As a senior at Asbury University in Kentucky, Joshua Curry, 22, felt a sense of disquiet about his spiritual condition and the religious atmosphere at the college. “I was actually feeling very poor spiritually, like a sinking ship. I wrote down in my journal that I'm tired of milquetoast Protestantism. I want liberty from slavery. I want forgiveness of sins. I want a zealous spirit,” but he felt the world and its current cultural milieu was luring him away from what he desired most. Attendance at chapel is required three days a week at the private Christian university, formally aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. Many students seemed unenthusiastic, apathetic about the mandatory obligation. “There were a lot of people who were just tired of having to come to chapel, people would always groan about having to show up for an hour a day, three days a week.” The revival that hit the school in the 1970s was fading from memory. On Wednesday, February 8th, Curry attended what appeared to be an unexceptional chapel service. A visiting speaker, Zach Meerkreebs, with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, gave a talk about sacrificial love in Hughes Auditorium. “It was a message preached on Romans 12, what love looks like in action,” Curry recalls. “After the message, about 20 or so students stayed in the chapel.” Curry went back to his dorm room. A few hours went by and then he heard a surprising report. There was still worship going on in the chapel, more students were being drawn, and no one was leaving! After Zach's talk, God sovereignly brought a move of the Holy Spirit – revival fire that has not subsided in the last week. Now students and visitors are packing the chapel at all hours of the day and night, even overflowing into other buildings on the campus. The post Episode 20 – Joshua Curry – A student witness to extraordinary revival at Asbury University first appeared on God Reports.
For over 88 nights in a row, a small country church in Kentucky has been the site of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as many are being saved, baptized and set free from addictions and bondages. The North Main Community Church in Heidrick has been packed with roughly 300 hungry people every night, which […] The post Episode 19 – Pastor Scott Phipps – Revival fire continues at rural Kentucky church first appeared on God Reports.
He was a Palestinian fighter trained to kill Jews. His hatred was so strong he dreamed of poisoning Jews who frequented the restaurant where he worked. “I hated the Jewish people,” says Taysir Abu Saada (“Tass”), founder of Seeds of Hope, a humanitarian organization operating in the Middle East. His objective is to bring long-term […] The post Episode 18 – Taysir Abu Saada – Palestinian Fatah fighter once hated Jews first appeared on God Reports.
By age 14 he was reading Shakespeare and searching for heroes, when he stumbled across the name ‘Isa,' the Arabic name for Jesus in the Koran. “I read the name of Jesus and became curious,” he says. “The Lord reached me right in the mosque.” When he asked the priest about Jesus, he was told that Moses and Jesus were brothers. When he asked how to find out more, they told him to find ‘The Book of Isa.' “Nobody had ever heard of a Bible.” Taimoor searched for a ‘Book of Isa' for two years. The post Episode 17 – John Taimoor – His encounter with Jesus began in the mosque first appeared on God Reports.
Shane is currently the president of Christ's Sons Motorcycle Club. “Ninety-eight percent of us have all walked the prison yards in Southern California, have been addicted, homeless, violent — we even have a former bomb maker. “But we all did one thing different in our lives that changed our lives, and that was submit to God. That's the only thing different we did that changed our entire lives.” The post Episode 16 – Shane “Little Mike” Reese – ‘Workman for the devil' led to Jesus by ‘Freeway Pete' first appeared on God Reports.
The 9/11 Commission credits Stanley Praimnath as the only known survivor from the impact zone at the World Trade Center towers on September 11. “The Lord saw fit for me to live,” says Praimnath, who works in the banking industry in New York. His riveting tale of survival is chronicled in “Plucked from the Fire” (Rosedog Books), coauthored with William Hennessey. The post Episode 15 – Stanley Praimnath – Only known survivor from Trade Center impact zone pays tribute to God's grace first appeared on God Reports.
Louie Cortese started racing motocross when he was only three-years-old. After a season of great financial blessing for his family, it was all wiped away in the Great Recession, and they were forced to re-examine the things they held dear. The post Episode 14 – Louie Cortese – BMX rider became storyteller for Christ first appeared on God Reports.
She was depressed, living with Mom, and thought about giving up on acting when she read the script for Mary Magdalene's part on The Chosen. “I had been depressed I think for a number of years without really admitting it,” Elizabeth Tabish told God Reports. “I had chronic back pain and had a hard time […] The post Episode 13 – Elizabeth Tabish – She ‘intensely related' to Mary Magdalene character on The Chosen first appeared on God Reports.
Cornerstone Ministries International has been delivering Bibles into restricted nations since 1985, comforting the suffering Church, building disciples, and walking alongside them as they evangelize their nation. In particular, CMI began by delivering Bibles to the Korean Chinese people of Northeast China. Before its division in 1953, Korea was one of the most evangelized nations in Asia. Intense persecution after the institution of Communism, however, virtually wiped out all traces of the Church in North Korea. Yet, word began to leak of the strong movement of the Holy Spirit in North Korea. As we looked for a way into the country, God led us to the Korean Chinese. Their close relations, proximity and access to the people living in North Korea yielded an open door into the country. CMI grabbed hold of the opportunity to deliver the Word of God (“word delivery”) to North Korea as has been doing so ever since. As the Korean Chinese people delivered bibles into North Korea, Chinese Christians asked CMI to deliver Bibles to them as well; not only so, but as more and more Bibles have been delivered, Chinese Christians began to ask CMI to go to China to teach them how to study the word of God as well. Thus, the ministry followed the Holy Spirit's work and added “seminary delivery” to the agenda, teaching leaders of the Church to teach themselves and others. We send qualified missionaries to them with the goal of raising missionaries among them who will evangelize their own country and people, “missionary delivery.” God has connected CMI with the house church network through the delivery of Bibles, enabling the ministry to provide continual support and guidance to the leaders of the churches in terms of church administration and biblical education. We are currently teaching in four house church seminaries. The post Episode 12 – North Korea Update – How are the believers in the underground church? first appeared on God Reports.
In 2013, when it became apparent the Boy Scouts were headed into uncharted waters to accommodate a gender-confused society, leaders from 44 states came together in Nashville to form a Christ-centered alternative to the scouting movement. As the father of two Eagle Scout sons, it has been painful to watch the demise of a great […] The post Episode 11 – Mark Hancock – When Boy Scouts changed course, ‘Trail Life' stepped in the gap first appeared on God Reports.
There has to be more to life than just this. They have fame, they have fortune — everything I want — but I can tell there's something missing. The post Episode 10 – Rabbi Jason Sobel – Jewish teen had out-of-body experience, saw Jesus on throne first appeared on God Reports.
It was a blustery Saturday along the coast of Maine, with whitecaps forming to the horizon's edge. Jane Dobson received some jolting news that morning, October 2, 2010. A close friend in Wisconsin had passed away the night before. “She was a beloved sister in Christ, a very dear friend of mine,” Jane notes. “Her husband got up and thought she was asleep, but suddenly he realized she wasn't breathing.” Her friend Kathleen died from a massive, unexpected heart attack at age 67. Jane began to grieve for her friend. The Dobson house was full of weekend guests – their kids and old family friends, which made it more difficult for Jane to find time alone with God. Before she received the bad news about her friend, she had been praying that Jesus would reveal Himself in new ways to her house-guests. “The wind was blowing so hard I couldn't open my windows even an inch,” Jane recalls. But then suddenly, about 2:00 p.m., the wind stopped. “It went from big white caps to flat calm – like a mill pond,” she notes. “That usually doesn't happen in October in Maine.” Due to the favorable weather change, Jane's husband, Bill, suggested they go for a ride on their boat. Everyone quickly agreed and the group of 10 piled into the Dobson's 36-foot Hinckley picnic boat, “Lady Jane,” and set out along the coast of Maine. Jane continued to grieve on the boat. “Everybody left me alone because I was so sad,” she notes. Jane, a retired nurse with an active prayer ministry, offered praise for Kathleen's life and asked Jesus to send comfort. After an hour on the vessel, Jane felt a noticeable change in the atmosphere. As their boat rounded a bend close to Owl's Head State Park's majestic lighthouse, something unusual happened. The post Episode 9 – Jane Dobson – Mysterious ‘Jesus photo' stirs faith, brings comfort and peace to many first appeared on God Reports.
In some near-death experiences, people report they were drawn toward “the light.” But in this horrifying near-death experience for an atheist art professor, he was drawn into the darkness of hell, which dramatically altered the course of his life. “I was a double atheist,” says Howard Storm, who became a tenured art professor at Northern Kentucky University by age 27. “I was a know-it-all college professor, and universities are some of the most closed-minded places there are,” he notes. On the last day of a three-week European art tour he led, his group had returned to their hotel in Paris after a visit to the artist Delacroix's home and studio. As Howard stood in his room with his wife and another student, suddenly he screamed and dropped to the floor in agony. “I had a perforation of the small stomach, known as the duodenum,” he recalls. At first, Howard thought he was shot, and he glanced around the room to see if he could spot a smoking gun. As he writhed in pain on the ground, kicking and screaming, his wife called for a doctor. The post Episode 8 – Howard Storm – Atheist professor's near-death experience in hell left him changed first appeared on God Reports.
In 2013 Caleb Byerly woke up with a start and began to furiously write in his journal everything he saw in a rather unusual dream. For the previous five years, the small-town North Carolina resident had been engaged in mission outreach to indigenous people and tribal areas in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. “In the dream, I was standing on top of this mountain. I was looking out across the mountain, and I saw a tribe of people,” he told The Unseen Story. Caleb and his wife, Gladys, live in Moravian Falls, a town of 1400 in the foothills of the Brushy Mountains. He had never seen the tribe before, so he asked, “What tribe are you? What people are you?” “We're the Tinananon tribe,” they replied. Caleb had never heard of this people group and he began to carefully observe their actions in his dream. The post Episode 7 – Caleb Byerly – Dream led to stolen ‘golden bowl' instrument and hidden tribe first appeared on God Reports.
Mark Ellis is the founder of GodReports.com. After a mission trip to the southern Philippines in 2004, God gave him the vision for the God Reports website, which launched in 2009. He serves on the board of Morning Star News and the Birtcher Family Foundation. He is also the senior editor for ASSIST News. God Reports supports and encourages Christian missions by sharing stories and testimonies from the mission field — in written and video form, along with stories of general interest and concern to its audience. The post Episode 6 – Mark Ellis – Founder shares how God led him to start God Reports first appeared on God Reports.
As a child she was taught to believe the Jews were monsters that wanted to kill Arab children. By God's grace, she overcame a culture of hatred and found a new reason for hope after she settled in the United States. “I grew up in a culture of jihad and martyrdom,” says Nonie Darwish, the founder of Former Muslims United. The post Episode 5 – Nonie Darwish – Daughter of Egyptian intelligence chief left Islam first appeared on God Reports.
He grew up in a Christian family in Dallas, the youngest of eight children. At about nine-years-old he began to experience same-sex attraction. “I didn't know where it came from or what to make of it,” says Becket Cook, author of A Change of Affection: A Gay Man's Incredible Story of Redemption. “It was an odd sensation. I knew I couldn't talk about this. It was a secret I held for many years.” The post Episode 4 – Becket Cook – Gay Hollywood insider experienced ‘change of affection' first appeared on God Reports.
His Lebanese grandfather dates their family to the days of Noah. His Green Beret father influenced his pathway to the Marines and then to the CIA's Special Operations Group, America's most secretive paramilitary operators. Now God is using his training in clandestine activities for another purpose – recovering missing and exploited children. “My mission is rescuing children who are abducted,” says Bazzel Baz, the founder of the Association for the Recovery of Children (ARC). His team members include former CIA and National Security Agency personnel, and others from the Secret Service and military Special Forces. “This nation spent a certain amount to make us the best in the business, to go places and do things nobody else can do.” “I can go places where the FBI won't go, because their hands are tied by politics.” The post Episode 3 – Bazzel Baz – Former CIA special ops man uses skills to recover lost kids first appeared on God Reports.
When doctors inexplicably missed four-year-old Colton Burpo's burst appendix, and the resulting infection nearly took his life, his father railed at God as Colton's life seemed to slip away. The post Episode 2 – Todd Burpo – For the Burpo family, ‘Heaven is for Real' first appeared on God Reports.
Karen Dunham had a turbulent youth that involved abuse, illicit drugs, foster homes, abortions and eventually prison. After her incarceration, she managed to turn her life around, until she stumbled into a corruption scandal that nearly took her life. The post Episode 1 – Karen Dunham – Ministry in refugee camps in Jericho and Gaza won converts, attracted danger first appeared on God Reports.
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