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@.

Indonesian Christians Attacked, Murdered

Four members of a church in Poso, Indonesia, were beaten to death during attacks by Muslims on Nov. 16, The Barnabas Fund reported. Oranje Tadjodja, 58, treasurer of Central Sulawesi Christian Church, and his nephew, Yohanes Tadjodja, 26, were ambushed in their car as they drove between two Muslim villages near Poso. Dennis Lingkuliwa and a fourth church member identified only as Bowo were murdered in separate incidents in the city. The attacks were reportedly spurred by attempts to arrest Muslim suspects believed to be responsible for anti-Christian violence in October that left at least 10 Christians dead.

Turkish Believer in Coma After Assault

A new Turkish Christian was left in a coma after being severely beaten for distributing New Testaments. Yakup Cindilli, 32, was attacked Oct. 23 by three men in his hometown of Orhangazi, in the country’s northwestern region. Cindilli had faced opposition from his family after becoming a Christian about two years ago, Compass Direct reported. Recently he had visited Bursa Protestant Church in Orhangazi, asking church leaders for some New Testaments for distribution. Among three people arrested in connection with the assault was the president of a local chapter of a militant political party accused of violent, “neo-fascist” activities during the 1970s and historically linked with an Islamic version of nationalism, Compass said.

Police Arrest Egyptian Converts From Islam

More than 20 Egyptian Christians, many of them secret converts from Islam, were arrested in late October in a crackdown on those leaving their Muslim faith. Some of those taken into custody were beaten, interrogated and tortured, and charged with falsifying official identity cards and papers, The Barnabas Fund said. Although Egypt has no law against conversion, former Muslims who turn to Christ are routinely targeted by police who try to force them to return to Islam. A Christian who converts to Islam can receive new identity papers with an adopted Muslim name within 24 hours, but it is impossible for Muslims who become Christians to change to a Christian name, The Barnabas Fund said.

The ‘Ten Commandments Judge’ said he has no regrets
An Alabama ethics panel voted Chief Justice Roy Moore from office Nov. 12 for his refusal to remove a granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building. Moore, who had been suspended since August, said he had no regrets and announced plans to unveil proposed legislation that would rein in the power of federal courts.

“You will hear from me again when it comes to the right to acknowledge God,” Moore told supporters after the decision.

Judge William Thompson, who presided over the nine-member panel that voted unanimously to oust Moore, said Moore had placed himself “above the law,” the Associated Press reported. However, The Washington Post reported that the firing helped cement Moore’s celebrity status, adding that he is seen as a possible candidate for the U.S. Senate or Alabama governor.

The dispute over the legality of putting religious displays in public places has galvanized many Christian conservatives, with Focus on the Family’s James Dobson participating in rallies aimed at drawing Christian support for Moore’s fight.

Moore’s attempt to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court failed, but Christian leaders say the battle is not over. “Roy Moore’s struggle … is a conflict between tyranny and freedom,” said the Rev. D. James Kennedy, founder of the Center for Reclaiming America in Washington, D.C. “The outcome may well settle the question of whether we will return to freedom or be confirmed in our emerging status as objects of our ‘robed masters.'”
Adrienne S. Gaines

Inna Perfido is mobilizing Christians to pray and take political action on behalf of Israel
During the Cold War, when Inna Perfido was a child living behind the Iron Curtain, she often listened to her Jewish father tell the ancient story of God’s land covenants with Abraham and Isaac. Now she hopes to make history by urging Christians to support Jewish settlement efforts in biblical Samaria, Judea, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.

The effort puts Perfido and her Temple Worship Command Center based in Charleston, S.C., in opposition to the Bush administration’s proposed Middle East roadmap to peace, much like other Christian leaders who question Bush’s model, including broadcaster Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer, head of the conservative think tank American Values. But for Perfido, the mission is personal.

“We cannot remain silent while Israelis are being killed in the settlements of biblical Judea and Samaria … because they are fulfilling ancient prophecy in returning to the land of Israel,” Perfido told Charisma. “If we do not raise our voices now, we will bear responsibilities for [the] rise of anti-Semitism in this country and abroad.”

Born in Moscow, Perfido experienced anti-Semitism as a teenager. After she began wearing a Star of David and attending Moscow’s only synagogue, she was beaten up on a bus simply for being a Jew. In 1981, after finishing her nursing degree, she immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City with $200 and two suitcases.

Perfido experimented with yoga and developed a psychic ability, but she still lacked peace. One day she cried out to God, saying, “I want to see You face-to-face.” Perfido said she felt something like a holy wind come into her room. “A voice spoke to me three times and said, ‘Jesus is the only way,'” she said.

For six months, “Jesus is the only way,” danced through her mind. Then after watching The 700 Club, she asked Jesus into her life. Shortly afterward, she said, the Holy Spirit touched her so powerfully at a Bible study she could “barely breathe.” That was in 1985.

When she later learned that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, she cried. “It completed my heart, and I didn’t desert my heritage,” she said.

Some Christians believe the church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people, thus invalidating Israel’s claims to Old Testament land promises. But others, like Perfido, say the fulfillment of biblical prophecies concerning Israel is essential for the second coming of Christ.

In 1994 Perfido began developing a worship and intercession ministry that utilized dance, banners and tabernacle objects. The result was Temple Worship Command Center, through which Perfido coordinates prayer for Israel.

“[Her ministry] is from a Jewish heart,” said Margie Rudolph, who publishes The Jewish Star, a Judeo-Christian news magazine, with her husband, Marvin. “It’s all about the love. If you show [Jews] God’s love, they will come in.”

Perfido, now 45, also has taken to political activism. In September she participated in a delegation called Support for Israel Starts With Me, which traveled to Washington, D.C., to urge Congress to freeze all funding for the Palestinian Authority.

“The case for sanity, shared values and democracy cannot be made by Jews alone,” said Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., during a reception sponsored by the Christians’ Israel Public Action Campaign held in concert with the rally. “We need evangelical Christian groups with us.”

For two years, Perfido–whose husband died in August–has organized the Judeo-Christian Zionist Congress to raise funds and awareness about the need for Jews in Israel to remain on the land she says God deeded to the Jews.

Perfido believes a revival of Christian Zionism is coming to the church. She said: “It is a prophetic voice of warning to the nations who [rebel] against the holiness of the everlasting and unconditional covenant of God concerning Israel.”
Arlene Bridges Samuels in Israel

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ is one of several big-budget movies that focus on Jesus
Hollywood is a far cry from holy, but Jesus is taking center stage on several big-budget films released recently and set to debut in the coming year.

Beginning with The Gospel of John, a $15 million, word-for-word adaptation taken from the Good News Bible that released in select markets Sept. 26, the films are squarely biblical and should be welcomed by churchgoers, though most are being produced by non-Christians.

Among the forthcoming releases are Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ; an April TV movie titled The God Man; The Lamb; The Alpha and Omega; another film based on John’s gospel produced by actor Bruce Marchiano, who played Jesus in Matthew; and an animated version of the Jesus film.

Pointing to this batch, film critic Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide, which reviews films from a Christian perspective, said the trend in Hollywood is motivated more by money than ministry. He said Christians are increasingly being seen as a viable market–which he attributes to Movieguide’s detailed economic analyses of the box office. Films with moral or Christian content consistently pull larger profits, Baehr noted.

But even the potential profit of Gibson’s $25 million The Passion hasn’t warmed the major studios to it. The film has been embroiled in controversy since an early draft of the script ended up in the hands of several interfaith scholars who said Gibson’s literal interpretation of the biblical account could spawn anti-Semitism. At press time no major studio was willing to buy it for national distribution. In October Gibson announced plans to market and distribute the film himself.

Barbara Nicolosi, director of Act One, a ministry that trains Christians to write for Hollywood, said the film is one of the most powerful Christian movies to hit the film market. The surrounding controversy is “a sign that he got it right,” she said. “Calling the Scriptures anti-Semitic is like calling Jesus Beelzebub. This is the real story.”

Scheduled for release in February and rated R because of violence, The Passion is a graphic depiction of Christ’s last hours that Gibson, a devout Catholic, funded and produced through his Icon Productions. Gibson has shown the film to several evangelical groups, and it has been applauded by such leaders as National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard and Focus on the Family President Don Hodel.

In January it will be shown in Orlando, Fla., at the late Bill Bright’s Beyond All Limits conference, which will assemble a who’s who of prominent Christian leaders and is expected to draw several thousand attendees.

“[The Passion] is the kind of film that when people leave the theater they will be changed,” said Emmy-winning director Bryan Hickox, founder of the Conquering Hollywood tour aimed at training Christians to be marketable in Hollywood. “What Mel Gibson did is transport people to the foot of the cross.”

Baehr doubts the other Christ-centered releases will get as much negative press as The Passion. The Gospel of John, whose executive producer, producer and director all are Jewish, has received mostly favorable reviews. “It’s a word-for-word faithful adaptation of the Gospel of John,” said director Garth Drabinsky. “This probably isn’t a book of the Bible that you can pick up without an anti-Judaic element. That’s why we opened with a legend–that it was a world of religious transition.”

Filmed mostly in Spain and produced by Toronto-based Visual Bible International, maker of smaller-budget word-for-word adaptations of Acts and Matthew, John was made to be informative and artistically excellent, Drabinsky said. The creative team–composed of religion scholars, award-winning producers and classically trained actors–sought to be “creatively neutral,” though Baehr said the film is more evangelistic than The Passion and gave it a glowing review.

The PG-13, three-hour John was to release in November on video and a three-disc DVD that includes a disc of interactive special features, including a glossary, history section and bibliography. Interactive features also are included on a related Web site, .

The biblical epics come at a time when the number of films offering moral and Christian content is increasing. In its most recent Report to the Entertainment Industry, an economic analysis of the profitability of “morally redemptive” films, Movieguide stated that it had found that in 2002 the percentage of movies with moral or biblical content increased 28 percent over 2001, and all of the top-grossing films had at least some moral content in them.

The report indicated that the top-grossing movie of 2002, Spider-Man, was “one of the most Christian-friendly movies, thematically speaking, of the year, earning about $100 million more than the second-highest grossing movie.”

At press time Movieguide’s analysis of 2003 had not been released, but in August Finding Nemo had been named the top-grossing film of the year, raking in $330 million.

Jonathan Bock, whose Grace Hill Media promotes mainstream films that would appeal to Christians, said Hollywood is becoming more sensitive to people of faith. He said 2003 was an exceptional year, pointing to Bruce Almighty, in which Jim Carrey’s character falls on his knees in surrender to God. “I think most Christians who saw that film were very pleased by the interaction between Jim Carrey’s character and God,” he said.

Bock said that in addition to the overtly Christian films released recently, such as Luther, a historical drama based on the life of Martin Luther, several upcoming films will likely appeal to Christians. Among them: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, a live-action version of Peter Pan and Disney’s The Alamo. “Hollywood is not making films only for Christians,” Bock said. “Hollywood is in business to make money, so they need to appeal to the broadest audience possible.

“I think Bruce Almighty was a film that appealed to a broad audience and was well received by people of faith–and that’s what we should be hoping for.”
Adrienne S. Gaines

Many Christian families leave Santa Claus out of Christmas to help their kids focus on the birth of Jesus. But 68-year-old Ed Butchart, who already looks the part with his white hair and beard, dons a red suit and assumes the role of Santa to tell children about the God who loved the world so much He sent His Son.

“My goal is to let kids feel the love of Christ through me,” he told Charisma.

Founder of an Atlanta-area ministry called Friends of Disabled Adults and Children, Butchart has played Santa at Stone Mountain Park since 1991. He is undeterred when well-meaning Christians say he should not portray Santa.

When kids ask questions, Butchart answers in a way that steers the conversation toward Christ. For example, he will tell children that Santa can’t watch them at all times, but Jesus can. He notes that the original Santa, St. Nicholas, was a Christian whose generosity became legendary.

Butchart is known for his generosity too. With support from his church, Mount Carmel Christian Church in Stone Mountain, Butchart has given away more than 10,000 refurbished wheelchairs to people in 62 nations, as well as $40 million in donated medical supplies. Recently, the ministry sent an 18-wheeler full of supplies to Iraq.

Butchart began working with the disabled in 1986, after he befriended a young man with cerebral palsy. One of the first wheelchairs he gave away was to a young girl in Vietnam who lost both of her legs to a land mine. “We’ve spent virtually no money to [obtain] those supplies,” said Butchart, who is sometimes called the “Wheelchair Santa.” “It just comes from all over.”

A book about Butchart’s adventures playing Santa and ministering to the disabled, titled The Red Suit Diaries, is due out this month. Some of the proceeds will benefit the ministry, but Butchart said God has always supplied the ministry’s needs. “Sometimes [financial help] would show up in 15 minutes after we prayed,” he said. “The more we depended on Him, the more He came through.”
Richard Daigle in Atlanta

But a former aide warns that Joshua is deceiving Christians with false miracles and Pentecostal jargon
Christians in Nigeria have labeled T.B. Joshua a false prophet and a charlatan. But the controversial healer–known by his followers as “the man in The Synagogue”–insists that time will prove his critics are wrong.

“It is a great offense to speak against a man of God. But the more you accuse a man of God, the stronger he will be,” Joshua said during an interview inside his newly constructed, 30,000-seat The Synagogue, Church of All Nations in Lagos.

Every day thousands of Nigerian and foreign pilgrims visit the unusual building, which was constructed by volunteers who consider Joshua their spiritual leader. Those who seek healing are asked to wear paper signs that describe their ailments. Others come wanting prayer for guidance, financial blessing or pregnancy.

Joshua’s critics, including prominent pastors in the country, won’t deny that he heals people. But they say he draws his power from indigenous African occultism–not from the Holy Spirit.

One person who has stayed silent about Joshua until now is Bayo Ajede, a 37-year-old man from Lagos who served as Joshua’s assistant for four years. In 1996 Ajede ran away from The Synagogue–fearing for his life–and eventually became a Christian. He decided recently that he must warn others about the source of Joshua’s power.

“People need to know that Satan can also perform miracles,” Ajede said. “The Bible says that in the last days even the elect will be deceived.”

Ajede claims Joshua never converted to Christianity and that he mixes Islam and African folk religion with Christian doctrines. Ajede also claims that when he worked at The Synagogue, Joshua used incense, candles, “magic writing” and demonic power to work miracles.

On an altar in Joshua’s bedroom, Ajede said, the mysterious prophet kept a Bible, a Quran and an occultic book. Joshua also boasted that he could visit members of The Synagogue in their dreams.

“[Joshua] used to say he was the Jesus for the present age,” Ajede said. “He would say that God had passed over the Jews and had raised up a black Christ.”

When Charisma confronted Joshua with such claims, he denied knowing Ajede. When asked about magic writing, Joshua scribbled some marks on paper and said he possesses the gift of spiritual language. “This [writing] is purely divine. The human hand cannot write it,” Joshua said.

Photographs obtained by Charisma prove that Ajede lived and worked at The Synagogue. Also, Ajede’s current pastor, Ladi Thompson, of Living Waters Unlimited Church in Lagos, said he has indisputable evidence that Ajede worked for Joshua.

“It has been confirmed by people who saw [Ajede] regularly during those years,” Thompson said. “T.B. Joshua is lying through his teeth.”

Ajede said he lived in a cultlike environment while serving as one of Joshua’s handpicked disciples. He slept in The Synagogue with 16 men in the same room, and they were told not to eat meat or fish, he said, “in order to have more spiritual power.”

They were also forbidden to leave the compound. “We were told that something terrible would happen to us if we ever left,” he said.

Another man from Lagos who served Joshua as a disciple from 1991 to 1995 told Charisma that he constantly had nightmares while living at The Synagogue. He also confirmed that Joshua used soap and palm leaves to heal people and sometimes swatted away demons with loincloths.

“He did many things that were not biblical, but I thought he was of God because he used the name of Jesus,” said the man, who requested anonymity because he fears reprisals from Joshua.

“I was becoming a spiritual captive there,” the man added. “I was becoming subservient to the spirits that ruled that place.”

Both men also claimed that Joshua, who is married, engaged in illicit sex with women in his private quarters and sometimes conducted “spiritual examinations” of their genitals. But Joshua denied all claims of immoral behavior.

“One cannot continue in immorality and continue in the ministry,” said Joshua, who apologized for the fact that he never finished primary school. “I hope God will show you that I am a prophet.”

Many charismatic Christians side with Joshua. Since the mid-1990s they have flocked to The Synagogue from Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. They come in large tour groups and are offered housing on the expansive compound, which is equipped with a dining hall and bread factory.

When visitors arrive they are shown videotaped scenes of Joshua praying for the sick. The videos also include glowing endorsements of Joshua’s ministry from international church leaders.

On one video, Christian newspaper editor Jerrell Miller of Mobile, Ala., tells the camera: “God has a man in Lagos, Nigeria, who has walked through the door of divine healing. I believe this church holds the key for worldwide revival.”

However, some residents of Lagos fear that Joshua’s ministry has become a dangerous cult. One man who requested anonymity said he fears for the life of one of his relatives, who has been a member of The Synagogue for eight years. His relative, who was prayed for by Joshua in 1995 so she could become pregnant, has carried what looks like a pregnancy ever since.

“It must be demonic,” the man said. “No one is pregnant for eight years. I want her to get medical help and talk to some people outside. [The Synagogue] is a cult.”

When Charisma visited The Synagogue in August, several young women and one man, all in their 20s, were serving as Joshua’s personal aides. They lived
communally inside the compound and referred to Joshua as “the prophet” or “the man of God” when discussing their loyalty to him.

“There is no place on Earth where there are greater miracles than here at The Synagogue,” said one young woman, who said she came to Lagos after viewing a video of Joshua’s healing services at her Assemblies of God congregation in Galt, Calif. “After I came here I knew I had to stay.”

Thompson, along with dozens of other Nigerian pastors, said all these international visitors are being deceived by African spiritism–which is covered with a Christian veneer.

“I had hoped that T.B. Joshua’s original doctrines were simply because of his ignorance in his early days,” Thompson said. “But now I know that he is a false prophet.”
J. Lee Grady in Lagos, Nigeria

The former model, best known for her role in Summer of ’42, tells her story of forgiveness at conferences and churches
Jennifer O’Neill spent most of her life in front of cameras, yet the actress and one-time Cover Girl model said that for years she felt invisible.

“I did have a life [that] … looked so spectacular, and in so many ways it was,” said O’Neill, 55, who is best known for her role in the 1971 film Summer of ’42. “But it didn’t bring me the satisfaction. It didn’t fill that empty part of us that only God could fill. As the adage goes, I started looking for love in all the wrong places, thinking someone else could fill me up.”

After attempting suicide at 14, she went on to marry nine times and suffer nine miscarriages after an abortion. She nearly died three times–in a car accident, a horseback-riding accident that broke her back, and after accidentally shooting herself in the stomach during a traumatic season when she discovered her fifth husband had sexually abused her teenage daughter.

But her life changed dramatically after she accepted Christ in 1986. She said she found what she had been looking for–a love that was unconditional–and began a journey toward healing, which started with her learning to make Christ Lord of her life. It also included several lessons in forgiveness along the way.

“God wants His children to be unencumbered from their past sins,” she told Charisma. “And it’s all based on our unforgiveness. Our unforgiveness for ourselves and others keeps us crippled, even if we have eternal life.

“God wants His children to be powerful in Him and for Him because the Great Commission is not a request; it’s a command. How are we supposed to go out and do that if we’re all [knotted] up?”

That’s the message she shares at churches and conferences such as Extraordinary Women and Women of Faith, and through her books, Surviving Myself and the more recent, From Fallen to Forgiven. Whether she talks about her healing from the shame she felt after having an abortion or coping with the trauma of sexual abuse, O’Neill said her mostly Christian audiences thank her for speaking out.

“I used to say when I finally came to Christ that He loved me and He forgave me and He healed me, but not the abortion, not this,” she told attendees at a May Women of Faith conference in Kentucky. “And that’s not true. [Christ’s blood] covers all sin.

“[God] wants us to be free and released and healed. It is our choice to heal through forgiveness. [Healing] is ours for the asking.”

O’Neill says though her life was high-profile and glamorous, people from all walks of life can relate to her journey. “The issues are familiar to us all because they’re human issues, and it doesn’t matter what package they come in.”

She once shared her testimony at a luncheon attended mostly by very wealthy women in their late 40s and 50s. “The outreach was 100 women who literally drove up to this incredible home in their Rolls Royces and Ferraris, and they were all bejeweled and dressed to the nines and absolutely gorgeous.”

After she shared her testimony, she said 77 women accepted Christ. “We know those who are incarcerated or in low-income areas or having issues in life need Christ, but everyone needs Christ. Especially those who have never heard [the gospel] because everybody thinks they’re cool. That happened with me so much; everybody just assumed I was very confident and had good self-esteem because I was on the cover of magazines and making movies. Not so.”

After her 1986 conversion, O’Neill attended Jack Hayford’s Church on the Way, and spent several years studying Scripture, avoiding media attention. She later became outspoken about her pro-life views.

The book opened doors to speak, but her message on forgiveness and emotional healing struck a chord. “I think she has one of the most powerful women’s testimonies,” said Bob Rieth, one of O’Neill’s mentors and founder of Media Fellowship International, which offers Bible studies and small-group discipleship for professionals in sports, and entertainment and news media. “In the places where I’ve been to hear [O’Neill] speak, God touches people in a powerful way.”

When not speaking, O’Neill breeds, trains and shows her jumper horses from her farm in Nashville, Tenn., and she has developed a line of health and beauty products. She continues to do some film work, though she says outspoken Christians often have trouble finding work in Hollywood.

A married mother of three and grandmother of four, O’Neill said she wouldn’t rewrite the past.

“God is using all of those nightmares for His glory. Sometimes people can hear from a voice who’s been there, done that a little better than from those who haven’t. So if you’ve experienced [tough issues] and Christ has renewed you despite yourself, it gives [others] hope.”
Adrienne S. Gaines