On Saturday, Samaritan’s Purse North American Ministries sent two disaster relief teams and staff members to North Carolina to assist residents who were “hit the hardest” by Hurricane Florence.

The Christian organization wrote on their website that they have sent the two teams to pre-stage in the towns of New Bern and Wilmington, N.C. As of Sunday, the first relief base was established at Port City Community Church in New Bern. The New Bern mayor is reporting that approximately 4,000 homes were damaged in the storm.

Samaritan’s Purse staff and volunteer teams will start work on Monday aiding homeowners with cleanup in a variety of ways including “tarping roofs, chainsaw work, and mud-outs.” 

A representative for Samaritan’s Purse wrote on their website, “Our task is to serve as the hands and feet of Jesus for those in need in the hardest hit areas.”

Florence is now a tropical depression but is continuing to drop large volumes of rain in the Carolinas. Reportedly, some parts of North Carolina have already received almost 35 inches of rain. The town of Swansboro has reported nearly 34 inches. This is the most rain to ever be deposited from a single tropical system in North Carolina. 

Though the property damage that has occurred as a result of the storm is great, it is not the only concern for N.C. Because of Florence, sections of…

Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Highland Village, Texas, revealed on Sunday that police are currently investigating a sexual assault allegation involving a minor from his church. The incident reportedly occurred at a camp for kids held six years ago.

“The investigation is regarding information that has come to light about the 2012 Mount Lebanon Kids Camp that The Village Church attended. The Cedar Hill Police department, under the direction of Detective Michael Hernandez, is investigating a report of sexual assault by an adult against a minor at the camp,” Chandler said to his congregation, reading from a prepared statement. “Earlier this year, the minor came to a place where it was possible to verbalize the memory of what happened for the first time through ongoing therapy. Detective Hernandez has been investigating the case since that time.”

While they are only investigating one case of assault at this time, Chandler said they have tried reaching out to every family that participated in the camp to inform them of the investigation.

“If you are the mom or dad of a kid that was at the 2012 camp, we had a meeting Monday night with Detective Hernandez to inform you of…

NEW DELHI, September 17, 2018 (Morning Star News) – Under the influence of Hindu extremists, police and media campaigns against Christians in Uttar Pradesh state, India has mushroomed since one such attack sent a pastor into hiding last month, sources said.

 

After false media reports of large-scale, fraudulent conversions of Hindus by pastor Durga Prasad Yadav in Jaunpur District went viral in July, followed by false police charges, there have been multiple area reports of disrupted worship meetings, pastors and evangelists arrested and Christian leaders fleeing their homes to avoid arrest, sources said.

 

Pastor Yadav is a resident of Bhulandih village. On Sunday (Sept. 16), Jaunpur Police blocked all roads to Bhulandih village, keeping worshippers from Bhulandih Church, sources said.

 

“They have stopped believers and asked them to go back home,” a source said. “Hindu extremist groups are shouting anti-Christian slogans around the churches in many places in Jaunpur. They are threatening believers with severe consequences and asking every believer as to how much money he has been given to convert.”

 

Christians have been targeted in at least five cases, four of them Jaunpur and one in Pratapgarh District, 58 miles away. Four of the cases erupted on Thursday (Sept. 13).

 

At least 12 pastors have gone into hiding since then, a source…

Crossroads Christian Church in Grand Prairie, Texas, revealed Monday that a disputed supplemental retirement benefits package for which former executive pastor Mel Dietz and his wife Vicki sued for millions of dollars was to be funded from natural gas revenues that could not support the plan overtime.

The explanation comes after a jury decided last week that the church failed to provide the couple nearly $4 million in supplemental retirement benefits despite employing them for more than 20 years.

“Crossroads is disappointed that compelling evidence was not present to provide the jury with additional facts, which could have changed the outcome of the jury’s decision about the Supplemental Retirement Plan,” Andrew Stubblefield, lead trial counsel for the 8,000-member church and an attorney with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, said in a statement to The Christian Post. “Crossroads remains unfailingly committed to its mission, its ministry, and its members. Once the verdict is finalized, the Church will weigh its options for further action.”

A release from the law firm representing the couple, Clouse Brown PLLC, said Dietz worked at the church that preaches financial freedom, from 1995 to 2015. He…

Author and Evangelical Beth Moore, 61, composed a series of tweets in 2016 criticizing the words and actions of now President Donald Trump and the ‘evangelical political machine’ at a great personal cost. 

This month, The Atlantic sat down with Moore to talk about the controversy surrounding the tweets she posted during the 2016 presidential election and the fall out that came with them. 

In the article, which will be published in the October 2018 edition of the Atlantic, the author speaks about how in October of 2016, Moore came to hear the infamous Access Hollywood tape where Trump is recorded talking about women in vulgar and graphic terms. After hearing the tape, while on a plane home from a ministry event, Moore filtered through stacks of newspaper clippings and transcripts to try to distinguish and understand the character of the then-presidential candidate along with the people who defended his words.

Moore told the Atlantic that she could not dismiss this as “locker-room talk,” like so many of her male counterparts had, noting that she was “so appalled.”

After looking into Trump’s comments and the defenses of so many evangelists, Moore decided to take to Twitter. The Atlantic writes that “she decided to compose the tweets that changed her life.”

She wrote, “Wake up, Sleepers, to what women have dealt with all along in environments of gross…