smile Train is a nonprofit that performs corrective surgeries through a $250 donation. Respondents to the survey expressed little doubt about impact; its ranking is lower primarily because it is more costly than other interventions. • smiletrain.org, operationsmile.org, mercyships.org† 8. Donate a farm animal. (3.8) Giving a dairy cow, goat, or chickens to a household in a developing country in the name of a loved one would seem the perfect Christmas gift for “the person who has everything.” Christmastime marketing for animal-donation organization is second to none; who can resist the picture of the happy Bolivian girl hugging the alpaca? Sheep and goats cost about $120 each. A water buffalo runs around $250. Preliminary evidence from a current impact study with the Heifer Project indicates positive impacts on dairy consumption from donated dairy cows and meat consumption from receiving a meat goat. But the consensus among the economists is that relative to cost, animal donation likely has smaller impact than many alternatives. Moreover, impact may be very sensitive 18

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Relative to cost, animal donation likely has smaller impact than many alternatives.

Better alternatives for helping coffee farmers are the cultivation of higher-priced specialty coffees and programs that promote education for the children of coffee growers to wean them away from coffee growing. • greenmountaincoffee.com, puravida.org†, groundsforchange.com 10. Give a kid a laptop. (1.8) Seeking to bridge the digital divide, programs have sprung up in recent years to provide computers to children in developing countries. One Laptop per Child has gained worldwide attention by distributing laptops to children to foster learning in primary schools in developing countries. The experts who were polled are not anti-laptop, but given the more basic needs in poor countries, they said donating computers was highly cost-ineffective compared with Surgeries repairing visible maladies offer the alternatives. For the cost of one laptop, you new hope to children. could provide clean water to 20 people, and for a year deworm an entire school of 400 children. Moreover, a recent study by economists at the Inter-American Many nonprofits working with the poor seek to satisfy donors Development Bank evaluated the impact of One Laptop per Child with such certification, but an organization can be financially in Peru, and found no change in learning or in expectations about honest and still run an ineffective program. Aid and development future education. organizations soliciting donations should be prepared to provide • laptop.org, carec4dc.com, computeraid.org credible third-party evidence that their work actually helps the poor. What’s the Takeaway? Long-term partnerships between churches and communities The above rankings offer several lessons. A casual examinafrom the developed and developing world can be life-changing tion of them suggests little relationship (perhaps even a negative for everyone. About five years ago, a group of college friends and one) between marketing hype and program effectiveness. For this I from UC-Davis’s InterVarsity chapter started a tiny nonprofit, reason, organizations working with the poor must subject their Mayan Partners, that works in an indigenous village in the westprograms to rigorous, scientifically based evaluation by impartial ern highlands of Guatemala. An organic network of about 30 third parties. friends, Mayan Partners supports a Christian school in the vilAnti-poverty programs also need to start emphasizing preven- lage, the first middle school in the area. We also work with physition over cure. Unfortunately, it is easier to mobilize resources cians to offer clinics and have introduced clean-burning wood in the wake of a crisis, such as a famine, than it is to mobilize stoves to reduce deforestation and lung disease. A group of us resources that help prevent crises in the first place. Prevention is visits the school once or twice a year. less dazzling than cure, but nearly always more cost-effective. None of our work has proved a magic bullet to pulling people The problem is that some of the most cost-effective poverty out of poverty. There are always problems and issues to resolve. intervention programs provide fairly mundane raw material for Sometimes miscommunication and hurt feelings get in the way. marketing departments. The provision of clean water to villages, But our commitment to one another has thus far weathered child deworming campaigns, and mosquito bed nets rank as these storms, and our long-term relationship has tremendously the top three development interventions, yet they fail to attract blessed both parties. much donor interest. But rigorous evaluation allows an organizaWhether one chooses to give money or work with the poor tion to show real impact on recipients. This can facilitate a greatly directly, what is important is to care enough about the poor to needed shift in the focus of donor marketing from emphasizing understand the effect of actions we take on their behalf. feel-good giving to providing useful information to donors. Finally, it is not enough for an organization working with the Bruce Wydick is professor of economics at the University of San poor to show that it handles funds honestly. Plenty of organizaFrancisco and visiting professor at the University of Californiations, such as the Evangelical Council for Financial AccountabilBerkeley. He is the author of Games in Economic Development ity, certify that an organization is not pilfering donated money. (Cambridge University Press). EVANGEL • Nov 2012

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by wanda griffith

backyard blessings feeds hungry children A weekend is a long time for a child to go without adequate food.

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S MANY AS 17 million children in the United States struggle with “food insecurity.” According to the study “Map the Meal Child Food Insecurity 2011,” one of every four children nationwide is living without enough nutritious food to have a healthy life. With the uncertain economy, the numbers are growing, experts say. Leneda Jones, founder and director of Backyard Blessings and a member of the Sumiton, Alabama, Church of God, refuses to overlook the needs of the children in her own Walker County. Three years ago, she began providing food for the weekend through a Friday backpack food program. “By eliminating hunger, we hope to improve the health, well-being, and education of our children,” Jones explains. Our motto is ‘Helping Children in Our Own Backyard.’” Leneda Jones provides food through Backyard Blessings

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According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alabama has the highest percentage of people in the nation who go hungry. The poverty rate is 16.8 percent, and 54 percent of the state’s schoolchildren receive free or reduced price lunches. In one Walker County school, 75 percent of the students get free or reduced lunches. Since the beginning of Backyard Blessings, a local newspaper, The Daily Mountain Eagle, has sponsored a food and donation drive for the program during July. Organizers ask for individually wrapped, nonperishable food items that can be prepared for a child. In its fourth year of operation, Backyard Blessings is serving five schools in Walker County—Sumiton Elementary/Middle School, T.S. Boyd Elementary/Junior High School in Dora, Cordova Elementary

School, T. R. Simmons Elementary School, and Memorial Park Elementary School in Jasper—in the 2012-13 school year. Calling and Assignment When Jones learned many children were coming to school hungry on Monday mornings, she could not rest. “God would not let me get away from the fact that it is not OK for children in my own backyard to be hungry. This is what God has called me to do for children in my county, in my backyard.” She added, “I believe we are called to minister first to those around us who are in need. We knew that we could not provide food every day, but food for the weekend was feasible.” In the 2011-12 school year, Backyard Blessings prepared 5,892 bags for 211 students in eastern Walker County. This

year they will serve approximately 350 students in five schools. “Our goal is to be in every school in our county because there are hungry children in every school,” states Leneda. Ministry Background Leneda Jones and her husband, Byron, have been in ministry for more than 20 years evangelizing, working in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and pastoring churches while bringing up their five children. “Our calling has always been to help hurting people. Our last pastorate was an inner-city church with a lot of needy people around us. These people taught us a lot,” she explained. “When we decided to retire from pastoring, we moved to my hometown to be near family,” Jones said. “Sumiton is a small town, but there are people in need everywhere. In some homes, money is spent on drugs and alcohol and children go without food. Sometimes families just need a hand to make ends meet. On payday, parents have to make a decision whether to pay a utility bill or buy groceries for the family. Whatever the situation, the children pay the price and go without.” Community Volunteers Individuals in the community have caught the vision and joined Jones, serving as board members and volunteers, to make sure hungry children have food to eat on the weekend. Administrators, teachers, and other school employees are appreciative of Backyard Blessings. One teacher was so concerned about her students that she made sandwiches for them to eat right before going home because she knew some of them would not eat again until they came to school the next day. “Our ministry helps teachers because they have to stand before hungry children in classrooms every day,” Jones said. “Parents, grandparents, and others with children in their homes tell us that these bags of food help them to make it. Single mothers depend on our food for their children. They say their children eat healthy food provided in our bags that they would not eat otherwise.”

Leneda Jones honored by Governor Robert Bentley

The senior adults in the weekday program at Sumiton Community Center also play a big part in helping Backyard Blessings. “They pack the food bags for us every week when we get everything ready. They are among our best volunteers who love to be able to help children,” Jones said. Statewide Recognition State lawmakers in Alabama have recognized Jones’s effort to feed hungry children in Walker County. Governor Robert Bentley presented an award to her during a ceremony in Montgomery. “Leneda Jones is to be commended for seeing a need in her community and having the self-determination and compassion to meet that need,” Bentley said. “The Backyard Blessings program is comprised of neighbor helping neighbor and represents the best of Alabama. I am very proud to know that people like Leneda are willing to make a difference in the lives of their community.” Jones responded, “My hope for this award is that it will bring more attention to the cause and help feed more children in Walker County.” The children are so excited on Fridays to receive their food. One teacher remarked that a young boy in her class asked on Thursday if this was the day he got his “blessing.” When she told him he had to wait until the next day, he cried. These kinds of stories are reminders that these bags of food are important—sometimes the only food a child has for the weekend.

Countywide Festival This year Leneda and her army of helpers raised $10,000 by sponsoring a countywide festival which was held at the Sumiton Community Center. It featured several musical performances, and all the artists donated their time. While financial donations were accepted, another reason for the event was to give families free entertainment. In addition to musical acts, the festival included free games, face-painting, and inflatable toys for the kids. Charter Communications and Bevill State Community College provided an outdoor movie and popcorn. Walmart gave away snow cones. Ongoing Challenge Ten to 12 nonperishable food items are packed in the bag for each child for the weekend. The cost is about $5 per bag. More money is needed to expand and feed more children. Backyard Blessings is a 501C-3 organization and totally supported by donations from businesses, churches, civic organizations, and individuals. “We also take donations of food,” Leneda explains. “Some groups do food drives for us. If anybody has a contact with someone who could possibly donate bulk amounts of food, we would be grateful.” For information on Backyard Blessings, contact Leneda Jones at 205-544-9094. Wanda Griffith is an online instructor for Lee University, a writer, and a singer who lives in Cleveland, Tennessee. EVANGEL • Nov 2012

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a worldwide ministry of blessing Haiti

Operation Compassion responds to disasters, resources community outreaches, and distributes goods to the neediest people. by lance colkmire

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HEN HURRICANE ISAAC deluged Chalmette, Louisiana, in late August, Pastor Kenny Flaming and his family lost all their possessions to floodwaters. Right away, the Flaming family found a new home—a 36-foot travel trailer provided by Operation Compassion— where they are living until the Cornerstone Church of God parsonage is rebuilt. This is one life-changing example of Operation Compassion’s mind-boggling reach that delivers a quarter of a billion dollars worth of donated products each year to people in need. The Leader Go back five decades, when David Lorency was growing up in Norfolk, Vir-

Appalachian Dream Center in Holden, West Virginia

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ginia. He attended a Pentecostal church that ministered weekly to prisoners, barhopping sailors, and the poor. Lorency’s family led three young sailors to the Lord whose parents were officials in Pentecostal denominations. He explained, “My parents had a semi-retreat area in rural North Carolina where they would take these young men for the weekend.” Consequently, David was “indoctrinated” into compassion ministry. As a young minister in Virginia Beach, David started Youth Challenge Outreach (YCO) and served as chaplain to the Norfolk City Jail. YCO grew into a ministry reaching thousands of youth, employing nine fulltime and 70 part-time staff members. Lorency later led Church of God evangelism ministries in Northern New England, Chicago Metro, and California, and pastored outreachminded congregations in Detroit, Michigan, and Bakersfield, California. While leading the Alabaster, Alabama, Church of God in the 1990s, the congregation opened

a small warehouse with food, clothes, medical supplies, household products, and toys. The church also partnered with three other congregations to build a church, a medical clinic, a relief center, and a parsonage in Honduras. When Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in 1998, those concrete-and-steel buildings survived, unlike most others. The Honduras church called Lorency’s congregation for relief aid. Within a week, various agencies offered free shipping of relief supplies, and the Alabaster Church of God sent 25 containers of goods to Honduras. In 2000, John Nichols asked David Lorency to move to Cleveland, Tennessee, as executive director of Operation Compassion (OC). Dr. Nichols handled the philanthropic side, disbursing funds to build orphanages and start relief centers, fulfilling the wishes of large donors. The Growth Operation Compassion opened a 5,000-square-foot warehouse in 2000. Today in Cleveland, OC has a long-term contract on 120,000 square feet of warehouse space and a short-term contract on 600,000 square feet. As disasters occur, products are donated by networking with 18 warehouses across the country and 38 warehouses around the world. In 12 years, the international agency has grown from handling less than 100 semitrucks per year to more than 3,000. Last year alone, OC shipped 30 million pounds of goods to 28 countries and 38 states.

In the midst of this incredible growth, Lorency was appointed president of Operation Compassion in 2006. “OC is predominantly a worldwide network of volunteers,” Lorecy explained. “There are 20 employees in Cleveland, and five or six others in different locations.” The Mission Operation Compassion focuses on three priorities: 1. Responding to natural disasters nationally and around the world 2. Providing inspiration, information, training, and resources to help mobilize churches, individuals, and community groups to provide food and basic necessities to the poor and needy 3. Concentrating on international distribution to widows, single mothers, and children. The Network The mission of OC is accomplished through its five networks: • Relief America—Responds to national and international disasters with containers of bottled water, food, cleaning supplies, and building materials. • Dream America—Supplies Native Americans living on reservations in the western U.S. with food, water, educational materials, and building supplies. • Compassion America: The Urban Network—Meets various needs of the poor and underprivileged living in America’s largest cities through partnerships with civic and community leaders, school districts, police and fire departments, parks and recreation departments, churches, and other local agencies. • Global Compassion Network—Provides countries of the developing world with medical supplies and equipment, textbooks, clothing, food, and toys. • Hope America: The Appalachia Network—Targets one of the four most extreme areas of poverty in the U.S. through food distribution, hot meals, job training, and home repair through 3,000 grassroots partners in neighborhoods, orphanages, schools, churches, food pantries, vocational-tech centers, and homeless shelters.

TALKING WITH DAVID LORENCY Discuss the medical supplies distributed by your ministry. We have 10 semis of medical supplies and equipment here right now. During this year’s Church of God General Assembly, I met with Ishmael Charles [Caribbean field director] and a representative from the British Virgin Islands. They had just built a hospital but didn’t have the funds to outfit it, staff it, stock it. In that two-hour meeting, we were able to procure the hospital beds from a partner in Minnesota. We’re going to resource that hospital. We are also providing resources for the hospital in the Congo that has been built under the leadership of Martin Mutyebele, overseer of the Church of God in Belgium (see story in December 2011 Evangel). A hospital in Haiti sent us before-andafter pictures of a neonatal intensive care unit. To see it before and then see the transformation with the medical supplies and the tile that was sent, it was amazing. We handle probably 99 percent of the tile donations in the world and the backer board that goes on the floor underneath it, grout, sealant, and tools. We’re supplying all the tile that is needed for the floors and walls for two schools that will house 4,000 children in Haiti. Operation Compassion has been instrumental in Haiti. When the earthquake hit in 2010, we already had 26 semis with our goods at

Honduras

the dock or in the warehouse of Food for the Poor in Haiti. We had 40,000 family tents available. If you were watching CNN and saw those red tents, they came from Operation Compassion. Give an example of how goods move from procurement to delivery. One of our procurement reps was just offered shoes from a manufacturer in China. Now he has 20 containers of shoes—26,000 pairs per container— and he has to have them moved by a certain time, but he has to know before then where they are going to go. I start calling partners to find out where the need is the greatest, finding a place to send these shoes. Lisa Boen, our vice-president of operations, oversees our procurement and warehouse staff. They work behind the scenes. When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, a lot of her staff wanted to head Lisa Boen for the Gulf Coast. She told them, “We have to be effective where we are. We have to load trucks until 10 o’clock at night to get the supplies where they need to go.” How does OC minister to both physical and spiritual needs? We started procuring 2,000-pound bags of laundry detergent. The only thing wrong with them was the color the retailer wanted in their boxes. Their corporate inspector in the manufacturing plant donated them to a charity that gave it to us. We provided it to a nonprofit. In talking with them, we decided it would help prisons in a certain state because of budget cuts, and detergent is a major expense. So this nonprofit started donating it to prisons. Word EVANGEL • Nov 2012

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spread across the state and eventually got to the head of prisons. They saw tens of thousands of dollars of savings in prisons. They were so thankful that they invited this faith-based nonprofit to start a college in every prison. In their curriculum, the Bible is used in teaching English and in teaching financial principles. Before every prisoner leaves, they go through 10 hours of lifestyle training all based on the Word of God. There are thousands of lives touched through us handling laundry detergent. Tell more about OC’s international ministry. We fund the Tonga Feeding Center led by Ellie van Zyl in southern Africa. She feeds 700 children a month, many of them dying of AIDS. We have a network overseas that targets 7,500 families a year. They take homeless families off the street. They give them a building. They teach women to sew, providing a sewing machine; men, vocational tech. We ship about $22 million worth of tools for these vocational students. When they graduate, they get a set of tools. They either do carpentry, electrical, or building. They get a trade and they are tied to a church. We provide the clothes for the children to go to school and the textbooks. We call it “lift and redemption.” Here’s another example: We had a network of four partners that provided us with six-and-a-half million packets of seeds. Two-thirds were vegetable seeds;

the others were flower seeds. We had a partner in Miami that does programs for the president of Ghana. Half-acres of land were donated to families, helping 600,000 people. We provided the seeds; the agricultural schools of Ghana taught them how to grow flowers and vegetables. So they now have a way to grow their food, sell the flowers, earn a living, build a house, and send their kids to school. It’s all tied to the gospel of Christ. They’re resourced with the goods that move them from homelessness to productivity. This year it looks like Operation Compassion is going to ship 3 million pairs of shoes. Also, we are shipping 50 semis of concrete board that will be used to build outhouses. With these two donations, we’re making a dent in preventable diseases that kill millions of children each year.

Where does OC’s financial support come from? We have focused from the beginning on raising money outside the church. The church is being drawn to support so many worthwhile causes. People not related to a church still want to help the poor. We’re in a niche that can get help the church Food supplies arriving in Indonesia can’t get. However, we do solicit funds from churches for disaster relief. With the downturn in the economy, help is needed there. When we go to a disaster site, it’s not just our goods we bring. We help fund partners with heavy equipment. We

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A Honduran boy getting new shoes

have a partner that brings in a $100,000 cooking unit and cooks 8,000 meals. We work with the American Bible Society to distribute Bibles. We work in partnership with Church of God chaplains, providing them with on-site housing and hot meals so they can do the counseling. Out of 1.4 million charities in the United States, Forbes magazine lists Operation Compassion in the top 10 of fund-raising efficiency. Our management cost is less than 1/200th of 1 percent of our budget. All our costs are in the procurement and distribution of goods to the poor and needy. To achieve such a milestone takes a strong commitment of every employee. Operation Compassion has a strong team that moves more product than most charities with three times the number of employees. So where is OC headed in the future? It changes every four or five months. We never dreamed we’d be moving 100 semis a year from third-world locations around the world. Our networks and partnerships are growing. Part of our growth has come because we have this fantastic network of the Church of God, the Assemblies of God, and other churches. These are the grassroots for other charities and corporations to move their goods through so it is handled with integrity. Learn more at operationcompassion.org.

city in cambodia Continued from page 11

pool of Americans that teach English. All of which goes toward giving the poor a working chance. With English, they can go into the hospitality industry, the tourism industry.” Simon Valenzuela put PCL in touch with a Filipino lawyer who had moved to Phnom Penh (seven hours south of Siem Reap) to do ministry, and PCL ended up with Hope Children’s Home and another school. The school has developed into the four-story Phnom Penh Management Institute (PMI), which offers a two-year associate’s degree in human resource management and business and accounting. PCL also started an elementary school in Emmanuel Village that now has 260 students. Fred Garmon said, “The government took note of what we were doing. They started helping us with paving some of the roads and getting some of the trash taken out. So, little by little, we started doing these partnerships with the Cambodian government.” The government asked PCL, the Red Cross, and some other NGOs to work together with the United Nations’ Poverty Reduction Plan to give each of the 1,800 families in Andong 3 a 12-by-15 piece of ground each for building a small house for $1,000. The Red Cross built about 25 homes. Garmon said, “We picked up on this and built 125 homes, investing $125,000. It’s a Habitat for Humanity model—the families have to pay something back every month for five years.” Then dawned the idea for building an entire city rather than building new houses without the proper infrastructure. Incredible Momentum The “Build a City” project is catching fire. • Southtree—a fledging organization in Chattanooga owned by former Lee University students—is giving $1,000 per month for three years to build the community center.

• Habitat for Humanity in Cleveland, Tennessee, is pledging to build 45 homes in Andong 3. • Project Cure and Dr. Doug Jackson (Denver, Colorado) is offering to donate brand-new, state-of-the-art medical equipment. • Another Denver group, International Hope Builders (Harold Patterson), is traveling to Cambodia to show how better homes can be built at a lower cost. The list goes on and on. Garmon said, “We’re asking for churches, civic groups, people from all around the world to join with us. A thousand dollars builds a house.” Living the Gospel Buddhism is the dominant religion in Cambodia, where only 1 percent of the population is Christian. Garmon said, “Our memorandum of understanding says we’re here to help the poor. They know we are a Christian organization, but we do not preach, we do not have revivals—we can’t.” He added, “I have seen more people come to Christ in the last seven years with PCL than I saw in the previous 25 years

that I was a pulpit pastor . . . and I have not preached but four times in Southeast Asia. You’ve got to move into the neighborhood and let people see the love of God with your works. “Eventually, they ask, ‘Why are you doing this?’ “‘Great, I’m glad you asked. The love of Jesus motivates us to do what we do.’ “‘Well, who is this Jesus?’ “There’s your key question.” Looking Ahead “We hope the ‘Build a City’ project will be one of many. We hope that in 2015, when we finish the project and cut the ribbon, we can take a nine-month break and start again. Hopefully others will see it and say, ‘Wow, they did it!’ “It is an audacious dream. It is the Church of God that has created this and has the foresight to do something like this.” Visit buildacity.org to learn more. Information for this article came from an interview with Fred Garmon, Ph.D., and from PCL’s “Build a City” publication.

Bridge to integrated farm

Building a Farm In partnership with Lee University, PCL is creating an integrated farm in Takam Village. The farm includes pigs, chickens, and a fish pond, along with many fruit trees and soy plants. The vision is to create an integrated farming model that can serve as a model for Cambodian farmers and for other development organizations. EVANGEL • Nov 2012

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VIEWPOINTS

When it comes to personal possessions, how much is too much? it’s not ‘muchness’ but attitude Florin Cimpean, lead pastor, Philadelphia Romanian Church of God (Chicago)

ACROSS HISTORY, personal possessions have been a sign of pride, success, social status, achievement, luck, and blessing. Moreover, there is a fundamental human need for personal possessions: we need shelter, clothing, and food for our survival. I believe the problem with possessions is not “muchness” but attitude. If our focus is on acquiring as many possessions as we can, then we are trapped in a never-ending rat race of competition, greed, materialism, individualism, and selfishness. When it comes to possessions, much is a loaded word. It is geographically, socially, and politically conditioned. For a person living in utter poverty in a devastated country, “too much” would be what a person living on the poverty threshold in the U.S. possesses. However, from a biblical perspective, all of our possessions are a result of God’s blessing. Those blessings are not to be accumulated but circulated. They are not to be kept but given. They are not to be laid up on earth, but stored up in heaven. Therefore, the question should be, What do we do with the “much” we have? Christians are called to invest their possessions in several divine funds. When we invest in God’s kingdom, even our “little” e becomes much. b As A Adrian Rogers ssaid, “A faith that h hasn’t reached yyour wallet p probably hasn’t rreached your h heart.” We become healed of our h obsession with o ““muchness” when we invest w in the church fund ((Mal. 3:10) in order to support o God’s house. W Wee al also so n need eed ee d to invest in the poor fu fund (Prov. 28:27) by opening our hearts and pockets for the poor, the orphans, the helpless, and the destitute of the world. We have a mandate to invest our possessions in the global fund (2 Cor. 9:11-15) to help take the gospel to the last soul on earth. We cannot ignore the

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growth fund (Luke 16:11-13) because, in order to handle possessions biblically, we need to grow spiritually as individual Christians and as Christian families. Finally, we give to the future fund because, as responsible Christians, we must be good stewards of God’s blessings and plan for our future. If we focus on giving, we will discover that money is a great servant; but if we desperately attempt to keep our possessions, we will discover that money is a terrible master.

materialism can hinder ministry Lance and Serenity Keeling, lead pastors, La Paz International Church of God (Bolivia)

THE QUESTION of how much is too much came to our family when we were preparing to move to Bolivia, South America, as missionaries. Each of our family members could only take two bags. So we had to decide what our family of four was going to put in eight bags. After accumulating many years’ worth of possessions, this was a very difficult task as we had come to believe that everything we owned was a necessity. Our children had a lot of toys, bicycles, and video games. They were allowed to take a few toys each. They went through their possessions like it was a funeral, saying goodbye to some of their favorite things. Then my wife and I had to decide what we were going to take. Our wardrobe would not fit into two bags. I thought, What am I going to do with no printer, no video projector, and no piano? It was so stressful! When we arrived in Bolivia, we did not personally own a fork, furniture, or television. Serenity and I just had our clothes and Bibles. At first it was a difficult adjustment, especially in our ministry. We were so used to sound equipment, video projectors, computers, copy machines, and so on. Without any of those things we had taken for granted and used every day, we had to reprogram our thinking and rely on hard work, imagination, and of course the Holy Spirit. Today, we lead the largest church in the region, and without the modern possessions we thought were so important. We soon realized how much we had that we never used. We realized God could do more with just a little material goods and a lot of faith than He can with someone bogged down with the riches of this world. Materialism and the love of money can be one of the biggest hindrances to ministry. Our success and happiness is not determined by our wealth or possessions. To be honest, most people in the U.S. will not under-

stand what I am saying, as their life is consumed with material gain and lacks real substance. However, we can live well and be happy with very little. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21). The love of money and the pursuit of material possessions reveal the condition of the heart. Many Christians ask, “Why are we not seeing God move like we did in days past?” One reason is people are centered on self and what they can get out of life, rather than what they can contribute to life and the kingdom of God. The average American heart has been turned from God and has become very greedy. In the Book of Hosea, the Lord said, “As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame” (4:7). If material wealth is placed before God or hinders someone from doing what God has called them to do, then the things they so love will ultimately be their demise. Let this not be you or me! Let’s be obedient to follow God and give everything that He requires. In doing so, we will experience greater blessings than what we can imagine.

Jesus knew the man had a “master” problem. Jesus listed for him five of the Ten Commandments, all regarding how humans should treat each other. The young man considered himself righteous, boldly claiming, “All these have I kept from my youth” (v. 21). Instead of listing the other commandments about obeying the Lord, Jesus simply said, “Sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me” (v. 22). The self-righteous man left in great sorrow, owned by his stuff, not owned by the Master. Turning the page, Luke 19 tells us a much better way. A man named Zacchaeus also had wealth and power; he was a chief tax collector. The publicans were notorious cheats, and Zach was no different. His stuff owned him, but he had an advantage over the previous man—Zach knew he was a sinner. He did not seek Jesus for a little teaching, but to encounter whatever he might find in Him. Jesus gave Zach an order, and verse 6 tells us the tax collector “received [Jesus] joyfully.” Jesus did not have to tell Zach to give generously. Zach had received Jesus as Lord (not just as a teacher), so he eagerly parted ways with his old master—money—to embrace Jesus as Lord. I ask myself, Do I own my stuff, or does Jesus own it? When the Holy Spirit urges me to give, do I become fearful or joyful? Do I struggle to give just a minimum 10 percent to my church, or is tithing the starting point of my joyful giving? Is Jesus only an interesting teacher, or does He own me and my possessions? Am I like the self-righteous young ruler today, or like Zacchaeus? If I own my stuff instead of letting Jesus own it, my stuff owns me.

do I own my stuff or does jesus? Paul and Kim Dyar, Honduras East Territory overseer and pastors of the French Harbour Church of God (Roatan, Honduras)

IN LUKE 18, a rich and powerful young man encountered our Lord Jesus. He greeted Jesus not as his “Master” or “Lord,” but as “Good Teacher” (v. 18 NKJV). Too often, we come to Jesus not to submit to Him, but just to get a little teaching.

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PEOPLE AND EVENTS

BREAKTHROUGH MINISTRY TO CMU FOOTBALL TEAM MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich.—On August 1, the Faith Community Church of God (FCC) helped the Central Michigan University (CMU) Chippewas football team kick off its 2012 season by hosting a special service. Pastor Travis Hall said, “In the past few years, God has granted us great favor as we have worked to make inroads to the university.” Pastor Hall continued, “When we set our 2012 ministry calendar last year, an outreach event to the team was something we felt led to plan even though we weren’t sure how it was going to work out since CMU is a public university.” Mike White, a church elder who has been reaching out to the Chippewas for three years, pitched the event idea to the head coach, Dan Enos, months

The Bamboo Missions Crew poses in front of Hong Yang, Lisa Banzhoff, and Esther Yang.

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before the date. In mid-July, Coach Enos suddenly told Mike, “Let’s do that event you were talking about, and let’s call it a ‘Moving Forward Service.’” It was a voluntary event for coaching staff and players alike, yet 101 members of the CMU football family came. Pastor Hall preached a short message followed by an invitation to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and some 70 people responded. “It was a truly amazing sight,” the pastor said. Mike White continues to be minister on the school campus, which is only three blocks away from FCC, attending team workouts and practices, and he serves as one of the team chaplains. Pastor Hall said, “Many of these athletes attend church regularly and have become

Central Michigan players respond to altar invitation.

church members.” Church Elder Gary Green helps them to identify their spiritual gifts and get involved in one of the church’s ministry teams. “We actually have an offensive lineman who serves in our children’s ministry and nursery, which is just cool!” the pastor said. Besides the football team, Faith Community is also reaching out to CMU’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. In addition, the church is ministering to the women’s

basketball team at Alma College, about 20 minutes away. Pastor Hall summarized: “Three years ago, FCC didn’t even have a college ministry and maybe one or two college students. However, when people are equipped to operate in their spiritual gifts and the lead pastor is secure enough to release ministry to them, amazing things can happen. Today we not only minister to students but also to coaching staff, their wives, and school faculty.”

HAGERSTOWN, Md.— Ten years ago, Dr. Hong Yang visited Virginia Avenue Church of God and told us of the persecuted church in China. I wanted to help those believers who follow Christ no matter the cost. I also saw this as a wonderful ministry opportunity for my fourth- and fifth-grade Sunday school class. I set a goal of raising $50 to help the underground church in China and to purchase Chinese Bibles. Once we met that goal, it didn’t stop. We became the “Bamboo Missions Crew,” and

over the past 10 years and many groups of students, we have raised $5,000 through fundraisers, talent shows, and church sponsors . . . all through the work of a handful of kids. The students watch testimonial movies, read stories of the Chinese church, get updates through Voice of the Martyrs, and have again been visited by Hong Yang. They love hearing how the Word of God is spreading throughout China. The students realize their work is making a difference. They have raised much awareness

For daily news updates about what’s happening in the Church of God and Evangelical world, visit FAITH NEWS NETWORK, at www.faithnews.cc.

HEALED FROM CANCER CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.—I was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer in December 2011. The oncologist said I was full of tumors and the cancer had spread to other vital organs. I went home and told God I know our days are numbered and if it was my time, I was ready to go. Otherwise, I asked Him to heal me completely. Isaiah 53:5 says, “By His stripes we are healed” (NKJV), and I made a decision that night to trust in Him completely. In January 2012, Pastor Jim Milligan called me forward for prayer, telling the church of my diagnosis. Following prayer, Pastor Milligan asked Bud Willingham to tell the church what happened the night before during his prayer time. Bud said the Lord told him, “A woman will be healed of cancer tomorrow.” I knew that word was for me. for missions in the church and community through plays, programs, and even parades. They recently led special prayer for International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. In April 2012, I traveled with Dr. Esther Yang (wife of Hong Yang) to help smuggle Bibles over the Chinese border and deliver them to members of underground house churches. This was a once-in-a lifetime experience of visiting the people my students have supported all these years.—Lisa Banzhoff

Following my first chemotherapy treatment, I was so weak I could hardly talk . . . and if I can’t talk, there’s a problem! I then developed an infection in my blood and kidneys. The doctor said a simple cold could take my life because I didn’t have any resistance to fight it, so I was put into isolation. Seven days later, even though my doctor did not feel I was ready to leave the hospital, he said insurance wouldn’t allow me to stay longer, and sent me home. When it was time for my fourth chemo treatment, my platelets dropped so low they could not give it to me. After several weeks with no treatment, the doctor did an exam and told me the tumor had shrunk significantly. The following week, my daughter Jill arranged for me to meet with three doctors in Nashville for a second opinion since I was still unable to have chemotherapy in Chattanooga. Those doctors said there was no medical reason I should be alive. I told them I know the Healer and He had another plan! One of the doctors did an exam the next day and said, “There is no tumor.” I asked him to repeat himself. He did, and I said, “Praise the Lord!” He said, “Amen!” He then ordered a CT scan and I was scheduled for a bone-marrow biopsy. The scan showed no tumor, with some scattered small spots— possible scar tissue or small

Sandra Harrison

remnants of the cancer. The biopsy was negative. They attributed the low platelets to

the heavy chemo treatment. I chose to continue the chemotherapy to make sure if there were any cancer cells, the treatment would take care of them. On July 13, I had my second CT scan. My platelets were the highest they have been since January, allowing an increase in chemo with no damage to my platelets. This journey has been one of the worst yet one of the best times of my life. I can’t comprehend why God would choose to heal me. But I thank Him daily.—Sandra Harrison

DECEASED MINISTERS ■ BURNS, Leon J.; 64; exhorter; Arkansas; Gloria Burns (wife)

■ MAGGARD, John Marvin; 70; ordained minister; Ohio; Patricia Maggard (wife)

■ COLE, Steven Rusty; 48; exhorter; Washington; Tamara Cole (wife)

■ MAY, Michael Neil; 63; ordained bishop; New Mexico; Andrea May (wife)

■ CONN, Albert Franklin;

■ MCDONALD, Robert B.;

76; ordained bishop; Georgia; Beverly Ernst (daughter)

82; ordained bishop; Missouri; Mary McDonald (wife)

■ CORN, Dewey Preston; 88; ordained minister; North Carolina; Mabel Corn (wife)

■ PAYNE, Harry Lee; 80;

■ GANT, David R.; 90; ordained bishop; Florida; Shirley Hitte (daughter)

■ PLOSS, Wanda June; 80;

■ HENDERSON, F. M.; 64;

■ RAWLINS, Edgar, Jr.; 61;

ordained bishop; Georgia; Lois Henderson (wife)

ordained bishop; Indiana; Phyllis Rawlins (wife)

■ HUGHES, James Rosell,

■ ROPP, Jack Allen; 70; ordained minister; Washington; LaVeta Ropp (wife)

Sr.; 86; ordained bishop; Indiana; Hannah Hughes (wife) ■ JONES, Cecil H., Jr.; 84; ordained bishop; Arkansas; Marilyn Jones (wife)

exhorter; Georgia; Laverne Payne (wife) ordained minister; West Virginia; Charles Ploss (husband)

■ ZACHARIA, Yohanan;

89; ordained bishop; Texas; Rachelamma Zacharia (wife)

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? by joel trammell

george and margaret voorhis

Serving from the armchair

G

EORGE AND MARGARET Voorhis live in Charlotte, North Carolina, where they have made their home for 37 years. Dr. Voorhis taught classes at East Coast Bible College and then Lee University Charlotte Center from 1976 until 2003, when health challenges forced him to resign. In 2004, Voorhis’ health was miraculously restored, and he returned to the classroom until 2010. Today, in his own words, Voorhis continues to “minister from my armchair” by serving as a mentor and counselor to ministerial candidates, researching and writing books and religious articles, and raising funds for his George D. Voorhis Educational Program, which makes loans and scholarships available to prospective ministers and college students. He attends church on a regular basis and “preaches every chance I get.” George David Voorhis was born on October 27, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, where he spent some time in a Roman Catholic orphanage. After finishing the eighth grade and working at numerous jobs, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in the 82nd Airborne Unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While stationed in North Carolina, he met his wife, Margaret Estalene Melvin. George and Margaret were unchurched; however, their next-door neighbor persuaded them to attend a tent revival sponsored by the Erwin Church of God. They 30

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both received Christ under the preaching of A. V. Childers in September 1950. Later, the Erwin pastor, J. R. Easom, gave young Voorhis his first Bible. Reverend Childers encouraged George to utilize his G. I. bill by enrolling at Lee

College in Cleveland, Tennessee. Voorhis received the baptism in the Holy Spirit at 11:30 p.m. on February 14, 1951, in the old Lee College auditorium. He spoke in tongues from midnight until the next evening at 6:00. The Lord called him to preach on the same night.

For over 60 years, Dr. Voorhis has enjoyed a successful and varied ministry. He served as an evangelist for 12 years and pastored churches in Maine and North Carolina. Voorhis served as a Bible teacher and preached at many camp meetings throughout his active ministry. He was the founder and served as the first president of East Coast Bible College, which later became an extension of Lee University. He is a professor emeritus at Lee University and was inducted into the Hall of Prophets at the Pentecostal Theological Seminary in 2003. Voorhis has authored 18 books and continues to research and write, fulfilling his dream of sharing the gospel with others. George and Margaret Voorhis have been married for 62 years and are the parents of two children. They have two grandchildren and one great-grandchild. They are active serving God, their family, and their church as they enjoy life into their 80s. Whatever limitations they have faced, Dr. Voorhis has learned that one can be a faithful servant of the Lord, even if it is from an armchair. For more information about the George D. Voorhis Educational Program, call Andrew Buehner: 704-231-9341. Joel Trammell is a member of the International Historical Commission of the Church of God and serves as chairperson of the Virginia Church of God Historical Commission.