Thousands of Peruvian girls and women suffer in silence after being sexually abused. But today a new ministry is introducing them to God’s healing power.

Sandy slumped forward in a chair as strands of black hair drooped over her eyes to hide her embarrassment. Tears stained her brown face as she told a story of unimaginable pain: how she was sexually abused by an older boy, how she was raped countless times by her father, then by an uncle, and then by a man she met in church.

When she was 6, her father spread her hands on a table and used a knife to stab her between her fingers. Once he punctured her elbow with a nail. Another time he held her palms down on a hot stove. Sometimes he would bend her fingers backward to break them.

Jagged half-inch scars between her fingers, an L-shaped scar on the inside of her elbow, burn marks on her palms, and deformed fingers are awful witnesses to the truth of her words.

“When my father would come to the house, I would hide under the bed,” Sandy said, noting that he also kept a book about black magic in their home.

The older boy raped her when she was 11. She got pregnant at age 13 but lost the child after he beat her. She conceived again at 14, this time giving birth to a son, who he lets her visit only in exchange for sex. To cope, Sandy began using a crude form of heroin.

Sandy’s story is but one of thousands of horrific tales told by women in Peru. The problem is so vast–yet so hidden–that it’s easy to pretend it doesn’t exist. But the facts say otherwise.

Records from the Maternity Hospital in Lima, Peru, indicate that 90 percent of young mothers ages 12 to 16 became pregnant because they were raped, the vast majority by their fathers, brothers, stepfathers or friends. Violence against women seems to be woven into the fabric of Peruvian society.

An estimated 28,000 women are victims of rape annually. The majority of the victims are under age 14. In Lima alone, five rapes are reported daily. But most crimes against women here probably go unreported.

Although the problem seems overwhelming, a new ministry called Daughters of Peru, founded by two Atlanta-area evangelists, has taken a first step toward healing. A historic two-day women’s conference–the first of its kind in Peru–was held in the Lima suburb of San Juan in May, drawing more than 1,200 women each day.

“We’re helping this generation cope with the abuse, but we can also put things into motion to stop it in future generations by changing attitudes,” said Bruce Carter, 40, co-founder of the ministry. Carter said he expected the large turnout but was surprised by the overwhelming response to altar calls.

“We’re talking about 75 percent of the women in the church who are saying, ‘I’m hurting,'” the evangelist said.

Alberto “Tito” Salazar, 45, founder of The World Needs Christ Ministries, is Carter’s partner in the effort. He said he was overwhelmed by the women’s stories. “I heard so much suffering and pain, the only thing I could do is cry out and say, ‘Lord, do something,'” he said.

Women like Sandy spur these men to fulfill their mission. During Charisma’s interview with her, Sandy matter-of-factly admitted that she loves no one. Then she told how she was filled with so much hatred that she has been tempted to commit murder.

She also told of hearing footsteps at her house when no one was home. “Sometimes I feel like I’m possessed,” she said.

When Sandy indicated that she wanted to be free of demonic possession, the interview ended. Three Daughters of Peru ministry team members arrived, and a deliverance session began. Sandy’s quiet voice soon turned to chilling screams, and her body contorted. Sandy growled hideously through clenched teeth, spitting as she shook her head from side to side.

After two hours, she returned to being a quiet teen-ager. There are multitudes of women in Peru who need a similar spiritual breakthrough.

Overwhelming Pain

Approximately 70 percent of all crimes reported to police in Peru involve violence against women, according to the Institute for Women’s Health. Until April 1997, a law allowed men to escape prosecution from rape if they proposed marriage to the victim.

Medical examinations of rape victims are cursory and incomplete, minimizing serious injuries. Women who file a rape complaint must pay for their own forensic examination. Of the reported crimes against women, only a small percentage are successfully prosecuted. In many cases, either no arrest is made or the man is released after being detained only briefly.

When asked how only two men can attempt to solve such a huge problem in Peru, Carter’s response was blunt.

“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” he said. Although he has just begun this ministry, he knows he and Salazar have made an impact.

“I feel like we just scratched the surface,” Salazar added. “We gave these women some answers, but they are going to have more questions, and we are not going to be there,” he said. “Our hope is that the pastors will be touched by the Lord and see the reality of their situation.”

Salazar was born in Lima and moved to the United States seven years ago. He says domestic abuse in Peru and other Latin countries is in epidemic proportions, spanning across class lines.

Some researchers say the weak economy in Peru is a contributing factor to domestic violence. Men who do not cope well with the pressures of having to work longer hours for less pay bring their frustrations home, they say.

To respond to the epidemic of violence, Peru passed the Family Violence Law in 1993. Even after amendments strengthened it in 1997, the Law offered very limited protection for women. Its definition of “family” excluded entire groups of women and didn’t cover marital rape at all.

Women who attended the free Daughters of Peru conference received a workbook produced by ministry team members to help them work through issues of domestic abuse. They also were fed a modestly priced lunch each day.

“Because of the culture and the oppression, in some of these homes it’s just accepted,” Carter said of the pattern of abuse. In addition to bringing emotional healing, Daughters of Peru teaches women to say no to unwanted sexual advances. Carter and Salazar plan to bring a team of 25-50 female counselors to the next conference set for February in Lima.

While the women’s meetings are important, Carter and Salazar understand attention must be given to the root cause: the behavior of many Latin men, who view their sexual prowess as a sign of strength and who treat women as sex objects. Even in the church, women are often seen as instruments for their husband’s ministry, not ministers themselves. Carter, a former Promise Keepers (PK) leader in Georgia, plans to use his PK ties to organize a “Peruvian Men of Integrity” conference to reach both churched and unchurched men.

“The statistics are too bad for this problem not to be in the church,” he noted.

Carter and Salazar also want to work with government officials to encourage the enforcement of existing laws. Abused women in Lima say they are rebuffed when they go to the police for help.
Many police won’t help them, and there is no government agency to intervene or provide shelter if they flee violence.

Willing Vessels

While abuse is widespread in Latin countries, Carter understands it is a problem in the United States as well. As news of the Daughters of Peru came back to this country, he has received invitations to hold conferences at Atlanta-area churches.

Daughters of Peru represents a ministry shift for Carter, who is an evangelist at heart. He can speak forceful words yet shed soft tears. He admits he sometimes still gets nervous before crowds, but he issues stirring altar calls.

How did this soul-winner become involved in ministry to Hispanic women? Carter points to a crusade in 1998 in Linares, Mexico–his first missions trip–as a time when God brought a new dimension to his ministry. A female minister who had founded two children’s homes prophesied over him at the end of one of his meetings, calling him “a man not just for America but for many countries.” She also said he would preach in large stadiums in distant lands.

When he returned from Mexico a message was waiting from Salazar, inviting him to a crusade in Peru. Not long after that, Carter found himself preaching to a crowd of several thousand in a bullfighting stadium in Lima.

As Carter preached in small churches on the nights preceding the stadium event, he would pray for emotionally troubled women every night. “We’d ask how we could pray for them, and they’d say their brother or father was sexually molesting them,” he said.

A young woman named Cinthia Marthans began following Carter from meeting to meeting. Finally, she told him how her father tried to abuse her when she was younger. Her story touched Carter.

“It was right there, at that moment, that I knew we were going to start this ministry,” he said.

At one meeting, Carter began praying for the women before he preached, speaking a blessing over “the daughters of Peru.”

“When I was finished praying, all of these girls were just weeping uncontrollably,” he said. “I hadn’t even preached the message yet.” As he blessed the women, they were slain in the Holy Spirit in an unusual manner. Instead of falling backward, the women dropped gently as if they were falling asleep.

When Carter preached at the stadium, he abandoned his prepared message and instead spoke hard truth to the men.

“I didn’t hold back,” he said. By bringing this hidden national sin into the light, Carter and Salazar have opened a floodgate. “The ministry connected with the problem for the first time in their lives, I believe,” Carter said.

Marthans, 22, whom Carter calls “the first daughter of Peru,” spoke to Charisma about her troubled home life.

Her father began abusing her when she was 12. Later, when she was 15, he tried to take advantage of her while she was showering. Fortunately, Marthans was able to ward off his advances over the years, but she carried a deep hatred for him–until she prayed with Carter.

“That night is when God really touched me,” she said. Since that time, she’s been free of unforgiveness. “My heart is so full of joy now,” she said.

Marthans confirmed that many women in Peru suffer abuse but have nowhere to turn. She said women don’t waste their time turning to the government because they know they won’t be helped.

Victoria Herbozo Maguina is a woman who Salazar and his wife, Patricia, befriended They even took her into their home for a period of time when they lived in Lima. She said her common-law husband would have sex with her and then leave money on the bed before he left, making her feel like a prostitute.

The man would hit her often and once beat her with a bicycle pump. “He used to say to me, ‘You are very hard to kill,’ and I would say to him, ‘You can kill my body, but my soul will not die,'” said Victoria, who has six children by the man.

“The only father they have is God,” she said.

Today, Carter is continuing his evangelistic ministry–but his commitment to the Daughters of Peru is deep. He and his wife, Beth, are planning to spend most of next summer in Lima in an effort to expand the ministry to women.

“We are waking up the church,” he said. “We are waking up the women and the men by saying, ‘This isn’t right.'”

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Richard Daigle is an Atlanta-based free-lance writer. He traveled to Peru in May to file this story.

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Country with largest percentage Christian population: Ecuador (97.3 percent)

Country with smallest Christian population: Falkland Islands (2,000)

Country with smallest percentage of Christians in population: Suriname (41 percent)

Largest denomination: Roman Catholic Church, Brazil (144 million)

Largest Protestant or independent denomination: Assemblies of God
(22 million)

Country with largest Christian growth over last five years: Guatemala (from 88 percent to 93 percent)

Largest non-Christian population: Nonreligious (8 million)

Fastest growing denomination or movement: Protecia del Sinai (Prophecy From Mount Sinai) (33 percent)

Percentage of Pentecostals and charismatics in Christian population:
27 percent (140.8 million)

Most dangerous country for Christians: Colombia

Country with most evangelistic efforts per person: Ecuador

Country with most evangelistic efforts for size of population: Brazil

Country with highest Christian income: Brazil

Country with lowest Christian income: Suriname

Best known as the pleasure capital of Europe, Spain is beginning to shake off years of religious tradition for a life-giving faith.

To the hundreds of thousands of tourists who come to the coast of Spain in unceasing waves, Alicante and the other world-famous resorts that line the Mediterranean Sea from Barcelona to Gibraltar offer some of the greatest sensual pleasures in life: lavish amounts of sea, sun, culinary delights and a generally carefree way of life.

To a youthful Epi Limiñana, a native of coastal Spain, the pleasure capital represented rejection and a daily taste of death. His father was a drunkard who was either absent or abusive. As a young boy, Limiñana caught his mother in bed with another man and decided he had better run away, or he would–in his own words–“kill Mama.”

He left home at age 7, and for 10 years lived in the streets, fighting his way through life by intimidation, domination, fist and knife among the criminals and drug dealers of the Alicante underworld. At 17 Limiñana entered the local Baptist church for the first time, only to find the Christians shrunk back in fear of his dirty appearance, even dirtier language and frightening reputation for violence.

Since then, his reputation has changed dramatically.

Today, Limiñana, 44, is seen by many charismatics in Spain as the man who will bring the first-ever revival to the southern European country. In April of last year he prayed for the sick at the first healing campaign ever held at Madrid’s Plaza de Toros, one of the city’s bullfighting rings.

Limiñana represents what some Christians here say has come to Spain–a revival marked by New Testament-style “power evangelism” in which signs and wonders follow the preaching of God’s Word. Some are claiming that the country will be the embarkation point of a move of God’s Holy Spirit that will spread to the rest of Europe. Opinions aside, one thing is certain: Spaniards are beginning to shake off years of religious tradition, intellectualism and national machismo to embrace a life-giving faith in Jesus Christ.

Groundwork for Revival

It was, in a small way, a historic occasion when Limiñana held his healing campaign in a bullfighting arena in Madrid, the national capital. That’s because in Spain bullfighting is more than a sport. It is a symbol of Spanish culture and mentality, which, according to many pastors Charisma interviewed, is charged with a measure of violence and pride–the modern residues of Spain’s history as a conquering nation.

It seemed historically fitting, then, that to conquer Spain for Jesus Christ members of God’s “army” would first “invade” a symbol of the heart of the country.

The concrete stadium buzzed with excitement during Limiñana’s healing service when an elderly woman and a young girl rose from their wheelchairs and started to limp across the sand at center court. A young man, who later testified that he had been injured in a car crash, threw away his crutches and ran hard–around and around–tears of joy streaming down his cheeks.

There was no time for preaching. Instead, Limiñana kept praying for the crippled and the sick while pastor friends assisted him and lively worship accompanied his prayers.

His face shining, pastor and evangelist Paco García, 43–the initiator of annual conferences in Spain with U.S. intercessory leaders Cindy Jacobs, C. Peter Wagner and others–told Charisma amid the ear-deafening commotion that he had just prayed for two deaf-mute children, and that they had both spoken after he prayed, demonstrating their healing.

Long lines of people testified at a microphone that they had received jewels in their watches or gold fillings in their teeth. Although these individual claims were unconfirmed, dental surgeon Jaime Peralta of Madrid told Charisma that his own 14-year-old son had received a dental miracle during a Limiñana campaign in January.

“My son had four fillings, and after prayer they were all gone and replaced by new teeth,” Peralta said. “Although I had heard of such miracles, I had remained very skeptical. But there it was.”

The pastors participating in the healing campaign told Charisma that Limiñana’s “miracle anointing” is new to Spain and that they believe it will trigger revival in the country. García says Spain has never experienced revival but that “now the Lord is using Limiñana [to bring it about].”

Pablo Vasquez, the Trinity Broadcasting Network’s (TBN) director for Spain and the man behind the Limiñana campaigns, believes strongly in Limiñana and wants to help his ministry touch all of Spain.

“TBN plans to run evangelistic campaigns with Epi four times a year in Madrid and eventually to run monthly campaigns all over Spain,” Vasquez told Charisma.

The campaigns have the potential of reaching 50,000 households in the Madrid area, but Vasquez’s vision for Limiñana’s ministry is being tested. After the healing campaign at the Plaza de Toros, the leadership of the Spanish Gypsy Church publicly accused Limiñana of sexually abusive behavior and ordered their members to boycott his meetings. With the Gypsies accounting for some 90 percent of Limiñana’s attendees, the rift was serious, and it has not yet been mended.

Vasquez’s confidence in Limiñana is unbroken, however. He told Charisma that he has “known few men with such integrity as Epi.” The allegations against him have not altered the plans for further campaigns in Spain.

Evangelism One-on-One

Other Christian leaders in Spain, however, are less confident that large-scale evangelism efforts such as Limiñana’s and Vasquez’s will reach all Spaniards. They emphasize other ways to target the more than 99 percent of Spaniards who are unreached by the charismatic and evangelical churches. Differences aside, however, they all agree the spiritual tide in Spain has turned.

Greg Jacob, an American who has been a missionary to Spain for 21 years and now pastors a 250-member charismatic church in Madrid, told Charisma that the “growth of the charismatic churches since the death of [Francisco] Franco–the former dictator–in 1975 has been significant.” Jacob’s own congregation grew by 25
percent last year alone.

Jacob differs in his evangelistic approach, however, saying that he personally “would never take a middle-class payo [a non-Gypsy Spaniard] to a campaign where the evangelist blows through the microphone to impart spiritual power,” as sometimes is done in the large charismatic meetings.

“The middle-class payos need and desire the supernatural, but the blowing is [offensive to them],” he explains. Large evangelism rallies “will [possibly] impact mainstream Spain later on when the society has softened up spiritually,” he says, but he believes that currently the events reach “only the Gypsies and the uneducated.”

According to Jacob, most of the church growth in Spain is the result of two factors: friendship evangelism and immigration from Latin America.

Jacob’s opinion is echoed by Marcos Vidal, an internationally renowned and award-winning singer and the senior pastor of a rapidly growing Pentecostal network in Spain. Vidal’s ministry emphasis is small, home-based evangelism efforts among relatives, friends and colleagues. On the day he met with Charisma, Vidal’s Madrid church–his primary congregation–baptized 19 converts, most of them Latin American immigrants.

“The Latinos are different, and much more open. They are less rude and proud than the typical Spaniards. I think [God brings them to] make my people jealous!” he exclaims.

Most Spaniards, Vidal explains, still associate Christian faith with the Catholicism of Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator who ruled Spain from 1936 to 1975 and professed to be a pious Catholic.

“In those days you were forced to be a Catholic,” Vidal says. “And with the exception of a handful of the very rich, being Catholic also meant being poor. To the prospering new middle-class, Christianity still represents poverty and dictatorship.” Vidal says it is crucial to find “a language that communicates the gospel to these people, just like Jesus spoke to His contemporaries in a language that was meaningful to them.”

Vidal’s music has proved to be such a language. “I have given concerts in government circles, and I have seen power-holders cry in response,” he says. “I half expect the secular Spanish TV to open up to my music ministry some day soon. There is a saying: ‘The songs a nation sings make it.'”

Making the Gospel Relevant

Contra Corriente (“against the stream”), the country’s fastest growing Christian youth movement, is reaching a different cultural context–Spain’s young people. It works hard to challenge young believers to break free from inhibiting church traditions and present a gospel that’s relevant to their peers.

A coordinator of the ministry, Carlota Verdura, 33–a Mexican-American who’s been a missionary to Spain for a decade–explained that today’s “teen- and ‘tween-agers'” make up the first generation in Spain that isn’t “automatically Catholic.”

“The vast majority of these kids have zero interest in traditional religion,” she notes, but adds: “They are spiritually hungry, not necessarily for the gospel, but for whatever. It is a matter of getting to them first.”

At last year’s Contra Corriente annual conference, where the theme was “Dare!” the young Christians were challenged to introduce their friends to Jesus. The conferences–characterized by distinctly nonreligious jargon, outspokenness and contemporary music–are attractive to young people. In five years the attendance has grown from 150 to 950 participants.

“At the last conference there was a heavier presence of God than ever before,” Verdura notes. “All we wanted to do was to worship God with all our hearts, from the first minute on.

“There were tears of repentance and joy,” she adds. “Many confessed their sins publicly, in front of [almost] a thousand people! Many came back to the Father, some decided to follow Jesus for the first time, and others went deeper into the river of God.”

One young believer who is impacting Spain’s youth with the gospel is Kesia, a half-Spanish, half-Brazilian 17-year-old Christian recording artist. Kesia made the pop charts last year with a funky version of “Amazing Grace”–another first-ever event in modern Spain. Never before had a Christian song reached the secular charts.

Since then, Kesia has been busy touring, particularly in discos, which is “where you have to go if you want to reach young people in Spain,” according to Curtis Clewett, a longtime Youth With A Mission (YWAM) worker in Barcelona, and a mentor to Kesia.

Clewett says that although “Christians cannot be culturally relevant in the sense that we adapt to worldly standards and styles, we have to be culturally present. We have to go where the people are.”

“[Discos] may seem an unlikely setting for the Christian message, but Kesia’s songs are explicit, and you can tell that she touches people’s hearts,” he says.

Some church leaders have criticized Kesia’s concerts, but Clewett responds by pointing out that her style of ministry is needed because Spanish youth are not accepted into the churches unless they adopt the traditional evangelical culture, which they will not do.

In the Barcelona youth center that Clewett started, teen-agers flock in to listen to Comisión, a Spanish band much like Britain’s Delirious, and to attend dance courses or seminars on drug addiction. It is managed largely by the young for the young. In one room the walls are covered with scribbled notes that consist of Bible verses, prophecies and prayer requests.

“This is where they gather for 24/7 prayer,” Clewett explains. “It was their own initiative, not mine. That is an important aspect. Under Franco, the Spanish church got used to being on the defensive. We challenge the kids to go for it, and they do.”

The diversity of ministry occurring in Spain today underscores Paco García’s conviction that God not only wants revival in Spain but also a key role for the Spanish church in bringing revival to the rest of Europe.

“The revival in South America is coming to Europe–with Spain as the bridge,” he says. “One of its characteristics is power evangelism, as represented by Epi Limiñana. I believe that the Lord wants to deal a blow to European intellectualism by pouring out an anointing of extravagance, things like gold dust, gold teeth.”

In the meantime, he adds, Spain still suffers from the influence of a historical “spirit of death” that has to be dealt with in prayer. He says the condition stems from the fact that both Catholicism and Islam, the prevalent forces in Spanish history, established their dominions through war and institutionalized killing–the Spanish Catholics primarily during the Inquisition, against the Jews, and during the conquest of Latin America, against the Indians.

Also lacking in Spain, he points out, are apostolic ministries and bold, church-planting strategies that are needed for revival. Still, he firmly believes the historical tide has turned and that God’s day for Spain has arrived.

“The Spaniards are conquerors,” he says. “In the past we conquered by the sword, bringing death. In future we will conquer by the Word, bringing life.”

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Tomas Dixon is a journalist based in Sweden who covers news throughout Europe for Charisma.

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Country with largest percentage Christian population*: Poland (96.7 percent)

Country with smallest Christian population: Gibraltar (21,000)

Country with smallest percentage of Christians in population: Czech Republic (47 percent)

Largest denomination: Russian Orthodox Church (73.9 million)

Largest Protestant or independent denomination: Evangelische Kirke,
Germany (29 million)

Country with largest Christian growth over last five years: Estonia (from 78 percent to 85 percent)

Fastest growing denomination or movement: Gypsy Evangelical Movement, Romania (24 percent)

Percentage of Pentecostals and charismatics in Christian population: 5 percent (37.4 million)

Largest non-Christian population:Nonreligious (92 million)

Most dangerous country for Christians**: Albania

Country with most evangelistic efforts per person: Norway

Country with most evangelistic efforts for size of population: Russia

Country with highest Christian income: Germany

Country with lowest Christian income: Gibraltar

All statistics in this special issue are based on research from the latest edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia, published in two volumes by Oxford University Press.

* The overall Christian population may include Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox believers, nominal Christians, and members of other non-evangelical groups.

** Based on issues such as level of religious liberty and murder rate.

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Epi Limiñana’s style of ministry is new to this traditional country, but it’s changing lives.

From the very beginning of his Christian life, Epi Limiñana–the evangelist whose gift of miracles is currently breaking new spiritual ground in Spain and causing division among church leaders–was marked for power-filled evangelism.

“When I gave my life to Jesus in 1976 I was the first convert in the Baptist church in Alicante in six years. One month after my conversion 200 people had been saved,” Limiñana told Charisma over a cup of coffee in a Madrid hotel.

What brought the then-17-year-old street fighter and drug addict to the church was a three-word greeting through a young gypsy preacher who passed by him in the street.

“He said, ‘Jesus loves you,’ and my first impulse was to knife him,” Limiñana remembers. “But seven months later I went to the Baptist church.”

A week later Limiñana returned and came under the power of the Holy Spirit.

“I started to tremble and plead with God for forgiveness,” he says. “Then I saw a light by the ceiling. It came closer, hurting my eyes, and entered my body. I fell to the floor and began speaking in strange tongues. I did not have a clue what was going on–nor did the dear Baptists–but I felt an overwhelming peace. From that moment on I never ever touched drugs or booze, and picked up preaching the gospel.”

Twelve years later Limiñana had another experience that involved light. The evangelist had planted a church and traveled the country for years. He was successful but intrigued that “thousands were delivered from demons, but when I prayed for healing, nothing happened.”

Says Limiñana: “This time I was speaking at a conference. My plan was to preach on deliverance, as usual. But then the Holy Spirit showed Himself to me as a silhouette of intense light. He threw balls of light into me. For the first time I heard His voice.

“I put away my message, and said only: ‘The Holy Spirit is here.’ I heard a bang, and the entire congregation of a thousand was lying on the floor. My first thought was, Are they all demonized?”

A 45-year-old deaf-mute man started to speak and hear. One man’s teeth were fixed. People said they saw “balls of light” coming out of Limiñana’s hands.

Limiñana was, as he puts it, “caught by the anointing,” and his life and ministry changed drastically. In the 1990s he ministered mainly in Latin America and saw “numerous healings, jewels appearing, and even clinically dead people being awakened to life.”

Spain was “difficult,” and church leaders “told lies about me,” Limiñana told Charisma. But last year Pablo Vasquez of Trinity Broadcasting Network-Spain engaged the evangelist, and a new chapter of ministry opened.

“Even at the first campaign in October 2000 there were dental miracles and gold dust on people’s hands,” Limiñana says.

“The spiritual atmosphere over Spain has changed,” he concludes. “And remember, every single miracle is shown on TV. People watch and come to the meetings craving for the supernatural.”

In spite of Muslim tensions, Jordan has displayed unusual openness to the gospel as Christian tourists visit this ‘other Holy Land.’

They call it the home of the sunrise of Christianity, on the right side of the Jordan River–a country of 150 biblical sites. Often overlooked in the scheme of Middle East politics and prophecy, Jordan is clamoring to become every American’s experience of the Holy Land.

A country of 4.6 million people, it is ruled by a Muslim royal family that shows enormous sympathy toward Christianity to the point of paying for visits by evangelists such as Benny Hinn, David Yonggi Cho, Morris Cerullo and Ulf Ekman of Sweden. Such ministers come with hundreds of paying visitors in their tow, but it is only in the last decade that Jordanians have seen Christian visitors as beneficial to their economy.

The March 2000 visit of Pope John Paul II made Jordanians realize it was time to boost Christian tourism. The country increased its hotel rooms by 40 percent after it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. However, Jordan’s Christian population of 180,000 souls is shrinking. The bulk are Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

Among the 5,000 Protestants, there are five major denominations: Southern Baptist, Assemblies of God, Church of the Nazarene, Christian Missionary Alliance and Evangelical Free. There also is a Oneness Pentecostal church.

Perhaps the best known spokesman for Jordan’s seven Assemblies of God churches is Dikran Salbashian, 48, co-pastor of Weibdeh Assembly of God in downtown Amman. He has served as translator for Benny Hinn since 1995, when the healing evangelist made the first of seven evangelistic trips to Jordan.

“There is not much openness” to the Pentecostal message among Jordanian Christians, Salbashian says, “but we are building bridges with other denominations. Some of the pastors are open to it, but they are afraid of some of the wrong doctrines, such as you must speak in tongues in order to be saved.”

He was encouraged that five of the Protestant groups united in May to sponsor Cho’s visit at the Amman University arena. Some 10,000 people attended over two nights, and organizers recorded more than 400 conversions.

Salbashian’s dreams for his city include a “Middle East Harvest Training Center” that would include a 2,500-seat auditorium (his current church seats 330) and would be the largest evangelical church building in the Middle East. No longer would his church have to get permits for large gatherings or have to rent government-owned meeting halls.

The church has already raised $1.1 million for the facility (70 percent from Jordanians), but it needs an additional $4 million to $5 million more before construction on the 66,000-square-foot lot can begin. This is a huge sum, considering that most Jordanians earn an average monthly income of $125.

“The mentality in the Middle East is that small is good,” Salbashian says. “I like the American mentality: Big is good.”

Fields White for Harvest

To say that Jordan is a strategic country is an understatement. It fronts Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Israel and is a short plane ride from Lebanon and Egypt. Most Arabs, who might have problems obtaining visas into some Western countries, have no problems entering Jordan. One little-publicized factor is the 500,000 Iraqi refugees in Jordan, among whom conversions have been made. Jordanians are willing to evangelize their own people, but lack of funds holds them back, says Isam Ghattas, 59, founder of Manara (Lighthouse) Ministries in Amman.

“American missionaries spend $40,000 to $50,000 a year to learn Arabic,” he says. “And then they go back to the United States after two years. Christianity in Jordan is not a business. It is a relationship.”

Ghattas took a hit three years ago when someone–he suspects Muslim fundamentalists–burned down his Christian bookstore in central Amman. A Christian camp he operates just west of the city of Salt (Job’s birthplace) and 27 miles northwest of Amman was also hit with arson.

Camp Gilead, now repaired, overlooks the Zarqa River valley. Its hills are covered with wheat, and Ghattas’ 2.5 acres facing due west are filled with children ages 7 to 18 during the summer. Organizers hope to raise $250,000 for a three-story, 4,000-square-foot conference center on the property.

But Ghattas and Christians like him must be careful. Muslims are forbidden to change their religion, and people are marked for life with an M or a C on their identity cards. Muslims who are baptized secretly do so without informing their families, who may kill them for dishonoring the tribe.

Yet people here say the harvest is white in Jordan. “This is the key to the Middle East: power evangelism,” Salbashian says. “I believe Benny [Hinn] opened Jordan to the West. He was the first one who embraced loving the Arab and Jew at the same time.”

Hinn has said that evangelicals had “put one arm around the Jews in Israel, and now it was time to put the other arm around the Arabs, since they are God’s children too.” Jordan’s King Abdullah is the member of the royal family who spotted the evangelist’s TV programs and showed them to his father, the late King Hussein. Before he died in 1999, Hussein met with Hinn. His backing was instrumental in encouraging the government Ministry of Tourism not only to allow visits by Hinn and other foreign evangelists, but also to pay for the venues.

When Cerullo held a three-day ministry school in Amman in September 2000, the government hosted him and his 2,000 conferees at the Royal Cultural Center. Public places are not open for religious purposes, especially Christian ones, but everything changes when a Western evangelist shows up with paying tourists in tow.

Sometimes evangelists leave goodies behind, such as the $22,000 Samsung four-wheel drive Cho donated after his May crusade in Amman. The Samsung will help transport tourists at Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, the site on the Jordan River where Jordanians believe Jesus was baptized.

The ‘Other Holy Land’

Unlike Israel, Jordan does not have the money or contacts among American Christians to push itself as a destination site. But the Holy Land, Jordanians are quick to say, is on both sides of the river. A year ago, its tourism board retained a Dallas-based Christian public relations firm, A. Larry Ross & Associates, to boost its image among America’s rich mother lode of Christian travelers. Ross, who has represented evangelists Billy Graham and T.D. Jakes, has extensive contacts among evangelicals.

Ross had previously arranged a meeting between Jakes and Akel Biltaji, who was Jordanian minister of tourism until last June. The two men visited Mount Nebo, the famous wind-swept promontory overlooking the Dead Sea, where Moses viewed the promised land.

While visiting the United States last year, Biltaji was invited by Hinn to accompany him during a crusade in Las Vegas. He also put in an appearance in February 2001 at a Jordanian-sponsored reception at the National Religious Broadcasters’ convention in Dallas. Clearly, relationships were being formed.

But in an unusual dinner reception for a group of American clergy and journalists last May, Biltaji was challenged as to why Muslims who converted to Christianity were persecuted in his country. His chilling response: Early Christians were persecuted because they followed Jesus, and present-day converts should expect the same treatment.

All is not paradise in this relatively liberal Islamic state. Jordan has one evangelical seminary, the 150-student Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary (JETS) founded in 1995. With 270 million people in the Middle East and 19 Arabic-speaking countries, JETS is in a strategic place. President Imad Shehadeh, a Greek Orthodox Palestinian who became born again in the 1970s while a student at the University of California in San Diego, wishes the government allowed the seminary to grow.

“Muslims were once allowed to come,” he says. But he adds that because of the high interest in merely studying Christianity, they now are not allowed to do this. “Muslims could be the majority of students because they are that interested. We could easily have 500 students,” he told Charisma.

The government started cracking down two years ago, first by ejecting seven converts from Islam who were studying at the seminary. Then three students from Iraq, Sudan and Egypt were jailed for several weeks where they slept on concrete with no blankets and were poorly fed. One was beaten so badly he could not move for weeks after leaving prison.

More recently, the government informed JETS that it must approve all appointments for faculty and president, select the seminary’s board of directors, and compel it to hold classes on Sundays. If JETS refuses to accept these dicta, it cannot issue degrees or obtain residential visas for foreign faculty. Visa restrictions are already limiting the foreign student body to Syrians, Iraqis and Egyptians, hardly the broad base the seminary was designed to reach.

“They say persecution is good for the church; well, we’ve had our share of it,” says Shehadeh, who earned his doctorate at Dallas Theological Seminary. “We’re a long way from where we would like to be in terms of human rights.”

Some of the worst opposition, he says, comes from nonevangelicals who petition the government to not accredit the school. By forbidding Muslim evangelism, the government confines Christians to one pen, where they are obliged to steal sheep from one another. This has sewn discord in their ranks.

One of the few gestures of unity among Christians in Jordan was a decision to celebrate their religious holidays on the same day. And the pope’s visit did put the Christian community on the map. “For three days,” said Ghaleb Bader, the Catholic priest who heads the church’s ecclesiastical court in Amman, “Christians in Jordan were at the center of attention for everybody.”

Now is a critical time for Jordan, say all the evangelists who work there. With tourism down since the September 11 terrorist attacks, Jordan’s economy is in a free fall. In addition, the current drought in Israel is a threat to Jordan as well. What would help, Ghattas says, is if Western Christians would pay them a visit.

“We ask Christians to not come here to visit dead stones,” referring to the country’s 30,000 archaeological sites, “but living stones,” referring to Christian believers.

Even Biltaji, the Muslim cabinet member, pleads for visitors: “We’re not begging; we are going even further. We are on our knees asking people to come and see us.”

“Pray for Jordan,” Salbashian says. “Pray that more signs and wonders are released and that Christianity in the Middle East is authentic and not a copy of America.”

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Julia Duin, an assistant national editor for The Washington Times, traveled to Jordan in May.

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Country with largest percentage Christian population:Cyprus (91.8 percent)

Country with smallest Christian population:Sahara (1,000)

Country with smallest percentage of Christians in population:Algeria (0.1 percent)

Largest denomination:Coptic Orthodox Church, Egypt (86.8 million)

Largest Protestant or independent denomination:Coptic Evangelical Church (300,000)

Country with largest Christian growth over last five years:Armenia (from 76 percent to 83 percent)

Fastest growing denomination or movement:Catholic Church, Oman (35 percent)

Percentage of Pentecostals and charismatics in Christian population:0.8 percent (3 million)

Largest non-Christian population:Muslims (308.9 million)

Most dangerous country for Christians:Sudan

Country with most evangelistic efforts per person:Cyprus

Country with most evangelistic efforts for size of population:Egypt

Country with highest Christian income:Egypt

Country with lowest Christian income: Yemen

This magazine has had its share of Christian celebrities on its covers: Pastors of megachurches, award-winning musicians, best-selling authors, you name it. We all love famous people–perhaps because we envy their success, or maybe because we are just curious whether they have flaws.

In the end, these flawed celebrities often disappoint us. Ten of the ministry leaders we featured on the covers of Charisma in the 1980s eventually endured embarrassing scandals. And two of the six megachurches we featured 16 years ago in a series called “Outstanding Churches of America” disbanded because of moral failures.

As much as we hate to admit it, bigger is not necessarily better, and the applause of men rarely has anything to do with God’s favor. What seems to glitter with success today may not stand the heat of God’s refining fire tomorrow. What grabs the spotlight usually turns out to be a distracting sideshow.

I wish I could say we’ve learned that the so-called big names are not necessarily the people we need to follow. But judging from reports I’ve received lately, there is a new epidemic of spiritual pride infecting the church today. For example:

* A pastor from Florida told me that he recently hosted a conference speaker who demanded limousine service to his hotel. Then the evangelist said he expected a fruit basket in his room. “And not the cheap kind. I expect a handmade basket,” he told his host.

* It seems there is a mad rush to pin fancy labels on church leaders today. Suddenly it is stylish to use impressive titles such as “Ruling Bishop,” “Apostolic Prophet” or “Exalted Prophetess.” (What’s next? “Grand Master”? “His Excellency”?)

* Some bigheaded charismatic speakers insist on waiting until worship is over to make their grand entrance into the church service. I guess they want to make it clear that they are on a higher spiritual level than the folks in the pews.

Be assured that Charisma’s editors are just as sick of this nonsense as you are. That’s why we’ve been focusing more and more of our coverage on unsung heroes–the “average” folks who are happy to serve Jesus whether or not
anybody applauds their sacrifices or writes about them in a magazine.

Whether these people are witnessing to strippers, sharing Jesus with punk rockers, starting orphanages in Haiti or risking their lives to win Muslims in Afghanistan, they are the real reason God’s kingdom is advancing today.

In this special “Holy Spirit Around the World” issue you will read about such heroes: An Ethiopian youth pastor whose student teams led more than 8,500 people to Christ in three years; a brave Vietnamese man who led 20 people to faith while he was in prison; and an unknown Atlanta preacher who told God he was willing to tackle the ugly problem of sexual abuse in Peru.

I hope their stories will encourage you to serve God with pure motives. When it’s all said and done and the final curtain falls on eternity, all the wood, hay and stubble of our charismatic sideshows will go up in smoke. Our limousines, fruit baskets and fancy titles will smolder in the ashes.

Only what was done for Jesus from a heart of love and humility will shine like gold. Then the true heroes of faith will receive the applause of heaven.

Maui is famous for its pristine beaches and tropical splendor. But recently it has also become the center of a revival that is sweeping the Pacific Rim.

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Early Sunday morning, as sunrise spills over the sugar cane valley where King’s Cathedral sits in Kahului, Maui, senior pastor James Marocco and his associate pastors pray intensely in a back room, laying hands on one another before the 7 a.m. service.

“Lord, may miracles be done!” one pastor cries. “Bring growth to the number of children worshiping,” implores another. The unwavering prayers are heartfelt and focused. And they are one reason why the Assemblies of God congregation has grown from a handful of people to thousands in just 21 years.

The building is large and is located at the most strategic highway intersection on the island, a stone’s throw from a sparkling new Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Even now, at 6:58 a.m., hundreds are here, ready to worship.

In the spacious, sunny sanctuary, the band cranks up the praise. People stand, clap, shout and sing. Many wear muumuus, leis, Hawaiian shirts. Sandals are kicked off to make dancing easier. This is far from an early-morning, old-folks service. It’s an energetic, Holy Spirit-inspired expression of absolute abandon to God.

“Behold He comes / Riding on the clouds / Shining like the sun / At the trumpet call,” the song goes, some of the words in Hawaiian.

During the celebration a group of Hawaiians perform a mesmerizing dance in which women motion with their hands, and men, wearing leis made of black Kukui nuts, bang the ground, jump in rhythm and lift muscled arms to Jesus. Their song thumps forward: “Every nation / Every rhythm / Every culture / Every race / Find expression in this place!”

The worshipers applaud and Marocco, an imposing man both physically and spiritually, initiates a time of prayer for dozens who come forward. The power of God crashes like a wave over those at the altar. It’s almost symbolic of the wave of revival that not only has changed the spiritual climate of Maui, but also has spread to communities throughout the Pacific Rim.

Invading Enemy Territory

It wasn’t long ago that Maui had no church with more than 150 people and virtually no Christian presence in the local culture. But in 1980, God tapped Marocco, then pastor of a large church in Honolulu, to go into enemy territory. “I knew God wanted to build a massive church here, reaching thousands,” he says.

Marocco came from a family of big-vision people. His parents were missionaries to India and started the work in Calcutta later taken over by Mark and Huldah Buntain. Marocco’s father succeeded Lester Sumrall as pastor of Manila Bethel Temple in the Philippines.

God gave Marocco a vision to be the pastor of Maui County’s three islands: Maui, Molokai and Lanai. In May 1980 he accepted the pastorate at what was then called First Assembly of God (now King’s Cathedral)–which was a small group who met in a little building that held 150. Attendance doubled on Marocco’s first Sunday, and in a year the church had grown to 700.

Marocco soon started buying property and building extension churches in other parts of Maui and Hawaii, in places he says were “very demonized.” Those extensions thrived and formed the basis for what he calls an “Ephesus model,” in which a central pastor and church retain financial and spiritual control of the churches they plant. Marocco is the senior pastor of every church extension he builds.

Today there are 15 extension churches on Maui and the other Hawaiian islands, French Polynesia, Alaska, Japan and northern California. The church is managing six building programs simultaneously. They soon will be opening churches in the Philippines.

Attendance in the Maui locations alone exceeds 3,000 per week. All this in a place most other preachers had given up for lost.

“The church has changed the whole nature of the island,” Marocco told Charisma. “When I came, everybody said, ‘Don’t go; it’s a graveyard of preachers.’ Other people had tried and failed to start churches in these places.

“Some even said there were demons controlling the islands from the top of the volcano,” he continues. “They didn’t understand that when God creates an anchor church in a given locale, He changes the spiritual temperature. Now this is called ‘revival island,’ and people are starting churches all over the place.”

At the extension church in Lahaina, Maui’s famous party town, Marocco arrives in time to preach to 50 eager souls gathered at a beautiful facility on a high-traffic corner. In a back room, two dozen kids learn about Jesus in Sunday school. The model here is the same as other extensions: Associate pastors cover most of the preaching duties, and Marocco visits and preaches periodically. The Lahaina extension is making a visible impact to counter the influence of debauchery and sensuality that have characterized the town for centuries.

Less than an hour later, Marocco is back in the car, driving along the emerald coast toward King’s Cathedral, which the main church is called, to preach the second morning service. The crowd is twice the size of the early service and engages in full-voiced, unified intercession for souls and the extension churches. After the sermon, eight more receive Christ and are immediately plugged into cell groups.

Thomas Hardy, 53, came to this altar 10 months ago and experienced a radical change. For 25 years, he says, he was a marijuana dealer. Born in the Midwest and brought up as a Roman Catholic, he became a Christian but backslid and went to South America to learn the drug business. Later he came to Hawaii and quickly became rich selling marijuana, but he felt there was no spiritual hope for him because he had turned his back on God.

“I would sit there, counting hundreds of thousands of dollars [after a sale], and be thinking, What profiteth it a man to gain the world but lose his soul?” Hardy says. “I felt like a failure.”

While scanning the television for football games one Sunday, he came upon Marocco’s broadcast. Hardy began to assess his life and made a list of all his failures: how he had lost his wife and kids and never finished his education.

Then one morning he turned on the television just when Marocco was pointing at the camera and saying, “If someone is telling you you’re worthless, that’s the devil.” Hardy was stunned. “I had to find out if I had another chance with God,” he recalls.

He went to a nearby church and waited for the altar call, but none was given. So he tried King’s Cathedral’s Sunday night service and waited. When the invitation came–“Bam! I hit that altar, knelt down and started praising the Lord,” he says, tears filling his eyes. “I can’t believe God walked with me for 25 years, spoke to me, kept after me. I grabbed onto God with both hands and feet.”

Taking Authority

Testimonies such as Hardy’s are a lot more common since a soul-winning work has been raised up on Maui. But spiritual opposition is still prevalent.

“The demon power is still at work in a strong way, but it’s lessened,” says Marocco, who, while a student at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, in the 1970s, wrote his dissertation on demonology, one of the first of its kind. “There are moments when demonic power is anesthetized, and if the church is able to operate then, great strides in the advancement of the kingdom can take place. Prayer parts the clouds so the light of God’s blessing can shine. [At King’s Cathedral] we try to sustain prayer ministry to keep the clouds parted.”

Strong cell-group and visitation ministries characterize the church. One whole office, in fact, is dedicated to tracking cell-group attendance. Walls are covered with attendance graphs and charts.

When someone misses a cell-group meeting, it’s certain they will receive a phone call asking if they need some sort of assistance. Marocco pushes a consistent program of visitation, knocking on doors and handing out Bibles.

“One way you ‘bind and loose’ is by getting the gospel out of the church building,” he says. “[Visitation] makes the devil nervous because he tends to bank on the church only being in its four walls. When the church gets out of its four walls it disrupts the powers of darkness. We visit people as a way of saying: ‘We’re here, and this is our island. It doesn’t belong to the devil.'”

King’s Cathedral is better known on the mainland and around the world for hosting a bi-annual consortium for pastors and frequent conferences on topics such as prophetic ministry and the work of the Holy Spirit.

As dusk falls, several hundred people arrive and fill the cathedral again. The congregation is almost a perfect meld of ethnicity.

The service begins with a regal call to worship as four men blow conch shells. The band launches into high-energy praise, and people dance in the aisles. Men kick up their heels and twirl. Genuine joy fills the place as whoops and cheers go up. “This is how we overcome,” encourages one leader.

Soon exuberance turns to worship, and a sea of hands is lifted. “You came tonight to worship,” Marocco says. “Don’t let anything hinder you.” He likes to stroll around the front of the sanctuary, sensing how the Holy Spirit is moving, occasionally encouraging or directing.

He calls people who are depressed to come for prayer, and they jam the front. Pastors lay hands on them, and for the first time today, the normally low-key Marocco raises his voice: “In the name of Jesus, be set free! I said, Now!”

After the prayer and offering comes a special feature: a tribute to the first Christian convert on the islands, Queen Ka’ahumanu. A ukulele quartet and choir sing beautiful worship songs in Hawaiian. Dancers accompany them with the familiar, fluid motions of Hawaiian dance.

Marocco tells the history of this queen and draws applause when he announces that “this is the day for Hawaii again.” The service concludes with a prayer time. “I feel like God wants to launch a major revival in the islands,” Marocco says. “I want to pray specifically for people of the land–Hawaiians.”

Hundreds come forward, a third of the crowd. “The only way there will be revival is for people with roots here to declare what God has done,” the pastor asserts. “Lord, cause the Hawaiian community to find their identity in You. I pray that true aloha–Your aloha–would be in us. Let Your power sweep through these islands.”

The intensity of intercession rises, and it seems as if the power of God, like a volcano, is indeed about to erupt in answer to their prayer.

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Joel Kilpatrick is a former associate editor for the Pentecostal Evangel and a free-lance writer based in the Los Angeles area. He is a frequent contributor to Charisma.

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Country with largest percentage Christian population: St. Pierre & Miquelon (97.3 percent)

Country with smallest Christian population: St. Pierre & Miquelon (6,000)

Country with smallest percentage of Christians in population: Canada (65 percent)

Largest denomination: Roman Catholic Church, United States (56.7 million)

Largest Protestant or independent denomination: Southern Baptist (21 million)

Largest non-Christian population:Nonreligious (28 million)

Country with largest Christian growth over last five years: Bermuda (from 84 percent to 85 percent)

Fastest growing denomination or movement: Evangelical Free Church of Canada (26 percent)

Percentage of Pentecostals and charismatics in Christian population: 25 percent (79.5 million)

Most dangerous country for Christians: Greenland

Country with most evangelistic efforts for size of population: United States

Country with highest Christian income: United States

Country with lowest Christian income: St. Pierre & Miquelon

Matthew Barnett will pastor Angelus Temple, founded in the 1920s by Aimee Semple McPherson

In a historic move that will make partners out of two of Los Angeles’ most prominent Pentecostal churches, Matthew Barnett, pastor of the Assemblies of God-operated Dream Center, has been named pastor of Angelus Temple, the founding church of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. His appointment took effect Nov. 1.

Barnett, 27, will continue to pastor the Dream Center, whose operations will not change–and which will remain under the authority of the Assemblies of God (AG). Angelus Temple remains under the authority of Foursquare.

It is possible that Barnett may be granted some sort of affiliated or credentialed status with both denominations, though such a move would require approval by high-level committees in both denominations.

The Foursquare-AG partnership is strongly endorsed by leadership in both denominations. Also supporting it is Rolf McPherson, Aimee Semple McPherson’s son, who is the former president of Foursquare and the retired pastor of Angelus Temple.

“This is one of the biggest honors of my life,” Matthew Barnett said. “I read Aimee’s books the first few years I was pastoring, and it shaped my thinking. The greatest way to honor history is not just to tell its stories but to make the founder proud by doing the same thing she did.”

Angelus Temple has operated continuously, though not always robustly, since it opened on Jan. 1, 1923. In recent years a Hispanic congregation of 1,000 has met in an adjacent auditorium on the property. The main congregation dwindled and stopped meeting in the famous sanctuary altogether. Matthew Barnett replaces pastors Ed and Ivy Stanton, who served at Angelus Temple for nearly three years.

The Temple remains a stunning piece of architecture–part sanctuary, part theater–and is a national historical landmark. New renovations won’t change major features, including the dome, stained-glass windows, a mural and a restored pipe organ.

Inside the building, workers in hard hats have torn up much of the ground floor to enlarge the seating capacity. On Easter of this year, the drumming of jackhammers will yield to the singing of praise songs when the church under Matthew Barnett holds its first service in the sanctuary.

Until then, Sunday services are being held in the Angelus Dream Center, pastored jointly by Matthew and his father–Tommy Barnett, pastor of Phoenix (Ariz.) First Assembly–occupies the former Queen of Angels hospital just six blocks from Angelus Temple in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

The massive campus and towering building are home to a vibrant church and 200 ministries that feed thousands every week and have become a worldwide model for urban ministry.

Leaders in both denominations say the move will increase the effectiveness of both institutions, with the Temple being revived as a soul-winning engine, and the Dream Center acting like a discipleship campus where the gospel is put into action.

Current Foursquare president Paul Risser told Charisma: “We are elated to have this relationship with the Assemblies of God, and I think it brings our churches even closer together. We see us working together in a great cause that will benefit the kingdom of God.”

Thomas E. Trask, general superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, hailed the partnership in an October statement. “In this new partnership between the Dream Center and Angelus Temple, the strengths of both ministries will combine to effectively reach many thousands with the gospel,” Trask said.

Tommy Barnett has patterned his ministry after that of Aimee Semple McPherson, a fact that endeared him to Foursquare leaders. Like McPherson, he uses illustrated sermons and huge holiday pageants to draw unbelievers to church.

The sanctuary of his Phoenix church has two balconies and even a white domed roof similar to the Temple. The Barnetts consider it their mission to feed and evangelize poor and forgotten people–perhaps the most important factor to Rolf McPherson, 88, who remembers his mother feeding millions during the Great Depression.

“We love the way Matthew loves the neighborhood, how they visit people in their homes,” McPherson told Charisma. “It reminds me of my mother’s ministry because of her love for people. She didn’t care where they came from. If the city needed this when my mother was alive, it needs it 10 times as much now.”

The unique partnership couldn’t come at a better time for the Dream Center, which, for all its space, lacks a large auditorium. Services there always have been held in a gymnasium, which seats 700, but city codes and the absence of a large, open space prevented the building of anything significantly larger.

All agree Matthew Barnett’s appointment is a step in the right direction.

“We have had prophetic words for years about the Temple returning to its glory days when it was packed to capacity several times a day,” Risser told Charisma. “For us to be able to see the Temple filled to capacity again will be a thrill to everybody who knows the history of the ministry of Aimee Semple McPherson and Angelus Temple.”
–Joel Kilpatrick

President Bush is distancing himself from Franklin Graham after the preacher and close ally of the Bush family recently called Islam “wicked and violent.” According to NBC News, Graham reiterated his comments on Nov. 16, the first day of Ramadan, the holiest season of the Muslim year.

Graham, president of the Christian relief agency Samaritan’s Purse and son of evangelist Billy Graham, was quoted just after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as saying: “I don’t believe [Islam] is a wonderful, peaceful religion. When you read the Quran and you read the verses from the Quran, it instructs the killing of the infidel, for those that are non-Muslim.”

The son of Billy Graham and the designated successor of the longtime evangelist’s ministry, Franklin Graham is considered one of America’s most powerful Christian leaders. He delivered the benediction at Bush’s inauguration, and his father has counseled a long list of presidents.

Clarifying his statement to NBC News, Franklin Graham repeated his charge that Islam, as a whole, was evil. “It wasn’t Methodists flying into those buildings. It wasn’t Lutherans,” he said. “It was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith.”

However, the White House disagreed with Graham’s remarks, saying that President Bush

“views Islam as a religion that preaches peace,” and that the terrorists do not represent what Islam teaches.

Bush, eager to improve America’s reputation in the Muslim world, welcomed numerous ambassadors from Islamic countries for a traditional meal and prayer at the White House on Monday, Nov. 19 to mark Ramadan. It is believed to be the first time that Muslims participated in a formal ceremony in the official home of American presidents. In another unprecedented event on Nov. 15, the Muslim chaplain of Georgetown University officiated at the opening prayers of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill.

Graham’s “very harsh words for the Muslim faith” are causing the most negative attention for the Bush administration, NBC News said. “A presidential friend and supporter now finds himself at odds with both the Muslim world and the message from the White House,” a network commentator observed.

Following the NBC report, Graham said: “It is not my primary calling to analyze Islam or any other religion, though I recognize that all religions have differences. In the past, I have expressed my concerns about the teachings of Islam regarding the treatment of women and the killing of non-Muslims, or ‘infidels.'” Graham said he did not intend to comment further.
–Eric Tiansay

One of the eight freed said the release was ‘like a miracle’

Two days after a dramatic rescue from Afghanistan by the United States military, eight Christian aid workers, including two Americans, said they owed their lives to Jesus.

Exulting in their freedom at a news conference on Nov. 14 in Islamabad, Pakistan, the eight–who included four Germans and two Australians–thanked U.S. troops and the Christians who prayed for their release. They thanked God for sustaining them during more than three months in a Taliban prison in the capital city of Kabul on charges of preaching Christianity to Muslims.

“We believed in Him [Jesus],” said German detainee Georg Taubmann, one of the workers of the German-based Christian charity Shelter Now International. “We experienced His strength. And when we were reading the Bible, reading through the Psalms, it was so encouraging, just to know that God is in control of our lives,” he said.

American Dayna Curry, 30, added: “I just know that it was through the prayers of the people that we were able to come out alive.”

The Taliban had agreed to release the workers to the Red Cross. But they were left behind in a jail south of Kabul as the Taliban army fled from Northern Alliance rebels, resulting in the workers’ dramatic rescue by U.S. troops who whisked them away by night in helicopters.

Curry’s stepmother, Sue Fuller, said she never thought Curry would die, despite some scary moments. Curry had told her in a letter that she and the other detainees had “no idea how [God] is going to get us out of here, but we trust He has a good plan.”

Taken to Pakistan after their release, the jubilant workers–who were in good health–said that after Alliance troops broke into the jail and freed them, they walked into the streets to hugs and clapping.

“It was like a miracle,” Taubmann said at the German embassy in Islamabad, according to the Associated Press (AP). Sixteen Afghan aid workers detained on similar charges with the Westerners were released during the same week.

Curry and Heather Mercer, 24, both of Waco, Texas, and members of Antioch Community Church, had a 10-minute conversation by phone with President Bush, who hailed their rescue.

“They both said to say thanks to everybody for their prayers,” Bush told reporters from his ranch in Texas. “They realized there is a good and gracious God.”

In Islamabad the women were given medical checkups and then flown to Europe to receive counseling from a Christian psychologist. After their return to the United States, the two women met with Bush at the White House. Later they made numerous television appearances.

When asked by NBC’s Katie Couric if the women were guilty of preaching Christianity, Curry told the audience of the Today show that she and Mercer showed the Jesus film in the home of an Afghan family.

“We were just sharing about what we believed, and they were intersted to know who Jesus was,” Curry said. “The family was willing to take the risk, so if they wanted to see it, then how can you say no?”

Both women told CNN’s Larry King that they would like to return to Afghanistan some day to work with the poor. “Any opportunity I can share about Jesus when there is an opportunity, it would be great,” Curry said.

After the women were released, “joyful pandemonium” erupted at Antioch Community Church, The Waco Tribune-Herald reported. The newspaper stated that “church employees joined members who were in a nonstop prayer vigil for the workers, exchanging high fives, whooping, skipping and shouting, ‘Thank you, Jesus!'”

When news aired of their release, Antioch Senior Pastor Jimmy Seibert thrust his arms into the air and shouted, “Thank you, Lord,” the AP reported.

“It is more exciting than we could have imagined,” Seibert said. “The great thing I learned is that prayer works. That if we persevere, ask God for what’s on His heart, we can trust Him to see us through.”

After visiting their families during the Thanksgiving holiday, the women spoke
at a citywide worship service held at Waco’s Ferrell Center.
–Eric Tiansay

As many as 160 churches recently pulled out of Wayman Mitchell’s Christian Fellowship Ministries

Controversial pastor Wayman Mitchell’s Potter’s House movement is embroiled in another bitter internal fight that some insiders say is shrinking the number of participating churches. Sources close to Charisma say that as many as 160 of the movement’s approximately 800 churches have left the group.

The Potter’s House movement, officially called Christian Fellowship Ministries (CFM), was started by Mitchell in 1983 when he broke away from
the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. It is headquartered in Prescott, Ariz. Other names associated with Mitchell’s churches include “The Door” and “Victory Chapel.”

Some of the pastors who have left the movement are apparently upset by the direction that CFM appears to be headed. There are claims that Mitchell–whose movement has long been dogged by criticism that it is controlling, intimidating and manipulative–routinely uses foul language and derogatory remarks in the pulpit.

Mitchell refused to comment, but short excerpts of his preaching obtained by Charisma appeared to support these concerns.

However, CFM pastor Harold Warner, 51, a veteran Mitchell loyalist who pastors a church in Tucson, Ariz., told Charisma that Mitchell is not the sort of man many of his enemies have portrayed him to be.

“He is a good, strong leader,” Warner said. “We are given great freedom to pursue our ministry, and it isn’t this horribly oppressive atmosphere.”

Warner said those pastors who pulled their churches out of CFM are “people who have gone in a different direction.”

“All the men who have left are the products of [Mitchell’s] ministry, not a bunch of clones,” he said.

Pastor Larry Neville, who worked with Mitchell from 1978 to 1991, said there once was a move of God in the Potter’s House. However, as time went on, “They got backed into ‘no TV’ and isolationism, and that is unhealthy,” he said.

“They’re not sinning, but they’re not moving on,” he added.

Neville said there was no way to explain clearly the first exodus from CFM, which occurred in 1990. But as any group grows, he added, there needs to be a lot of change, and “some of those changes were not made.”

Neville explained that as many of Mitchell’s young converts matured they wanted to go beyond Mitchell’s basic principles of evangelism, winning souls and the multiplication of the local church.

“Some of them wanted to reach out and mature. They wanted a larger expression of the faith, and so a split came,” he said.

That split resulted in some of Mitchell’s most trusted colleagues pulling out of the group. When Colorado pastor Ron Jones, who had worked with Mitchell since the early 1970s, severed his ties in 1990, at least 100 pastors
followed him.

Neville said that in trying to assess why about 160 churches left, it is important to understand CFM pastors are encouraged to aggressively plant churches, so a small number of pastors who disagree with Mitchell could result in a large number of churches leaving the movement.

The exodus becomes more of an issue of loyalty to their founding pastor than one of disagreement with Mitchell. It’s all about “a personal relationship with someone they love,” he said.

Mitchell agreed with Neville’s assessment, pointing out that about 100 of the approximately 160 churches reported to have left CFM recently did so because of their loyalty to one pastor.

However, Bryan Hupperts, who was a part of Potter’s House for about seven years and was in the process of being groomed to be a CFM pastor, disputed Neville’s speculations.

He said Neville is just trying to be a peacemaker and put a good face on a bad situation.

For example, when Hupperts questioned the authority of his former pastor in the Potter’s House, he says he was told, “You do not question my headship–ever.”

Hupperts added that former Potter’s House pastors leave the movement because of unhealthy control, and after they leave they are afraid to talk about their experiences. “Some of them have family in the Potter’s House. They’ll end up getting targeted. They can be pretty vicious,” he said.

One former leader who spoke on condition of anonymity echoed Hupperts’ comments.

“This is a worldwide movement. There are families who have not spoken for years, brothers who are pastors all the way to the Philippines who were separated by this group and had years of not even speaking, churches that have been deliberately split, children who don’t talk to their parents.”
–Jeremy Reynalds

Meeting in a warehouse, a church of mostly 20-somethings has rescued people from suicide and homosexuality
By the time *Susan Clark (not her real name) of Brisbane, Australia, was 21, she had moved 25 times, lived with six lesbian girlfriends, marched in four gay-pride parades, spent more than $5,000 on drugs and had flings with more than 50 people of both sexes, including one transsexual.

Then, two years ago, a fellow acting-school student offered her another new experience. They went together to Christian City Church Westside (CCCW), and that day Jesus became Clark’s “best mate,” she says.

“I went up for a prayer. I’d been to fortunetellers, and I thought I was going to experience the same thing. Boy, was I wrong,” Clark said. “I cried: ‘I’m sorry, Jesus. I didn’t know. I wasted so much time.’ The presence of God hit me like a freight train.”

Brisbane’s inner-city West End neighborhood hosts a large student population amid a milieu of theater, music and arts. The lifestyle of the area removes moral boundaries. Drugs and extramarital sex are rife, as is youth suicide.

Grant Windle, senior pastor of CCCW, founded the church in 1995 with his wife, Cheryl; their sons, Joel and Ben; and several who shared their vision to create a culturally relevant church that would connect with the area’s youth. Meetings were held in community halls, but the young church struggled.

“For five years the church I was looking at did not resemble the church I had in my heart,” Windle said. “That can be a pretty tough scenario year after year.”

Then, some 20 months ago, they leased and renovated a West End warehouse. Suddenly the church burst into growth. “It started with one or two from the acting [community] that got dramatically saved, and then they brought somebody, and they brought somebody else,” he said. “Before long we had a crowd.”

The current congregation of 200 has an average age of 24. Windle is careful not to force newcomers into a mold but to accept them for who they are.

Bradford Power, 23, was the friend who introduced Clark to Westside. “After three failed relationships with girls I began to question my identity and sexuality,” he said. “The gay scene introduced me to recreational drug-taking. Every weekend was an escape from my search for love. I was lonely, insecure and afraid that no one could truly love me.

“One night I cried out to God, ‘If You’re real, please help me!’ Two weeks later my flatmate Cindy got saved and led me to the Lord.”

Windle believes social change has stranded many churches, leaving them powerless to influence people such as Clark and Power. Though Windle focuses on genuine conversion and renewing the mind in Christ, he also fosters a party atmosphere.

“We’ve deliberately done that so they can bring their friends to church,” he said. “They’re bringing people all the time. I’d say 90 percent of the unsaved people who walk through the doors respond to the altar call.”

For Korinne Bradley, 19, salvation came just in time. “I attempted suicide at least seven times before I even left secondary school. In 2000 I was a top student at university, politically active on campus, talented and [in] medical school. By all accounts I had a bright future,” Bradley said.

“Despite all I had going for me, I felt no reason to live. Then somehow I ended up at a youth home group and gave Jesus my heart. I knew I really wanted to live, so I began to fight back for my life. I fought through my depression, my past abuse, my lesbianism, my pain. God gave me back my life.”

Bradley was taken in by one of CCCW’s few families, who Bradley said has “built me up so I could face the world again.”

Windle honors God for the growth, but stresses it is only a beginning.

“The evidence is in the changed lives and the mobilization of these young people. They’re going to preach; they’re going to be awesome in what they do.”
–Adrian Brookes in Australia