The first step in prayer is clearing the channel, making it ready for God’s love.
In February, my thoughts always turn to love–not only because of Valentine’s Day but also because 32 years ago this month I met my true love, my wife. Yet as wonderful as the love is that I have for her, as important as it has been in my life and as much happiness as it has brought me, it is but a speck compared to the love of God, which is manifested to us in the form of His Son, Jesus.

The Bible teaches us that God is love. It is the very essence of who He is. What small child doesn’t learn that in Sunday school? But for most of us, coming to understand His love is a process that occurs as we grow and mature spiritually.

It is as infinite as the sky appears to be. And God’s ways of manifesting that love are, Glenn Clark writes in The Soul’s Sincere Desire, “as uncountable as the stars of the heavens.”

Clark’s book has opened new realms of prayer to me recently. Through his words I’ve begun to see that if I want a message from the God of love my receiving apparatus must be pure and vibrant with love. Any unloving thoughts will interfere with the flow of communication between us, just as rusty pipes prevent the flow of life-giving waters from reservoirs in the mountains.

This means that hindrances such as unbelief, selfishness and fear must go. John, the disciple of love, considered fear one of the major sins that separates man from God. In fact, he believed that love and fear could not abide together. He wrote, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers … shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Rev. 21:8, KJV).

John also wrote that “there is no fear in love; [for] perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). According to Clark, John could have added, “Absolute fear casteth out love”–and without love we cannot have perfect prayer.

The first step, then, in preparing ourselves for prayer, is the clearing of the channel to make it ready for the inflow of God’s love. “This is best done,” Clark points out, “not by thinking of one’s self but by fixing one’s eyes on God. Think of Him as all-loving, all-powerful, all-perfect, with no anger and no distrust and no fear.

“Remember that every residue of wrong thinking, of malice or of selfishness in your heart or brain clogs the reception of the downpouring light of love.”

The cleansing of the soul Clark recommends is intended to liberate us, to “make the way straight for the message of God to come to us.” To be truly free, he says, “we must first remove all the beams and motes of Self, with its vanity, covetousness, and egotism; of Anger, with its brood of jealousies, envies, and faultfinding; and of Worry, with its children of fear and cowardice.”

When we have done this, we will be able to see God in a way we couldn’t when the channel was blocked. And merely to see God, Clark says, is to have Him. “One who sees–that is, one who possesses in his soul,” he continues, “is one whose prayers are answered.”

In light of Clark’s teaching, let’s use February, the month during which we direct our thoughts toward love, as a time to meditate anew on God’s love, a love that surpasses human understanding. Perhaps the following affirmation by Clark–what he calls a “psalm of love”–will help us to focus on it more during the holiday and beyond:

Thou and Thy Love are infinite;
Thy Love therefore fills all space,
There is no space where Thy Love is not,
Otherwise it would not be infinite.
It is filling the very space which we are
occupying,
Here and Now.
That Love is in us and we are in that Love.
We could not escape it if we would,
And we would not if we could.
It abides in us and we in it.
Therefore when we let go doubt,

and irritation, and self,
And resign ourselves completely to the great All-Power
That resides within and about us,
We are Love, even as God is Love.

Pulitzer Prize nominee Clifton Taulbert hopes his 10-lesson curriculum will motivate people to engage in acts of kindness
As the United States observes Black History Month, the residents of a Mississippi Delta cotton town are again rising to prominence through a native son who has shared their legacy worldwide.

Clifton Taulbert, whose memoirs have been made into a movie (Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored) and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize (Last Train North), has transformed another book into biblically based teaching.

Becoming a Good Samaritan: On Your Road Between Jerusalem and Jericho is based on his Eight Habits of the Heart, originally published in 1997. Designed for groups of up to 20, the 10-lesson curriculum includes a challenge to commit to develop a caring attitude and engage in unselfish acts.

The lessons delve into the eight habits, which include such traits as brotherhood, dependability, friendship and a nurturing attitude. Those are qualities the Tulsa, Okla., author believes are necessary if the church hopes to become a community demonstrating Christ’s character.

Taulbert unveiled the Bible study in August at Victory Christian Center’s annual Word Explosion, which drew 35,000 people to the Mabee Center at Oral Roberts University. Afterward, the audience responded with a standing ovation.

The acclaimed speaker, who credits the Holy Spirit with inspiring him to write the best-selling stories about those who raised and trained him, said he was overwhelmed by the reception. “What I saw was people recognizing difficulties existed during legal segregation, but it also showed them when you yield to God you can do great things in spite of difficulties,” said the native of Glen Allen, Miss.

Ironically, Taulbert is better known in distinguished academic, governmental and professional circles. A guest professor at Harvard University, he has addressed corporate seminars, international forums and a Library of Congress audience hosted by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

However, when Victory Christian pastor Billy Joe Daugherty invited Taulbert–a member of an Assemblies of God church–to speak, Taulbert
initially resisted. After first appearing there in March, he accepted Daugherty’s suggestion to transform his “eight habits” seminar into a Bible-based study.

Daugherty said the message is a fresh word, one that is sorely needed in the body of Christ. Daugherty compares Taulbert to figures such as T.D. Jakes and Joyce Meyer, saying they came to prominence long after they started teaching.

“To me, the body of Christ is discovering a treasure with someone who has the ear of the Air Force Academy, whole school systems and Washington departments in our government,” he said.

Those who have used the curriculum say it has already had powerful repercussions. Mickey Gordon has taught two sessions to seniors in her Bible class at Victory Christian Center’s high school. It is also used at Glory House, a church-affiliated residential home for women.

The teacher thinks the study has the potential to create a kinder, gentler nation by emphasizing selflessness. “I’m seeing a calmer class and kids reaching out to teach each other and forming community,” Gordon said. “These are common-sense principles that have become uncommon.”

While Evangel Christian School in Louisville, Ky., is just implementing the curriculum in high school Bible classes, middle school students began reading Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored last fall. Principal Kevin Miller said shocked students wanted to know if the events described in 1950s and ’60s Mississippi really took place.

“We talked about the importance of everyone being created in God’s image and being equal,” said Miller, whose suburban school has doubled the number of African American students–from 7 to 14–this year. “There’s a lot of lessons in there. And I think the curriculum will help with the atmosphere and culture of our school.”

Taulbert hopes Good Samaritan will help stimulate positive actions. And he couldn’t be happier that the characters from Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored–the real people who shielded him from many of segregation’s cruel realities–will help make that happen.

“I find it very exciting that behind the wall of segregation there was Jesus Christ, preparing hearts and stories for another time in history,” Taulbert said. “[God] knew it would be needed in the 21st century.”
Ken Walker

Businessman Rob Smith is returning to his homeland to purchase farms that will provide homes for 400,000 children
Haunted by pictures of children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic, Rob Smith has returned to South Africa, the country he grew up in but left nearly 30 years ago because of his disgust for apartheid.

After selling his home in Everett, Wash., and leaving a prosperous cabinet- making business, Smith is putting “flesh to a dream.” In the next decade he hopes to purchase 4,000 farms in South Africa, eventually providing homes for 400,000 children orphaned by an AIDS outbreak that has left an estimated 13 million children in Africa under the age of 15 with one parent and 3.6 million with no parents.

“He’s held this dream in his heart for several years,” said Karen Schaeffer, who helps coordinate outreaches and fund raising for the project. “[In 2002], the Lord really started to convict him about going back to South Africa.”

The seed for the project was planted when Smith saw a 3,000-acre farm for sale in Zambia for $42,000. He saw how affordable the project could be and how far the U.S. dollar could be spread.

Initially, Smith and his wife planned to adopt 100 children and care for them on a farm. He ruled out that idea because the scope wasn’t big enough.

“He wanted to help as many kids as he could,” said Marc Fulmer, a friend of Smith’s who is now involved in the project. “Adopting just wasn’t enough.”

Smith shared his dream with Fulmer after a Sunday morning church service. One week later, the 53-year-old Fulmer told Smith he wanted to be part of the project. In September, Fulmer and his wife moved to South Africa to take charge of building the villages.

Fulmer, a successful Seattle building contractor, will oversee the construction of 60,000 buildings over the life of this ambitious project. Each “village” will consist of prefab homes big enough for six to seven children. It won’t be dorm living. Homes will be built in clusters of five, and each cluster will share one common meeting place. It’s there that meals will be eaten and classes will be taught.

By opting for a small meeting place and not building one large school, Fulmer said initial costs will be capped, and progressive growth can be managed more easily. Communities on each farm will house about 120 orphans and 30 widows.

“Go-Goes,” a South African term for grandmothers, will be in each house. They will cook the meals and care for the children. “They will function as a family,” Fulmer said.

The project has quickly gone from idea to action. In November 2002, Smith’s idea became the Agathos Foundation, a Christian-based program. Agathos is Greek for “good.” In September, the foundation was nearing a deal on its first purchase, a 1,000-acre farm in Winterton, South Africa. Also in September 35 people from Smith and Fulmer’s church–Mars Hill Church–made a three-week outreach to South Africa.

The purpose of the farms is twofold: to provide a place to live and a source of revenue. The objective is self-sufficiency. Support is expected to be temporary because long-term costs will be covered by the sales of the farm products. Children will not be expected to work on the farm unless they’re interested in pursuing a career in agriculture.

Eventually, Fulmer said businesses will also be bought, and profits will be used to support the villages. He’s careful to avoid referring to the homes as orphanages.

“We’re trying to get away from the word orphanage because it tends to have certain connotations,” Fulmer said. “Orphanages always need to be sponsored, constantly needing funds. What is key to our model is we’re self-sustaining.”

Fulmer admits at times he is overwhelmed by the size of the project.

“Once I wrapped my mind around this, I saw that I’m totally not qualified for this job,” he said. “It’s too huge. It’s massive. I really need to rely on my faith that God is going to supply what we need and that He is going to lead me.”

Smith, the son of a pastor, is neither rich nor an experienced fund-raiser. But he has a plan for funding. If 250 individuals pay $25 a month for six years, he said the finances for a village would be met and no more support would be necessary.

“Once the village is up and running, it takes care of itself,” Fulmer said.
Gail Wood

For more information about the Agathos Foundation or to send a tax-deductible contribution, write to 11701 25th Ave. S.E., Everett, WA 98208; call 425-357-6799; or visit .

Industry veterans say equipping believers to work behind the scenes can bring change from the inside out
Churchgoers are expected to flock to theaters to see Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ when it opens this month. But Christians inside the entertainment industry hope believers will become as enthusiastic about making another kind of showing–behind the scenes in Hollywood.

Through his 14-city Conquering Hollywood tour that began in September, producer and director S. Bryan Hickox, winner of several Emmy Awards, including one in 1987 for Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife starring Melissa Gilbert, is seeking to train Christians to be marketable in Hollywood.

His two-day event, which costs roughly $300, offers writing instruction from faculty at Act One, a Los Angeles-based ministry that teaches screenwriting to Christians, as well as workshops on acting and how to make a successful pitch. The tour has already made stops in Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix, and is scheduled to hit San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Chicago and Washington, D.C., in the coming months. The last stop will be Honolulu June 11-12.

Hickox believes a few hundred Christians working behind the scenes as set designers, makeup artists, casting directors and the like can influence the content coming out of Hollywood. Hickox said research shows that Christians and non-Christians want more films with a moral base, pointing to the success of Finding Nemo, Bruce Almighty and The Matrix Reloaded as proof.

A 40-year industry veteran who accepted Christ in 1974, Hickox said in the early days of his career “less than 6 percent of the media gatekeepers had any church or synagogue affiliation. That is changing. In Hollywood, there is an awakening.”

But he doesn’t foresee the entertainment industry being gutted of “objectionable content.” He sees room at the table for Christian perspectives, and he doesn’t want believers to miss an opportunity.

“We have a chance to impact the world,” Hickox told Charisma during a break at the inaugural event, held in Jacksonville, Fla. “Other countries are growing weary of American morality. As Christians stand on truth, we can reclaim the entertainment industry.”

Casting director and acting coach Michael Stark said the tour is about helping Hollywood “clean up [its] act.” An actor who spent 26 years working in films and daytime dramas, Stark hopes the tour will encourage young artists to help reform the industry. “We old guys can talk to the young guys, but it’s the young guys who will have to do it,” he said.

Richard Colla, a director, writer and producer whose career dates back to a stint as director for the TV series Gunsmoke, doesn’t consider himself a Christian but wants to help students learn how to sell their stories. His track record is good–he has sold every script he’s ever pitched. “I certainly am interested in the condition of man, and that certainly requires an examination of the character of man,” Colla said.

Participant Jeff Carr has loved film for years but realized only recently that he could be a Christian and pursue filmmaking as a career. “I was kind of thinking God had a cruel sense of humor to give me these ideas, only to have to pitch it to a den of thieves,” said Carr, 27. “I never knew this [network of Christians] existed.”

The network has been mostly underground, stealthily working behind the scenes trying to find creative ways to keep the characters on That ’70s Show from losing their virginity, for example, or convincing a studio executive to remove a scene in which church choir members are portrayed as hypocritical drug addicts.

“Most of the victories of the Christians in Hollywood are what you don’t see on the screen,” said Act One founder Barbara Nicolosi. “But we’ve got to get beyond playing defense. We’ve got to start making the movies we want to see.”

In 10 years she believes there will be “a profound change” in the entertainment industry as Act One students and other Christians develop a brand of morally based films that make viewers want to be better people.

Chatting during a break from an afternoon workshop session, 25-year-old Naji Hendrix said the conference has been a source of encouragement. The Iran native accepted Christ five years ago and believes God wants her to make a film about her testimony.

The tour has brought her dream “a little closer to reality,” she said, “like it’s not impossible to fulfill my vision.”
Adrienne S. Gaines

Leaders Dutch Sheets and Chuck Pierce hope their 50-state initiative will spark widespread revival
A movement of targeted intercession has been working its way across the United States as part of an attempt to turn the nation back toward God and prepare for a revival on par with the Methodist revival of the early 1800s and the Azusa Street Revival of the early 1900s.

Dubbed the 50-State Prayer Tour, the move has been led by pastor Dutch Sheets of Springs Harvest Fellowship in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Chuck Pierce, president of Glory of Zion International Ministries in Denton, Texas, and head
of the U.S. Strategic Prayer Network (USSPN). Both have written extensively about revival and intercessory prayer.

Sheets gained prominence in 2000 when he mobilized thousands to pray for the presidential election. Last June he issued an urgent call for Christians to fast and pray that godly people would replace the retiring Supreme Court justices.

Pierce and Sheets said they were each impressed to visit the 50 states to mobilize intercessors and “shift” each region into God’s purposes. Sheets said the nation was in a pivotal season and would either change for better or for worse.

“This year, more than any other in recent history, will determine the future of America and the world,” Sheets wrote in a spring 2003 ministry newsletter. “We will see either great breakthroughs or great setbacks. It is much as it was for Paul, ‘a wide door for effective service has opened for me, and there are many adversaries’ (1 Corinthians 16:9).”

The first meetings were held in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arizona. Pierce said he was led to start there because the region has the greatest concentration of First Nations people in the lower 48 states. Sheets said New Mexico was called to be a reservoir of revelation for itself and the nation. “We declared that a ‘Jesus of Nazareth, blood bought prophetic people’ would arise in New Mexico, having greater wisdom than the supernatural forces presently operating there,” Pierce reported after the event.

The two men went on to Oklahoma and Arizona, where they prayed for healing from broken land covenants, and that the states would fulfill their purpose.

Since those meetings, the tour has attracted hundreds of intercessors in each state. Equipped with historical information about each state, the pair, who some consider to be a modern-day apostle and prophet, said they seek to deliver specific messages that will help Christians in each region understand their state’s calling.

Pierce believes they have a unique ability to bring spiritual breakthrough. “Our giftings have a synergistic effect that helps the body break through into a new place of revelation and faith,” he told Charisma.

Delaware USSPN coordinators Dale and Miriam Mast agree, saying Pierce and Sheets helped intercessors there move into a new level of faith and authority. “They brought their mantle of authority into our state,” Miriam Mast said. “There were pockets of vision, but we did not have the ability to rally the people.”

Through the course of the tour, which had hit 31 states by December and was to end in April, leaders say they have seen dramatic answers to prayer. In January 2003, Pierce and 200 intercessors in Sacramento “decreed” that by mid-October the government of California would change. They believe it was no coincidence that on Oct. 7 voters recalled former Gov. Gray Davis and elected actor Arnold Scwharzenegger to replace him.

In February in Florida, Pierce said God showed him a network of terrorist activity in Tampa. He told attendees, “It will be found out in the week to come.” The next week a Florida professor believed to be the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was arrested with three others and charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit murder.

In June in New Jersey, which prayer leaders say is called to be a “watchman state,” Sheets prayed for the state to receive a mantle of prayer, enabling it to guard the United States against evil. Pierce later told participants: “There are vipers working in Jersey City and Newark. Find those vipers, so the vipers do not become snipers.”

Small groups of intercessors began praying in their homes from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. By August the “night watches” had spread across the state.

Prayer leaders believe the intercession aided in the July capture of three New Jersey teens planning to murder three people and other random victims. The teens were heavily armed with rifles, handguns, machetes and ammunition. In August two British men were caught trying to smuggle in Russian anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down commercial aircraft.

In other states, the fruit of the intercession was less tangible, leaders say. In Michigan, intercessors prayed for the state to regain its voice, which they said it had lost as a result of unholy alliances made with Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Their research found that Henry Ford funded Hitler in the 1940s, and in 1982, Coleman Young, then Detroit’s mayor, gave the key to the city to Hussein after the Iraqi leader donated nearly a half-million dollars to a Chaldean church, run by a group of Catholics from Iraq.

Intercessors across the nation say the tour helped bring greater unity among believers in their regions. “We know that Missouri is not an island,” said Regina Shank, USSPN Missouri prayer coordinator. “The plan for Missouri is connected to a bigger plan.”

Since the October meeting in her state, Shank said several people have contacted her, saying they want to join her in praying for the state. Like other intercessors across the country, they want to see more than church growth. “We’re looking for the kind of revival where bars shut down,” central Missouri USSPN coordinator Linda Ordway said, “a true move of God that we haven’t seen for a long time.”

Karen Tom

An American Bible teacher recently preached the gospel to Yasser Arafat–the second time R.T. Kendall witnessed to the Palestinian leader in 18 months. On Nov. 20, Kendall met with the 74-year-old head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization at Arafat’s compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

“Rais [the Arabic word for president], there is something I want you to think about,” Kendall, minister at famed Westminster Chapel in London for 25 years until his retirement in 2002, recalled telling Arafat. “It has been revealed to me that Jesus Christ is very important to you.” Kendall said Arafat replied: “Very, very important.”

Kendall, who began praying for Arafat daily in 1982 after hearing evangelist Arthur Blessitt talk about his visit with the Palestinian president, said he knew Arafat had dreams about Jesus. Arafat told Kendall he had a dream in 2002, when the Israelis took over his compound. “On the third day of the siege … a lamb led me to Bethlehem,” Kendall recounted Arafat saying. “There I saw the Virgin Mary holding Jesus. I kissed Jesus. When I woke up I was so moved that I ordered a lamb to be slaughtered and taken to the priests at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem for them to have a feast.”

Kendall then said: “I want you to confess that Jesus actually died on the cross for your sins. Not that He was delivered from the cross, but that He actually died.” However, a translator objected to his “call for conversion.” “But Arafat lifted his hand to the translator to suggest that it was all right for me to continue,” Kendall said.

After he explained to Arafat the benefits of becoming a Christian, Kendall noted that the translator objected again. Later, Kendall asked Arafat: “Will you do me a favor? Will you consider this?” Arafat said that he would. Kendall, who first shared the gospel with Arafat in July 2002, told Charisma he prayed for Arafat and gave him a copy of his book Total Forgiveness.

“Whether I did any good on my two visits to this torn, frail but unusual leader, I don’t know,” said Kendall, whose meetings with Arafat were arranged by the Rev. Andrew White, archbishop of Canterbury’s envoy to the Middle East. “I only know I never tried so hard in all my life to lead a person to Jesus Christ.”
Eric Tiansay

Thousands journeyed to the Holy Land last fall despite State Department warnings against traveling to the Middle East
Despite U.S. State Department warnings against traveling to Israel, where the intifada between Israelis and Palestinians has escalated in the last several years, thousands of Christians journeyed there recently to show their support for the nation they say is crucial for the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

More than 4,000 Christians from 80 nations attended the annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration hosted by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) in October. Founded in 1980 to “bless” Israel and encourage Christian support for the nation, the ICEJ is represented in 100 countries and has 55 branches worldwide.

The Feast of Tabernacles, held at the Jerusalem Convention Center, is the ICEJ’s signature event and has become the largest tourist event in Israel. It includes a week of activities–from a parade of nations through the streets of Jerusalem to nightly music festivals to an outdoor worship concert in the desert near the biblical spring of Ein Gedi.

“Our [delegates] are driven by biblical considerations,” ICEJ Executive Director Malcolm Hedding said. “They believe that Israel’s modern-day restoration is evidence of God’s faithfulness to His promise to Abraham. … They therefore come to bless what God is blessing and to share their love … with Israelis.”

Blessing and encouraging Israel was Texas pastor John Hagee’s reason for taking a group of 100 Christians to Israel in early November to tour holy sites. Pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Hagee said his 21st visit to the nation was the most “joyous, pleasant trip we’ve ever had.”

“I went to Israel to send the message to the government leaders and to the people on the street that Israel is not alone, and 70 million evangelicals in America support them,” Hagee told Charisma.

Demonstrating support for Israel and “[strengthening] the Israeli people through commerce and tourism” is what motivated televangelist Benny Hinn to lead a group of 250 supporters to the Holy Land Nov. 1-7.

“[Hinn] wants his partners to understand the unique biblical importance of the Holy Land and to experience the spiritual perspective that can only be gained by visiting this place,” Benny Hinn Ministries spokesman Don Price said.

The Israel Ministry of Tourism has reported a sharp decline in tourism since the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians intensified nearly four years ago. As some tourist-related businesses have been forced into massive layoffs or closure, Christian tourism has brought a ray of hope, ICEJ leaders said.

Hagee and Hinn said local leaders received them warmly, and the ICEJ reported that every Israeli prime minister except one has appeared at the feast since its inception.

On opening night of the feast, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon thanked the packed house for their support. “Your friendship is important to us,” he said. “With your support, we can realize the hopes and dreams for peace, security and prosperity in the whole land.”

Despite the Israeli government’s welcome of Christian groups, Messianic Jews within the nation say they frequently experience hostility from officials, and members of the Messianic Jewish Alliance were not allowed to participate in the Jerusalem March, which coincides with the Jewish observance of the Feast of Tabernacles.

“When we went to the municipality of Jerusalem to apply for our permit, we were told we could not march,” said Avi Mizrachi, pastor of Adonai Roi and founder of Dugit, a Messianic outreach center in Tel Aviv. “We took it as religious discrimination. … Even a New Age cult was allowed to march and give out their brochures,” Mizrachi added.

Messianic Jews in Israel are seen as neither Jewish nor Christian, but as traitors, Messianic leaders say. “Ideally it would be wonderful to see our Christian brothers and sisters, when they see discrimination against their Messianic Jewish brothers, [to] stand up and register … their disapproval of such actions,” said Joel Chernoff, president of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance, adding that relations between Christians and Jews in Israel have improved significantly in the last two decades.
Cameron Fisher in Jerusalem
with Adrienne S. Gaines

Leaders say the laughing has stopped, but the unique revival movement is still going strong
On Jan. 20, 1994, the worldwide “awakening” known as the Toronto Blessing ignited in a small Mississauga, Ontario, church near Toronto’s international airport. Ten years later, there is scant evidence among believers that enthusiasm for the movement is waning.

In October approximately 3,500 people made the pilgrimage to the church where it all began–Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (TACF, formerly known as Toronto Airport Vineyard)–to participate in the 10th annual Catch the Fire conference.

They journeyed from across North America and from as far away as Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and South America to the 70,000-square-foot building that now houses TACF. Spokespeople estimate more than half of those present were first-time attendees.

Some came out of curiosity. Some came to fellowship with other believers; some to participate in exuberant worship and to hear speakers such as John and Carol Arnott, Heidi Baker, Mike Bickle, Wesley and Stacey Campbell, Randy Clark and Joseph Garlington. But most said they came hoping to receive a touch from God, and to experience the Toronto Blessing for themselves.

“The Toronto Blessing” is a phrase coined by British journalists to describe what movement insiders say is an incredible outpouring of the Holy Spirit marked by unusual physical manifestations among believers. It began in Toronto and quickly spread. TACF senior pastor John Arnott told Charisma that the Catch the Fire conference in 1994 was “catalytic in spreading the fire of God around the world.”

Ministry leaders from all corners of the earth came to that first October conference. “They were shocked by the intensity of what happened to them,” Arnott said. “It launched them into a whole new dimension of ministry.”

Those who came to Catch the Fire 10 Years On hoping to witness or share in similarly shocking experiences weren’t disappointed. Attendees and speakers alike participated enthusiastically in the partylike atmosphere. Countless individuals could be seen jerking spastically, laughing, shaking, weaving drunkenly or falling backward into the arms of catchers.

Keith Luker from Forth Worth, Texas, was one of them. Luker was at Catch the Fire ’94. He remembered it took several days before he felt anything, then he “felt everything: shaking, fire, feeling God’s love, tears.”

“It totally changed my life,” he added. “Reading my Bible, worship–it’s almost like the difference between black-and-white and color.”

He was eager to return for the 10th conference. The first afternoon, Arnott invited Luker to the platform. Receiving prayer, Luker began to shake and then crumbled to the floor, where the shaking continued for several minutes.

“To me, physical manifestations are just an indication that there’s something supernatural at work in that human,” said Dr. Grant Mullen, a mental-health physician long associated with TACF. “These are strictly human reactions to the presence of a supernatural force,” he added.

But not all charismatics accept that force as originating with God, and in the last decade the movement has had its share of critics. In December 1995 the Toronto Airport church was formally expelled from the Association of Vineyard Churches, a move that was symptomatic of conflicts occurring in many churches touched by the revival. Arnott said it happened, in part, because [Vineyard leader] John Wimber “didn’t like the way we managed [things].”

Others raised different concerns. Kevin Reeves left his Haines, Alaska, “Toronto/Latter Rain” church in 2000, after five years as a teaching elder, and today describes himself as “very conservatively Pentecostal.”

He read an article in which New York pastor David Wilkerson criticized the Toronto movement. “So I thought, If David Wilkerson can question these things, certainly I can.”

Reeves said his questions were not welcomed in his church. “I wanted to open a Bible, and all everybody was talking about was their experience,” he remembered. “The biblical reference is the only written record we have of God’s interaction with man. If you cannot find any kind of parameter within the Scriptures that you are operating within, you are operating outside. It’s very cut and dried.”

Supporters insist that the Blessing has affected millions of lives. Randy Clark is credited with being the man who brought the Blessing to Toronto in 1994. He told Charisma that in his opinion, three of the “greatest fruits” of the movement are “the miracle of the revival in Mozambique”–where Toronto alumni Rolland and Heidi Baker have helped start more than 5,000 churches–“the miracle of the number of Muslims that are being saved” and “the spreading of the fire around the world.”

Arnott said the most significant result of the Toronto Blessing can be seen in “an expectation in the hearts of many Christians now that when they go to church, something should happen,” he said. “There’s a greater expectation that the presence of God should be felt and experienced in some way.”

TACF meetings continue to be held each Tuesday through Sunday, just as they have been since the movement began. But 10 years ago, laughter dominated the meetings. Today, that’s no longer true.

“One of the misconceptions I hear from people is they think, Oh well, the laughing’s over,” TACF associate pastor Steve Long said. “And that’s true. The laughing is over. However, things are just as powerful, just as anointed.”

Today, average attendance at weeknight meetings varies from 100 to 500. But the format of some services is different.

“The Holy Spirit has been taking us … on a journey,” Long said. TACF now holds weekly “Soaking” and “Seek His Face” nights, which feature quiet ministry by the worship and prayer teams. Speakers are scheduled for Thursday through Sunday meetings only.

What the future holds for the Toronto Blessing remains to be seen. But Arnott has a few ideas. In 2002, the Arnotts began Catch the Fire Ministries, which includes a TV ministry and a vision for establishing 10,000 “Soaking Prayer Centres” worldwide.

“Revivals tend to have a life of 20 to 30 years,” Arnott says, “so we’ve really only just begun, haven’t we?”
Patricia L. Paddey in Toronto

A California couple say God spared their home Oct. 25 when wildfires burned much of their San Bernardino neighborhood.

For 11 days last fall, several fires swept through San Diego and Los Angeles, destroying 3,600 homes, burning 740,000 acres of land and killing 22 people.

All of the houses within a block of Tony and Diane Forfa’s home burned to the ground, but the couple’s house was hardly singed.

Fire safety experts say wind shifts and fire-resistant building materials could contribute to such an anomaly, but the Forfas, who attend The Rock, a charismatic church in San Bernardino, believe God worked a miracle.

The fire was so hot it melted the shutters. Their children’s large, wooden play set burned to a crisp, and their tricycles were metal skeletons.

But nothing on the Forfas’ home suffered significant damage. Their roof, made of wood, has no burn marks. Their boat, sitting in the front driveway, was perfectly intact, though the grass beneath it burned.

“I know it was God,” Tony Forfa said. “It was like gold, coming up looking at the house. It was really bright, like it was glowing.”

Tony Forfa said his neighborhood looked like a disaster area when he returned. Ash filled the air, and cars had burned until they were almost unrecognizable. The Forfas can’t explain why their home didn’t burn.

“For the first three or four days I was totally struggling with why,” Diane Forfa said. “There are Christians across the street who lost their home.”

But when one of the Forfas’ pastors mentioned that the couple had made a covenant with God and that the Lord had honored it, “that made sense to me,” Diane Forfa said. “I was able to move forward and help out.”

Churches in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas have been helping fire victims too. The relief agency Convoy of Hope shipped two 35,000-pound truckloads of water and supplies, which local churches helped distribute. All of the fires had been contained by Nov. 5. The damage is believed to exceed $2 billion.
Adrienne S. Gaines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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