Phil Vischer, creator of the popular VeggieTales videos for children, is looking for someone to buy Big Idea Productions
A multimillion-dollar federal ruling against VeggieTales creator Big Idea Productions has landed the struggling children’s entertainment company on the sales block.

On July 1, U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn of the Northern District of Texas upheld an $11 million April jury verdict that found the VeggieTales company had breached a verbal contract with former general-market distributor Lyrick Studios Inc. Lynn also tacked on court fees, attorney fees and interest, which could bring the judgment to $15 million.

As a result, Big Idea founder and CEO Phil Vischer announced a major restructuring and admitted he was actively seeking a buyer or large investor to save the company.

“We are in a full restructure,” Vischer told Charisma after the ruling. “We have to rethink how does the ministry go on in a more financially responsible, viable way?”

During the production of its first full-length theatrical production, Jonah: A Veggie-Tales Movie, Big Idea had a record full- and part-time staff of roughly 200. In the last several months, the company has downsized to 45.

Vischer said troubles began when Big Idea tried to develop too many new products too fast, creating a financial burden that could not be sustained. Then came the lawsuit by Texas-based Lyrick, distributor of the popular children’s shows Barney and Wishbone, alleging that Big Idea broke a verbal contract with Lyrick when the Veggie- Tales company shifted its general-market distribution to Warner Home Video in late 2001.

Big Idea made the move to Warner after Lyrick underwent a buyout that Vischer said changed the mission of the company. Vischer said he believed he was legally free to switch when negotiations with Lyrick failed to culminate in a signed contract after three years.

Vischer said Lyrick’s attorneys painted an inaccurate picture of Big Idea’s intent, convincing the jury that the VeggieTales company that touted itself as operating under Christian values just wanted more money.

“We thought we were right in leaving Lyrick for three reasons,” Vischer said. “No. 1, we had never signed a contract. No. 2, we had inserted a ‘key-man’ clause in the contract we were negotiating that would allow us to leave Lyrick if the Christian owner, Dick Leach, left the company. Third, we had also put in a ‘change in control’ clause to allow us to leave if the company was sold. When Dick sold Lyrick and died two months later, we clearly felt that both of those clauses had been invoked.”

A Lyrick spokesperson said the litigation was not meant to attack the integrity of Big Idea’s product.

“The business litigation between Lyrick Studios Inc. and Big Idea Productions Inc. was based upon a contractual dispute regarding distribution of the VeggieTales video and audio products,” a Lyrick spokesperson said. “The litigation was in no way a reflection upon the quality content of the product, as we continue to believe in the value of the product.”

“The jury bought it that all we wanted was more money and wanted to make an example out of us,” Vischer said.

At press time, Big Idea planned to continue developing new products using its original creative team comprised of Vischer, Mike Nawrocki, music director Kurt Heinecke and others. The next VeggieTales video, The Ballad of Little Joe, was scheduled to release in early August, and Big Idea planned to roll a re-priced classic VeggieTales DVD line this fall. Another new VeggieTales release, The Easter Carol, is in the pipeline for next spring.

“I think we are going through a great maturing process here, and I am not sure exactly how it’s going to come out,” Vischer said. “But I can say that this trial by fire has forged a very strong core team of creative and business people who are still about the mission.”
Natalie Nichols Gillespie

People are flocking from as far away as the United Kingdom and New Zealand to experience ‘a fountain of cleansing’
With ripped carpets, unfinished walls and holes in the ceiling, Jubilee Christian Fellowship could use a makeover. But instead of getting its own face-lift, this small church in California’s central agricultural belt has been hosting pilgrims seeking the Holy Spirit’s renovation in their lives.

Since April, Jubilee has become the focus of growing attention as–it is claimed–God began unleashing His power. The Holy Spirit has been pouring Himself into people’s lives, resulting in conversions, healings and deliverance, according to evangelist Joe Cicchino, whose planned two-week crusade at Jubilee was extended indefinitely.

“This church has become a fountain of cleansing,” said Cicchino, a former business executive who quit the rat race to start Oklahoma-based Vision of Love ministries. “This is not just about healings. It’s about repentance, restoration, reconciliation and moving into God’s heart of unconditional love,” he said.

In Tulare–a farming town of 40,000 about 170 miles north of Los Angeles–the nightly “visitations” at Jubilee have caused quite a stir. The community was soon buzzing with talk of “miracles and people falling over,” prompting local TV and newspaper reporters to investigate.

Why Tulare? Jubilee pastor Ken Bowman admitted he’s nonplused. A quiet, unassuming man, Bowman told Charisma he received a prophecy last September that his 50-member church would be “visited by God” and that the effects would ripple around the world.

Seekers have come from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Some say they’ve been physically healed; others, delivered of emotional hurts. Many have come to bask in God’s presence, Bowman added. “People are falling in love with God and getting to know Him intimately.”

Every evening up to 200 people have crammed into the small sanctuary with the pews pushed back to create space for those who Cicchino said fall under the power of God. “There’s no preaching, no offering, no introductions,” he explained. “God’s presence is so intense.”

Rebeca Gomez has lived in Tulare for 37 years. Almost two years ago, an accident left her blind. Since Cicchino prayed over her, Gomez said her sight has gradually returned. Recently she was able to see her grandchild for the first time, she added. “Before, I could see only darkness, but God opened my eyes.”

Another Tulare resident, Esther Slape, said God healed her deafness. “I was stone-deaf. … All I could hear was a distant hum. Now I don’t even need to wear a hearing aid.” Slape said she also experienced spiritual healing. “Nothing compares to the deep peace I feel.”

When Steve Halberstadt heard about Jubilee, he traveled across country from Ocala, Fla. Three weeks later, he was still in Tulare. Halberstadt said he no longer needed his prescription medications because God healed his diabetes.

Like others at Jubilee, Halberstadt insisted he was not chasing signs and wonders. “I just want more of Jesus,” he said. “Right here, He is so vivid, so real.”

So real, in fact, that some claimed Jesus appeared to them in the church sanctuary. Others described visions of heaven and angels, or wept as they recalled God’s overwhelming presence.

Cicchino, a Rhema graduate ordained by evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne, claimed that almost 400 conversions in a two-month period–along with healings and signs–showed that the Holy Spirit was moving in a remarkable way.

“God wants to consume us with His cleansing fire,” Cicchino added. “It’s about less of us and more of Him.”

Cicchino’s wife, Ellen, said that just as California’s fertile Central Valley helps feed the nation, “God wants Tulare to feed the world spiritually as well. People are coming filled with pain, and the Holy Spirit is setting them free … removing the splinters from their hearts.”

Tim Vink, pastor of Tulare Community Church, described Jubilee as an answer to prayer. “Several pastors have been praying together weekly for seven years for renewal and awakening in our city,” he said. “The outpouring at Jubilee and the launch of the Healing Rooms in Tulare last year are answers to prayer. The kingdom of God is displacing the kingdom of darkness.”

Not everyone, however, has been impressed. Bowman said many church members stopped attending when the “visitation” began. Some people have walked out of the church after a few minutes–upset by the sight of those lying on the floor, covered by red sheets. “Others look through the door and say: ‘We want nothing to do with that,'” Bowman added. But he is unruffled by allegations of theatrics. “If we’re acting, we deserve an Oscar.”

Still, many mysteries remain. For instance, why would God choose to visit such a simple, humble church? Cicchino offered his view: “There was no room in the inn, but there was plenty of room in the stable.”
Julian Lukins in Tulare, Calif.

Each year Granny’s House serves thousands of after-school meals to youth

Gredia Bell, 21, sat in her dark apartment praying for God to help her.

Lonely and pregnant in Columbia, Mo., Bell had no relatives to call. She was in a new city and had lived most of her life in foster homes after her mom gave her up. “I never had a mother or a father, and I prayed for grandparents for [my daughter] Mahogany,” Bell told Charisma.

Her answer came in the form of a doctor’s wife, who was going door to door through Bell’s apartment complex with a friend, praying for the residents.

“Pam [Ingram] asked me if she could pray for me and my unborn baby,” Bell recalled. After the prayer, Ingram left and returned with gifts for the baby.

The gesture sparked a relationship between the women that has since morphed into a ministry known as Granny’s House, through which Ingram and her husband, Dr. Ellis Ingram, feed and mentor inner-city children.

The ministry was officially born in 2001 in the Douglass Park Public Housing complex, where Ingram met Bell. “I wanted to call it Granny’s House because we provide a home-like atmosphere that’s bright and colorful,” said Ingram, 52. “We share life principles with the kids and do things with them that you would with your own children.”

Granny’s House serves more than 7,000 free meals each year out of two adjoining apartments that the Columbia Housing Authority (CHA) provided at a reduced rate. “They [Granny’s House] are a safe refuge for the children,” said CHA Director Doris Chiles. “Not only do they get food, but a sense of trustworthiness. I’ve never seen anything like this in the seven years I’ve been the [CHA] director.”

The ministry feeds 35 to 50 children from ages 4 to 12 every day after school. “They come running off the bus with their backpacks still on into Granny’s House,” she told Charisma. “They all call me ‘Granny Pam,’ and we love them and pray for them.”

Six of those children belong to Sheryl Carter. “My children have been going to Granny’s House for two years,” Carter said. “They do crafts, play activities, eat an evening meal and snack, and learn Bible verses.”

Carter said she has seen a difference in her five sons–Michael, 12; Robert, 10; Antonio, 8; Anthony, 7; and James, 6–since they started attending Granny’s House. “My boys are more gentleman-like,” she said. “They are respectful. She [Ingram] teaches them kindness and how to handle situations rather than fight and be rude.”

Raised in the inner city themselves, the Ingrams said they felt God “sending us back where we started” in 1994. The couple had been mentoring youth for years–25 to date–but their ministry officially began with their door-to-door Free-Prayer outreach at Douglass Park.

Today Pamela Ingram estimates that Granny’s House has an annual budget of $28,000 because she doesn’t take a salary. But the couple say they see the fruit of their investment in the children’s lives.

Known affectionately as “Poppi,” Dr. Ingram, 53, works quietly behind the scenes. He takes the boys to sports activities and arranges special trips to places such as the University of Missouri Medical Center and the Career Center Laser Technology Lab.

Though unassuming, the ministry has not gone unnoticed. In 2001 Missouri state Rep. Vicky Riback-Wilson hailed Granny’s House as a model faith-based organization, prompting a visit from Gov. Bob Holden the same year.

With plans to expand into another community across town, Granny’s House has a faithful staff of volunteers from churches around the city. Martha Lee, 14, serves food and plays with the children every Friday. “It’s put in me a servant’s heart and gives me a chance to give back,” Martha said. “I take a couple hours to make someone else’s life better.”

Volunteer JoAnn Wilson, 65, is a retired businesswoman. “We’ve just started a Bible study with one of the mothers,” she told Charisma. “We pray every Thursday for Granny’s House. Usually two to three little ones will knock on the door, and we’ll pray over them. They are always ready for prayer.”

Prayer, Pamela Ingram said, is still the foundation of the ministry. It is what led her to Bell, now 25, and her daughter, now 4, who have become an integral part of the Ingrams’ lives. “I helped take care of Mimi [Mahogany] after she was born,” Ingram said, “and I can’t imagine life without her.”
Leilani Haywood

After an Ontario court ruled that same-sex unions are legal, evangelicals vowed to fight the implications
Same-sex marriage is now legal in Canada’s largest province, Ontario, and will become legal across the nation as early as this month following an uncontested declaration by Ontario’s Court of Appeal that said forbidding gays to marry is unconstitutional. Canada is now the third country in the world–following Holland and Belgium–to legitimize same-sex unions.

But in a surprisingly swift move, Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Cabinet, who did not contest the

Ontario decision, proposed legislation to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. The bill included language that would protect the right of churches to refuse to marry gays and lesbians.

The definition of marriage in Canada’s Constitution will be changed to that of a union between two consenting adults. The move follows a long fight by gay activists who argued that the old definition of marriage as between one man and one woman was unconstitutional because it violated the constitution’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“We were totally shocked that the federal government wasted all the work of its Justice Committee and the taxpayer’s dollars to rush this through,” said Bruce Clemenger, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), a large national association of evangelical Christians that has been present at every stage of the same-sex marriage debate.

“If you redefine marriage as the union of two consenting adults, how do you draw the line at just two people being involved? Further down the road, we could see the legalization of polygamy or incestuous relationships.”

Clemenger said homosexual and lesbian couples who have lived together longer than one year already receive the same rights as heterosexual couples in matters of health care, social assistance, ability to adopt children or use artificial reproduction methods, and inheritance rights. “Basically, these couples are taken care of … but what they really want is the golden ring,” he added. “They want to be seen in the eyes of the public as completely acceptable.”

Dan Cere, an ethics professor at McGill University and founder of the Institute for the Study of Marriage, Law and Culture, said the decision in favor of same-sex unions is part of the general deterioration of marriage in Canada.

“We can wash the law of gender differences, but it doesn’t change the basis of how relationships and families are designed,” said Cere, a staunch Catholic. “We’re developing a kind of culture which is immune to marriage, when the truth is that marriage is a cultural institution you shouldn’t mess around with.”

Wendy Gritter, executive director of New Direction for Life Ministries, a Canadian ministry to Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction, believes the gay marriage issue can present an opportunity for evangelism. “The same-sex marriage issue is a great opportunity to reach the gay community with the gospel by showing them the love of Christ coupled with discipleship for their struggle,” she told Charisma.

David Hazzard, head of ministerial services for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), says PAOC supports the EFC’s stance on same-sex marriage.

“In Canada, we live in the midst of the tension of speaking both God’s punishment and God’s mercy,” Hazzard said. “I preached a sermon on Gay Pride Day in Toronto two years ago which told of Jesus offering His grace to the woman caught in adultery, but I also told of Christ’s commission to change her lifestyle. The implication was He views homosexuality in the same way.”

The United Church in Canada ordains ministers who are practicing homosexuals and says it will marry same-sex couples, while certain dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada recently adopted a service to bless same-sex live-in relationships.

Since June when same-sex marriage became legal in Ontario, approximately 10 percent of all marriage-license applications have come from gay and lesbian couples, including several from gays in the United States, where same-sex marriage is not legal except by civil ceremony in Vermont.

Also in June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law banning sodomy. Gay rights groups praised the decision, likening it to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision that ended segregation in public schools. Christian organizations, however, decried the ruling, saying it could clear the way for gay marriage in the United States.

“This case gives advocates of same-sex marriage a weapon with which to force state officials and private employers to give same-sex unions exactly the same status as traditional marriage,” said Vincent McCarthy, executive director of the Center for Marriage Law. “The court has now imposed the sexual revolution into the Constitution.”

The ruling may serve as a wake-up call to “the majority of Americans who believe in traditional marriage and oppose same-sex unions,” said Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, one of more than a dozen mostly Christian groups that filed a brief in February opposing the legal challenge to Texas’ sodomy law.

“[The] decision has awakened a sleeping giant,” Staver said, “and will galvanize and reinvigorate the majority of Americans who believe in traditional marriage but have ignored the radical agenda of the same-sex marriage movement.”
Josie Newman in Toronto

Groups such as One Hundred Hours lead worship among non-Christians in bars across the U.K.
A Christian praise track has been an unlikely feature in one of the summer’s most popular films and a hit TV show.

Andy Hunter’s “The Wonders of You,” on the British DJ’s debut album, Exodus, was part of the backdrop for The Matrix: Reloaded trailer and included in an episode of ABC’s spy thriller Alias–though the lyrics on the techno tour de force are clearly vertical: “Who is like You? Who is like the wonders … the wonders of You?”

Hunter is part of a new breed of worship leaders, singers and musicians who’ve been taking their praise music beyond church–and into film scores, popular TV shows, London theaters and student bars.

Beneath the giant neon displays of London’s Piccadilly district, a small West End audience has been warming to a different light. They’ve been listening to classic tunes by the likes of Paul Simon and Fats Waller–alongside worship songs.

Presenting this unusual program of folk-rock anthems is established worship leader Dave Bilbrough. He’s been singing popular tunes and sharing stories in epic singer-songwriter style at a little theater in fashionable Jermyn Street.

Some punters have probably gone along expecting a conventional worship set. Others have brought their unchurched friends. Regular theatergoers have come out of curiosity. But whether they’ve realized it or not, they’ve all found themselves in a worship environment–“unplugged.”

Other Christian singers have made an impact by working in the wider music scene. When heavenly sounds filled the corridor at a secular rock festival, musicians walking past the open door couldn’t resist. Curious to check it out, they discovered a group praying with spiritual passion–and just joined in.

Those musicians had been getting ready to go on stage, but suddenly found themselves having devotions with the London Community Gospel Choir (LCGC), Britain’s best-known gospel act, who was on the same bill.

“It presented an opportunity to witness to these guys about our faith,” said LCGC leader the Rev. Bazil Meade. This 65-strong choir navigates the murky waters of pop music–not to preach, but to be itself at worship.

Meade believes there’s power in just doing what they do–and doing it well. “People will recognize you for what you are and realize there’s something special about what you do,” he said.

This choir was “crossover” material before the term was widely used. It has moved outside church circles and received recognition in the wider showbiz world. It has appeared at rock, blues, classical and jazz festivals, singing in theaters and arts centers.

Propelled into a place it never dreamed of occupying, the choir evolved from a bunch of bright young singers from various black churches to a national institution. Eventually it became a familiar face on British television–working with a host of household names including Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones and Elton John.

LCGC recently marked its 21st anniversary with a “live” recording of its funky, feel-good sound at London’s Abbey Road studios, where The Beatles created some of their greatest work.

Hurriedly assembled for a youth event, another group–this time a humble four-piece worship band called One Hundred Hours–didn’t have such a great future in mind.

But when they’d play their guitar-driven rock at youth groups–mixing secular
“Brit-pop” songs with compositions by British worship pioneers Delirious and Matt Redman–they felt “something was happening” during the worship.

After praying about it, they realized there was a deeper purpose for them. At a Youth With A Mission conference in Scotland, group members said the praise became very intense, and a powerful prayer time took place. Since then, intercessory worship has been their calling card.

But their bookings haven’t been confined to “nice” Christian venues. They’ve played amid the drink and smoke of college bars, where unsuspecting students have sung along to praise songs. “People are designed to worship,” said lead singer-guitarist Tré Sheppard, whose wife, Tori, adds dramatic background vocals to the band’s chunky sound.

“Christianity is not this alien thing we’re trying to force on them. We just missed what we’re designed for,” he added. “I want to appeal to that rather than thinking, ‘You bad people need saving.’ People know they need saving. They know they’re screwed up. We want to say there is hope–and hope rocks.”

As worship winds its way from behind church walls to the wider world, Christian singers and musicians are beginning to live out what the band Delirious–who blazed a trail in reaching mainstream audiences with worship music–sings about in their popular anthem “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?”–“open up the doors and let the music play, let the streets resound with singing.”
Clive Price in London

Observers say the content encourages religious conflict and could lead to attacks against Christians in the mostly Orthodox region
Three countries in the former Soviet Union have introduced new school textbooks that, to varying degrees, portray evangelical Christianity as suspicious at best and at worst a breeding ground for religious fanaticism.

“People are really upset, not just the Pentecostals but the Baptists, too,” said Dina Shavtsova, a Pentecostal lawyer in the Belarus capital of Minsk who specializes in religious freedom issues. “The kind of information in that textbook really encourages religious conflict. Maybe something won’t happen right away, but when you put this together with the negative television broadcasts, it adds up.”

Shavtsova pointed to an early June attack on the charismatic Living Faith Church in the city of Gomel as an example. In the overnight incident, vandals broke windows and painted Antichrist on the church’s sign.

Besides Belarus, the former Soviet republic of Georgia uses a high school textbook that paints “foreign sects” with a wide brush. However, the situation there seems to be the least severe.

In Russia, human rights activists are fighting to halt the planned nationwide introduction of a textbook that they claim promotes Orthodox Christianity above other faiths. All three nations are dominated by Orthodox Christians and have tiny Protestant minorities.

Yevgeny Ikhlov of the nongovernmental for Human Rights organization is leading a court and public relations campaign to stop the further spread of the Foundations of Orthodox Culture textbook in Russia. Although Ikhlov is mostly concerned about the book’s anti-Semitic aspects, he said he has no doubt it will be used to denigrate other faiths.

The situation in Belarus, a country of 10 million between Russia and Poland, is the most serious both because of the textbook’s 147,000 press run and because every student is obligated to take the course “Man, Society, Government” before graduating high school.

One section of the book reads, “Although every religion claims to hold the absolute truth, all the same fanaticism is especially likely to appear among sects.” It goes on to state, “In our republic, some of the most widespread sects include the evangelical Baptists, the Evangelicals, the Pentecostals, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others.”

So far, despite written pleas to the Belarus ministry of education to recall the textbook, no action has been taken. The only two groups to formally file complaints are a Pentecostal umbrella group and a tiny Hare Krishna organization that objected to the textbook’s associating it with Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo, a doomsday cult that attacked a Tokyo subway system with nerve gas in 1995. Shavtsova said some Baptist families in western Belarus had taken their children out of government schools.

Ikhlov said it is no coincidence that Belarus, Georgia and Russia are all grappling with similar textbook issues.

“These post-Communist states are all pursuing a nationalist, conservative line of thinking,” he said. “They try to portray themselves as close to the local Orthodox people, who need to be protected against the barbarians.”
Frank Brown in Moscow

A Moscow-based ministry has converted portions of Scripture into 62 languages in the world’s largest country
Mikhail Kindruk and other Pentecostal missionaries spent 20 days traveling by boat along the remote rivers of eastern Siberia, visiting 25 villages inaccessible by road. What they found, he said, was astonishing: even a full decade after the fall of the Soviet Union, no one had heard of Jesus.

“Not one person had a Bible. Not one person had heard the gospel,” Kindruk said. “In every village, practically everyone came out to hear the Gospels and to get a Bible from us.”

About half of the literature distributed in last summer’s trip is provided by the Institute for Bible Translation, an ecumenical Christian organization that has been working in the world’s largest country since 1973, first secretly and now with varying degrees of openness.

Perhaps more than any other Christian organization, the institute has laid the groundwork for evangelizing the 130 ethnic and language groups of the former Soviet Union by working to provide them with Scripture in their native languages. The institute’s most popular publication–with 8 million copies in the last 20 years–is the Children’s Bible.

“To date, I think this is the best one. It is very accessible to kids and even to adults,” Kindruk said, noting its usefulness to those encountering Christianity for the first time. “Out there … people don’t know God at all. There was a lady who came home to her husband and said, ‘Today, I accepted Jesus.’ He got indignant and said, ‘Who is this Jesus?’ He thought Jesus was another man.”

Aside from the Children’s Bible, the institute specializes in translating the Bible into the languages spoken by ethnic minorities throughout the former Soviet Union, a vast area spanning 11 time zones. Although the majority of people speak Russian, evangelists said it makes a huge difference for people to read the Bible in their mother tongue.

“People think in their own language, so it is one less step mentally for them to read the Gospels in their own language,” noted Kindruk, who spent 10 years building the Pentecostal Church of Jesus the Savior in Chita, a remote Russian city of 400,000 north of the Mongolian border.

In his work in Chita, Kindruk said he often encounters Buryats, a historically Buddhist people with their own language. So far all he has been able to offer them is a brochure about Jesus. This year, however, the institute plans on publishing the Children’s Bible in the Buryat language. In the coming years, the entire New Testament will be published in Buryat, says Natalya Gorbunova, one of the institute’s 30 employees.

“Irrespective of the number speaking their language, we consider that every nation has the right to read the Bible, or at least a portion of it,” Gorbunova said.

Boris Arapovic, a charismatic Christian from the former Yugoslav republic of Croatia, founded the institute in 1973. He set up shop in Stockholm, cobbled together funds from Scandinavian churches and set about the daunting task of translating Scriptures into the non-Slavic languages of the Soviet Union.

Today, the institute is centered in Moscow and boasts 62 translations ranging from a full Bible for the 8 million Tajiks to the Gospel of Luke for the 2,000 Itelmen people living on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East.

“We thought this would just be a book for the libraries,” Gorbunova said of the Itelmen translation of Luke in 2002. “But then the local archbishop organized dog teams to deliver it and presented it to schools and libraries. People were so happy. It was a major event. We’ve never had a response like that.”

There are up to 60 million Muslims living in the former Soviet Union. Some countries–most notably Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan–severely restrict the institute’s work by denying visas or thwarting shipments. The leaders of other Muslim regions are welcoming.

“For the people who don’t have printed books, even if they are Muslims, it is a special honor for them to have a holy book in their language,” Gorbunova said.

Gorbunova said she is devoting more time to fund raising and developing contacts in the United States to help cover the institute’s $800,000 annual budget.

“For the last few years the institute has experienced very big financial difficulties,” she said, adding that a donation of $ covers the cost of one Children’s Bible and $ pays for a New Testament.
Frank Brown in Moscow

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Contributions to this Russian Bible translation project are being matched by an anonymous donor. Send your tax-deductible gifts to Christian Life Missions, “Russian Bibles,” P.O. Box 952248, Lake Mary, FL 32795-2248.

The Church of God and the Church of God of Prophecy are linking for a three-year effort of cooperative evangelism
The announcement of a joint evangelistic effort by two long-estranged denominations is being welcomed as not only a major step in the healing of one of Pentecostalism’s deepest divisions, but also the foretaste of a new level of unity in the wider movement.

The agreement between the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) and the Church of God of Prophecy (COGOP)–which between them claim 7 million members worldwide–was unveiled at the end of April. It sees the two groups linking for a three-year effort of cooperative evangelism, which is viewed as a significant attempt to repair the breach–officially described by COGOP as an “awful schism”–that stems back 70 years.

Though the two churches have their international headquarters on the same street in Cleveland, they have relationally been worlds apart since COGOP was founded in 1923 after A.J. Tomlinson was ousted as leader of the Church of God in a dispute over church government.

In their statement, Church of God general overseer R. Lamar Vest and COGOP general overseer Fred Fisher Sr., described the initiative as “a practical demonstration of the common purposes and spiritual heritage” of their two groups. “Because of the evangelistic opportunities presented by a global spiritual harvest, [we recognize] the value of a cooperative use of available human and financial resources.”

The program launches this month and will be led by a six-member committee. COGOP evangelist William Wilson was appointed international minister of outreach of the initiative, which will involve joint services and evangelistic meetings in the United States and abroad.

The seeds of the joint effort were sown a year ago at a historic meeting in Washington, D.C., that assembled around 30 leaders of the country’s major Pentecostal and charismatic movements for a first-of-its-kind roundtable.

The group–including senior figures from Word-Faith, charismatic, and traditional and Oneness Pentecostal streams–met for three days with no agenda other than to get to know one another better and pray together.

Pentecostal historian Vinson Synan, dean of the School of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia, called the Together 2002 meeting “truly a first,” adding that the recent Church of God-COGOP announcement was very significant.

“It’s a step in the right direction for everybody and serves as a concrete example of what can be done, because they were not even on speaking terms for decades,” he told Charisma.

Fisher said that although Together 2002 was important, relations between COGOP and the Church of God had been improving in recent years. Vest could not be reached for comment.

Together 2002 was convened by the Center for Spiritual Renewal (CSR) in Cleveland, whose director Robert Fisher was “very excited” about the joint agreement. “It is an indicator of what the Lord is doing in general in terms of bringing down denominational walls,” he said.

Many of those who attended Together 2002, joined by other key figures who had not been able to attend last year, regrouped in May for Together 2003, which followed a similar format.

Jeff Farmer, president of Open Bible Churches, said he came away “even more encouraged” than last year. “Clearly, one of the future elements is cooperative ventures and ministry initiatives,” he said, adding that he had been “exchanging ideas with another Pentecostal group on how we can work together.”

Billy Joe Daugherty of Victory Christian Center in Tulsa, Okla., who attended for the second time, said he believed Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17 was being fulfilled. “Friendships are being established that cross denominational lines,” he said. “Out of relationship comes communication and cooperation.”

The informal Together network is expected to play a key role in the worldwide gathering being planned in Los Angeles in April 2006 to mark the centennial of the Azusa Street Revival.

CSR is spearheading the event, which will include both a celebration of the birth of the modern Pentecostal movement and an assessment of where it has come since.
Andy Butcher

Graham’s previous visit to the city 27 years ago was nearly derailed due to racial and denominational divisions
In a dramatic contrast to Billy Graham’s last visit to the area, the evangelist’s recent Mission San Diego crusade saw record-breaking attendance at its children’s and youth outreaches, as well as 16,000 decisions for Christ over four days.

Local pastors say the success of the crusade–which brought 270,000 people through Qualcomm Stadium May 8-11–reflected the unprecedented cooperation of 650 area churches representing 66 denominations. Local ministers invited Graham in late 2002, but because of the 84-year-old’s failing health, they did not have the usual two years to plan.

“We had only four months from start to finish to unite the churches for the mission,” said pastor Jim Garlow of Skyline Church, a charismatic congregation in San Diego. “I asked the pastors to lay down their egos and their logos at the foot of the cross and lift up only the name of Jesus, and that is what they did.”

Racial and denominational division all but derailed Graham’s previous outreach 27 years ago, said Bishop George McKinney of St. Stephen’s Church of God in Christ, who was in charge of organizing the 1976 meeting. Participation was low, and several local churches boycotted the event.

“It’s pretty common knowledge that during the civil-rights movement the white evangelical church did not sense the pain and the cries and that longing for justice,” McKinney told The Southern California Christian Times. The Anglo community felt “we should be content with the status quo.”

Rick Marshall, director of North American ministries for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), said the show of unity in San Diego this year was historic. “In the 23 years I have been with Billy Graham, I have never seen so many churches draw together on such short notice anywhere in the world,” he said. “It is historic, and it wasn’t us laying the groundwork. It was God.”

More than 20,000 volunteers served as counselors and distributed 60,000 backpacks filled with food and other basic supplies to homeless teens. The BGEA also gave 10,000 military families $20 gift certificates to Wal-Mart, as many of the troops sent to the Middle East were deployed from San Diego.

Organizers said the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, coupled with a shooting at a San Diego County high school and the abduction and murder of Danielle van Dam in February 2002 contributed to the cooperation at this year’s event.

“Desperation, trouble and adversity bring people together, and differences don’t seem that important anymore,” Marshall told Charisma. “The tragic events in San Diego over the last three years have created a sense of humility and pulling together.”

Former San Diego Chargers kicker Rolf Benirschke, who was the mission chair, agreed that the community needed to be comforted. “Billy Graham’s visit to San Diego is a gift from God because the community needs healing,” he said. “This mission is not a Christian party, but a desire of the Christian community for San Diegans to know the hope and future one can have through a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

McKinney, one of this year’s organizers, said the attention given to the diverse communities in San Diego and bordering Mexico also contributed to the its success. The services, at which Graham issued his classic call for salvation, were translated into 16 languages, including Spanish, Korean and Japanese. And in what local pastors said was a rare show of cooperation, churches in Tijuana, Mexico, united with San Diego congregations in planning the event.

“Though times appear to be frightening, these are the best days in the history of the world because there has never been such a spiritual hunger as there is now,” said Fermin Garcia, pastor of Unidad Cristiana church in Tijuana.

At a press conference before the event, Graham asked local leaders not to look to Mission San Diego but through it for the broader things God is doing.

“The mission wasn’t about all of the different churches getting together,” Garlow told Charisma. “It was about the church, the one body of Christ in San Diego sharing the hope of Jesus Christ.”
Daniel E. Kennedy in San Diego

Hosanna Church, which recently dedicated a multimillion-dollar facility in Managua, leads hundreds to Christ weekly
More than 3,000 people gathered in Managua, Nicaragua, for the recent dedication of Hosanna Church’s multimillion-dollar sanctuary.

Sitting atop a hill overlooking Lake Managua, the facility is home to the largest evangelical center in the nation, which sees more than 500 decisions for Christ each week, regularly receives reports of miracles that occur during its TV program and hosts daily radio broadcasts.

At its helm is pastor David Spencer, who once fled the nation after becoming a target for the ruling Sandinista regime. Today he is described as a dynamic and motivational speaker who has helped win thousands to Christ in one of the world’s poorest nations.

“David Spencer is the most impressive person I know,” said Thomas Paino Jr., former pastor of Lakeview Christian Center in Indianapolis who helped build Hosanna Church. Spencer, who was translating for Paino at the dedication service in October, refused to translate the comment.

Impressive or not, Spencer is influential. Former Nicaragua President Arnoldo Alemán sought him out for prayer and counsel after Alemán was charged with laundering more than $100 million of government funds. Spencer prayed daily with Alemán, who left office in 2002 and is currently under house arrest awaiting trial.

A son of U.S. missionaries, Spencer, 58, first came to Nicaragua with his parents in the 1960s, then returned in the 1980s to preach during the Sandinista war. Under scrutiny from the Marxist-Leninist regime, Spencer received death threats after he spoke before 20,000 people in the national stadium. After several deportations and a jailing, Spencer left Nicaragua in the late 1980s vowing not to return unless God gave the word.

In the early 1990s, after the defeat of the Sandinistas, Spencer was invited to Nicaragua to speak at a pastors conference. During the meeting some pastors told him they believed he was called to Nicaragua. Then leading a large church in Panama, Spencer determined that he would return only if God confirmed it.

A short time later two ministers separately told him they believed God wanted him to return to Nicaragua. Upon his return to Panama, Spencer said he began to sense God confirming their words during his own times of prayer.

Within two months Spencer and his wife, Bonnie, were on their way to Nicaragua. Before he arrived, Spencer called a real estate agent and asked her to check the price on a piece of land he had seen on a hill overlooking Lake Managua.

The owner demanded $525,000 and a six-month “buy” period. If he did not complete the purchase in time, Spencer would forfeit all funds paid and lose the land. Spencer said that was the beginning of his walk of faith. Before then, he said, the largest amount of money he had ever received was $20,000.

The first payment of $60,000 arrived on time. Then the second payment of $70,000 arrived on time. The third payment of $150,000 was slow coming. At the last minute, he received a call from a donor offering $100,000. Raising the balance didn’t seem so daunting after that.

Since then, Spencer, who is on the board of directors of Paul Yonggi Cho’s church in Korea, has purchased more land to build a prayer mountain, and bought a small radio station. Now he has his sights on starting a TV station, and he’s searching for more property to build a school and preschool, and grow a farm.

And Spencer said he isn’t afraid to ask God for more. “You know that Scripture ‘Ask and you shall receive?’ Well, what is the next word? It’s ‘seek and you shall find.'” he told Charisma. “It is fervent asking, fervent seeking and fervent knocking. It’s perseverance. It’s tenacity. If you are doing something that you can do alone it probably is not from the Lord.”
Joan Wilson Carter in Managua, Nicaragua