Greater Grace Annual 2012-13

ANNUAL 2012-13 A Publication Of Greater Grace World Outreach; A Worldwide Local Church

PASTOR THOMAS SCHALLER BIO A pastor and missionary for more than 30 years, Pastor Schaller led the establishment of thriving churches and Bible schools in Finland in 1975 and Hungary in 1990. In April 2005, he was named Presiding Elder and Overseeing Pastor of Greater Grace Church in Baltimore, the home base church for Greater Grace World Outreach.

Pastor Schaller’s deep, thoughtprovoking messages have made him a much-in-demand speaker at conferences throughout the world. He is a man of the Book and maintains a tremendous schedule of preaching and teaching at Greater Grace Church and at Maryland Bible College and Seminary. During the course of his ministry, Pastor Schaller has also spent several years as the Missions Director for GGWO in Massachusetts and Maryland.

A leader by example, Pastor Schaller can be found on outreaches, at prayer meetings, and at “rap” sessions that go on at all hours on the GGWO campus and in homes and restaurants throughout the Baltimore area.

He and his wife, Lisa, reside in Baltimore and are the parents of two daughters, Amy and Bethany, and two sons, Justin and Kyle. They also have six grandchildren. They all live in Maryland and participate in the ministry of Greater Grace Church in Baltimore.

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moving forward In the 1960’s, Pastor Stevens was pastoring a church in Maine, reaching out in the neighboring towns, evangelizing, counseling troubled marriages and encouraging those addicted to alcohol to embrace a new way – Christ Himself.

He also nurtured a vision in his heart for starting a Bible College. He believed that the lay person had a calling to listen to and study the Word of God as this is clearly taught in the Scriptures (Luke 10:38-41, 2 Timothy 2:15, Matthew 4:4, Psalm 119).

That school was started in 1972. Now, 40 years later, with 529 churches in more than 60 countries and 3,000 students weekly sitting in Bible classes, we can acknowledge that God is behind this faith and work.

Why did this happen? Three elements come to mind. First, faithfulness of simple, godly people who have supported the vision by their hearts, their presence and their prayers. Secondly, solid teaching is effective. When God reveals His grace and wisdom to believers, they sense they have a treasure, an invaluable treasure. And thirdly, there is a mystery among us. We have not lost the mystery of faith; or in other words, the presence of Christ in the ministry. We love the mystery, it keeps us from being mechanized and it stirs us in love. It is love.

Where are we going? Forward. The reality of God’s work keeps us relaxed yet fervent. We enjoy the presence of God in a classroom, in a service, in a small fellowship. This is our reward – He is with us.

There is no limit to God’s work if it is glorifying Him, rooted in Him and pointing to Him. May more of the Gospel be heard in the world. May more godly counsel be heard in the streets.

May more children be nourished in love in healthy families, orphanages and schools.

Just as this work started in a small town in Maine, may He continue to open our mouths to make known the mystery of the Gospel.

4 Economy of Divine Steps Walking in the Spirit is a walk of efficiency and life writes GGWO’s founding pastor

8 Crises and Conformation Real biblical counseling leads people to draw near to God

c o n t e n t s

2 Distinguishing Characteristics Entryway project aims to define Greater Grace’s place in the community

6 Riding New Waves The Grace Hour’s shift to a new station and a new time opens opportunities for the long-running talk show

10 Coordinating Connections

12 The Signs – and Wonders – of Church Planting Showing people the way to church and church life is a miracle-driven enterprise

Pastor Jason Moore and GGWO’s In-reach Department serve and serve to keep members in touch

16 Catching the Vision Through sports clubs, visitation, concerts, blitzes and more Greater Grace reaches out to Baltimore

20 The Thirsty Land

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It’s been 25 years since Pastor Steve Scibelli landed in Ghana and began blazing a trail through a needy continent

The Perfection of Truth

24 Night School for Truth Seekers Institut Theologique du Soir invites French believers to dive deep into the Scriptures

A veteran missionary describes the joyful results of a visit to China

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World Map, pg. 14 Christian Education, pg. 18 Around the World, pg. 25 Mexico, pg. 26 GGWO calendar, pg. 28

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY Istvan Pirger

Distinguishing Characteristics Pastor Steve Andrulonis With content provided by Brian Lange

A common conversation still heard during an east Baltimore outreach: “Hello, I’m from Greater Grace Church, we’d like to invite you to one of services, we are right over there on Moravia Park Drive.”

In the old shopping center?

Yes. That’s a church?

Yes. I never knew that.

For many years, there have been signs. And a whole lot of wonder – too much wonder perhaps – about what has been going on at 6025 Moravia Park Drive.

The signs say, “Greater Grace World Outreach.” It has been that way since 1989, when GGWO settled at this former strip mall in

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east Baltimore. Still, more than 20 years later, the campus’s true identity remains a secret to many in the community.

All of this is about to change.

Greater Grace has embarked on an ambitious capital improvement project to put a new face on its campus. The Entryway Project will include a fellowship pavilion, a covered portico, and a distinguishing 61-foot steeple topped with a cross.

“The idea is that there will be no mistaking that this is a church,” said Pastor Tom Schaller. “Really, we want the outside of our church to reflect the quality of what is happening inside the doors.”

Pastor Brian Lange, GGWO’s Chief Operations Officer, describes the aim of the project is to create frontage that presents a strong first impression, an area for fervent fellowship, a place friendly to those with physical challenges and to those who just don’t like getting wet when a summer thunderstorm hits.

“We only have one chance at a first impression and we want that impression to be memorable,” Pastor Lange said. “Also, we are not people who leave a service, jump into our cars, and then ride away. We do a lot of hanging out, talking, whatever. So the pavilion aspect will deal with that. Lastly, we

want everyone to get into the building easily. The entire curb will be sloped to accommodate those in wheelchairs and those who have other troubles getting around. That’s the friendly part of the project – it’s a design that is a friend to all.”

To make this project a reality, GGWO will institute its first capital fund-raising campaign. This effort is being coordinated by Pastor and Trustee Jomy Antony.

“We want to raise the project money completely apart from the church member’s tithes and offerings,” Pastor Antony said. “We also want to avoid depleting our operational reserve fund. We know our congregation has a great heart for making an impact in the community. This project is part of that mission and heartbeat.”

The fund-raising effort quietly began in May and will continue through the summer. The anticipated cost of the project is $300,000.

“We would love to break ground on the construction shortly after the convention,” Pastor Schaller said.

The acquisition of the Baltimore property is a colorful one that reflects GGWO’s commitment to faith adventure and the leading of God.

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GGWO was incorporated in Baltimore during the summer of 1987 after being based in Maine and Massachusetts for nearly three decades. The nearly 800 church members who resettled to Maryland got a warm and buggy welcome. That year one of the hottest summers in history coincided with the emergence of noisy swarms of 17-year cicadas – slow, clumsy locust-like insects that fly, cling to old trees, and make a mess of windshields.

For months before the move to the Moravia Road property, church-members cruised en masse from hotel ballrooms to meeting halls to banquet facilities throughout the area. Many a Sunday morning service would close with the disclosure of the site for the evening meeting.

At last, GGWO discovered what was then known as Frankford Plaza.

At first glance, the property GGWO sought out seemed lost. At the least, it was somewhat forsaken. The location, an easily accessible one near the interchange of Interstates 95 and 895, sat in a neighborhood in decline and on the edge of severe crisis.

Several businesses had closed and the public housing projects nearby were in decay and crime-ridden.

A number of empty storefronts dotted the plaza itself. The businesses still operating on the campus then included a Laundromat, a

Pizza Hut, an ag“we only have one chance ing steakhouse, a at a first impression Chinese carryout, a Newberry’s discount and we want that impression department store, a to be memorable.” barber shop, a pawn shop, and a members’ only nightclub. soaked the soil of the grounds where GGWO Greater Grace finally took over what had now sits. All that visibly remains from those been an abandoned Pantry Pride supermarket settlers is a small Bohemian cemetery near a and turned it into a chapel. The interior décor landfill less than 2 miles from the Moravia remained unchanged for a season. Some still Park Drive campus. joke about the days when the mother’s room “My view of it is that it is like Israel gowas in the delicatessen and seafood sections. ing from the Tabernacle to the Temple,” said The in-service nursery was set up in a pair of Pastor Antony. “David, as king, received the old walk-in freezers. pattern, but it was left to his son, Solomon, The area surrounding the church facilito build the remarkable, permanent structies still carries the name Moravia Park for ture where the people worshipped the one its connection to Moravian missionaries true God.” who settled here from Bohemia during the Pastor Antony described the fund-raising 1700s and 1800s. The Moravians were especampaign as something that will be done cially interested in evangelizing the Native from a Finished Work perspective. Much of American tribes in the Appalachian region the approach will be quiet and behind the and traveled to Baltimore up the Chesascenes. He pointed to 1 King 6:7, a verse that peake Bay and Patapsco River to get to the tells us that the Temple’s massive stones were American inland. quietly quarried and shaped before being fit It is no stretch of the imagination to conted into their places in Solomon’s structure. clude that one of history’s first international “We are not striving to make a name for missionary movements – the Moravians – ourselves, or working to provide a way for cleared the path for the Greater Grace misothers to make a name for themselves,” Pastor sion enterprise base in Baltimore. The prayers Antony said. “We just want people to know at of these colonial- and Civil War-era saints a glance that this is a church.” GG

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Economy of Divine Steps “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25) To walk in the Spirit, we must be led by the steps of God. It is not adhering to principles that appease our concepts of spirituality that bring life to our walk with God. A self-imposed standard regulated by Adam’s natural abilities is a walk according to the flesh (Ephesians 2:2; Romans 8:4). Therefore, our effort to be God-like is viewed as enmity toward Him (Romans 8:7). The double mind of Adam (James 1:8) struggles to substitute for the single eye of God (Matthew 6:22). Adam uses his faculties to think what God would do in a situation. Yet his mental capacity is regulated so that the answer to every decision reaps benefit to his own self-life (Galatians 6:8). Adam needs a mind to think, but God needs only an eye to see. Adam’s inheritance is not kept in God’s bank account.

In God’s economy, the riches of glory (Ephesians 3:8, Philippians 4:19) are released by the faith initiation that pleases God. Anything outside of total abandonment at the Cross of Adam’s abilities and faculties will produce natural sight, which processes thoughts that result in steps outside of the order of God. What looks right in our eyes is sin to God (Proverbs 21:2). If our eye is evil, our whole body shall be full of darkness (Matthew 6:23). With a head that is wholly sick (Isaiah 1:5) and a heart that is desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), Adam can only operate as a human body trying to be like God without the power of God.

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©iStockphoto.com/andrearoad

Pastor Carl H. Stevens Jr.

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Adam must be forsaken in accordance with what God has done. Forsaking is not something that we do, it is receiving a replacement through revelation. This principle requires no work on our part. It is instead the experience of the Person of Jesus Christ who has ceased from all of His works and is now seated at the right hand of God (see Hebrews 4:10; Hebrews 10:12; Ephesians 2:6). God’s system of faith is the only economy that is based on eternal reward. Let’s allow ourselves to be captivated by Calvary and walk in resurrection life, following in God’s divine steps.

We need not be disordered by the deceptions that issue from our deceitful hearts. God has divinely destined us to derive life as He orders our every step (Psalm 37:23; 1 Corinthians 14:40).

“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life” (Job 33:4).

At the point of salvation, the Holy Spirit quickened us with Christ and made us to sit together with Him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:5-6). We are with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3) and in the Church, His Body, which is His fullness (Ephesians 1:23). We are the Kingdom of God. As He is, so are we in this present evil world (1 John 4:17). We are placed in a world where Satan is the prince and the power manipulating the courses of people’s lives as he stimulates the atmosphere (John 12:31; John 14:30; Ephesians 2:2).

Law confessed by the tongue to the enemy’s initiations will only kill us as they stir feelings of condemnation because of our lack of power.

Truth produces fruit in our lives. The enemy of our souls fears fruitful believers who know God in specifics. Hell does not fear vague, general Christians who know God only in the shadows of what they imagine God to be. We can attempt to approve ourselves to men by what we eat and drink (Romans 14:17). However, we will not be approved unto God until we step out into battle to manifest the power of God and make He who is invisible visible (1 Corinthians 4:20; Romans 1:20).

The battle starts at Calvary where the war between the Spirit and the flesh ends when the old man is reckoned dead and the human spirit is free to receive the victory through Jesus Christ (Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:25).

Death works in us so that the life manifested in our bodies – individually and corporately – becomes the implementation of the continual experiential defeat of the devil (2 Corinthians 4:10; Colossians 2:15).

Every believer must learn to breathe in the specifics of God. Only He knows Satan’s plan.

Therefore, the Lord has a portion of life to be manifested in every one of our steps. It is only His life ministered through us that will cover us from the next attack of Satan. In 2 Kings 4:31-37, Gehazi – Elisha’s servant – laid the staff upon the dead child, the child did not come forsaking is not something but alive. When Elisha placed that we do, it is receiving himself upon the child a replacement and put his mouth upon the child’s mouth, the boy through revelation. lived. The staff of authority The Spirit of God has made me accepted could only confirm that the child was dead; it in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6). The question could not, in itself, bring the child back to life. for me now is this: Will I allow that same The Law is our schoolmaster and confirms to Spirit to express Jesus Christ through me in us that we are dead in trespasses and sins (Gaa life of situational opportunities (Philippians latians 3:24). Can it do anything to bring in a 4:18; 1 Peter 2:5)? At the midnight hour of a capacity for life? No. Its purpose is to show us trial or test, will I find myself like the foolish that we are dead. It was designed to draw us to virgins of Matthew 25? Will I be found empty Jesus Christ. Through faith in His Word and and wanting of spiritual power? the breath of the Holy Spirit, we begin to live We live in a world and atmosphere inin the divine specifics of discipleship. We can tensely polluted with devilish supernatural now worship God in Spirit and in truth (John stimulations (Ephesians 6:12). God personally 4:24). We are no longer subject to the bondage contacts receptive vessels with His continual of the air. We are open to Christ so that He flow of fresh life (John 7:38). The letter of the might tell us all things. GG

ABOUT THE AUTHOR PR. CARL H. STEVENS JR. After becoming a believer at the age of 23, Carl H. Stevens Jr. dedicated himself to learning about Jesus and to the study and the ministry of the Bible.

A farm boy born in West Sumner, Maine, in 1929, and raised by his widowed mother from the age of 3, Pastor Stevens approached Bible study and Christianity the way he approached everything in life – with intensity and concentration. His prayerful habits to study and to evangelize and his careful, intense sermons helped Pastor Stevens develop thriving churches in Maine, Massachusetts, and Maryland. He also helped pioneer the concept of Christian talk radio. He spent more than 40 years answering Bible questions and counseling over the airwaves of North America and throughout the world via short wave and the Internet.

Pastor Stevens, who passed into eternity in June 2008, also emphasized the need to be part of a local church where Christians could find encouragement and fellowship. In each of his churches, Pastor Stevens quickly established Bible colleges. His conviction was that if people can receive a constant and consistent diet of the Word of God and a categorical conception of Bible doctrine, then they would be equipped for life.

Pastor Stevens took God’s call to evangelism personally and could be found on the streets of Baltimore nearly every week that he was in town. He would go to doors of city homes with a smile and a tract ready tell others of the love of Christ.

This call to evangelism took on a worldwide scope in Pastor’s heart early in his ministry and his churches sent out their first missionaries in 1975. The Greater Grace World Outreach now has more than 500 affiliated churches in nearly 70 countries.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY jen lynch

Riding New Waves Pastor Steve Andrulonis With content provided by the Grace Hour Team

Radio is all about voices, and there many of them. The voice with the certain sound, however, is the voice that gets a hearing. For more than four decades, the Grace Hour, the radio outreach of Greater Grace, has sent out a sound that catches ears.

“Our sound has been the sound of Truth,” said Pastor John Love, the host of the Grace Hour. “It’s the sound of Bible authority. We answer the questions we get with the Scriptures -- we don’t make things up – and people respond.”

Listeners from Maryland to Massachusetts and from Louisiana to Nevada to Canada have been tuning in faithfully. And with the advent of Internet web-casting, the Grace Hour now captures a worldwide audience.

What draws them?

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“The message of true doctrine,” said Tom Bisset, president of the Peter and John Radio Fellowship, which owns Baltimore’s WRBS AM and FM stations. “Not only does the program have a true message, but the ministry behind it lives the message. Greater Grace Church is known, its people are soul winners.”

Mr. Bisset made his comments during a speech he delivered at the annual Grace Hour Banquet, a soldout event set this year at the Sheraton Baltimore Hotel North in Towson, Md.

most recognizable religious station in the Maryland-Delaware-D.C.-Virginia area. The move also brought together two pioneering forces in Christian broadcasting. Each of these radio ministries got moving about the same time.

The year was 1964.

In Maine, Pastor Carl H. Stevens became co-host of Telephone Time, one of the nation’s first Christian talk radio shows. The program was broadcast live over WDCS in Portland and focused on Bible questions and comments phoned in from the audience. The for“THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT attracted many there WHO DESIRE THE MESSAGE mat listeners and Pastor WE BRING—THE FINISHED Stevens became the show’s full-time host WORK MESSAGE...” in 1973, the same year The Grace Hour, since April 30, has been that WROL in Boston became the program’s heard daily at 1 p.m. on Peter and John’s flagship carrier.

Positive Talk 1230 AM. This change put the Pastor Stevens maintained a constant presGGWO program into the schedule on the ence on the airwaves and remained the Grace

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Hour’s primary host until 2005. Even after Pastor Love took the microphone as host, Pastor Stevens regularly made contributions until his death in 2008.

The final words Pastor Stevens spoke live on the Grace Hour were this: “It’s souls, all of what we have done is about winning souls.”

The expansive audio archive of Pastor Stevens’s messages is still mined for the devotional teachings that begin each Grace Hour program. These teachings set the mood for the discussions that follow.

In Maryland that same year of 1964, Scottish immigrants Peter and John Bisset and their Radio Fellowship acquired WRBS and its 95.1 FM signal and began developing what would grow into a 24/7 Christian broadcast operation by 1972. The Bisset brothers were already veterans at riding the Baltimore airwaves. They debuted in 1948 on Baltimore’s WFBR, then one of the area’s most popular signals. The Bissets launched their program as an outreach to non-church goers listening to the station’s Top 40 format.

“When you talk about Christian radio in Baltimore, the discussion starts with WRBS,” said Pastor Tom Schaller. “There are people out there who desire the message we bring -the Finished Work message, a commitment to evangelism, an emphasis on missions and reaching the world with the Gospel. We want people to hear what we are all about. I am confident that people are going to find our program and like it because it challenges and stirs their hearts in the faith.”

Mr. Bisset agreed.

“The Grace Hour has a great spot in our lineup,” he said. “It follows two strong, stable teachers (John MacArthur and Chuck Swindoll) and precedes the station’s most popular program, Dave Ramsey. The Grace Hour has a good lead-in and a good follow up. People are talking about it.” ***** The Grace Hour is a body work, the connections and convictions of this team drive the production. Daily live radio happens at the speed of sound and this requires disciplined communication and cooperation among the team members.

The most evident members of this body effort are, of course, the mouths of Pastor Love, Pastor Schaller, Pastor Steven Scibelli and other panelists. Their voices reveal a spiritual expertise that colors every moment of commentary and counsel. Carrying the banner raised by program founder Pastor Carl H. Stevens, these men have left lasting impressions on listeners through the years.

Operator Ulla Larsson is the Grace Hour’s ears. She fields the calls and her contact point is critical to keeping the program on topic.

Greeting and querying each caller, Ulla tries to discern just what someone wants to say. “We get a lot of people who just want to say, ‘Hi, how are you?’ and make it personal. That’s OK some days, on other days we just have to keep the calls in order.”

The eyes of the Grace Hour belong to Program Manager Leena Bridges. She is always looking ahead, gauging audience interest, and formulating themes and offers for the coming months. This year Leena also coordinated the banquet program.

“We are continuing in the amazing vision that we have always had for this radio ministry,” Leena said. “Since we have gone to WRBS, we have been hearing from new listener after new listener. It is really a very exciting place to be right now. I can’t wait to see how all of this affects our church, our Bible College, and our missions program.”

Matt Sliva and Sebastian Palmeiri are the hands of the Grace Hour. Their fingers are on the control board. These engineers keep the sound quality at optimum levels – no easy task given the variety of devices people are using now.

“We just have to make sure that we are getting the sound transmitted the right away,” Matt said. “There is a lot of technology involved, and we have to make it work.”

One crucial element of the engineers’ job is time-keeping.

“We have to know when to turn it on and when to turn it off,” Matt said. “When the clock says 1 o’clock, we have to be there.” GG

THE MOUTHS

THE EARS

THE EYES

THE HANDS

Tune in every Monday through Friday at 1pm EST. For an archive of past programs and podcast information, visit www.gracehour.org.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Istvan Pirger

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Crises and Conformation As the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in his final epistle, “But realize this, that in the last day difficult times will come.”

On September 11, 2001 we watched the surreal images of the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan fall to the ground in a billowing plume of dust and smoke.

We watched in disbelief the aftermath of the attack on the Pentagon. We then heard about the heroic actions of a group of passengers on United Airlines flight 93 who took matters into their own hands, resisting the terrorists and foiling their attempts to fly the airplane into what some believe was the White House.

Seven years later we suffered the worst financial setback since the Great Depression.

The housing bubble burst, lending institutions went bankrupt, and many businesses folded.

These are the crises that we’ve all experienced on a national level. There are however crises that we suffer on a much more personal level. There is disappointment, discouragement, depression, despair, demoralization, and death. We live in a world that is dysfunctional and broken on every level, everywhere that sooner or later affects everyone.

The Bible candidly reveals what life on our cursed planet is truly like, beginning with the tragedy in the Garden of Eden. Can you imagine what it was like for Adam and Eve to be expelled from that idyllic Garden where eve-

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earlier. Jacob had to live with the fruit of his own narcissistic sowing. He was the unenviable father of one of the most dysfunctional families imaginable.

These people are not the exception in the Bible, they are the norm, from Genesis to Revelation! So, why are we surprised when the effects of living in a broken, sin-saturated world affect our lives? Why do we think that only other people experience crises?

What precipitates a crisis? People experience a crisis when their normal coping mechanisms and skills for dealing with life’s challenges are ineffective. When plan A fails, plan B fails, and there is no plan C, that’s the stuff of a crisis.

A crisis normally occurs when people come to the end of themselves, feeling that they have nowhere to turn, and no one to help, alone in their frustration and confusion. Have you been there?

In the body of Christ we minister one to another, weeping with those who weep and suffering with those who suffering (Rom. 12:15; 1 Cor. 12:26). However, God would have all of His children be edifiers in the truth to one another. We don’t need advanced degrees in psychology, certifications in counseling, or licensures in social work to minister affectively to one another in the Body of Christ. What we need is a daily walk with God, knowing the Scriptures, and having a heart filled with love and wisdom from above. If we truly care for ©iStockphoto.com/Burgeon

Pastor John Hadley

rything was a delight and daily life was a moment-by-moment glorious experience of the goodness of God? They likely mourned deeply for decades--maybe centuries--over the loss of what once was theirs to fully enjoy but later lost through disobedience. Can you imagine their children asking them, “Mom and dad, tell us again what it was like . . . you know. . . before The Change happened?”

Noah witnessed the near extinction of the human race. Abraham was told to walk away from his homeland and not told beforehand where he was going. He was also promised a son, the fulfilment of which took a quarter century. Some years later God said that he wanted the child back--on an altar. Seeing Abraham’s willingness to obey was sufficient. God spared the child. Isaac grieved the death of his mother Sarah, for some years. When he met Rebekah, his future wife, she comforted him because of the great loss which occurred three years

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each other, the healing balm of the Comforter will flow and the God of consolation will minister life, hope, and healing.

Regarding crises, Peter addressed the surprise and reaction that believers exhibited when they were faced with severe difficulties in their lives. He wrote, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you [persecution], which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing is happening to you; but to the degree that you share the suffering of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation [1 Peter 4:12,13 NASB, et al].”

only this, but we exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character [dokime, meaning ‘proof’], and proven character hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (verses 1-5).

This passage shows the need for trials and the result of seeing them from God’s perspective. It goes like this: Being justified by faith, in the past, we enjoy the present condition and blessing of peace with God--our former state of enmity and hostility toward God is changed forCrises provide an opportunity ever because of Jesus for us to endure and Christ’s death on the persevere through the cross for us. We now inward strengthening of have uninterrupted access into the grace the Comforter. of God in which we stand, continue, and Our Western Christian culture has condi- abide. We then boast in the sure hope of seetioned us to think that somehow we should be ing and being partakers of God’s glory, a glory exempt from suffering. We naturally gravitate which we all previously fell short of. to the promises that appeal to us. However, Not only do we boast in God’s glory, we God has a better plan--one that includes troudo likewise with our crises (tribulations). Crible, trials, tribulation, problems, and testing. ses provide an opportunity for us to endure Spiritually speaking, the problem-free life that and persevere through the inward strengthis much more appealing to us would truly be a ening of the Comforter. This experience “rip-off. “ “proves”-- by experiencing God’s faithfulness So, why is it so important for God to sea- and closeness to us in the most difficult times son our lives with these unsavory ingredients? in our lives--that we truly are His children and God has predestined each and every one of that He cares for us. When we stay under the His children to be conformed to the image of trial for God’s allotted time, we are approved His Son (Romans 8:29). God is so perfectly and greatly encouraged. This experience causes pleased with His only begotten Son that He us to become secure in the fact that we will wants all of His children to be like Him! He is one day be glorified, as God promised, as His the prototype Son; and if Jesus was character- children. Our hope of God’s glory will not disized as a “man of sorrows and acquainted with appoint us because the love of God toward us grief, then how could we be made like Him if is being experienced by God’s Holy Spirit all God spared us from that aspect of His life? throughout the trial (as well as before and af Romans chapter five explains God’s in- ter) as He pours it into our hearts by His Spirit. tended purpose in crisis and suffering.

Note the cycle: glory, tribulation, persever“Therefore, having been justified by faith, ance, proof/approval, hope of God’s glory. we have peace with God through our Lord It is necessary for us to have seasons of Jesus Christ, through whom also we have tribulation for our hope of glory to be strengthobtained our introduction by faith into ened. What is strange to our way of thinking this grace in which we stand; and we ex- is that we are to rejoice not only in the hope ult in hope of the glory of God. And not of God’s glory but also in the tribulations. It’s

not only that we celebrate during the trial, we celebrate because of the trial and the benefits it produces in our lives. The trial is the means by which Christian assets are developed (See Wuest, Word Studies in the Greek New Testament; Romans, p. 78).

True biblical counseling will always be biblical. This doesn’t mean that a hurting believer is insensitively and tactlessly deluged with Bible verses by the pastor or believer.

Rather, there will be a compassionate and empathetic listener who is prayerfully asking God for Holy Spirit wisdom and direction by which to minister to their brother or sister according to God’s Word.

Unfortunately there is a growing trend in many evangelical churches to go the way of “Christian psychology” which is often little more than secular psychology with a prayer and a Bible verse included somewhere in the session. Biblical counseling will not seek to strengthen people’s flesh to help them through the trial, but rather to encourage them to draw near to God so He will draw near to them.

They will taste and see that the Lord is Good.

Their confession at the trial’s end will be, “blessed be the name of the Lord,” for He is working all all things together for good. GG

ABOUT THE AUTHOR PASTOR JOHN HADLEY This onetime Peace Corps member now serves as the Dean of Students for Maryland Bible College and Seminary in Baltimore and the Director of Pastoral Counseling. He is a former missionary to Ecuador and is fluent in Spanish. The church he helped establish in Ecuador remains a thriving fellowship and Pastor Hadley makes a number of visits a year to Central and South America in support of the work of GGWO affiliate churches.

He holds a Master’s degree in Biblical Counseling from Luther Rice University in Lithonia, Ga. He and his wife, Nancy, reside in Fallston, Md., and they have two sons and two daughters.

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Coordinating connections Pastor Steve Andrulonis With content provided by Pastor Jason Moore

“In-reach = Remembering + Loving.” So reads the equation scribbled on a small white board at the center of the Greater Grace Church campus in Baltimore.

This sums up the mission of the ministry’s In-reach operation led by Pastor Jason Moore.

As the heart of the church’s pastoral and corporate care efforts, the department beats strongly and rapidly – and intelligently.

In-reach is imbued by the gentle and tenacious spirit of Pastor Moore, a graduate of Maryland Bible College and Seminary who helped establish the Greater Grace missionary presence in Ukraine with his brother, Pastor Christian Moore. His efforts during the past five years have transformed the way the church connects with and engages new members.

“Our whole goal is to help people find their place, hopefully at Greater Grace,” said Pastor Moore. “The Christian is not made to only survive or just get through life; there is a plan to be revived in our eternal purpose as we walk through Christ’s life.”

The centerpiece of the new-member initiative is Seven Footsteps, a series of meetings designed to introduce people to Bible-focused church life. Gathering in the church’s café, attendees take their places at small tables in small groups and participate in guided discussions. The first seven steps introduce the ministry of Greater Grace and the second seven steps focus on the individual believer’s identity in Christ. Those completing the steps are celebrated with new Bibles, a free Bible college course, and devotional booklets.

It’s all part of the In-reach Dept.’s consistent effort to establish connections among church members – new and old. Steady organization and accurate record-keeping serve as fuel for a sense of care for those attending Greater Grace.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY Istvan Pirger

Pastor Moore is Pastor Moore is said to have said to have big ears; big ears; in other words, in other words, he he listens and listens well. listens and listens well. His approach has proven magnetic to church volunteers. the church’s counseling program. Pastor Tom The In-reach office phones and computers are Sliva coordinates hospital visits. always well-staffed. Calls are made, cards are Pastors Bob Bridges and Bruce May mansent out, visitation lists are crafted, events are age Seven Footsteps. planned and executed, etc.

That’s just a small part of what’s going on At the ready stands a dedicated pastoral at In-reach central. The office is staffed by a staff. Pastor John Hadley guides and directs bright and helpful crew that includes Kerry

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Roberge, Sidone Lawrence, Carol Ann Renaud, Pat Deberry, and Christine Alloways.

There are baptisms and baby dedications to schedule with certificates that need ordering and signatures. There are face-to-face services to organize and plan with sensitivity and efficiency. The meals ministry, coordinated with the Women’s Ministry by Pat Calise, needs names and addresses for its food deliveries to the sick and needy. Data from guest cards filled out must be imputed and categorized to access for further contacts. Every visitor gets a knock on his or her door within two weeks by one of the Greater Grace visitation teams.

The big picture of the In-reach Dept. is encapsulated by its mission statement: Do that which gathers and fills the chapel; Personally encourage and disciple the people who fill the chapel; Build teams that care and connect the Body – focusing on groups such as teens, singles, husbands and wives and parents, middleaged, and seniors; And, communicate and bring awareness to church life and events.

New ideas spring from Pastor Moore and his team to forge deeper connections throughout the congregation. Care is about continual re-membering; that is, giving members more and more opportunities to spend time together.

A gang of men recently spent a Saturday hiking 12 miles through the hills in western Maryland.

“Yeah, it was supposed to be an 8-mile hike,” Pastor Moore explained, “but we got a little lost, so we walked 4 miles longer than we had to.”

That’s Pastor Jason Moore going the extra mile – or three – without even trying. GG

THE INNER LIFE PASTOR JASON MOORE / Discovering Christ in the sanctuary of our hearts causes us to be reminded of the eternal realm. The privilege that we have is to come to Him – into his presence, and learn of him and have newness of life. We find that no one can love us like Christ and nothing in the world can address the cry of the heart. The inner life is the meeting place where we bow before the Lord and receive perfect wisdom and meaning in him. Think of entering the courts of a king, splendor and majesty all around. Now imagine the King of Kings with you! Perfection magnified to the ultimate degree – this is the sanctuary in our heart in the New man. We then leave our image consciousness and we enter into God consciousness, we then see things as they truly are. It is here where as we give the Bible and the Holy Spirit authority we enter into inner stability and quietness. As we surrender our rights to Christ and he becomes Lord over all His dominance takes place of our control and we are led by the spirit. Personal rest and true inner strength will be learned and experienced; peace and joy will come back into our lives. Where there is a strong inner life, a communion and embrace of God, the outward circumstances are kept in perspective and emotional scattering is kept at a minimal. Emotional scattering is prevalent as life pulls in so many directions and demands more. God gives wisdom in stillness and

quietness to show us where to invest time and energy and to rest in what has been given already. Because of this contentment we are insulated from the heat and pressures of life that can easily knock us down. Contentment shows us that Christ has preeminence; therefore what comes out of us is reflecting Christ’s nature and not ours. Exercising our will to choose to have Christ at the center of our heart and deciding to cast all our cares upon him moment by moment keeps us living in the secret of the inner life.

Amazement is a result of the inner life.

The depths of God touch the depths of you and Christ will show you more and more of Himself. His glory will be more evident in everyday moments because we are looking for Him in all things. We will see Him acting and moving in the smallest and greatest of ways. This awareness activates what we know of him and renews our mind. Worship or we could say “worth - ship” elevates the value of why we believe what we believe, worship esteems the person of Jesus. We may not always feel like worshipping but choosing to worship releases Christ in our lives. Worship is including Christ into our moments of life. Worship can produce an eternal value system which brings us back to the nature of who God is – and we learn what He values and we grow in what is important to Him. The Inner Life is an excerpt from “Inside Out,” a book Pastor Moore hopes to have published this summer.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY hannah-love shibley

THE SIGNS – AND WONDERS – OF CHURCH PLANTING Pastor Steve Andrulonis With content provided by Pastor Kim Shibley

Her car skidded to a stop.

The sound startled Kim Shibley and Bailey Norman, pastors of Greater Grace Christian Fellowship in Silver Spring, Md. At first, they took little notice of the driver, a woman, as she rushed from her vehicle.

The pastors were busy with sign detail on Medway Street. They had a few minutes to set the markers that pointed the way to their church’s meeting place – a rented elementary school situated deep in the cramped Highland neighborhood not far from the Washington, D.C., beltway. This was part of their mission as church-planters – “Putting out the signs – it’s one of the things I really like to do,” said Pastor Shibley.

The woman was on a mission, too. She snatched several signs, threw them into her car and sped away.

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“Hey, my signs, my signs!” Pastor Shibley remembered shouting as Pastor Norman scribbled down the last digits of the license plate and a description of the dark blue sedan.

There was good reason for Pastor Shibley’s distress. He will tell you that he believes in signs – “and wonders and miracles – because every church is a miracle.” His church’s location was a hidden one and the signs were vital to showing drivers the way.

“People saw them – because I am obnoxious about putting them out there; I like to set up a bunch together, like every 3 feet,” Pastor Shibley said with a laugh. “One Sunday morning, four new people came to the church because they saw our signs. I know they work.”

The mission to Silver Spring, about 45 miles south of GGWO’s campus in Baltimore, began in Sept. 2005. Pastor Matti Sirvio, now leading the Greater Grace team in Istanbul, Turkey, led a small group from Baltimore and soon established regular Bible studies and Sunday afternoon services in an underutilized Methodist church building. Meanwhile, Pastor Norman,

a Maryland Bible College and Seminary student at the time, teamed with Justin Schaller and dozens of other students on Saturday night sketch-board outreaches to the town’s center.

By late spring 2006, the ever-increasing number of contacts made it clear that a Greater Grace church was taking root in Silver Spring.

This realization came just as Pastor Sirvio was answering the call of God to go to the Muslim world and crafting the vision for Turkey.

Enter Pastor Shibley.

He had co-labored on Team Silver Spring since its beginning and actually had a longer history of ministry in the D.C. area. He had followed up on a small group that met for a season in a downtown Washington hotel.

This, however, wasn’t something he was looking for.

“I always feared being the leader of a church,” said Pastor Shibley. He was not new to the process of building a new church. He and his wife, Kayce, were members of the Nimes, France, mission team in 1982, the first permanent GGWO work in France.

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“Being the leader was just an uncomfortable position for me, but here we are,” said Pastor Shibley. “Really, I came to understand that there is no reason to put pressure on myself -- or on my team. If Christ does not draw people, if the Holy Spirit doesn’t do His work in people’s hearts, then they’re not coming and they’re not staying.”

Signs, in his mind are a necessity as well.

“You have to get your name out there,’ he said, “and this is what the signs did.”

Pastor Shibley’s daughter Hannah-Love crafted a simple definitive logo for the church and this logo went on the signs and everything else – tracts, mailings, letterhead, the website, and T-shirts. “This consistency works,” Pastor Shibley said. “A waiter in a restaurant saw the logo on my shirt and said, ‘I have seen your signs.’ That’s what I am talking about.”

ers are vigilant with follow-up visitation of those new to the assembly.

“Those things still really work in developing our connections,” Pastor Shibley said.

“However, I believe a new church has to have a website. The internet – people are on it at 3 a.m., they are on it at breakfast and lunch, they are on it at work when they probably shouldn’t be. It’s where today’s generation goes for its information. I think you have to be there.”

The Silver Spring church meetings have since been relocated to Sligo Middle School, a location that it not so hidden. But the signs still go up every Sunday.

And what became of those hijacked markers?

“We got them back,” Pastor Shibley said.

Just a week after the signs were grabbed, Pastor Shibley and Stephan Stein, (now Pastor of GGWO Berlin), made like “A waiter in a restaurant saw detectives and the logo on my shirt and said, cruised through ‘I have seen your signs.’ that’s the streets of Silver Spring. They what I am talking about.” soon located the Greater Grace Silver Spring got off to a car, knocked on a door, and came face-to-face solid start – its first Sunday morning service with the area’s “sign vigilante.” She denied havbrought out 17 people from the neighborhood. ing the church’s signs, but began complaining Some Sundays see more than 100 in attendthat such signs trashed her neighborhood and ance. “Sometimes we get even more than 100 admitted she wanted them gone.

– like when we have food,” Pastor Shibley said.

“We’re a church, I told her – what do you He attributes the steady attendance to tried want in your neighborhood, more crime? We and true practices. The Silver Spring team are here to help,” Pastor Shibley said. “And, oh, goes house-to-house knocking on doors in the you do have my signs.” neighborhoods; it maintains a consistent street Finally, the woman relented and instructevangelism schedule; and the pastors and leaded her daughter, “Go get his signs.” GG

ABOUT THE AUTHOR PAstor Kim Shibley Pastor Shibley has been a minister of the Gospel for over 28 years since his graduation from Stevens School of the Bible in Lenox, Mass., in 1982. Upon receiving his degree in Christian Leadership, Kim was bound for southern France where, with an international missionary team, he helped establish a Bible-believing Christian assembly, as well as a Bible College in Nimes. After four years in France, Kim returned to the U.S. and was an assistant pastor for seven years at the Glorious Gospel Church in Springfield, Mass.

In 1993, Kim and his family moved to the Baltimore area and became part of the local ministry of Greater Grace Church. Kim is currently the pastor of Greater Grace Christian Fellowship, a GGWO affiliated church in Silver Spring Md. Kim and his wife, Kayce, have been married since 1983 and have five children.

THE OUTDOOR BOOKSTORE PASTOR KIM SHIBLEY / The Outdoor Bookstore in Silver Spring began on June 2nd, 2012 and so far it has been a success.

Our desire is to get on the street with people and really big signs!

Jesus didn’t spend a whole lot of time inside buildings. He spent time on the streets and in the marketplace. That is where he met Jairus, and the woman with the issue of blood and many others.

Much of the setting of the Gospel story is outdoors. The Fenton Street Market in Silver Spring will be the focus of our summer outreach. Here we have the opportunity to meet numbers of people through their attraction to the market. We are offering new and used Christian Books, CDs and DVDs for sale. This outreach will give our ministry more exposure in Silver Spring as we pass out thousands of “coupons” which happen to have a saving message on the back. Who can tell what God will do? Maybe the folks we meet will be sitting next to us in church one day. I hope so.

The Outdoor Bookstore is not a money making venture, though we will do what we can to cover our costs. This is ministry, pure and simple. Let’s win the lost.

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Morocco

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The Bahamas

Mexico Cuba Jamaica

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PA C I F I C

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Tropic of Cancer

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Puerto Rico

Haiti

Cape Verde Gambia

Nicaragua Venezuela

Panama

Guyana Suriname French Guiana

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Greater Grace Churches Throughout

the World 65 countries 19 u.s. states 529 churches 14 / www.ggwo.org

WORLD

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Finland

Norway

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Denmark

Austria Austria

Switz.

Italy

Hungary

Croatia

Ukraine Moldova

Serbia

Albania

Tunisia

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Cyprus Lebanon Israel

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Iran

Iraq

Jordan

Cameroon

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Ethiopia Uganda Uganda

Rwanda

Dem. Rep. of Congo

Congo

Bangladesh

India

Oman

Japan

PA C I F I C

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Burma

Tropic of Cancer Laos Vietnam

Thailand

Philippines

Cambodia

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Central African Republic

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Eritrea

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Nigeria

Togo

Afghanistan

Qatar

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S. Korea

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Egypt

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Tajikistan

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1000 Km

A n t a r c t i c a

The Countries / • Albania–2 • Argentina–2 • Austria–1 • Azerbaijan–3 • Belize–1 • Brazil–2 • Benin–1 • Burkina Faso–11 • Canada–2 • Chile–2 • China–9 • Congo–8 • Czech Republic–1 • Ecuador–3 • Finland–8 • France–3 • Gabon–1 • Germany–3 • Ghana–38 • Guyana–1 • Haiti–15 • Hungary–11 • India–78 • Ireland–1 • Israel–1 • Italy–1 • Ivory Coast–30 • Jamaica–1 • Kazakhstan–1 • Kenya–18 • Kyrgyzstan–3 • Liberia–25 •Lithuania–1 • Malaysia –1 • Mali –1 • Mexico–3 • Moldova–2 • Mozambique–1 • Nepal–22 • Niger–1 • Pakistan–9 • Peru–8 • Philippines–43 • Poland–6 • Puerto Rico–1 • Romania–4 • Russia–8 • Rwanda–1 • Somalia–1 • South

Africa–2 • South Korea–2 • South Sudan–2 • Sweden–1 • Switzerland–1 • Tajikistan–1 • Tanzania–2 • Thailand–2 • Togo–14 • Turkey–1 • Turkmenistan–2 • Uganda–32 • Ukraine–6 • United Kingdom–3 • United States of America–48 • Uzbekistan–1 • Zambia–7 usa / Alaska–1 • Connecticut–2 • Florida–3 • Illinois–1 • Indiana–1 • Kentucky–1 • Louisiana–1 • Maine–3 • Maryland–8 • Massachusetts–4 • New Hampshire–2 • Nevada–1 • New Jersey–1 • New York–6 • Ohio–2 • Pennsylvania–9 • Tennessee–1 • Virginia–1 As of June 2012 greater grace annual 2011 /

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CATCHING THE VISION

Pastor Steve Andrulonis PHOTOGRAPHY BY Istvan Pirger ©iStockphoto.com/slobo

Justin Grabowski heard his name, paused for a moment and went back to eating his breakfast.

Again, Justin’s name came up as Pastor Kevin Cooper addressed the Saturday morning Outreach gathering at Greater Grace’s Fellowship Hall.

“And Justin Grabowski is going to start a Christian Sports Club in the Radecke area,” said Pastor Cooper, GGWO’s Outreach Director, for all to hear. He was putting this young Bible College student on the spot.

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It worked.

Justin, preparing to enter his second year at Maryland Bible College and Seminary, hadn’t been thinking that way at all. “Maybe I just wasn’t thinking,” Justin said with a laugh.

The idea had his attention now and before long, Justin said, he just “took it as being from God.” He threw himself into the surprise assignment and found a ready harvest field in a neighborhood located just minutes from the Greater Grace Church campus in East Baltimore.

“There was just a great response right away,” Justin said.

He soon had 20 kids signed up for his flag football team. The effort snowballed, Justin said, once a couple had joined the team, they were leading Justin from door to door in Radecke, calling out their friends to the Sports Club.

“I was really overwhelmed at how the Lord moved this way,” Justin said. “I wasn’t doing a whole lot – the kids were building our team on their own. I followed along.”

It is this kind of replication that brings joy to an Outreach director’s heart.

“Justin is the newbie, the rookie, in all of this; we’ve had guys working their fields for years and this is what we see in every place,” said Pastor Cooper. “God has been faithful to use all of our outreaches. The Sports Clubs, the visitation programs, the soul-winning blitzes, our summer concerts – they all work together.”

The Radecke story began in the summer of 2011. Ever the strategist, Pastor Cooper determined to concentrate the Greater Grace outreach forces in one locale two evenings a week for several weeks during June, July, and August.

The results were remarkable. Many people knew about Greater Grace and even had attended events at the church such as the Easter plays. Now, they were being reacquainted with the church, and they we’re making the effort to come.

“I can’t remember a more fruitful summer in terms of the number of people who really did visit our church,” Pastor Cooper said.

“And it was a place just around the corner.”

The Greater Grace outreach army features a ready supply of foot soldiers who enlist in serving the kingdom of God on Saturday mornings. The group is more than 200 strong and guided by area leaders.

These faithful units minister faithfully and effectively because the commitment to outreach starts at the leadership level with Greater Grace. Every Saturday begins with an area leaders’ meeting followed by a time for testimonies and encouragement with Greater Grace’s senior pastor Tom Schaller. Often, Pastor Schaller will reinforce the principles and techniques of evangelism, giving reminders on how to engage people on the street and at their doors.

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WHY OUTREACH?

“i can’t remember a more fruitful summer in terms of the number of people who really did visit our church.”

The Christian Sports Clubs are one of the more engaging and visible elements of the Outreach movement. These clubs have proven effective because they capitalize on a key characteristic of Baltimore culture -- a passion for sports.

In the bigger picture, however, the Sports Clubs address one of the city’s major social dilemmas: fractured families. Census statistics show that fewer than 10 percent of households in Baltimore City consist of married couples and their children. Among the poorer neighborhoods, there exists an almost 90 percent rate of fatherless-ness. Dads just aren’t around in these communities.

“I think the kids want to belong to something,” Justin said. “Watching them respond to love and investment from the Word of God has radically changed my life.

It’s everything about Bible College being put into action.”

In addition to Justin’s Radecke group, GGWO Sports Clubs operate in Somerset under Glen Simpkins, in Perkins under Pas-

tor Fred Aruda, in Parkside under brothers David and Daniel Post, in West Baltimore under Pastor Steve Peragallo, in North Highlandtown under Richard Karper, in Essex under Paul Boucher, and in Chinquapin under Ben Munson.

A number of the Radecke Sports Club members now attend Greater Grace’s teen meetings. Justin, whose life was transformed as a teenager growing up in Malta, N.Y., crowds five or six into his compact car on Saturday nights, bringing them to where they can sit under the Bible teaching of Pastor John Love and the Youth Ministry.

“Being a part of all of this has been so special for me,” Justin said. “The work Christ has done in my life through this -- I can’t put it into words, I am so thankful for it all.”

Another thing added to Justin’s life was a trophy. The Radecke squad, under coach Justin, captured the Christian Sports Club flag football championship in its first year of competition.

Victories in Jesus all the way around. GG

Her smile was the brightest thing to be seen on Monument Street. It was nearly noon, but for a few moments Thelma seemed to outshine the sun on this May day.

She clutched a Greater Grace tract given to her and listened politely as she was asked, “Do you have a relationship with the Savior, Jesus Christ?”

“I do know Jesus,” Thelma said. “And I know about your church.”

Thelma has a story and she was more than ready to share it. Eighteen years ago, she had been on this same street near Baltimore’s Northeast Market, a neighborhood known as “Middle East” to those who police the area for the drug-driven criminal culture that sparks fits of violence.

On that day 18 years ago, Thelma came to this same street for her fix of crack cocaine. She says she was high when she met two people from Greater Grace and told them she needed to eat.

They bought her a meal and then asked if they could pray for her.

Thelma said, “Yes.” When the prayer was finished, she went her way – with a lot on her mind. “I didn’t become a believer right then,” Thelma said. “Three weeks later, though, I did get saved. I got off drugs and started serving the Lord.”

Clean and sober for 18 years now, Thelma said she found a church in the McEldery area near Monument Street and has been a part of it ever since.

She also made this plea: “You all need to keep doing what you are doing because there are more like me out here.”

Understanding the reality of what Thelma said, Greater Grace has opened the Lighthouse Counseling Center just a half-block off of Monument Street. Led by experienced addiction counsellors such as Pastor Steve Scibelli and Pastor Fred Ellis, the center will serve those seeking help at no charge.

Community leaders recognizing the problems around them have welcomed Lighthouse and have provided a rent-free space in a neighborhood service center.

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CHRISTIAN EDUCATION And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12) Effective Christian education is a relationship among a student’s three vital supports – family, church, and school. At Greater Grace Christian Academy, we think of these supports

roll their child in GGCA, I am looking for the presence of the two legs that are outside of the school’s influence – church and family.

The primary responsibility for a child’s education is the family. In Deuteronomy 6: 6-7, God tells parents, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit effective christian education in your house, when you walk by the way, is a relationship among when you lie down, a student’s three vital and when you rise up.”

God charges parents to supports — family, church, transmit the knowledge and school. and values necessary for a successful, godly as the three legs of a stool. If any one of the life, not only in word, but also in deed. God legs is weak or missing, the student’s education wanted his people to educate their children so becomes unstable and rendered less effective. that they would not forget Him and His comWhen I interview a family that wants to enmandments and forfeit God’s blessing.

When I am interviewing parents, I am hoping for evidence that they recognize their accountability to be the principal educators of their children. When parents enroll their children in a Christian school, they are delegating some of the duty for educating their children, but paying tuition does not mean that they can abdicate their parental responsibility for their children’s education. Yes, the classroom teacher has the time and the tools to help a child learn what is required, but the teacher can never replace or have as much of an impact on a child’s education as parents do.

Parental attitudes, expectations, and role modeling are incredibly powerful. Children from homes where education is valued and taken seriously usually work hard both in school and at home. A parent who tells her child that he has inherited her “bad math brain” increases the likelihood that her son will be convinced he cannot succeed in his mathematics classes. Parents who read with

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEN LYNCH

Daniel Dunbar

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and around their children often have children the convictions and beliefs of the family, is who are better, more willing readers. A parent important. No school will be the 100 percan do much to strengthen or undermine his cent perfect fit for any one child, and a good child’s chances of educational success.

Christian school will tell parents up front if The second leg of our three-legged stool they believe that they are not the right school analogy is the church. Over the years, I have for a student. As a principal, I must abide by heard many parents profess that the Body of Greater Grace Christian Academy’s mission Christ was crucial in the upbringing of their statement and recognize our limitations as a children. The church is a source of Chris- school. We can accept only those students who tian education with its Sunday school, junior meet our mission, ones that we can properly church, summer camp, and other youth pro- serve. This requires prayerful deliberation by grams designed for age appropriate instruction our admissions team. in the Word of God. Again, this kind of in- Ecclesiastes 4 speaks of a three-fold cord. struction is a parental obligation and expect- Like the stool, this symbol also suits the ing the church to be the sole source of such GGCA philosophy of Christian education. instruction is dereliction of one’s parental The cords of family, church, and school interduty. Parents must obey the mandate of Deutwined imply a cooperative relationship that teronomy 6 and be living, breathing epistles creates an exponential increase in strength, for their children to emulate. strength we all need to bind our hearts and At a parent interview, I am looking for minds together in mutual love for our great signs that parents have a strong relationship purpose – to transmit the knowledge and valwith their local church, not only to provide ues that will draw them into a personal relatheir children with biblical teaching, but also tionship with Jesus Christ and equip them for to serve as a source of encouragement and as- both time and eternity. GG sistance for them as parents and a family. In Daniel Dunbar is principal of Greater Grace this respect, the local assembly becomes the Christian Academy. “church family” complementing the family unit and sustaining it when the inevitaecclesiastes 4 speaks of a ble trials and storms come.

Ephesians three-fold cord. like the 4:4-6 says, “There stool, this symbol also suits is one body and one the ggca philosophy of Spirit, just as you were called in one christian education. hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” A family needs its church family to lean on in its hours of need. Likewise, a family needs to be part of their church family so that other families experiencing hardships can lean on them.

For families that choose to homeschool their children, these first two legs of the educational stool are vital, and the third leg of the stool, the Christian school, is integrated into the family leg. For those who cannot homeschool, the Christian school serves as the third leg, and finding the right school, the one that meets the needs of a child and complements

GREATER GRACE ANNUAL The Greater Grace Annual is a publication of Greater Grace World Outreach.

Editor / Steve Andrulonis Designer / Hannah-Love Shibley Typesetting / Susan May Print Oversight / Bruce May Project Coordinator / Brian Lange Greater Grace World Outreach is a Biblecentered ministry that encourages individuals and families in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We preach the Gospel and the whole counsel of God from a Finished Work perspective. We are a Christ-centered church that believes and practices the cardinal doctrines of the faith.

Our mission is to propagate the Gospel of Jesus Christ locally, nationally, and internationally; to teach, in word and deed, those within our sphere of influence; and to practice and promote a Christian lifestyle.

Established in Baltimore in 1987, GGWO has been training men and women in the ministry of the Gospel ever since and reaches out to places in the city and around Maryland. Affiliated congregations are located in the Dundalk and Hampden neighborhoods of Baltimore and in the towns of Westminster, Silver Spring, and Havre de Grace.

GGWO Baltimore also serves as home base to a network of affiliate churches throughout the U.S. and the world. Our primary resources for assisting these self-governing and self-sustaining congregations are Maryland Bible College and Seminary and the Grace Hour talk radio program. MBCS offers a strong Bible Studies curriculum with an emphasis on leadership development and church-planting skills; it features an experienced, available, and capable faculty. The Grace Hour broadcasts daily from its studios in Baltimore and reaches thousands every day over the airwaves and through the Internet.

GGWO Senior Pastor/Presiding Elder Thomas Schaller Elders Steven Scibelli, Vice Chairman John Love, Secretary Bruce Wright John Hadley Glen Cannon Kim Shibley Sr.

Trustees Robert Colban, Chairman Michael Williams, Vice-Chairman Peter Taggart, Secretary Jomy Antony Brian Lange

Call 410-483-3700 / Visit www.ggwo.org

©iStockphoto.com/Fred-D

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The Thirsty Land Pastor Steve Andrulonis With content provided by Kevin Cooper

ghana / Kevin Cooper wondered aloud at the sight of the fortress-like structures lining one of the roads outside Accra, Ghana.

High, thick walls topped with razor and barbed wire surrounded a number of residences.

“What are these places?” asked the pastor in Africa for the first time.

“That is where the American missionaries live,” he was told.

The answer stunned Pastor Cooper at first.

Soon, however, he was smiling and scheming with the other members of the Ghana exploratory mission led by Pastor Steve Scibelli. He was smiling because he knew that the mission team he was a part of was not going to lock itself away behind gates and bars. And, he was scheming about all the ways to touch Ghanaians with the Gospel message.

Pastor Cooper has always been about outreach – he directs the Outreach Department of Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. Hitting the city’s streets with a variety of approaches from good, old-fashioned door-knocking to sports clubs for kids and summertime open-air concerts, he has guided a systematic invasion of enemy territory for the Lord.

The seeds of Pastor Cooper’s outreach passion took deep roots during this African adventure. In Ghana, he now saw a harvest field so very ripe. . If other missionaries stayed holed up in their compounds, then the needy nation before them was going to be wide open.

This past January, Greater Grace celebrated 25 years of work in Ghana with a remarkable conference that brought together more than 1,500 from across Africa and Pastor Tom Schaller, the Senior Pastor for GGWO. It was a celebration of the faithfulness of God in West Africa specifically and in Africa as a whole.

Ghana officially became an independent republic in 1960. Since then, the country has endured growing pains related to corruption and military intervention, but has remained a stable – by West African standards – and well-administered country. Cocoa exports are an essential part of the economy; Ghana is the world’s second-largest producer.

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In this nation on West Africa’s Gold Coast, a man was stirred by the Word of God during the early 1980s. What he heard enflamed his heart. Emmanuel Coffie had received a Bible message tape. He listened to the tape again and again. He had to have more of this teaching from The Bible Speaks and its pastor, Carl H. Stevens Jr. Noting the American address on the tape case, Emmanuel dashed off a series of letters. He wanted more tapes and he prayed that God might send someone to Africa to spread the teaching of God’s mercy, love, and grace.

Pastor Coffie’s letters found their way to a desk in the Missions Office of the Bible Speaks, then based in Lenox, Mass., in the Berkshire Mountains of New England.

One day, Pastor Schaller, then the Bible Speaks Missions Director, handed the letters to Pastor Scibelli.

“Read these and tell me what you think,” Pastor Schaller said.

The Spirit of God moved Pastor Scibelli as he read the letters. Now, he knew his place. And, so the Lion of Africa was born. An Italian who had Italy on his mind was re-directed by God. Pastor Scibelli reached Africa for the first time with Pastor Cooper in 1986. The travelers worked hard to raise the cash needed for expensive airfare; travel to Africa was uncommon at the time and travel options were limited. They settled on a KLM flight from New York’s JFK Airport to Amsterdam. From there, they flew Air Afrique to Dakar in Senegal and then caught a small plane to Accra, the capital of Ghana.

The arrival at Accra was not one of pomp and ceremony. Letters had been sent, but there was no verification from the Ghanaians. Their plane from Dakar landed late in the evening and there was no one to greet them at the airport. The travelers huddled for an hour and prayed about what to do next.

during the night, the news of the americans’ arrival spread through the region from accra to tema. pastor scibelli and crew awoke and found nearly 200 people waiting outside the lodging house.

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Pastor Scibelli took out a card with the names of four potential contacts and looked for a taxi ride into the city. The last contact on the card read: Pastor John Jason of the Holy Ghost Deliverance Church. The cab driver knew the man and the place.

The Americans arrived at Pastor Jason’s home and experienced their first taste of Ghanaian hospitality. They were received warmly and with excitement and were taken to a nearby lodging house, where rooms were available for $7 a night.

The travelers were weary, but hopeful. By morning, the breadth and height of God’s work would be most evident.

During the night, the news of the Americans’ arrival spread through the region from Accra to Tema. Pastor Scibelli and crew awoke and found nearly 200 people waiting outside the lodging house.

The mission to Africa took off, immediately. Nightly Bible meetings attracted more and more people. The Holy Ghost Deliverance Church’s sanctuary soon was packed within and surrounded outside with people longing for the message of the Finished Work. Leadership sessions brought more than 100 men who desired instruction in the Word of God. This thirst for learning the Bible and for the teaching of God’s amazing grace goes on and on. There are now 38 GGWO affiliated churches in Ghana and more than 194 in 21 countries throughout Africa. Planned missions initiatives on the continent will soon target Malawi and Zimbabwe.

As Pastor Jason once wrote in a newsletter, “Our God, as I always say is a missionary God. David Livingstone said ‘God had only one Son and He made that son a Missionary.’

“Our great bible is a missionary BOOK. The Finished work gospel and the GRACE message is a missionary message. The church which is the body of Christ is a missionary institution. Every member of the church of Jesus Christ is a missionary.

“BIBLE COLLEGE is an investment in the divine promises of God. We need men and women of vision, wisdom, courage, patience, sincerity and humility to take this missionary message to the whole world. These qualities and others must be acquired and developed before the missionary ever sets his or her foot on foreign soil of another country.” GG PHOTOGRAPHY BY Matt Sliva

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The Perfection of Truth Pam Greaves

China / “The more I hear about the Bible, the more I think it’s perfect,” said Vera softly as we sat on a park bench in a quiet corner of the beautiful college campus with her friend Rochele and my friend Laura. Not wanting to disturb the work of the Holy Spirit that was stirring her heart, I replied in an equally soft tone, “Because it is. It’s Truth.”

Vera and Rochele are two insignificant young women in the big picture of this world.

By sight they are just two college students among the tens of thousands on that campus; among millions in that city; among more than a billion people in that country. But God! And all of Heaven rejoiced as their names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

What a blessing it was to spend 17 days in December 2011 with some GGWO friends in China. They were days packed with activity – Bible studies; church services; lunches with new friends and disciples; tea in the afternoon with other new friends; and then dinner before Bible college class with yet another friend. All of them had many good questions about the Bible, God, Jesus, and what it means to be a Christian. I shared so many Bible doctrines that I lost my voice! It was amazing what the Holy Spirit poured out of me; and I smiled inwardly as I realized this is the fruit of spending years in MBC&S, Greater Grace Church in Baltimore, and countless raps and outreaches.

Sandy is a believer and a gatherer. She is also a student on the same college campus and she fellowships with our team in that city. One day she brought six young women to Laura’s house to meet me for lunch. Laura bought take out Chinese food. The six guests are all English majors and come from many diverse parts of China. Soon they will graduate and return to their hometowns to become English teachers. They were excited to meet an American (native English speaker) who had years of experience of teaching English. After the lunch we all took seats on Laura’s sofas and I began with my personal testimony. I told them that the meaning and purpose of my life is Jesus Christ. I was an ordinary girl from a small town, like them, but God has taken me to more than 20 countries to tell people about His salvation.

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Our lively discussion lasted for three hours. They asked about, “Why does God allow evil?” “What is Heaven like?” I was an ordinary girl from What is the purpose a small town, like them, of man?” At 3:00 but God has taken me to more they regretfully had than 20 countries to tell to leave for a class. people about His salvation.

Laura and I invited them to a Bible college class on the Gospels that Pastor Joseph was teaching that evening.

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All six came and brought two more new people with them!

A week later we met this same group of girls again for lunch at Laura’s apartment.

They shopped on the way and brought a lot of good fresh food and prepared our lunch this time. The kitchen was full of fun and laughter as they cooked and shared more thoughts and questions from our discussion the previous week. After the meal I told them a parable from Mark 14 about the woman who poured an alabaster box of ointment on Jesus. Jesus said in verses 8-9, “She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

I asked them, “Why do you think He said that? Why do you think Jesus said this woman would be remembered?” The answers were surprising. One girl said, “He wanted to help her save face after she caused such a scene.” Another thought, “Maybe He was flirting with the woman!” One said, “He was just being kind.”

These young women are very clever and after a few moments they understood that God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

Their conversation quieted and all eyes turned toward me.

“For many years, I used to focus on the first part of what He said,” I answered. “She

did what she could. You’re all English teachers.

This sentence has just three simple parts.

“I thought, certainly Jesus wasn’t interested in what ‘she’ was; her position in society, or wealth, fame or such worldly things. Also, He isn’t impressed with our abilities- the ‘could’.

For, He created her and gave her whatever ability she has. For years, I thought He was pleased with the verb, the action -because she ‘did’ something for Him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR PAM GREAVES God sent Pam to Russia on her first mission trip in 1992; just a few years after her children were grown and her husband had gone home to be with the Lord . As she wrote in her missionary journal, Coffee with God, “I knew then how God would use the rest of my life.” After several more short-term mission trips to Russia, she accepted an administrative position in the office of a Campus Crusade Bible College and moved to Moscow in 1996. “The very first Sunday I was in Moscow, other missionaries took me to the Greater Grace Church.”

In 1999, after finishing her commitment to Campus Crusade, Pam returned to

“But the longer I serve Him and the more I get to know Him, the more I think that He said she would be remembered simply because she was used in the plan of God. He knew He was very soon going to die on the Cross for our sins.

“To be used in the plan of God; to become a part of His redemptive work on the Cross is the greatest way anyone can live their days here on this earth.” GG

Moscow and served there as a Greater Grace missionary until the fall of 2000. She then spent one year in Baltimore earning her TESOL Certificate. She returned to Moscow the summer of 2001 and served there until July of 2003 when she moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan and served on a team led

by Pastor Matti Sirvio.

Pam returned to Baltimore in the fall of 2005 and graduated from MBC&S in 2006 with a Bachelor of MissionsTESOL diploma.

Since then she has made several short term mission trips to Turkey, Romania, Nepal and China. She plans to resume fulltime missions this fall in the Far East.

Copies of her book, Coffee with God, a missionary journal of Nepal, are available in the Book Cafe and from Pam.

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Night School for Truth Seekers Pastor Steve Andrulonis

paris / Institut Theologique du Soir – an elegant, almost regal title to the ear when heard in French. Yet, when translated, the phrase reveals its decidedly simple meaning – Theology Institute in the Evening.

Night School for Truth Seekers is what it is. And, this is exactly what Pastor Michel Texier and the Eglisse Evangelique de la Grace of Paris had in mind when founding the institute in 1994. ITS holds as its primary purpose the reaffirmation of the total authority of the Word of God. Students come and are equipped with a complete, balanced training that provides a deep knowledge of the Bible and a clear understanding of Christian doctrine.

Nowhere, perhaps, is this needed more than in Paris and the nation of France. For centuries now, the power of human reason spawned in the Enlightenment Age before the French Revolution has gripped the political, social, and religious character of this country.

The concepts of Martin Luther and John Calvin were at first received by some, but others resisted, often violently, before the Reformation’s roots could find depth in France. Therefore, many turned to natural philosophies and the empty promises of worldly “liberty, fraternity, and equality.”

“The world lives in the lies,” said Pastor Texier in delivering the keynote address at the commencement exercises for Maryland Bible College and Seminary to the Class of 2012 last May in Baltimore.

Pastor Texier has observed this reality in the city that often sets the tone for fashion and the spirit of the age. He warned the MBC&S graduates of a particular brand of lie -- flattery.

“Flattering words are words that give just part of the truth,” Pastor Texier said in his address.

“We have a message; a message that is not there to flatter people. We tell all the truth to exalt Christ.”

Parisien society promotes the image of polish and smooth living. But, as Pastor Texier put it, this is “a slippery way” that seems easy and accessible.

ITS draws those seeking another way, the way of practical training in Bible doctrine.

These faithful ones come from a diversity of

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“FLATTERING WORDS ARE WORDS THAT GIVE JUST PART OF THE TRUTH. WE HAVE A MESSAGE; A MESSAGE THAT IS NOT THERE TO FLATTER PEOPLE. WE TELL THE TRUTH TO EXALT CHRIST.” French-speaking backgrounds. The institute’s enrollment of 167 this past year included Africans, Haitians, Belgians, French Carribeans, and Swiss. Nearly 90 percent of them are from ministries unconnected to Greater Grace.

“We’ve been blessed to see how the Finished Work orientation of the teaching we have in GGWO actually has a deep impact on people and, especially on pastors and leaders who come for training,” said Pastor Philippe Serradji, the director of ITS. The ITS program is divided into four parts: • On-campus evening classes at night, so people can work and have Bible training • Distance learning acquired through using mp3 downloads of the complete ITS catalog • Off-campus programs that feature video classes and an ITS teacher visits to partner

churches throughout France.

• And, the Pastoral School dedicated to serving men in ministry with specific training on several Saturdays through the year.

This latter category is particularly important to the ministry of ITS, explained Pastor Serradji. Church leaders are instructed in areas both practical and spiritual. Students get intense teaching in sermon preparation and delivery, administrative practices and counseling essentials, as well as sessions in ministerial ethics, the theology of grace, and the premises of healthy church life.

“Beyond the classes and teaching opportunities,” Pastor Serradji said, “we see real discipleship on a deep level with people who hear the message and want to apply it and make changes in their own churches.” GG

Institut Theologique du Soir is located at 2 rue Nollet 75017 in Paris. To find out more about ITS go to www. itsparis.org on the web, or email ITS at its@itsparis.org.

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AROUND THE WORLD In INDIA, Orissa is a state tucked away on the east coast of India; a state known, not only for its culture and minerals, but also for being known in Christian circles as the “most persecuted state.” Greater Grace Fellowship had taken a few mission trips over the last decade into this state, in deep need for the Gospel. On one of the mission trips, Pastor Karl Silva and a team of five men were arrested for five days for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since then, the burden to reach out to the state has been even greater on their hearts.

In 2008, we met Pastor Pradeep Lima, a Bible College graduate, with a heart for this state. From that humble beginning, the Greater Grace Church has now grown to a church of 50 believers and the Bible School now is training nine missionary preachers, with churches of their own in different parts of Orissa. It is awesome to see how God is working in amazing ways in the lives of the believers. There are nine affiliated churches in Kandhamal and surrounding areas.

One of the preachers, Santosh, has a church near Rayagada. Santosh heard the Gospel on the radio and accepted the Lord. Once he proclaimed his faith, the villagers took away his wife and excommunicated him from his 1-year-old daughter. Despite many attempts, they would not return his wife and she eventually decided to leave him. Since then, there have been three attempts on his life all because of his faith in Jesus.

But glory to God, he was never hurt! Santosh has now married a beautiful believer and lives in a village close to Rayagada.

In visited his home, one notices a particular place in his house where you can speak on a mobile phone. This is the only place in the entire village where there is network coverage! Just last month, as Santosh was coming back after a semester of Bible School, his wife called saying, “Don’t come home, the villagers are planning to attack you!” Imagine the provision of God! The only place of network coverage is in his home!

The vision is to have at least one Greater Grace church in each of the 26 districts of Orissa and by God’s grace maybe even more!! The church and the missionaries need your support and prayers for the God given vision to be fulfilled in this state. ····· More than 30 faithful disciples were soul-winning and having fun in western THAILAND last month. It was the annual “Family-Fun Blitz” in Pob Phra.

One young lady said to Pastor Michael Walsh, “I have been in a couple of Thai churches for the last 10 years. I tried to be a good Christian, but sometimes it was just too hard. This is my first full semester of Bible school and my first soul-winning adventure out of Bangkok. I had so much fun!

Wow! I want to do more soul-winning. I love it! I feel a power from God. I feel accepted by God. I want everybody to have what I have, now.” ····· Pastor Kornél and Ani Balasz report , Sfantu Gheorghe in the Transylvania region of ROMANIA, that the ice broke and this new baby church made a step toward growth. Members have started to look at this church as their spiritual home and prayer life has become intense (daily, weekly).

The tense, standoffish, cold atmosphere before and after services is starting to dissolve and by the work of the Word and Grace the body is becoming more hospitable. “We see and hear that people invite each other to their homes, small prayer groups form, there is care towards each other and they recognize the needs of others and help if they can.” ·····

Several hundred believers from across Europe and the world gathered in Budapest, Hungary, for Eurocon 2012 in March.

In St Marc, HAITI, Pastor Bill & Cheryl Cannon have a day each week where a group go house-to-house doing evangelism. Sometimes, they enter the poorest of homes and though the people have so little as far as material things are concerned, they will have a Bible in the house. People are eager to hear about Jesus. The Haitians have a saying, “Bondye se bon.” This translates, “God is good.” “Amen” to that! ····· In the Volta Region of GHANA, there are now three churches in the district Kpando, Tave, Kudzra, and one church in Hohoe is about an hour’s drive from Kpando. There is also a new church in the area of the The Children of Grace orphanage at Sovie in the Volta Region of Ghana. The vision is to plant approximately one new church every year.

Pastor Agbemafle Anthony spoke of persecutions in some of the outreaches. While soul-winning with his family, those in a village became angry and insulted the family, saying they were lazy that’s why we were holding Bibles and roaming about in the villages without doing anything. Pastor Anthony’s daughter told them Jesus loves them and with that saying the villagers started beating her. The reason was that none should call on the name of Jesus in that village. The angry mob all gathered around the family and started to beat them, too. A government assemblyman intervened and sent the family away.

Rather than report the case to the police, Pastor Anthony went to the village chief to apologize and asking his forgiveness for the incident.

Seeing the family’s humility, the chief commanded the village gong to be sounded to inform the community to accept Greater Grace Church preachers and allow them to preach anytime they come to the village.

Twenty one souls gave their lives to Christ and they are regular members in the church that has been planted. Pastor Anthony declares, “God does His things in His own perfect ways.” ····· In Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of CONGO - Pastor Isaac Saidi Marce says, “God has been so faithful to us in Kinshasa as far as spiritual warfare and challenges go in establishing of the ministry. The Congolese people are always hungry and thirsty for God’s Word, they love hearing, worshiping and serving God, but they are not rooted in the

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teaching of the Finished Work of Christ. That keeps us motivated in laying down our lives so that our brethren may have a true knowledge of who God is and grow in the Grace of God.” ····· In Cotonou, BENIN, Paul and Laety Lipsett write the team’s soul-winning commitment.

Twice a week, the team hits the streets as a church, letting the Light shine before men.

Tuesdays are more a time of personal face-toface evangelism and visits; Saturday evenings, the Sketchboard comes to the neighborhood.

People are very curious and attracted by new things and by crowds in Benin and so sometimes there are so many who stop to watch that the road becomes blocked – as many as 100 stop at one time! ····· In Pretoria, SOUTH AFRICA - Tlhoki Sebothoma tells of a broadened vision for the women’s ministry with a ladies’ rap, early every Friday morning for about 45 minutes. There is also a vision to start a girl’s Bible study in Nellmapius, please pray for that. God is adding ladies in the church, and we are just overjoyed with what God is doing!

There is a vision to start an outreach in Hatfield, a student area in Pretoria and one of the devil’s strongholds in the city. Drugs, drinking, and all sorts of activity go on in Hatfield. There is evangelism there every Friday night. The police have been warning not to do it any longer because we apparently have to get a permit to hand out literature and speak to people. Until a permit is granted, the team will be viewed as criminals for sharing the Gospel! ····· In Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL, narrow cement stairways form a maze through the shantytown dwellings that are drilled into the granite hillsides all along the sprawling city. Pastor Cliff Vincent is the man of God who lives on “the Hill of the Goats” above the beaches of Rio and right under the tallest of the granite monoliths, where perhaps the most famous statue of Christ in the world looks down upon the nightly Bible studies. Pastor Cliff has already knocked twice on each door (there are hundreds and hundreds of them) on “his hill” and knows many of the families. He and his wife, Marcia, are pioneering in Rio de Janeiro.

They need your prayers.

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God’s Hilarity PASTOR BRUCE MOON / Leda has been in our church for three years now. We were laughing at our fellowship supper today at God’s sense of humor. She, like most of us, is one of the most unlikely Christians. Raised with secular Jewish intellectual parents in Santiago, Chile, Leda like most Latin Americans with her upbrining, joined the Communist Party of Chile and rode the wave of socialist euphoria and dreams of proletarian paradises with he election of Communist Salvador Allende in the 70’s. Those dreams went up in the flames of the the U.S.-backed violent coup of Gen. Pinochet and the subsequent massacre of thousands of Communist activists by the Chilean military.

Leda and her husband, Max, President of the University of Chile, fled Chile for their lives and ended up, like many political refugees, in Mexico. Like many political refugees we have known, and even though the Mexican government did their best to provide homes and jobs, the emotional trauma of the violence and of losing everything took its toll over the years on Max in the form of chronic diabetes. Eventually he had to stiop working due to ill health and they fell into poverty and depression. Church members and neighbors of Leda found out about her dilemma and began to help. Twice or three times a week, they would come over and carry Max to the shower, bathe him, give shots, and help Leda with whatever she needed. She was shocked that perfect strangers would sacrifice so greatly for another perfect stranger, a foreigner to boot. She understood that it had something to do with their Christian faith. Her interest peaked.

Until she came to church. It wasn’t the friendly people, or slightly loud boisterous music, or Christian preaching that turned her off. It wasn’t even the exuberant praying and charismatic expressions that she hated. It was the pastor. Me. An imperialist gringo.

The ones partly responsible for the massacre of her comrades and the loss of their entire livelihoods, nation and family. A Jewish atheist Communist Chilean? Going to an evil Americano imperialist church? Never! So she thought.

“Irresistable grace” is the term Calvin used. She was called. Christ, through some humble believers, kept extending unconditional love to her. Compelled by love she would come back to church, and the Word did its work. She broke. A lifetime of cultural, intellectual, political and nationalistic prejudices and walls came crashing to the ground as Leda, impacted by a message, went home and wept and opened her heart to the Savior.... and a bit later, extremely reluctantly to her new gringo pastor.

Today we were practically rolling on the floor, laughing, as Leda recounted her recent trip to Chile and her visits with ex-comrades and family members who simply were in shock over her conversion to Christianity. The faces of shock and dismay she reinacted left us some great belly laughs. But the shocker for them was when she told them her pastor was an American. “A gringo? You? A gringo pastor??” The expressions were excruciatingly funny. We imagined that it is even more funny to God. Bruce Moon is the Pastor of Comunidad de Gracia A.C. in Mexico City, Mexico.

····· In PUERTO RICO, Cynthia Matthew says that recurring theme of her husband Pastor Julian’s messages has always been the need to

reach the lost. “Most who have walked alongside him for a few days will attest that he does his best to be ready in many situations to meet people and bring the topic of Christ into the

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conversation,” she said. “It has often been the unofficial encounters at stores or paying bills which have led to some of the more amazing stories of divine appointments rather than the official outreach activities, but in our training, we believe God calls us into obedience to both.” ····· In Tyumen, RUSSIA, Pastor Pavel & Marina Gaylans explain that there are many wonderful places in the world to visit and Siberia is one of them. What shall you find there? Open people for the Gospel, opportunities to reach different groups of people, an amazing church of disciples who love to serve. About 100 people, including children, come to Sunday service in Siberia. Other activities are mid-week services, different discipleship groups for men and women, a Bible Institute (we now have online classes since the beginning of September), English classes, sports and sauna fellowships, youth music band, street soul-winning, and a ministry in two orphanages and a state homeless shelter. Once a month we have some kind of celebration during the church service to have a lot of joy and to draw new people. This past semester at Bible Institute we welcomed two new students from GGWO in Tajikistan, Rustam and his daughter, Mavjuda. ····· In Baku, AZERBAIJAN, a court on April 25 ordered Greater Grace Church to be liquidated – the first known closure of a religious community under the controversial Law on Freedom of Religion passed in 2009 as reported by Forum 18. This law requires the compulsory re-registration of all religious communities in Azerbaijan.

Greater Grace, legally registered since 1983, contends that it had no formal notice of the need to re-register – and no warning of impending legal action against it. The Azerbaijan authorities have long been suspicious of Christians, who make up less than three per cent of the population.

Please join with us in speaking out and praying for churches in Azerbaijan, so that the authorities there realize they have nothing to fear from Christianity.

Please pray that Greater Grace Church’s appeal will be heard swiftly and be successful and that Christians in Azerbaijan will put even greater trust in God, the source of their strength (2 Samuel 22:33). President Aliev and his Gov-

Nepal - Land of Opportunity On the first weekend of October there was a GGWO Leadership Conference held in Kathmandu, Nepal. Twenty Pastors and leaders from village churches of Nepal that study at the Missionary Training Center in Kathmandu attended. They brought with them all the church members that could make the trip, their wives, and over 50 youth. Those that traveled long distances slept at the church. The men slept on the roof and the women and children slept in the church. Pastor Karl Silva came from Mumbai, India to be the main speaker. His messages were about taking every opportunity to share the Gospel.

These people are excited about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They have a vision this year to put up a new building for the Missionary Training Center. Their goal is to train Pastors and missionaries to reach all of Nepal and plant a church in each of the 75 districts of that country.

There are opportunities for men to come to teach Bible College courses.

Hope Family Orphanage in Kathmandu has grown rapidly to 20 children and has started an academy. They began with two sections of classes. There is a pre-school/kindergarten for students five years old and under and a First/Second grade class for the older children. These eager students are learning to read and write in Nepali and English. They also study Math, Science, Music and a daily Bible class. There are opportunities to serve as helpers or teachers.

The Greater Grace Church of Pokhara is in their second year of GGWO Bible College Courses led by Pastor Narj Gurung. There are opportunities for men to come to teach Bible College courses. The church is growing and missionaries are welcome to come and teach the church discipleship, Body Life, church planting, Sunday school, Music Ministry, and Women’s Ministry. And there are plans to soon start a Christian school which will also create opportunities to serve as teachers and helpers at the school. If you are interested in any of these opportunities to serve God in Nepal, contact the GGWO Missions Office in Baltimore, Maryland (410-483-3700). “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). ernment will be true to their word and uphold religious freedom for all Azerbaijan’s citizens.

(Sources: Forum 18, Operation World). ····· In HUNGARY, as of March 1, A Biblia Szol’s status as an official church was terminated through constitutional changes made by the Hungarian Parliament. This new categorization means changes for a ministry that has operated for 20-plus years in the country.

Through these past two decades, the ministry has opened two schools. It has maintained consistent investment in the local and national community with groups that feed the poor, care for the elderly, operate homes for unwed mothers, and help children at risk. Faithful servants still reach thousands with the Gospel every year. Continue to pray for the churches in Hungary and their activities under these new parameters. GG

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2012 2013 EVENTS CALENDAR

Conferences and seminars are one way Greater Grace people stay connected to each other and to the Home church in Baltimore. Greater Grace Baltimore has named certain conferences as "International" and others as "regional".

These conferences are scattered among the 5 continents so that all of our churches worldwide have the opportunity to be with a Baltimore leader and other local churches to experience, in a limited way, the big Greater Grace picture. Though there are many local conferences and seminars held throughout the world by Greater Grace churches, this list is limited to those conferences to which Greater Grace Baltimore is committed to provide a Baltimore pastor as the conference speaker. More conferences and seminars can be found at ggwo.org/missions or on the many local church websites.

NORTH AMERICA CONFERENCES The times and dates of these regional conferences are to be announced. Stay tuned.

Cincinnati, OH – Pastor Bob Schwartz Indiana – Pastor Bruce Johnson Utica, NY – June – Pastor Kevin Lewis St Pete, FL – Pastor Moses Baldwn West Palm, FL – Pastor Dan Foster Marlboro, MA – June and October – Pastor Jim Morrison Springfield, MA – Pastor Don Benoit Enfield, CT – Pastor Paul Paradis Montreal, QUEBEC – Pastor James Dadidas

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AUGUST

JANUARY

07-11 08, 10 North East Asian Regional Conference MBC&S Spring Registration Seoul, Korea

13-19 Camp Life Youth Conference 21, 23 MBC&S Fall Registration

OCTOBER TBD Central Asia Regional Conference Series Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan

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26-27 New England Regional Conference Marlboro, MA

NOVEMBER 30-Dec 02 UK Regional Conference Latimer, UK

DECEMBER 27-29 Fitly Framed Conference Baltimore, MD

12-14 West Africa Regional Conference Ashaiman, Ghana

FEBRUARY 08-09 Marriage Getaway York, PA

MARCH 05-09 Eurocon International Conference Budapest, Hungary

MAY TBD India/Nepal Regional Conference Series Bangalore, India and Katmandu, Nepal

15-19 Latin American Regional Conference Lima,Peru

24-25 Grace Hour Banquet & MBC&S Graduation

JUNE 24-29 GGWO International Convention Baltimore, MD

WHAT IS HAPPENING AT GGWO maryland bible college and seminary Whether your spiritual needs are to train to be a missionary or to simply get to know the Bible more, we believe MBC&S is the place for you! Our method of classroom learning combined with practical training through utilizing your gifts, is the Biblical model and will be the best possible preparation for whatever path God leads you to.

Appy to MBC&S online / www.mbcs.edu

greater grace christian academy Greater Grace Christian Academy is a church-based K through 12 private school offering a Christ-centered curriculum taught by Spirit-filled teachers in a safe, supportive, small-school environment.

Learn more about GGCA / www.ggca.org

grace hour One of Christian broadcasting’s longest running interactive talk shows. Each weekday listeners participate on the air with host Pastor John Love and others in lively discussions. Bible questions are answered and important spiritual themes are explored during the hour-long broadcast.

Listen live / www.gracehour.org

grace media events Live coverage of several conferences and special events throughout the year.

Watch and listen live / www.ggwo.org

cafe/bookstore Books Published by GGWO on sale at the Cafe/Bookstore.

Thinking With God / Daily Devotional by Pastor Carl H. Stevens The Bible Speaks from the Throne / Daily Devotional by Pastor Carl H. Stevens Field Days / A Journal of the Church Plant in Budapest by Pastor Thomas Schaller Doctrine Monthly / Monthly Booklets by Pastor Carl H. Stevens and Thomas Schaller Greater Grace Annual / The Annual Magazine of GGWO

CONNECT WITH US ON GGWO.ORG

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