Dr. Jim Garlow has traveled the world imparting to global leaders the powerful truth that God’s Word provides instructions for every area of life, including government. In a recent interview with My Faith Votes, Dr. Jim Garlow, founder and CEO of Well Versed, provided some great takeaways for us to bring biblical change to our spheres of influence.

Is America headed in the right direction?

According to a Barna study from 2013, 90 percent of pastors acknowledge that the Bible speaks to the cultural, political and social issues of the day. But ask those same pastors if they have or would speak on those issues, 90 percent said no. Therein lies the problem.

It’s really up to the church if the nation heads in the right direction. The problem is not the progressives and the liberals; it’s not the baby killers and it’s not the LGBTQ; the real problem is the pastors of America and the churches of America— will they rise to the occasion? So, I’m answering your question with an “if.” That’s what will determine whether or not this nation can be saved or not.

When you look at the culture and assess where things are headed, what concerns you the most?

The absence of the understanding of the Word of God and the lack of capacity to apply it. Ninety-two percent of the people in the pew do not have a biblical worldview. What worldview do they have then? They have a secular worldview. If you go to Millennials, you are down to only 4 percent having a biblical worldview.

Those are really jolting numbers. Everyone is responsible to study the Word and become a careful steward of the Word, but where is the primary source of the Word? It should be from the pulpit, from the church.

We’ve come out of a hyper election season with a record number of dollars spent and record turnout. How can Christians continue to take bold steps to change culture?

No. 1, care. Care about the nation. Care about what’s happening in the community. We operate under this myth that the way things are is the way things are going to stay. That is not true.

Cultures come and cultures go. Nations come and nations go. All the great nations that once existed never thought they would be done, but they ended, every one of them. America is not going to last forever. And we can bring it to a painstaking close by simply defaulting and not showing up for the game.

For example, the reason we know the stories of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? They were bold!

The reason we know the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? He was bold! Everybody likes to preach about him; it’s time to start acting like him. April 9, 1945, Bonhoeffer was stripped of his clothes in the German cold air and hung by a piano wire — killed. Why do we remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer? Was it because he had the largest church? Was the most popular guy? No. Wrote a best-seller? No. Had a big radio and TV ministry? No. We remember him because he stood for truth.

Who can name all the other pastors in Berlin at that time who wimped out? We can’t name one. Same reason we can’t name names in Numbers 13. Nobody knows who Shammua is. Shaphat, Igal, Hoshea, Palti, Gaddiel, Sethur, nobody knows those names because those are the ten losers who came back with a crummy report when they went to the Promised Land. But everyone knows Joshua and Caleb, the bold ones. They said, “We can take this—let’s go do it.” Imagine what it is to only represent 8 percent of the view and have 92 percent against you.

So be willing to be a part of the remnant and understand that you might be on the wrong side of history, but you will be on the right side of eternity.

Jason Yates is CEO of My Faith Votes, a nonpartisan movement that motivates, equips and mobilizes Christians in America to take action to transform our communities and impact the nation with biblical truth. By partnering with national faith leaders, My Faith Votes provides resources to help Christians Pray, Think, and Act to create an America where God is honored in the public square. Gov. Mike Huckabee serves as the organization’s honorary national chairman.

A lot can happen in a year. In Genesis 18, God visits Abraham. While sitting at the entrance of his tent, Abraham notices three men standing before him by the oaks of Mamre. Abraham runs to them, bows down, and compels them to stay, referring to them as “Lord.”

After providing a lavish meal for his visitors, a question arose:

“Where is Sarah, your wife?”

“She’s inside the tent,” Abraham replied.

Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent (Gen. 18:9–10, NLT).

Sarah listens from the darkened confines of a tent, close enough to hear but separated from their conversation. She is careful not to make a sound, but Scripture reveals her thoughts:

“Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself and said, ‘How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?'” (Gen. 18:11–12).

Was this the first time Sarah heard this? She is obviously caught off-guard. Sometimes a promise is drawing closer when it has never seemed more impossible. What I love about this discourse was that the Lord is determined that Sarah is part of the conversation.

Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”

But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh” (Gen. 18:13-15).

Sarah not only laughed—she lied. She was scared, because it was one of those “You’ve got to be kidding!” laughs. God spoke to the deep desire of Sarah’s heart, which shook her to the core.

Strength comes when God visits your life with promise. It turned out to be a year like no other for Sarah. The truth is that there is no substitute for hearing God speak directly to you. You need to jump in on conversations with God that concern your destiny. We need what you carry on your life. This is not the time to hide. It is time for you to come out of confinement and call to the Lord, “I’m here! Speak, for Your servant listens.”

If you want to live the life God has planned for you, hiding must no longer be an option. Like Sarah, this year could be a marker year for you—the year you both receive promise and have promise fulfilled.

Don’t lie and say that you do not long for more. Don’t deny your dreams. When you do, there is first a laugh and then a lie as the door of your heart shuts. Throw open your heart and embrace all the miraculous wonder you’ve been invited into.

So, what are you hiding from? What is the dream you now mock? Beloved, maybe this year has begun in the shadows with a laugh … but can end with embracing a promise! {eoa}

Lisa Bevere’s authentic, passionate and witty teachings weave profound biblical truths with practical application. A New York Times‘ best-selling author, her books are in the hands of millions worldwide. Lisa and her husband John, who is also a best-selling author and teacher, are the founders of Messenger International.

This article originally appeared at messengersinternational.org.

Evangelist Jay Lowder says he was shocked to learn more than half of practicing Christian Millennials think it’s wrong to share their faith, according to a new Barna study.

“They’re not equipped, they’re very intimidated,” Lowder says. “And that responsibility falls on pastors, because there’s a lot of pastors that they themselves don’t do the work of evangelism.”

Lowder is a full-time evangelist with Jay Lowder Harvest Ministries.

According to the study:

Almost all practicing Christians believe that part of their faith means being a witness about Jesus (ranging from 95 percent to 97 percent among all generational groups), and that the best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to know Jesus (94 percent to 97 percent). Millennials in particular feel equipped to share their faith with others. For instance, almost three-quarters say they know how to respond when someone raises questions about faith (73 percent), and that they are gifted at sharing their faith with other people (73 percent). This is higher than any other generational group: Gen X (66 percent), Boomers (59 percent) and Elders (56 percent).

Despite this, many Millennials are unsure about the actual practice of evangelism. Almost half of Millennials (47 percent) agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith. This is compared to a little over one-quarter of Gen X (27 percent), and one in five Boomers (19 percent) and Elders (20 percent). (Though Gen Z teens were not included in this study, their thoroughly post-Christian posture will likely amplify this stance toward evangelism.)

Lowder offers insight into the study, evangelism and more in this podcast interview. Check it out.

Priests are at grave risk in Mexico and Colombia, yet little attention is being paid to the recent scourge of violence against members of the clergy.

For example, reports Independent Catholic News, police aren’t even investigating the December murder of Father Raul Cervera Millan in southern Mexico. Then, in Colombia, a church congregation is still terrified after the murder of its pastor, 24-year-old Leider Molina, who was killed just after preaching at his church last month, according to the World Watch Monitor.

These are just two tragic instances among many that occur worldwide. Save the Persecuted Christians, which advocates on behalf of 300 million Christians facing heavy persecution worldwide, says if Christians are more aware of the attacks being carried out on priests and ministers, they can urge that criminals be held accountable.

“Many Americans have vacationed in Mexico yet aren’t aware that priests there are targeted by gangs who kidnap them to collect big ransoms or kill them to end their leadership in communities the cartels hope to control,” said Dede Laugesen, executive director of Save the Persecuted Christians. “Millions of believers worldwide are guided, prayed for and baptized by priests and members of the clergy. But when these leaders are attacked, incredible fear is instilled into the hearts and minds of the faithful, and they can become afraid to gather as a church. The attackers know this.”

For endangered clergy in Mexico and Colombia, and other brave ministers worldwide, Save the Persecuted Christians seeks to bring awareness about targeted Christians through the “The People of the Cross” exhibit, a series of vertical traveling banners that details Christian persecution in various countries around the world.

The exhibit’s panel on Mexico reports that, until recently, priests didn’t even have the right to vote. As secular ideology flourishes and its populace elects socialist leaders, Mexico is increasingly hostile to religious expression.

“Often corrupt and violent, Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places for clergy,” the Mexico panel reads. “Drug-gangs ruthlessly murder priests and pastors, and indigenous leaders attack converts to Christianity, often without fear of arrest.”

Banners also feature images, facts and quotes from recent news stories about the persecution of Christians in multiple countries, such as North Korea, where Christians are tortured or worse; Syria, where Christian girls and women have been sold into sex slavery; Nigeria and East Africa, where terrorists are exterminating Christians with genocidal intent; and China, where Communists are increasingly hostile to people of faith and churches are demolished. A majority of the countries highlighted in the banners are high on Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List, including Mexico (No. 39) and Colombia (No. 47).

“The People of the Cross” exhibit premiered in July 2018 at the U.S. Capitol as a side event to the first-ever U.S. Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom. Since then, it has toured the United States, reaching tens of thousands. “The People of the Cross” exhibit is available for churches, public venues and special events. To learn more about hosting “The People of the Cross,” contact Save the Persecuted Christians or visit the website, where all the panels are available to view online.

The mission of Save the Persecuted Christians is to save lives and save souls by holding the persecutors accountable and creating costs for their crimes against humanity. To that end, it will disseminate actionable information about the magnitude of such crimes and bring to bear a movement of concerned Americans determined to hold persecutors accountable for such crimes and create real costs for perpetrating them against those who follow Jesus.

According to Aid to the Church in Need, which released its biannual report on Religious Freedom in the World in November, over 300 million Christians experience persecution. According to Open Doors USA World Watch List, 245 million Christians are victims of high to extreme levels of persecution (torture, rape, sex-slavery, expulsion, murder and genocide), an increase of 14 percent over 2018. Open Doors also estimates 1 in 9 of the world’s Christians experience persecution and that every month: 345 Christians are killed, often in public and without regard to gender or age; 219 Christians are abducted and imprisoned indefinitely without trial; and 106 churches are demolished.

Because most of these crimes are not covered in the media, Save the Persecuted Christians developed a dedicated news aggregator—ChristianPersecutionNews.com—to capture current instances of persecution and to provide readers an easy way to share these heartbreaking stories with others.

With so much of the world’s Christian population being attacked, imprisoned and/or exiled for their beliefs, such as clergy in Mexico and Colombia, the need has never been greater for the sort of grassroots campaign STPC’s SaveUs Movement is working to foster. Its efforts are modeled after a miraculously successful one that helped free another population suffering from heavy persecution—Soviet Jews—by penalizing those in the Kremlin responsible for such repression. Through this movement, Save the Persecuted Christians endeavors to provide American policymakers with the popular support they need to effect real change worldwide and alleviate systemically the suffering being experienced by so many of those following Christ.

Listen to the podcast to hear Frank Gaffney, who launched STPC, discuss the organization and its vital work.

Fat. A word that causes more grief than the three letters deserve.

For most of us, gaining weight is much easier than losing it.

Those five pounds I lost from September to November? Yup, they reappeared in the three weeks leading up to Christmas. And it took until now to lose them again.

We’ve all heard how excess fat can create health problems, including high cholesterol levels and increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

But did you know spiritual fat can create spiritual heart disease?

In Acts 28:27, the apostle Paul quoted from the Old Testament book of Isaiah (Isa. 6:10) when he wrote:

“For the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them” (Acts 28:27).

Dull hearts. Other translations use words such as calloused, hardened and insensitive. But the meaning of the original Hebrew word in Isaiah includes reference to being greasy, gross and fat. That’s why the King James translation translates Isaiah 6:10 as “Make the heart of this people fat” and Acts 28:27a as “For the heart of this people is waxed gross.”

Yes, our spiritual hearts can become gross and covered in fat.

It happens when we no longer mourn over our sin, both individually and as a nation.

When we refuse God’s solution to our problems and seek our own futile answers.

And it can even happen when we become so numb to a world where wrong is right and right is wrong that we give up being salt and light.

Is this how you feel?

Discouraged at the state of our world?

Wondering how we could have gotten to the point where laws permit a baby to be born and then allowed to die without medical care?

Dejected at how intelligent people are convinced gender is something we can choose and change based on feeling instead of physical reality?

Please don’t let your heart grow dull. Calloused. Fat.

Don’t give up hungering and thirsting for truth—the truth of God’s Word and the person who is truth: Jesus Christ.

And please don’t throw up your hands in surrender at the hopelessness of it all.

Be salt and light. Don’t be fat. {eoa}

Ava Pennington is a writer, speaker and Bible teacher. She writes for nationally circulated magazines and is published in 32 anthologies, including 25 “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books. She also authored Daily Reflections on the Names of God: A Devotional, endorsed by Kay Arthur. Learn more at avawrites.com.

This article originally appeared at avawrites.com.

I have often observed how church denominations which become liberal inevitably change their views on abortion, homosexuality and Israel. And the more liberal they become, the more militant their pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality and anti-Israel stances become. Will this be the fate of the Democratic Party? It’s already more than two-thirds there.

On Tuesday, we posted a meme on Facebook with a picture of Linda Sarsour and this text: “Radical feminist and anti-Semite Linda Sarsour claims Nancy Pelosi ‘is a typical white feminist upholding the patriarchy doing the dirty work of powerful white men’ because of her support for Israel. The left is devouring itself.”

In response, Renee commented, “Mark my words, the Democrat party will, like the Labour U.K. party, turn into a full-fledged anti-Semitic and anti-Israel party. Its metamorphosis is happening now by being complacent in addressing the anti-Semitic cancer within the party!”

Could she be right?

According to a March 6, 2019, headline on Gallup.com, “Americans, but Not Liberal Democrats, Mostly Pro-Israel.”

According to the article, based on results from a survey conducted in February, “The percentage of Republicans saying they sympathize more with Israel in the conflict [with the Palestinians] fell from an all-time high of 87 percent in 2018 to 76 percent today. Last year’s reading was taken as the Donald Trump administration was preparing to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a change that highlighted Trump’s strong support of Israel.

“The percentage of Democrats siding more with Israel fell less sharply, from 49 percent to 43 percent; however, today’s figure approaches the lowest level of Democratic partiality toward Israel since 2005.”

Is it a coincidence that the Republicans are more strongly pro-life and pro-family, as well as pro-Israel, than the Democrats? Are these three issues somehow related? And does the Democratic shift towards the radical left signal the end of (or, at least, the great diminishing of) their support for Israel?

To quote the Gallup article again, “conservative Republicans have long been the most partial to Israel in the conflict, given their consistently high net-sympathy ratings. Moderate/liberal Republicans have the second-highest net-sympathy for Israel, followed by moderate/conservative Democrats, while liberal Democrats have the lowest net sympathy for Israel.”

Do you see the trend?

It’s not simply that the Democrats are now the party of Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. It’s that many Democrats side with them when it comes to the debate about Israel.

That’s why the attempted, direct rebuke of Oman for her recent anti-Semitic comments reportedly turned into “acrimonious” arguing, leading the Washington Post to announce, “House Democrats splinter over response to Rep. Omar’s alleged anti-Semitism.”

In response to this attempted unified rebuke, Sarsour led a protest rally in which Israel was flatly denounced.

As reported on Breitbart, “Rabbi Alissa Wise, deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said the activists would ‘stop the desecration of God’s name’ by ‘standing together in praise of Rep. Omar for her courage, her honesty, her truth-telling, her bravery to stand up against those that insist Palestinians are not deserving of human rights.'” (Yes, there are liberal Jews, almost certainly Democrats, who are very harsh critics of Israel.)

According to Wise, we must critique the “Israeli government as it practices Apartheid.” Yes, apartheid. Shades of President Jimmy Carter’s 2006 book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid. (And in case you forgot, Carter was a Democrat too.)

Did I say there was a pattern?

Now, you might simply say that the left is being consistent, be it spiritually or politically. Those on the left are compassionate, standing for the rights of women to control their own bodies and standing with the rights of the discriminated, marginalized and outcast, which would include gays and Palestinians.

Naturally, I have a different perspective on this in terms of true compassion and justice. But either way, the point remains the same. As the Democrats move farther left, they will become increasingly hostile to Israel. And as they become increasingly hostile to Israel, they will buy into larger, anti-Semitic tropes.

Fox News reported that, “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was ‘taken aback’ this week by the growing dissent and anger among rank-and-file Democrats over a possible resolution to formally condemn anti-Semitism, a Democratic source told Fox News on Wednesday—highlighting Pelosi’s tenuous grip on control over the House and underscoring the growing power of the party’s nascent far-left progressive wing.”

But this is not just a matter of Pelosi being surprised at her lack of control over her own party. I believe it is a matter of Pelosi being surprised that so many were willing to defend Omar’s anti-Semitism—or at the least, were loath to condemn it.

I truly hope I’m wrong and that the rising tide of anti-Semitism in America (and, specifically, in the Democratic Party) will be turned back.

But in light of other disturbing trends abroad (see, for example, this utterly shocking news from Belgium along with this concerning report from Iceland), we should take nothing for granted.

Nothing is written in stone that America will remain a true friend of Israel. Even less it is written in stone that the Democrats will.

Before he founded the aXiom Network, Don Walley researched thousands of church websites and found one crucial element missing from them all: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

After what he called many years of “prayer and frustration,” Walley, who had previously worked with ministries like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Campus Crusade for Christ and Navigators, began to form the idea of the aXiom Network, a program designed to help churches incorporate the gospel into their website and to maximize its impact in reaching the lost.

“When I did the research on this and saw the absence of the gospel, I thought, This is crazy,” Walley says. “How’s that even possible? The hundreds of pastors I’ve talked to, these are all good, solid, Bible-believing men, preachers of the Word.

“But it surprised me that, although they have this powerful tool that’s available to the entire world, the most important message they can offer is missing from their website. This was quite an epiphany for me.”

The seven reasons from aXiom for a church to include the gospel on its website are: The Great Commission, a tool for the Holy Spirit, use by members, you owe it to yourself and others, it can transform the web and it’s what leaders do.

Listen to the podcast and learn more about this essential component of your church website below.

Most of us are familiar with the seven things that will put you on God’s naughty list. If not, let Solomon refresh your memory.

“A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in running to mischief, a false witness who speaks lies, and he who sows discord among brethren” (Prov. 6:16-19).

Recently, over 40 U.S. Senators, including six candidates for president, brazenly ran the table on all seven points, and we don’t have to guess God’s mood right about now. But to most of them, God’s list has no bearing in their inclusionary, enlightened orbits, anyway.

So, swathed in haughtiness, ignoring substantiated mental and psychological consequences, emboldened by the goading of an angry and depraved peanut gallery, they made a willful decision to step over every natural and spiritual semblance of compassion and morality with their death vote.

For years, heated debates have ensued regarding an allowable abortion date. Before the first trimester ends? Perhaps the second? But never the third. That’s too barbaric, they said. Until now.

In this vote, the governing gaggle, under the guise of Women’s Rights, affirmed the practice of intentionally denying medical care to a newborn baby, putting it on the side, allowing it to die. We’re so compassionate and tolerant these days.

So there is now a fourth trimester? (Math teachers, don’t call me). The death trimester. There’s no way to smoothly explain this away. This is depraved. This is pagan. This is murder.

In fact, a few days earlier, in the New York statehouse, cheers erupted, and then, the pandering governor ordered the iconic high rise to be lit bright pink to revel in the sanctioned killing of innocents. Although his little light show hijacked one of the great symbols used to encourage and celebrate our brave ladies who fight cancer, there was nothing brave about what these “wise ones” celebrated.

And forget it if you’re expecting apologies or remorse. They want their way. They want their agenda. And if we lose a few globs of tissue in the process? Some minor collateral damage? So be it.

We shouldn’t be surprised. The Word clearly warns of the escalation of evil. But it now seems that some of the same anger and rage have trickled into a hallowed place, as some of the hostile divides of the outside have subtly seeped inside. It’s just better-dressed.

Good people now get shamed and isolated unless they spout the authorized verbiage. As a result, many of the ones who could and should speak are hiding behind the rocks like David’s brothers when the giant was bellowing his threats.

Intimidating speech has no place in God’s house. But the “either/or” lines have been drawn. Stray out of those lines, and you might be shunned to a pretentious time out, pronounced a “hater,” “a bigot” or “not our kind of Christian.”

More than ever, we need righteous words spoken with conviction, clarity and love. But those who speak had better brace themselves for the repercussions, from without and from within.

In today’s America, this spirit is evident. In deciding what’s acceptable, some have even been shamed and have had to apologize for the terrible crime of being seen with the president of the United States.

Partnering with this policy, a new Christianized enlightenment, suggesting, in order to relate, we might need to “unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament,” or to embrace a loving version of socialism or an inclusionary truth-bending crusade catering to same-sex seekers.

Because of this discord and disconnect, in another collateral damage moment, real issues are getting lost, even to the point of where we’re not moved by the thought of babies left on a table to die.

We desperately need clear voices with a clear sound. Lord, let it be!

“If the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself for the battle?” (1 Cor. 14:8).

Right now, with sanctioned murder, encouraged anarchy and even pressure from the pews, we need people who can and will speak! But many remain fearful, tentative and tongue-tied. In the process, strong voices, whether against the silliest of social commentary or the unconscionable threats of today, are nullified and stilled.

When we unhitch from the Word, foolishness like collateral murder is easier to pull off. And it breaks God’s heart.

Churchgoers outside the eight Rocky Mountain States might raise an eyebrow or two at the idea of a tough motorcycle-riding ex-cop turned federally-sanctioned gun dealer becoming senior pastor of their church.

Odd though it may seem, this same tent-making pastor, working as a property manager alongside his wife in the small mountain town of Estes Park, Colorado, is also perfectly and precisely equipped by his Lord and Savior to be a highly-fruitful missionary to some of the darkest regions of Africa. After hearing several second-hand accounts of miraculous crusades, healings and even reported deliverance from death in Uganda this past December, I felt compelled to visit Pastors Steve and Lorna Ferrante at their small home near Park Fellowship Church in Estes Park.

In 27 trips to Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and others in that region of Southeastern Africa over the past two decades, Pastor Steve has laid hands on hundreds of people—watching and marveling as person after person receives instant healing from deafness, blindness, the ravages of malaria and other diseases of all varieties.

All of this occurs openly, in public crusades at the heart of Muslim communities riven with scores of witch doctors and witches invoking magical practices—cultures of death that only tough, committed and fully Spirit-driven missionaries such as Pastor Steve could endure and survive. Time after time, day after day, he finds people writhing on the ground and, on occasion, vomiting vile buckets of demonic filth. Five people in a row were cured of deafness, followed by two who were healed of malaria.

Pastor Steve’s favorite stories involve a fiery Ugandan pastor nicknamed “Smart.” This supercharged, Spirit-filled leader of Uganda Christian Outreach Ministries occupies outdoor platforms in Muslim neighborhoods with the courage of a Caleb. As he speaks, members of his team move about the crowd, laying hands on everyone and praying. Many healings and other manifestations result—every time.

This writer can only ask: How many pastors of far more traditional and much larger American churches have experienced such manifestations of God’s power? Very few, I would suggest. This is why I felt compelled to go visit him after hearing second-hand reports of nonstop miracles resulting from two recent missions to Uganda.

Pastor Steve was speaking with a uniformed sheriff’s deputy as we pulled into the church parking lot, engaged in an intense conversation we chose not to interrupt. A bit later, Pastor Steve apologized, explaining there was need of his assistance from a family whose relative had died, leaving several firearms for them to deal with.

What a way to start a conversation with a superbly qualified and uniquely anointed man of God.

Pastor Steve’s story is long, complicated and somewhat unbelievable while fully credible. As a child in California, he suffered from a degeneration of the brain’s sight center which, doctors said, would render him blind by the age of 12. His believing parents would not accept this medical verdict, and their prayers bore good fruit. Also during childhood, severe ear infections rupturing his ear drums on numerous occasions left him completely deaf. Yet again, his faithful parents prayed him back to full good health. And all of this was merely the beginning of a truly miraculous life.

He grew up in a Holy Spirit-filled church but did not initially feel a strong urge to minister. He subsequently went into law enforcement and spent 20 years as a cop in California and Florida. In the process, he married another believer, his high school sweetheart, Lorna. Together, they had four children, leading now to eight grandchildren and counting. Throughout their marriage, they stayed active in church work, including special interest in teen ministries. Lorna also worked as a preschool teacher for 10 years and made missions trips with her husband to Swaziland and Zambia

In looking back on the Florida years, Pastor Steve recalls they had always felt a special ‘pull’ to deliverance and missionary programs. So it was that he found himself one day serving as associate pastor at Calvary Christian Center in Inverness, Florida, where the doors to African missions opened widely before him. Nearly 15 quick years passed, but the pull to foreign missions work and deliverance outreaches only grew stronger. God forcefully came into the picture, and a subsequent series of events, many of them wildly humorous, led to a linkage via friends, in Centennial, Colorado, south of Denver, to a further friendship linkage in 7,522-high elevation Estes Park.

“Basically,” Pastor Steve laughed, “I was invited to co-pastor a church in this mountain town. But not long after, the head pastor, who spent 10 years building up and solidifying Park Fellowship Church (AOG), resigned to take a new position in another city. He remains a close friend and business associate of ours.”

Packed tightly within a grouping of several 14,000-foot elevation mountains in the High Rockies, Estes Park seemed an unlikely spot from which to spark numerous missions projects aimed at Uganda and beyond. But despite a severe lack of funding, the outreaches led by Pastor Steve have resulted in helping to establish three churches in the heart of Islamic regions of Uganda, along with the beginnings of plans for schooling Christian and, God willing, Muslim youth.

It seems Islamic schools in the region are very well equipped, while alternative offerings are severely wanting. Even Christian converts send their kids to the Muslim schools because of superior facilities and supplies. Steve and Lorna have made this problem a No. 1 priority. At the January 2019 dedication of their third church in the region, the Colorado group began actual construction on a formal school connected to the Ugandan Christian movement.

“The excitement of the crusades is heady stuff. The ardor and commitment of the Ugandan people goes beyond most of what I’ve seen in the U.S.,” Steve explains. “They usually are held outdoors, and draw in many curious Muslims who stand at the perimeters watching and listening. As the miracles, the deliverances and the joyfully loud worshipping gains momentum, they get caught up and are drawn in. The healings quickly follow. I have personally seen scores of Muslims brought into the kingdom, and this goes on nearly every week of the year.

“Events foreign missionaries and local Ugandan pastors initiated 30 years ago have taken root and are now primarily indigenous in nature. Most needed is funding for schools and the building of more churches,” he continued. “These needs are what drive us. How the needs will be met, God alone knows. Lorna and I will just keep on doing what we do for as long we are breathing. The schools will be built. It’s all in the hands of God!”

Since retirement 19 years ago from executive communications positions with hi-tech international corporations, Ronald D. Mallett directed two Christian ministry outreaches and served in various capacities as a jail and prison chaplain, missionary, group leader and prayer warrior, all activities he carries on to this day. He is a senior member of Resurrection Fellowship of Loveland, Colorado, where he also served as a volunteer press relations writer and adviser. He and wife Pat reside in Milliken, Colorado.

International evangelist Luis Palau preached about life after death earlier this year at Bayside Church, which has seven campuses in northern California. After getting diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, Palau says he’s been studying death and the afterlife. In this message, Palau explains some of the most interesting and exciting realizations about heaven, hell and death that stood out to him while studying the Bible recently.