God Put Us on Earth for One Reason, to Do His Work’, Ohio Survivor

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God Put Us on Earth for One Reason, to Do His Work’, Ohio Survivor

Michelle Knight survived one of the worst ordeals at the hands of Ariel Castro, but the Christian woman says that she has forgiven her captor and rapist and will go on living her life.

Knight, who now goes by the name Lilly, was held captive by Castro for 11 years with two other girls. They managed to escape in 2013 and have largely avoided all contact with the press, but Knight has decided to stay in the limelight and tell her story, perhaps as an example of survival for others.

“I was able to forgive him,” Knight said at Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin High School in Chadron, Ohio on Sunday.

It took her a year and a half before Knight was able to say Castro’s name, given all that he had put her through. He lured her into his home with the promise of a puppy for her son—there was no puppy and soon Knight knew that she was in trouble.

“I am a sex addict and I cannot control myself,” she quoted Castro as saying at one point.

After she and the other victims escaped captivity, Castro was arrested and sentenced to life behind bars. The thought of being held prisoner overcame the kidnapper and he hanged himself just one month into the sentence.

“I felt very appalled by it, but I understood,” Knight said. “I don’t condone what he did. God put us on earth for one reason, to do His work. I’m a strong and powerful woman. I say what I mean and I don’t’ take any crap from anybody. The situation (Castro) put me in didn’t define me. I choose to live a meaningful life,” she added.

Finding Me, Knight’s autobiography, includes the story of how she survived life in captivity and the faith she relied upon. She has never shied away from giving testimony of that strength and crediting God for her survival.

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

RCCG’s Living Faith Connections Choir wins Mobo Awards 2014 For “Best Gospel Act”

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RCCG’s Living Faith Connections Choir wins Mobo Awards 2014 For “Best Gospel Act”

Award Wining Gospel group, RCCG Living Faith Connections Choir yesterday won the coveted prestigious Mobo Awards for Best Gospel Act which took place at London’s Wembley Arena amongst pomp and pagentry, the group was nominated earlier in the month in the category which was left open for voting in which they finally emerged as winners.It seems that the group is in for a glorious year as they have been flooded with nominations after nominations in different shows this year.

 

The Living Faith Connections Choir in the year 2013 released their debut album titled Beyond The Norm, which happened to be a collaboration with award winning songwriter Evans Ogboi,who was also present at the acceptance of the award.The album’s lead single “Nobody But You” went on to win ‘Song Of The Year’ at 2013’s Africa Gospel Music Awards.

Watch the Video of the Acceptance of the Award:

 

About  the Living Faith Connections Church

Living Faith Connections is a purpose-driven church, a beacon of hope and a lighthouse to a needy world. We believe that we have been sent to bring the gospel with its attendant message and assurance of comfort, victory and hope, to people.

Our strong desire is to seek God and walk in His purpose; this is reflected in our services through worship, praise, prayer and acts of service.
In our services, we come together as one irrespective of our social, cultural or racial background to celebrate in the presence of God with electrifying music and soul-stirring messages.

We are a church that strongly believes in the power of prayer and the supremacy of the Word. Lives have been transformed and people have seen the hand of God move strongly in their lives.

LFC is a place of testimonies where the impossible becomes possible.

Church Life
At LFC we believe that church is not just a place where we come to worship but a community where people thrive. We believe church to be a place where people meet friends, business associates, acquire new skills and enhance each other’s lives; it is a place where destinies are fulfilled. Therefore structures have been put in place to enhance our church experience via ministries and church departments.

We have ministries which oversee the activities of the main groups represented in church. The ministries organise events which cater for the needs of Living Faith Connection Family Members (LFCFMs). These events are varied and could be social, educational, spiritual or all encompassing depending on the prevailing requirements of the ministry. The events are generally aimed at enhancing spiritual growth, team working, togetherness and agape love among members.

Our History
Living Faith Connections is a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). It was planted in February 2000 by its mother church, Royal Connections. Initially services were held at Newham Town hall in East Ham, then Nelson Primary School, also in East Ham. From Nelson Primary School the church moved to Ripple Hall, then to its current location on Thames road, Barking.
Since moving to Barking, the church has experienced exponential growth in every dimension.

Visit the website – Living Faith Connections Church

Android 5.0 Lollipop Coming Soon to Galaxy Note 4

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Android 5.0 Lollipop Coming Soon to Galaxy Note 4

HTC and Sony among other device manufacturers have already shared the Android 5.0 Lollipop update roadmap for their devices, and now Samsung has something to share. The South Korean giant on Tuesday hinted that the recently launched Galaxy Note 4 will soon get the Android 5.0 Lollipop update.

Samsung Mobile on Tuesday tweeted an image of the recently launched Galaxy Note 4 accompanied by a number of lollipops, probably signifying that it is testing the Android update on the device already. The tweet reads, “Anyway you look at it, the #GALAXYNote4 Quad HD Super AMOLED display is pretty sweet. #NoteTheDifference.”

Samsung had launched the Galaxy Note 4 at IFA in September with Android 4.4.4 KitKat. The smartphone made its debut in India last week.

Recently, HTC and Sony had also confirmed which of their devices will receive the Android 5.0 Lollipop update. While four of HTC’s smartphones will be receiving an update to Android 5.0 Lollipop officially, Sony announced that the entire Xperia Z lineup will be updated to the new OS version.

Source and Original Content by Ndtv.com

Love INC ; Meeting The Needs of People Across America

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Love INC ; Meeting The Needs of People Across America

Meeting the needs of the poor is a top priority for churches in Boise, Idaho. A network of about 40 congregations is crossing denominational lines to help those trapped in poverty.

An organization called “Love INC Boise” (Love, in the Name of Christ) is helping them do that by providing the basics like food, clothing and a host of other essential items.

“A lot of times they’re needing help with making the rent, paying the electric bills. Right now, we see a lot of school supplies and clothes for kids,” Kimbra Shaw, outreach director of Love INC, said.

“In a couple of months we’ll see coats and blankets become a heavy, heavy need,” she explained.

People looking for assistance call a hotline, and operators at Love INC Boise direct them to a member church.

“Our churches specialize in dishwashing soap and laundry soap and all kinds of soap and so we give and give and give that way, but we know that Love, Inc., can then help beyond where we can help,” Pastor Rich McGovert of Cornerstone Church told CBN News.

Unifying the Body of Christ

There are more than 100 Love INC chapters across the country.

While the mission of Love INC is to help churches needs in local communities, it also focuses on unifying the Body of Christ for the purpose of transforming lives.

“One of Jesus’ prayers was that we’d be one and there’s nothing better that demonstrates the reality and the truthfulness of the Gospel than when the Church comes together and doesn’t see themself in competition,” Pastor Rod Enos of Southside Christian Center said.

Shaw agreed, saying, “… Each church individually can’t do it all. But when they work together every church brings a little bit. They each bring their part together and we can funnel that through Love INC and we can do it all… Read More

Source and Original Content by BCNN 1

World Churches Campaign Against Women Violence

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World Churches Campaign Against Women Violence

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has involved its member churches and partners in a World YWCA campaign, “NoXcuses for Violence against Women”.

“There is no excuse for violence against women. There is no excuse for ignoring it!” With this message the campaign marked the World YWCA Week without Violence observed from 13 – 19 October, leading up to 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an international campaign, which starts on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and ends on 10 December, Human Rights Day.

The World YWCA has launched a website for the NoXcuses campaign, featuring testimonies of women survivors of violence, as well as testimonies of support from partners such as UN Women and United Nations Population Fund, among others.

The NoXcuses website features a ‘Wall of Support’ and live feeds from social media. The campaign calls for participation by urging the public to share photos of themselves doing the X hand gesture, or by posting pictures of any excuse that was used when a violent act was committed, and by sharing them through Facebook, Instagram and Twitter using the #noXcuses hash tag.

Participants are also encouraged to wear and distribute temporary X tattoos that can be downloaded in the “Get Involved” section of the website. Participants may use the Toolkit provided in this section that offers various ideas of how to get involved and join the campaign.

Dr Fulata Mbano-Moyo, the WCC’s programme executive for Women in Church and Society, reflected on the significance of the campaign. “Throughout the course of history, both men and women have given excuses to justify sexual and gender based violence, accusing raped girls or women for their dressing or disobedience. Even cultural or religious teachings have been used to justify violence,” she said.

“In this campaign we are saying there are no excuses under the sun. Neither religion nor the name of God should be used to condone gender injustice and violence,” added Moyo.

“This year we are saying there is no excuse for violence against women, whether it is rape, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual harassment at the work place, child marriage or psychological violence – there is no excuse,” said Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary of the World YWCA.

“Since 1995 when the world gathered in Beijing to affirm women’s human rights, we have kept saying no to violence against women, and this year again we say – no excuse!” Gumbonzvanda added.

In collaboration with the WCC and the Lutheran World Federation, a selection of videos featuring religious leaders is being uploaded on the YouTube channel as part of the campaign. The videos feature diverse voices from the faith communities urging awareness on the issue of violence against women and girls around the world.

Over many years the WCC has addressed the issue of violence against women. The NoXcuses campaign also makes use of the WCC initiative “Thursdays in Black” which, through the simple gesture of wearing black on Thursdays, promotes an end to violence against women.

Source and Original Content by Ekklessia

Houston’s Mayor Is Endangering Civil Rights

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Houston’s Mayor Is Endangering Civil Rights

Tavis Smiley raised a lot of eyebrows this weekend when he spoke on ABC-TV’s “This Week” news show, hosted by George Stephanopoulos.

Smiley pointed to double-digit unemployment in the Black community under President Obama and said: “If you’re Black or Brown, other than saving the Democrats’ hide, what inspires you to go out and vote?”

Economic empowerment for minority families is surely a vital issue, a hardy perennial in off-year elections. But it’s not the only issue. Minority voters have always been concerned with Civil Rights. And this year is no exception.

In Houston, Texas, we have seen a bizarre twist on traditional Civil Rights play out. The Mayor of Houston, Annise Parker, has been waging an uncivil war on people who oppose the far-reaching homosexual rights ordinance she powered through the City Council.

That ordinance was widely criticized by Houston lay people and pastors, It would endanger protected Civil Rights already covered by the First Amendment, i.e., freedom of religion, critics of Mayor Parker’s ordinance said.

Opponents of the Parker measure organized in their churches and resolved to take the issue to Houston’s voters. They circulated petitions to put the ordinance on the ballot for a referendum. They spoke out in their congregations. They heard sermons from their pastors. They spoke in their fellowship halls and Sunday school classes.

All of these activities were hallmarks of the Civil Rights movement that arose in this country to put an end to Jim Crow injustices. All of these now-threatened activities were employed by Civil Rights advocates throughout the South. Americans are justifiably proud of how we came together to reclaim our American heritage in the 1950s and 1960s.

Visitors to Washington, D.C. can see the timeless words of the First Amendment etched in marble in foot-high letters on the wall of the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue… Read More

Source and Original Content by BCNN 1

US Prisoners in North Korea Urge US Official to Secure Their Release

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US Prisoners in North Korea Urge US Official to Secure Their Release

North Korea on Monday allowed The Associated Press and CNN to speak to three detained Americans, including Christians Kenneth Bae and Jeffery Fowle. All three said there’s hope only if a high-ranking U.S. representative visits for negotiations. Bae complained of deteriorating health.

“The only hope that I have is to have someone from the U.S. comes,” Bae was quoted as saying in the interview that was conducted in the presence of regime officials. “But so far, the latest I’ve heard is that there has been no response yet. So I believe that officials here are waiting for that.”

Fowle, 56, and the other prisoner, Mathew Miller, who is 24 years old, said their trial is expected within a month. Both were arrested in April.

Bae, sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, is in a labor camp, where he was moved from a hospital in January amid grave concerns about his health. Bae, who was arrested in the city of Rajin on Nov. 3, 2012, continues to be the longest-serving American detainee in North Korea since the end of the war in 1953.

Bae said he has lost weight and has a severe back pain besides a sleep disorder. He is also suffering from diabetes, an enlarged heart and liver problems, according to his family.

“Within a month I could be sharing a jail cell with Ken Bae,” Fowle said, adding he hasn’t spoken to his family for three weeks. “I’m desperate to get back to them.”

Fowle, from Miamisburg, Ohio, is accused of leaving a Bible at a club, and Miller allegedly ripped up his tourist visa at the airport and shouted that he wanted asylum in April.

Fowle said he had “no complaints” about his treatment. “It’s been very good so far, and I hope and pray that it continues, while I’m here two more days or two more decades.”

The White House responded by saying their release will be a “top priority… Read More

Source and Original Content by Christian Post

Israeli Christian Child Officially Registered as ‘Aramean’

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Israeli Christian Child Officially Registered as ‘Aramean’

Yaakov Khalloul, a two-year-old Christian child from the Galilee, made history on Monday when he became the first person in Israel’s modern history to be officially registered as an Aramean.

To date, all Christians in Israel have been registered with population authorities as Arabs, given that for most, their mother tongue is Arabic. But last month, outgoing Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar issued a directive permitting local Christians to now be voluntarily registered according to a more ancient ancestry.

“We are not Arabs. We are simply Christians who speak Arabic,” noted Father Gabriel Naddaf in an interview with Israeli media last year. The Nazareth-based priest who has been actively encouraging young Christians to join the Israeli army, noted that Aramean Christians were living in this region long before the Arab Muslim conquest.

That sentiment was echoed earlier this year by Knesset Member and coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud) when he proposed the first bit of legislation recognizing a separate and distinct Christian minority in Israel.

“This is a historic and important step that can help to balance the State of Israel and to further connect us and the Christians, and I’m careful not to call them Arabs, because they are not Arabs,” said Levin.

Young Yaakov Khalloul’s father, Shadi Khalloul (pictured), whom Israel Today has featured in many stories, has long been at the forefront of the movement to revive the ancient Aramean identity, culture and language.

In remarks to the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv, Khalloul was overjoyed by finally being able to register his own children according to their true heritage.

“Finally, after 1,400 years of the Middle East being occupied and controlled by different forces, the Jews come along and recognize us, the Aramean people, who are even now being persecuted by Islamist forces (ISIS) in Iraq and elsewhere,” said Khalloul. “Here, at the hands of the Jews, we receive justice.”

Source and Original Content by Israel Today

US College Students Embrace Evangelism Challenge

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US College Students Embrace Evangelism Challenge

College students across the United States were joined by believers of all ages as they participated in Engage24, a one-on-one evangelism initiative that challenged Christians to share the Gospel with at least one person in a 24-hour time period.

hen the development of Engage24 began in 2011, Brian Frye, the national collegiate strategist for the North American Mission Board, and his team believed that encouraging college students to share their faith required a creative approach.

“Instead of focusing on the end result, we decided to, first, focus on the process,” Frye said of the Oct. 14 effort. “Instead of only concentrating on how many people came to Christ on one particular day, we wanted to see how many college students would share their faith on that particular day. And if we did that first, then we could ultimately accomplish the goal of seeing people come to Christ.”

One-on-one evangelism has had a personal, life-changing impact on one particular student at the University of Texas at Arlington. A Cambodian with Buddhist roots, Putti Sok came to Christ after a fellow student shared the Gospel with her. Seeing how one-on-one evangelism changed her life, she is now on staff with Baptist Campus Ministry at the university and leads their campus’s Engage24 movement.

Kevin Stacy, collegiate projects specialist for NAMB, noted it can be difficult to track the results of Engage24 and see how many college students shared the Gospel during that day.

“Hearing success stories like Putti’s is so encouraging because we get a glimpse of the impact that this movement is having on campuses across the country,” he said.

Stacy, who also serves on the Baptist College Network Committee that helps lead Engage24, said they rely heavily on Twitter to track results and read reports from students who had the opportunity to share the Gospel during the day.

Along with the University of Texas at Arlington, schools such as the University of South Florida, the University of Arkansas, the University of Georgia, Texas Christian University, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the University of California Riverside and others partnered with their Baptist Campus Ministry groups and accepted the Engage24 challenge…Read More

Source and Original Content by Baptist Press

Tennessee Church Gives New Vehicle To Homeless Man

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Tennessee Church Gives New Vehicle To Homeless Man

Stacey Tuell has part of his life back.

The homeless man lived in his car until it was illegally towed last summer. Last week, a Mount Juliet church stepped forward to offer a replacement.

“I know it’s just a car, but I feel like a normal person again,” Tuell said.

Tuell suffered a slow slide into homelessness after a string of misfortunes, some of his own making.

He was laid off his job as a welder about two years ago, then hit a rocky patch in his marriage. He moved out of the home where his wife and daughter still live. He couldn’t find a job. He racked up a string of misdemeanor offenses, from driving on a suspended license to possession of drug paraphernalia. He began living in his Pontiac Sunfire.

Police arrested Tuell — just as he was heading to his car — for failing to appear in court on a misdemeanor offense last summer.

Two hours later, they towed his car. It was legally parked.

A local pastor who had befriended Tuell found a volunteer lawyer who took his case to court. A judge found the car had been illegally towed and ordered it released. The lawyer, William Hunt, and Tuell went straight to the towing lot with the judge’s order in hand. But by then, it was too late. The car — and all his possessions, including a wedding band, a watch, family photographs and all his clothes — were gone.

Members of The Glade Church in Mount Juliet were among the first who stepped forward after reading about Tuell’s plight in The Tennessean last week.

The church has an “automotive ministry” — a group of about 40 men who volunteer every Monday night to tinker with used cars to get them into good working condition. Tuell’s new car, a 1998 white Ford Expedition, is the 54th they have given away since 2009…Read More

Source and Original Content by BCNN 1

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