This is a historic time, and we need intercessors to pray as never before.
Prayer is the most powerful force in the world, and one of the most significant trends in the church in the last 25 years is the renewed emphasis on prayer–especially intercessory prayer. Unfortunately, for many of us prayer is often about only ourselves and our loved ones.

Yet there is a need for prayer in many different areas. The world is full of problems, but the answers are available through Jesus–if His people will “pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1, NKJV).

When focused prayer is offered up for the needs of the world, things change. Recent proof is the great number of people who were saved as a result of the prayer initiative focused on the 10/40 Window–that part of the world between the 10th and 40th parallels north.

We have reported on the explosive growth of the church in this region as well as in others. Yet according to missiologists, church growth has slowed in the last several years. The reason: Many of the prayer initiatives ended around the year 2000.

Today we need prayer as much as ever, and I’m appealing to our half million readers to pray. Of special concern is the war on terrorism and the unrest in the Middle East, which soon could explode into war.

We must pray for peace. We must also pray for an end to the grip that Islam has on much of the world.

This is a historic time, and we need intercessors to pray as never before. So I am writing this to recruit you to pray and to pledge that my staff and I will pray for you.

Through the marvels of the Internet, we can quickly link intercessors with prayer needs. We have set up a place for prayer on our Web site–a place you can go to see the needs we have listed and to give us your prayer requests. You can also sign up for a periodic prayer newsletter that I will send out via e-mail to alert you to things about which to pray.

I am entering a time of prayer and fasting, and I would like to pray for Charisma readers in a way I haven’t done for several years. Longtime readers may remember that I invited you to send me your photo so I could see who our readers are and have a reminder to pray for you.

I plan to post the photos you sent on a wall of prayer in our office to encourage intercessors on my staff to join me in praying for you. We will also pray for you during our weekly prayer meetings on Thursdays. If you haven’t sent a photo already, you can
e-mail one to [email protected], or mail one to me at 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746.

Meanwhile, there are some major issues for us to pray about related to the charismatic church. I listed these in the current issue of Ministries Today and in abbreviated form below. Space doesn’t allow me to elaborate here, but you can read a complete copy on the Internet at www.ministriestoday.com.

I am calling intercessors to pray:

* That the church will lead the way in ending racism in our society and that more churches will become multiethnic

* That the church will be more of an influence in our nation’s culture–dealing with social-justice issues, helping women step into leadership roles, and helping to heal homes, mainly by ministering to men to fill the roles only they can fill in the family

* That Christian leaders will live righteously and teach right doctrine, and that new leaders will be raised up to meet the needs of the church

* That more of the fivefold ministry will be raised up in the church–prophetic leadership; sound Bible teachers; fearless evangelists; wise apostles; and pastors who will nurture, not abuse, their flocks

* That God will forgive the pride too often found among Christians–especially leaders

* That the church will come into a deeper understanding of what true worship is

* That bridges will be built with traditional evangelicals

* That there will be a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit on the church with supernatural power.

Clearly, this list is incomplete. But it’s a start. And I believe God will hear and answer us if we are faithful to pray, for His Word assures us that “‘the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers'” (1 Pet. 3:12).

Humble act by a surrendered preacher stirs Austin, Texas
Touché for the toupee–or its removal, that is. When the hairpiece came off in Austin, a revival took off from Texas.

Now, three years afterward, a praise-and-worship movement based in the Lone Star State has hit the country’s TV airwaves, reaching millions of homes with the help of participating networks. It all started when the minister who wore the toupee sacrificed his humility in what became known as the “Hairpiece Revival.”

The resultant Austin Awakening TV show–dedicated to praise-and-worship programming and now in its second season–has captured a growing audience on the INSP, Daystar and TBN Christian networks. Because there is such a need for its type of programming, each of the networks has for a second season donated the airtime.

“A year ago we made a pilot show and showed it to several networks,” said Randy Phillips, the visionary behind the show. “Many people told us they wanted their viewers to see this. They said they didn’t have any programs that conveyed this kind of panting after God.”

Phillips–senior pastor of PromiseLand Church in Austin and a member of the popular Christian group Phillips, Craig & Dean–credits his father’s dramatic act of humility three years ago with being the springboard for the TV show.

As he was preaching on the book of Acts, Kenneth Phillips, who founded the church more than 30 years ago and now functions as its bishop, focused on issues such as why the contemporary American church doesn’t see the power and miracles that the Acts church witnessed.

“Part of what he talked about was our pride and contentment with the things of this world,” Randy Phillips noted.

The elder Phillips asked God if there was anything in his life he needed to lay down and sensed that the Lord wanted him to do something very personal. On June 4, 2000, in front of 2,000 church members and an even larger TV audience, he removed the hairpiece he had worn for more than 20 years.

“My mother and I didn’t even know he was going to do it,” Randy Phillips said. “But it was right in line with what Old Testament prophets would do to try to get the attention of Israel to turn from their entanglements.”

PromiseLand began to experience what became known as the “Austin Awakening,” and the movement birthed songs, sermons and a new way of worship, the younger Phillips said.

It also paved the way for a 30-minute praise-and-worship TV program. Randy Phillips said he wanted to convey some of the things his church was experiencing in an effort to help awaken others.

And it has. In the last year, PromiseLand has received thousands of calls and e-mails from viewers whose lives have been changed as a result of The Austin Awakening program. Many fans have left positive messages on the ministry’s Web site, www.austinawakening.com.

Phillips also has witnessed a positive response in Austin, where only about 10 percent of the population regularly attends church. “I see people everywhere, from the grocery store to the gas station, saying, ‘There’s nothing on television like what you’re doing,'” he said. “Many of them [say] it has brought them closer to Jesus.”

Some shows spotlight well-known guests such as The Katinas, Larry Gatlin, David Huff and Israel. “I’m looking for guests who are hungry for God and have a fresh look at worship,” Phillips said. Tentative upcoming guests include Gary Oliver, The Martins and Lenny LeBlanc.

One of Phillips’ favorite shows featured PromiseLand member Garwin Dobbins, who has a rare disease that causes his muscles to turn to bone. There is no known medical cure.

After Phillips briefly interviewed Dobbins about his condition, he and a couple of other men helped Dobbins get out of his wheelchair and propped him up so he could sing. Dobbins began to sing in a feeble voice, “I Can Only Imagine,” written by MercyMe. There was hardly a dry eye in the theater by the time the song ended.

Phillips has put all original worship tunes on Songs of the Awakening 2, which released in January. The ministry’s Web site includes CDs and videos of previous shows for purchase, downloadable songs and tracks for worship leaders, and television and taping schedules.

Carol Chapman Stertzer

But the healing evangelist noted that criticism by the NBC program would increase his anointing
NBC may have their doubts about healing evangelist Benny Hinn’s ministry, but at least one viewer came away with a different opinion after seeing the network’s skeptical hidden-camera report on the popular TV preacher.

The man phoned Hinn’s ministry to say that God had freed him from a severe back problem while he was watching the hour-long Dateline program, which raised questions about the legitimacy of healings claimed at Hinn’s crusades, and where the millions of dollars raised during the events are spent.

“God used NBC!” Hinn exclaimed as the testimony was shared by ministry worker Jon Wilson on a Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) Praise the Lord appearance two days after the NBC broadcast. “The devil today is sorry he ever touched me,” Hinn commented. “He is sorry he ever bothered.”

Benny Hinn Ministries (BHM) spokesman Don Price told Charisma that although many NBC remarks had been “either wholly false or grossly misleading,” there were no plans for any legal action.

“We believe our partners will discern truth from fiction and do not believe they would want the ministry to use donated funds to commence a legal battle against NBC for airing a story that was substantially incorrect and clearly biased,” he said.

“We believe that this kind of unprovoked attack by the mainstream, secular media is an attack on every believer’s faith, regardless of his or her denominational or theological persuasions,” he added. “The body of Christ has been nationally ridiculed for believing in God’s power to heal, and by extension every Christian should be alarmed that a national television network would display its bias against people of faith in God in such an overt manner.”

Hinn devoted two hours of the Dec. 29 Praise the Lord program to answering questions raised by the Dateline report, inviting ministry staff and others to respond to different charges. He said he did not want to attack NBC, but “simply tell the truth because the Scripture says speak the truth in love.”

More than two years in the making, the Dateline program featured hidden camera footage from Hinn crusades, shot after the network was told it could film only the first hour of the evangelist’s meetings. It showed people falling as they were prayed for, describing them as “being strewn across the floor like bowling pins.”

Ole Anthony, founder of the Dallas-based Trinity Foundation, a watchdog group that monitors TV evangelists and has provided material for previous secular-media exposés, said: “It’s a circus. It’s like professional wrestling.”

Dateline said Hinn’s ministry declined to confirm any of 56 healings reported at one crusade. The ministry did provide details of five “irrefutable and medically proven miracles,” the report added, but only one of the people involved could provide her medical records, and her doctor suspected that the woman never had the Lou Gehrig’s disease she claimed to have been healed of.

Dateline interviewed Belva Ventura, who with her son had received prayer from Hinn at a crusade for the cancers they were battling. She said she never received any follow-up calls from the ministry. Both she and her son later died of cancer.

The report also questioned the ministry’s financial integrity, referring to an estimated annual ministry income of more than $100 million, and a $3.5 million home being built for Hinn in Southern California.

One former worker told the network that Hinn had bragged after one service of taking an elderly woman’s last $5 in a collection. Dateline also said construction on an orphanage in Mexico had not begun, despite ministry claims to the contrary.

Speaking on TBN, Hinn said he had declined to be interviewed by Dateline because God had told him not to speak to the network other than in a live interview. He wanted to answer the various charges on TBN, he said, because he didn’t want to see “one believer weakened in the faith.”

Pastor J. Don George, a former longtime BHM board member, said he personally had seen the impact of the ministry at crusades and through overseas ministries to the poor and needy.

“It’s understandable to me that when an individual or an entity seeks to validate its existence by the discrediting of someone else, they are obligated to not tell the whole story,” he told the TBN audience, “but I have come today from Dallas, Texas, to set the record straight and say Benny Hinn is a man of God in whom I believe.”

Hinn interviewed Raymond Scott, who told how he had been healed of cancer at a BHM crusade in 1994 after doctors told him his condition was incurable. Hinn also introduced Oscar Alarcan, a businessman from Mexico who said he had donated the land on which the orphanage was being built and had acquired the building permits NBC had alleged had not been granted.

Nancy Nagelhout, who oversees BHM’s follow-up work, said the ministry had contacted and spoken with Ventura on several occasions. Wilson said Hinn’s comment about the elderly women’s donation had been “twisted” by NBC, as Hinn had been commenting on her faith in giving the last money she had.

Price said Hinn had been “overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from his fellow ministers of the gospel” since the NBC report. Many had spoken “words of support and encouragement both personally and publicly,” he said.

As Hinn observed in his TBN response, the Dateline report was not the first time he has faced negative media. In 1997 he made policy and personnel changes in his ministry after a CNN report criticized him for lavish spending practices. Ten years ago he announced plans to introduce other changes in the way he ran the ministry after a critical Inside Edition report on CBS.

Hinn told the TBN audience in December he welcomed the latest criticism because God had told him that the more he was attacked, the more God would increase the anointing on him.
Andy Butcher

A controversial church movement has sued another member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) over renewed charges that it is a cult.

The Local Church, its Living Streams Ministry (LSM) and 96 Local Church congregations across the country are seeking a combined total of $136 million from Harvest House Publishers and the co-authors of its Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions, John Ankerberg and John Weldon.

Founded in China in the 1920s by Watchman Nee and later brought to the United States by Nee’s disciple, Witness Lee, the Local Church currently claims some 25,000 members in 300 churches across the country and more than 250,000 members in 3,000 churches worldwide.

But the movement has long been viewed critically by cult-watchers. They say that LSM has never sufficiently distanced itself from questionable teachings on topics such as the Trinity or the nature of the church.

The Local Church’s Anaheim, Calif.-based publishing ministry had hoped that its acceptance into the ECPA last year would help improve its profile. LSM said in a statement it had been “greatly disturbed” by the Local Church’s “abhorrent” inclusion in the Ankerberg-Weldon book.

“Its false statements concerning illegal and immoral behaviors affect our ministry and churches and our relationships with fellow Christians,” the statement added.

The libel action was filed Dec. 31, 2001, in Harris County District Court, Texas. LSM said it had gone to court reluctantly, after repeated efforts to “resolve our differences”–including six letters to Harvest House and the authors asking for a face-to-face meeting–had failed.

LSM has previously won two legal battles over books that criticized the Local Church. At Harvest House Publishers, based in Eugene, Ore., a spokesperson said: “[We] and our authors…are currently limited in the comments we can offer on this matter at the advice of our attorneys.” ECPA Vice President Kelly Gallagher also said that he had been advised not to comment on the action.
Andy Butcher

A Pentecostal pastor is bringing healing at a California church once pastored by cult leader Jim Jones
Kim Harvey was driving south on Highway 101 in Northern California in 1979. He had left Bible college and was headed to Sacramento. He was giving a hitchhiker a ride when the teenager told him a story he’s never forgotten.

“The guy’s whole family had died in Guyana at the hand of Jim Jones,” said Harvey, now pastor of Redwood Valley Assembly of God church in Redwood Valley, Calif. “He managed to get away from it because he had snuck around and discovered some of the things they were doing.”

Harvey recalls his amazement, noting how the story of mass death the year before at Jonestown, Guyana, the South American home of an American religious cult, was the “heat of discussion” at his college. Even more amazing is that l6 years later, Harvey found himself pastoring “the old Jim Jones church” in Redwood, a small community near Ukiah, Calif. The church at 7700 East Road is where Jones dominated the town and rose to cultic power.

Jones had thousands of followers, but he’s remembered historically for the 912 church members (including 276 children) who followed him to their graves as he led them to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide in the jungle of Guyana on Nov. l8, 1978. Today surviving family members, neighbors and friends of Jonestown victims still have open wounds.

“This was a community with a bruise that was still tender, and memories still very much a part of people’s lives,” Harvey said. “I knew I couldn’t promote the church too strongly, or everyone would associate me with Jim Jones.”

Harvey was appointed by the Assemblies of God World Missions Board to pastor the church in January 1995. There were only 20 members. Many of them, he said, had a “cold reaction” to him.

“A lot of the community did not respond to me,” he said. “I would introduce myself in town, and when I told them where I had a church, you could see the scowl in their face.”

Harvey was excited to remove the stain that Jones had left behind. “The first thing the Lord told me to do was improve the run-down facilities,” Harvey said.

He spent two years turning the eyesore into a place of beauty, doing most of the physical labor, including digging ditches and cutting the grass himself. He removed the in-ground swimming pool that Jones had built in the sanctuary, landscaped the grounds and removed the gun towers Jones had set up, where uniformed guards once stood watch.

After the remodeling, Harvey said God led him to reclaim the property in November 1997 with a ceremony dedicating an l8-foot cross and fountain, a service he called “Raise the Cross Sunday.” He invited several hundred people, including those who had lost loved ones at Jonestown. Harvey said he experienced a “holy” day of God’s fresh anointing over the facility.

“The Lord told me, ‘Be a good shepherd as I am a good shepherd, not as a hireling who flees when threatened but who will be there to the end,'” Harvey said.

Timothy Stoen was one of the people attending the dedication. Stoen, 64, still has a framed photograph on his desk of his son, John Victor Stoen. The boy was 5 years old when he died at Jonestown. Stoen calls Jones a “megalomaniac” who was abusive to all of Redwood City. He said his pain is still fresh. “Everyone is still full of shame,” he noted.

“Pastor Harvey is a faithful servant of Jesus,” Stoen added. “He’s a great guy and a biblically faithful Christian.”

Harvey said he often suffered great discouragement and wanted to quit his faith, more than once, but added that God knew he had “a stubborn, stick-with-it [attitude].”

“I tried to demonstrate how Jesus cares. I want to be an agent of reconciliation,” said Harvey, whose church now has about 100 people. “I’m here because I believe God has asked me to turn a place of evil into a place of good.”
Carol Shepard

Nathaniel Barkat will chance martyrdom if it means he can bring his fellow countrymen to Jesus
Pastor Nathaniel Barkat, a native of Pakistan, dares to minister in a land that some say is as dangerous to Christians as was Nero’s Rome. He’s faced death with a faith like the apostle Paul’s. And though he’s set up a thriving ministry in the United States, his calling is to return to his homeland to preach the gospel at the risk of death.

Barkat was first arrested for preaching the gospel in Pakistan in 1965. As he was being taken to the police station, he remembered that he had once read the book Born Crucified about the apostle Paul and had dared to pray, “Lord, could it be possible that I would have an experience like that?”

Today, over tea in the safety of a Southern California restaurant, he laughs about the incident. “I remembered hearing the Holy Spirit saying, ‘Your prayer is being answered, and you’re failing.’ I learned that no one should ever follow other people’s experiences.”

Perhaps not. He is about to return to Pakistan, where prison and martyrdom for believers lurk.

In a country where Islam is the state religion and blasphemy is punishable by death, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports that persecution is increasing. In March 2002, a hand grenade thrown at worshipers in a Christian church in Islamabad killed five. On Aug. 5, at a Christian school in the same city, terrorists attacked and killed five. Four days later in Taxila, extremists threw another hand grenade into a chapel at a Christian hospital, killing four.

“God has ordered me to go back. He has protected me in the past, and He will again,” Barkat said. “But I walk very wisely. Any time, a bullet can come. I have many enemies.”

No wonder. One time a crowd of more than 100 Muslims had gathered outside his home in Pakistan to watch him pray for deliverance for a man who had been dealing with witch doctors and religious priests. He had previously prayed with the man, only to see the demonic influence return. The pastor prayed over the man for hours with no results.

“I was totally exhausted,” he said. “So in my heart I called out, Lord, send your fire, and the demons started to scream, ‘We can’t face this fire.’

“I said, ‘Why do you come again and again?’ That demon said, ‘We don’t want to come back, but this witch doctor commands us.’

“I said loudly, ‘Is this witch doctor greater than Jesus?’ And the demon said, ‘No, Jesus is greater,’ and all the Muslims heard this. So at 3 a.m., the man was delivered totally.”

Barkat, 63, grew up in a tiny village near Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan. At age 20, he came to Christ in a Christian service and said he was later baptized in the Holy Spirit in a service led by a female missionary from Sweden.

God soon gave him a heavy longing for his people, and after attending an Assemblies of God Bible school in Abbottabad, Barkat led the denomination’s largest church in Lahore.

He founded the Christian Fellowship of Pakistan, which oversees 20 churches in Punjab, the most populated of Pakistan’s four provinces. His children’s home there houses 25 orphans and provides Christian education to another hundred.

His vision is to start schools in all four provinces. He believes in a country where only 1.7 percent are Christians and thousands of Muslim schools teach military tactics that children are the gospel’s future.

He prefers living in Pakistan, but travels to the United States when he considers his life is in imminent danger. Since 1965, when he was arrested by the Pakistani army and accused of spying for India, he said the country’s secret police have questioned him several times and once threatened to demolish his home because it housed Christian services.

Oddly, he said, on several occasions Muslim officials he had developed friendships with testified for him, in effect saving his life. He said God has paved the way for him to build relationships with several ranking officials. This has allowed him and Samson John, the youngest of his three sons, to maintain a successful church in Lahore.

When persecution again became heavy in 1997, he and his wife, Nisar, left for a time, and with another son, Salik John, planted an Asian church in Denver named Redeemer Asian Community Church.

He said the next year God prompted him to return to Pakistan to start an intercessory prayer ministry in his son’s church. Though he laughs at the notion, God is still answering his prayer to share Paul’s experience.

“If I die, I die,” he said quietly. “As long as He wants me to live, I will live.”

Ed Donnally

Internet initiative links millions of intercessors around the globe in push to fulfill the Great Commission
Four years after it was opened to fanfare, the multimillion-dollar World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., has launched a low-key initiative intended to fulfill its vision of mobilizing global prayer for world evangelization. The 55,000-square-foot complex on the campus of 9,000-member New Life Church is home to the new World Prayer Team, a round-the-clock Internet-based effort to link millions of intercessors around the globe.

Members of the team, who can sign up free of charge, receive weekly e-mail prayer alerts and can join with others in responding to prayer requests–including major current events and personal concerns–streamed live at the movement’s Web site. Visitors there are welcomed by an inflation of Jesus’ words: “Where two or three million are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.”

In addition, the prayer center has been equipped with a bank of telephones to be manned by volunteer intercessors ready to respond to prayer requests prompted by regional secular radio and TV advertising that will be bought in the wake of major events or crises.

“We will never have another shooter catch us off guard again,” said center president and New Life senior pastor Ted Haggard, referring to the Washington, D.C.-area sniper killings. “We will pray him out of the woods before he gets his second shot fired.”

Among the early prayer topics posted at the Web site, formally launched in December, were the need for peace in the Ivory Coast and a united evangelism effort by Boston-area churches. Ralph from New Jersey sought prayer for his non-Christian boss, whose dealings “sometimes leave me wondering if I’m in the right job.”

Though major international prayer requests are repeated, Haggard said that the more personal requests featured only once were also important.

“That problem is a big deal to that person,” he said. “If a woman in the Ukraine who is responsible to care for her family and doesn’t have medical care gets a bunion that puts her in bed, it could cause her children to be without heat and food, so that’s a big deal.”

Huge church growth, deeper unity, and greater ease of communication and travel are among the factors that poise this generation to fulfill the Great Commission, he
said. But that calls for “the most massive prayer movement in the history of the world, and the only way to do that is Internet-based.”

Churches in the same city can share local prayer concerns through their World Prayer Team link. The Web site also features reports of “book of Acts-quality” miracles, and brief teachings on prayer. Team members sign on as pastors, prayer leaders, intercessors or “someone interested in prayer” and receive regular e-mail teaching material tailored to their level of awareness.

The World Prayer Team is a simpler, streamlined version of the effort intended but never fully realized when the prayer center opened as a partnership between New Life and C. Peter Wagner’s Global Harvest Ministries. The plans then were for different levels of access to information, for security purposes.

Since then the prayer center has been taken over by New Life, though Wagner’s ministry is still based at the complex, which also has prayer rooms and a conference suite.

For Haggard, the initiative is the fulfillment of a long-held vision. While on a prayer and fasting retreat in 1984–long before the advent of the World Wide Web–God showed him a picture of someone using a computer to pray for the needs of the world. He said that in recent years many people have tried to run prayer networks on the Web, “but nobody has been as successful as we know the Lord wants it to be.”

For more information, log on at www.worldprayerteam.org.Andy Butcher

Injured and alone for 11 days, Venezuelan Carlos Arteaga says God miraculously protected him in an Amazon forest
A Venezuelan evangelist’s story of his remarkable survival of a deadly plane crash in a South American jungle three years ago has turned thousands of people in Latin America and the United States to Jesus and led others to receive divine healing.

Carlos Arteaga said that during his ordeal in the Amazon rainforest in 1999, God dispatched angels to protect him from wild animals and evil spirits, and supernaturally provided him with food, which enabled him to survive 11 days until he was rescued.

“I believe God performed this miracle not just to save my life, but He did it to change the life of many and encourage people,” Arteaga, 37, told Charisma.

Since being rescued and recovering from what doctors say should have been fatal injuries, including one that caused him later to lose his right leg, Arteaga has shared his story with millions. He said thousands have accepted Christ, rededicated their lives to God and experienced divine healing after hearing his story.

On Oct. 12, 1999, Arteaga was aboard a flight from his native city of Ayacucho, Venezuela, to the town of Manapiare. The aircraft experienced engine trouble and crashed five minutes before the end of the 45-minute flight.

The plane plunged into the dense Amazon jungle, killing on impact five of the eight people on board. Arteaga said he and the two other survivors–an 11-year-old Pentecostal girl and an 18-year-old Baptist man–were Christians. Amazingly, the two younger survivors escaped major injury, but Arteaga was not as fortunate.

The top of his head was cracked open from the impact, and he was badly cut on his arms and hands. A severe injury to his lower right leg forced him to crawl in order to move about on the forest floor.

After three days, Arteaga said the group agreed that the two able survivors would seek help and leave Arteaga with a loaf of bread and a tree branch to fend off animals. Arteaga, who is married with five children, didn’t know if he would survive, but he kept reminding himself of God’s promises of protection from Psalm 91.

Soon after the two left, Arteaga said God placed a rainbow near the site of the crash, which he believes miraculously prevented any stench from the bodies of the dead passengers. The crash site also was near a brook, which allowed him to drink water.

In addition, God provided “a warm cloud of air” at dusk, he said, that allowed him to sleep through the night, despite harassing insects and his own fear of the sound of animals in the jungle. Later he said he saw a vision of God dispatching a sword from the heavens to drive away evil spirits that were tormenting him. God also sent two angels who brought him meals of meat, bread, salad and juice, Arteaga said.

Ten days after the crash, a search party of nine people found him.

“When they arrived, they saw the rainbow, one of the angels and lots of vultures on the treetops,” he recalled. “They thought everyone was dead. I was black from being covered with dried blood and dirt.”

After the group carried him out on a stretcher, vultures swooped down to feed on the dead carcasses. “The group realized that I was supernaturally protected by God,” he said. “I told them that the angel of Jehovah was around me.”

The next day, Arteaga was airlifted to a hospital, where he underwent nine surgeries and spent nine months recovering. He received a prosthetic to replace his amputated right leg, and doctors implanted a protective metal plate and screws to help heal the severe injuries to his head and arms.

“Twelve of the best doctors in Venezuela came to me in the hospital and told me that they had 12 reasons why I shouldn’t be alive,” Arteaga said. “They said it was impossible that five dead bodies surrounded me and I survived. I told them Psalm 91:3, which says, ‘Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.'”

To fulfill a covenant he made with God from the crash, Arteaga gave up his career as a TV- and radio-tower installer to become a full-time evangelist. On Oct. 12, 2000, a year after the crash, he shared his testimony with 14,000 people in a Caracas bullfighting arena, and 3,800 accepted Christ.

“I’m not sure why God chose to spare my life,” said Arteaga, who has traveled five times to the United States to share his testimony in churches. “The Lord knew my passion for lost souls. He preserved my life to fulfill His purpose for my calling.”
Eric Tiansay

A South Korean mother of two believes the street ministry she founded in Toronto has been God’s way of preparing her to return to Asia and minister in atheistic North Korea, a country where Christianity is illegal.

Although it has been prophesied that the diminutive, yet fiery Young Wha Kang would one day minister in her native land, she said God has had to “reconstruct” her as a Korean so that she could obey His call and be filled with His love for her people.

Kang was born in South Korea and immigrated to Canada in 1975.

She founded Follower’s Mission, a daily ministry to street people in Toronto, in 1992. She says the ministry’s work in some of the city’s roughest areas reaches some 400 people per year for Christ.

Yet God surprised her four years ago, she said, when He instilled a longing in her to return to South Korea and do the same in her homeland.

“I felt a real burden for Korea, but I ignored it because I thought it was just a popular place to pray for and wasn’t sure if it was really God calling,” she told Charisma.

Kang became firmly convinced that God was calling her to the Korean people, however, when a group of students from the Asian country visited Toronto in 1999 and stayed in her home.

“They came to experience Holy Spirit revival, and when they were all slain in the Spirit, a boy who needed some deliverance told me he needed me to minister to him,” she said. “It was at that moment that God showed me I needed His love for my people.

“It was the first time He spoke to me in Korean. Before that it was always in English. He said, ‘Let’s go,’ in Korean, and all I could do was weep.”

She began to intercede for the entire Korean Peninsula every day at 5:30 a.m., as did other intercessors at the Follower’s Mission. God gave one of the intercessors a vision of the border between North Korea and South Korea collapsing and many young people entering North Korea by skateboard.

Since 1999, Kang has visited North Korea twice, once as a tourist and once as a sponsored guest. She has been in China three times and was, according to some, the first person to bring the complete Bible into Mongolia. She obtained some of the first copies translated into the Mongolian language and took 16 of them across the border.

Kang became a Christian in 1980 but said she wasn’t close to the Lord until her marriage broke up in the mid-1980s.

“I then began to seek God on a deeper level and went on my first short-term missions trip in 1990,” she said. “I knew then that God was calling me to the nations, and I said, ‘How can I do this, Lord?’ He said, ‘Open your front door, and there are the nations.'”

She started Follower’s Mission after participating in a summer street-outreach with her children through Youth With A Mission. “That outreach was the first time I ever saw the destitute people of Toronto. I didn’t even know such people were out on the streets,” she said.

That fall, Kang ministered for the first time in one of the roughest parts of Toronto–Queen and Sherbourne streets.

“I came down with my mother–all we had was a huge thermos of coffee and a dozen doughnuts, but we prayed as we sat on the bench, and a lot of people came by,” she said.

Soon, they were ministering on the street weekly, handing out hot dogs and words of encouragement from the side of a van. In 1994, Kang started renting a building, and the ministry became a full-fledged mission.

She credits the ministry experience she’s gained through Follower’s Mission with preparing her to take revival to North Korea. “[God] keeps showing me that ministering to people in a country which forbids Christianity is no different than ministering to the street people in Toronto,” Kang said. “The people who come through [our] doors represent nations from all over the globe. I believe it’s a training ground for me as God launches me out to minister in my native Korea and to other nations.”

–Josie Newman in Toronto

South Korean Woman’s Toronto

Ministry Prepares Her for North Korea

The ministry skills she’s learned in the West have prepared her to take the gospel to the East, Young Wha Kan says
A South Korean mother of two believes the street ministry she founded in Toronto has been God’s way of preparing her to return to Asia and minister in atheistic North Korea, a country where Christianity is illegal.

Although it has been prophesied that the diminutive, yet fiery Young Wha Kang would one day minister in her native land, she said God has had to “reconstruct” her as a Korean so that she could obey His call and be filled with His love for her people.

Kang was born in South Korea and immigrated to Canada in 1975. She founded Follower’s Mission, a daily ministry to street people in Toronto, in 1992. She says the ministry’s work in some of the city’s roughest areas reaches some 400 people per year for Christ.

Yet God surprised her four years ago, she said, when He instilled a longing in her to return to South Korea and do the same in her homeland.

“I felt a real burden for Korea, but I ignored it because I thought it was just a popular place to pray for and wasn’t sure if it was really God calling,” she told Charisma.

Kang became firmly convinced that God was calling her to the Korean people, however, when a group of students from the Asian country visited Toronto in 1999 and stayed in her home.

“They came to experience Holy Spirit revival, and when they were all slain in the Spirit, a boy who needed some deliverance told me he needed me to minister to him,” she said. “It was at that moment that God showed me I needed His love for my people.

“It was the first time He spoke to me in Korean. Before that it was always in English. He said, ‘Let’s go,’ in Korean, and all I could do was weep.”

She began to intercede for the entire Korean Peninsula every day at 5:30 a.m., as did other intercessors at the Follower’s Mission. God gave one of the intercessors a vision of the border between North Korea and South Korea collapsing and many young people entering North Korea by skateboard.

Since 1999, Kang has visited North Korea twice, once as a tourist and once as a sponsored guest. She has been in China three times and was, according to some, the first person to bring the complete Bible into Mongolia. She obtained some of the first copies translated into the Mongolian language and took 16 of them across the border.

Kang became a Christian in 1980 but said she wasn’t close to the Lord until her marriage broke up in the mid-1980s.

“I then began to seek God on a deeper level and went on my first short-term missions trip in 1990,” she said. “I knew then that God was calling me to the nations, and I said, ‘How can I do this, Lord?’ He said, ‘Open your front door, and there are the nations.'”

She started Follower’s Mission after participating in a summer street-outreach with her children through Youth With A Mission. “That outreach was the first time I ever saw the destitute people of Toronto. I didn’t even know such people were out on the streets,” she said.

That fall, Kang ministered for the first time in one of the roughest parts of Toronto–Queen and Sherbourne streets.

“I came down with my mother–all we had was a huge thermos of coffee and a dozen doughnuts, but we prayed as we sat on the bench, and a lot of people came by,” she said.

Soon, they were ministering on the street weekly, handing out hot dogs and words of encouragement from the side of a van. In 1994, Kang started renting a building, and the ministry became a full-fledged mission.

She credits the ministry experience she’s gained through Follower’s Mission with preparing her to take revival to North Korea. “[God] keeps showing me that ministering to people in a country which forbids Christianity is no different than ministering to the street people in Toronto,” Kang said. “The people who come through [our] doors represent nations from all over the globe. I believe it’s a training ground for me as God launches me out to minister in my native Korea and to other nations.”
Josie Newman in Toronto

BOOKS

Fitting In…Or Not

Memoir of a Misfit
By Marcia Ford, Jossey-Bass (Wiley),
208 pages, hardcover, $18.95.

Marcia Ford, a former Charisma news and features editor, has proclaimed herself a “misfit.” It seems she has felt this way as long as she can remember–not surprising in light of the start she had in life. Consider the time she had to come home early from camp because of measles only to find that her home now was occupied by strangers. (Her family, whom she was able to track down, somehow had failed to inform her they were vacating the premises.)

It’s understandable then that for most of her life Ford thought God had abandoned her; in the end, she realized He was with her all along, especially–and literally–when she was at her lowest. After years of not feeling comfortable in any number of churches, she found herself at home, much to her surprise, in a liturgical church. Much of this memoir is dedicated to her journey to find her place in the family of God.

Ford, who now has a loving husband and family, survived a divorce, clinical depression, alcohol and drugs, poor health, the death of her soul mate, and a controlling church. She certainly has the stories to tell, and tell them she does, in an engaging, frank manner. Mercifully, the author does not set out to lay blame at anyone’s feet for making her a misfit, but has maintained her sense of humor through it all.

An accompanying product, Meditations for Misfits, is designed to help those who feel they are misfits experience reconciliation with God, others and themselves. Ford’s insightful autobiography and meditations will help many who feel off-kilter with the rest of the world.
Christine D. Johnson

Ultimate Peace

Trusting God
By Raymond Ho, Destiny Image,
127 pages, hardcover, $11.99.

Raymond Ho follows up his recent Destiny Image release, Hearing God: The Ultimate Blessing, with Trusting God: The Ultimate Peace. Stories of Ho’s personal and family life help draw the reader in and capture attention. A former CEO of two public-television networks, Ho has lived through many experiences in which he needed to cultivate trust in God. He was estranged from his daughter and went through a divorce, lost millions of dollars and ended up filing for bankruptcy, and was accused falsely by his colleagues yet lost his top-of-the-ladder career in public television.

One weakness that will stand out to some readers is Ho’s occasional choice of words that sound almost New Age, as in the book’s introduction, “Awakening the Divinity Within You.” Some readers may find it a challenge to dig a little deeper and see what Ho is really talking about–in this case, tapping into the power of Christ who resides within the believer. He also sometimes uses a cadence in his language that will appeal to readers accustomed to a rhythmic pace from the pulpit.

Ho’s simple, straightforward style will be especially helpful to new believers, but all Christians will benefit from the seven “secrets” that inspire greater trust in the exercise of God’s sovereignty in the believer’s life.
Christine D. Johnson

MUSIC

Delirious’ Unique ‘Touch’

Touch
By Delirious; Furious? Records.

The multimillion-album selling, United Kingdom import band Delirious is flying back across the pond with their latest album, Touch. This fifth studio album from the group who spread modern worship titles–including “Do You Hear the Mountains Tremble” and “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever”–around the globe combines songs true to their big-sounding, pop-rock worship roots and more experimental musical fare. Most of the songs are taken and refreshed from the U.K.-only release of Audio Lessonover?

The ambitious title song “Touch” contains trademark edgy guitars and compelling lyrics. On a more experimental note, “Alien” includes creative instrumentation, while the progressive “Stealing Time” takes on almost a dreary, more emotion-provoking flavor. The catchy “Show Me Heaven” and “Waiting for the Summer” are two solid standouts.

The album is released on Furious? Records, a label launched by the band, and includes a bonus disc with six live performances, as well as three music videos. The album is a must-have for Delirious and modern worship fans, and the bonus CD adds to the value and enjoyment.
Margaret Feinberg

Smooth Jazz

The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter 2
By Kirk Whalum, Warner Bros.
Christian Division.

Kirk Whalum, sax soloist on Whitney Houston’s multimillion-selling hit single “I Will Always Love You,” loves the Lord and loves jazz. His 1998 release, The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter 1, received both Dove and Stellar Award nominations. Now he’s back with a follow-up.

Fans of smooth jazz will not be disappointed because the majority of songs on Chapter 2 are exactly what you expect to hear when you think of the mostly instrumental genre. “The Moment I Prayed,” however, stands out with the gorgeous scatting of gospel singer Kim Burrell. As the one studio-track on an otherwise all-live recording, “The Moment I Prayed” sounds like it was recorded live at an elegant nightclub.

Because jazz incorporates all sorts of musical influences, Whalum’s effort brings together several different types of music. Whalum and his numerous guests (including George Duke, Tata Vega and Paul Jackson Jr.) stick to the smooth jazz sound on most of Chapter 2, but every now and then surprise you with something you didn’t expect to hear. You might find yourself singing along to the R&B ballad “Falling in Love With Jesus,” written and sung by Whalum’s Warner label-mate Jonathan Butler. “Jesus” features a stellar sax solo by Whalum.

Or you might be a little puzzled when you hear Whalum’s brother Kevin singing “Ta Ta You Jesus” on a gospel makeover of Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s bluesy “Ta Ta You Baby.” In this context, “I wanna ta ta you Jesus” is used as another way of saying, “Thank you, Jesus.”

The Gospel According to Jazz, Chapter 2 brings together two worlds that are often separated. Because Whalum is well-known and respected in the secular marketplace, chances are Chapter 2 will take the gospel to people who have never heard it before.
Mark Weber

NEWS

Charisma Unveils Top-Sellers List

Beginning with this issue, Charisma readers will enjoy the benefit of a new charismatic top-sellers list. Until now there has not been a list of best-selling charismatic books exclusively.

Data supplied by Christian-product distributors Appalachian, Riverside and Spring Arbor (as well as Anchor, which will be joining in the future), will be compiled and verified by Osburn, Henning and Co., certified public accountants located in Orlando, Florida.

Currently, CBA (formerly known as the Christian Booksellers Association) compiles a monthly list based on a wide sampling of Christian retail-store sales. The CBA list tracks various categories of books, including charismatic titles, but some charismatic publishers do not believe the list accurately reflects sales of their books.

“This is a major step forward to legitimize a list of best sellers in the Christian book-selling industry,” said Don Nori, publisher and CEO of Destiny Image Publishers. “That’s the whole point, is to get rid of the politics, the theological preferences and to…provide an unbiased list of…the true best sellers in the industry.”

Jane Campbell, editorial director at Chosen Books, an imprint of Baker Book House, also sees the value of a charismatic list. “I can see the need for level ground, especially as certain retailers continue to exclude books that are construed as charismatic, maybe only because they’re published by a house or line that sometimes publishes books that acknowledges the gifts of the Spirit. So if some of these books get better visibility, that’s all to the good,” she said.

Bill Greig III, president of Gospel Light, which publishes Regal and Renew Books, believes the CBA lists are legitimate, but still supports the new charismatic list. “I guess the way I reconcile the charismatic audience to that list is I believe
charismatic Christians buy a lot of books by Stormie Omartian and Max Lucado, Chuck Swindoll and Charles Stanley.”

Charisma editor J. Lee Grady sees the new list as a service to Charisma advertisers and readers. “It’s serving our readers by letting them know what are the hot topics out there that they might want to be reading about. It serves the advertisers and the industry by letting them know where our readers are in terms of their preferences,” Grady said.

The process of determining the criteria for a charismatic best-sellers list has been a bumpy one, and the question of what constitutes a charismatic book has been raised. “Many books by charismatic authors, ones who believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit for today, are not necessarily categorized by the publishers or sold in the stores as charismatic books, so my question is, ‘What kind of criteria are you going to use?'” Campbell said.

Although Charisma recognizes this dilemma, there doesn’t appear to be an easy way to solve it, so the new list will include only titles publishers designate as “charismatic interest” according to the categories accepted by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association.

Because Strang Communications, which owns Charisma, also publishes books through its Charisma House, Creation House Press and Siloam Press imprints, the list will be compiled by an independent accounting firm in such a manner that no one from the staff of Charisma or, more broadly, Strang Communications can manipulate the numbers. Stephen Strang, Charisma publisher, and other necessary employees have volunteered to sign affidavits verifying the independence of the top-seller data.

“How would this list help us?” Grady asked. “It shows us and the industry that charismatics are a vital part of the industry, that they are avid book buyers, and it shows what their preferences are for industry leaders who want to serve that market.”
Christine D. Johnson

Christian Artists Receive Awards

Christian artists Avalon, Kirk Franklin and Jah Word were honored for their their popularity, musicianship and ministries during three music-awards ceremonies held in January.

Avalon garnered the American Music Awards (AMA) Contemporary Inspirational Artist award January 13 in Los Angeles–the second consecutive year Christian artists were recognized in the newly formed category.

The previous weekend in Atlanta, Franklin topped the list of winners at the annual Stellar Awards, taking home awards in four categories, including Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for “Hosanna.” Donald Lawrence and newcomer Smokie Norful each took home three awards.

The Stellar Awards was marked by an unusual time of weeping and repentance, during which Franklin challenged attendees to assess their motives for being in the industry. Melanie Clark, CEO of GospelFlava.com, says the event may signal a turning point in gospel music, as many insiders left with a keener focus on ministry.

Also in Atlanta, the Fellowship of Holy Hip Hop recognized the work of 12 hip-hop ministers January 18. Paul Franklin (aka “Jah Word”) received an Ambassador Award for his efforts to positively influence youth and young adults through hip-hop ministry.
Adrienne S. Gaines

For 20 years of marriage I was all about getting my needs met,” says Jack Frost of Shiloh Place Ministries. Always looking for a payback, he says, “I only ventured to meet my wife’s needs with an attitude of, ‘I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine.'” Then Frost “was immersed in liquid love” at a minister’s conference seven years ago, and those 45 minutes changed him.

“My father never held me,” he said. “I wept because I felt safe for the first time in my life.” His wife gained a new husband. But, as Frost tells in his book Experiencing the Father’s Embrace (Charisma House), it took a long time to win back his children.

Despite his years of ministry, his children felt like they didn’t rate with their dad unless they did everything right. The change began as Frost’s measure of success went from how many people he won to the Lord to how much love and grace he gave to his family when no one else was around. “Now when I get up…I pray: ‘How can I experience Your love, Father? And how can I give it to my wife? My children?'”

Today the Frosts are building a retreat center on 45 acres for ministers to come and “receive healing for hidden, core pain.” The couple say they find that “nothing heals a heart quicker than a person receiving a revelation of love.” They speak at conferences and offer music, and audiotapes and videotapes, available at www.shilohplace.org.
Marsha Gallardo

CHARISMA RECOMMENDS:

The Bible Cure booklets
By Dr. Don Colbert, Siloam Press,
96 pages, paperback, $5.99 each.

In the latest installment from the best-selling Bible Cure booklet series, Dr. Don Colbert explains how to fight hepatitis and hepatitis C, as well as back pain and skin disorders. Encouraging readers to seek God for wisdom in dealing with physical and emotional illness, Colbert explains an array of natural remedies to help prevent and bring recovery from disease. Previous topics in The Bible Cure series include weight loss, irritable bowel syndrome and heart disease.

Dream
By Mark Rutland, Charisma House,
96 pages, hardcover, $9.99.

Author Mark Rutland calls believers to begin dreaming again in the second installment of his Words of Life series. In Dream, Rutland uses the lives of the Josephs in the Old and New Testaments to teach different types of dreams, when and how to use dreams, and how to discern different types of dreams. God never fails to make His dreams come true, Rutland writes, and wants His children to dream big.

Diseases of the Soul
By Deborah D. Delbridge,
Creation House Press, 192 pages,
paperback, $12.99.

Most books don’t come with a disclaimer, but author Deborah D. Delbridge warns readers that her latest book, Diseases of the Soul, is for mature audiences only. A minister and owner of a successful real estate company, Delbridge challenges readers to confront hidden sin in their lives–unforgiveness, religious self-righteousness, prejudice, fear and insecurity–in order to become the spotless bride Christ is seeking. Helping to renew minds through biblical teaching, Delbridge writes that God wants to heal wounds and past hurts and to purge hidden areas of sin.

Aging Without Growing Old
By Judy Lindberg McFarland,
Siloam Press, 554 pages,
paperback, $16.99.

Many people today are dying of preventable illnesses. That’s why nutritionist Judy Lindberg McFarland of Lindberg Nutrition in California has written Aging Without Growing Old. She explains how to become healthy through natural and nutritional means, enjoy better health, and slow the aging process.

Still Standing
By Derek Grier, Creation House Press,
96 pages, paperback, $9.99.

In an effort to answer tough questions about racism and his own cultural identity, author Derek Grier, Ph.D., parallels his personal journey with that of the prophet Daniel in Still Standing. He reveals a concurrent path the two took to find truth and deeper intimacy with God. Once a follower of the Nation of Islam, Grier had a dramatic encounter that changed his heart and view of Christianity. Readers can discover how this pastor stayed true to God’s call despite opposition.

To order these books call (800) 599-5750 or go to www.charismahouse.com.

CHARISMATIC TOP SELLERS

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

2. The Holy Spirit and You
Dennis and Rita Bennett
(Bridge-Logos Publishers)

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

4. God’s Creative Power for Healing
Charles Capps (Harrison House)

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

6. The Three Battlegrounds
Francis Frangipane (Arrow Publications)

7. No More Sheets
Juanita Bynum (Pneuma Life Publishing)

8. A Divine Revelation of Heaven
Mary K. Baxter (Whitaker House)

9. Pigs in the Parlor
Frank and Ida Mae Hammond

(Impact Christian Books)

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