The STAR Winter '22-'23

Don K. Wiehe District Sectretary/ Treasurer

Something got their attention. Something became bigger and took precedence over everything in their life including family, work and personal concerns. These wise men from the east saw a brilliant star and they went on a several month journey on camelback to see the newborn king of the Jews. And when they saw the star they were filled with joy. The wise men were filled with joy before they saw Jesus face to face. They were filled with joy on the journey to see Jesus. I hope that you will fix your thoughts on Jesus and that this season as well in your life’s journey you will have joy! Inexpressible and glorious joy knowing that one day soon you will see him face to face. Your faith will become sight. Don’t let distractions be your focus but keep your eyes and your thoughts fixed on Him! Joy will be yours!

“When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

Matthew 2:10-11 NLT

“Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.”

Hebrews 3:1 NIV

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Philippians 4:8 NIV

“Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

1 Peter 1:8-9 NIV

Don

Pastor

We believe in the call to ministry. all Church Ministry majors!

Announcing SAGU tuition discount’s for ministry majors and credentialed AG ministers/missionaries and dependents:

All students living on-campus and are ministry majors receive 50% o tuition including all federal, state, and SAGU scholarships and grants have been awarded. Students must be seeing a bachelor’s degree in Ministry related degrees, enrolled full time and live on campus, and complete a FAFSA at www.studentaid.gov Details are at: www.sagu.edu/50

Lastly, All Assemblies of God credentialed ministers/missionaries and dependents receive discounts on tuition. Details are at:

Creating MOTION in San Antonio

“Honestly, I feel like this year has been our launch year again,” Pastor Nolan says. “We're seeing new faces every week. Many people are taking their first step in their relationship with God and next steps to grow in their faith. We've seen families strengthened and people finding their purpose. It's incredible how God is moving in each individual life.

“Our attendance was at least 50 percent higher in summer 2022 than in January-March. Easter Sunday attendance was 201, and we are currently averaging 90-100.”

Prior to planting Motion Church, Nolan and Abby had been on staff at several churches in student pastor roles. When they began considering transition to a different ministry role, Nolan says, “I knew church planting was something God had for our family in the future, but the when in that process can sometimes be hard to pin down.

“Our families are from South Texas and Oklahoma, and we wanted to get back closer to home, but what ministry role would I transition to? That was the question.”

While praying for direction, Nolan and Abby attended a CMN training conference. After speaking to several church planters at the conference, they knew it was time for them to begin the church planting process.

They felt God directing them to San Antonio. They had lived in the city before, loved the culture and people, and had lifelong friends there. In 2018, they moved and began the church planting process. Before Motion’s official launch, the church met in a few places, moving the location each time they grew: from Nolan and Abby’s apartment to one of the launch team member's houses, to a larger space at the University of Texas at San Antonio owned by the Chi Alpha college ministry.

In September 2019 the McLaughlins and their team launched Motion Church in a rented space in a movie theater with 155 people in attendance. Five months later they moved to a permanent location. “Because the new launch site was 15 minutes away in a different community, it was somewhat like launching again,” Pastor Nolan says. “Then three weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and shut us down.

“But looking back today, God has been incredibly faithful. The theater we had left was closed and never reopened. Had we not moved, we would have been without a meeting place.”

In addition to ministries for kids, youth, young adults and adult life groups, Motion Church is actively ministering to their community and beyond. During the Christmas season in 2021, the church provided a complete Christmas meal to 75 families (who did not attend the church). When the school shooting took place in Uvalde, Texas, 45 minutes from San Antonio, Motion Church partnered with the school district, city manager’s office, and an organization called Wondherful from Parkland, Florida, to provide 600 grief boxes to individuals suffering from the tragic loss of children and teachers. During the outreach, Pastor Nolan and Motion’s members had opportunities to talk to people, pray with them, and give them this tangible gift.

Pastors Nolan and Abby had witnessed this kind of tragic event before. They were on staff at a church in Florida near the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where the 2018 school shooting took place, and their church helped minister to families suffering from that heartbreaking loss.

Nolan and Abby’s vision for Motion Church is a place where people of every religious background, race, gender, and socioeconomic status can show up and feel not only welcomed, but also at home. Their prayer is that through a creative ministry approach, loving relationships, and the tearing down of traditional norms, the congregation at Motion Church will experience and be part of a special movement of God in San Antonio.

Pastor Nolan is a graduate of Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas.

Pastors Nolan and Abby McLaughlin and the congregation at Motion Church in San Antonio celebrated the church’s third anniversary in September 2022.

When I gave my life to Christ back in November of 1991, I had no idea how great a ride it would be. My parents divorced when I was 16 and I spiraled out of control. From being a kid who would cry for any reason, I became hard and bitter and confused. I hated life. I hated my parents and I certainly wanted nothing to do with God. From being a soft sensitive kid, I allowed the bitterness and unforgiveness to take control of me and I turned to drugs and alcohol to fill the void. Fast forward to today and I have now been clean for over 40 years. God set me free instantaneously and I’ve never looked back. When I gave my life to Christ He set me free from all the hurt, bitterness and drugs and the alcohol. I was a new man and my life changed forever. One of my first encounters I had with a Christian was with a man who had a word for me that he believed I was called to be a pastor. I still remember looking at him with a crazy look on my face, like what in the world are you talking about. What’s a pastor??? I had no clue what he meant and what he was talking about. Isn’t it awesome how God knows what’s deep inside of you even more than we do. His words came to pass many years later and I’ll talk about that shortly.

I have now been married for over 40 years to my beautiful wife Crystal. We really are best friends, and we have a great marriage. We have 4 children and 5 grandchildren, and we are incredibly blessed.

That man that prophesied over me that I would become a pastor came to pass. I have now been an Ordained Assembly of God pastor for over 25 years. In those 25 years I have served in many different areas. I also pastored multiple churches and planted two different churches. We truly love ministry and love God’s people.

We stopped pastoring 3 years ago as we sensed that there was a shift going on in what God was asking us to do. So we moved from California to the great state of Texas over two years ago and we have loved every second of being in Texas.

I am the men’s pastor at Cornerstone church in Conroe, with Pastor Jerry Frank. We love our pastors and our church body and my responsibility as being a men’s pastor has been a great blessing.

THE MIRACLE

Back on November 13 of 2021 I came home from speaking at our men’s meeting and as I was hanging out with my wife that morning, I told her that something didn’t feel right, in my body and I suddenly passed out. Crystal called 911 and during that time I came to, and I said everything was fine and I didn’t need the ambulance. (how dumb I know) The 911 operator said something does not sound right and you’ll be calling us back. A minute later I said to Crystal my head was in excruciating pain, so she called 911 again and the paramedics came and took me to Methodist hospital, in the Woodlands. Even though I have no recollection, I was alert and talking.

I was taken to ER for evaluation and they discovered that I suffered a severe (exploding) brain aneurysm and a stroke. We learned a lot about what a brain aneurysm is and what it means. Let me explain what a brain aneurysm is and give some of the medical statistics. A brain aneurysm is a bulge or ballooning in a blood vessel in the brain. “The risk of the aneurysm exploding is only one in 100 each year. But if it does blow up, (mine did) the chances of surviving are only one in two, and the odds of surviving without severe brain damage are only one in four. The survival rate of patients with ruptured brain aneurysms is approximately 60 percent, according to Brain Aneurysm Foundation.

As you can see, the chances of survival are low and having severe brain damage is very high.

So the doctors immediately rushed me into surgery and from surgery I went to ICU, where I stayed for the next 2 months. To this day, I still have no recollection at all, of that time. In the early days of being in ICU, I had 10 to 12 brain angiogram surgeries, I was intubated, put on a feeding tube and put on a catheter, which lasted for the next 5 months. I think one of the hardest things I went through, was experiencing being on the catheter, every day for those 5 months. Everywhere I went and everything I did I was tied to that catheter. I truly couldn’t wait for it to end. There were times when I thought I’d never get off it but PRAISE GOD I did!!!!

During my 2 month stay in ICU, I ended up losing 40lbs. I had to learn to talk, walk again and eat normally. There were so many miracles that took place during my stay in ICU but one particular story truly saved my life. I was going in for another surgery and as I was being wheeled in, the nurse suddenly stopped the doctor, who was going to perform the surgery and said if you do surgery on him right now, he will not make it because his oxygen levels are to low. If it were not for the boldness and wisdom, of the nurse, I would’ve died during that surgery. (how crazy to think a nurse would talk to a doctor like that

and that he would listen to her!!). Needless to say they delayed the surgery and that truly saved my life.

After my long stay, in ICU, I came home in mid-January, of this year. During the next many months I met with multiple nurses multiple times a week for physical and occupational therapy. It was excruciating at times. The healing took a lot of time and hard work but day after day and week after week, I slowly but surely kept getting better and better. I learned so much about being persistent and patient. All the hard work certainly paid off.

Fast forward to September 2022: I have gained all my weight back and then some. I have minimal memory loss, no speech or brain issues and I’ve have been off the catheter, for many months now. I am back to speaking/preaching and working at my job and most importantly, playing with my grandkids. Knowing that I should’ve died during this time has given me a greater perspective of how much I love the Lord, my family and how grateful I am to be alive. I am one blessed man.

Reverand Mike Green

Ministers & Churches Changes and Updates

Brandon Dague

Julian Danner Jr.

Courtney Garner

Oscar (Chiko) Guevara Jr. Kelly Hallford Aathira Haridas

Joshua Fernandez

Johnny Jonkhout Gretchen Kaiser

Kelsey McGilbert Miriam Mora

Jennifer Morales

Darrell Wickert Jr.

Andre Perez Diana Rackow Thomas Ramey Teresa VanSelous Derek Vasquez

Paul Miller

Tommy Afriyie

Upgraded to License Reinstated Transfers in Transfers

Alayna Jones

Travis Glass

Michael Darnell – Rocky Mountain District

Daniel Elguezabel – Southern California District

Aaron Flynn – West Texas District Cybelle Nelson – Minnesota District

Out

Lance Clark – North Texas District Jenny Elliff – Indiana District Jose Guerrero – North Texas District

New Churches General Council Affiliated

Donald Rowan

Eric Nelson – Minnesota District

Austin Rains – Kansas District Taylor Rains – Kansas District Tyler Roberts – New Jersey District

Rachael Guerrero – North Texas District Jennifer Kennedy – Oklahoma District Stephen Pendleton – Kentucky District

Anchor Church – Deer Park, TX | Lead Pastor: Stancle Williams

Gateway Fellowship Church Highlands (PAC) – San Antonio, TX | Lead Pastor: Jonathan Gann

Parent Church: Gateway Fellowship Church – San Antonio, TX

Victory Fellowship Assembly of God – Gregory, TX | Lead Pastor: Tom Parker

Redemption Church San Antonio – San Antonio, TX

The Christmas season should be joyous.

During my childhood and teen years, both sides of our family, Mom’s side and Dad’s side, were all Spirit Filled Believers, and attended A G Churches. What a blessing that was!

Christmas Eve was always at Mama and Papa’s house in Lamont, California, Dad’s side. The whole family was there, every Aunt, every Uncle, every Cousin and of course, Mama and Papa. Everyone arrived in the morning and we stayed into the night. No one wanted to leave. Presents were exchanged, but that was not what was important. It was being together, immensely enjoying being together. Besides, the presents were socks, flannel shirts and underwear! Mom and Dad got me fishing stuff!

Christmas Day was Mom’s side, at Grandma and Grandpa Jay’s house in Bakersfield, just a few miles from Lamont! It was almost a carbon copy of the day before. Everyone was there! Everyone loved each other and no one wanted to leave. Yep, stayed into the night!

Things have changed so much since the 50’s and 60’s! I look forward to meeting my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles in heaven. All but three of that bunch are home with the Lord! Just the cousins remain here. They are all grandparents and great grandparents and have their own families now with their own traditions. But when we do see each other those bonds and love from our early years are still there. Priceless!

Our world today is much more splintered. Family traditions are not nearly as common as in my early days. Not nearly enough people experience what I had growing up. Instead, relational pain for many makes Christmas a difficult time, some even wish it would just go away!

My family was so blessed. Very few people today get to experience what my family enjoyed. I realize now it was our relationship with Jesus Christ that made it all flow together so amazingly.

So, Seniors, we have the call and responsibility to bring people, especially family, into that relational sphere of love and the bonds of genuine care. So, you say, what am I getting at? Well, let’s do that this Christmas, by purposefully looking for people who need to be loved and not let the details and shopping pressures of Christmas blind us to the opportunities we have to share God’s love, the real purpose of Christmas.

There is a whole world out there, 8 billion people, maybe, just maybe, we all can make a difference in person’s life. What about another Senior? We all have so much to give that will not be wrapped and place under a tree!

Our Senior Summit is set. April 3-5, Monday evening through Wednesday 11:30. I can’t wait for this Summit! Janet Paschal, Bob Cook, our new National Seniors Ministry Director and Joyce Smith about which the movie breakthrough was made when her son fell through ice and was not found for 15 minutes! She will be sharing and we will show the film the final morning! Also, we have a bit of a price increase. Early registration begins January 1st and will run through February 28th and will be $95. Registration after that will be $105. This increase is due to a new $10 per person charge for utilities, paper goods, etc.

2023 SWP Fishing Trip- We will do a Seniors Fishing Trip May 2427- Details will be emailed and on our Website. We will have pricing and a brochure available in early December. If you love to fish, save the date! We will have guides!

Then a Memorial Day SWP Fish Fry. Location to be determined.

2023 SWP Missions Trip- We have a second SWP Missions trip set for the window of October 23-30. We are waiting on Builders International to give us final details. If you love Missions this is for you. There will be some physical labor involved, but no heavy lifting, etc. Designed for Seniors!

2023 SWP Cruise- We have a 2023 cruise set for Dec 4-9. We have invited three other Districts to join us. We depart Monday afternoon, the fourth, and return to Galveston on the morning of Saturday, the 9th. Brochures and pricing will follow soon. Save the date!

Wayne Clark

Bob and Sherilyn Cook

Janet Paschal

Joyce Smith

THE HANDS OF TIME

Hello, my name is Gloria Orengo Taylor, and I am the VA/Healthcare Chaplain for the Assemblies of God. I had the honor to represent the Assemblies as their first female Chaplain in the military and the third female Chaplain in the Air Force. To say that this was a challenge is probably an understatement. However, I loved it and knew without a doubt that that was what God wanted me to do. Following my retirement from the military I entered hospital ministry, enjoyed that, and retired again in 2014 until my boss, Manny Cordero (Director of Chaplaincy Ministries) asked me to take this position, which again made me the first female to have a leadership role in this department. Over the 43 years of ministry the Lord has taught me so much about working with people, loving them, sharing the trails they are going through, listening as they share their hurts and rejoicing with them in their success in life. More than anything, I have learned to be the hands and feet of Jesus. So, since this is the Christmas season, let me first say, I was born and raised on the island of Oahu, so Mele Kalikimaka, which is Merry Christmas in Hawaiian. And let me share some thoughts on The Hands of Time. You’ve heard the commercial that askes “What’s in your wallet?” it advertises a credit card company. Well, I’d like to ask this question, “what’s in your hands?”, or “what do you hold in your hands?” especially during the Christmas season. I know this is an unusual question to ask, but before you think to hard about this, let’s go back to what we consider the very first Christmas and look at the hands of those involved. In Matthew 2:1-11 tells of the three Wisemen who followed the star to Bethlehem bearing gifts. There is a beautiful legend that tells us about them. “It seems that one of them was a young man and in his youthful idealism he looked for a King. He carried gold a gift for royalty. Another was middle-aged and to satisfy the deep questions that disturbed his maturing mind he long to find God. His gift of frankincense was to worship God. Whom he hope to find. And lastly, the third was aged, with many a sin-stained year behind him; he longed to discover a Savior. Feeling that his savior would be a sufferer, he took with him a gift of healing, Myrrh.” Gerald. M. Ward

The next hands were that of Herod the King also known as Herod the Great. This man was known for his many building projects that helped the people of his day, however, scripture (Matt 2:16+) tells us he ordered all children two years and younger to be killed. This man died with the blood of the innocent on his hands.

The shepherds were part of the story of Jesus birth. Unfortunately, they were looked down by the orthodox people of that day. They were unable “to keep the details of the ceremonial law; they couldn’t observe all the meticulous handwashing rules and regulations.” And yet it was to these humble shepherd that the angels appeared and who went to see the Christ child. Consider the worn, unclean hands who were the first to worship Him.

There is not much told of Joseph who was Jesus’s earthly father, but I assumed he help delivered the baby(who else was there to do that?). With his hands he helped bring Jesus into the world and later would instruct him how to be a carpenter.

Of course, there were the angels who had appeared to the shepherd announcing the arrival of Jesus (Luke 2:10-14), “praising God and saying glory to God…and on earth peace good will toward men.” I can’t help but see them with their hands lifted high in praise.

Then there is Mary. In my mind I can see her hold baby Jesus, looking into his eyes, making sure he was warm and safe, counting his fingers

and toes. Holding his hands, lovingly talking to him not knowing that the hands she held would one day heal the sick and raise the dead, would break the bread and fish that would feed thousands, would bless the children, and ultimately be nailed to a cross.

THE HANDS OF TIME.

There has been much abuse and horror done with our hands since the beginning of time and it never seems to end. Mankind’s inhumanity with one another is unthinkable. What use to be infrequent acts of violence are now the norm. The taking of innocent lives must make our Lord weep. But we have also seen good come from hands that have made inventions to make life a little easier; hands that have created beauty. God has gifted people with the ability to bring healing to those that need a miracle. He has given us the ability to lift holy hands to worship and praise him, to lay hands on one another to receive his comforter, to show love, mercy, and grace in acts of kindness.

As ministers of the gospel, we may serve in different areas of ministry, pastors, missionaries (US and World), evangelist, military, VA/ healthcare chaplains. Chaplains in prison, jail, Human trafficking, racetrack, Foster parents, counselors, and many more, all with one purpose, that is to bring those who are hurting in a lost and dying world to the feet of Jesus.

We can look around our divided country and the world and see that we are living on borrowed time. The craziness and ugliness we see every day on the news does not help. Scripture has told us what will happen in the last days, and I believe we are living it. This is how I imagine what is going on in heaven, Jesus has one foot out the door of heaven, he is looking at His father to give the order and his hands are ready to give the signal. I have heard all my life that He is coming soon but now more than ever I feel it in my spirit.

Let me close with this story, “A gentleman visited a jewelry store one day with a friend. He was shown magnificent diamonds and beautiful colored stones. Among them he saw a stone that seemed lusterless and pointed to it saying, ‘that one has no beauty at all.’ His friend put it in the hallow of his hand and closed his hand and then after a few moments opened it again. The entire stone gleamed with all the splendors of the rainbow. ‘What have you done to it?’ his friend asked. the reply was ‘this is an opal it is what we call the sympathetic jewel. It only needs to be gripped with the human hand.’

Whose hand will you grip this Christmas? Will it be your grandchild, your husband your wife? Will it be your neighbor who doesn’t know Jesus? What about the man or woman you always see at the corner of a street asking for money, or the homeless person who is wearing tattered clothes and whose hands are dirty?. Who will you touch today?

He has no one but us to do His work, to love the unlovely, to show mercy to the person that has hurt us or said some untruth about us, to show forgiveness because he has forgiven us. We are the HANDS OF TIME.

I pray that this Christmas and 2023 will be the greatest time for you and your ministry.

Gloria Taylor, BCC VA/Healthcare Representative, Chaplaincy Ministries AG National Office | (210) 387-1838