Maureen D. Eha
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God Is Moving In Jericho
Karen Dunham was still a new Christian when the Lord told her to move to the Middle East and start loving Palestinians.
When American missionary Karen Dunham gave her life to Christ 10 years ago, she had no thoughts of traveling to Jericho, West Bank, to minister. Not even after God told her several years later to go to Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall did she consider such an undertaking. Like most Americans, she saw the Palestinians as enemies and had no love for them whatsoever."I didn't even know what an Arab was," Dunham, now 51, says. But she associated the people in that part of the world with bombs and terrorism.
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Make Way for the Women
Although chauvinistic attitudes still stand in their way, a new group of women has risen to the challenge of leading the 21st century church.
Early in her ministry career, Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, was snubbed when a group of male pastors turned their chairs around to indicate their objection to being addressed by a female preacher. Yet since that time—the early 1980s—she has traveled around the world, speaking to audiences of both men and women from platforms offered to her not by women only but also by prominent male leaders, including, in the years before his death, Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright.Lotz's current liberty to preach to both genders in high-profile venues is not singular. Throughout Christendom "something is happening for women," as Bonnie and Mahesh Chavda declare in their 2006 book, The Hidden Power of a Woman. In both denominational and nondenominational—particularly Pentecostal-charismatic settings—women are taking their places alongside men as ministers of the gospel.
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In the Eye of the Storm
All eyes were on Florida during the contested 2000 presidential election. And Katherine Harris—a Spirit-filled Christian—found herself in the center of the controversy.
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Days of Thunder
The Holy Spirit jolted the American church more than four decades ago and brought waves of renewal. Today we celebrate those days of visitation.
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Giving Women A Way Out
BEFORE AIDA BOWERS CAME ALONG, LIFE ON THE STREETS WAS A FRIGHTENING LAST RESORT FOR DESPERATE WOMEN IN DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA. NOW, THEY HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE.
To the casual observer, South Ridgewood Avenue in Daytona Beach, Florida, looks like many other city streets caught in transition between residential and commercial zoning--a panorama of aging homes resolutely standing their ground between newly constructed businesses and hotels. But to Aida Bowers, a fiery evangelist who believes she's on assignment from God, it is a hot spot for ministry: the location of choice for a number of the city's prostitutes, who work the area even in broad daylight.Bowers' mission is to rid the street, the city and even the state of prostitutes--not by sending them to jail, but by rescuing and rehabilitating them. A year and a half ago she founded Heaven's Garden--a nonprofit, residential home in the heart of Daytona's red-light district--to provide a refuge and training ground for the women she snatches from the street.
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Beauty From Ashes
Because of the compassion of one brave woman, former prostitutes are finding the gospel--and a way off the streets.
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Ignited by the Spirit
Since R.T. Kendall was touched by the Holy Spirit in 1955, this former Nazarene has become a beacon of charismatic renewal.
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Fuchsia Pickett – Revelational Bible Teacher
Fuchsia Pickett was one of the finest Bible teachers of the 20th century. When she passed away January 30, 2004, she left a legacy of revelation that will impact the church for years to come. Among her greatest contributions were her prophetic view of God's plan for an upcoming revival, her call to the crucified life, and her understanding of the nature of the Holy Spirit and His role in a believer's life.Born in Virginia on December 29, 1918, Pickett was saved as a teenager through the influence of a Presbyterian co-worker and called to preach shortly afterward. The Lord sovereignly opened a door for her to attend Bible college while her husband, George Parrish, was stationed overseas and her only child, Daryl, was small.
As soon as she graduated, Pickett began ministering across the country. For 17 years she preached and taught as an ordained Methodist minister and pastor of a church.
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He’s Got the Cure
Physician and author Don Colbert is teaching a whole generation of Christians that it's spiritual to be healthy.
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Wrinkle-Free Bride
Have you ever heard the expression "going to hell in a handbasket"? Doesn't it sometimes seem--at least, judging by our leaders--as if that's what the body of Christ is doing? We have high-profile charismatic preachers divorcing their wives to marry someone else, evangelical pastors falling prey to Internet pornography, mainline denominational priests sexually abusing their congregants' children and, more recently, a homosexual priest being raised up to the position of bishop. As a Christian journalist, I hear the reports--and I cringe.But I have learned that if we focus on what we see, we can easily become discouraged. So I choose to keep my eyes on Jesus, the magnificent Bridegroom, and my heart anchored in His Word, which tells us that Christ gave Himself for the church "that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27, NKJV, emphasis added). His plan is for us to be a glorious church--a beautiful, wrinkle-free bride.
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Her Redeemer Lives
Once a victim of abuse, Beth Moore is one of America's most popular ministers today. She says her life is 'living proof' that God's Word can transform lives.
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Are You Really Hungry for God?
God has prepared a banquet for us — a feast of His presence — But we won’t have the appetite for it if we’re satisfied with something else. Long ago the psalmist wrote about hunger for God in what we now know as Psalm 42, verses 1 and 2: “As the deer pants for the …
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Pioneer Progress
Back in the 1970s, I was a fan of a weekly TV program called "Little House on the Prairie," which depicted the life of author Laura Ingalls Wilder as a child and young woman on the American frontier. The show was schmaltzy at times, I admit, but it was also educational. And it provided a yardstick by which to measure the "progress"--if you can call it that--we had made in our country.In the days when the show aired on prime-time television, there was a stark contrast between the lives of the characters on the program--who were early American pioneers--and the lives of the average modern American. The pioneers lived a hard life, fighting to survive in often harsh conditions.
Modern-day citizens, on the other hand, had every convenience the technological age could provide. By comparison, their lives were easy. Today they are even easier.
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She Will Not Remain Silent
When critics challenged her decision to lead huge revivals around the country, Anne Graham Lotz--daughter of the world's most famous evangelist--didn't let anyone quench her message.
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A Mother of Mothers
When Willie Mae Rivers was raising her 10 daughters, she didn't realize God was preparing her to give spiritual direction to millions of women.
When Willie Mae Rivers was a girl, she felt called to preach. Too young for a larger venue, she would stand up on a stack of soft drink crates and minister to whatever handful of family or friends she could gather. Little did she know that this exercise was great practice for her future role--international general supervisor of women for the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the nation's largest Pentecostal denomination.Mother Rivers, now 76, had no idea she would end up in the position she is in today. "I knew there was a call, and there was a push in my spirit to do things for people, to serve," she says. "But when I came into COGIC I was only 20 years old."
