Several prominent house-church leaders have been arrested since January in an intensified wave of religious persecution
Christians in China are expecting a spiritual revival to follow a new wave of persecution on the unregistered churches in the communist nation, says the head of a Pennsylvania-based organization dedicated to raising awareness about religious liberty abuses in China.

Bob Fu, head of China Aid Association based in Glenside, Pa., says believers in China are expecting a recent crackdown on the underground church to result in hundreds coming to Christ. “They feel another round of revival is coming,” Fu told Charisma. “Whenever there is a major wave of persecution … there is a major spiritual revival.”

Since January several prominent house-church leaders have been arrested, including Deborah Xu Yongling, 58, the sister of Peter Xu Yongze, founder of the Born Again church movement, which has millions of followers. Police reportedly arrested her Jan. 24 in Henan province while she was sleeping at her niece’s house, Asia Harvest reported. After significant international pressure, she was released on bail March 15, China Aid said.

Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) reported that also on Jan. 24, police arrested Qiao Chunling, 41, who is closely associated with Li Tian’en, one of China’s most prominent house-church leaders. The following day Zeng Guangbo, 35, was arrested at a house church in Zengzhuang village, located in Henan province, China Aid Association said. A former military policeman who was fired in 1988 because of his work with the underground church, Zeng escaped two days later, but police rearrested him March 1 when he tried to pass through the Inner-Mongolia border into Russia.

The arrests came after top leaders from the Religious Affairs Bureau and the United Front Work Department, which oversee religion in China, viewed a four-hour documentary titled The Cross: Jesus in China by California-based China Soul for Christ, and were briefed on a recent book, Jesus in Beijing, by journalist David Aikman. Both works document the unprecedented growth of the underground church in China.

Aikman, a former China correspondent for Time magazine, said none of the leaders arrested recently were named in his book. He said he carefully masked the identities of others. “I don’t, frankly, think any of the older [house-church leaders] were picked up as a result of my book,” Aikman told Charisma. “They are hardly news to the authorities.

“This is just one of a series of crackdowns. I hope it is short-lived. … But if you pretend nothing is going on, you do tremendous disservice to the Chinese Christians, who have been [facing persecution] for years.”

The video, written and directed by Christian pro-democracy leader Yuan Zhiming, clearly shows the faces of several house-church leaders who agreed to be interviewed before the camera. But China Soul for Christ President Wenji Xie said the documentary had nothing to do with the recent arrests.

“The situation [in China] is the same,” he told Charisma, adding that there may have been an increase in arrests in certain areas. “This is part of their annual crackdown. They always do this right after the Chinese New Year.”

Fu said a heightened repression of the house-church movement had been in motion for more than a year. But he believes it may have intensified after participants in the National Religious Working Conference saw the video and were briefed on the book.

“Maybe they used this as a pretext, an excuse, to do more,” Fu said. “From the beginning of 2003 until now, almost every province has been affected by the campaign to stop the growth of the house-church movement.”

Fu said the government may treat incarcerated Christians in much the same way they treated members of the Falun Gong cult, subjecting them to brainwashing, torture and political study camps, or forcing them to sign a paper renouncing their faith or join a state-sanctioned church.

Christian advocacy groups encourage believers in the West to write letters to the Chinese Embassy, the U.S. ambassador to China and congressional leaders. To that end, VOM recently launched a Web site, , dedicated to mobilizing Christians to write letters of encouragement to Christians imprisoned for their faith and to relevant officials.

At press time, journalist Li Ying was pictured on the site. She is currently serving a 15-year sentence for producing an underground-church magazine. By mid-March, VOM spokesman Todd Nettleton said more than 1,400 people had written her letters, which were translated into Chinese at the site.
Adrienne S. Gaines

Rehoboth Christian School has received commendations and grants for helping its mostly Native American student body

Nestled in the high plateau country of northwestern New Mexico, Rehoboth Christian School in Gallup is quietly pioneering a new way for American schools to serve minorities.

The 425-student, K-12 school is located in McKinley County, the third-poorest county in the United States. It serves mostly a Navajo and Zuni student body. Most of these students would be typically considered “at risk” of dropping out of school because they come from single-parent households, live below the poverty line or somehow lack parental support, among other factors.

However, Rehoboth High School Principal Tim Stuart, Ph.D., believes an “at risk” label ends up hurting more than helping children and results in their being treated with an attitude of hopelessness and despair.

“Students do not necessarily identify themselves with labels, particularly ones that predict their defeat,” he told Charisma. “Recent studies have shown children are more optimistic about their future than their parents are. Sadly, it is the adults, school systems and government that label children ‘at risk’ of failure.”

Rehoboth is a noteworthy exception. While just four out of 32 schools in the region have managed to stay off the state’s academic probation list, Rehoboth boasts a 100 percent graduate rate, with 90 percent of its students going on to college. More than a quarter of its high school students have ACT test scores above the 90th percentile.

The success of its program also landed the school a $1.3 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation–a first for New Mexico–through which Rehoboth staff plans to match each student with a caring adult and improve their access to technology. Rehoboth also is one of three schools nationwide to be featured in A Culture of Giving, a video by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation that examines a teaching method called service learning and its effectiveness within Native American settings.

Stuart said the school’s attitude toward the challenges facing its students–poverty, as well as high rates of alcoholism and teen suicide–has been critical to its success. He said experiencing adversity does not necessarily lead to poor academic performance or a failure to contribute positively to society.

The difference, he said, comes when students receive the appropriate support at school through healthy relationships with caring adults and are encouraged to develop what he has called “promise character.” That includes learning such disciplines as perseverance, responsibility, optimism and motivation.

Stuart discusses this concept in a book he has co-authored with educator Cheryl G. Bostrom, titled Children at Promise: Nine Principles to Help Kids Thrive in an At-Risk World (Jossey-Bass). He was quick to emphasize that Rehoboth was already using this formula before he joined the staff in August.

“They just didn’t have the vocabulary to articulate it,” he said.

Ron Polinder, the school’s executive director, explained what lies behind the school’s success. “It’s the coming together of God’s people interculturally in a community with all this diversity,” he said. “We have been doing this for 100 years. The staff are very dedicated.

“There is a lot of commitment on the part of the parents. We want to create a model of excellence, diversity and thoroughly Christian education.”

Doug Evilsizor, Rehoboth’s director of development, said the school tries to model the diversity God has created. For example, he said: “There are Christians at all income levels and they all need an education. Rehoboth provides opportunity to a lot of kids who would have no opportunity otherwise. They are kids who fall through the cracks. Rehoboth prides itself on taking kids no matter what their background and giving them the tools to succeed.”

Sean Rivera, 18, and a senior, said he appreciates Rehoboth’s ethnic diversity and strong Christian emphasis. “We get along better because of our common values and Christian beliefs,” he told Charisma. “All of us are in it together. I have really enjoyed the school because of the atmosphere and the friendships I have made.”

Ellen Arrowsmith, 17, said Rehoboth is unique because of its multicultural focus. She said it is wonderful to be in a school where the most important issue is faith and not one’s financial or physical status. “Rehoboth is a Christian community small enough for you to be involved in everything and get individual attention,” she noted.

Stuart said as the word gets out about this educational philosophy he hopes both parents and educators will begin to see “at risk” children differently and realize that they are just one step away from being children “at promise.”
Jeremy Reynalds in Gallup, N.M.

The Voices of Christ Prophetic Poetry Team shares the gospel at poetry slams, literary cafés and open-mic events

An Atlanta-area ministry has embraced poetry as its unlikely evangelism tool.

Theresa Harvard Johnson, founder of the Voices of Christ Prophetic Poetry Team, says she and her team of “prophetic poets” have been commissioned to take the gospel to the world.

A journalist and creative writing instructor, Johnson, 32, has been writing poetry all her life. But when she accepted Christ in 2001, she says both her life and her poetry changed.

“But there was no forum, no foundation to express this gift in ministry,” she told Charisma.

That changed when Johnson launched Voices of Christ (VOC) in McDonough, Ga., in 2001. The team is comprised of poets from all walks of life, ages and church backgrounds. Johnson says their commitment to spread the gospel through poetry is their common bond.

The team travels to secular poetry slams, cafés and clubs, but Johnson said VOC is all about ministry, not performance. “What the Lord has created with this team is so much more than people who present poetry, prose or spoken word. We present the Word of God and expressly represent Jesus Christ,” she said.

Johnson believes poetry falls within the prophetic office listed among the fivefold ministry gifts in Ephesians 4. “I am always inspired while I am asleep,” Johnson said. “That’s no different than how the Spirit of the Lord inspired Joseph or Daniel in their dreams.

“Also, there is something to be said about ‘speaking’ God’s Word. Just as the prophets of old, the Holy Spirit is still inspiring men and women to be mouthpieces … to speak to a dying world.”

Johnson and her team travel locally and nationally to participate in poetry slams and open-mic events. “One of the things that I stress to our team is that although we go to secular venues, we are not there for the purpose of entertainment,” she said. “We are there for the purpose of evangelism.”

To underscore her position, she requires team members to undergo training before they share their poems publicly–not necessarily to hone their literary gifts, but their spiritual gifts.

“We memorize the Word of God as a team, and when we minister, our poems should be traceable to the Word of God,” Johnson said. “Not … every poem has to … directly say ‘Jesus,’ but the heart … of the poem should clearly say ‘Jesus.'”

Johnson said the response at secular venues has been overwhelmingly positive, though their reception has been cool at many churches and Christian functions. Still, she is undaunted. She believes acceptance will grow as the church understands that Christian poetry is a move of the Holy Spirit.

“This is why the Lord is raising up prophetic voices such as our team and others like the hip-hop poets,” Johnson said. “The medium of spreading the gospel is changing, but the gospel itself will never change. As long as we hold true to the gospel, people will see that Christian poetry teams are no different than the ministries of praise and worship teams, interpretive dance ministries or Christian drama ministries.”

Apostle John A. Davis Sr., founding pastor of Harvest Faith International Ministries, where Johnson is a member, embraced Johnson’s vision more than three years ago when he saw VOC in action. “I was absolutely blown away,” said Davis, whose church hosts a teen poetry night. “There is no question once you hear the prophetic poetry team, that they are inspired by the Holy Spirit.”

He believes Johnson and her team meet a need in the body of Christ and in the secular world. “Jesus commissions us to ‘go into the world and preach [the] gospel to every creature,’ and that is what the prophetic poetry team is doing.”

Heddie Simmons joined VOC recently after a friend encouraged her to check out the group’s Web site, . “I started writing poetry during the time of September 11, and I had been searching for a group that I could express myself, but also a place that stood for Christ,” Simmons said. “It had to be a place where poetry came from God, from the heart, had to mean something and had to change lives.

“When I went to the Web site and saw ‘prophetic,’ I knew … this is where the Holy Spirit wanted me to be.”

Like others doing nontraditional ministry, Johnson has seen her gifts make room for her. “The bottom line is that God is calling for all of us–no matter what gifts and talents He has given us–to operate out of our spirit and not our flesh.”
L. Pat Williams

For more information on Voices of Christ Prophetic Poetry Team, contact Theresa Harvard Johnson at 770-898-0455, or e-mail information@.

With his outreach events, CDs and a weekly radio program, Stephen Bennett stresses that Jesus can heal homosexuals

Stephen Bennett and his wife, Irene, are vexing the gay community preaching the liberating power of Jesus Christ via Stephen Bennett Ministries (SBM) based in Huntington, Conn.

Bennett, 40, is a former homosexual who says he no longer has homosexual desires. He stresses that overcoming one’s same-sex attraction is a process, which for some may not be easy, yet it is completely possible. “I am perfectly happy as the man God created me to be,” he said. “I am in love with my wife. My nightmare has turned into a fairytale because of God.”

Even though Bennett recalls feeling effeminate as a child, he attributes his homosexual past to a rocky relationship with his father, a high-energy inventor and entrepreneur. “I grew up in a very wealthy home,” he said. “I had everything physically I wanted, except I just wanted his love, his approval and his attention and never really got it.”

Pursuing a career in art, he enrolled at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he experienced his first homosexual encounter at the age of 18. “That began an 11-year descent for me into the gay lifestyle,” he said.

Bouts with cocaine, alcohol and bulimia followed. He had sex with more than 100 partners, many of whom died from AIDS. “It’s a miracle I never got infected,” he said.

For a while he ran with the Hollywood crowd, painting portraits of movie stars and working for country singer Crystal Gale. After hitting bottom selling drugs and living in a cockroach-infested building, he entered a secular rehab program in 1988. He kicked his addictions but continued his gay lifestyle. He met the man of his dreams in a gay bar and began a three-year relationship.

During that time a Christian young woman confronted him with the gospel and gave him a Bible. He battled with abandoning homosexuality until January 1992 when he prayed to receive Christ. “I confessed my sin before God,” he said. “I physically felt the peace of God.”

Within two weeks he fled his partner’s home. However, homosexual urges lingered until he reconciled with his father. “I had to forgive my father,” he said. “That was for me the breaking point of my homosexual struggle.” A year later he married Irene, a friend of the woman who witnessed to him.

The Bennetts had two children, were active in evangelism and operated a lucrative sign-painting business. Yet something was missing. Their moment came during the summer of 2000 after an evangelistic service at a Connecticut beach. “I really felt that God was calling us to do something special for Him,” Irene Bennett said. “We dedicated our lives. Whatever He wanted us to do, we would do it.”

Encouraged by friends, Bennett recorded a CD, I Believe in Miracles, which featured his testimony. Almost immediately it aired nationally on Christian radio stations. “It had nothing to do with my voice or the music,” he said. “It was because of the testimony.”

As a result, requests for interviews from Christian and secular TV programs flooded Bennett’s phone line. During this time the sign business nose-dived and racked up almost $65,000 in debts. Miraculously the Bennetts received $125,000, which enabled them to erase their debts and by faith launch SBM ().

The Bennetts share the hope of Christ to the gay community through CDs, literature, concerts, targeted outreaches, a weekly radio program, counseling, e-mail and media interviews. Bennett has appeared on FOX News’ The O’Reilly Factor, and speaks regularly at churches and events sponsored by the American Family Association (AFA) and Concerned Women for America.

“We have partnered with SBM on several projects,” said Buddy Smith, executive assistant to the chairman of AFA. “The dominant message we have heard from Stephen is a love for Christ and a heart that is broken for the homosexual.”

When not traveling Bennett ministers by phone almost daily. His tract I Was Gay is distributed nationwide. In January a distraught 20-year-old man phoned him from Texas crying, “I can’t take this homosexual lifestyle any longer.” Someone gave Bennett’s tract to the young man at a gay pride parade in August 2003. Bennett prayed with him, sent literature and directed him to a local church.

Last summer SBM sponsored a national outreach in Provincetown, Mass., a known gay enclave on Cape Cod. Volunteers gave out more than 600 gift bags containing a Bible, CD, T-shirt and tract. Bennett plans a similar event this year at gay pride day at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., in June.

In response to the November ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court sanctioning gay marriage, Bennett is launching a national billboard campaign. Signs show the Bennett family and copy that says: “Wonderful husband. Loving father. Former homosexual. Jesus Christ changes lives.”
Peter K. Johnson

The co-founder of the 1970s pop group now coaches gospel choirs and mentors aspiring musicians
At the height of his fame, the co-founder of one of the most successful pop-and-funk bands of the 1970s left his lucrative career to return to his Christian roots. Today one-time Commodores guitarist Thomas McClary leads a simpler life, overseeing the music ministry at his Orlando, Fla., church and preparing to release a CD by its 100-voice choir.

Once famous for million-selling singles such as “Three Times a Lady,” “Shining Star” and “Brick House,” McClary is a deacon and worship team leader at New Destiny Christian Center. Later this year he will produce the church’s first CD on his own Visitation Records label.

“He has the zeal of Peter but the wisdom of Solomon,” his pastor, Zachery Tims Jr., said. “He keeps everything balanced. He’s a team player and a team builder. When he takes charge, people want to follow him.”

“He’s really a nice guy,” added Sam Kenoly of the Kenoly Brothers, who is also a member at New Destiny. “He’s given me so much advice that it’s like taking college courses. He’s really been an inspiration to me.”

Born Oct. 6, 1950, in Eustis, Fla., the youngest of eight children, McClary played high school sports and graduated as valedictorian. He went on to the Tuskegee Institute in Montgomery, Ala., where his life took the path that would lead to fame. While standing in line to register for classes, he heard someone whistling a sax solo by legendary jazz musician Eddie Harris.

“He was going through all the riffs, and I was thinking this guy’s got to be a musician,” he recalls.

McClary asked the student to start a band with him. His name was Lionel Richie, and they founded the Commodores in 1968 with four other Tuskegee students.

They started off as a backup band for Jerry Butler, Candi Staton and the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Later they landed a two-year opening spot for the Jackson 5’s world tour. Their popularity growing, Motown head Berry Gordy wanted to sign them.

Their string of pop smashes brought them negotiating power. They demanded to keep their song-publishing rights–something Motown’s Jobete Publishing never surrendered to artists.

But the Commodores became trailblazers, creating music that won fans worldwide. “Some of the letters we’d get were amazing,” McClary remembers. “One lady was dying of cancer. She said every time she put a certain song on, it would ease the pain.

“We had people write us from around the world who didn’t speak a lick of English but knew the spirit in which the songs were written. … We tried to be good stewards of that gift that God gave us even though we didn’t give God the glory at that time.”

One of the group’s most beloved songs, “Jesus Is Love,” hit the R&B Top 40 in 1980.

By 1982 McClary and Richie had co-written songs for Diana Ross and Kenny Rogers. After their manager–the glue that kept the group together–died, both men went solo.

McClary cut the Hot 100 single “Thin Walls” and produced a hit with the group Klique. He was scheduled to produce James Ingram, Melissa Manchester and the Four Tops. Then, “I heard an audible voice from God while I was in the shower,” he recalls. “The voice said, ‘It’s time for you to come home now.’ I thought I was hearing things.”

McClary went home–literally. He returned to Eustis, where he joined a church and produced a documentary titled The History of the Apostolic Faith. He used his celebrity influence and recording royalties to fund local church and community charities and, as a local hero, gave motivational speeches at youth groups.

Meanwhile, Universal Records keeps all of the Commodores’ music in print with various hit compilations. Because of the group’s enduring popularity, McClary says there may be a reunion tour in the near future. He keeps in touch with his band mates and reminds them of the source of their good fortune.

“I tell the guys all the time that God had to honor me to honor His Word,” McClary explains. “I was a tither even back then. I tithed even though I wasn’t saved because of my praying parents who feared God. My accountants used to laugh at me and wonder why I’d be giving six figures to the church. … For the last 20 years the royalties have not stopped. It’s been incredible.”
Bill Carpenter

Danita Estrella, who runs an orphanage in Haiti, was one of many missionaries caught in sudden danger in early 2004

Like most missionaries working in Third World countries, Danita Estrella knew there was a high potential for danger when she moved to Haiti five years ago to found an orphanage in one of the world’s poorest regions. But that potential became reality in February when armed rebels took to the streets to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Estrella is “mom” to 38 orphans at her Hope for Haiti home. She also runs a school that educates and feeds another 400 children in the town of Ouanaminthe. She was contacted by the U.S Embassy in Port-au-Prince and urged to leave immediately, but she declined their offer of a chartered flight back to the safety of the United States.

“Haiti is my home,” she told Charisma in an interview via a cell phone. “These are my children–my sons and daughters. I can’t leave them.”

When rebels invaded her town–local police already had left–Estrella and the children sequestered themselves inside the orphanage. From her kitchen window the 39-year-old from Tampa, Fla., saw rebels running through the streets, shooting guns and setting fire to the police station and homes of local Aristide supporters.

Rebels then surrounded her next-door neighbor’s home with guns drawn, demanding his weapons. One of the rebels spotted Estrella in the window and started shouting: “American! American!”

“I was so scared,” Estrella said. Her neighbors yelled at the rebels to leave her alone, explaining that she takes care of orphans and feeds people. “They left and went to another neighbor’s home,” Estrella said, “but they never touched us.”

She credits supernatural intervention for protecting her and the children. Rebel leaders later came to the orphanage to offer assistance in getting food or water.

At press time, Aristide had been removed from office and, according to Estrella, the situation in Ouanaminthe had calmed a bit. “But no one knows who’s really in charge now,” she said. “We’re waiting to see what happens next.”

The harrowing situation Estrella and other U.S. missionaries faced in Haiti is one more example of the dangerous climate brewing on today’s mission field. While Haiti is not typically overrun with gun-wielding rebels, missionaries in other parts of the world face daily threats of kidnapping and attack.

As a result, Christian terrorism experts are now offering “personal protection training” to missionaries and the organizations and churches who send them. Two such experts–Bob Klamser of Crisis Consulting International in Ventura, Calif., and Randy Spivey of R.S. Consulting in Spokane, agree that everyone from the head of mission agencies to church youth groups going on summer missions trips needs some degree of training.

“If you’re an American going into any high-risk area, you’ve got a bull’s-eye on your back. You could be targeted by a terrorist simply because you’re an American,” said Spivey, who managed hostage survival training for the U.S. Department of Defense in Spokane and now shares that training in seminars for government workers, congressional leaders and their staff, and missionaries.

Klamser, who spent 24 years in law enforcement in Southern California and specialized in hostage negotiation, calls this “the first modern-day season where missionaries are being targeted by terrorists because they’re missionaries, because they’re Christians and because they’re evangelizing,” he told Charisma. “Before 9/11, terrorism [targeting] missionaries was usually because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Klamser’s organization, launched in 1983, recently held a training seminar at the Wycliffe Bible Translators headquarters in Orlando, Fla. The group of about 50 learned about such issues as risk assessment, evacuation planning and hostage-event management.

Spivey said groups sending missionaries overseas are in dire need of such training, adding that missionaries in Muslim nations are at particular risk. “If you’re spreading the gospel in a Muslim country, your risk factor is even higher because there’s going to be people not real happy with what you’re doing.”

Still, despite today’s heightened threat of terror, Klamser and Spivey have seen a galvanizing force among U.S. Christians headed for dangerous mission fields. “The current situation with terror threats has actually prompted more people to go to the mission field,” Klamser said.

“If you feel called to go to places like Colombia or Iraq, I’m not going to tell you not to go,” Spivey added. “But I will tell you to take appropriate precautions and to be prepared for the potential risks.”
Nancy Justice

For more information about R.S. Consulting, visit . For more information about Crisis Consulting International, visit . To contact Danita Estrella, visit .

Considered a leading futurist, Dr. Patrick Dixon is sought out by Fortune 100 companies for his lectures on emerging trends
A charismatic Christian physician has scooped a place with the world’s business elite. Dr. Patrick Dixon was recently listed among the top 50 management gurus–alongside such famous names as Microsoft chief Bill Gates and Virgin founder Richard Branson.

A global ranking of business thinkers compiled by United Kingdom-based Suntop Media in association with Bloomsbury Publishing, the Thinkers 50 project asked hundreds of academics, consultants and business people, “Who is the most important living management thinker?” Dixon snatched the No. 46 slot in its 2003 report.

This former church planter is now widely known for his groundbreaking talks on the future. The Wall Street Journal described him as a “global change guru.”

Dixon’s multimedia presentation on future trends are seen by up to 3,000 people at a time–in as many as three countries a week. Journalists often hound him for quotes, and on a busy day this father of four receives up to 70 media calls.

His Web site, , has so far attracted 4 million visitors–about 60 percent of them from the United States. His most recent book, Futurewise (Profile Business), warns of six faces of global change–fast, urban, tribal, universal, radical and ethical.

He was speaking in Norway when news broke of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His topic that day was the challenge of tribalism. “The conference was overwhelmed by what happened,” he recalled, “and then came a realization of the awesome power of tribalism.”

Dixon’s journey into tomorrow began when he confronted the killer plague AIDS. Dixon came across the virus in the 1980s when he saw a man alone in a hospital room being slowly destroyed by AIDS. Dixon was traumatized by what he saw. “He was anxious … sweaty, fighting for every breath, suffocating in his own secretions and gripped with terrible fear,” Dixon wrote in his book AIDS and You.

Shocked to find someone abandoned in such a state at a London hospital, Dixon was forced to face his own fears and prejudices. The patient eventually died, leaving a doctor shaken to the core.

In 1987 he wrote a startling exposé about the disease. The Truth About AIDS was electric-shock treatment for Britain’s government, media and church. Dixon exposed the myths and the cover-ups–and urged Christians to join the fight.

A “call-to-arms” went across the Pioneer network of charismatic churches–of which Dixon is still a respected member. Those steps into uncharted territory led to setting up AIDS Care Education and Training (ACET), now an international network.

Dixon wrote on genetics and government–even on revival. He lectured for a bank, then for the World Economic Forum. “That led to a stack of invitations from a number of different countries for lectures about the future,” he said.

An impressive list of clients–the likes of Microsoft, IBM and Ford–built up over the years. Dixon warned audiences of such challenges as the growth of online purchasing and Internet banking–well before most people had a hint of such happenings.

The lecture fees help fund ACET’s work within some of the poorest communities on Earth. “I don’t know where all the insights come from,” Dixon admitted. “All I know is, I do all the homework–and meet many people who are making history themselves at the cutting edge of new technology.”

He accepts it could be a blend of sanctified common sense, “flashes of inspiration” and the “inclusive worldview” that he holds as a committed Christian.

At 47, his work has come full circle. He’s offering diagnoses again–but to a new group of patients. “I’ve become a physician to organizations,” he smiled.
Clive Price in London

The Africa Day of Prayer is expected to draw 15 million to 30 million participants from all 58 African nations and islands
On May 2 Africa was to witness what may be the greatest act of united prayer by Christians in the history of the continent.

An estimated 15 million to 30 million Africans from all 53 countries in Africa and five islands were expected to gather for united prayer in hundreds of stadiums throughout the continent.

For years churches across the continent had been praying that God would break the cycles of poverty and oppression that marked many African nations. But in 1998, the story of what God had done in Cali, Columbia, documented in the Transformations video produced by George Otis Jr. of The Sentinel Group, spread like wildfire among churches in Cape Town, South Africa. Church leaders across denominations began to gather for prayer.

Then in July 2000, Graham Power, a successful businessman in Cape Town, was awakened one day at 4 a.m. He said God gave him a vision in three stages. First, he was instructed to rent the 45,000-seat Newlands rugby stadium in Cape Town for a day of repentance and prayer for that city. In the second part of the vision, he saw the prayer movement spreading to the rest of South Africa for a national day of prayer, and in the final part of the vision he saw the effort cover the rest of the continent.

On March 21, 2001, the first step came to pass. A capacity crowd gathered in Newlands stadium for prayer and repentance. Soon after that a notorious gangster in the city was saved.

News of the first gathering spread quickly, and in 2002 eight cities in South Africa hosted the day of prayer. Leading up to the event young people from all over the country took part in a “Walk of Hope” from Bloemfontein to the eight stadiums where prayer meetings were to be held that year, visiting schools and community centers along the way. The events also were broadcast on television.

Power said he received another vision in February 2002, in which he saw the prayer event in 2003 spreading as far as the widest point in Africa, covering sub-Saharan Africa. The Day of Prayer for Africa last year did exactly that. Not only did 77 cities and towns in South Africa host interdenominational prayer events, but 60 other cities and towns in 27 countries in sub-Saharan Africa also took part. The event was broadcast by satellite television all over the continent.

Power said in the vision he had in 2003 he also saw that in 2004 prayer would cover the entire continent. “This past Saturday we had confirmation that the last two outstanding countries in Africa would come on board,” Power told Charisma in March. “We now have 58 of 58 African countries and islands participating in this year’s event. [Harvest Evangelism head] Ed Silvoso said to me this past weekend, ‘You know Graham, this may be the biggest prayer movement the world has ever seen.'”

Transformation Africa, one of several teams that coordinates the prayer day, has collected numerous testimonies of how the prayer days have changed lives and communities. In the rural conservative town of Piet Retief in South Africa, a community once deeply divided along racial lines has come together.

Anneke Rabe, an intercessor in the town, said that on the lead up to the 2003 prayer day, church leaders from the white community decided it was time to repent and ask for forgiveness for apartheid.

As they marched toward the black township Ethanda Kukhanya they found another crowd marching toward them led by several black church leaders. They met at the railway line that divided the two communities, and together the black and white believers marched to the stadium.

There the white church leaders knelt down and asked for forgiveness. The chairman of the black ministers’ fellowship Baba Dlamini said that day, “I did not think I would live to see this day.”

Africa is being changed one community at a time, Power said. “It has been amazing seeing these events unfold,” he told Charisma. “I’ve got to the point where I am really starting to believe that God is going to do what He says He will do.

“There have been three or four occasions over the last few years that God has had to pull me short when I have been worrying about whether plans are going to come together. God has said to me: ‘Hey, this is not your vision; it’s Mine. You just do the little things I’ve called you to do, and I will take care of the rest.'”
David Larsen in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

The Liebmanns moved to Jerusalem in 1999 and opened their home to men who had been living on the streets
Gerald Liebmann fancies himself a doctor, his home a hospital and the hundreds of homeless men in Jerusalem his pool of potential patients. He says he earned his “M.D.” in the school of hard knocks, spending years of his life addicted to heroin and living on the streets.

“All I can offer them is what saved me,” Liebmann said. “This is our home. We’re the doctors; they’re the patients. The medicine is love and accountability. If they don’t want the medicine, we can’t help.”

Since 1999, when Liebmann, his wife, Tracy, and their two children, Gina, 17, and Michael, 14, moved to Jerusalem, the family has opened its home to more than 100 homeless men, who receive food and a place to sleep, and quickly become part of the family.

“It’s a 24/7 atmosphere,” Tracy Liebmann said. “It’s a home, not a shelter. Our kids have never been harmed.”

“Gina and Michael have never complained about moving here,” Gerald Liebmann added. “I’m not saying it’s good to go through such things as terrorist aggression. We’re not foolish, but it does show you how much trust in God my children have.

“I don’t deserve to have such a devoted family, willing to go all the way for God. I am really a blessed man.”

Liebmann didn’t always consider himself so blessed. He grew up in New York City, abused as a child and an alcoholic by the time he reached his teens. He later became addicted to heroin and spent most of his days begging on the streets.

He moved to California in the 1980s, then later to Hawaii. But the cycle was the same: living on and off the streets, making and losing money in legitimate and illegitimate jobs, and whirling in and out of secular rehabilitation centers.

Liebmann met Tracy in Hawaii in 1984 when she bought drugs from him. “We’d drink and fight all the time,” said Tracy Liebmann, who grew up in South Central Los Angeles with parents who were Jehovah’s Witnesses. “I never had a Christmas until I was saved in 1988.”

The two married in 1986 after they both entered a rehab center. They came out clean and six months later headed back to California. “By the time we landed, we were drunk on the champagne they served,” Gerald Liebmann remembers.

Soon he was back on the streets before being admitted to a psychiatric hospital, but he was homeless again upon his release. His wife was living house to house with relatives.

Finally, Gerald Liebmann joined the Victory Outreach Rehabilitation Center, a ministry of Victory Outreach International, which was founded by Sonny Arguinzoni and now has more than 500 churches across the United States.

“I met the Lord one week later,” Gerald Liebmann said. “Nicky Cruz was preaching at a Victory Outreach Conference. I knelt down with my whole body shaking. I knew I wouldn’t go back to the old life.”

That was Aug. 14, 1987. Tracy Liebmann accepted Christ the following year. “I never knew there was a whole world of Christianity where you could be happy,” she told Charisma. “I didn’t know love until I felt it at Victory Outreach.”

For seven years, the Liebmanns were mentored by Victory Outreach staff, then became mentors themselves. “If you’ve been a wounded soldier, you know what the wounds of another feel like,” Gerald Liebmann said.

The Liebmanns eventually planted a church in California. Describing himself as an Italian with a Jewish name–though he believes his aunt’s claim that he is Jewish–Gerald Liebmann later began attending Messianic Jewish events. “As I was praying, God said: ‘I want you to go to My people.’ It was like a light bulb. From then on, Israel was deep inside me.”

The Liebmanns moved to Jerusalem in 1999, hoping to see homeless men like Oleg Fiegleman touched by the same love that transformed them. A Russian immigrant and former music teacher, Fiegleman hoped to make a living in Israel but found himself drinking night and day. “I didn’t even know what country I was in,” he says today.

That was before he met the Liebmanns. Now the worship leader for the church that meets in the Liebmanns’ home, Fiegleman says: “I never heard please or thank you before. … I’m treated like a human being here. God has given me this chance.”
Arlene Bridges Samuels in Jerusalem

For more information about the Liebmanns’ work, visit .

Christians Massacred by Muslim Militants

Some 49 Christians were recently massacred by Islamic militants in a raid on the Christian town of Yelwa in Nigeria. According to the Barnabas Fund, ethnic Fulani Muslims reportedly shot most of the victims on Feb. 24 as they ran to a church desperately seeking refuge. Local Christians in Plateau State have suffered repeated attacks from ethnic Hausa-Fulani Muslim settlers since September 2001. Hundreds have been killed in the violence. Believers in Plateau say militant elements within the Muslim community are working on a strategy to drive out Christians in the state, Barnabas Fund said.

Christians Pressured to Give Up Faith in Eritrea

Police recently imprisoned a group of 51 Christians worshiping in secret in the Eritrean capital of Asmara. On Feb. 16, Mengse Tweldemedhane, pastor of the Hallelujah Church, was arrested along with his congregation in the Edaga Hamuse district, Compass Direct reported. The 34 men and 17 women were detained at a military camp until Feb. 18, when Tweldemedhane was separated from the group and locked in an underground cell. He remains under severe pressure to renounce his Protestant beliefs and return to the Eritrean Orthodox Church.

Christians Flee Villages After Mob Attack

Christian women in Orissa State, India, were attacked and humiliated recently by Hindus for refusing to give up their faith. On Feb. 6, Hindu extremists dragged eight women, including two 15-year-old girls, out of their homes while their husbands were at work and tried to persuade them to renounce Christianity, Compass Direct reported. When the women refused, the group beat the women, stripped them naked and forced them to walk through their villages before shaving their heads. The act of “tonsuring,” or shaving the crown of the head, is a religious ritual normally reserved for priests and monks. When the mob of about 45 villagers made further threats against them, the women and their families fled the two villages of Kilipala and Kanimul in Jagatsinghpur District of Orissa. About 20 people, including two infants, took shelter in a church in Bhubaneshwar.