From the Assemblies of God New Service

** MAPS VOLUNTEER WORKER NAMED ABC'S NATIONAL "CRAFT
    PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR" - March 30, 2004

   Cris Coy, who attends First Assembly of God, Bellefontaine, Ohio,
   was recently named Associated Builders and Contractors 2004 Craft
   Professional of the Year at the 2004 ABC National Convention in
   Honolulu. Coy was nominated for this prestigious award by his
   employer, Thomas and Marker Construction Company, Bellefontaine.

   In the nomination for the award, Coy was cited for his outstanding
   performance in his masonry skills, his supervisory skills and his
   mentoring ability. The nomination also included his community
   involvement with his church, First Assembly of God. The nomination
   noted that Coy takes his vacation time in order to travel with his
   church to complete MAPS construction projects.

   Coy, 40, has been a part of First Assembly's MAPS teams to travel
   and work on the Bible school in Curacao, churches in Cuenca,
   Ecuador; Tobago; Navarette, Dominican Republic; and Aeroparque,
   Uruguay; as well as Camp Summit in Costa Rica and the Vida Neuva
   Television Station in Cuenca, Ecuador.

   After winning chapter and region competitions, Coy and six other
   finalists traveled to Hawaii on February 25-29, 2004, for the
   selection of the national award winner. After reviewing the
   submission materials and personally interviewing each of the
   finalists, the ABC judges selected Coy as the winner. He received
   a trophy and a $3,500 cash prize.

   When asked about the award, Coy responds, "I thank God that He has
   given me the ability to work with my hands. I am happy that I am
   able to use my skills to help others."

   "Cris Coy's dedication to excellence in the craft of masonry and
   to the merit shop philosophy, along with his inspiring jobsite
   leadership, made him an outstanding choice for this year's award,"
   said 2004 ABC National Chair Carole Bionda.

   Having been a member of First A/G for the past 16 years, Coy
   serves as an usher, a member of the Missions Task Force, a member
   of the Building Committee, and a teacher for We Build People -- a
   small group discipleship class.

   Coy lives in East Liberty, Ohio, with his wife, Shelley, and two
   youngest children, son David and daughter Cortney. They also have
   a married daughter, Lindsay and a daughter serving in the Navy,
   Elizabeth.

   -- Dave McPheron with Dan Van Veen
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** A/G CHAPLAIN IN IRAQ -- GOD'S STILL IN BUSINESS - Mar 26, 2004

   Following is a personal testimony from A/G Chaplain (CPT) Lou
   DelTufo, stationed in Iraq.

   I just finished praying for God to use me for His business on our
   camp. But now I was running late. I looked at my watch and
   remembered all the things I had to do before lunch.

   Normally I walked around camp, but I was behind schedule so I got
   in my vehicle to drive around. I didn't need gas in the vehicle.
   It was still over three-fourths tank, and I was busy running
   errands.

   I drove past the fuel point to the chapel to drop something off
   for the other chaplain. We chatted briefly, but I quickly left
   because I had a lot to do. I got back in the vehicle and drove
   back out past the fuel point to my room. I glanced at the needle
   and it hadn't moved. I rushed in, picked up my dirty laundry and
   drove back past the fuel point to the laundry area. The needle
   still looked like it was in the same place.

   I left the laundry point to head over to my office to pick up some
   paperwork and bring it to another soldier. I don't know why I felt
   the urge to stop for gas, but the gauge confirmed that I didn't
   need any. After all, I was too busy to stop; I had places to go,
   things to do and people to see.

   I continued on past the fuel point to drop off the paperwork for
   the soldier. I got back in the vehicle, took a breath and began to
   drive back up to my office. I glanced at the gauge, and it still
   read three-fourths tank. As I got closer to the fuel point, I felt
   the urge to stop again. Naturally I glanced at the needle and it
   hadn't moved.

   Finally I just turned in to the fuel point and pulled up to the
   soldier with the hose. He quietly took the fuel cap off and began
   to pump the gas into the truck. The hose quickly shut off because
   the truck only took two gallons of gas. I snickered to myself,
   whispering under my breath: "I didn't even need gas, why did
   I stop?"

   I got out and walked over to the soldier with the clip-board in
   order to sign for my two measly gallons of gas. The soldier looked
   up from the paper and exclaimed, "Chaplain, I was sitting here
   this morning praying to God that I'd see you today. I really need
   to talk to you and didn't know where to find you, and here you
   are. Isn't God awesome?"

   Now I knew that the gas I got today wasn't for me, it was for
   someone else whose tank was dry and almost empty. In my busyness I
   almost forgot about God's business.

   -- CH (CPT) Lou DelTufo, Iraq
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** SUNDAY SCHOOL OFFERS WEB LINKS, RESOURCES, INSIGHTS TO REAP
   BENEFITS OF "THE PASSION" - Mar. 24, 2004

   In the weeks before Easter, millions of Americans will have
   attended Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ." Many of
   these moviegoers are unchurched. The Assemblies of God Sunday
   School Department has recently posted a new Web page that features
   special materials that can be used to connect those who have seen
   the movie with a local church.

   Featuring free and retail resources, articles, guidelines for
   sharing Christ and outreach ideas, the new Web page is a quick
   link to a wide variety of helpful information from several
   ministries.

   "The initial impact of this movie has been stunning -- people are
   talking about Jesus everywhere," says Sharon Ellard, Sunday School
   promotions coordinator. "Of course, its impact will be felt again
   once it's released for home video. This media phenomenon opens a
   window of opportunity to connect those who want to know more about
   Jesus with the local church."

   Although the national headquarters of the Assemblies of God does
   not endorse the movie -- leaving that decision up to the local
   church -- it does recognize that the movie has provided a "wide
   open door" for involving people in Bible studies about Christ and
   inviting those who want to know Jesus to come to church.

   One of the resources highlighted on the new Sunday School Web page
   is the new "Learning to Live the LIFE" booklet, produced by the
   national Sunday School Department.

   "The opening pages of the LIFE booklet, talk about Jesus and His
   love for people. Any person who wants to know more about Jesus
   is invited to learn more in Sunday School," explains Ellard. "One
   of the best places to learn about Jesus is in the small group
   setting of Sunday School.

   "The movie has generated a great deal of interest in Christ and
   many questions," Ellard continues. "However, a worship service
   setting typically isn't intended to field and respond to
   questions, but a Sunday School setting is designed for
   interaction."

   Research also shows that Sunday School involvement is key to
   assimilating new people. "According to researcher and author Thom
   Rainer, nearly seven out of ten formerly unchurched people choose
   to become active in Sunday School," Ellard says. "Rainer's
   research also concluded that new Christians who immediately became
   active in Sunday School were five times more likely to remain in
   the church five years later than those who were active in worship
   services alone."

   The A/G Commission on Evangelism has also created a booklet
   specifically for reaching those who have seen "The Passion." See it
   at their site, How To Share Christ.

   View the Sunday School Department's new "The Passion" Web page,

   Learn more about the national Sunday School Department
   and what it has to offer.

   -- Dan Van Veen
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** TUTORING IMPROVES LIVES, OPENS DOORS FOR EVANGELISM - Mar. 22, 2004

   Thello Jackson didn't pay attention much in school. He says he
   didn't find it interesting and teachers didn't seem to care as
   long as he attended and didn't cause trouble. His good attendance
   record helped earn him a high school diploma in 1971 -- even
   though he could barely read.

   Jackson survived on minimal reading skills and help from friends
   to get by as a janitor and as a worker in a warehouse. It wasn't
   until he found a job as a telemarketer that his poor reading
   skills almost cost him a job. Fortunately for Jackson, an
   understanding boss gave him time to improve his reading. He
   attended classes at a library and kept that job for five years.

   But Jackson wasn't satisfied. He still couldn't understand much of
   the Bible, and he comprehended little of what he could read
   elsewhere. Seven years ago he went to Tulsa, Oklahoma-based
   Literacy and Evangelism International where he met Ralph Hord, a
   retired engineer who volunteers as a literacy tutor. Jackson and
   Hord worked on reading and comprehension skills and began tackling
   the Bible one chapter at a time. Today they are almost finished
   with Ezekiel.

   Working with Hord gave Jackson, now 51, the knowledge and
   confidence he needed to pass a commercial driver's license exam.
   He now drives a school bus in Tulsa.

   "If it weren't for literacy volunteers helping me, I wouldn't have
   been able to read my driver's manual to get my commercial driver's
   license and get the job I now have," Jackson says. "Most of all, I
   wouldn't know how to read God's Word."

   More than 90 million adult Americans share Jackson's reading
   problem in one form or another. Nearly one out of two adults are
   classified as illiterate or functionally illiterate, lacking the
   minimum reading and writing skills to function successfully in
   modern society. The numbers include immigrants just learning to
   speak English, those who never completed high school, those with
   physical or mental conditions that impair their ability to read,
   and those with vision problems that affect reading.

   Forty-three percent of people with the lowest literacy skills live
   below the government's official poverty line, and 70 percent have
   no job or only a part-time job, according to the National
   Institute for Literacy. The practical effect for millions of
   Americans is a lower quality of life with limited opportunities
   for employment.

   Assemblies of God U.S. missionary Mike Ferguson often witnessed
   the repercussions of illiteracy while ministering with his wife,
   Nancy, among impoverished people in New York City.

   "The implications of not being able to read and write are
   dramatic," Ferguson says. "Reading is at the core of all we do in
   life. People who can't read find it extremely difficult to learn.
   They can't get a job or participate in their children's
   education."

   There can be spiritual consequences as well.

   Native-language Bibles are available for more than 95 percent of
   the world's population, according to Cathy Sandidge, director of
   development for Literacy and Evangelism International, the
   organization that helped Jackson. LEI provides Bible-based reading
   primers and training for volunteers who teach basic literacy in
   the United States and 50 other countries. "If the Bible cannot be
   read, it is a locked book of truth," Sandidge says.

   The best hope for Americans who can't read their Bibles is
   one-on-one tutors who build relationships, break through the
   barriers of denial, and empower the illiterate with the tools they
   need to read and write. That's where the church can step in,
   Ferguson says.

   "When a church opens its doors to provide literacy programs, it
   realigns itself as a hub for the community," he says. "In this era
   of faith-based favor, our churches need to find new ways to
   provide service for those who are in need of holistic help."

   Literacy programs require little funding and only a small group of
   trained workers, according to Ferguson. But the dividends can be
   enormous. "Literacy programs give churches access to people they
   would otherwise not have access to -- to reach them and love them
   into a right relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a win-win
   program for the church and community."

   The Fergusons' passion for literacy training led them to start an
   after-school mentoring program that is now a national Assemblies
   of God ministry. KidCare America started as a form of prevention
   -- rather than treatment -- for illiteracy, among other things.
   "We wanted to get ahead of the problem, work at the front of a
   person's life rather than working at the back end," Ferguson says.

   KidCare has partnered with Saxon Publishers, one of the leading
   educational textbook companies, to develop a reading intervention
   program for children, youth and adults. They provide curriculum
   and training to churches and organizations interested in
   implementing a literacy-training ministry. Organizations such as
   LEI and local literacy councils also can provide training.

   "Lives of both the student and the tutor can be changed," Hord
   says. "All you have to do is be able to read yourself."

   See its website for more information about KidCare America and its Reading
   Intervention Program..

   -- Ashli O'Connell, Today's Pentecostal Evangel
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** SUPREME COURT RULES AGAINST NORTHWEST COLLEGE HONOR GRADUATE
                                                                                                            Mar. 19, 2004
   In a 7-2 decision handed down in late February, the U.S. Supreme
   Court ruled against Joshua Davey, a 2003 honor graduate of
   Northwest College (Kirkland, Washington). The case, Locke v.
   Davey, challenged Washington State's right to deny Davey a
   scholarship based on his pursuit of theological study.

   "Clearly, we are disappointed," states Don Argue, president of
   Northwest College (A/G). "We have supported Josh throughout this
   process and were confident that the Supreme Court would uphold
   last fall's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court."

   "This ruling could have dramatic ramifications as it seems to now
   allow discrimination based on religion," Argue continues. "It
   appears that the Supreme Court is now saying to states that it is
   permissible to limit access to government programs based solely on
   a student's choice of a major that could prepare that student to
   serve a local community in ministry. This is a sad day."

   The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Davey's favor. The
   ruling required the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board
   (HECB) now to provide financial aid to qualified students who
   choose to study theology. The court said the state statute
   prohibiting the payment of state financial aid to students
   pursuing degrees in theology violated the First Amendment's
   religious-freedom provision.

   The case arose after Joshua Davey of Spokane, Washington, was
   declared ineligible for a Washington Promise Scholarship. The HECB
   has relied on state law that prohibits financial aid awards to
   students who pursue a degree in theology. Davey enrolled in both
   business administration and pastoral ministries at Northwest
   College.

   "While Northwest College was never a participant in this suit, we
   have supported Joshua's position," Argue says. "This decision by
   the Supreme Court contradicts what has been the historical
   position on this matter; financial aid issues are directly between
   the student and the corresponding governmental entity, whether
   state or federal. After receiving an award, the student is free to
   use it to invest in an educational future at any accredited
   institution."

   "We have more than 50 academic programs at Northwest College,
   including business, elementary education, nursing, secondary
   education, and psychology," says Argue. "Joshua was free to choose
   from any of those programs. In fact, since the Promise Scholarship
   program was inaugurated by Governor Gary Locke in the late 1990s,
   we have averaged more than two dozen recipients in our student
   body each year."

   Davey graduated from Northwest College on May 10, 2003, with
   highest academic honors, with a major in Religion and Philosophy.
   He was selected by students and faculty to deliver the student
   address at commencement exercises. He is now in his first year of
   studies in pursuit of a law degree at Harvard Law School.

   For more information about Northwest College, see its Web site at.

-- Dan Neary
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** CHURCH HAS CRUCIAL ROLE IN FIGHTING SEXUAL SLAVERY - Mar 17, 2004

   Rhoda Kershaw grew up in a devout Christian home, the daughter of
   Chicago-based missionaries. From age 11, when she received a
   standing ovation for belting out a church solo, Kershaw knew she
   wanted to be a Christian singer.

   At 17, though, Kershaw rebelled and started performing in
   nightclubs. A talent agent approached her with an offer to sing
   for a lot of money in Japan. Excited at such an opportunity,
   Kershaw moved to the Land of the Rising Sun just after her 18th
   birthday.

   However, in the city of Kitakyushu, Kershaw found herself not on a
   spotlighted stage but rather working as a "hostess," serving
   drinks at a club frequented by wealthy men in organized crime.

   One night after her shift, Kershaw accepted a female co-worker's
   invitation to a dance club. Kershaw thought it strange that the
   only other patrons were mob figures. One of the men bought her a
   drink. The next thing she remembers is waking up in a bedroom
   where a television screen blared pornographic images. Naked
   Japanese mafia members emerged from an adjacent sauna room. The
   American redhead suddenly realized that her co-worker, who knew
   about her virginity, had set her up. Her drink had been spiked.

   Kershaw ran for a door, but was tackled by five men who cracked
   her head against the wall. For three days her captors kept her
   sluggish by drugging her water, and they repeatedly raped her. On
   the third day she only feigned to drink liquids and regained her
   strength.

   "In my na�vet� I never imagined such sickness or evil
   existed. I knew I either had to escape or spend the rest of my
   days in sex slavery," Kershaw said.

   Kershaw cried out, "Help me, Jesus!" and bolted for the door. In
   answer to her prayer, she found it unlocked. Her heart racing,
   Kershaw ran as fast as she could to a nearby apartment complex
   yelling, "Yakuza," the Japanese term for mafia and one of the few
   foreign words she knew. But the naked and screaming American girl
   found no helpers, knocking on door after door. Ultimately, a young
   girl let her into her apartment and called the police. Kershaw
   soon returned to the States.

   It's taken Kershaw 15 years to be healed from the three-day
   ordeal. Kershaw didn't cry about the nightmare for a year, then
   she spent two months in a mental hospital. She subsequently abused
   alcohol and illegal drugs, engaged in self-mutilation and combated
   suicidal thoughts.

   Last fall she miraculously found deliverance from the demonic
   oppression that had plagued her since the repeated rapes. She is
   now able to talk about her trauma, and she doesn't want others to
   have to endure such pain.

   A WORLDWIDE EPIDEMIC

   Commercial sexual exploitation is a global problem. The U.S. State
   Department estimates that as many as 4 million women and girls are
   forced into prostitution annually. Sex slavery has replaced drug
   trafficking as the biggest moneymaker for criminals. Unlike
   illegal drugs, women can be "used" repeatedly. Unlike Kershaw, few
   escape.

   "Human trafficking is a dilemma of global scale that violates the
   Scriptures and human dignity," says Rick L. Johnson, Assemblies of
   God Personnel and Family Life director. Johnson became aware of
   the problem while in contact with Teen Challenge in the Dominican
   Republic when he served as World Missions area director for the
   Caribbean. He has been involved in anti-trafficking meetings with
   the U.S. State Department. "Those held captive have no freedom, no
   opportunity to get out," he says. "They're powerless and they feel
   helpless."

   Foreign national laws against trafficking are in place, but they
   often are weak or not enforced. In many locales, police and
   lawmakers not only allow the business to continue, they profit
   from it by receiving bribes. In poorer areas, law enforcement
   officials often look the other way because they see the
   transactions as a benefit to the economy.

   Ironically, there is a growing chorus among some world leaders to
   legalize prostitution -- as a means to raise tax revenue. Even
   more paradoxical is the fact that sexually liberal feminists
   defend prostitution as a woman's "right" to control her own body.
   But sex slaves do not choose such a "profession."

   "If prostitution is legalized, the social barriers to buying
   commercial sex are removed," says Lisa L. Thompson, liaison for
   the abolition of sex trafficking at Salvation Army national
   headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. "It's only going to increase
   the demand for trafficking because there's not enough supply to
   meet the demand. As long as people can so depersonalize the sex
   act and render it into something to be bought and sold, we're
   going to have this problem. When we accept the world's notion of
   what sex is, it's open season on women and children."

   The U.S. government acknowledges there are 20,000 sex slaves in
   the States, although the real figure could be much higher. Only
   265 have been rescued since passage of the Trafficking Victims'
   Protection Act of 2000, indicating how well criminal elements hide
   and intimidate the women.

   FIGHTING TRAFFICKERS

   The Trafficking Victims' Protection Act of 2000 is a comprehensive
   U.S. law that calls for 20 years' imprisonment for those who
   recruit, transport and hold sex slaves against their will.

   "It sends a message that we take human trafficking as seriously as
   we take drug and arms trafficking," Laura J. Lederer, senior
   adviser on trafficking for the U.S. State Department's Office of
   Global Affairs, says.

   For trafficking victims, the law provides funds for such expenses
   as food, clothing, shelter, job training and drug detoxification,
   plus a temporary residency visa for those who aid in prosecution
   of traffickers.

   In December, President Bush signed the Trafficking Victims
   Protection Reauthorization Act, committing another $200 million to
   fight sexual slavery in the next two years. To help exploited
   women and children, the government has formed a President's
   Interagency Task Force from the departments of Labor, State,
   Justice, and Health and Human Services, plus the U.S. Agency for
   International Development. For example, HHS has a new program to
   work with nongovernmental organizations and faith-based groups to
   identify victims. Those who have been beaten, starved, tortured,
   forced to have abortions and threatened with death are unlikely to
   make a phone call for help.

   Christians are cooperating across denominational lines to fight
   the scourge. John Bongiorno, executive vice president of A/G
   Charities in Washington, D.C., is chairing a new faith-based
   coalition on human trafficking made up of ministry leaders from
   groups such as Project Rescue, World Relief and the Salvation
   Army.

   The committee has met twice and has started to develop a strategy.
   Eventually, USAID and other federal agencies could provide support
   for a variety of faith-based organizations working at the
   grassroots level to assist in such areas as rescuing,
   rehabilitation and restoration of former sex slaves.

   "We didn't go to the government with our hand held out to get
   operational funds," Bongiorno says. "We went saying, 'We have
   programs in place and we can help.' "

   Thompson says Christian churches can play a crucial role in
   helping to raise awareness of the problem and provide services to
   victims. In addition, Thompson says Christians need to take a
   strong stand for celibacy for singles and fidelity for married
   partners. She also says it's important for evangelicals to create
   community pressure to shut down massage parlors and strip clubs,
   where commercialized sex sometimes occurs.

   "It's so important for faith-based organizations to become more
   involved," Lederer says. "We won't see the progress that is needed
   until evangelicals -- who already are working on these issues
   around the world -- are at the table for both policy and program
   planning. They bring a perspective that no one else brings."

   PROJECT RESCUE

   Project Rescue is one of the most effective grassroots ministries
   dealing with the fallout of sexually exploited women. In much of
   the Third World, parents view a daughter as a liability. Millions
   of baby girls are aborted or suffocated at birth because of their
   gender. In illiterate, poverty-stricken villages, one of the few
   ways a girl is seen to have any "value" is as a prostitute.
   Nowhere is sex slavery more acute than in India.

   Seven years ago, Bombay Teen Challenge leaders launched an
   outreach into the city's red-light district. To their dismay they
   discovered 100,000 girls, some as young as 6, working as
   prostitutes. Many had been sold into slavery by their impoverished
   Nepalese families. Because of Nepal's isolation, girls living
   there are easily deceived with promises of a better life in India.
   Often a girl believes she will be working as a maid or nanny, only
   to find herself locked in a room at a brothel, her travel
   documents confiscated. Once her buyer earns enough to make a
   profit, the girl may be sold to another brothel.

   "These are people who are under the total control of someone
   else," says David Grant, A/G World Missions area director in
   Eurasia. "To be repeatedly raped every day is one of the most
   demeaning and life-threatening situations in the world."

   Since its inception in 1997, Project Rescue has helped more than
   1,000 such women and girls. The A/G ministry, which is largely
   carried out by national pastors and workers, currently is
   assisting more than 500 women and girls in India and Nepal.

   Initially, with assistance from Jubilee Action Children's Home in
   India, Project Rescue opened a facility to care for 37 baby girls
   born to the sex workers. The goal was to keep the children from
   being sexually abused and infected with AIDS. Eighty percent of
   the liberated girls and women are HIV positive.

   Project Rescue seeks to restore the released girls through 11
   Homes of Hope that provide discipleship, counseling, literacy
   instruction, vocational training and medical attention. The homes
   are the first step to integrating the women into independent
   living.

   More than 100 girls have been repatriated to Nepal. In an effort
   to prevent further heartache, Project Rescue representatives also
   are visiting isolated mountainous villages to make Nepalese aware
   of traffickers' tactics.

   The emotional and psychological trauma suffered by child
   trafficking victims is so excruciating that only God can offer
   true healing and restoration, according to Beth Grant, U.S.
   liaison for Project Rescue. "Governments can legally, politically
   and socially remove these girls out of the clutches of slavery,
   but only God can take away the pain of years of betrayal, rape and
   brutalization," she says.

   -- John W. Kennedy, Today's Pentecostal Evangel
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** A/G CHAPLAIN EARNS HIGH RANK - Mar. 8, 2004

   Colonel Cecil Richardson recently became the first Pentecostal
   chaplain to be selected as a general officer when he was recently
   picked to become the next Deputy Chief of Chaplains of the United
   States Air Force in March.

   Richardson, scheduled to be promoted to one star general
   (Brigadier General) at the end of March, is currently the Director
   at the Air Force's school for training all chaplains and chaplain
   assistants.

   Upon assuming his new rank and title, Richardson will be involved
   in day-to-day operations of the Air Force Chaplain Service,
   providing chaplains and chaplain assistants to all military units
   in the United States and around the world to meet the religious
   needs of all Air Force personnel and their families.

   "A great many people, myself included, accept Christ as Savior
   while in the military," says Richardson, who will move to the Air
   Force Chief of Chaplains office at Bolling Air Force Base, a
   support base for the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. "A chaplain
   gives them an opportunity to grow and is an integral part of the
   military services."

   Richardson, a 1973 graduate of Evangel University, says he looks
   forward to being a pastor to the Air Force's chaplains as well as
   setting a vision for the USAF chaplaincy to ensure free exercise
   of religion for the thousands of enlisted airmen, officers, and
   their families.

   "If you reach a person my age, that's wonderful," says Richardson,
   who has been an endorsed A/G chaplain for 26 years. "But if you
   reach a person when they're 18,19, 20, 21, it affects who they
   marry, how they raise their children and what profession they
   go into."

   Assemblies of God Chaplaincy Director Al Worthley says
   Richardson's selection as Deputy Chief of Chaplains exemplifies
   the quality A/G chaplains bring to the military and other
   institutions.

   "Our chaplains are effective and represent our fellowship with
   excellence," Worthley says. "We are proud of all our chaplains and
   the leadership roles they are assuming in many areas of
   chaplaincy."

   "A number of chaplains not of our denomination have already told
   me that Chaplain Richardson was an excellent choice for this
   promotion, because he has consistently been spiritual, pastoral
   and professional during his entire chaplaincy ministry," added
   Chaplain Chuck Marvin, Military Ministries representative.

   See its website for more information about the A/G Chaplaincy.

   -- Isaac Olivarez
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** EYEGLASSES OUTREACH OPENS DOORS IN REMOTE AREAS - Mar 1, 2004

   From the Himalayan Mountains to the nation of East Timor, people
   are receiving physical and spiritual sight through the eye-care
   outreach of HealthCare Ministries. Michael Froitzheim, a licensed
   optician, and his wife, Kathy, have worked with HCM for the past
   10 years traveling regularly to remote areas. During that time
   they have given 80,000 eye examinations and led 25,000 people to
   salvation in Christ.

   Under a special arrangement with an optical company, Michael
   purchases eyeglasses -- lenses and frames -- for $17.50 a pair.
   The lenses are interchangeable, allowing the Froitzheims to
   customize each pair to fit a patient's unique needs.

   During four days at a school in Southern Asia, the Froitzheims
   gave hundreds of eye exams. As they prepared to leave, the
   superintendent told them no one had ever demonstrated as much care
   and love for the children as they had. The school official's
   comment gave the Froitzheims the opportunity to tell him
   about Christ.

   Late last year Michael Froitzheim gave eye exams as part of an
   outreach at a refugee camp near the Pakistan/Afghanistan border
   where there are few doctors. In six days he distributed 1,000
   pairs of eyeglasses. He examined 150 to 200 people a day.

   "Everyone's story was similar -- loss of home and family and
   feeling very little to live for," Froitzheim says. "They weren't
   used to being shown compassion."

   The eyeglass outreach has the potential of opening doors in a
   widening number of nations. In one area closed to missions
   efforts, Froitzheim was asked to develop an eye-care program for
   village schools. Requests for help also have come from East Timor,
   a newly independent nation struggling to overcome the effects of
   war. To reach some villages the Froitzheims visit requires two
   days of mountain trekking.

   "What we do through the eye-care outreach is help churches gain
   credibility as well as meet the need for eyeglasses that the
   average person can't afford or has no access to," Froitzheim says.
   "Through ministries of compassion, such as HealthCare Ministries,
   even more opportunities will open."

   -- Cathy Ketcher, Today's Pentecostal Evangel

   Note: Steve and Karen have had the priviledge to work with Mike
   and Kathy in Peru and Slovakia. They are really neat folk who love
   the Lord and love the ministry God has given them.
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** GLOBALREACH.ORG OFFERS FREE STUDY TO COMPLEMENT "THE PASSION" -
                                                                                                                  Mar 1, 2004
   In response to the recent release and huge success of Mel Gibson's
   film, "The Passion of the Christ," the Evangelism Division of the
   Global University Web site has posted the study "Highlights in
   the Life of Christ" for anyone to download for free.

   Sponsored by Light for the Lost and considered a powerful
   evangelism tool, the study is a journey through Christ's life,
   from His birth to His ascension into heaven as well as His
   miraculous works and words in between.

   "The amount of discussion and the questions this movie has and
   will generate is staggering," says Joe Jones, vice president of
   the Center for Evangelism and Discipleship for Global University,
   Springfield, Missouri. "We cannot assume that people know anything
   more about Christ than what they witness watching this movie -- we
   must be ready to respond to their questions and let them know who
   Christ is."

   Jones encourages printing the study out to have on hand as well as
   to give away to those who have seen or are about to see the move.
   "Help people discover the man some call prophet, others call
   Messiah, but for all, He is Savior," Jones encourages.

   Learn about Global University