Surfer Bethany Hamilton says the shark attack that cost her an arm has led others to Jesus

Hundreds have reportedly accepted Christ through the testimony of teen surfer Bethany Hamilton who lost her arm in a shark attack nearly two years ago.

Bethany, 15, said she prayed that God would use her and bring something good out of losing her left arm while surfing on Halloween 2003 off the north shore of Kauai, the Hawaiian island where she lives. Bethany’s prayer has been answered and then some. Her story of how her faith grew rather than wavered has turned the teen into an internationally recognized personality.

Bethany, who nearly died and lost more than half her blood from the attack by a 14-foot tiger shark, has spoken of her relationship with God on The Oprah Winfrey Show, MTV’s Total Request Live, Entertainment Tonight, The Tonight Show, 20/20 and in People, Time and Glamour magazines.

“I don’t pretend to have all the answers to why bad things happen to good people,” Bethany wrote in her autobiography, Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board. “But I do know that God knows all those answers, and sometimes He lets you know in this life, and sometimes He asks you to wait so that you can have a face-to-face talk about it.

“What I do know is that I want to use what happened to me as an opportunity to tell people that God is worthy of our trust, and to show them that you can go on and do wonderful things in spite of terrible events that happen,” she continued.

A member of the North Shore Christian Church in Kauai and the No. 1-ranked amateur female surfer in Hawaii when she was attacked, Bethany has been unshaken.

After her recovery, Bethany surfed again the day before Thanksgiving 2003. In January 2004, 10 weeks after the attack, she was fifth in her age group in the 2004 National Surfing Championships and has qualified to compete again this year.

Bethany has garnered several honors, including the 2004 ESPY Award for Comeback Athlete of the Year and the Gene Autry Courage Award.

In addition, Soul Surfer, which was released in October, has sold more than 350,000 copies, and is selling “very, very well” in Australia and England, according to Lauren McKenna, senior editor of MTV Books, which published Bethany’s book. “I’m not surprised at all by her popularity because Bethany’s story is amazing and everyone who hears it is as touched as I was,” McKenna said, noting that Soul Surfer mentions Bethany’s love for Jesus in every chapter.

“Bethany’s faith is absolutely real and genuine. How could it not be? The girl was back in the water within one month of her accident. It could only be her strong faith in God that made that tremendous feat possible.”

Bethany’s brother, Noah, who created and maintains her Web site (www.bethanyhamilton.com), said she has received more than 50,000 letters and e-mails from youngsters and adults since the attack. “We have had well over a thousand people e-mail or write in to say they have either rededicated their lives or asked Jesus into their heart for the first time,” Noah Hamilton, 23, told Charisma.

Bethany pointed out that some of her friends have accepted Christ since the attack. Her Web site message board is replete with messages about her faith.

“You have inspired me to realize that God has a plan for everyone–including me!” an e-mail from Katie said.

“I read Soul Surfer as soon as I got it on Christmas Day,” another e-mail writer noted. “I loved it, and Bethany has changed my life in one big way! I no longer have trouble telling people that I am a Christian and that I love and believe in our Lord. Thanks, Bethany, for helping me to become a better person and a better Christian!”

Besides the message board, Bethany’s Web site features photos, surfing videos and her testimony. Web Evangelism Bulletin has called Bethany’s Web site “Web evangelism at its finest, reaching young and old surfers alike (and maybe even some folks who don’t surf at all).”

Noah Hamilton said his family has been surprised by his sister’s appeal.

“When she first got attacked, we never thought it would last past three months,” he said.

“Now, I think this is all God’s plan. She’s the best-known surfer in the world. She’s known worldwide for her faith. I believe God is preparing her for big things. She’s got the opportunity to be a role model. I think people see her as real and not fake. That’s God revealing Himself through her.”

Indeed, the demand for Bethany has not waned. Negotiations are ongoing for a big-screen movie based on Soul Surfer, which could be released by 2006. In June, Revelations released Bethany’s perfume line. The fragrance, which comes in bottles shaped like a surfboard, is called Stoked for girls and Wired for boys.

“We get 20 offers a day for Bethany to do stuff,” Bethany’s mother, Cheri Hamilton, 51, told Charisma. “We turn most of them down. But we liked this one. The perfume company donated $10,000 to Bethany’s charity of choice, which is World Vision.”

For the last year, Bethany has sponsored a “compassion child” in Peru through World Vision. She is working with the not-for-profit Christian humanitarian organization to raise money for children with disabilities.

Bethany is scheduled to travel to Sri Lanka this summer to help World Vision with tsunami relief. She has a fund-raising goal of $50,000 for her Surfing for Children in Crisis campaign.

“I’m told that the children are really scared of the ocean because of the tsunami,” said Bethany, who has received approximately $100,000 in donations for medical expenses from the shark attack. “I want to show them how to have fun again and not be afraid of God’s creation. It sounds like such a rewarding opportunity and a great way to help and share the love of Christ with them.”

Steve Thompson, pastor of North Shore Christian Church in Kauai, a 200-member nondenominational church, said Bethany has a genuine concern for other people. “It is remarkable in a youth her age that she is even aware of other people and especially those who are hurting,” Thompson, 52, told Charisma. “She has a genuine love for others. She has a strong, confident sense that what she is doing is God’s will for her.”

Although she doesn’t have one favorite Bible verse, Bethany said Romans 8:28 “means a lot” to her regarding her shark experience. “Through it all, I just believed that God would take care of me and everything would be OK,” she said.

In hopes of fostering tourism, the Israeli government donated 35 acres of land near the Sea of Galilee to a small group of Christian leaders invited to attend a series of meetings with the Ministry of Tourism in early May.

Describing the land as “priceless,” National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard said the May 9 offer was unexpected, and the group isn’t sure how it will respond, though the members discussed building a conference center and resort on the site. In addition to Haggard, the delegation included Michael Little, COO of the Christian Broadcasting Network; American Center for Law and Justice head Jay Sekulow; Ukraine pastor Sunday Adelaja; Australian pastor Brian Houston; and the Rev. Luis Cortés, a Hispanic pastor who, with Haggard and Sekulow, was included in Time magazine’s list of the nation’s 25 most influential evangelicals.

Haggard said the land is within eyesight of where most of Jesus’ ministry occurred, including the spot where Jesus is believed to have delivered His Sermon on the Mount. He said the offer could present “an opportunity for what has happened in evangelicalism to be memorialized in Israel.”

It could also boost Israel’s economy because tourism is the nation’s leading income producer and Christians have continued to visit the area despite long-running and violent land disputes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The land offer is contingent upon the government approving of the delegation’s use of the property. No timetable has been set for them to respond to the offer.

For three days beginning May 8, the group of ministers met with Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to discuss ways Christians could partner with Israel. Haggard said Netanyahu described evangelicals as “the best friends Israel has.”
Adrienne S. Gaines

A Florida woman claims her requests to call for paramedics went unheeded and her nearly 23-week-old son died in her hands
A Florida abortion clinic has come under fire over the recent death of a baby who reportedly survived an abortion but died minutes later when clinic workers allegedly ignored the mother’s plea for emergency medical help.

Angele Taylor, 34, arrived at the Every Person’s Own Choice (EPOC) abortion clinic in Orlando April 1 to begin a two-day procedure that would terminate her pregnancy of nearly 23 weeks.

Taylor said she returned to the clinic around 9 a.m. the next day, crying and complaining of bleeding and cramping. She said she was taken to a waiting room, given a wet blanket and was left alone to wait for the doctor.

But when Taylor went into an adjacent bathroom to sit and push to relieve the contractions, she gave birth. She looked in the toilet and saw her son looking up at her. His leg moved and his body curled up. She scooped the baby from the toilet and held him close to her.

Covered in blood, Taylor said she startled her son when she screamed for clinic workers to call 911, but the staff did nothing. “I stroked his precious little head and kept telling him I loved him and that it would be OK,” she recalled.

A single mother of two, Taylor said she rubbed her son’s back and stomach, but her efforts to sustain his life failed. Baby Rowan died some time after 10 a.m.

News of the birth sparked outrage among pro-life groups and a swift response from Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, an Orlando-based nonprofit firm that represents pro-life causes. Staver filed administrative complaints with the Florida Department of Health and Human Services and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administrations.

The complaints are levied at Dr. Harry Perper, who allegedly failed to be present during the abortion, and Dr. James Pendergraft, who owns the EPOC clinic. Staver complained that the clinic was unsanitary, as Taylor claims there was dried blood on the waiting room wall.

Troy Newman, director of Operation Rescue, is asking state and local officials to use all legal avenues, including the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, on Rowan’s behalf. The bill gives infants born alive full legal rights under federal law regardless of the stage of development or whether the live birth occurred during an abortion.

But Pendergraft, who owns four other abortion facilities in Florida, said his staff did nothing wrong. “The autopsy concluded that the fetus was stillborn,” Pendergraft, 48, told Charisma.

Pendergraft, who specializes in late-term abortions, said live births are not possible at his clinics because patients such as Taylor receive digoxin, a deadly drug that kills the baby once injected into his heart through the mother’s womb.

Taylor’s attorney, Brian Chavez-Ochoa, disagrees. “Baby Rowan did not receive digoxin, which would have stopped his heart and killed him,” he said. “My client says she received a shot of Valium.”

She also received a cervical dilator that prompted her to go into labor.

In an effort to save her son’s life, Taylor used her cell phone to ask a friend to call 911 for help, but when Orlando Fire Department paramedics arrived at the clinic, they were first denied entrance into the facility, Chavez-Ochoa said.

“My friend is having an abortion, and the baby was born alive,” Taylor’s friend told the operator, the 911 transcript said. “They’re not allowing her to use the phone there. They’re wanting the baby to die.”

Taylor said when she knew for certain her son was dead, she picked him up, held him to her chest, rocked him and prayed. Hours later, a wake was held at a local funeral home for baby Rowan.

According to the Mayo Clinic, babies born as early as 23 weeks have a good chance of survival if they receive care.

Since Rowan’s death, Taylor has shared her story to help other women avoid the pain and regret she has experienced. “It is very shameful to step forward and admit publicly that I have been so wrong as to ‘choose’ to take the life of my child,” Taylor wrote in a letter posted on Operation Rescue’s Web site. “On the other hand, if it will [help others], then it is my duty, isn’t it?”

Chavez-Ochoa said his client is considering all of her options in hopes of receiving justice for her son. “We are seeking intervention from state officials and the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington,” said Chavez-Ochoa, who is also contemplating a federal lawsuit against EPOC.

In the meantime, Sandy Epperson, a 15-year director of the Center for Pregnancy in Orlando, a Christ-centered facility that encourages women to keep their unborn babies or consider adoption, hopes Rowan’s death will energize believers. “Christians must wake up to the atrocities that occur in all abortion clinics,” she said. “These babies need us.”
Valerie G. Lowe

Peter Illyn says a four-month trek through the Cascade Mountains led him to refocus his ministry on ‘creation care’
Waging a nationwide crusade to bring environmental awareness to Christian communities, self-proclaimed environmental evangelist Peter Illyn is dedicated to helping Christians reclaim the biblical mandate to love, serve and protect God’s creation.

Illyn is a former Foursquare pastor and the executive director of Restoring Eden (www.restoringeden.org), a ministry rooted in La Center, Wash., whose goal is to make environmental stewardship a core Christian value. “Our message is simple,” Illyn said. “God is a good God, God made a good earth, and God calls us to be good stewards.”

In 1990, Illyn traveled 1,000 miles on a four-month sabbatical through the Cascade Mountains. With Bible in hand and two llamas by his side, Illyn said there he discovered his calling to preach a message of environmental stewardship. He describes the experience as being born again, again. “God had become small in my heart in ministry,” he said. “It was in the midst of the wild that God became real to me again.”

Restoring Eden stemmed from Christians for Environmental Stewardship, a group Illyn founded in 1996 to support the Endangered Species Act. In 2001, the group became an independent, nonprofit organization and was renamed Restoring Eden to reflect its mission to protect endangered species, ecosystems and indigenous cultures.

The organization strives to connect with younger Christians–typically the college crowd–through outreach programs, campus chapters and literature. Recent college graduate Andrew Hoeksema became involved with Restoring Eden when Illyn spoke to a crowd of his peers at Dordt College. In February 2004, Hoeksema attended Rescuing God’s Creation, a campaign Illyn spearheaded to mobilize college students to unite with the Gwich’in people–a group of tribal Christians in Alaska who number about 8,000–and lobby to protect the Arctic Refuge from oil drilling.

“It’s not about liberal or conservatism; its not about Republicans or Democrats,” Hoeksema said. “It’s about preserving our environment for future generations.”

“If we want to really define Christianity in the sense that it’s supposed to be defined … we have to decide what’s right and what’s wrong,” said Gwich’in tribe member Peter Solomon. “In our case, there’s no recovery. Our way of life will go away and that’s it.”

Increasingly, Christians are talking about the environment, with the National Association of Evangelicals stating in October that caring for creation is part of every Christian’s duty and that government should protect its citizens from the impact of “environmental degradation.”

“Peter [Illyn] is helping people understand … that you may not think this is related to yourself as a Christian, but the Bible says that it is,” said the Rev. Jim Ball, executive director of the Evangelical Environmental Network, which has 23 partner organizations, including Restoring Eden. “If Christ’s blood reconciles all things, how can we be harming and extinguishing what Christ died to reconcile?”

Some Christians, such as Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson, worry that believers may take “creation care” too far by elevating environmental concerns over human needs. “We are stewards of all of God’s creation. And the supreme act of His creation is human beings,” Colson wrote in his BreakPoint newsletter. “It will do us little good to keep the Arctic Circle pristine if it’s at the cost of America being driven to her knees by Middle-Eastern oil traders. It does little good to preserve the Brazilian rain forest if the cost is millions of Brazilians living in shacks on sub-standard wages.”

But Illyn says it’s a mistake for Christians to assume God made the earth for people. “Psalm 24:1 says, ‘The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,'” Illyn said. “It’s not like a credit card I give my daughter and say spend it as you please.”

Illyn noted that loving the environment does not mean worshiping it. “We get accused of putting nature before people and that is not true and not fair,” he said. “I think the church today is scared to love nature; that somehow loving nature is the beginning of a slippery slope to worshiping the earth.”

Illyn, who was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer two years ago, likens his health battle to the one between man and the environment. “Cancer is when part of my body says I will not live within the boundaries that God intended me to live within,” he said. “It’s the ultimate of corruption. What we’re saying is that uncontrolled human development is similar.”
Suzy Richardson

Once committed to gaining fortune and fame, Barry DuFae Myers now wants to help others find freedom in Jesus
During Barry DuFae Myers’ successful career in the movie and music industry, his best friend was “Gloria”–his pseudonym for cocaine. Today the Orlando, Fla., resident calls Jesus his best friend, and he is passionate about setting people free from the bondage of their past.

This fall, Myers and his wife, Krystal, will lead a Cleansing Stream class at Wekiva Assembly of God, a multi-ethnic congregation in Longwood, Fla. Cleansing Stream is a deliverance ministry started by Jack Hayford, founding pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif.

“Cleansing Stream totally changed my whole Christian perspective,” Myers, 50, told Charisma. “I truly feel God’s presence in my life, and I’m totally dedicated to the kingdom of God.”

Myers, however, was once dedicated to attaining fortune and fame. For 15 years, he worked in various capacities in more than 30 movies, including Boomerang, New Jack City, Passenger 57, and Lethal Weapon 2 and Lethal Weapon 3.

Myers also got involved in the production and promotion of hip-hop and pop artists, including R. Kelly, Mary J. Blige, MC Hammer, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, Prince, Snoop Dog and Tupac Shakur.

In April 1993, Myers co-founded Rip-It Records, which went on to generate more than $30 million in record sales. In 1995, bolstered by hits from rap groups 199 Quad and 69 Boyz, Rip-It was named top independent record company by Urban Network magazine.

In only three years, Myers seemed to be on top of the world as his company sold more than 8 million records worldwide. But he had also developed a cocaine addiction. “Gloria seemed to be the only friend that I could trust, so a major part of my life was with her for about 18 years,” Myers recalled.

But then he said “God started to get” his attention. After a bad divorce in March 1997, Myers, who was raised a Muslim and whose second cousin was Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X, hit bottom. “I suddenly found out that fame, money, drugs and women were not making me happy,” said Myers, who also studied Buddhism. “I was very confused. The religion nonsense was not helping me.”

Meanwhile, Louis Bell Jr., who co-founded Rip-It Records with Myers, accepted Christ in August 1997. “When I returned to my office the next morning from a
church service, Barry knew I had a touch from Jesus,” said Bell, 38, who is an Orlando-based financial consultant.

Bell then invited his partner to church. Myers went, and he said God “spoke into” his life as he watched a Myles Munroe video. Then in October 1997 Myers received Jesus. “Three women came to my studio casting out demons, speaking in tongues and led me to Christ,” Myers said. “They were my mother, sister and a family friend.”

After he accepted Christ, Myers said he was instantly delivered from cocaine. Myers and Bell also pulled the plug on Rip-It in March 1998 because they felt convicted about the type of music they produced. But it would take another encounter with God before Myers completely surrendered his life to Christ.

In 2001, he met Greg Freeman, pastor of Wekiva Assembly, who invited him to church. “I wanted to get married to a lady I was living with at the time, and pastor Greg advised me to take Cleansing Stream at Wekiva,” Myers recalled.

He was so impacted by Cleansing Stream that Myers took the course again, and eventually broke up with his live-in girlfriend. Nearly three years ago, he married Krystal after meeting her in an online Christian chat room.

“He has become very focused in his relationship with Jesus,” said Freeman, 51, who has pastored Wekiva for 17 years. “His word is now his bond. He has also become very successful in corporate America and has accomplished much by making Jesus his CEO and manager.”

About the time Myers took the Cleansing Stream course, he began working for Toshiba, selling copiers, printers, software and other products. For the last three years, Myers has been named Toshiba’s top salesperson in its north Florida region.

Myers is starting a faith-based foundation that aims to mentor at-risk teenagers. And he and Bell are launching a Christian media company called One Source Media.

“God’s hand is on Barry’s life, and he will be a vital part of our ministry,” Freeman said. “I approached Barry about leading Cleansing Stream for two reasons. First, I believe he has grown to a place of leadership. Secondly, he is a genuine product of Cleansing Stream and a total believer in this ministry. When he tells people about it, they believe it.”

Eric Tiansay

Comunidad Cristiana de Londres claims 4,000 members, making it one of England’s largest Spanish-speaking churches
Long after the salsa dancers have vacated The Coronet–a popular nightspot in London’s Elephant and Castle district–another massive wave of Latin revelers sweeps into the art deco building. Party time starts all over again.

The feel-good factor still runs high. But this group dances to a different beat from the Saturday night crowd. They raise the roof with the sound of triumphant Christian praise and worship–as only the Hispanic community can.

Through Sunday services and cell groups, Comunidad Cristiana de Londres (CCL) claims to attract about 4,000 Spanish speakers. They come from not only London but also as far away as Leeds in the north and Brighton in the south.

Now in its 20th year, the church has a lively worship team comprised mainly of professional musicians–some have played sessions in Bolivian recording studios–as well as intercessors and speakers with deep passion and conviction.

Before anything else has been said, a number of women take to the stage and pray loud, long prayers. That might be to the accompaniment of a lone trumpet, being played sensitively in the background.

But when a line of dancers joins them, the drums kick in and the noise level hits the decorative ceiling. “Fill this place up with your presence,” cries one of the women. “Santo, Santo … Cristo vive!”

What follows is a packed program of intense worship tinged with Latin rhythms and an epic-length sermon on holiness. The talk is turbo-charged with deep emotion by Doris Mendoza, a member of the leadership team.

She speaks boldly of “the power to bring the multitudes” and spurs her audience on with statements such as, “Every person who has had an encounter with God will never be the same!” When it’s all over, still the people ask for more.

Visitors are drawn into the energy and excitement of the three-hour-long service. At least a dozen of them respond to Mendoza’s gospel appeal. This is Billy Graham-style reaping–served amid the richness of Hispanic culture.

It was in August 1979 that CCL’s pastor Edmundo Ravelo arrived in London with his family from their homeland Peru. They had meant to stop over en route to Spain, where they intended to be missionaries.

But it wasn’t to be. “All the doors closed to us in Spain,” said Ravelo’s son Marcos, now CCL’s youth pastor. Realizing that there was a growing Spanish-speaking community in London, they decided to set up a church there instead.

As a result, CCL started at the Ravelos’ home in England’s capital. “I never imagined myself living in London and leading a church here,” the 58-year-old Edmundo Ravelo recalled, sharing his memories on the church’s Web site.

Their congregation remained a modest size for many years. Then in the 1990s, Ravelo explored different cell-church models–from pioneers such as Ralph Neighbour to Korean-style small groups.

As a result, CCL grew to 200. But the Ravelos were hungry for more. Another pastor from Latin America introduced them to the “G12” concept, which was popularized by Colombian pastor César Castellanos and encourages churches to mentor believers in groups of 12.

They saw rapid growth and dramatic changes in people’s lives and among the leaders of the church. Within a year, their number exploded to 1,000. “It was everything that Dad was looking for in a cell model,” said Marcos Ravelo, who is 26.

The church has been growing ever since. Now they meet at two venues in London, and run cell groups, youth events and family gatherings.

In its early days, The Coronet used to host shows by local boy Charlie Chaplin, one of the great kings of comedy. Now it hosts services for the King of kings. And while there’s still plenty of fun, there is a serious intent.

“Our church [aim] is to win people–and make them into disciples,” Marcos Ravelo explained.

Edmundo Ravelo’s initial vision has also been realized. They have planted a church in the Spanish capital, Madrid. In addition, some former church members have returned to South America and started churches and cell groups there.
Clive Price in London

After barely escaping death, Wally Magdangal launched Christians in Crisis to help other believers around the world
A Filipino pastor and evangelist who was scheduled for public hanging in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Christmas Day 1992 now leads an organization that supports persecuted Christians worldwide.

Wally Magdangal had just two days left to live when he was spared execution due to the intervention of international human-rights groups, the U.S. Congress and the White House. His crime, according to the Saudi Arabian muttawa’in, or Islamic religious police, was blasphemy. It was a trumped-up charge, he says, based on his agreement with a Christian magazine article that predicted the ultimate fall of Islam.

He says the real reason he was imprisoned was because the underground church he’d led for 10 years in a sprawling Riyadh villa had become one of the largest in Saudi Arabia, with between 300 and 700 people attending each service. Magdangal and his wife, Mathilda, leased the villa, which included a pool they used for baptisms, from a wealthy Muslim who knew of their activities and cautioned them to be careful.

“All the Muslim taxi drivers knew where our church was, so they’d drop people off who wanted to come but didn’t know the address,” said Magdangal, who worked as executive secretary to the Saudi director of defense and civil aviation. “We avoided punishment because government officials who were sent to spy on us would get saved and tell us who they were. Also, some of the people I worked with were very high up in the government and wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt me.”

Magdangal and his wife moved several times to avoid arrest, and a few months before he was imprisoned Magdangal had to escape through a back window when his house was overtaken by soldiers.

The Saudi Arabian government prohibits the public practice of any religion other than Islam, and the government and much of society don’t accept any separation of church and state, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Proselytizing by non-Muslims, including Bible distribution, is illegal. All Saudi citizens must be Muslim, the commission’s 2000 report said.

Magdangal was imprisoned for two and a half months; for much of the time he said he was chained in a 3-foot-by-4-foot cell filled with feces. He said he was routinely interrogated, forced to listen to Quranic incantations, beaten and frequently deprived of food and water. One day he was taken into a torture chamber where three muttawa’in flogged him on his back, his palms and the soles of his feet until his skin turned purple.

“That agony lasted for 210 minutes; I know because there was a clock in the chamber,” he said. “My torturers were amazed I kept getting up off the floor. I was amazed too, but I felt angels picking me up.”

Eventually he was dragged off to his cell to die. “I prayed and then fell unconscious,” he recalled. “I don’t know if I died, but I heard angelic voices and instruments playing. Suddenly, a bright light was all around me and I knew it was the glory of God. I could feel hands touching my face; I looked up and it was Jesus. He wiped away my tears and told me He saw everything I went through. When I woke up the next morning I felt fine and started worshiping God.”

Magdangal was then transferred to a different part of the prison, where he witnessed to the other inmates. During this time, he appeared before the High Court of Saudi Arabia and was sentenced to death by hanging for committing blasphemy. Public hangings for blasphemers are routinely carried out on Fridays in Saudi Arabia, while public beheadings are common for apostates–those who renounce Islam–and murderers, human-rights organizations say.

After Mathilda and their 2-year-old daughter, Preshus Joy, visited an unrecognizable Magdangal in prison a few weeks before his scheduled execution, his alarmed wife wrote a letter to the president of the Philippines, Fidel Ramos. He circulated Magdangal’s story to international media outlets, and Amnesty International issued an urgent action bulletin on Dec. 22–three days before Magdangal was to be executed.

On Dec. 23, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree for Magdangal to be released and expelled from the country within 24 hours. On Christmas Day, just one hour before his scheduled execution, Magdangal landed in his homeland, the Philippines. He stayed for several months, then he and his family toured Europe, visiting heads of state to tell them about the persecution and torture of Christians and other groups in Saudi Arabia.

Magdangal and his family moved to the U.S. in 1993 and now live in Sacramento. Christians in Crisis (www.christiansin crisis.net) supports persecuted believers through a network of 500,000 intercessors, and through donations pays for projects such as purchasing bicycles for Chinese evangelists, building seminaries in China and assisting Christians after natural disasters.
Josie Newman

The $16 million addition, which houses a fitness center, indoor playground and coffee bar, is an attempt to help people connect
A Tennessee church hopes its $16 million expansion will help create a greater sense of community and grow the ministry from the outside in.

Last fall, Christ Church in Nashville unveiled a 104,000-square-foot addition that includes a new gymnasium, workout room, game room, indoor playground, classrooms, fellowship areas and 128-foot prayer tower made of glass. Church leaders say half of the 1,600 health club members had not attended the church before beginning to exercise there.

Christ Church pastor Lawson H. Hardwick Jr., 73, who founded the church nearly 55 years ago with his wife, Montelle, 74, said he wanted the 3,500-member congregation to become a community center where neighbors connected with one another. He said too many Americans today don’t know their neighbors’ names and are missing out on the community strength and support that previous generations knew.

“I remember a time when children were raised by the whole community and everyone was there for one another,” Hardwick said. “We are trying to return to at least some of that here at Christ Church.”

That vision is realized almost daily as area families join the church’s on-site health club, participate in fitness classes, join an intramural sports team, play a pick-up game of basketball or have a cup of Starbucks coffee while watching their children play on the two-story indoor playground set.

Church leaders say membership has grown as a result. Recreational director Scott Hord, 35, said many people who come to the fitness center are quick to ask questions about faith. “This is why we built these facilities,” he said. “What we had hoped for is coming to pass when people who have not been coming to church begin asking about church and about God.”

He said these conversations happen at the front desk, in the workout room, across the volleyball net and in every other room that has been set up for people to gather, talk and have fun together.

To keep the fitness center accessible to everyone, membership fees are kept low–$60 per year for individual adults and $40 annually for college students and senior citizens. Membership is free to teens with a parent who is a church member. Scholarships are also available. Access to the indoor playground, which is outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment, is also free.

This summer, the church planned to offer one-day sports camps and three-day strength and conditioning camps for youth in addition to its daily summer camp for children.

Youth pastor Daniel Bell, 34, said attendance at the teen Sunday school program more than doubled soon after the new facilities were opened. In the past, more than 200 students regularly attended Wednesday night services, but only 30 attended Sunday school.

In two months, he said, that number climbed to 75 when newcomers were able to start the morning out in the “safety” of a comfy chair or game of pingpong rather than in a more formal setting. Hardwick said the widely acclaimed Christ Church Choir, under the leadership of Landy and Joy Gardner since 1976, has drawn many people to the church through the years.

Though the new facilities are aimed at helping the church remain relevant to a new generation, Hardwick said praising and worshiping God, benevolence and missions programs, and other outreach ministries will continue to be strongly emphasized.
Renee DeLoriea in Nashville, Tenn.

Evelyn Roberts played a vital role in helping her husband build his international healing and evangelistic ministry
Evelyn Roberts, wife of evangelist Oral Roberts, died May 4 in a California hospital after suffering a head injury during a fall.

According to Tulsa, Okla.-based Oral Roberts University (ORU), Roberts, 88, fell in the parking lot of a Newport Beach dentist’s office the day before, striking her head on the pavement and causing massive internal bleeding. Roberts, who had been in generally good health, then lapsed into a coma and died later.

Oral and Evelyn Roberts married more than 66 years ago, and she worked with her husband to build his TV ministry and university. She wrote several books, including her best-selling autobiography, His Darling Wife, Evelyn. She also penned Evelyn Roberts’ Miracle Life Stories and the children’s book, Heaven Has a Floor.

“Mrs. Roberts played a vital role in her husband’s worldwide evangelistic ministry from its beginning in 1947,” ORU’s Web site said. “In obedience to God’s call on their lives, she was instrumental in helping Oral carry the message of God’s saving, healing, delivering power through the building of Oral Roberts University and the many other outreaches of the Oral Roberts Ministries.”

Healing evangelist Benny Hinn said his family mourns the loss of “a great woman of faith and beauty.”

“Wife of my dearest friend and mentor, Evelyn was known for her beautiful spirit, sharp wit, and undying devotion to her husband,” Hinn said on his Web site. “She was, to her last day on this earth, a wellspring of inspiration and strength to her husband and to many, including myself.”

Christian Broadcasting Network founder Pat Robertson said Roberts was “a rock and a standby with Oral’s ministry. … She was with him from the early days all the way through, ‘his darling wife,’ and he meant it sincerely,” Robertson said on The 700 Club. “They said that when they went into a town to hold a crusade, Evelyn always had a bag that had some little mementos and Scripture verses so that they could make a hotel room, in a sense, like a chapel, so they would feel the presence of the Lord.”

Hinn said Roberts’ commitment to support her husband in ministry will be part of her legacy “and a standard for others to follow.”

“A dear saint of God has gone home,” Robertson added. “We are sorry it took place in such a seemingly unnecessary tragedy. … But she’s with Jesus. For that we rejoice.”

Besides her husband, who is 87, Roberts is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Lindsay Roberts; her daughter and son-in-law, Roberta and Ronald Potts; 13 grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren, two sisters and three brothers. A “celebration” of Roberts’ life was held May 9 at ORU’s Mabee Center.
Eric Tiansay

Holly McClure says movie theaters are this generation’s pulpits, so the church must shine the light of Christ in the darkness
Though she has spent the last decade writing movie reviews to warn parents of the objectionable content that may be in the latest hit film, Holly McClure doesn’t want Christians to swear off Hollywood entirely.

“It is important that Christians get involved in Hollywood and the entertainment medium,” said McClure, who teaches film and journalism at Biola University and mentors potential film students as part of the Biola Film Task Force. “I feel strongly about the church becoming media- and culturally savvy. For years we’ve lost ground. … We’re just getting it back.”

McClure is helping the church reclaim that ground through her radio show and by serving as a guest on TV programs such as Politically Incorrect, The Sharon Osbourne Show and The Montel Williams Show. She also is a popular recurring pundit for such outlets as FOX News, Hannity & Colmes, MSNBC, Scarborough Country and CNN.

It’s been almost 20 years since she found her passion. After doing some acting and voice-work, McClure began doing movie reviews in the late 1980s when she realized parents like herself needed someone to review films from a conservative point of view. It was before the Internet was being widely used, and she couldn’t find what she was looking for. “So I started my own reviews,” she said.

After moving to California, she began writing movie reviews for The Orange County Register and within six months the column was run in other papers and was eventually syndicated nationally. McClure became known as a family film critic.

She was sought-after for interviews, which led to a radio talk show, Holly on Hollywood, giving her experience and enabling her to expand. In the mid-1990s, she began Saturday Night With Holly McClure on KKLA, one of the leading Christian radio stations in the country. Because she tackled tough topics on the show, such as Christians and drug abuse, homosexuality and abortion, McClure gained notoriety as a conservative talk-show host.

McClure’s popularity led to a phone call from Mel Gibson in 2002 asking her to produce a behind-the-scenes special for Icon Productions’ film The Passion of the Christ. She was the first member of the media to be allowed on set and the first journalist to write an exclusive article about the film, which appeared in the New York Daily News.

“I knew every day I walked on that set I was watching history being made,” McClure said. She wrote about her experience in the forward of the book The Passion, published by Allegiance Press.

McClure has since produced filmographies and behind-the-scenes specials for feature films such as One Night With the King (Gener8xion Entertainment) and Hangman’s Curse (Namesake Entertainment). “Movie theaters are the pulpits to our generation in the world,” she told Charisma. “People who would never go to church will go to a movie.”

That is why she believes it is so important for Christians to get involved in Hollywood and be salt and light. “For a long time, Christians avoided Hollywood and movies, but the more we take an active role, break down our preconceptions as a church and let God work outside the box, the more we’ll be that light in the darkness,” she said.

Still, she says Christians must be discerning about what they view, a topic she explores in her book, Death by Entertainment: Exposing Hollywood’s Seductive Power Over You and Your Family, which offers an informative look at the impact of the entertainment industry on families.

Because children are learning their values and morals from television, “as a church we have to get youth leaders teaching teens and youth what it is to be discerning,” she said. “Be careful. Now that Hollywood knows we are a market–just because it has that name labeled on it –we have to be discerning.”

McClure’s reviews can be seen on Lifestyle Magazine, which is broadcast on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and she can be heard on Salem Radio Network. A member of Life Church, a charismatic ministry founded by Phil Munsey, she also is co-hosting the show Bible Prophecy Unraveled with Hilton Sutton, which is syndicated around the world on LeSEA Broadcast Network and she serves on the board of the Parents Television Council.

McClure believes God has called her “for such a time as this,” to be used for His purpose in an industry that is influencing the world.
Lesa Henderson in Los Angeles