Buzz

Charisma Online

We all need a little sprucing up from time to time, and Charisma is no exception. This month we encourage you to visit www.charismamag.com to check out our redesigned Web site. There you’ll find archived articles with easy search functions, back issues of our regular columns, and a lively Web forum where you can share your opinion. You can also sign up for Charisma editor J. Lee Grady’s semi-weekly “Fire in My Bones” column and Stephen Strang’s new “Standing With Israel” column, which are available exclusively online. There are more updates to come, so stay plugged in.
The Editors

Where are they now?

Still on a Mission

It was 50 years ago in March that Kayy Gordon braved subzero temperatures in the Canadian Arctic to reach the Inuit people with the gospel. Today, at age 74, she continues her efforts to spread the Word in many parts of the world.

Gordon takes no credit for the thousands of people who have received Christ during revivals that hit Canada’s northern region. She knows it was God who brought transformation to the winter wilderness. “I’ve seen tremendous change because of the power of the Holy Spirit,” Gordon says.

She can rattle off countless stories of miracles she’s witnessed while working as a missionary. People have been delivered from demonic oppression and even healed of blindness. “The Holy Spirit has broken addictions and sin off people’s lives,” she says.

Gordon told Charisma she has retired “a few times” but continues to return to the mission field. Having spent the majority of her life minis tering in the Arctic, Gordon has broadened her ministry to reach people in Africa and Asia. And she hopes to groom a new generation of leaders. Through the Bible college she founded, she has helped train leaders among the Inuit people and planted 12 churches across the region.
Valerie G. Lowe

Relief Work Unites Diverse Groups

Hurricane Katrina helps level doctrinal walls in Mississippi

The walls of a charismatic church in Pass Christian, Miss., came down because of Hurricane Katrina. But as relief efforts have continued, doctrinal walls have also fallen as church members have connected with Amish and Mennonite volunteers.
Mike Barbera, pastor of Church of the Good Shepherd, told Charisma that though many of his members are displaced, his services are still full from numerous volunteers who have poured in. He says seeing Amish, Mennonite and other Christians from different denominational backgrounds experience full-gospel worship has been rewarding. “It’s a joy because everyone wants to learn from each other,” he points out. “It’s a charged atmosphere.”

Barbera says church services have not been short on Pentecostal zeal, but the focus has been more on unity in Christ than doctrinal differences. “Let them feel the warmth of a hug before you explain what you believe,” he says.

The volunteers, whom Barbera describes as “completely self-sufficient,” built their own bunks in the Sunday school building. Thirty to 50 people stream in from Pennsylvania weekly to perform house gutting, construction and other tasks.
Barbera says it’s an answer to prayer to see various denominations unite in Christ for Katrina relief.

“We no longer think of the Amish as ‘us’ and ‘them,'” Barbera says. “We’ve become friends.”
Richard Daigle in Pass Christian, Miss.