If you are like me, you are proud of the 100,000 U.S. troops who are serving in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, defending democracy and waging war on terrorism. These brave men and women are serving under very difficult circumstances far from family and friends. Their work is dangerous and tiring and benefits us all.

A few months ago we had the privilege of publishing a book about our president titled The Faith of George W. Bush. We have been encouraged by the response to the book and the powerful message of faith author Stephen Mansfield crafted.

Now, we have an opportunity to get this book into the hands of military personnel who we believe will be blessed by the message and inspired by the faith of their commander in chief.

The book, which was on one of The New York Times best-seller lists for two weeks, is not a political book. It is the story of how a man who was considered the mediocre son of a famous father and who had a troubled marriage and a drinking problem was totally transformed after he came to faith in Christ. Twelve years later, the Lord spoke to this man and told him his country would need him in a time of crisis and he should run for president.

Scott Plakon, a businessman from Longwood, Florida, and a good friend of mine, read the book and asked for some copies to send to servicemen serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. Scott was inspired by reading the book of the president’s spiritual odyssey and thought that people who were risking their lives in defense of our freedoms might benefit by gaining a better understanding of their commander in chief.

Around Christmas Scott came to me and offered to make the book available to other troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. He said he would give a donation to our nonprofit partner, Christian Life Missions, to provide the books for thousands of servicemen and women. I told him I would match his donation and try to involve our readers in this project.

Because we like to do things based on relationship, we began contacting chaplains to ask them if they would be interested in helping. We got an enthusiastic response from retired Army Col. E. H. “Jim” Ammerman, head of the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches, which has approximately 200 Spirit-filled chaplains serving in the armed forces. Ammerman had read the book and believed it would bless the troops. He is working with us to distribute the books through his own chaplains and to make contacts in high places in the military.

Our plan is simple. We will start by giving out as many books as we have money to pay for, and we will continue to distribute them as funds become available.

Our company is making the books available at our cost, with no royalty for the author and no profit for our company. The only additional cost is the shipping.

A few weeks ago we published a companion study guide, which takes the principles in the book and expounds on them in a format appropriate for group discussion. Because The Faith of George W. Bush was co-published with Penguin Group (USA) Inc., it was written without a lot of references to Scripture and without specific commentary on the spiritual concepts involved. The study guide explores these spiritual concepts. It is perfect for the troops to use with their chaplains.

We want to raise money to send between 25,000 and 50,000 copies of the book and the study guide to chaplains, who will distribute them to the men and women under their leadership in the armed forces. Our company will do its part, but we need readers such as you to give whatever you can for this project.

Tell us if you would like a copy of the book or the study guide for yourself. Christian Life Missions will be happy to send one to you as a thank you for your donation, deducting the fair market value of the book (as required by law) from the tax-exempt donation amount on the receipt you will receive.

We ask that you give generously. We need a big response to meet this need! You can trust us to use the money as outlined above and to report back later on the results.

Please send your tax-deductible gift to Christian Life Missions, P.O. Box 952248, Lake Mary, FL 32795-2248. Thank you for partnering with us to bless our servicemen and women!

Faith-based groups in Cambodia and elsewhere are working to end sexual exploitation
Srei Gauv’s smile was as bright as the sun rising over the nearby Mekong River. “I dream about being married and living in a big house,” the 18-year-old Cambodian said. “I want to have a family.”

Not unusual aspirations for a teenage girl, but hearing them come from Srei Gauv brought tears to missionary Tammy Fong Heilemann. “This is success,” Heilemann said. “She is learning to dream.”

Srei Gauv did not dream much before she arrived at House of Hope in Kompong Cham, started by Heilemann and her colleagues in 1998 as an outreach of the Christian humanitarian organization InnerCHANGE. Rather, Srei Gauv’s family and society had relegated her as an outcast because she was one of an estimated 20,000 underage children who had for years been ensnared in Cambodia’s grizzly world of sex trafficking.

“Some girls are sexually exploited as young as 6,” World Vision Cambodia Communications Manager Anita Dodds said. “It shocks you to the core.”

In Asia alone, as many as 1 million boys and girls under 18 are forced, coerced or sold into prostitution or sexual slavery each year, estimates Rob Morris, director of Justice for Children International (), a New Haven, Christian advocacy group. Worldwide, the figure may be twice as high.

“A lot of people are not aware of the issue,” Morris added. “Most are blown away when they learn the facts. Obviously justice is important to God–the Bible talks about defending the weak and the fatherless. I cannot think of anyone in the world who is more vulnerable [than a child forced into sex trafficking]. If the church is aware, we will act.”

Thailand and the Philippines have long been hotbeds of child prostitution, but trafficking does not stop there. World Vision International also identifies Cambodia, India and Brazil as tempests, but adds that no nation lies untouched. An estimated 10,000 forced prostitutes are brought into the United States each year, The New York Times reported.

Traffickers often transport women and children to nations where they do not speak the language or know the culture. Nepalese cross the border to India. Colombians can be found in Venezuela. Nigerians work in brothels in Italy.

“The map of sex-trafficking routes spans around the world,” Morris said. “It looks like a spider web stretching from Mexico to Russia to Sri Lanka.”

UNICEF Canada estimated that sexual exploitation yields $3 billion a year, the third-largest organized crime in the world, only trailing drug and gun trafficking. This forcible movement of people is 10 times larger than the trans-Atlantic slave trade at its peak. Lack of awareness, sex tourism, weak or no local law enforcement and poverty spur its growth, Thailand-based ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes) and other watchdog agencies assert.

Sex trafficking proliferated virtually unchecked for years, but people have started to fight back. In 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Protect Act that allows U.S. agents to prosecute American citizens who commit sex crimes against minors in any nation and establishes mandatory 30-year sentences for each offense. In December, Bush also inked the Trafficking Victim’s Protection Reauthorization Act. It earmarks $200 million to combat trafficking worldwide.

Faith-based missions are also involved. In January, World Vision received a $500,000 U.S. government grant to launch a child sex tourism prevention project utilizing billboards, in-flight magazines and the Internet. In Cambodia, World Vision ( ) works to prevent sex tourism through police training, partnerships with the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Interior, children’s clubs and other efforts, Dodds said.

Last year, Washington, International Justice Mission (IJM) spearheaded a widely publicized brothel raid in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that resulted in the rescue of underage girls. IJM () investigates cases of sex trafficking, works to rescue victims and attempts to bring perpetrators to justice.

“Commercial sexual exploitation is the ugliest, most preventable man-made disaster on the earth today,” IJM founder and President Gary Haugen said. “As people of faith, God calls us to do something about this oppression. We cannot simply look away; we must act.”

In Cambodia, several other Christian agencies seek to heal victims and reduce poverty. The Hagar Project, for example, runs three businesses that employ Cambodians, some of whom have come out of a shelter the ministry operates for rape victims and former sex workers.

“Christians are still lagging behind in providing a meaningful answer,” Hagar Project Director Pierre Tami observed. “In general, we do not have much appreciation for justice. You cannot go to a girl in a brothel who has been sold by her mother and give her the four spiritual laws. The church needs to be awakened. Girls are literally disappearing, and the gospel has a chance to make a difference.”

InnerCHANGE’s House of Hope conducts health-education seminars in Cambodian provinces where prostitution thrives and offers girls a way out. As many as 20 girls a year can reside at the ministry’s home. After nearly a year at House of Hope, Srei Gauv has learned to read, has gained self-respect, can operate a sewing machine and attends church. “I will not be deceived any more,” she softly, but firmly, said. “If other people can make it, I can make it.”

Some House of Hope graduates go into business manufacturing garments, purses and other items for Hands of Hope, an adjunct business (). One graduate now earns $100 a month. Typically factory workers earn $45 to $70 a month.

A growing number of like-minded ministries reach out in other nations, too. House of Refuge in Chiang Rai, Thailand, originally only housed girls who had been forced into prostitution. Now the group has two homes and also takes in minors who have been victims of sexual abuse. In the Congo, Relief for Oppressed People Everywhere (ROPE), a Britain-based Christian charity, helps orphans, street children and girls in danger of prostitution.

“Sometimes we question the impact we have on what seems like an impossible issue to address,” Heilemann told Charisma. “Then we look at the faces of the girls and young women like Srei Gauv and we remember that it is worth loving one at a time … offering hope, modeling compassion, showing the mercy of our God–and giving them a chance to dream.”
Steven Lawson in Cambodia

More than 300 church and parachurch leaders attending this year’s annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in Colorado Springs, Colo., rose and applauded the gathering’s first speaker, President George W. Bush, when he addressed the crowd March 11 via satellite from Washington, D.C.

Receiving standing ovations at the beginning and end of his 15-minute address, the president never mentioned Democratic rival John Kerry, who was the subject of a series of attack ads Republicans released the same day. Nor did he even acknowledge that a campaign for the presidency was well under way.

Instead he recited his administration’s major accomplishments, the loudest applause coming when he declared his support of family values. “I will defend the sanctity of marriage against activist courts and local officials who want to redefine marriage,” he said.

Bush also drew cheers for referring to America as “freedom’s home and freedom’s defender,” but he added that liberty is the possession of no government. “Liberty and freedom are God’s gifts to every man and woman,” he said.

Bush also reminded evangelicals of his efforts to send AIDS medicine to Africa, slow the sex traffic in Asia, reduce taxes, create new jobs, reform public education, promote faith-based charities, support abstinence education, and oppose abortion, stem-cell research and human cloning.

In his introductory comments, NAE President Ted Haggard said the only issue he and the president disagree on is trucks. Haggard prefers Chevrolets, while Bush is typically seen driving a Ford at his Texas ranch.

But not everyone was as excited about the president’s address. The Rev. Cheryle Hanna, a convention participant, is an assistant to the pastor at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit and a member of the national board of American Baptist Churches of the United States.

“It’s interesting how a president who wants to portray himself as a Christian being guided by God would take young American men and women into a war under false pretenses,” said Hanna, who also wishes some of the billions being spent in Iraq were applied to more pressing social issues at home.

Bush was the first of three administration speakers who got top billing at this year’s NAE gathering. The others were Timothy Goeglein, a special assistant to the president, and John Hanford, U. S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.
Steve Rabey in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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

Chinese House-Church Leaders Arrested

Three prominent house-church leaders were arrested recently in what is believed to be a government crackdown on the underground church. In January police arrested Qiao Chunling, 41; Deborah Xu Yongling, 58; and Zeng Guangobo, 35, who escaped two days after his capture, Christianity Today reported. The arrests followed the release of a book, Jesus in Beijing by David Aikman, and four-hour video, The Cross: Jesus in China, produced by China Soul for Christ Foundation. Both document the growth of Christianity in China, and police allegedly are focusing on those mentioned in the book and video. Some fear the crackdown may be as brutal as China’s action against the Falun Gong, which led to at least 64 deaths.

Missionaries Beaten in India Attack

Six Gospel for Asia (GA) missionaries were beaten recently by anti-Christian fundamentalists who reportedly intended to kill the believers. The attack occurred in Orissa State, where Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were martyred in 1999. Onlookers intervened during the attack, sparing the missionaries. The men, however, were beaten so badly they had to be hospitalized. “Pray for their full recovery and strength,” GA officials said in an e-mail to supporters. “Like several other Indian states, Orissa has an anti-conversion law in effect. Pray for souls to come to Christ in Orissa and for the believers to stay strong in their faith.”

Sri Lankan Christians Blamed for Monk’s Death

Christians in Sri Lanka were recently attacked after the death of a Buddhist monk. According to the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEARLC), Soma Thero, who championed Buddhist nationalism, died of a heart attack while in Russia, but Buddhist monks labeled his death the result of a Christian conspiracy. Rioting reportedly marked Thero’s Dec. 24 funeral, at which 15 Christians were wounded. On Dec. 28, two churches in Puvakpitiya were attacked as they ended morning worship. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but property damage was extensive. Security has been stepped up around churches, WEARLC said.

Ohio minister Mark Olds uses his testimony to share God’s love and redemption with ex-offenders

I’m a Christian and I’m not going to let you die.”

Those words were spoken to Mark Olds in 1979 by a state trooper who with four other law enforcement officers had him trapped at a roadblock on a North Carolina highway. Instead of attempting to escape, which he believes would have likely cost him his life, Olds surrendered, marking the beginning of his journey from robber to reverend. Today the ordained minister hopes to help others turn from lives of crime through his Cleveland-based The Righteous Men Ministries.

Olds has reached out to hundreds of men and women, helping them find jobs and clothes, and organizing support groups for their families. He also has the distinction of being the first person ever to be ordained a minister while incarcerated. He even led a congregation of inmates behind bars.

“He is another affirmation that human redemption is not only possible but miraculous,” said the Rev. Harold A. Carter Sr., the pastor of New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore who ordained Olds in 1984. “In God’s world it can happen whenever faith is alive.”

Olds still finds it ironic that his faith came alive while he was serving a 61-year sentence for a string of bank robberies and a prison escape. He thanks God for the caring Christian policeman who interrupted his aggressive path toward self-destruction.

“To this day I believe God used that man to save my life,” Olds recounts in his biography Not Without Scars.

His decision for Christ at the age of 30 marked the end of more than a decade of drug dealing, gambling, bank robbing and even committing murder.

“I thank God He called me when I was still foolish, or else I may have thought I did this myself,” Olds told Charisma. “[God] knew what He was getting when He got me, and He knows who you are, but He still chose you and loves you.”

Today Olds is co-pastor of Eagle Rock Covenant Assembly in Cleveland, but he continues to reach out to inmates through his Seven Phases of Change seminars, which help inmates develop the discipline to avoid returning to lives of crime after they are released.

The curriculum is drawn from Olds’ own experience. While in prison, he had earned the respect of inmates, wardens and chaplains alike. He studied the Bible along with black history books and the works of Martin Luther King Jr.

He came to believe that the way to get people to behave properly was to get them born again. He said that although many Christians stress this view regarding sexual immorality and drug abuse, he also applied it to social issues such as racism, criminal justice and economic inequality.

He honed his unique brand of liberation theology–which taught that through Christ a person could find not only spiritual liberty, but also social and economic freedom–by writing articles while in prison, most of which were published on the outside. He also published a short booklet, Words of Liberation From Prison.

When he was later baptized in the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues, he said the experience “opened up a whole new realm to my faith.” Emboldened to preach, he anticipated a great life of ministry outside of prison. But upon his release in 1989, he found that creating a new life on the outside would take time.

He was 40 years old, and the only job he could find was as a mechanics assistant. Slowly, opportunities to get better-paying jobs and ministry positions began to open, thanks to help from Christians he met upon his release.

In 1991, Olds became associate pastor of The Full Gospel Evangelistic Center in Cleveland. He later became an associate pastor at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church before starting The Righteous Men Ministries (TRMM) in 2002.

He hopes to see TRMM spread across the country. “There has to be practical mentorship, but it is too much for one church to handle,” Olds told Charisma. “Churches in a community must come together and be willing to work to help these people come back in to society … because without Christ there is no point.”

Olds’ resolve stems from the miracles he has experienced. He has not only reconciled with his adult daughter, who was in grade school when he went to prison, but he has also married and has three more daughters and a granddaughter.

In a documentary about Olds’ life, released last year, one inmate said, “What allows [inmates] to feel like a human again is no matter what we’ve done, Christ still loves us.”

That’s a message Olds hopes will spread. “Everyone is incarcerated,” Olds said, “some physically, some have other strongholds. My story shows people you can start again. … God can use you.”
Tiffany Colter in Cleveland

Original Bibleman Willie Aames is hanging up his cape and will head a Kansas-based entertainment company

Robert “T” Schlipp figures he’s found his dream job. He’s a superhero.

Last summer, Schlipp resigned as children’s pastor of one of the largest churches in Northern California to become the new Bibleman, the Christian super-action hero who triumphs over evil by quoting Bible verses. His accomplice in good deeds, Biblegirl, is his wife, Anayansi.

“Being able to be a superhero, a superhero who delivers something of real value, is every kid’s dream come true,” Schlipp said. “We’re truly blessed.”

Schlipp replaces Willie Aames, the original Bibleman who toured the country the last eight years, putting biff, bam and pow into Bible-verse memorization. Initially Aames, who starred in the TV series Eight Is Enough from 1977-1981, was to remain as a consultant for Bibleman Live and continue to do Bibleman videos. But Aames said he was told in January that his position as senior executive vice president at Pamplin Entertainment, which produces the Bibleman videos, “was no longer needed.”

Pamplin CFO Andrea Merek would not discuss the circumstances surrounding the departure, but said they “parted ways on good terms.”

Aames’ final appearance as Bibleman was to be in the March release of Divided We Fall. Though he will hang up his Bibleman cape, Aames said he will serve as co-owner and president of the Kansas City, Outpost Broadcast Communications. He said he hopes to create characters “like Bibleman”–who has helped bring thousands to Christ.

In one year, 16,000 children and adults committed their lives to Christ in Bibleman outreaches. In September at a Franklin Graham crusade in Tulsa, Okla., where Aames made one of his last appearances as Bibleman, nearly 600 people–mostly children–accepted Christ.

The Schlipps, who married in March 2000, will begin an 8-1/2-month tour this month, doing between 80 and 100 performances, traveling across the country and living in a mobile home. “That’s pretty ambitious,” said 28-year-old Robert. “But we’re young, and we’re naive.”

Initially, Schlipp worried there would be a resistance to anyone other than Aames being the Bibleman. But he’s been reassured by an open-arm reception. “We don’t have to convince people about Bibleman,” Schlipp said. “There’s already a good reputation. We haven’t had to do a lot of publicity.”

Schlipp first met Aames six years ago at a Bibleman performance at Schlipp’s church, Sunset Christian Center in Rocklin, Calif. Schlipp served as children’s pastor there for seven years until he resigned in February 2003. Aames first asked him to join the Bibleman tour as a villain. In June he became the lead.

“Pastor T believes in the [Bibleman] ministry as much as I have,” Aames said. “The impact that Bibleman has had on our nation’s youth has been nothing short of miraculous. It would be a win for the enemy if we were to let this ground-breaking ministry fade.”

Plots of Bibleman adventures will center on the same themes. Bibleman, Biblegirl and Bibleman’s computer, Unis, will overcome villains such as the Wacky Protester, or an evil computer named Lucy that sneaks into the Bibleman’s headquarters. Bibleman counters by quoting Scripture and swinging his light saber, which Schlipp calls the sword of the Spirit.

Biblegirl has been in four videos, but she’s never been on the tour. “It’s an opportunity to have something positive for girls to look to, and to encourage them to learn Scriptures,” Anayansi Schlipp said. “Kids often tend to be the afterthought in the church world. After seeing the live Bibleman show for the first time, I was really impressed with the quality of it.”

In addition to Aames’ work on a new millennium Christian superhero, he plans to produce a series for 8- to 12-year-old girls, as well as some productions for adults, including a show titled Novella for the Spanish TV network TeleMundo, a fall pilot on the Food Network titled Local Entrée, and a documentary based on the book of Acts.
Gail Wood and Rhonda Sholar