The choice is easy after you’ve identified your specific requirements. The following three basic questions–who, how and what–are designed to help you in choosing the appropriate Bible.

Who is the Bible for?

How will the Bible be used?

In Germany, a nation once torn apart by Nazi hatred, God is bringing healing through the message of the Father’s love.
The fatherhood crisis in the church is certainly universal and a well-known feature of our modern times. But in Germany it takes on an added dimension because of the abusive authority figure who once ruled that country: Adolf Hitler.

The concepts of vaterland, or “fatherland,” and vaterlandsliebe, or “love for your fatherland” (that is, “patriotism”), had long been intrinsic to the German soul when Hitler perverted the meaning of the words to fit his Nazi propaganda. In consequence, after Hitler had been defeated and his devilishness unmasked, Germany was thrown into a corporate identity crisis. Something that had been very much a part of people’s positive identity–and even the word “father” itself–now evoked dreaded memories of death, deception and an awareness of unresolved guilt.

In addition, the post-war generation grew up virtually fatherless because large numbers of fathers never returned from the battlefield. Many of those who did were so hurt emotionally that they were unable to afford their families the benefit of a father’s loving care. This holds true in the United States and other countries, too, but no country was as wasted by Hitler’s war as his own.

The plight of some Christian leaders in this nation reflects what happened to the population at large. Take Manfred Lanz, for example.

“Two years ago,” the 54-year-old Pentecostal pastor from southern Germany says, “I was thrown into a deep crisis and ended up depressed and burned out.” Though successful as a minister, Lanz privately felt he had failed: His teenage son rebelled, and his wife was miserable with him.

But the most “shocking thing” to Lanz was that even God seemed to distance Himself from him. “I felt that God accused me [of being a failure], and condemned me, and that was the deepest crisis of them all.”

Memories of childhood revealed to Lanz a possible root to the issues troubling him: the broken relationship with his own father. “Unexpectedly I remembered different situations in which I had felt threatened by Dad,” he says.

And seemingly–even though half a century had passed and Lanz was now a mature man and nationally respected church leader–these childhood traumas determined his heart’s perception of both himself and God.

He had not felt safe with his dad. In the crisis he did not feel safe with his heavenly Father either.

Thankfully, this crisis turned out to be a new beginning for Lanz.

“One day I sat down to write a letter to God,” he says. “I wrote down all the things that I would have loved to hear from Dad, but never did; things like: ‘Son, I like you the way you are. Son, you don’t have to be like me.’

“And when I looked at what I had written I just knew: This is what my feeling of homelessness is all about!”

The sudden insight threw open the door to Lanz’s heart, and he was again connected with God. “I heard God the Father’s voice, and He told me all those things my dad had never said!”

From his home half an hour’s drive from Bodensee–the three-nations-lake that connects Germany, Switzerland and Austria–Lanz leads the Church Planting Ministries of the German Pentecostals. He is now a man at peace with himself, his family–and his God.

“I have a new life and a new life message,” Lanz concludes, “focusing on one Scripture: You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

From Curse to Blessing

Many hours north, in the city of Hannover, another German pastor with a national ministry shares a similar story. He, too, suffered severe depression, encountered God as his loving father–and then saw his life and ministry take off on a new road.

Matthias Hoffmann, 46, was a pastor in a leading Baptist church in Germany when he was touched by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the 1980s and decided to plant a charismatic church. “We started in 1992, believing that revival was at our doorstep,” recalls Hoffman, now a leader of D-Netz, a network of charismatic churches. “But revival didn’t come, and we got frustrated.”

There were mistakes, misgivings, friends who left, disappointments that crept in–and then depression struck. “In 2001 I felt like living in a black hole,” Hoffman says. “I detested getting up in the morning.”

Finally he cried out, “God, come to me!” and heard like an echo in his heart, “Come to Me!” Out of obedience and desperation he closeted himself in a mountain cabin with the Lord for a full month.

“From day one God revealed Himself to me as a father,” Hoffman exclaims. “He showed up just for me, loving on me and healing my soul from deep wounds, both old and new.

“And He filled me with new inspiration! I wrote new songs, I prepared some 60 sermons, and I painted pictures. It was a month of ongoing revelation!” His life focus, Hoffman says, was turned around.

And while the pastor was gone, his church experienced a new beginning, too. “The day I left for the mountains the financial crisis [of the church] was resolved,” Hoffman says. “Also, new people started coming.”

In the last two years Hoffman’s Ichthys church has almost doubled–from 100 to 170 members. In 2003 it joined Partners in Harvest, the network born out of the outpouring at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in Canada. This outpouring was referred to by its leaders as the “Father’s Blessing,” and to Partners in Harvest (grown now to some 5,000 churches, all but 150 located in southern Africa) “receiving and giving away the Father’s love” is the undisputed focus.

Just ask Rainer and Regina Frohms, the first Germans to visit Toronto after the outpouring and for years now the representatives of Partners in Harvest in Germany.

The focus on God as Father is not replacing but releasing what was given in former renewals, the Frohms claim from their home a few miles outside Hannover. “In Jesus’ life,” Rainer points out, “signs and wonders, evangelism, faith, the gifts of the Spirit and discipling grew out of His intimate relationship with the Father. After all, Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. If we go to the Father, the way He did, we stand a better chance of becoming a little bit more like Him!”

With great intensity Regina testifies to her conviction that “Germany has a prophetic calling.”

“God wants to restore our country,” the mother of seven says, “as a true vaterland, or ‘land of the Father’!”

The “perversions of fatherhood” that have been haunting human history ever since the fall of humanity reached a climax with Hitler, Rainer adds. “But Germany’s true calling is to give to the world fatherly love and healing, not hate and destruction! Satan knows this, and that is why he did what he did in the Nazi era.

“But God intends to turn this curse also into a blessing, and that is why He is doing what He is doing now in our country.”

The commonly used silver and amalgam dental fillings contain mercury–lots of it.
Question. My dentist told me that several silver fillings in my mouth are not harmful. Can you please comment?
J.R., Bozeman, Montana

Answer. This is a highly disputed subject because levels of mercury exposure vary from person to person. Fillings made from amalgam–an alloy of mercury and silver–are approximately 50 percent mercury.

The amount of mercury absorbed depends, however, on the number and type of fillings an individual has and his or her dietary practices. Simply brushing the teeth, grinding the teeth, chewing gum or drinking hot liquids causes the release of significant amounts of mercury vapor from fillings.

This is important because mercury is one of the most toxic elements on the planet. It accumulates in the liver, kidneys, thyroid, GI tract, brain, pituitary and adrenal glands, and other tissues.

All dentists are required to put silver amalgams in an enclosed biohazard container after extracting them. Also, the silver used in fillings over the last 20 years or so is high in copper and releases many times more mercury than the older style of amalgam fillings. Thanks to improved technology, we today have newer materials that can be used in place of toxic elements.

I recommend that you not place silver or amalgam fillings in your mouth or your children’s mouths. Instead, ask your dentist for the safer, alternative compounds. If you already have silver fillings, I suggest you consult with a biological dentist for further advice. You can locate a biological dentist in your area by contacting the International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology at or the International College of Integrative Medicine at www./

It is also important to know that we are exposed to mercury through food, specifically fish. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than half the fish in America’s lakes and reservoirs contain mercury levels that exceed the government’s standards for children and for women of child-bearing ages. Saltwater fish known to have high levels of mercury include shark, swordfish and king mackerel.

I recommend eating fish no more than twice a week. My patients take five Chlorella capsules or tablets after eating fish. Chlorella is a form of algae that binds to mercury and enables the body to excrete it. For more information, see my book What You Don’t Know May Be Killing You! (Siloam).

Question. I have heard that chocolate is good for you. Is this true? I must confess that I am skeptical.
M.G., Burlington, Vermont

Answer. Years ago I would have said that this was a rumor started by my wife. She believes the four main food groups are chocolate, chocolate, chocolate and chocolate. However, numerous studies conclude that one form of this beloved treat is actually good for you.

One such study, conducted in Greece, involved 17 volunteers who ate 100 grams of either dark chocolate or a nonchocolate substitute–the equivalent of about two standard-sized Hershey’s chocolate bars. The dark chocolate improved the blood-vessel function in healthy young adults for at least three hours. Specifically, it helped the vessels to dilate, which will slow the formation of clots.

Dark chocolate is high in flavonoids, an antioxidant that protects the heart and blood vessels from damage by free radicals. Plain dark chocolate can increase levels of antioxidants in the blood by about 20 percent. Milk chocolate does not have this same effect. Dark chocolate also lowers high blood pressure, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in August.

If you eat chocolate, then choose the dark. Remember too that a primary ingredient, usually added liberally, is sugar, a substance that causes more health problems than chocolate can ever protect you from. So, before you rush to tear open a candy bar, look for a dark chocolate with low sugar and low milk content. And eat it only in moderation–not every three hours!

I detect at least three toxic substances that are poisoning churches today.
During a time of severe famine in Israel, a group of prophets who were desperate to eat dinner prepared a curious meal. Because the crops had failed and bread was scarce, they sliced up some wild gourds in a kettle and cooked a mushy vegetable soup with an exotic odor and an unmistakably bitter aftertaste.

This stew may have looked tempting, but the recipe was untested and the ingredients were lethal. These hungry guys were clueless when it came to cooking, and they got very concerned after they wolfed down the first few spoonfuls. The Bible says the men cried out to the prophet Elisha: “‘There is death in the pot!'” (See 2 Kings 4:40).

Elisha saved the day when he threw some grain into the mix. Suddenly the poison stew was edible.

Before this episode, this same prophet had supernaturally purified toxic water by throwing salt into the spring near Jericho. Now he had decontaminated the food in Gilgal. Nobody went to the emergency room that day because the man of God had an instant cure for food poisoning.

Why is this story in the Bible? We might be tempted to laugh it off, as if it were warning us to beware when men get near the kitchen. But this is no joke: Elisha’s mealtime miracle has serious implications for us today.

I believe the American church is languishing in a season of spiritual famine. While revival is stirring in many parts of the world (see our cover story on page 24), church growth in our country is stagnant. Though New Testament-style miracles are triggering waves of conversions in Africa and Asia, we have empty altars.

To make matters worse, some leaders have responded to this famine by cooking up their own mess of gourd goulash. Rather than staying within the bounds of biblical integrity, they have concocted a false gospel made of wild and deadly ingredients. This stew appeals to hungry people but leaves them spiritually sick after the first swallow.

It is time for a taste test. We desperately need the Holy Spirit to visit us and purify what is on our stove. I detect at least three toxic substances that are poisoning churches today:

1. Greed. I’m grateful that Christian television takes the gospel to the masses. But I must confess that sometimes I get the dry heaves watching some of the antics used in religious fund-raising. If this stuff makes me gag, imagine how it affects the channel-surfing unbeliever who just happens to watch these embarrassing sideshows.

One Christian leader recently told his TV audience that they would likely go to hell if they didn’t give “right now” in the offering. Do we honestly believe this kind of spiritual extortion will go unpunished?

Elisha stepped in and corrected the problem in his pot. But who will confront the unrestrained greed that is spoiling our witness to the world? We must demand a higher level of integrity in Christian media.

2. Immorality. The apostle Paul warned the Corinthian church that sexual sin spreads like a plague if it is not confronted vigorously (see 1 Cor. 5:1-13). Yet in today’s church, renegade pastors have figured out a way to jump from one bed to another and remain on the church payroll. Anyone who dares to call for discipline is labeled legalistic.

The Catholic Church has had its share of scandal caused by pedophile priests. What will happen when God lifts the covers off the unconfessed sin in our ranks? We will live through another PTL-style spectacle if we don’t deal with the problem.

3. Arrogance. We Americans have perfected the art of pompous preaching. So much of our message focuses on how great we are, and this pride produces a subtle swagger that is contagious.

On one recent religious TV broadcast, a preacher announced that donors who mailed checks to the ministry would no longer experience suffering. “Today is the end of the suffering saint,” he declared. I wonder if this man’s message has reached Chinese or Pakistani Christians who are in prison for their faith.

One of the leaders who contributed an article to this issue of Charisma is Kevin Turner, a relatively unknown evangelist from Oklahoma. The first time I heard Kevin speak, he preached his entire sermon through tears. I know a lot of fancy preachers who display silk handkerchiefs in their suit pockets, but Kevin actually used his plain white handkerchief to wipe his tears while he told of ministering to persecuted Christians in Sudan.

His crying wasn’t faked. His message moved the audience to repentance,
brokenness and compassion. We need the Holy Spirit to add those missing ingredients to our pitiful porridge.

We need tears of humility. We need a passion for purity. We need a return to biblical integrity.

Please join me in praying that the Lord will turn up the heat, stir the pot and remove the poison.

The worst direct assault on Christian communities is occurring in Sudan.
Not many Americans could locate Darfur on a map. But every American Christian ought to know about Darfur. Currently it is the location not only of the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world–according to the United Nations–but also of the worst direct assault on Christian communities anywhere. In September, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell described the Darfur situation as simple “genocide.”

Darfur is the region of western Sudan where the latest episode of one of the longest-lasting and cruelest civil wars in modern times is being acted out. Sudan, a country of 39 million located between Arabic Egypt and black Africa, has suffered from a civil war since 1983.

In that year, the Muslim Arab government based in the north–in Khartoum, the national capital–rescinded previous agreements to allow the south more autonomy and decided to suppress the region entirely by military force. The southern half of Sudan is primarily black African and largely Christian.

Of course, in any civil war no side is ever entirely innocent. The Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which fought the government on behalf of southern Sudan, has certainly committed its share of atrocities.

But the responsibility for the more than 2 million people who have died since 1983 must clearly rest with the Khartoum regime. In the 1990s the United States blacklisted the Sudanese government for harboring terrorists (Osama bin Laden lived there for a while). Sudan also had backed Saddam Hussein and his occupation of Kuwait in 1991.

In 1999 Khartoum declared its campaign against the south a jihad and set about trying to impose Shariah, or Islamic law, by force. Entire villages were raided and pillaged by Arab militia on horseback–women were raped and sold into slavery, the men were murdered, and children by the thousands were left without any care at all.

The situation in Darfur, meanwhile, has become a brutal microcosm of the larger Sudanese conflict. It began in February 2003 when fighting between the SPLA and the government led to the displacement of an estimated 1.6 million people and the killing of at least 70,000.

What has made the conflict especially vicious is that the Sudanese government–though it denies it–seems to have given a free rein to the brutal militia Janjaweed, which has pillaged, raped and murdered throughout the Darfur region. A U.S. State Department contract worker, after interviewing last year some 50 refugees from the region, said there was a horrifying pattern of gang-rapes of women committed by the Janjaweed, which is sometimes backed directly by Sudanese government forces.

Former congressman Tony Hall of Ohio, a committed Christian (and a Democrat), currently leads a U.S. delegation to the United Nations. He toured western Darfur in November and saw villages that had been burned and abandoned. Though the World Food Program has ample supplies and trucks to stave off starvation in the region, Hall says that fighting in the area has terrified people enough to keep them from returning to their homes.

Several U.S. congressmen and a few senators have visited Sudan and heard the same grim tales of an entire people under siege from a ruthless and unrestrained government. I visited southern Sudan (not Darfur) five years ago with three congressmen and Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.

What was most touching of all was being greeted by Christian villagers in a refugee camp that had been repeatedly bombed by the Sudanese air force. The welcoming crowd held up simple wooden crosses as we came into their camp from a nearby landing strip. They were singing, “We welcome you,” over and over again.

We told them repeatedly how much we appreciated them and wanted to help them. But, sadly, it seems that no government anywhere is prepared to intervene in Sudan and halt the genocide. Christians in the United States and elsewhere can only pray–and we should–that the nightmare of our Sudanese brothers and sisters will somehow come to an end.

El Salvador, a nation devastated by war only a decade ago, is now a land of faith and spiritual renewal.
Machismo defines the culture of El Salvador. Most women struggle financially, and many suffer silently from domestic abuse. Women typically don’t own businesses or take leadership roles.

The same is often true of Christian women, who tend to fade into the background of El Salvador’s growing evangelical churches. In this male-dominated culture, women are expected to serve the church in menial ways while the men run the show.

But Cristina Hasbún, a 35-year-old pastor’s wife living in the capital city of San Salvador, does not play by these rules.

Ordained as a pastor alongside her husband, Juan Carlos, Cristina sparked a quiet revolution two years ago when she rented a stadium and organized a conference that attracted thousands of Salvadoran women. Many of them stared in disbelief when Cristina donned a wireless microphone and preached several sermons during the first daylong event.

Women don’t preach in El Salvador. But the Hasbúns are blazing trails for a new generation of Christians here.

“I never asked for this anointing. I never asked for this calling,” Cristina told Charisma after preaching at her second national women’s conference last July. “But it all came to me because I spent time with God.”

Held at the huge Magico Gonzales Stadium in downtown San Salvador, the second conference attracted more than 11,000 women from all 14 provinces in the country. Cristina raised more than $200,000 to rent buses to bring the women–many of them poor domestic laborers–to the capital.

She preached so forcefully that day that she lost her voice. But it was worth all the sacrifice, she says, to see so many women from her nation respond to the gospel and find true spiritual freedom in Christ.

“It was a miracle,” she says of the Second National Congress of Women. “It was the first time in the history of our country that people from different denominations gathered together.”

Her 36-year-old husband is also a risk-taker who isn’t afraid to break religious traditions. He says miracles are becoming more common in El Salvador as Christians leave their mark on secular society.

Evidence of an evangelical awakening is everywhere here. Just 13 years ago, before the civil war ended, only 5 percent of the country’s population was born-again. Today it is estimated that 30 percent of Salvadorans are evangelical Christians. One church in the capital has 100,000 members.

The Hasbúns, former youth pastors in the Assemblies of God, started their independent church, Iglesia Kemuel, in 1998. Their first meetings were held in a garage, and for the first four years they had only 80 members.

The congregation has grown to about 450 members today–and a majority of them are students and young professionals who are taking their faith into the marketplace. But what is most amazing about the Kemuel church is that it finances some of the largest Christian events in the nation.

Hasbún has sponsored healing crusades with evangelists Benny Hinn and Franklin Graham and worship celebrations with recording artists Marcos Witt and Marco Barrientos.

“We have had a total of 250,000 people in these events,” says Cristina, marveling at the way God has covered the costs through their relatively small church. “The whole church is crazy with us.”

Taking a Whole Nation

Part of the Hasbúns’ vision is to influence Salvadoran culture with the gospel all the way to the top, in the halls of government. And they have seen amazing progress in that arena since 2004 when the country got a new president, Antonio Elías Saca González. He acknowledged God in his inaugural address last summer and told Charisma in July that the country’s evangelical churches were the key to his election victory.

Saca, 43, a former sports broadcaster, says his faith in God was a factor in his early opposition to communism. During El Salvador’s difficult civil war, which lasted for 12 years, the nation was ravaged by clashes between leftists and anti-communists. Yet today, El Salvador is one of the most pro-American governments in Latin America.

Saca’s election was considered a minor miracle. When the campaign began he was 17 percentage points behind his opponent, Schafik Handal, chairman of the leftist FMLN party. Yet on election day, Saca won with 60 percent of the vote.

“I have no doubt in my mind that it was the work of God–what happened on March 21, 2004,” the president says. “It was the evangelical Christians who defined what happened.”

In past elections, Saca noted, evangelicals have been less inclined to get involved in politics. But because they felt so endangered by Handal, they mobilized. About 75 percent of the population voted in that election.

“They had never been so threatened,” Saca says of the Christian population. “[Handal] is not only a communist, like Fidel Castro, but he is an avowed atheist.”

Evangelicals were impressed by Saca’s faith, even though he is a Roman Catholic. “Christians believed my story of faith, and today they know that I did not deceive them. It was not a political facade to win votes,” Saca says.

Hasbún sees Saca’s election as another indicator that God has visited El Salvador in a special way. But the pastor also acknowledges that the Salvadoran church must overcome serious obstacles of religiosity and small-mindedness.

The pastor is especially concerned that Christian leaders here have dictatorial tendencies, and they abuse people through what Hasbún calls “the spirit of Saul.”

“Many missionaries came here and planted God’s Word,” Hasbún says, “but the leaders tended it as though they were the owners. They aren’t–the land belongs to God. We cannot establish Christ’s kingdom as the kingdom of men.”

Noting that 75 percent of El Salvador’s population is under the age of 35, Hasbún says the church must learn to think progressively in order to reach the younger generation.

“The future of the gospel is here, among these younger people,” he says. “But our church structures don’t allow them to breathe. The structures don’t allow growth.”

With those strong convictions, Hasbún and his wife intend to continue to break religious rules even if it means offending the evangelical establishment. They are willing to pay any cost to see a whole nation transformed.

Losing weight is a resolution you can keep, with God’s help.

I am finally going to lose that extra weight and keep it off.” How many of us have uttered these words? Determining to lose weight is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions people make. They get a renewed sense of hope when the new year rolls around that they can rid themselves of the excess baggage they’ve been carrying. My private practice used to be flooded with enthusiastic weight-loss clients every January.

Unfortunately, by February, most were discouraged and ready to throw in the towel. Losing weight is hard work. It usually requires confronting pain and difficulty that has been numbed with food.

If you are struggling with your weight, you are in good company. Obesity is a veritable epidemic in our society. Nearly 65 percent of American adults, or more than 120 million people, are considered overweight or obese. And despite billions of dollars spent on diet books and health products, we Americans are fatter than ever.

Look around. For all our obsession with weight-loss gimmicks, we continue to experience record rates of obesity.

So do we just give in and give up? Hopefully not. But we must understand that losing weight and then maintaining a healthy size requires changing our lifestyles, learning to eat sensibly and doing what most of us hate–exercising.

I know this doesn’t sound exciting or terribly new. It isn’t. But it is a long-term strategy that works.

I recently co-authored a book, Lose It for Life, with best-selling author Stephen Arterburn that is aimed at helping people lose weight sensibly while growing stronger spiritually. In preparation, I read through the most recent research, looked at all the diets and kept abreast of the growing genetic research on obesity.

Though we are learning more about the biological mechanisms of hunger, weight gain and metabolism, change still happens by eating less, exercising more and changing life habits. There is also a need to recognize the connection between body, mind and spirit and the importance of being empowered by the Holy Spirit.

If you are one of the many who have failed to lose and keep your weight off, I encourage you to try again. But expect to take a lifelong journey, not a short weight-loss trip.

Any diet will help you lose weight. The issue for most of us is keeping the weight off. You can lose it for life. If you do, you will:

Where is the church growing fastest today? A leading researcher crunched the numbers for Charisma–and the results may surprise you.
Christianity around the world is growing! From a handful of frightened followers hiding in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, the church has expanded to more than 2 billion people today. They are found in every country, among thousands of ethnic groups, speaking thousands of languages.

Most remarkably, Christianity is growing rapidly in places considered unreachable a few decades ago. Church-planting movements today are exploding all over Africa and Asia, and hundreds of new churches are being planted in months rather than years.

Yet much work remains. More than 6,000 distinct people groups have little or no access to the gospel. More than a quarter of the world’s population has yet to hear about Jesus Christ for the first time.

In my research I have identified 10 countries where the church is rapidly expanding. All these nations still have significant numbers of people who have yet to hear the gospel. Perhaps this report will inspire you to head to the mission field. And if you don’t feel called to go there full time, you can pray for these nations and financially support the work of indigenous churches there.

Nestled in the mountains of Tibet between China and India, this small Himalayan kingdom is a bright spot for Christianity. The church is growing faster there than in any other nation. In 1960 missiologist Patrick Johnstone reported just 25 believers. Today the number has risen to almost 1 million.

Nepali Christians have faced all kinds of abuse and isolation in recent years. Many paid the ultimate price for their faith.

The old saying, “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church,” is true for Nepal. Missionary spokesman Nate Wilson tells of a 20-year veteran of ministry to Tibetans who warned new recruits in 2001, “There are more dead Tibetan [mission] workers than there are Tibetan Christians.” The same courage can be found in Nepal.

Yet great fruit has come from their sacrifice. Although Nepal is the world’s only Hindu kingdom, and Hinduism is still the state religion, political unrest in 1990 brought a wave of reform and an end to most religious persecution. In this time of openness, Christianity has had explosive growth. Today there are almost 900,000 believers in Nepal, and churches are springing up all over the country.

Hindus still make up 72 percent of the nation. Buddhists claim 9 percent, and Muslims have 4 percent. Christians trail at fourth, with 3 percent. Nevertheless, Christianity is growing twice as fast as other faiths.

Today more than half of all Christians belong to independent groups, and charismatics number some 650,000. In the next 25 years the total number of Christians is projected to double to more than 2 million.

Anybody watching trends in the church knows China’s phenomenal story. It is a mysterious country, one with the largest population, the third largest geographic area and one of the fastest growing economies.

Communists have shaped China since 1949, but after the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s Communism began to unravel. After Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, China’s policies have slowly become more open. Though still isolated, much material progress has led to improvements in literacy, education, health and the economy.

Missionaries have established the church many times in China, only to see it wiped out through revolution and war. During the late 1960s no communication from the Chinese church was received outside. But the church was very much alive.

From around 1975 the Chinese church began growing rapidly. From 1.5 million in 1970, the church grew to an estimated 64 million in 1990, then to perhaps 90 million today. It will likely be in excess of 120 million in 25 years.

Believers in independent churches make up the majority, numbering perhaps 80 million. Charismatics are estimated to number 60 million. Already the church in China is planning outreach to minority groups within China and the neighboring Muslim nations. China could potentially mobilize a huge mission force.

FASO

The number of Christians in many African nations is on the rise due to population growth as well as to aggressive Christian evangelism. Burkina Faso is an excellent example of this.

A small, landlocked country in the midst of the Sahel desert of northern Africa, Burkina Faso is prone to drought and famine. Most of its 13 million are subsistence farmers victimized by malnutrition. They have also suffered much civil unrest since their country gained independence from France in 1960.

Half the people have never heard the gospel, and half are Muslims. Yet in the midst of this bleak picture a Christian revival has swept this nation.

From 1983 to 2000 church growth has been remarkable. From 1983 to 1990 the total number of churches more than doubled. Catholics make up 1.3 million of the more than 2 million Christians. Charismatics total some 900,000. Numerous church-planting movements are active among the country’s 72 ethnic groups.

A tiny city-state on an island in the middle of Southeast Asia, this small trading center was part of the British Empire in the 1820s. It developed into a commercial powerhouse and today is one of the most important financial, manufacturing and shipping points in Southeast Asia. Green with trees through intentional planting, flush with wealth through intentional economic development, Singapore is highly modernized and in some ways more technologically sophisticated than the West.

With no natural resources to speak of (more than half its drinking water is imported from Malaysia) and lacking assets, Singapore has pushed its 4 million people to excel in business, banking, science and invention. Singapore’s drive has led to incredible competition for the best schools, housing and jobs.

With its prosperity also comes an element of control. There are stringent government policies on everything from car ownership to speech. Gum-chewing was legalized only in the last year, and gum-chewers still must register with the government.

In the midst of Singapore’s drive for growth, it is not surprising that the church is growing as well. Singapore has about 500,000 believers (12 percent of the country), organized in everything from small house churches to megachurches. There is religious freedom, but in its struggle for stability Singapore does not allow missionaries to go from there to other countries.

India is projected to surpass China in total population by 2050. Its current population of more than 1 billion gives India an enormous diversity and complexity. Thousands of languages and cultures are represented, as well as every world religion. Many Indians are locked into a caste system that has ingrained cruel prejudice into society.

Some 80 percent of India’s population, or 800 million people, practice Hinduism. The next largest group is Muslims, who number more than 123 million. Christianity is embraced by only 6 percent, or 60 million people, and Pentecostals and charismatics number more than 30 million. Two percent of the people practice other religions.

Although nearly half of India has yet to hear the gospel, the church in India is making enormous strides. Some of the largest mission agencies are based there. With hundreds of thousands of local workers, and thousands of Indian missionaries sent to other nations, the church is growing at nearly double the rate of the overall population.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle is governmental restrictions, particularly on the Dalits, or the “untouchable” class. When Dalits convert to Christianity they face the threat of persecution. This is a sensitive political issue that, if changed, could result in many millions of Dalits professing faith in Christ.

Though Vietnam remains under communist rule, it is rapidly changing as it–like China–implements economic reforms.

Most of its 78 million people live in rural areas and are part of an agricultural economy. Nearly half the country’s population practice Buddhism or a variety of it. Christians make up about 9 percent of Vietnam, or some 6.7 million people, of whom about 5 million are Catholics. Charismatics number some 800,000.

Most Protestants are from tribal minorities, more than half of which have been reached with the gospel. The government has permitted Christian ministries to work in the country, especially in the area of community development and compassionate relief programs.

The church is growing at roughly 1.2 percent per year, slightly ahead of the population rate. There are thousands of church workers, and Vietnamese missionaries are sent abroad. In principle there is religious freedom but the church is restricted.

A 1999 religion decree enshrined religious rights and allowed people to choose to follow, not follow, or change their religion, but warned of punishments for those who used religion to harm the state. The current trend appears to be one of a gradual improvement in relations between the church and the state, coupled with continued attempts at state control. Under these conditions the church will likely triple in size by 2050.

Located in western Africa next door to Nigeria, Benin represents the massive church growth occurring in Africa. Its population of 7 million is mostly young–more than half are under the age of 15. The population could triple to 21 million by 2050.

Like many African nations, Benin suffers from deep ethnic division, poor health care, lack of clean water, poor education and a high rate of HIV/AIDS. Yet despite its limited resources, Benin’s present rate of church growth is explosive: 3.1 percent annually, with nearly 120,000 new members joining churches every year. By 2050, it is probable that Christianity in Benin will reach 40 percent of the total population.

As with most countries in western Africa, Benin is split between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north, with a large minority still practicing animistic tribal faiths. Benin is home to about 2 million Christians, 1.2 million Muslims and 3 million ethnoreligionists. About half the Christians are Catholics; charismatics number 650,000.

As the church continues to grow, this could lead to new clashes between Islam and Christianity. The church may pay an increasing price in martyrs.

With the most land of any nation, Russia is home to 147 million people, most of whom live in the cities west of the Ural Mountains. But the population is in decline, many families are poor, and fewer families are having children.

This country has known tyranny since it became a nation in the eighth century. Beginning with the Marxist Revolution of 1922, communism systematically ravaged the economy despite Russia’s literate, educated workers and abundance of natural resources. Further, the Communist Party attempted to eliminate all religious affiliation in the name of eradicating superstition. With the demise of communism in the early 1990s, however, interest in religion exploded.

A third of all Russians still consider themselves nonreligious or atheist, and 7 percent are Muslims (mainly concentrated on the border with central Asia). Slightly more than half–84 million, or 57 percent–profess Christianity. Most of these are part of the Russian Orthodox Church, though some 1.5 million each belong to the Protestant and Catholic traditions, both of which are growing at a rate far exceeding the Orthodox Church. Charismatics number nearly 4 million.

Believers in Russia experienced one of the most severe and sustained periods of religious persecution in recent history. Martyrs numbered in the millions. The possibility of persecution is still real because the government and the tradition-bound Orthodox Church look with suspicion on the unorganized influx of emerging new ministries. In the midst of this turmoil, however, a window for significant church growth has opened.

The Russian church is growing at about 0.1 percent per year. With the population in decline this is significant. By 2050, the church in Russia will likely have about the same numbers it does today, or perhaps less. However, a higher percentage of the population will be Christian, rising from about 57 percent to possibly 75 percent. The makeup of the church will likely also shift, with Protestants and Catholics gaining significant shares of the total Christian population.

More than 130 million people live in Bangladesh, making it the sixth most populous nation. It is also one of the poorest nations, and it suffers from overpopulation and frequent natural disasters, particularly flooding.

Once known as East Bengal, this predominantly Muslim region of India was renamed East Pakistan in 1947 when Pakistan became an independent nation. In 1971 a bitter civil war of independence was fought, ending in the defeat of the resident Pakistani administration. Corruption, instability, assassinations and 18 coups have marred the years since Bangladesh became a nation, although some sense of democracy was established in 1991.

Islam is the state religion and Muslims now make up about 85 percent of the population. Hindus comprise most of the remainder, but there are small numbers of Buddhists, animists and Christians. Hindus suffered severe losses because of deaths and refugee movements in the 1971 civil war, but they remain a vocal and influential minority to this day.

There are about 1 million Christians in Bangladesh, making up less than 1 percent of the population. More than half are part of independent groups. Charismatics number about 450,000. Converts from Islam are nearly all secret believers, although there are a few isolated instances of whole villages turning to Christ.

Most public Christians are low-caste Hindu converts and members of minority tribes. The church is likely to double in size by 2050. Still, it will form just slightly more than 1 percent.

Bangladeshi church leaders say the greatest obstacle to the growth of Christianity is fundamentalist Islam. One leader attending the Lausanne 2004 Forum for World Evangelization told me: “Many Muslims, when they think of Christians, think of the Crusades. And this has sometimes been made worse by what has happened since 9/11. We have to struggle with this.”

KOREA

South Korea was created in 1948 when the United States and the Soviet Union partitioned the Korean peninsula. From the ashes of the Korean War, South Korea has become one of the largest economies. Yet this massive economic infrastructure is always under the threat of war with North Korea. The border between these two countries is believed to have the greatest density of landmines.

Korea is a good example of how the gospel can rapidly spread in a single people group. The people of North and South Korea are mostly Koreans, sharing a common culture and language. More than 95 percent of people in South Korea are Korean. Japanese make up another million people. Other than these two, there are only four other minority groups in the country, together making up about 100,000 people.

Christians make up the largest religious block in South Korea: 18 million profess to follow Christ (39 percent of the nation). There are about 7 million Buddhists, 7 million ethnoreligionists, 7 million nonreligious and 5 million Confucianists. The reality, however, is that many Koreans practice multiple faiths. Some Christians might still adhere to certain Buddhist practices, for example.

Christianity is growing in South Korea, and many Koreans are active in missions around the world. They also look forward eagerly to the day when they can openly share the gospel with the people of North Korea, which is one of the most restricted areas.

As we look at the growth of Christianity in South Korea, and in all these other “hot spots” of revival, we see that a remarkable shift has occurred. No longer is Christianity contained or headquartered in Europe or the United States, as it was in past centuries. The gospel is rapidly becoming a dominant force in Africa and Asia.

Already, these nations are sending missionaries to our country. We can pray that the same white-hot fervor that burns in the heart of the church in places such as China and Benin will be ignited in the American church once again.

Uprooted by their country’s long-running unrest, some of Colombia’s displaced millions are finding hope through caring Christians.

The guerrillas came for Ricardo at 5 p.m. on August 5, 2000. Fifteen heavily armed
resistance fighters showed up at his 80-acre farm in Montes de María on the steamy north coast of Colombia, seeking him by name.

Ricardo’s neighbors realized at once that the guerrillas intended to kill him. This particular armed group already had assassinated three local farmers that day while working through a list of people marked for “selective elimination.”

Fortunately, Ricardo (not his real name) was not at home that afternoon. Several hours earlier he had left to attend a church conference in another town. One of his farm hands managed to get word to him about the guerrillas’ visit.

Inquiries would later reveal that Ricardo was a victim of mistaken identity–the rebels were looking for a different person with the same surname, a man they suspected of being a government informer. Nonetheless, when your name is on the list, you’re as good as dead.

Ricardo knew he could not return home–perhaps ever again. When the conference ended, he made his way to Sincelejo in northwest Colombia and lost himself amid the anonymity of its quarter-million inhabitants. His wife and children quickly joined him there, having abandoned to looters the family’s crops, 80 head of cattle and household belongings.

“Yet, we were blessed,” Ricardo told Charisma. “I believe God’s hand was on us to keep us alive.”

In fact, his narrow escape came just as armed insurgents were escalating a bloody vendetta against local farmers. Over the next four months, guerrillas and paramilitary groups massacred an estimated 2,000 civilians in Montes de María during a brutal onslaught aimed at driving farm families off their land. Human-rights groups estimate that 95 percent of the rural populace in Montes de María fled the area.

Some 90,000 of the refugees, including Ricardo and his family, ended up in squatter communities on the outskirts of Sincelejo. Yet they make up merely a tiny segment of the estimated 3 million Colombians who have been displaced by the country’s civil war–a conflict now in its fifth decade that claims almost 11,000 lives a year.

The prolonged war has drained the national economy, driving two-thirds of Colombians below the poverty line. Thousands of Christians have died, sometimes for trivial reasons.

The Evangelical Council of Colombia (CEDECOL) has documented the assassinations of 147 ministers. Some were killed because they would not cooperate with guerrillas; others because the Colombian army or paramilitary bands believed they were guerrillas. Some were killed because they took up offerings–an alleged exploitation of the poor–yet other pastors died because they would not allow the guerrillas to take up the offerings.

At one time insurgents declared evangelical pastors to be military targets because they discouraged Christian young people from joining the revolution. Pastors suspected of embezzling money or committing adultery have been executed.

No one knows why guerrillas murdered the Rev. Adolfo Villegas of the Seventh Day Adventist church in Macallepo, Montes de María, though they are certain it was not because of any misdeeds he committed. When Villegas and two church elders were killed on August 6, 2000, the entire Adventist congregation fled immediately to Sincelejo.

Two months later, Macallepo’s remaining congregations–the Evangelical Christian Church and the United Pentecostal Church–joined the exodus. Adelina Rodríguez remembers the pain of abruptly abandoning her home and fleeing for her life.

“In my anguish, I told God, ‘I left everything behind,'” she told Charisma. “God said: ‘What is everything? Am I not something?’

“I began to experience God’s presence,” she continues. “‘Don’t worry,’ He said, ‘I am with you. I have brought you here to be a blessing.'”

God soon began to fulfill that promise for Adelina and her husband, Jasper, pastors of Evangelical Christian Church in Macallepo.

“Once we got here to Sincelejo, we believers found one another and decided it made more sense to merge the three churches into one,” Jasper says.

Jasper, Adelina and pastor Edgar Benítez joined forces to plant El Remanso (“Quiet Waters”) Christian Church. Sitting under the palm-roofed pavilion that serves the church as sanctuary, cafeteria and community center, Jasper Rodríguez describes worship at El Remanso as free, spirited and having “a definite peasant flavor.”

“We take turns preaching,” he explains. “Though we express different doctrinal points of view, we have never heard any criticism from the congregation.”

Perhaps that is because the believers of El Remanso do more than worship together–they also help one another survive. For example, after Jasper heard of a
government program that provided free breakfasts to children, he volunteered El Remanso to manage a local nutrition program. On weekday mornings you’ll find church volunteers distributing milk and nutrition bars to 178 neighborhood children.

Adelina has launched a program to teach marketable skills to the kids’ mothers. “At first the ladies were skeptical about job retraining,” she admits. “‘We’re farm women,’ they said. ‘We only know how to raise pigs and chickens.’ But now they are feeding their families with their handiwork.”

The Committee of Virtuous Women, known by its Spanish acronym, CONFEVIR, teaches crochet, hand-loom weaving, macramé and jewelry making. Students make baby clothes and table mats, as well as earrings from seed pods, and sell the items in local shops.

Displaced husbands help feed their families, too, thanks to a plan Jasper devised which enables them to farm small plots on the hills surrounding El Remanso. They raise tidy crops of corn, beans, peppers and tomatoes.

When asked how a church with scant resources like El Remanso’s has been able to develop so many effective ministries for the needy, Jasper says simply, “Unity builds strength.”

Because of that inclination El Remanso is a member of a growing network of churches designated as Sanctuaries of Peace, which was formed five years ago “to minister … through preaching the gospel of peace, inviting to conversion and commitment and … attending to families displaced by violence.”

Esther and Rodrigo Murillo pastor a sanctuary church in the village of Zambrano. Their church is open 24 hours a day and welcomes anyone threatened by violence to take refuge there. The couple has watched the congregation quadruple.

“We have a big problem with accommodating all the children,” Esther explains, “but we are working at it.”

The next ministry they have planned will teach young people, including children, to identify and avoid land mines. “They think they are toys and pick them up to play with them,” Esther says.

So many mines are strewn around the Montes de María area that they are hindering efforts to resettle displaced families such as those living in Sincelejo. Jasper Rodríguez believes he and others will return to their homes and says most of the believers at El Remanso are prepared for that happy day.

Ricardo is one such farmer who is preparing to go home. Until he does, he will continue to support his family with the hand-loom skills he learned through CONFEVIR and feed them with vegetables from his parcel at El Remanso.

Ricardo is living proof that despite the war, poverty and exile in Colombia, God still finds ways to bless His children.

The presence of prolonged pain can change a person’s outlook on life.

Question I suffer from mild joint pain that sometimes prevents me from jogging or enjoying my needlework. Can you recommend an herbal remedy?
E.K., Flint, Michigan

Answer You are not alone. About one in three adults in the United States suffers from some type of chronic pain, according to the American Chronic Pain Association. In fact, it is the No. 1 cause of adult disability in the United States. Joint pain, headaches and backaches are the most common sources.

Chronic pain can be mild, excruciating, episodic or continuous. Sometimes it’s no more than a mere inconvenience, but often it is incapacitating.

Sleeplessness, inactivity, irritability, depression and even additional pain all can result. The presence of prolonged pain can change a person’s outlook on life and put stress on relationships with family and friends.

What causes pain? Many things. One source is inflammation.

Normally, inflammation is a good sign. For example, when your ankle swells after you’ve sprained it, your body is telling you that your immune system is sending white blood cells and other hormonelike substances to start the healing process. This type of inflammation leads to acute pain that usually stops when the swelling subsides and the ankle heals.

The inflammation that leads to chronic pain, however, goes deeper. Chronic inflammatory conditions in the body usually involve the overproduction of compounds such as prostaglandins and cytokines. One of the building blocks for these inflammatory compounds is linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid found primarily in vegetable oils such as safflower, soy and sunflower oils.

Your body converts linoleic acid to a substance called arachidonic acid. The COX-2 enzyme then converts arachidonic acid to prostaglandin E2, which can cause inflammation and lead to pain.

Fortunately, you can fight back. Certain nutrients–such as ginger root extract, boswellia, turmeric and an herbal extract called OxyGene–can inhibit the COX-2 enzyme and reduce inflammation. The anti-inflammatory properties of these herbs work together to alleviate pain associated with acute and chronic conditions.

Also, bromelain, an enzyme derived from pineapple, as well as cat’s claw bark extract, have both been shown in scientific studies to help relieve the pain and swelling that come from exercise or sports injuries.

These key nutrients–taken according to the product label–can help you go on with your day-to-day activities more comfortably.

Question A friend of mine told me that white willow bark works the same as aspirin. What is this product–and is my friend right?
T.B., Little Rock, Arkansas

Answer White willow bark is, as its name implies, derived from the bark of the willow tree. It is the original source for salicylic acid, which was the active ingredient in aspirin before aspirin was made synthetically.

The bark therefore has the same effect on the body as aspirin but without any of the adverse side effects, such as stomach upset. Studies also have identified several other components of white willow bark that have antioxidant, fever-reducing, antiseptic and immune-boosting effects.

Its use dates to the time of Hippocrates (400 B.C.), when patients were advised to chew the bark to reduce fever and inflammation. It has been used for centuries in Europe and China for the treatment of fever, pain, headaches and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis.

Today, we rely on the herb to treat the same ailments. A standard dose in extract form is 60 milligrams to 240 milligrams a day.

A word of caution, however: Because white willow bark contains salicin, people who are allergic or sensitive to salicylates–such as aspirin–should not use it. If you are pregnant or breast-feeding do not use it.

Also, some researchers suggest that people with conditions such as asthma, diabetes, gout, gastritis, hemophilia and stomach ulcers should avoid this product. If you have any of these conditions or are taking any medications, consult your healthcare provider before taking willow bark.