Ohio pastor Darlene Bishop said the $1.5 million Home for Life is a response to a burden she has carried for 17 years
When a 15-year-old girl in Ohio discovered she was pregnant, she didn’t rush to the nearest women’s clinic to abort her unborn child. Instead she turned to a newly built, faith-based residential facility for unwed, pregnant teens.

The Darlene Bishop Home for Life in Monroe, Ohio, opened in July and offers teenage expectant moms an alternative to abortion. “Society says it’s acceptable to have an abortion,” said Bishop, who co-pastors the charismatic Solid Rock Church with her husband, Lawrence. “Young girls seldom get the truth.”

The 23,000-square-foot facility offers off-site, professional prenatal care, career and health education, computer training, an anger management course and a home-school program–all directed by a team of Christian staff and volunteers.

Amanda Burns, who is seven months pregnant, heard about the home through a Girl Scout leader. “I was thinking about abortion because I knew my baby would be in heaven and not in pain,” the 16-year-old reasoned. But after visiting the home, the Hamilton, Ohio, resident changed her mind because she “didn’t want to be a murderer.”

It took the church four years of legal wrangling and $100,000 in court and attorney fees to break ground on the $1.5 million home, which is a ministry of the church.

City officials claimed the church’s surrounding property was not zoned for a residential facility, but lawyers for the church argued otherwise. “The church didn’t need approval to erect a building on its own property,” said Ron Carter, an administrator for the church. “It already had the proper license to expand.”

When a lower court ruled in favor of the church, city leaders continued to appeal the case. Solid Rock Church eventually appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. Church officials are convinced that “God worked it out” because the court refused to hear the case, making it possible for the church to proceed with its initial plans.

According to the National Vital Statistics Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer teenagers are becoming mothers. The birthrate for U.S. teens declined steadily throughout the 1990s, falling from 62.1 births per 1,000 teenagers 15 to 19 years old in 1991 to 48.5 in 2000, the report said.

However, Camille Peay of Columbia, S.C., who teaches teens through her
Bottles and Bookbags ministry how to care for their children, said churches must continue efforts to reach teens because the report does not show how many girls had abortions instead of carrying their babies to term.

Bishop, who is a popular conference speaker, isn’t waiting for others to do what has been her burden for the last 17 years. Bishop said she donates “every penny” of her honorariums to the two-story, “state-of-the-art” home.

“I have a heart for these girls, and I don’t want to see any of them fall through society’s cracks. That’s why I opened a home,” she told Charisma.

The Home for Life currently houses eight moms-to-be but has enough room to accommodate 32 girls. Pregnant teens interested in participating in the ministry can apply by completing a brief application and a telephone interview.

All of the girls’ food, education and living expenses are provided free of charge. Medical expenses, however, are the responsibility of the applicant, her parents or a legal guardian. Those without health insurance can apply for assistance through a local county agency.

Beth Ward, program director for the home and a member of Solid Rock Church, said the ministry is eager to help teenagers make positive decisions for themselves and their babies. “Girls from across the country can apply to come here. It doesn’t matter what religion, race or background they come from, we want to help,” Ward explained.

Moms currently living in the home say it’s “a blessing” for their unborn babies. Grateful to live in a place that has “no stress or tension,” Burns explained: “I’m no longer surrounded by my friends and influences that lead to bad decisions. God’s love is here.”
Valerie G. Lowe

For more information about the Darlene Bishop Home for Life, write P. O. Box 700, Monroe, OH 45050; visit ; or call 513-423-LIFE. To reach Camille Peay of Bottles and Bookbags, e-mail her at mjpeay@.

Indonesian Christians Attacked, Murdered

Four members of a church in Poso, Indonesia, were beaten to death during attacks by Muslims on Nov. 16, The Barnabas Fund reported. Oranje Tadjodja, 58, treasurer of Central Sulawesi Christian Church, and his nephew, Yohanes Tadjodja, 26, were ambushed in their car as they drove between two Muslim villages near Poso. Dennis Lingkuliwa and a fourth church member identified only as Bowo were murdered in separate incidents in the city. The attacks were reportedly spurred by attempts to arrest Muslim suspects believed to be responsible for anti-Christian violence in October that left at least 10 Christians dead.

Turkish Believer in Coma After Assault

A new Turkish Christian was left in a coma after being severely beaten for distributing New Testaments. Yakup Cindilli, 32, was attacked Oct. 23 by three men in his hometown of Orhangazi, in the country’s northwestern region. Cindilli had faced opposition from his family after becoming a Christian about two years ago, Compass Direct reported. Recently he had visited Bursa Protestant Church in Orhangazi, asking church leaders for some New Testaments for distribution. Among three people arrested in connection with the assault was the president of a local chapter of a militant political party accused of violent, “neo-fascist” activities during the 1970s and historically linked with an Islamic version of nationalism, Compass said.

Police Arrest Egyptian Converts From Islam

More than 20 Egyptian Christians, many of them secret converts from Islam, were arrested in late October in a crackdown on those leaving their Muslim faith. Some of those taken into custody were beaten, interrogated and tortured, and charged with falsifying official identity cards and papers, The Barnabas Fund said. Although Egypt has no law against conversion, former Muslims who turn to Christ are routinely targeted by police who try to force them to return to Islam. A Christian who converts to Islam can receive new identity papers with an adopted Muslim name within 24 hours, but it is impossible for Muslims who become Christians to change to a Christian name, The Barnabas Fund said.

The ‘Ten Commandments Judge’ said he has no regrets
An Alabama ethics panel voted Chief Justice Roy Moore from office Nov. 12 for his refusal to remove a granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. Moore, who had been suspended since August, said he had no regrets and announced plans to unveil proposed legislation that would rein in the power of federal courts.

“You will hear from me again when it comes to the right to acknowledge God,” Moore told supporters after the decision.

Judge William Thompson, who presided over the nine-member panel that voted unanimously to oust Moore, said Moore had placed himself “above the law,” the Associated Press reported. However, The Washington Post reported that the firing helped cement Moore’s celebrity status, adding that he is seen as a possible candidate for the U.S. Senate or Alabama governor.

The dispute over the legality of putting religious displays in public places has galvanized many Christian conservatives, with Focus on the Family’s James Dobson participating in rallies aimed at drawing Christian support for Moore’s fight.

Moore’s attempt to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court failed, but Christian leaders say the battle is not over. “Roy Moore’s struggle … is a conflict between tyranny and freedom,” said the Rev. D. James Kennedy, founder of the Center for Reclaiming America in Washington, D.C. “The outcome may well settle the question of whether we will return to freedom or be confirmed in our emerging status as objects of our ‘robed masters.'”
Adrienne S. Gaines

Inna Perfido is mobilizing Christians to pray and take political action on behalf of Israel
During the Cold War, when Inna Perfido was a child living behind the Iron Curtain, she often listened to her Jewish father tell the ancient story of God’s land covenants with Abraham and Isaac. Now she hopes to make history by urging Christians to support Jewish settlement efforts in biblical Samaria, Judea, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.

The effort puts Perfido and her Temple Worship Command Center based in Charleston, S.C., in opposition to the Bush administration’s proposed Middle East roadmap to peace, much like other Christian leaders who question Bush’s model, including broadcaster Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer, head of the conservative think tank American Values. But for Perfido, the mission is personal.

“We cannot remain silent while Israelis are being killed in the settlements of biblical Judea and Samaria … because they are fulfilling ancient prophecy in returning to the land of Israel,” Perfido told Charisma. “If we do not raise our voices now, we will bear responsibilities for [the] rise of anti-Semitism in this country and abroad.”

Born in Moscow, Perfido experienced anti-Semitism as a teenager. After she began wearing a Star of David and attending Moscow’s only synagogue, she was beaten up on a bus simply for being a Jew. In 1981, after finishing her nursing degree, she immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City with $200 and two suitcases.

Perfido experimented with yoga and developed a psychic ability, but she still lacked peace. One day she cried out to God, saying, “I want to see You face-to-face.” Perfido said she felt something like a holy wind come into her room. “A voice spoke to me three times and said, ‘Jesus is the only way,'” she said.

For six months, “Jesus is the only way,” danced through her mind. Then after watching The 700 Club, she asked Jesus into her life. Shortly afterward, she said, the Holy Spirit touched her so powerfully at a Bible study she could “barely breathe.” That was in 1985.

When she later learned that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, she cried. “It completed my heart, and I didn’t desert my heritage,” she said.

Some Christians believe the church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people, thus invalidating Israel’s claims to Old Testament land promises. But others, like Perfido, say the fulfillment of biblical prophecies concerning Israel is essential for the second coming of Christ.

In 1994 Perfido began developing a worship and intercession ministry that utilized dance, banners and tabernacle objects. The result was Temple Worship Command Center, through which Perfido coordinates prayer for Israel.

“[Her ministry] is from a Jewish heart,” said Margie Rudolph, who publishes The Jewish Star, a Judeo-Christian news magazine, with her husband, Marvin. “It’s all about the love. If you show [Jews] God’s love, they will come in.”

Perfido, now 45, also has taken to political activism. In September she participated in a delegation called Support for Israel Starts With Me, which traveled to Washington, D.C., to urge Congress to freeze all funding for the Palestinian Authority.

“The case for sanity, shared values and democracy cannot be made by Jews alone,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., during a reception sponsored by the Christians’ Israel Public Action Campaign held in concert with the rally. “We need evangelical Christian groups with us.”

For two years, Perfido–whose husband died in August–has organized the Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress to raise funds and awareness about the need for Jews in Israel to remain on the land she says God deeded to the Jews.

Perfido believes a revival of Christian Zionism is coming to the church. She said: “It is a prophetic voice of warning to the nations who [rebel] against the holiness of the everlasting and unconditional covenant of God concerning Israel.”
Arlene Bridges Samuels in Israel

One German medical missionary says Christianity is the communist nation’s biggest fear
International fears over North Korea have centered recently on its nuclear arms capabilities, but Christian observers say the issue masks what should be another global concern–the communist nation’s treatment of its own citizens, especially Christians.

The world was watching North Korea Sept. 9 to see if it would use its 55th anniversary to showcase a new missile or test an atomic bomb. It did neither, though leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea reaffirmed their intent to build up the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

Such threats have made North Korea a formidable international concern, with former President Jimmy Carter describing it in September as having “the ability to destroy … thousands of lives and most of Seoul, if a war should come,” the New York Times reported.

“It’s like the dying gasp of an animal and you wonder what is going to happen,” said retired Col. Larry Forster, former director of the recently closed Peacekeeping Institute at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania. “If North Korea … falls apart, it could respond as a dangerous animal trying to save itself by using military force in hopes of uniting the Korean peninsula.

“Or it may … quietly fall apart and become a basket case for the international community to support in a major relief effort. [Or] as it weakens it may just become absorbed by … South Korea, paralleling the unification of Germany.”

Forster, administrative pastor of the charismatic Life Center Ministries International in Harrisburg, Pa., stood in a demilitarized zone between North and South Korea in 1996 and saw firsthand the result of an economic crisis. “The elites will survive, but it’s the common person, the families that are on the verge of starvation and poverty and collapse,” he said.

Humanitarian relief experts report that more than 4 million people have died of hunger since 1995. Although the famine has drawn international relief agencies into the area, the government restrictions on food distribution deter the agencies from continuing their efforts. Most relief donations are given to the North Korean military or sold on the black market.

Not only are some of North Korea’s citizens starving, approximately 200,000 men, women and children accused of political crimes are languishing in prison in the far northeast region. Anyone caught criticizing President Kim Jong Il is arrested and subjected to hard labor, torture, starvation, biochemical experimentation or mass execution.

Dr. Norbert Vollertsen, a German physician and a Christian, traveled into the secret places of North Korea taking video and still images of the starved and dying. “Kim Jong Il does not allow any god besides him,” he told Charisma. “The Christians in North Korea are eliminated–executed. Christianity is their main enemy because they know about the power of Christianity.”

By all appearances, North Korea is cruel, isolated and closed. But Christians on the outside haven’t lost hope.

Tim Peters, an American missionary and founder of Helping Hands Korea (), has lived in South Korea for 13 years. His ministry sends food into North Korea through proven smugglers who assist the most needy. Besides its normal monthly shipments, the ministry delivered 19 tons of baby food to a northeastern province.

Where feet are not permitted to tread, helium balloons launched by Christians are bringing hope to isolated North Koreans. On Aug. 22, Vollertsen and supporting activists attempted to launch helium balloons carrying small, solar-powered radios from South Korea’s northern border into North Korea. Vollertsen hoped the radios would give citizens access to the outside world.

The South Korean government gave his group permission to execute the launch, but Vollertsen said the attempt was thwarted when a South Korean man attacked him and stole several radios.

Vollertsen isn’t the first to attempt a launch of helium balloons into North Korea. Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) annually prints booklets of the gospel of Mark and floats them into North Korea via helium balloons, though anyone caught picking up these balloons can be executed. VOM told Charisma it received a report of a little girl who brought one of the balloons home to her grandmother.

The grandmother wept and said of the world’s Christian community, “Thank God, they haven’t forgotten us.”
C. Hope Flinchbaugh

A century after revival touched the world through the tiny nation of Wales, God is stirring faith for another visitation.
Spontaneous applause swept through the hall as Welsh pastor Sarah Trinder grabbed the microphone and screamed, “Something’s started happening–at last! We’ve been waiting long enough. Bless God! Praise Him!”

The audience responded with cheers and laughter–then jumped to their feet and started marching on the spot. It was a dramatic moment at “Celtic Wildfire: The Gathering,” a four-day conference held in a leisure center overlooking the vast coastline of Port Talbot, South Wales.

It was like an echo from the past, for this tiny nation–a principality of Great Britain, with its own language and culture–had already hosted a major revival. In 1904, in a tiny chapel in Loughor, an explosive awakening occurred that spread like wildfire to other communities. Men left their pints of ale in the pubs to check out the commotion in the chapels–and found them packed with people crying for Christ’s mercy.

Drunk on revival fervor, men and women took their untamed intensity of prayer from the church to the carpenter’s shop, the train station, the ferry boat–and more than 1,000 feet below the stunning Welsh landscape to the dark halls of the coal mines.

That was 100 years ago. But the rumbling has started again. The longing for a fresh awakening became almost tangible at the Port Talbot conference last fall. The seaside air was rich with expectation.

Trinder, 48, led the people in a song that went, “It’s the sound of r-e-v-i-v-a-l!” The former school principal directed them to look through a big picture window at the spectacular sea view outside. “That’s what we’re going to walk on! That’s what Jesus walked on–and that’s where we’re going.” The marching became faster and louder.

“I’ve got this feeling that something is going to be released,” she exclaimed. “Let’s shove over and do what the Holy Spirit tells us.” Chairs were quickly stacked up in piles to make way for falling bodies as Welsh Christians–thirsty for fresh rain from heaven–hit the floor after receiving prayer.

People can’t help but smile when Trinder speaks. She exudes a sense of joy that is explosive and contagious. She peppers her message with hilarious comments and funny stories–often cracking jokes at her own expense.

Trinder is part of a new wave of revivalists who offer fresh hope for Welsh communities. She leads a Pentecostal congregation called Tabernacle in the former mining town of Pontllanfraith. When she became pastor in 1999, fewer than 40 people attended the church. Now there are more than 100. “We believe that we’re going to be a church in the community–and God’s raising us up,” Trinder told Charisma.

Her vision is to develop a church that’s more like a leisure center–complete with gymnasium, Jacuzzi, healing rooms and a sanctuary for worship. She believes the church should be out in the marketplace as Jesus was. “We’re just at the very early stages,” she said. “We’re looking around for land.”

These new revivalists might not fit all the criteria of the typical conservative evangelical pastor–Trinder demolishes that image straightaway. But they are plugging into ancient powerlines that run right through the history and heritage of Wales like the seams of gold Roman invaders once mined here.

They take inspiration from yesterday in a bid to take new ground tomorrow. The Welsh Revival of 1904 made a deep impact on this land and sparked similar happenings as far away as Australia and Japan. But on the 100th anniversary of the historic revival, the fire needs to be ignited again.

“If we don’t prophesy, if we don’t release the word of God in our lives, then Wales will not be able to come into its destiny,” 22-year-old Gary Morgan warned the conference crowd. This fiery young preacher stirred hearts at the event with his whoever-dares-wins style of preaching, and with his call to “become abandoned” and “unlock revival” in the land.

Like Trinder’s, his bold proclamations triggered some noisy responses. As he hit the strings of a guitar that was lying on the stage behind him, Irish singer-songwriter Liz Fitzgibbon–part of the worship team–started shaking uncontrollably. “God is saying to our land, ‘You need to start to hear the key of heaven,'” Morgan told his audience. The atmosphere was electric.

It was a powerful message. Morgan later told Charisma that his hope is for Wales to be transformed so that once again it can “bless the nations.” He doesn’t get dewy-eyed with stories of past awakenings, but his face shows a fierce yearning for something heavenly to happen now. “What people need is a demonstration of God in the workplace,” he explained.

When he’s not leading prophetic schools at Church on the Move in Neath, Morgan works as a quality engineer for the Toyota car company. “I’m not frightened to give people words at work. You’ll get the wisecracks. But when you get
[co-workers] on their own and speak something of what the Lord is saying, they think, How do you know that?”

A Swell of Prayer

Carl Brettle takes a subtler approach. Very much the “father” of the event, this soft-spoken entrepreneur had organized three other conferences before–in addition to a prayer campaign that mobilized people around the world to intercede for Wales.

In 1999 he and a group of friends believed God was telling them to fill a million hours with prayer for Wales. They placed advertisements on the European-based God Channel, distributed prayer cards at an event in the Millennium Stadium at Cardiff, the Welsh capital, and sent out a promotion via e-mail.

“There was no definitive reason why, but why not?” Brettle said. “We need a breakthrough, we need the church to unify, and we need to see God move again in the land.”

They were shocked by a deluge of replies. “We found ourselves in the middle of total chaos as thousands of prayer cards came in.”

They received 26,000 e-mail responses in two months. When they reached their 1 million hours target, the correspondence still kept coming in. “We felt the Lord say ‘stop counting,’ so we did,” Brettle said.

There were all sorts of responses. An amusing message came from an inquirer in Iceland: “We’re praying for the whales–what’s wrong with them?”

Brettle, whose background is in computer consulting, admitted that this campaign isn’t the only catalyst for intercession in Wales. “There are other things going on as well, and generally there was a sense of prayer mobilization across the nation,” he pointed out. “Now we’re becoming a product of the prayer we prayed.”

He believes that on the 100th anniversary of the 1904 revival, something fresh is happening among God’s people. “The learning experience for me has been seeing people within this nation who never had the confidence to take responsibility slowly come around to the fact that it’s down to us. That’s been precious, and that’s developing.”

Like his peers, Brettle is stirred by accounts of the last awakening–particularly records of the prayers of Evan Roberts, the key leader of that revival. Roberts reportedly asked God to save 100,000 souls and to close the gates of hell over Wales for one year. The fiery young preacher got what he asked for.

“They are awesome, outrageous prayers,” Brettle explained. “If you look at what happened, the main thrust was for a year. One hundred thousand souls were saved, and it was the greatest revival Wales has ever known.” Brettle is planning no fewer than six “heritage tours” for 2004 so that visitors can get a taste of the revival during the celebration year.

However great the stories are–rough miners leading their manager to Christ, a school principal noting a new honesty among his pupils–for most Welsh people, the church is irrelevant in the 21st century.

In 1851, about 57 percent of the population attended church–today it’s more like 7 percent. Yet the nation has continued to influence the world. Actors such as Anthony Hopkins and the late Richard Burton , rock bands such as The Alarm and The Manic Street Preachers–plus, of course, star singer Tom Jones–have all hailed from this cultural hot-spot.

“Wales has always been influential in the nations. It’s that passionate drive,” Brettle said. Celtic wildness expresses itself not only in art but also in sport–particularly rugby. “When someone from Wales captures the heart of what they believe in, they’re virtually unstoppable. They give it their everything.”

Brettle is part of a team that’s using the Welsh passion for sport to plant seeds for the gospel. Sporting Marvels is a unique outreach program that aims to place Christian athletes as community development officers in local schools around the socially depressed Rhondda Valley–an area that played a key part in the 1904 revival. The first worker was recently appointed through the program.

The challenge for pioneers such as Brettle is to get Welsh Christians to believe in themselves again–after so many years of church decline. “One of the things Evan Roberts suffered from is that people would complain, ‘Why is it that the Holy Spirit only shows up after midnight in his meetings?’ But he believed so much in what he was doing that he was prepared to stay there all night. Show me a church that’s prepared to do that these days.”

New Trends

There are encouraging signs that something new is happening. “Three years ago and before that, people would say all they heard of was churches closing,” Brettle said. “Within the last couple of years, we’ve heard a lot about new churches opening.”

That fact is confirmed by an article published by the Evangelical Alliance in Wales. Titled “Getting a Handle on Church Life in Wales,” the feature acknowledges general church decline during the last 150 years. But it also shows that some denominations and networks have broken that pattern.

“Though the church has declined overall, this is not true of all churches,” states the report, written by National Assembly Liaison Officer Daniel Boucher. He was responding to an article in Wales’ national newspaper, The Western Mail, that suggested the church may soon be no more.

“One of the most striking features of the last 80 years has been the advent and rapid growth of a significant number of Pentecostal churches–Elim and Assemblies of God–and ‘New Churches’–Pioneer, Covenant Ministries International and, within this tradition, a significant number of vibrant independent congregations,” Boucher wrote.

“The new denominations differ from their traditional forefathers in many ways. Firstly they don’t normally meet in historic buildings with spires but in old converted factories, warehouses or purpose-built facilities. They have a far more modern style of worship and (especially in the new churches) a younger age profile.

“Perhaps it is because of their more contemporary approach that these new churches have proved remarkably successful at bucking the overall trend of decline.” Boucher quotes Pentecostal church leaders who actually reported significant growth in their congregations. In addition, Christianity still plays a major part in Welsh national life–despite the reports of falling attendance.

So what of Evan Roberts’ home church, Moriah Chapel, Loughor, where the revival first started? Charisma visited the birthplace of the awakening and found a small but active Sunday congregation of about 15–but a growing Monday prayer meeting that can be twice that. What they might lack in numbers, they make up for in faith.

Elder Dyfrig Griffiths becomes deeply emotional as he recounts the stories of the Welsh Revival. He loves to talk of the exploits of Evan Roberts, the icon of the awakening who set the young people on fire for God in the old chapel. Yet unbelievers were drawn more by an “irresistible force” than by any human agent. And Griffiths, 57, believes God can do it again.

“God is going to do a mighty work,” he said, in his rich Welsh tones. “We just have to wait. God is able. God is willing. And God is merciful.”

They believe God’s word to them is exactly that: “Wait.”

“We are awaiting a mighty outpouring of His Spirit,” Griffiths said.

Visitors come from all over the world just to step inside the building–poised at the start of the breathtakingly beautiful Gower Peninsula–where Roberts launched the greatest revival Wales has ever seen. They have included such well-known people as Dallas-based revivalist Steve Hill and evangelist and author Tommy Tenney.

More will come during the anniversary year. The hall has already been booked for events, and TV and radio companies from Great Britain and America are making their own special programs to commemorate the year.

A strange moment took place at Moriah recently when it seemed that Roberts had materialized once again amid the stately grandeur of its walls. No, it wasn’t an apparition. It was actually a look-alike playing his part for a new video A Diary of Revival. The program has since sold in the thousands and has had a powerful impact on those who have seen it.

Those who enter the chapel, with its modestly ornate ceiling and waxed wooden pews, find their imagination stirred. The atmosphere triggers images of swelling congregations enjoying hours of holy chaos as one person would weep, another would shout for joy and yet another would burst into song. Sometimes Roberts would just clap his hands, encouraging them to keep going.

What became known as the “great love song” of the revival–“Here Is Love Vast as the Ocean”–seems to remain as a distant echo within the plastered walls and paneled aisles. The original version was in the ancient indigenous Welsh language, and something of its poetic power has been lost in translation. But it still speaks to us today of the deep, stirring worship of the awakening.

Griffiths and his fellow elders–who are women, coincidentally, just as Roberts’ team mostly were–aren’t merely maintaining the fabric. They’re stoking the fire.

“People say lightning doesn’t strike twice,” Griffiths said, as he picked dead leaves off Roberts’ grave. “I say I know who created the lightning in the first place.”

WALES

Population: 2.9 million

Total area: 8,031 square miles, slightly smaller than New Jersey

Number of conversions recorded during the Welsh revival: At least 100,000

Percentage of population that attends church today: About 7 percent

Longest word in the Welsh language: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch

Our spiritual health is as important to our well-being as our physical health.
There’s something about starting a new year that motivates us to focus on getting fit. After the holidays, gyms are full of people huffing and puffing to get their bodies in shape. During the years I’ve made it a priority to work out, yet I’ll admit I’m more likely this time of year to be disciplined about it.

Since the Bible tells us that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Cor. 6:19), it makes sense to keep them in top form. But as every worshiper knows, the outside of the temple is not the crucial part; it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

The insides of our temples–our souls and our spirits–need exercising, too. That’s why I’m more committed this year than ever before to learning how to “work out” in prayer.

Recently an old book by Glenn Clark has given me insight into ways to pray that have radically improved my spiritual life. In The Soul’s Sincere Desire, Clark states that physical exercise provides a model for strengthening our inner man. He suggests that we pray as consistently as we exercise–for at least 15 minutes a day.

“Prayer should be for the spirit exactly what calisthenics should be for the body,” he wrote in 1925. “Something to keep one in tune, fit, vital, efficient and constantly ready for the next problem of life.”

Who doesn’t want to be “constantly ready for the next problem in life”–and for the next blessing and the next divine assignment as well? I’m sure we all do. So with the enthusiasm of those who want to work off the extra pounds gained by eating too much during the holidays, let’s focus this new year on prayer in a way that makes prayer not something we must do to be good Christians but something we engage in to expand our souls to receive the infinite love of God.

How do we accomplish this?

In my own workout routine, I’ve learned to first stretch my muscles. In prayer, the first step should be to stretch the mind and spirit to take in the reality of God–in all His vastness.

While exercising, we must breathe deeply so that oxygen reaches the muscles. During prayer, we must breathe deeply, too, clearing our brains and hearts of the bad and praying in the good.

We must dismiss from our minds the trouble that seems imminent and restate emphatically the promises of God. In addition, we must forgive those who have sinned against us and repent and accept forgiveness for our own sins.

Physical fitness experts know that if you exercise, the benefits of burning fat and breathing deeply continue after the exercise ends. This is the goal
of prayer–to stretch the spirit and make the deep breathing of the soul something that goes on throughout the day. It is the goal Paul referred to when he told us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).

The trouble with most of us is that our praying is too negative. We shut ourselves up by breathing in again and again the troubles that we should release to God. When we give them to Him, we can take in the new, fresh air of His Holy Spirit.

Glenn Clark describes the process: “Just as in physical breathing we expel the poisons we wish to eliminate and then drink in slowly of the new, fresh, life-giving, body-building ozone, holding it, first deep in the lungs, then high, turning it over, so to speak, till we have completely absorbed the life-giving oxygen, so we should intentionally expel our wrong thoughts, turning instantly to the constructive, soul-building affirmations.”

Because our spiritual health is as important to our well-being as our physical health, I’m recommending to you Clark’s daily prayer regimen, which I believe will help you get in shape inside and leave you feeling more alive in the new year than ever before. It has certainly helped me to become more aware of God’s kingdom all day long.

Prayer is no longer just something on my daily “to do” list or a recitation of things in which I need God to intervene; it is a continual awareness of His presence. I’m trusting it will become so for you also as we continue in the next few issues to look at prayer as a way of entering God’s kingdom here and now.