2 3

THIS WEEK IN AG HISTORYBY DARRIN J. RODGERS In its first decade, the Assemblies of God provided significant financial resources to the alleviation of hunger in other nations. A devastating famine hit China in 1920 and 1921, causing the deaths of an estimated half million people. This tragedy inspired AG leaders to make an extended appeal for donations for Chinese famine relief. This decision was not without controversy. J. Roswell Flower, AG Missions Treasurer, recounted that church leaders expressed concern that an appeal for famine relief would likely decrease giving to support missionaries already on the field. This fear was realized; donors shifted from supporting missionaries to famine

relief. Missionaries were in danger of not receiving sufficient monetary support on which to live. To make up for the decrease in giving toward missionaries, Flower asked readers to contribute additional offerings. In response, missions giving increased by almost 19 percent. The Foreign Missions Department received a record $107,953.55 during the fiscal year ending August 1921. Of that total, almost 10 percent ($10,383.12) was given to Chinese famine relief. Read “The Famine in China” on page 12 of the April 16, 1921, issue of the Pentecostal Evangel online at s2.ag.org/april161921.

SINGLE MOMS DARE TO DREAM

SPEED THE LIGHT FOCUSES ON REFUGEE CRISISPAGE 3

VALLEY FORGE LEADER RETIRES PAGE 5 • AGENCIES UNITE TO FIGHT TRAFFICKING PAGE 5 • PASTORS BUILD WITHOUT RESERVATION

PAGE 7 • THIS WEEK IN AG HISTORY PAGE 8

WIDOW IS NOT GOD’S PLAN BPAGE 4

CROSS WALK — A STATEMENT OF FAITHPAGE 6

PAGE 2

A COLLECTION OF THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES FROM PENEWS.ORG

SUNDAY,APRIL 17,2016

CONNECT WITH US ON

FACEBOOK TWITTER

RSS

AND OUR WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER.VISIT PENEWS.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION.

NEWS FOR, ABOUT, AND FROM THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD

Check out the PE News app!Get Assemblies of God news, features, and video content on your mobile device

Available for iPhone and Android

4 5

Joining with other Montana Ministry Network Assemblies of God congregations, Bigfork Chapel, a fellowship of 100 attendees on the shores of Flathead Lake, is a partner in sharing the gospel with Native Americans. Pastor Richard C. Stewart and his wife, Hope, lead Bigfork Chapel, with a strong missions focus on ministry. The congregation has been a key part of statewide AG efforts to recruit, train, and support Native pastors within the Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, Crow, Cree, Chippewa, Sioux, and Assiniboine tribes. Three new churches have been built on reservation lands and another five have been remodeled since 1993. Currently, Bigfork Church is in the final stages of an 18-month project of constructing the first evangelical church in the rural community of Lodgepole, on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. For the past four years, Pastors Toney and Joyce Castillo have led the Lodgepole congregation. At Fort Belknap, Bigfork Chapel congregants have worked with other Montana Christians and with U.S. Mission America Placement Service teams toward a May completion of a new 3,600-square-foot church for the 60 attendees of the church led by the Castillos. Developing Christian faith among peoples with long memories of past oppression can only happen through consistent, genuine examples of love and friendship built on mutual respect. Broken homes, alcoholism, lack of economic and educational opportunities, and opposition to the gospel also are challenges to ministry. “It takes time and patience to build trust and relationships,” Stewart says.

After Lois Breit’s husband left her, she faced raising five children alone. She became part of the rising number of women in similar plights, coping with overwhelming responsibility while dealing with grief, anger, loneliness, and depression from divorce. Years later, Breit, who had since become the first Assemblies of God missionary to single moms, connected with a prayer circle of women that included Carol L. Lund, director of Bridging the Gap women’s ministries for the AG Minnesota District. The women explored the need for churches to become involved with single moms in both the practical and spiritual realm. The Dare to Dream single moms retreat was birthed to help demonstrate God’s love to single mothers and to reaffirm His trustworthiness, both caring for attendees’ felt needs and offering spiritual encouragement. “So many single moms’ dreams have been dashed,” Lund says. “They need to know that they are loved,

valued, and that someone cares about their holistic well-being.” The fifth annual weekend event on May 20 and 21 will provide a full-service spa and a “diva boutique” filled with new and gently used clothing for each attendee to shop for a complete outfit at no cost. Mechanics and volunteers oversee the car-care area, offering safety inspections, fluid checks, vacuuming, and sometimes small repairs. Main sessions include worship and biblical teaching, beginning with God’s love and forgiveness, “because those elements are foundational to hearts being receptive,” Lund says. Attendees also will hear the gospel. At a previous retreat, 75 accepted Christ as Savior. The Saturday breakout sessions will address topics such as parenting, domestic violence, healthy dating, women’s safety, financial freedom, cooking on a budget, and restoration after abortion. Lund has discovered that some attendees have had at least

2 7

PASTORS BUILD WITHOUT RESERVATIONBY ROBERT E. MIMS

SINGLE MOMS DARE TO DREAMBY DEANN ALFORD

6 7

For many of the 35,000 women and children in sexual slavery impacted by Project Rescue, a ministry of Assemblies of God World Missions, illiteracy is a crippling reality. They cannot read the Bible to follow basic Christian truths to heal and grow in their new faith. Others who can read lack literature for discipleship in their own language. To meet this urgent need for Christian discipleship and educational materials, the AG Kentucky Ministry Network (KYAG) and Light for the Lost are partnering with Project Rescue in a three-year $300,000 fundraising campaign. “This is a fresh, innovative, and collaborative approach to help transform the lives of very needy young women,” says David Grant, who co-founded Project Rescue with his wife, Beth. Founded by the Grants in 1997, Project Rescue’s first ministry center was birthed in Mumbai, India, out of the Bombay Teen Challenge street outreaches. Today, Project Rescue ministers through 15 affiliated initiatives in Bangladesh, Tajikistan, India, Nepal, France, and Spain. Its scope includes night-care shelters, after-care homes, vocational training, literacy education, HIV/AIDS and medical clinics, red-light district churches, Sunday Schools, and sex slavery awareness and prevention.

After a medical scan revealed the disturbing source of Robert Burke’s headaches, the Assemblies of God missionary to inner-city Oklahoma City underwent brain surgery to remove a tumor. However, just as Burke was leaving the hospital, the pain returned. Doctors rushed him back into surgery, but he never regained consciousness. Three days later, on Nov. 30, 2006, he died. His widow, Deborah, was left to raise their sons Nathan, then 7, and Jonathan, then 5. Deborah Burke saw herself as a behind-the-scenes pastor’s wife, not a lead pastor. Her focus had been overseeing meals after Sunday morning services. After her husband died, Deborah didn’t see ministry in her future. But older son Nathan asked a question that changed everything: Who would take care of the people of Inner City? Soon, Deborah Burke realized the call to ministry involved more than her late husband.

“God just really got hold of me and said you aren’t my Plan B, you’re my Plan A,” she says. “That gave me a lot of peace and confidence that I was lacking.” In 2007, she embarked on a two-year path to obtain ministerial credentials as she led the church, located near a pair of gang-infested Section 8 governmental housing complexes. Now the church campus includes the Oklahoma City Dream Center, which offers a community resource center that meets practical needs. It includes a clothing closet, food pantry, and computer bank, essential for applying for jobs and carrying out other tasks that are vital in breaking generational poverty. Classes on topics such as financial management and parenting aim to reduce the need for government assistance. To build community, the church, with an average Sunday attendance of 300, still serves meals after every Sunday morning service.

54

WIDOW IS NOT GOD’S PLAN BBY DEANN ALFORD

After leading the University of Valley Forge (UVF) for more than 19 years, President Don G. Meyer has announced plans to retire effective July 1, a year earlier than he originally intended. Last week, the UVF Board of Trustees approved a unanimous resolution to grant both Meyer and his wife, Evie, a one-year sabbatical, with full pay and benefits, as an expression of appreciation for their dedicated years of service to the Assemblies of God school in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Evie Meyer is the executive director of enrollment management. In an April 9 Facebook post, Meyer said the generous offer by the board caught him off guard. Meyer, 70, will be president emeritus during the 2016-17 school year. The UVF Board of Trustee members will appoint an interim president to serve, effective July 1, and will appoint a presidential search committee. Meyer began serving as the tenth president of what was then called Valley Forge Christian College in 1997. During his tenure at the helm, enrollment has doubled to 952 from 476 and full-time faculty has followed suit, to 33 from 17. There are now more than 50 undergraduate programs at UVF, compared to just seven when Meyer started. UVF also offers eight master’s programs, all implemented during Meyer’s leadership.

VALLEY FORGE LEADER RETIRES

AGENCIES UNITE TO FIGHT TRAFFICKINGBY PETER K. JOHNSON

8 936

In 2015, more than one million refugees sought asylum on European shores. So far, 2016 has already seen more than 136,000 additional refugees desperately seeking a new life, risking their lives to escape war and the oppression of terrorism. AG World Missionaries are doing all they can to meet the needs of refugees. “If we preach a gospel apart from justice and compassion, we preach a gospel Jesus never preached,” says Heath Adamson, senior director of Youth Ministries. “If we act upon injustice with compassion, apart from the gospel, we merely offer people a better brand of misery. God cares about human rights.”

In response, Speed the Light is equipping AG World Missionaries with the necessary supplies to be the hands and feet of Jesus to refugees. Recently in Scottsdale, Arizona, Speed the Light held a Spring Summit that brought together district youth directors, key churches, and other leaders to cast vision for Speed the Light, as well as pledge how much their district will give towards a specific special project. More than $260,000 was pledged toward the refugee crisis to provide AG missionaries with video projectors, MP3 devices, generators, team vehicles, portable sound systems, translation equipment, and even a mobile soup kitchen.

one abortion, typically because they believe they cannot afford the children already in their care. Domestic violence also is a relevant topic. In one breakout session last year, Lund notes that advocates not only spoke to the issue but also did interventions. Hosting an event of this size is expensive; however, Lund’s purpose has always been to offer tickets at a minimal cost by partnering with Minnesota AG churches for most of the funding. The retreat also receives product donations from individuals and businesses, including pizza, coffee, fine apparel, and jewelry.

At the first statewide retreat in 2011, planners thought 50 moms might show up, but 200 came. This year, they are prepared for 700. Volunteers post mailers in laundry facilities, gas stations, grocery stores, bars, and other places that single moms might frequent. “Some attendees had suicides planned out, but decided to go to this retreat,” Breit says. “All the time I hear, ‘Now I’ve found a hope, and I believe I can make it.’ If you reach the mom, you can change the direction of where the family has been going for probably several generations.”

SPEED THE LIGHT FOCUSES ON EUROPEAN REFUGEE CRISIS BY NII ABRAHAMS

Standing up for one’s faith can be a difficult hurdle for any Christian. But during the East River Church (AG) annual “Via Dolorosa Cross Walk,” members of the church’s youth group not only exhibit their faith, but experience it as well. For the past five years, youth pastor Sarah Dillon, 26, has led the youth on an annual walk on the Saturday prior to Easter Sunday. The walk isn’t a stroll in the park, but a four-hour, 10-mile hike while carrying a pair of crosses from the church through downtown Bluefield, Virginia, and out to the highway and back. East River Church, led by Senior Pastor Tim Boyd, has an average attendance of about 80 people. The youth group, which runs 15 to 20 kids each week, had 15 members step forward to participate in this year’s walk. The youth group also uses the event to raise money for Speed the Light, a ministry that helps meet transportation needs for AG missionaries. “The cross is so symbolic and

perfect,” states 18-year-old youth group member Hunter Furrow. “Jesus sacrificed His life to give us life, and when I shoulder that cross, it not only serves as a reminder of His relentless love, but is also symbolic of the way I choose to live my life as a sacrifice for Him.” Dillon says that for the most part, people driving by or walking by in the downtown area express positive support for the youth during the Cross Walk. However, there are times when the teens face ridicule. “This is a statement of faith,” Dillon says. “Their classmates see them on the road and downtown and most are encouraging, but sometimes they face challenges at school because of it.” “I want everyone to know how much they are loved and will continue to pick up my cross, not only on Via Dolorosa, but every day for the rest of my life,” says youth group member Destiny Johnson, 18. This year, the teens raised nearly $1,000 for Speed the Light.

CROSS WALK — A STATEMENT OF FAITHBY DAN VAN VEEN