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

Thousands of Christians across the nation are supporting pastor Dino Gentile’s appeal for clemency
Thousands of Christians nationwide have written letters expressing support for a Pentecostal pastor serving a 41-year sentence for a crime he said he was coerced into committing.

Pastor Dino M. Gentile of Chatsworth, Calif., is seeking clemency from President Bush for his role in a 1998 bank robbery in Pensacola, Fla.

The 49-year-old former pastor of The Ark, a Chatsworth congregation affiliated with the Apostolic World Christian Fellowship Inc., said he was forced to drive the getaway car at the threat of harm to his wife and two children in California.

“Dino was in terrible fear [that] he and his family [would be] executed,” said his mother, Emila Gentile Medeiros.

Gentile said he became involved in the robbery when Jeffrey Durham, now serving time for the Monsanto Employees Credit Union robbery, asked if he could accompany Gentile on a cross-country evangelism and fundraising trip.

Durham, who first represented himself as a mild-mannered Christian man and an agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was eager to participate in church activities and interacted closely with the Gentile family. By the time Durham revealed his plan to rob the Pensacola bank, Gentile trusted him.

“Gentile embraced society’s throwaways, an aspect of his personality that spilled into his ministry,” said Jennifer Elise Chase in a master’s thesis she wrote about Gentile’s case, which she titled “The Preacher Who Trusted Too Much.” “Dino believes everyone has redeeming value.”

But as he sat outside in Durham’s getaway car with a bomb on the seat behind him and a threat of death if he did not cooperate, Gentile said he was forced to make a decision. “He turned from a model saint in my church for eight months to this absolutely possessed young man,” Gentile told Charisma.

So instead of running to the police the minute he got the opportunity, Gentile drove Durham back to California. “He was screaming at me the whole time we drove back to Los Angeles,” Gentile said. “I had to wonder what he was capable of.”

Durham was arrested for the robbery in 1998, and FBI agents later linked Gentile to the crime, charging him with aiding and abetting. Gentile claims his attorney failed to introduce evidence that would have supported his version of the events. Within 15 minutes, a Pensacola jury convicted Gentile. He received 30 years for his alleged use of an automatic weapon, and 11 years for the abetting charge.

Since then, friends, relatives, former parishioners and members of his 3.2 million-member denomination have written some 3,000 letters and faxes requesting clemency. Supporters repeatedly describe Gentile as a man of integrity and devotion.

“This good and decent man has suffered enough,” wrote Bishop Samuel L. Smith of the Apostolic World Christian Fellowship. “His community work has been exemplary. Helping the poor, the down and out, was a particular passion of this humble man.”

Linda Oakland, senior pastor of The Well Foursquare Church in Northridge, Calif., agreed. “All of his life and his work reflect the testimonials, one after another, of people who came out of difficult circumstances, who now serve as vital people in our community,” she wrote. “…We are anxious to have Pastor Gentile back serving our community in Southern California where he is so desperately needed.”

Among those who received letters and petitions are California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senators Mark Montigny and Bob Dole, the U.S. Department of Justice, former President Clinton and now President Bush.

In 2001, Justice Department pardon attorney Roger C. Adams sent a letter to Sen. Dole, saying Gentile’s request for a reduced sentence was being processed. Four years later, the process is still not complete. Gentile is praying for a miracle.

For several years, Durham, who is serving a 120-year sentence in a Colorado prison, has been promising to exonerate Gentile. “Don’t waive your right to an appeal, Brother,” Durham wrote in a 1999 letter to Gentile. “That’s what’s going to get you out of prison–that and a statement from me. I have to wait until after my trial before I make any statements. I will do what I said, Brother. Just be patient and know that the truth will set you free.”

Durham has not provided a statement to authorities yet.

Gentile said his appeal process has been exhausted, but a presidential pardon may still be available. White House officials won’t discuss Gentile’s case. “We do acknowledge when we receive a petition or application that is under review,” said Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki, “but we don’t discuss anything during the interim process.”

Gentile has seen dozens of men saved since his incarceration, but he hopes his prison ministry will soon end and has asked supporters to keep writing and faxing the president on his behalf.
Michelle Lovato in Lompoc, Calif.

Pharmacists Challenge Order to Give ‘Plan B’ Pill
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) filed suit on behalf of two pharmacists challenging Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s order requiring pharmacists to dispense medication even if the drugs violate their religious beliefs or conscience. The move came after two pharmacists refused to dispense morning-after birth control pills, invoking their “right of conscience,” which they believed was protected by the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The governor said the act does not cover the pharmacists and said refusing to dispense the pills denies a woman her right to health care. The ACLJ is asking a state court to declare Blagojevich’s emergency order null and void.

Lawsuit Against Jews For Jesus Dismissed

A second lawsuit filed against Jews for Jesus (JFJ) by a woman who claims she was wrongly said to have accepted Christ in a 2002 ministry newsletter has been dismissed. Liberty Counsel, which represented JFJ, said Florida Circuit Court Judge Catherine Brunson dismissed Edith Rapp’s claims that she had been defamed by the praise report her stepson wrote, in which he said she became a “Jewish believer.” A previous judge dismissed a lawsuit Rapp filed in May 2004, after her husband’s 2003 death. She later refiled portions of the suit. Those claims have also been dismissed. At press time Rapp had filed another lawsuit against JFJ. Liberty Counsel said it planned to file a motion to dismiss the third lawsuit.

School Board Sued for Praying at Meetings
The ACLU is suing members of a Delaware school board for opening monthly business meetings with prayer, AgapePress reported. The civil liberties group claims the actions of Reginald Helms, vice president of Indian River School District Board of Education, and his colleagues are unconstitutional. “I think there is Supreme Court precedent to say that these are legislative type prayers … so we’re hoping that in the end it will be upheld as constitutional,” John Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute, which is representing the board members, told AgapePress.

Founded by ‘the world’s oldest teenager,’ the Winkie Pratney Memorial Library will house works by trailblazing ministers
The man affectionately known as the world’s oldest teenager is looking to historic revival leaders for lessons in radical Christian living.

Winkie Pratney, a New Zealand-born evangelist who journeys hundreds of thousands of miles speaking to more than a half-million people each year, is preparing to open his unique collection of rare, handpicked books this summer as an extension of his ministry to young people and their leaders.

Located on Youth With a Mission’s Twin Oaks Ranch outside Lindale, Texas, and comprising more than 10,000 volumes, the Winkie Pratney Memorial Library will offer a unique look at the lives and teachings of historic revival leaders such as John Wesley, Charles Finney and William and Catherine Booth. Eventually, Pratney hopes to make many of the writings available online for free.

“The ultimate goal is to be a library that tracks evangelism, missions and spiritual awakening,” Pratney said, “one that chronicles the work of the Holy Spirit in history.”

Pratney, who celebrated his 60th birthday last year, said the library will be based on a Hebraic, rather than Greek, style of learning. Instead of packing the library with as many books and resources as he can acquire to help patrons accumulate knowledge, Pratney said he wants to highlight the works of leaders who can teach by example, who were known both for their evangelistic zeal and their Christian character.

“[When selecting a book] I ask: ‘Is the person who wrote this a soul winner? Are they doing what Jesus did, or are they merely theoretical?'” he said. “… The next thing I ask is, ‘What was the long-term fruit of their lives? What were the kinds of results they got when they pushed the truth God gave them? When you put these two meshes on a good chunk of the Christian life, a large number of things get left behind. What remains is a core of people who left a lasting legacy.”

Pratney said many of the authors in his collection have been omitted entirely from the racks of most Christian bookstores. And many of those who are included in anthologies have been edited to remove their emphasis on the supernatural.

“This is a unique sort of library because it follows the stream of the red-headed stepchildren of the Reformation,” Pratney said. “Many of these writers were neither Catholic nor Reformed, but were persecuted by both sides. They were of the stream that believed that a pure heart and unreserved love and obedience was what God required and that Jesus still worked miracles in their day.”

The library houses such original works as Butler’s Lives of the Saints, which John Wesley used extensively; the complete collected hymns of John and Charles Wesley; Charles Spurgeon’s 80 volumes of sermons from the Metropolitan Tabernacle and the Park Street pulpits; as well as books by such revivalists as Charles Finney and Catherine and William Booth.

The library will also house a natural healing library that includes books, videos and current research into alternative healing methods. Pratney plans to have a fully stocked kitchen where visitors will be able to prepare healthy alternatives to the burgers, fries, refined sugar and white flour that are staples of the American diet.

“Martyrdom is one thing … but death by stupidity is something else,” Pratney said. “I’m interested in Christians living long, productive lives so they can die old and happy serving Jesus.”

Plans are under way to make it possible for patrons to watch archival footage of revivals or teaching videos by such ministers as Campbell McAlpine, Leonard Ravenhill, Keith Green, Gordon Olson or even Winkie Pratney.

“Winkie is part of our spiritual heritage,” said Bob Weiner of Weiner Ministries International and former president of Maranatha Campus Ministries. “The world’s been changed because of the message he’s preached, and millions of young people have gotten saved.”

Weiner said Pratney has been teaching the truths he gleaned from the lives of the people represented in the library for more than 40 years. “Because of it, thousands of people are out there preaching the truth of the kingdom of God,” Weiner said.

“We need to study the works of [past great saints of God] to learn why they were so anointed and why God used them,” he added. “There’s something in the character of the people God chooses, and we need to line ourselves up with that.”

Vinson Synan, dean of the Regent University School of Divinity in Virginia Beach, Va., said a library of this sort can help provide a backdrop against which to judge present-day spiritual awakenings.

“No movement lasts very long unless it is buttressed by good thought and strong theology,” Synan said. “Experience is important, but it’s what you write down that affects future generations.”
Amado J. Bobadilla

Though Sarah Lui has been released, hundreds from the South China Church, including its pastor, remain in prison
A Christian woman imprisoned for years in China has exposed some of the abuses that occur in labor camps, describing her arrest and torture at a February press conference in Washington, D.C.

A Christian since 1989 and a leader in the South China Church, one of the largest unregistered churches in China, Sarah Liu was arrested May 27, 2001, on her 30th birthday, when Chinese military police broke up a worship service being held in a local Christian’s home.

The church’s pastor, Gong Shengliang, escaped, but Lui faced her third arrest. Previously she had been tortured and eventually released, but this time was different.

“I was interrogated in a bedroom,” she said. “Seven male policemen surrounded me. They started laughing at me and cursing me, then started touching my body and asked me what did I do. I said ‘I’m just a Christian believer.’ And one said sarcastically, ‘Why don’t you believe in the Communist Party [instead of] this foreign god?'”

As the night wore on, it became clear that the police wanted Lui to testify that Gong had raped her. She refused.

The police then shackled her feet and began beating her legs and back, she recalled. One officer whipped her toes with a metal coat hanger. When she fell, they bashed her head into the wall until she passed out.

“The pain was so great that I could hardly breathe,” she said. “They said I was only pretending to be dead. The shackles bit into my feet and ankles such that wherever I walked was covered with blood.”

Again they asked her to make a false confession against Gong, and again she refused.

Using an electric prod, the police shocked every part of her body. When she cried out, they shoved the prod in her mouth.

“Then they tried to take off my clothes, but I resisted,” she recalled. “They kicked me and shoved me into a corner and pulled off my clothes.”

In the end, two officers forced a weakened Lui to fingerprint some documents, one of which she said was otherwise blank. As a result of several similarly coerced accusations by women in the South China Church, pastor Gong and three church leaders were sentenced to death. The women, including Lui, were put in prison.

Wracked with guilt for playing a role in pastor Gong’s conviction, Lui said she wanted to die. “But in my heart there was a deep cry,” she said. “And in my heart I said, ‘No, I will not reject Jesus. I want to live. I want to live and tell the truth about what is really happening to the South China Church.'”

Due to an overwhelming international outcry coordinated by China Aid and other international organizations that work to assist persecuted Christians, the Chinese believers received a second trial. Pastor Gong and those condemned to death were instead given life sentences. Lui and four other women were declared innocent and released.

Though cleared of any crime, Lui was sentenced to three years of “re-education through labor.” She was sent to a labor camp, where she was forced to assemble electronics and work in the fields. Christians were forbidden from praying or reading the Bible. Lui said they were treated like members of an evil cult and assigned onerous tasks. Lui said she passed out from exhaustion twice.

Released in February 2004, Lui said her freedom came with the warning that she would be rearrested if she were ever to resume practicing Christianity. She said she lived in constant fear. Eventually, with the help of China Aid and other organizations, she received refugee status in the United States in January.

In the last 10 years more than 8,900 members of the South China Church have been arrested, and many are still in prison. According to the latest reports from China Aid, Gong continues to serve his life sentence and is dying in his prison cell.

Lui hopes to one day return to a China that honors religious freedom as government leaders have promised in multiple international covenants and its own constitution. In the meantime, she wants to draw attention to religious persecution in China and the suffering of Gong and others affiliated with the South China Church.
David Mundy in Washington, D.C.

Despite having a 4 percent chance of recovery, Casey Treat says his blood work shows no sign of the liver disease
After a public battle with hepatitis C, Seattle pastor Casey Treat says he has been healed of the viral liver disease.

Though doctors gave Treat only a 4 percent chance of complete recovery, the pastor of 7,000-member Christian Faith Center said blood tests in March showed no trace of the disease he had been battling since late 2003.

Doctors, nutritionists and physical therapists each claimed credit. Treat, 50, attributed it to all of them working in tandem with God’s healing touch. “My approach has always been to use prayer and doctors,” Treat said. “We should use every endeavor God has given us for healing.”

In 2003, before Treat learned he had the disorder, much had been going his way. He was launching a huge building project and broadening his media ministry. But a simple medical exam to qualify for a life insurance policy threatened to upend it all.

“I was shocked and dismayed,” he said. “This was not good. God got my attention.”

Now a husband and father of three, Treat believes he contracted hepatitis C as a teen. Before he accepted Christ at age 19, he had been a drug user and was part of the hippie subculture of the day. He said it was during a time of drug rehabilitation that he first heard the gospel.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people with hepatitis C often experience no symptoms for years–and Treat had not seen any signs. Nonetheless, 70 percent of infected persons might eventually develop chronic liver disease. The worst cases need liver transplants. A few die.

Because hepatitis C cannot be transmitted to others through casual contact, Treat continued his ministry activities, but he also began chemotherapy. He chose to
keep his condition private until he started losing hair and weight.

When the news was public, Treat used himself as a living illustration. He preached a series titled “How to Be Your Best When You Feel Your Worst,” and reminded teens that dangerous behaviors such as drug abuse and premarital sex can have latent consequences.

As Treat battled for his health, Christian Faith Center continued to expand. What started with 30 people when Treat was 24 has matured into one of the largest churches in the Pacific Northwest and now meets in two locations. More than 150 people work on staff for the church and its affiliated grade school and Bible college. Treat also hosts international radio and TV broadcasts.

After fighting a lengthy zoning battle, Christian Faith Center plans to move into a $40 million headquarters next year that will house a 5,000-seat sanctuary. The facility will be located in Federal Way, Wash., between Seattle and Tacoma.

Today Treat preaches regularly at both Christian Faith Center campuses, taking a helicopter between the two. And he still has big plans. Within 25 years, he wants to double the number of campuses and grow the congregations to at least 100,000 people throughout the Pacific Northwest.

In his early years, Treat was influenced by such charismatic leaders as pastor Frederick K.C. Price in Los Angeles. Now, he mentors others.

“Casey has a major influence on pastors, both nationally and internationally,” said Jim Reeve, senior pastor of Faith Community Church in West Covina, Calif. “But he has gone beyond just being an influential leader or a model to becoming a father for other pastors of independent and charismatic churches.”

Reeve often invites Treat to preach at Faith Community Church and has hosted Treat’s Vision conference. “Behind the scenes, Casey lives what he teaches,” Reeve said. “Of all the people I know, he is one who truly walks what he talks.”

Bill Wolfson, senior pastor of Church for All Nations in Tacoma, agreed. “Casey walks it,” Wolfson said. “He is a man of faith. But more than that, he is a man whose faith works by love.”

Treat said his approach is simple. “I keep trying to be a better Christian every day,” he said. “This is the key to staying on course and reaching your destiny.”
Steven Lawson

Ministers say the Navajo Nation is experiencing a move of God that is marked by dozens of salvations and healings
Some communities in the largest American Indian reservation in the U.S. are experiencing a move of God that ministry leaders claim is comparable to the miracles recorded in the book of Acts.

They say that in parts of the Navajo Nation, entire families have come to Christ, crack houses have been turned into houses of worship as drug dealers have been converted, many have been delivered from alcohol and drugs, and a well that was dry for years is now filled with water that brings healing.

“The only big name involved in this revival is God, and it is sweeping the Navajo Nation,” said Ray Saragosa, missions pastor of New Song Fellowship, a 300-member charismatic church in Denver.

Saragosa has taken ministry teams seven times to the Arizona communities that are located in the Navajo Nation, which extends through a large portion of the Grand Canyon state and into New Mexico and Utah.

The Navajo Nation is the largest of the 275 reservations and 500 federally recognized tribal governments in the U.S. Roughly the size of West Virginia, the territory covers 25,351 square miles and has a population of 180,000, according to census reports.

Since May 2003, Saragosa, 51, has taken truckloads of clothing, toys, bikes and furniture to Ganado and Whippoorwill, Ariz., located approximately two hours northeast of Flagstaff, Ariz.

He said the Navajo people live in poverty-stricken circumstances, and most of the church buildings are “very rough,” but that has not stopped them from attending revival services.

“Many of the meetings are held in tents, which are simply put up somewhere and the people flock in by the hundreds, hungry for God,” said Saragosa, who is Mexican-American.

A Navajo native who was raised on the reservation, Daniel “Larry” Furcap, senior pastor of Whippoorwill Fellowship Church, said a “full explosion of revival” is happening in Whippoorwill and Ganado, which are about an hour apart.

“It seems like the Lord started doing the outpouring beginning in December 2003,” said Furcap, 42, who is ordained in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.).

Furcap and Sammie Begay, senior pastor of Ganado Glory Temple, held what was supposed to be a weeklong revival.

“During the revival meeting, we preached about the grace of God,” said Furcap, who has seen the church grow from eight members to 135 since he became pastor in 2000. “Through that the people accepted that they were accepted and redeemed. That’s when they opened up and when the outpouring started taking place. The week of revival kept going on and it continued for weeks.”

Furcap said nearly 200 people have accepted Christ in Whippoorwill, Ganado and the community of Hard Rock, which have several thousand residents.

“Two couples in Whippoorwill who were the main drug dealers of the town got saved,” he said. “Their houses had bullet holes and no windows. Everything was trashed. The people from our church came out to clean their houses, remodeled and painted their houses, got their power turned back on, and gave them food. They’re now holding jobs and are part of the church.”

Shirley Baker said she and several of her siblings got saved last year after one of her brothers and a nephew, who were both Christians, died. “We went through a lot before we knew God,” said Baker, 42, who attends Whippoorwill Fellowship. “I would drink three or four nights each week, and I didn’t think about anything except to get drunk again because there was no one to turn to for love or forgiveness. But now He has set us free from sins.”

Besides deliverance and salvations, Furcap said he has seen supernatural signs and wonders. He said a well close to the Lord’s Church near Piñon, Ariz., which was dry for years, was suddenly filled with water in April 2004, attracting people from outside the reservation. “People who drank or bathed from the spring experienced healing in their body,” Furcap said.

He added that members of the Lord’s Church reported seeing an oil-like substance on the walls during services, as well as the appearance of gold-colored dust and nuggets.

“I believe God is really moving in the Navajo Nation,” he said. “The reason is that people have opened up to God and said, ‘We’re willing for You to do great and mighty things.’ They have laid down their religious things. They want Him to be in control. The Word of God says where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty.”
Eric Tiansay

Sammy Mah’s appointment is part of a corporate restructuring designed to boost the organization’s ability to respond to disaster
As part of a major reorganizing campaign aimed at positioning World Relief to be a leading advocate for the world’s poor and needy, the Christian humanitarian organization recently appointed a former General Motors executive as its president.

Sammy Mah was to be installed as head of World Relief April 18, ending a leadership search that began last year after the resignation of former president Clive Calver. Previously Calver had been general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain, the United Kingdom’s equivalent of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).

Now senior pastor of Walnut Hill Community Church in Bethel, Conn., Calver is credited with having raised the visibility of World Relief and crystallizing its vision of “helping churches help churches help the poor” during his seven-year tenure.

“We all credit Clive with polishing off the vision we were founded [on],” said acting president Tim Ziemer, who was to step down April 18. “We understood that the church’s role is to reach out and do compassion ministry. When you do that compassionate work and you evangelize, you see light. One without the other doesn’t necessarily get you where you want to go. It’s not the whole gospel. Clive came to this organization and made sure we all knew that.”

Both Ziemer’s and Calver’s resignations came as part of a massive restructuring aimed at transitioning World Relief from a traditional style of ministry leadership, in which an organization is led by a visionary president and operations are carried out by an executive director, to a CEO model.

“We really believed we had some of the finest technical people in World Relief,” said board chairman Gordon MacDonald. “What we needed was leadership at the top in this new era who would bring the best out of the competence we have. … We were not looking for a leader who was going to give us a new mission or take us in new directions. We were looking for someone who would take this mission and run with it.”

MacDonald said the new structure was needed to enable World Relief to realize a series of resolutions the board adopted last year. Among them is a desire to make World Relief, which is the humanitarian-assistance arm of the NAE, a leader in addressing such issues as refugee resettlement, the AIDS epidemic, micro-enterprise and food development, and child mortality.

“We don’t have any sense of urgency to be the biggest; we would never come into World Vision’s league,” MacDonald said. “But quality-wise, we would like to be among the best.”

He added that World Relief wants to sound “a prophetic voice” to the U.S. church to remember the poor. “The average Christian in America doesn’t see his or her commitment to the issue of the poor as an evidence of conversion,” MacDonald said. “And we would like to be a leader organization in the 21st century of making sure that the Christian community gets that message. That this is not an option; it’s a given.”

Other humanitarian organizations, such as Compassion International and World Vision, which operates a budget close to $1 billion, have been using a CEO model for several years. Describing Mah as “a very godly man with very vigorous and deep faith in Jesus and a great sensitivity to God’s calling and leading,” MacDonald said the board believed Mah was “capable of running a finely tuned organization and bringing out the best in individuals.”

The son of Chinese immigrants, Mah earned an MBA from the University of Michigan and spent 27 years as an executive at General Motors. He and his wife, Lorelei, and their three children have been active in youth ministry at their church, Cornerstone Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brighton, Mich., and have participated in missions trips to various parts of the world.

Mah’s arrival comes as World Relief continues to recover from a challenging 2001 move to Baltimore. The relocation consolidated offices in Illinois, New York and Georgia and largely is viewed as a positive change. But it also resulted in a significant loss in domestic staff, as some key personnel chose not to transfer. The organization, which operates a $40 million budget, later cut additional staff due to a decline in giving after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

MacDonald said World Relief has braved the worst of the transition, and he is optimistic about the organization’s future. Despite the changes, Ziemer said, World Relief has been able to respond to recent natural disasters, with teams going to work in Indonesia after the tsunami, Grenada after Hurricane Jeanne and Iran after an earthquake struck in December.
Adrienne S. Gaines