​Teacher: Winnie, name one important thing we have today that we didn't have ten years ago.

Winnie: Me!

++++++++

Teacher: Glen, why do you always get so dirty?

Glen: Well, I'm a lot closer to the ground than you are.

+++++++

Teacher: Millie, give me a sentence starting with "I."

Millie: I is . . .

Teacher: No, Millie . . . Always say, "I am."

Millie: All right . . . "I am the ninth letter in the alphabet."

Watch the Video coverage of this great revival that will inspire you and bless you greatly:

www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Video+of+1970+Revival+at+Asbury+College&&view=detail&mid=600DDB92B45A43B53728600DDB92B45A43B53728&&FORM=VDRVRV

Category: Evangelism

Source: http://www.forerunner.com

Asbury Revival 1970

WILMORE, Kentucky - One morning in 1970, without warning, all heaven broke loose during Asbury College's 10 a.m. chapel service.

"When you walked into the back of Hughes Auditorium ... there was a kind of an aura, kind of a glow about the chapel," said Dr. David Hunt, a Louisville physician who was then a student.

"I always have been reminded of the verse 'Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground.' You just walked in and sensed that God had indeed sent His Spirit."

The service, a routine meeting, was scheduled for 50 minutes. Instead, it lasted 185 hours non-stop, 24 hours a day. Intermittently, it continued for weeks. Ultimately, it spread across the United States and into foreign countries. Some say it is being felt even today.

This year marks the 21st anniversary of the landmark 1970 Asbury College revival, an unplanned, unled display of fervor that has been compared to the Great Awakenings of 1740 and 1800. This year is also the 41st anniversary of a strikingly similar revival Asbury experienced in 1950.

A bigger outbreak - a global revival, in fact - will begin soon, says David McKenna, president of adjacent Asbury Theological Seminary, in his new book, The Coming Great Awakening.

The revival might not start at Asbury, but it probably will begin on campuses, says McKenna, a noted author. He travels to many colleges and says, "I see the signs wherever I go." 

Those signs include a generation of students wounded by family breakdowns and searching for spiritual fulfillment. Much of the coming revival will be a delayed reaction, McKenna thinks, to what happened at Asbury College 20 years ago.

A Baptism of Love

On February 3, 1970, students and faculty members had shown up at the college's chapel, Hughes auditorium, for what they assumed would be one more routine meeting.

Students were required to attend chapel services three times a week. Asbury, in Wilmore, a city of 4,300 about 16 miles south of Lexington, is an interdenominational Christian college whose roots are in the Wesleyan tradition of the Methodist church. (John and Charles Wesley, brothers, were 18th century revivalists.)

On that Tuesday morning in 1970, Custer Reynolds, Asbury's academic dean and a Methodist layman, was in charge. President Dennis Kinlaw was traveling. Reynolds did not preach. Instead, he briefly gave his testimony, then issued an invitation for students to talk about their own Christian experiences. There was nothing particularly unusual about that.

One student responded to his offer. Then another. Then another.

"Then they started pouring to the altar," Reynolds said. "it just broke."

Gradually, inexplicably, students and faculty members alike found themselves quietly praying, weeping, singing. They sought out others to whom they had done wrong deeds and asked for forgiveness. The chapel service went on and on.

Asbury, like many evangelical organizations, held annual, scheduled "revivals" with guest ministers and services booked in advance. This, however, was not the same. No one had planned it. No one was leading it.

There was just a different feeling about that day," said Marilyn Blackburn, who was the a junior at the college. She is now a substitute schoolteacher in New Jersey.

People didn't want to leave she said. They were afraid they would miss something wonderful. J.T. Seamands vividly remembers. Seamands, now retired, was then a professor at adjacent Asbury Theological Seminary, which is a separate institution from the college. He and his wife, author Ruth Seamonds, were waiting for their daughter to come home from lunch.

Sandra Seamonds, an undergraduate at the college, was late. She burst through the door and exclaimed, "You simply wouldn't believe what's happening at the college," according to J.T. Seamand's book, On Tiptoe With Love.

She was right. Her dad didn't believe. Eventually, he went to Hughes Auditorium to investigate. The 1,500 seat chapel was packed. When he entered, J.T. Seamands felt as if he had been baptized in an unaccountable spirit of love, he said. His skepticism vanished.

"I said to myself, 'This is not of man,'" he recalled recently. "'This is of God.'"

'The Lord walked in'

Reynolds, the dean, called Kinlaw, the president, who was at a conference in western Canada. Kinlaw, like Seamands, had reservations about the revival. He returned to the campus two days later, in the wee hours of the morning. The meeting, he found, was still going.

"I was scared," Kinlaw said.

That is, he knew he would be held responsible if matters got out of hand. At the same time, he didn't want to intervene and quench an authentic move of God. 

It was after 2 a.m., but Kinlaw walked to Hughes Auditorium and sat on the back pew. He was approached by a student who asked for his counsel. Though no one knew it, she said quietly, she had been a habitual liar. She needed to make reparations to people on campus she had wronged.

Soon Kinlaw, too, was convinced that the revival was legitimate. Later, a reporter asked him to explain the outbreak. 

"I said, 'Well, you may not understand this,'" Kinlaw recalled, "'but the only way I know how to account for this is that last Tuesday morning, about 20 of 11, the Lord Jesus walked into Hughes Auditorium, and He's been there ever since, and you've got the whole community paying tribute to His presence.'

"It got real quiet," Kinlaw said, chuckling at the memory of the reporter's response. 

Twenty years later, Kinlaw acknowledges that people might reasonably think the revival was the result of contagious emotions among students. It was after all, the Age of Aquarius, a time of runaway emotions of many kinds.

"There's psychological factors involved," Kinlaw agreed, "because we're psyches.... But there's something beyond that."

One remarkable thing, given the youthfulness of the worshipers, he said, was that the marathon service was uncannily orderly. Worshipers did not become loud, did not speak out of turn, did not fall down on the floor in religious ecstasy.

The feelings were subtle yet, in their own way, overwhelming. Blackburn, the schoolteacher, said she had always been too meek. "I became aware that I needed more boldness in sharing my faith."

The Revival Spreads

News of the revival spread in newspapers and on television. Strangers flocked to Wilmore to worship with the students. Asbury officials dismissed classes. By Thursday, a revival had broken out at the seminary, across the street from the college.

Leaders of other institutions read of the service in publications as far-flung as The Indianapolis Star, The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and heard of it by word of mouth. They invited Asbury students and faculty members to come and tell what was happening. 

One of those who went out to speak was Blackburn, the woman who had been shy about her beliefs. 

Wherever the Asburyians traveled, revival followed. By the summer of 1970, the revival had reached more than 130 other colleges, seminaries and Bible schools, and scores of churches, according to published accounts. It spread from New York to California, and even to South America.

When several Asbury students gave their testimonies at the Meridian Street Church of God in Anderson, Indiana, for instance, the church experienced a spontaneous revival that lasted 50 consecutive nights. According to old clippings from Indiana newspapers, the Anderson church soon became so packed that the services had to be moved to a school gymnasium. Up to 2,500 people a night flocked to the gym in hopes of being touched by God.

A Look at History

Putting the 1970 Asbury revival in proper perspective is not easy, although America's history is peppered with similar phenomena.

The Great Awakenings of 1740 and 1800, for instance, helped change the course of American society by turning a rowdy frontier into the bedrock of Christianity. There also have been many revivals on American college campuses, dating back at least to 1795, when a famous one erupted at Yale.

"I would say that I think that revivals are here to stay in this country," said David E. Harrell, an Auburn University historian who is perhaps the foremost secular scholar on the subject.

Several have struck Asbury. During a 1905 revival, E. Stanley Jones, an Asbury student, felt called to become a missionary, he later wrote. Jones has since been hailed as among the most influential missionaries of the century. 

In February 1950, another spontaneous revival roared through Asbury College. At the same time, revivals touched Wheaton College in Illinois and other campuses. A smaller revival followed in 1958.

The 1970 Asbury revival seems slightly larger in scope than, say, the one in 1950, Asbury officials say. The 1970 movement lasted longer and spread farther. Still its primary explosion was shorter-lived and more localized than history's biggest revivals, said Mark Knoll, a professor of history at Wheaton College and an expert on evangelical issues.

On the other hand, Harrell said, the Asbury revival occurred simultaneously with a massive neo-Pentecostal renewal in the 1960s and 1970s. The Asbury revival was not itself Pentecostal, in that there was no speaking in tongues or healing by faith. But if lumped with that charismatic movement and the "born-again" revivals of the mid-70s, the Asbury outbreak might be part of the most influential world-wide renewals of the century.

Really, said Noll, Harrell and other scholars, it is too early to gauge the revival's true place. It often takes a generation or more for a religious renewal to be fully felt throughout society.

Learned Behavior?

Another complicated question is how such revivals happen.

"If you take a non-religious perspective, obviously, it's sociological factors ... learned behavior, patterned response," said Randall Balmer, a historian of religion at Columbia University. His book on evangelicals, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, is being made into a PBS television series.

"If on the other hand," Balmer said, "you are inclined to attribute it to the Holy Spirit, as the people involved are, then it's a miraculous visitation."

Pressed, Balmer said he wasn't sure which view was correct. "I guess I'm not jaded enough to dismiss that it might be something, a work of the Holy Spirit," he said. "At the same time, I think I recognize that the Holy Spirit works through specific cultural and sociological circumstances.... I honestly don't know."

Asbury in 1970 certainly was conducive to a revival. The college had a Wesleyan tradition and a history of unexpected revivals. Students were not strangers to the idea. A number had, in fact, been praying for an outbreak.

In addition, the campus was in an upheaval. There was the general distress of the times, and there were tensions specific to the college, stemming from a messy change in administrations a few years before.

Revivals often occur in times of discord.

A Coming Awakening?

That's partly why McKenna, the seminary president, thinks a major revival could sweep college campuses in the 1990s. However, those campuses might as easily be in Eastern Europe, Africa or Latin America as in the United States.

Those societies, perhaps more than this country's, he said, are suffering breakdowns of moral consensus and of institutions of authority. Today in this country, too, countless thousands of students have been hurt - by broken homes and childhood abuse.

"You're really talking to a stressful, wounded group of young people," McKenna said. "They become the ones who are needy and responsive."

In December, 18,000 students from many different nations gathered at the University of Illinois for "Urbana 90" a triennial rally sponsored by InterVarsity Missions. McKenna thinks that the meeting might spark another Great Awakening, a multinational, multiethnic one. Some of its leaders might be the same people who were touched by the 1970 revival, who now are middle-aged and hold positions of church and college leadership.

An Open Matter

In the end, it is impossible to say empirically what happened at Asbury College in 1970, or in the many great revivals throughout Western history. Or what will underlie any revival to come.

Experts say revivals result when cataclysmic religious, cultural and historical movements collide. Whether God is present in those collisions is less clear.

Noll, the Wheaton professor, said that the truest test of that is whether the revivals produce lasting changes in people's lives. Super Bowls create mass excitement, he said, but they don't alter human beings forever. Unfortunately, the long-tern effects of revivals on individuals have received little academic attention.

If permanent change is indeed the test, then the issue was decided long ago for many of the people who witnessed the Asbury revival.

"It was a real turning point, I think, where I sensed that God really desired more of a commitment on my part of my life to Him," said Hunt, the doctor. "You stand in that kind of presence and that kind of awe ... it's very difficult, I think, for a mortal man not to really look and examine and say, 'What does this God want of my life?'"

In the 1970 book One Divine Moment, Jeff Blake, then an Asbury history major, described the revival as a 20th century day of Pentecost. In the Bible, the day of Pentecost was when God poured out the Holy Spirit on His apostles and created the Christian Church.

Today, "I believe that's true," said Blake, now with Goodwill Industries of the Bluegrass. "It was the kind of moment that only God could create," Blake said. "It's just the kind of experience that lives on with you always."

Blackburn, the formerly meek woman, agreed. "I changed," she said. "I was different." She remains awed that she was allowed to see with her own eyes the outpouring, she said. It left her confident that God is in control of the world and of her life.

Kinlaw, the Asbury College president, started that long-ago week as a doubter of the revival. He ended as a believer in the revival's power and truth. He is a believer now.

"There was this sense of the divine presence that one doesn't have often in his life," he said. "And when you do have it, you never quite get over it ...

"You know. You know. You know it in your bone marrow."

This article was reprinted by permission from the Lexington Herald Leader 

Doc viewed 22567 times. 

Mrs. Mary Adkins Herndon, 88, of 300 Taylor Street Franklin Springs, GA passed away on Sunday, February 16, 2020, at her home. 

​Mrs. Herndon was born in Museville, VA on February 21, 1931, daughter of the late Carrett D. Adkins and the late Bertha Doss Adkins. She was a homemaker and member of the Swansonville Pentecostal Holiness Church in Dry Fork, VA.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brothers, C.D. Adkins and James Adkins; and sisters, Bertha Elizabeth Adkins and Patsy Ann Adkins.

Survivors include her husband, Malcolm W. Herndon; daughter, Jeanette (Kenneth) Phillips of Watkinsville, GA; sons, Keith Herndon of Cornelia, GA, Ronald Herndon and Anthony Antignani of Atlanta, GA, Mark (Melissa) Herndon of Royston, GA and Kevin (Cynthia) Herndon of Flowery Branch, GA; sisters, Barbara Holley of Danville, VA and Jean Foster of Danville, VA; eleven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Funeral services for Mrs. Herndon will be held in the Franklin Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, February 21, 2020, with Rev. Harrison Lampley, Mrs. Wanda Lampley and Mr. Keith Hearn officiating. Interment will follow in the Franklin Springs City Cemetery.

The family will receive friends at the Franklin Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church from 11:30 a.m. until funeral hour on Friday. The family is at the home.

Flowers are optional; memorials may be made to the Malcolm and Mary Herndon Scholarship Fund at Emmanuel College, P.O. Box 129 Franklin Springs, GA 30639.

[Editor's comment: It has been my privilege and honor to know Mary Herndon. Over the years, especially in recent years I have had the opportunity to talk with Mary on various occasions. There was no doubt about it, Mary loved Jesus and was not ashamed of the Gospel. Although we will greatly miss seeing and talking with Mary, we do rejoice that she has made it home to live eternally with Jesus Christ Who has redeemed her by His precious blood. For her children, I want to say to you that you have lost the best friend in your life. No one can replace your mother. She is very special. Your loss is temporary because one day you will see her again in heaven as you follow Jesus in continuous faith in Him. Here is the Scriptural reference in the Book of John:

John 20:31
31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. 
NIV

The Greek construction of the verbs in this Scripture are in the present progressive tense. It means that we are to believe and continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by continuing to believe we may have eternal life in His Name, the Name of Jesus.]

​Editor's Comment about Founder's Week at Holmes Bible College

Founder's Memorial Week at Holmes Bible College

​Ravi Zacharias Asks for Prayer as He Undergoes Emergency Spinal Surgery

Author: Jenny Rose Spaudo

Ravi Zacharias asks for prayer as he prepares to undergo emergency spinal repair surgery this Thursday, Feb. 20.

"Dear Friends, Many of you know that I have struggled with serious back issues for years," Zacharias tweeted. "Recently the pain has intensified and I have battled several flare-ups. This Thursday I will undergo emergency spinal repair surgery and I ask for your prayers."

In a full statement posted on the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries website, the renowned apologist says he has had serious back issues and has struggled since having two surgeries.

"The Lord brought comfort and strength and gave me eighteen good years after my first surgery," he wrote. "But over the last year, I have battled several flare-ups, and after my last trip to the Philippines and Sri Lanka, it's a miracle I got home on my own two feet. A subsequent CAT scan and MRI showed no option but to go into a surgery immediately. It's time for a serious repair job that will take me off the road for close to eight weeks. The surgeon has said he will have to remove two of the screws that are loose and anchor my fractured sacrum in two places to the pelvis. That's in lay language, but I have the best of doctors and surgeons who have loved this ministry and want to see me positioned for the distance. The doctor has described it as an emergency, but he is equally confident of success."

Zacharias says he plans to be in recovery until the beginning of April. He offers his gratitude to all his friends and followers who have been praying for him and will continue to do so.

Franklin Graham also took to Twitter to encourage his followers to pray for Zacharias:

"Would you join me in prayer for our friend @RaviZacharias as he undergoes emergency spinal repair surgery tomorrow? I know he & his family would appreciate it."

Zacharias says he is putting his confidence in God as he recovers from his surgery.

"I thank God for great medical expertise and look forward to a speedy recovery and being on the road again," he writes. "But for now it's time to face the pain and the discipline of healing. Ezekiel asks the question, 'Can these dead bones live?' The answer is a resounding 'Yes' as God breathes new life into them. The Lord has never forsaken me and He is by my side. I am a blessed man. As I recover, I will pray, read, and write."

Ephesians 3:20-21

20 Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 
NIV

It's the day before Thanksgiving, and the butcher is just locking up when a man begins pounding on the front door.

"Please let me in," says the man desperately. "I forgot to buy a turkey, and my wife will kill me if I don't come home with one."

"Okay," says the butcher. "Let me see what I have left."

He goes into the freezer and discovers that there's only one scrawny turkey left. He brings it out to show the man. "That's one is too skinny. What else you got?" says the man. The butcher takes the bird back into the freezer and waits a few minutes and brings the same turkey back out to the man.

​"Oh, no," says the man, "That one doesn't look any better. You better give me both of them!"

Mary Adkins Herndon has passed through the veil of this world to the unending joys that await her in heaven with Jesus Christ her Savior and Lord.

​Mrs. Mary Adkins Herndon, 88, of 300 Taylor Street Franklin Springs, GA passed away on Sunday, February 16, 2020, at her home. 

​Mrs. Herndon was born in Museville, VA on February 21, 1931, daughter of the late Carrett D. Adkins and the late Bertha Doss Adkins. She was a homemaker and member of the Swansonville Pentecostal Holiness Church in Dry Fork, VA.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brothers, C.D. Adkins and James Adkins; and sisters, Bertha Elizabeth Adkins and Patsy Ann Adkins.

Survivors include her husband, Malcolm W. Herndon; daughter, Jeanette (Kenneth) Phillips of Watkinsville, GA; sons, Keith Herndon of Cornelia, GA, Ronald Herndon and Anthony Antignani of Atlanta, GA, Mark (Melissa) Herndon of Royston, GA and Kevin (Cynthia) Herndon of Flowery Branch, GA; sisters, Barbara Holley of Danville, VA and Jean Foster of Danville, VA; eleven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Funeral services for Mrs. Herndon will be held in the Franklin Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, February 21, 2020, with Rev. Harrison Lampley, Mrs. Wanda Lampley and Mr. Keith Hearn officiating. Interment will follow in the Franklin Springs City Cemetery.

The family will receive friends at the Franklin Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church from 11:30 a.m. until funeral hour on Friday. The family is at the home.

Flowers are optional; memorials may be made to the Malcolm and Mary Herndon Scholarship Fund at Emmanuel College, P.O. Box 129 Franklin Springs, GA 30639.

[Editor's comment: It has been my privilege and honor to know Mary Herndon. Over the years, especially in recent years I have had the opportunity to talk with Mary on various occasions. There was no doubt about it, Mary loved Jesus and was not ashamed of the Gospel. Although we will greatly miss seeing and talking with Mary, we do rejoice that she has made it home to live eternally with Jesus Christ Who has redeemed her by His precious blood. For her children, I want to say to you that you have lost the best friend in your life. No one can replace your mother. She is very special. Your loss is temporary because one day you will see her again in heaven as you follow Jesus in continuous faith in Him. Here is the Scriptural reference in the Book of John:

John 20:31
31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. 
NIV]

I am confident that we don't all grieve alike.

One of the identifiable symptoms of my grief is my new sleeping pattern.​

It so happened that the first night Melvine died, I did not get to sleep until 5:30 a. m. the next morning?

Why did this happened? Here is my analysis.

First of all, I remember I was so weary and tired. I wanted to go to sleep, but I pushed myself to stay awake to
do a Hugh's News and write the obituary for the funeral home and newspaper.

I knew if I did not write it, no one would or could. I had wanted to write it months earlier. I asked Melvine for her help. But, she didn't want any part of it. Although I write daily, doing a obituary is not something I do every day, and yet, I have edited and helped others to write theirs.

So, I struggled and felt I did a very poor job in completing the task. It is a task because writing about the death of a wife is one of the toughest assignments given to a man.

I did not get to sleep until after 5:30 a.m. the next day. That one event has set the pattern for my sleep. It is almost 11 p. m. on Wednesday and I am sleepy. I want to finish this edition of Hugh's News and go to bed. Actually, I no longer sleep in our king-size bed. I sleep in my La z Boy recliner. I have a blanket to cover me as I need it. I have not slept in our bed since my total left knee surgery on December 16, 2019, Melvine's 85th birthday.

Last Sunday, when our Sunday school class was over in the lower level of our educational plant called Stephanie's Place, named after our Stephanie who died in 2014, it was raining. The rain was coming down in torrents with wind. All of the vehicles to carry me up to the handicap ramp up the hill were too high for me to climb up in. And we would have all got soaked. I should have stayed until the rain stopped. However, I wanted to be in worship in the church sanctuary.

So, I made an unwise decision and that was to try to climb the stairs, some 30 of them, with a landing half-way up to the upper level of our educational facility. That was not a wise decision. I thought I would collapse. I had to stop several times, and two men, George Chassesven and Lavon Revells had to get behind him or below me and push my legs up. As a result, I am still sore and find it difficult to walk.

I am having to take high-powered pain medication to take care of the pain in my body.

I need your prayers for wisdom and sanity.

Grief is real.

What We all need to know about Tithing and Giving

Why the February 2020 online issue of Encourage magazine may be the best one ever published is one for you to discover for yourself​. This issue is on Biblical Tithing will equip you for a lesson in stewardship you have not seen before.  When you have read these well-written articles you will sense in your spirit you have been standing on holy ground.

Please Click Here to open the February 2020 Encourage online magazine.

I have always enjoyed reading what Terry Tramel writes, but this article entitled "Why the 'Prosperity Gospel' is a cheap message" may be the answer to my interest in what he writes. Other writers are Bishop Doug Beacham, J. Lee Grady, and Teodor Bulzan. I know all of these IPHC leaders.

It is my sincere hope that Encourage online digital magazine will be a must read for you every month. 

If you like and enjoy it, may I recommend that you to tell somebody about it. Your influence is a key to the success of this IPHC magazine called Encourage as well as other publications.

[Editor's Comment: I want to thank Jamie Cain, the new director of communications for the IPHC, for making me a copy of this cover page for the latest Encourage magazine. What we had on the website was not usable. Within mere minutes after I contacted Jamie by phone he sent me this readable copy of the magazine for our publication at Hugh's News. I will be writing more about Jamie. Let us all welcome him to the team at GMC (Global Ministries Center) in Bethany, OK. 

Recently, I have requested prayer for the healing of Lonnie Rex and Vinson Synan
Lonnie Rex:
Just a week ago Lonnie Rex was taken to a hospital in Houston, TX. His polio leg was in need of a divine healing. Last night, Lonnie was home with Betty, his wife, and was on his way to his church in Houston from their home in Spring, TX. While he was gone to the hospital, his dog, Mattie, a miniature Pinscher died after 17 years of life. Betty told me that Mattie was grieving with Lonnie in the hospital. Dogs have feelings too. They love human beings.

Mary Adkins Herndon has passed through the veil of this world to the unending joys of heaven

By Dr. Sid Chapman (a distinguished graduate of Emmanuel College and educator in Georgia) 
My sincere condolences to the Herndon Family upon the passing of Mrs. Herndon. The Herndon family holds a special place in my heart. They were one of my adopted families while at Emmanuel College. I have been guest in their home many times. Rev Malcolm and all the kids my prayers are with you! A little note— I played matchmaker for Mark and Mellisa ( Thornton ) Herndon lol. Grace and Peace to you all and thank you for allowing me to be part of your family!  Sid

+++++

"How to Survive The First Year"

By Gail B Chassevent
Ray and I continue with our thoughts and prayers for you, dear friend! We pray for you and Greg often. Melvine will always be a part of our cherished memories! We love her, dearly! I have not experienced what you are going through but from watching others close to us, I'd say this advice from Mr. Beadles is spot on! I'm thankful he shared it with you and you shared it with your readers! Perhaps you could ask your readers to send pictures and written memories of Melvine to make your own memory book of your beautiful Melvine? We love you dearly! Always! Keep on keeping on! We are thankful for you! Gail

+++++

Mary Adkins Herndon has joined the Church of the first Born in Heaven …

By Glenda and Jerry Boone 
Our prayers are with you, Malcolm and family.

+++++

Harry & Bess Truman

By Frank and Fran Barrow 
Franklin and Frances Barrow highly recommend to you David McCullough's book: TRUMAN Your local library may have it and it is available on Amazon. Also, please pray for our precious Lord and Savior Christ Jesus to heal Frances of lung cancer and other medical problems. Amen.

+++++

Harry & Bess Truman

By Gary Burd 
Wow - what an incredible article! Thanks Dr Morgan. I asked Carolyn the other day, is there any church leaders you know that became successful (by church standards) and not grab material success. How many leaders can you name that have accomplished success and not increased their standard of living? How many can you count that has not achieved the “American Dream” along with seemingly “Kingdom Advancement” Thanks again Dr Morgan!

+++++

Harry & Bess Truman

By Mary Anne Weeks
And to think he was a Democrat!

+++++

​My Answered Prayers

By Toni Boling (Former IPHC missionary)
My Mother told me once that God always answers our prayers. It can be yes and immediate, wait, and no! All are answers. It is awesome to watch God work in our lives. I miss the old hymns and love the worship music today. One day, I thought they may not sing ‘A mighty Fortress Is our God’ but I can sing it to the top of my ability at home. Greg sing to God and to your Mother because it is a sweet fragrance in their ears and heart. You are loved by many, me being one! Sing Greg!

+++++

My Answered Prayers

By Glenda Boone 
Greg, What mature thoughts! May the students we teach and the people we serve see this kind of attitude in all of us. Praying for you and your dad.

+++++

​Grieving with Hope

By T. Elwood Long

Brother Hugh, I pray for you and Greg often, especially since the departure of your precious bride, Melvine. As you know, God's gracious and loving heart will continue to sustain you.

I can comprehend to some degree of the suffering you are experiencing. I experienced the homegoing to heaven of my first wife, Sylvia. God's grace and love from His own heart and that of my family and a multitude of friends around the globe were an indescrible multitude whose prayers and other kindnesses by the grace and love of our heavenly father kept me surviving mentally and spiritually
!
With my heart of love, Elwood Long

+++++

John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 
NIV

​Fred: "How's your father's dairy farm doing?"

Rick: "Great! He's teaching his cows to sleep on their backs."

Fred: "What for?"

Rick: "So in the morning the cream will be up on top."

Malcolm and Mary Herndon are close friends of our family. We have much in common. Malcolm and I both served in the United States Air Force. He was a chaplains assistant, and I was a chaplain. A number of years ago now, we were able to work it out through his conference leadership and Chaplains Ministries, IPHC, to grant Malcolm authority to be a vital part of our Chaplains Ministries fellowship. 

Another special fact about Malcolm and me is that I am 15 days older than Malcolm. We were born in 1932 in the month of December. Malcolm is an ordained minister in the IPHC. He taught math and science courses at Emmanuel for many years until he retired a few years ago.

Chaplains consider our chaplains assistants to be a vital part of our ministry team. Frankly, we could not accomplish our mission as chaplains without our chaplains assistants.

Malcolm and Mary have one daughter, Jeanette Herndon Phillips, who is married to Kenneth Phillips. They live in Watkinsville and are active members in our church, Christian Life Worship Center. Jeanette helped me with Melvine's jewelry and rings when she died. She often helped Melvine with her makeup during the 16 months Melvine battled with cancer. She was in our home the day before Melvine died, and heard her sing along with all of us who are present in our master bedroom.

A few years ago, Jeanette drove Melvine and me to Orlando for the Chaplains Ministries Retreat.

When James Sorrow died, Jeanette drove Melvine and me to the funeral in the Franklin Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church. There were several other important things Jeanette helped Melvine and I to do.

It is in times like these that we are privileged to honor the dead and their family, but also to greet many of our friends over the years in the IPHC.

These words from the Book of Revelation concerning those who die in the Lord are comforting and hopeful:

13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on."

"Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them." 
NIV

​In church the lady in the pew next to me was saying a prayer. It was so innocent and sincere that I just had to share it with you.

​Dear Lord: The last few years have been very tough: You have taken from me my favorite actor - Paul Newman, my favorite actress - Elizabeth Taylor, my favorite singer - Andy Williams, my favorite author - Tom Clancy, and my favorite comedian - Robin Williams.
  
I just want you to know that my favorite politicians are Adam Schiff; Barack Obama; Joe Biden; Hillary Clinton; Nancy Pelosi; Chuck Schumer; Maxine Waters; Elizabeth Warren; and Bernie Sanders.
  
And I also have a special place in my heart for that shoe salesman Colin Kaepernick.

​Downhearted Disciples

Greg Laurie

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

Show me someone who has lost hope, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t reading the Scriptures. Reading God’s Word bolsters our faith and renews our hope. Romans 10:17 tells us that “faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ” (NLT).

And Romans 15:4 says, “Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled” (NLT).

We as Christians should be very hopeful—overflowing with hope, in fact. But sometimes we lose our hope. The Gospel of Luke records the story of two downhearted disciples on the Emmaus Road. In their minds, Jesus had failed in His mission. He had been crucified, and He was gone.

They had pinned their hopes to Him, thinking He would overthrow the tyranny of Rome. What a disappointment, they thought. As they were walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a stranger joined them. They didn’t know who this guy was, but it turned out to be Jesus.

Jesus effectively said to them, “What’s up? What’s been going on? Why the long faces? You look sad.”

So they began telling Jesus about Jesus. And they weren’t doing a very good job, by the way. They said, “We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel” (Luke 24:21 NLT). Then Jesus gave them a guided tour of all the Old Testament passages that pointed to Him.

As He talked with them on the road, they had their hope returned. And when they sat down to eat with Jesus, they realized it was He. Then He suddenly disappeared.

So how did Jesus restore the hope of these disciples? He restored it through the Scriptures. Of all people, we who are followers of Jesus should be filled with hope.

[Used by permission from Greg Laurie's Harvest Ministries.]