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

Pastor in Pakistan Found Shot to Death

The body of a Christian pastor was found Jan. 5 at the Khanewal Railway Station in Pakistan. An autopsy revealed the Rev. Mukhtar Masih, 50, had been shot in the chest, All Pakistan Minorities Alliance reported. Masih’s son said his father recently had received death threats from local Muslim extremists, some of whom had in the past asked police to ban Masih’s church from using loud speakers. At least 45 people have been killed and more than 90 injured since October 2001, Christian Solidarity International reported.

Christian Families Forced To Leave Laos Village

Two families were recently forced to leave their village in the Attapue Province because they would not renounce their faith in Christ. According to Christian Aid Mission (CAM), six women and their children arrived in the city of Pakse in southern Laos on Jan. 2 after being threatened for many months. “The situation is getting very unstable and dangerous,” two of the women said. Elsewhere, police arrested 11 believers gathered for worship in Kang village, Somsouk village, Donphai village and Sanamsai City. Authorities reportedly are seeking other Christian leaders who are said to be in hiding. Some reportedly have walked more than 60 miles to avoid arrest, CAM reported.

Korean Aid Worker Imprisoned in China

A South Korean Christian humanitarian worker was recently sentenced to a nine-year jail sentence for helping a small group of North Koreans defect to South Korea. The human-rights group Jubilee Campaign reported that the Rev. Choi Bong-il was arrested on April 12, 2002, in Yanji, located in the Jilin Province in China, and charged with organizing illegal border crossings for helping North Korean refugees attempt to defect to South Korea. During a December 2002 trial, a Chinese court did not render a verdict, but authorities continued to detain Bong-il. In mid-December, the court finally found Bong-il guilty. “Please pray that Rev. Choi’s appeal will be timely heard by the court and that … he will be released,” Jubilee Campaign officials said. “Please pray that God continue to give him spiritual and physical strength.”

Across the United States, dynamic outreaches to inmates and ex-offenders are helping reduce recidivism rates
Christian prison ministries across the country are reducing recidivism rates of countless ex-offenders. But more than simply changing statistics, these organizations are credited with transforming lives.

Robert Valdez, 29, spent most of his life selling drugs in the streets of New York. Today, for the first time ever, he earns honest wages working as a land surveyor–thanks to House of Hope of Alachua County, an after-care prison ministry in Gainesville, Fla., that houses converted inmates immediately upon release.

“I would have gone right back to the things I was doing before if it wasn’t for this place,” Valdez said. “The most important thing I have learned is that without my relationship with Jesus, I am lost.”

Since its humble beginnings in 1996, House of Hope has been home to more than 150 men, and the organization has seen dozens of lives drastically changed.

According to a recidivism report released by the Florida Department of Corrections in July 2003, approximately 40.5 percent of male inmates re-offend after three years of release from prison. This is in stark contrast to House of Hope’s recidivism rates–only 17 percent of their total number of graduates have ever re-offended.

Thomas Johnson, executive director of House of Hope, said his program offers the world what it is looking for: an answer. “The world has no answers for the state of self-destruction that it’s in,” Johnson told Charisma. “There’s no answer other than Christ.”

A recent study conducted by Byron R. Johnson, Ph.D., director of The Religion and Civil Society Program at The Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, N.J., found a significant relation between faith-based mentoring and decreased recidivism rates.

The study reports drastically reduced recidivism rates for Texas inmates who completed InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI)–a pre-release, faith-based program that was launched in April 1997 under the recommendation of then-Gov. George W. Bush.

According to the study, IFI program participants were “significantly less likely than the matched groups” to be either re-arrested (17.3 percent vs. 35 percent) or re-incarcerated (8 percent vs. 20.3 percent) in the first two years after release.

“Findings are consistent across a wide range of studies,” Byron Johnson said. “When religious commitment goes up, crime goes down.”

There are four key elements regarding IFI’s success, Johnson added. The program encourages inmates to experience a spiritual transformation, it relies heavily upon volunteers and mentors, it provides support systems for inmates upon release, and it emphasizes education, work, life skills and mentoring built upon a foundation of biblical principles.

IFI is operated by Prison Fellowship Ministries (PFM), the largest prison ministry in the United States, through a contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The organization was founded by Charles Colson, a former aide to President Nixon who was imprisoned on Watergate-related charges.

According to Mark Earley, president of PFM, relationships are critical to its participants’ success. “We match them with someone early on so that there is a relationship developed before their release,” Earley said. “Our key to success is that we don’t finish involvement when they leave prison. We get them hooked up with a local church, a job, an accountability partner.”

Though recent statistics are promising, it is the lives of IFI’s graduates that reflect the true change, Earley said.

After serving 13 years of a 35-year prison sentence for the murder of his wife, IFI graduate Robert Sutton said he experienced true freedom before ever walking out of a jail cell. “I was taught that even though my body was confined, my mind and spirit could be freed through Jesus Christ,” Sutton said.

Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives said Sutton’s life reflects the effectiveness of faith-based organizations all over America.

“[Robert Sutton] left prison a different man,” Towey said. “When you look at how he has spent his life since being out of prison, it’s astounding to see the contrast from before.”

Today Sutton is on staff at The Greater Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Houston, where he has been a faithful member since his release in 1998.

It is the story of everyone who has had a spiritual conversion, Towey said. “They are desiring to do good, one day at a time. You can see that in Robert Sutton’s face.”
Suzy Richardson

The Back to Jerusalem movement seeks to take the gospel from China to Israel, to the world’s most unreached people
After a combined 40 years in prison for preaching the gospel, three Chinese house church leaders are reviving an 80-year-old vision to take the gospel from China to Jerusalem–a region that comprises 90 percent of the world’s unreached people.

Peter Xu Yongze, Enoch Wang and “Brother Yun,” whose dramatic testimony of torture and imprisonment is recounted in the book The Heavenly Man, are spearheading the effort known as the Back to Jerusalem movement. The campaign seeks to mobilize 100,000 Chinese missionaries who would die to evangelize the estimated 2 billion people in the area known as the 10/40 Window.

The vision was first articulated by China’s Jesus Church in the 1920s, and was implemented in 1949, the same year the Communist Party took over China. Most of those missionaries were imprisoned and died before being freed.

Yongze, Wang and Yun explain their strategy in Back to Jerusalem: Called to Complete the Great Commission, written with Paul Hattaway, who has authored several books about the church in China.

The initial 36 workers were sent out in 2000. Hattaway said that number has climbed to about 1,000 today. “The number of Chinese missionaries is growing every week, and many hundreds more are being trained inside China right now,” he said.

The 10/40 Window, which includes much of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, is home to the three largest spiritual strongholds in the world today–Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

“The Chinese missionaries will face opposition in these regions,” said Luis Bush, who heads the World Inquiry, a ministry that assesses missions activity inside the 10/40 Window. “But they believe the persecution they have already endured was like a training ground for this difficult mission that left them equipped to take the gospel through these territories. That is a very deep conviction.”

Patrick Johnstone, editor of Operation World, a prayer compendium on the various nations of the world, said the missionaries could face an excessive amount of persecution “if their zeal is not tempered by wisdom and a deep understanding of the cultures that they seek to reach.”

Hattaway said Chinese missionaries are receiving language, cross-cultural and religious training, and plan to work closely with local believers in each nation they visit. He added that 100,000–a tithe of what house church leaders estimated to be 1 million full-time Christian workers in China–is the minimum number of missionaries organizers plan to send out.

Journalist David Aikman, who has written extensively about China’s Christians, said the Back to Jerusalem movement has gained strength in the last decade. “There is no part of China that I have visited in which house churches are active where ordinary Christians are not aware of the movement and in most cases, eager to support it,” he said.

Bush believes now is a good time to revive this vision, noting that China recently joined the World Trade Organization, which significantly opened communication with the outside world. He also points to the country’s anticipation of the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, which is spurring a more world-friendly attitude.

Johnstone said publishing a book on the Back to Jerusalem movement may be premature, but he noted that the Bible encourages evangelism nonetheless.

“This type of movement will take time and years of language learning, and there will be a steep learning curve with many mistakes,” Johnstone said. “There needs to be an effective network of support and pastoral oversight with adequate accountability, which is not yet there.”

Still, the Chinese house church leaders have pledged to do whatever it takes to fulfill the Back to Jerusalem vision. “The leaders are concentrated on getting the job done in the power of the Lord,” Hattaway said. “The details of how this happens they are leaving up to the Lord.”
Jennifer LeClaire

Leaders say their U.S. assignment is complete, and they want to help other nations plan their own events
Three years after California pastor Lou Engle issued an urgent call for youth to convene in Washington, D.C., to pray for their nation, the leader of what has become a national prayer movement said the mission has been accomplished.

“I believe in some small way, The Call helped heal the broken covenants of the past, thereby bringing our nation under a measure of covenantal protection,” said Engle, pastor of Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena. “My assignment was to help shift the courts of America through prayer back to righteousness. I believe we opened that door.”

In the future Call organizers say they will help other countries host their own Call events. Meetings are scheduled for Sydney, Australia, in 2004, and Berlin in 2005.

The last U.S. Call event–dubbed The Call Texas and held Nov. 27-29 in Dallas–brought 25,000 participants to the Cotton Bowl for three days. Attendees fed the poor on Thanksgiving Day, then spent seven hours at a worship banquet the following day. There evangelist Tommy Tenney issued a charge “to break strongholds, sow seeds and change destiny. Hitler proved there is power in a rally. We’re here to activate.”

The next morning The Call Texas began at 7 o’clock and was marked by fasting, repentance, worship and prayer spanning the next 12 hours. Its goals were to pray that God would right the injustices committed against the unborn and various ethnic groups, to reconcile the generations, and to transform the culture.

The seven previous Call events drew 640,000 people to pray for such concerns as national security at the Boston event–held 11 days after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001–prayer in schools at the New York Call; and the media during the Los Angeles and San Francisco gatherings.

Participants in The Call Texas came from across the country. Allen Lao, an engineer from California, came to pray that the spirit of grief lingering over the nation since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963 would be broken. Kana Steinmayer, a housewife and evangelist who attended with her husband and teenage children, came to show her support for the emerging young leaders.

“The kids get inspired by all the moms and dads of the faith championing them in their call,” she told Charisma.

“Joining the generations is the most important thing God is doing right now,” noted Colorado pastor Dutch Sheets of Springs Harvest Fellowship in Colorado Springs, who was among the prayer leaders during the event. “It’s the key–even flashpoint–of revival.”

Lynne Chapman fasted 40 days in preparation for the event. Having had three abortions, Chapman now leads a San Francisco-area ministry for others who have had abortions. She told Charisma: “I came here to break the back of abortion. In order to do that you get to the root.”

Addressing the legacy of abortion, which was legalized as a result of a court case that began in Dallas, was one of the meeting’s primary goals. Engle believes abortion also has roots in the Sand Creek Indian Massacre, which took place on Nov. 29, 1864, in Colorado. On that day U.S. soldiers tore open pregnant women and impaled them on swords.

Sheets said that God takes covenant-breaking seriously, and he led the crowd in repentance for the historic atrocity. Jay Swallow, a veteran evangelist whose great-great grandfather was killed in the massacre, responded: “We forgive. Today is a new day. We’ll walk as equals now–no more underlings. I release forgiveness. We forgive in Jesus’ name.”

In keeping with the theme of repentance, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., asked forgiveness for crimes against both First Nations people and African Americans, as well as the aborted unborn.

In addition to planning international Call events, organizers want to help mobilize groups to go to their state capitals to spend five hours in prayer for local and national concerns, especially the elections.
Karen Tom in Dallas

The following reports were released during the last month by Charisma News Service. Go to our Web site at to subscribe to the free weekday service or to access full-length versions of each day’s stories. The site also includes a search engine so you can access archived news.

SAUDI ARABIA AMONG TOP RELIGIOUS-LIBERTY OFFENDERS
Saudi Arabia once again topped the U.S. State Department’s list of nations that failed to respect religious liberty. Bluntly stating that “freedom of religion does not exist” in Saudi Arabia, the State Department’s 2003 Report on Religious Freedom listed numerous instances of religious persecution, noting improvement in only two countries–Laos and Kazakhstan–though hostility toward minority religions still exists in both. Also criticized were Egypt, for prosecuting people who hold unorthodox religious beliefs, and Iran, for officially sanctioning discrimination against minorities, Reuters reported. The State Department also listed China, which the report said selectively cracked down on unregistered churches, and North Korea, where the State Department cited reports of executions, torture and imprisonment.

ONLY HALF OF PROTESTANT PASTORS HOLD BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW
A recent study by the Barna Research Group revealed that only 51 percent of ministers, representing a random cross-section of Protestant churches, have a biblical view on six core beliefs: the accuracy of biblical teaching, the sinless nature of Jesus, the literal existence of Satan, the omnipotence and omniscience of God, salvation by grace alone and the personal responsibility to evangelize. Released in January, the survey of 601 senior pastors in seven denominational segments discovered that Southern Baptists had the highest percentage of pastors with a biblical worldview (71 percent), while Methodists were lowest (27 percent). Among the other segments examined, 57 percent of the pastors of Baptist churches (other than Southern Baptist) had a biblical worldview, as did 51 percent of nondenominational Protestant pastors, 44 percent of pastors of charismatic or Pentecostal churches, 35 percent of pastors of black churches, and 28 percent of those leading mainline congregations.

CALIFORNIA CASINO ‘REBORN’ AS A CHURCH
A former Fowler, Calif., casino reopened in January to a different crowd–worshipers. Jan. 11 marked the “grand opening rebirth” of the former Vineyard Casino that has been converted to Vineyard Worship Centre, a 700-member Assemblies of God (AG) congregation. The 49,000-square-foot casino, which reportedly cost $15.5 million to build, closed in 1997, less than a year after it opened, The Selma Enterprise reported. It was vacant for seven years before the AG provided the $2 million to buy the property.

MINNESOTA MAN WANTS $126,000 CHURCH DONATION BACK
A 55-year-old man is suing a Cloquet, Minn., church because it won’t give back a $126,000 donation he gave during a deep depression five years ago, the Associated Press reported. Marcel Mager said he made the anonymous donation during a time of emotional distress and thought giving the church money would ease his pain. His wife had left him two weeks before the January 1999 donation. It was nearly their entire life savings. Five months later, Mager asked for the money back, but leaders at the Cloquet Gospel Tabernacle church said no. They had already used the money for a new family ministry space. Mager sued the church in 2002, and the issue has yet to be resolved. The pastor, the Rev. Richard Doebler, said church leaders regret the situation but don’t plan on returning the donation.

Gospel Artists Honored at Annual Stellar Awards

A who’s who of gospel artists were recognized at the 19th Stellar Awards held Jan. 10 in Houston. Among the honorees were Byron Cage, whose awards included Male Vocalist of the Year and CD of the Year; and Kurt Carr, who earned Song of the Year and Producer of the Year awards for “The Presence of the Lord Is Here,” recorded on Cage’s self-titled CD. Among the other recipients were Vickie Winans, for Artist of the Year; and Lee Williams & the Spiritual QC’s, for Group/Duo of the Year.

Pauline Parham Dies

Pauline Elizabeth Holman Parham, daughter-in-law of Charles Parham, who is considered the father of the modern Pentecostal movement, died Dec. 22 at her home in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif., The Dallas Morning News reported. She was 93. Widowed after 16 years of marriage to Robert Parham, Pauline Parham went on to pastor four churches and run two Bible colleges. She was also dean of women at Christ for the Nations until 1984. She is survived by her daughter, two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Former Baptist Head Returns to Pulpit

Jailed Baptist minister Henry Lyons returned to the pulpit upon his release from a Florida prison Nov. 29. Lyons, former head of the National Baptist Convention, told the congregation at First Baptist Institutional Church in Lakeland, Fla., that he had “truly, truly repented” of his sins, The St. Petersburg Times reported. Convicted of racketeering in 1999 and sentenced to 5-1/2 years in prison, 61-year-old Lyons said he hopes to return to his former church in St. Petersburg.

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The ministry veteran was regarded by many as a spiritual mother in the charismatic movement
Respected Bible teacher and author Fuchsia Pickett died in her Tennessee home Jan. 30. She was 85.

A well-educated theologian who was in ministry for more than 50 years, Pickett influenced many Christian leaders, including Benny Hinn and Judson Cornwall, and was considered a spiritual mother by many in the charismatic movement.

Pickett’s friends say she was recovering from pneumonia but that she died of natural causes. Joan Gebhardt, who was staying with Pickett at her home in Kingsport, told Charisma that Pickett died in her sleep.

“She went to be with Jesus very peacefully,” said Gebhardt, who had been Pickett’s close friend for the last 15 years. “She wasn’t suffering.”

Although she once traveled extensively, preaching and teaching, Pickett’s deteriorating health had prevented her from maintaining a rigorous speaking schedule in recent years. She also suffered from scoliosis, which caused her to sit when ministering before large crowds.

Judy Wirt, administrator of Fuchsia Pickett Ministries for the last three years, told Charisma that Pickett was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia in October. Her monthlong hospital stay was preceded by what turned out to be her last speaking engagement.

“She spoke at a church in LaVergne, Tenn. It’s very appropriate that the church is called The Father’s House,” said Wirt, noting that Pickett ministered just eight times in 2003. “At that time, she told the church that she wouldn’t be coming back.”

Sue Curran, pastor of Shekinah Church, the Blountville, Tenn., congregation Pickett and her husband, Leroy, had attended since 1988, visited Pickett the week she died. “During my last conversation with her she was desirous to live as long as the Lord wanted her to,” Curran said. “Our church prayed to that end. I told her the body of Christ needs her message. And she said she appreciated that because she wanted to be needed.”

Respected Bible teacher and author Judson Cornwall, who had been a close friend of Pickett’s for about 35 years, told Charisma that she will be “greatly missed by Christians all over the world.”

“Her insight into the scriptures was phenomenal,” said Cornwall, 79, whose itinerant ministry ended in 2001 after he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer on his spine. “She saw what many missed, and her teaching ministry was a blessing to all who would listen. The life that was in her seemed to be available to all who would listen with spiritual ears.

“Her gifting was manifold,” added Cornwall, whose latest book, Dying With Grace, will release in May from Charisma House. “As a teacher, she was par excellence. I personally will miss most the spiritual impartation that came out of her.”

Reared in a Methodist family, Pickett was led to Christ by a Presbyterian friend, educated at John Wesley College and later ordained by the Methodist Church. She spent 17 years in ministry before she was dramatically healed of a fatal bone disease and filled with the Holy Spirit in 1959 in a Pentecostal Holiness church.

Four years later, she saw a vision of a huge hydroelectric power plant, which she told Charisma in 1997 was God’s way of showing her how He planned to network churches together and pour out His Spirit in revival. “I’ve lived to see it come in,” Pickett said. “I feel the heavens are breaking. The revival has come, but the flood hasn’t. I think the Lord has brought us to a place where we are now willing to let the Lord do it.

“[The revival] will bring repentance and restitution,” Pickett added. “The church will reflect the glory of God.”

Pickett held an earned doctorate in theology and a doctorate in divinity. Saying she believed God had called her to both teach and preach, Pickett spent more than 40 years as a Bible teacher and 27 years as a pastor. In 1971 she founded Fountain Gate Ministries, which included a church and Bible college. She relinquished leadership of Fountain Gate in 1988 to enter full-time traveling ministry.

“I don’t want to stand before the Lord and know I did not do enough for Him,” Pickett once said. “I want to know I did all I could do to please Him.”

Recently, Charisma House released a new series of Pickett’s classic teachings, including The Five Laws of the Dying Seed, God’s Purpose for You and Possess Your Promised Land, as well as several titles on the person of the Holy Spirit.

A memorial service was held Feb. 3 at Shekinah Church. Pickett is survived by her husband, Leroy; her son, Daryl; three grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren.
Eric Tiansay

BOOKS

After God’s Own Heart
By Mike Bickle, Charisma House,

hardcover, 256 pages, $.

Mike Bickle, a leader in the 24-7 prayer and worship movement, believes that God has set worldwide prayer in motion to prepare the church for a great harvest of souls. Bickle’s perspective comes out of a sense of the prophetic, of what he believes God is doing in this time.

In After God’s Own Heart, Bickle examines the life of the Old Testament figure David and finds that he wanted to see a full release of God’s power in his generation. Bickle has that same desire and uses David as a model of what God wants for His people today, starting with true intimacy. He proposes that David was named a “man after God’s own heart” for one reason–his unrelenting passion to search out and understand the emotions of God.

Peppered with humor–“God is not a boring fuddy-duddy who wears slippers and putters around heaven feeling constantly perturbed”–After God’s Own Heart is written by an author who practices what he preaches in his own life and ministry. However, recognizing that many believers do not yet fully appreciate what it means to find pleasure in being “married to God,” he gently leads readers into a scriptural understanding of God’s loving character.
Christine D. Johnson

Out of the Crescent Shadows:
Leading Muslim Women Into the Light of Christ
By Ergun and Emir Caner,
New Hope, softcover, 160 pages, $.

Authors of the best-selling Unveiling Islam, brothers Ergun and Emir Caner bring a knowledge of and compassion for Muslim women that is born of their own experience. Themselves converts from Islam to Christianity, the Caners subsequently led their mother and grandmother to Christ. Now the authors challenge the Christian church–in particular, American Christian women–to lead Muslim women out of a veiled existence into the light of Christ.

Although directed to a general audience, this release will find its primary readers among Christian missionaries, especially those in areas heavily populated with Muslims. Missionaries will value the wisdom of understanding the Islamic religion and the texts it holds sacred before attempting to proselytize. Only then can the missionary reassure the would-be Islamic convert with appropriate biblical authority of the divinity and lordship of Jesus, who is generally considered important to the Muslim only as a prophet to announce Muhammad as the final prophet of Allah.

The Caners provide the necessary knowledge of Islam. In 10 chapters, they reveal what’s inside the heart as well as the mind of a Muslim woman. She will love the Lord with all her heart, soul, mind and strength, for her conversion will cost her the love and fellowship of her own family and friends. She will know only too well what it means to trust fully in the Lord.

Yet, while providing such knowledge of Islam, the Caners emphasize the best way to win souls–unconditional love, which “breaks down barriers and builds bridges more effectively than a thousand training sessions in evangelism methodologies and programs. Love–unconditional love that mirrors the love the Father has for you–is the means by which grace is communicated.” In the end, they imply, it is our hearts, not our minds, that deliver the truth.
Pamela Robinson

Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions
By George Barna, Regal, hardcover,
140 pages, $.

After writing several books on teens and devoting two decades to adult ministry, George Barna has concluded that in order to win the battle for the hearts and minds of America’s children, the church must make children’s spiritual health its top priority. Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions is the result of two years of nationwide research to determine the beliefs of today’s youth, their religious involvement and how they are being ministered to by churches.

In interviews with 907 teenagers, Barna found that by the time teens reach the age of 13, their spiritual beliefs are set and usually carry through to adulthood. This makes it imperative that children are reached while still in their formative years, asserts Barna, who makes a credible case for his theory using statistics and Scriptures.

Barna challenges churches and parents to partner in ministering to children through effective programs that make use of team leadership and teach spiritual truths in an age-appropriate manner. Many pastors, youth workers and parents will find this book a helpful tool in refocusing their energies and setting priorities for children’s ministry.
Jane Casselberry

Making It Right When You Feel Wronged
By Jeff Wickwire, Chosen Books,
softcover, 192 pages, $.

While his church was being renovated, Jeff Wickwire was betrayed by a trusted builder and as a result, lost $10,000 of church funds. Wickwire had a choice to obey God and let Him handle the consequences or to become bitter with unresolved hurt and anger.

Thankfully, but not without difficulty, he chose the former; but in his 25-plus years as a pastor, he has seen the devastating consequences when believers choose to take matters into their own hands.

In Making It Right When You Feel Wronged, Wickwire uses the experiences of biblical characters such as Absalom and Peter to illustrate the consequences of good or bad choices when offense comes. He looks at what Jesus taught about
handling offenses and guides readers toward the freedom that comes only in forgiveness.

Although the principles espoused in Making It Right are useful to every Christian who has been wronged, pastors and church leaders will especially appreciate Wickwire’s practical insights in dealing with dissension in the church.
Christine D. Johnson

FICTION

Second Touch
By Bodie and Brock Thoene,
Tyndale House, hardcover, 360 pages, $.

Award-winning authors Bodie and Brock Thoene are releasing their second book, Second Touch, from their latest series The A.D. Chronicles. Famous for their historical fiction, they have built poignant stories around the people whom Jesus touched in the gospels. Political intrigue, suspense, romance and gentle humor fill the pages.

Picking up the threads from the preceding novel, First Light, the authors show Peniel, the boy born blind who was healed by Yeshua, facing new challenges in his attempt to follow his healer as the enemies of Yeshua hunt him. Two new characters introduced are Lily, a young woman stricken with leprosy who is searching for the Messiah, and Simon, a proud Pharisee whose life is almost destroyed by his self-righteousness.

Besides weaving a wonderful tapestry of love, healing, repentance and redemption, the authors fill these stories with deep spiritual insights. As always, this husband-and-wife writing team have done their homework investigating rich meanings in the Scriptures as well as researching the culture of the first century.

Old and new Thoene fans will not be disappointed. This book will make readers see the Savior in a new light and cause them to fall in love all over again.

Deborah L. Delk

Dark Blue
By Melody Carlson, NavPress,
softcover, 208 pages, $.

Melody Carlson has written another winner with Dark Blue, a story that will reach the deepest part of a teen’s heart while accurately portraying a teen’s world. Dark Blue is the tale of Kara Hendricks and her journey from being the codependent, lifelong best friend of Jordan Ferguson to being the independent sophomore whose best friend is Jesus.

When Jordan announces she will be trying out for the cheerleading squad, Kara decides to help her. Kara is sure all the “cool kids” who are members of the squad will reject Jordan, but Jordan is chosen for the team. In no time, Kara is feeling rejected and lonely and begins to associate with a new group of kids at school.

As her friendship with art-groupie Edgar Peebles grows deeper, Kara discovers the secret behind his kindness; Edgar’s best friend is Jesus. Soon, Kara asks Jesus into her lonely heart and awakens the next morning no longer lonely.

The end of Dark Blue holds a nice surprise as readers discover new strength in Kara. Jordan decides to become friends with her again, but only if she “loses the losers,” and Kara finds the confidence to say goodbye to her old best friend and keep the new one.
Eva Marie Everson

The Chase
Susan Wales and Robin Shope, Revell,
hardcover, 368 pages, $.

Jill Lewis, star investigative reporter for a major Washington, D.C., newspaper, is at the top of her game. She is ready to bathe in the career-making limelight of uncovering a blockbuster scandal about a presidential candidate’s involvement in a babies-for-sale adoption ring. Instead she finds herself fired and her life endangered.

As Jill continues the investigation on her own from the supposed security of her hometown, she discovers her own family played a role in the scandal, and people she’d known all her life are now suspect. Enter the one person who can help, and though Jill is attracted to him, she finds that he, too, has a hidden agenda.

Through intricate and unexpected plot twists, authors Susan Wales and Robin Shope allow the reader to watch Jill evolve emotionally and spiritually. It’s not until Jill ultimately surrenders herself to God’s plan that she becomes strong enough to face the truth about what she’s uncovered about herself and the Washington scandal.
Sandra Carroll

MUSIC

Enter the Worship Circle: Third Circle
By various artists, Blue Renaissance Music.

Touted as one of the best-selling independent CDs and introducing songs such as “You Are So Good to Me” and “I Will Not Forget You,” the first Enter the Worship Circle debuted in 1999 and was later followed by Second Circle, both of which garnered much critical acclaim. Third Circle continues the organic worship experience with a new collection of original songs.

Recording without studio rehearsals, artists Ben and Robin Pasley, Barry and Michelle Patterson, and Kate Hurley create a stripped-down, spontaneous worship event evident especially on the upbeat “Together.” Highlights include the stirring energy of “To You,” the simple praise of “God Is Good,” engaging percussion on “For My Ashes” and the tender testimony of “I Don’t Know.”

With a proven track record for moving and original worship music, the artists on this newest entry should garner attention from listeners seeking to incorporate new tunes into corporate worship.
DeWayne Hamby

His Passion
By various artists, Integrity.

His Passion is an Integrity compilation and companion product to the media group’s devotional by the same name about Christ’s last days on Earth. Paired with the book, it is probably a powerful fit.

Alone, the collection of inspirational praise and worship by the singers Integrity uses most (worship leaders such as Lenny LeBlanc and Eoghan Heaslip, plus the Integrity Worship Singers) is middle-of-the-road musical fare centered around the impending crucifixion.

Slater Armstrong opens with the quiet “O the Passion.” Other classic hymns such as “When I Survey (The Wondrous Cross)” and “Hallelujah What a Savior” are given a soothing updating here and are mixed in with the modern “Here I Am to Worship” and “Above All.” Standouts include Paul Baloche’s tender “Offering” and the choir’s crescendo on the appropriate “Worthy Is the Lamb.”
Natalie Nichols Gillespie

Carol Umberger is the award-winning author of The Scottish Crown Series from Integrity Publishers. Her novel Circle of Honor won the 2000 Golden Heart Award from Romance Writers of America for Best Short Historical novel, the HOLT Medallion for Best First Book and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award for Best Long Historical.

Umberger didn’t start out writing Christian fiction. Once a member of the U.S. Air Force, she started her publishing career writing general-market romance. But she says: “It became increasingly clear to me that to incorporate faith like I wanted to, I would have to look elsewhere to sell my books. My faith is inseparable from my writing. I just didn’t realize it early on. It was a growth process.”

Her stories are making a difference in people’s lives. “I sit in awe of what God is doing with my little stories. I had a young woman who told me I inspired her to return to her faith, and as a writer, she would now set her aim higher. Others tell me that they enjoy the stories and enjoy learning the history,” she says.

About her writing Umberger says: “Faith isn’t about what church we worship in or what rules we go by. It’s about relationship–our relationship to God and to one another, and I am so blessed to explore those relationships with my characters. I want to write powerful fiction that reaches people. Hopefully, my stories will encourage and strengthen the faith of readers.”
Cindy Crosby

CHARISMATIC TOP SELLERS

1. Total Forgiveness
R.T. Kendall (Charisma House)

2. Matters of the Heart
Juanita Bynum (Charisma House)

3. Pigs in the Parlor
Frank and Ida Mae Hammond

(Impact Christian Books)

4. A Divine Revelation of Hell
Mary K. Baxter (Whitaker House)

5. The Three Battlegrounds
Francis Frangipane (Arrow Publications)

6. A Divine Revelation of Heaven
Mary K. Baxter with T.L. Lowery (Whitaker House)

7. (tie) The Final Quest
Rick Joyner (Whitaker House)

8. (tie) The Tongue: A Creative Force
Charles Capps (Harrison House)

9. Within the Gates
Rebecca R. Springer
(Christ for the Nations)

10. The Battle Belongs to the Lord
Joyce Meyer (Warner Faith)

It’s hard to believe that the vision for all this was birthed nearly 28 years ago.

If you’ve been a reader of Charisma very long, you know my monthly column takes many forms. The last few months I’ve shared what God has been teaching me about prayer. At other times I’ve railed against racism or sin in the church–trying to motivate our nearly 250,000 subscribers to love and good works.

Yet sometimes I like to update you on what’s happening at Strang Communications as we move forward with God.

One exciting thing we did recently was host an invitation-only meeting of about 60 charismatic leaders. Our purpose was to discuss what we consider a serious problem concerning ethical accountability among leaders in the body of Christ. We invited Jack Hayford, who gives spiritual oversight to our organization, to lead this symposium.

In just 24 hours the group drafted a 1,000-word statement of commonly held values regarding biblical discipline. This statement is being published in the March/April issue of Ministries Today magazine. We also issued a statement about the importance of the fivefold ministry in the church that will appear in Ministries Today as well.

K>10>C. CharismaLife, the division of our company that provides curriculum and other resources for charismatic churches, is currently partnering with Focus on the Family and Tyndale House Publishers to bring to America’s churches a new program called “Kids’ 10 Commandments,” or K>10>C for short. This is a curriculum any church–charismatic or not–can use to teach the Ten Commandments to children. For more information about the program, visit our Web site at .

Charisma House. The book-publishing arm of Charisma magazine, Charisma House, is enjoying unprecedented success. Our recent book The Faith of George W. Bush hit No. 26 on the New York Times best-sellers list within six weeks of its release. Casa Creación, our Spanish publishing house, just released the book in Spanish.

The Seven Secrets, our new release by John Hagee, promises to bring a favorable response as well. You’ll read about the book and about Hagee in our next issue.

CharismaKIDS. Charisma has spawned not only CharismaLife and Charisma House but also CharismaKIDS, a new line of books that launches this spring. The books are designed to teach powerful spiritual concepts to children and will boast such best-selling authors as Juanita Bynum, Don Colbert and Jack Hayford.

Magazines. At a time when many magazines are declining, we are enjoying circulation growth in most of our publications. We have a new focus for each of our magazines, from Christian Retailing –which relaunches Inspirational Giftware this month–to New Man, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this summer.

Charisma Women’s Conference. Our annual Charisma Women’s Conference–the conference that gave birth to SpiritLed Woman magazine–will be held at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, April 22-24. We’re expecting up to 10,000 women to attend this 10th anniversary celebration.

The focus is on ministry to each woman who attends. Many testify to having their lives changed. This year a live worship CD is being produced because so many want to take the conference worship home.

International. Our Spanish publishing area is growing as well. We have new titles by Joyce Meyer, John Maxwell, Beth Moore, Max Lucado and many others. In fact, this area now represents more than 10 percent of our entire organization.

There’s so much more I could write about–our Internet sites (log on to ), our health books, an exciting new author we’re introducing in April named Jordan Rubin, and many things that are too premature to share.

It’s hard to believe that the vision for all this was birthed nearly 28 years ago with a small church magazine called Charisma. And the vision continues to expand. I hope you are as excited as I am!

I also hope you will pray for us. As we speak out for righteousness and take an increasingly higher profile in the media and in the church, we need God’s direction, protection and blessing.

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Stephen Strang is the founder of Charisma. He invites you to send your questions and comments to him at sstrang@.

Christian aid ministries working inside the country take precautions against threat of attack
The capture of Saddam Hussein in early December may have been cause for rejoicing for many Iraqis, but the jubilant mood was short-lived for foreign relief workers, including Christians who are helping to rebuild the country.

“Since the capture of Saddam, we have received one report that terrorist activities are being planned for northern Iraq,” said World Relief Disaster Relief Desk Officer Brandon Pustejovsky, who witnessed the celebration in that area on the day of the capture. “I wish the news was better, but I think we are dealing with issues of pride, religion and family, which extend beyond the influence of a mere man.”

Pustejovsky was the only non-Iraqi working for the agency in Iraq until just before Christmas, when he returned to the United States. World Relief’s 11 Iraqi employees are continuing to work under the auspices of Mission East. That group is one of several Christian relief organizations that carried on with their efforts long after hundreds of secular nongovernmental organizations left the country following the August bombing of United Nations offices in Baghdad and attacks on “softer” targets, including aid workers.

Those who remain face daily uncertainty about their safety. “The danger and the problem there is that it’s so unstable,” said Judy Moore, who is based in Albania but serves as World Vision’s interim operations director for Iraq. “One day will be fine, and the next day people will be killed. Every time you go out, you don’t know whether you will be attacked or you will be safe.”

As an added precaution, members of the World Vision team placed the agency’s identifiable vehicles in storage, avoided wearing apparel bearing the World Vision logo and stopped keeping a routine schedule. In addition, the organization has declined requests from network TV news agencies to accompany the staff and cover the work they do.

“It’s tough to turn down, but we always put the safety of our staff first,” said Dean Owen, World Vision’s public relations director.

Like World Vision, other Christian agencies that have chosen to stay try to keep their workers as safe as possible by maintaining a low profile. When Samaritan’s Purse realized in October that it could no longer guarantee the safety of its workers–or successfully continue its operations in Iraq–the organization called a 90-day hiatus and pulled its workers out of the country.

“The mainstream media accused us of offering aid just so we could distribute Bibles and only going over there to help Christians. It was crazy,” said Samaritan’s Purse International Projects Director Ken Isaacs. “No one came to see what we were doing. They compromised us and put us in a high-profile position.”

Still, the work continues. Under the agency’s direction Iraqi Christians feed 1,000 families a month and provide other means of financial and material support. And an existing Baghdad hospital and a partly built clinic completed by Samaritan’s Purse continue to make good use of the 16 tons of medical equipment donated through the organization last year.

Though some churches have been threatened, Isaacs does not believe faith is the primary motive for the persistent danger in the country. “Iraq is a fairly secular Islamic country. If they attack a church it’s because they want a juicier target,” he said. “This is about power and force and evil, and the terror is being exercised to scare the Iraqis. It’s all about chaos and destabilizing everything.”

But neither the United States nor most Christian agencies have given up their efforts to stabilize the country, despite negative reports that reach Americans, Isaacs said. The U.S. government kept the food pipeline flowing, he said, while reports of problems such as power outages were exaggerated and failed to tell the full story.

Electricity was quickly restored after the war, but the sudden availability of consumer goods such as appliances created an overload on the country’s antiquated electrical grid.

“The problems have less to do with the war and more to do with bringing the country up to the 21st century,” he said.

To many Iraqis, whatever chaos exists today is minuscule compared with the overt persecution the people–including Christians–faced under Hussein’s regime. “Before the war, churches in Iraq were persecuted just as Islam was,” World Relief President Clive Calver told Charisma. “Christians were shot, churches and bookstores were bombed, people were thrown in jail. When I went to Iraq immediately after the conflict, church after church asked me to please thank the Americans and their brothers and sisters [in Christ] for giving them their freedom.”

World Relief suffered a personal loss in September when a church leader in Iraq who worked with the agency was killed in a land-mine accident. At least one worker has been shot at, though it’s not clear whether the shooting was random or related to the relief work.

World Vision has not lost any workers in Iraq, but the agency–with 20,000 workers worldwide–loses about one worker per year. “We work in very dangerous places, and Iraq is now near if not at the top of the list,” Owen said. “We are monitoring the situation very carefully and will continue to do so until the situation improves and we don’t have to be so vigilant.”

Security is such a high priority for World Vision that the organization offers an intensive and comprehensive five-day course on security issues for its own staff and for that of other aid agencies, as well as for journalists who work in dangerous areas.

Despite the daily threat of danger, all three agencies say they have seen such an outpouring of love and faith among the Iraqi Christians that they can’t help but believe that God is at work in the country. The Iraqi people remain hopeful, Calver said, that a just government will be established–in spite of lingering concern that fundamentalist Muslims will end up in power.

Said Calver: “This is their message to the [United States]: ‘You won the war, now make sure you win the peace.'”
Marcia Ford