An American missionary kidnapped in Nigeria has been freed.
Rev. Phyllis Sortor, a member of the American Free Methodist Church, was freed by a gang of criminals on Friday according to a church statement.
“Early evening Nigeria time, Friday, March 6, Phyllis Sortor, Free Methodist missionary to Nigeria, was safely released into the care of authorities and Free Methodist church leaders,” noted David W. Kendall, for the Board of Bishops in a news release to The Christian Post Friday evening.
“It appears she was kidnapped by a criminal gang, and there is no evidence this event is associated with terrorism or religion. Free Methodist leaders express deep appreciation to all who prayed for Sortor’s safe return.”
The criminals had asked for $300,000 as a ransom but the church did not comment on whether any ransom had been paid for the missionary’s release.
Sortor had travelled the world as a minister for Christ with her husband until his death in 2008. After his death, she remained in Nigeria to focus on child care ministries.
A former Olympic gymnast who had doctors telling her to abort two of her unborn children to make sure the third baby was healthy has given birth to healthy triplets.
As previously reported, Jaime Halsey was told by doctors last fall to abort their children.
“We had our first scan in Northampton at 12 weeks and were immediately referred to specialists at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford,” she told the Northampton Chronicle in January. “They told us one of the twins is 25 percent smaller than the other and there’s a massive risk of further growth restrictions.”
Halsey flat out rejected the calls of their doctors and said that she would give life to her babies no matter what it would cost her.
On February 24th, Halsey gave birth through Cesarean section.
Triplet girls Eden Rose, Amber Joy and Erin Aila are all doing fine. They will remain hospitalized until they gain more weight as they were born premature.
“We both know that the triplets have a long way to go, and many hurdles to get over before we can bring them home; but we know that we have given them the best chance possible and the wonderful medical staff at the JR have and will continue to give them the best chance possible too,” her husband added.
A church in Washington state is taking a place one home to stripping and prostitution and turning it into a center to show the light of Christ to the world.
Bethany Community Church, a multi-site Seattle-based church, rents a former strip club called “Sugars.” The building has been turned into a site for the church to launch missions and serve the surrounding community.
Pastor Scott Sund told the Christian Post they found the building available when a staff member saw a sign for rental in their neighborhood.
“A local businessman purchased the property from the federal government which had seized it because of money laundering and prostitution charges against the strip club in the facility,” explained Sund.
“When it came up for rent, our children’s ministry director Anna Guerrero, who lived in the same neighborhood, brought it to my attention. At the time we were looking for a full time rental in order to facilitate our Sunday worship services.”
The building now has offices in the back portion for seven staff members and the bulk of the rest of the building is “One Cup”, a coffee house where all profits go to charity.
We now serve breakfast from out front of the Café every Tuesday to homeless and drug addicted people. From that outreach ministry we’ve started a Bible study,” Sund said. “We have a great relationship with the methadone clinic and nearby neighbors have begun work to clean up and transform their own spaces.”
She had to flee her home when ISIS began an invasion and now lives in an unfinished mall in northern Iraq.
Yet little Myriam is thanking God for a place to live and her heart is full of forgiveness for those who destroyed her old life and killed dozens of her friends.
An Arabic Christian network interviewed children living in the Ainkawa Mall’s refugee camp about their lives since they had to flee ISIS.
“We used to have a house and were entertained, where as here we are not,” Myriam said. “But thank God. God provides for us.”
“God loves us and wouldn’t let ISIS kill us,” she explained.
The reporter covering the story asked Myriam what she would do if she had the power to take action against the terrorists that destroyed her home.
“I won’t do anything to them,” Myriam asserted. “I will only ask God to forgive them.”
Other children told the reporter they missed their schools and their churches. All of them made similar statement: “Jesus will be with us no matter where we go.”
A South African man who had been in a 12-year vegetative state is crediting God for his recovery.
Martin Pistorius spoke with Glenn Beck through a voice synthesizer and said God alone is the reason he was able to communicate.
“Yes, I do believe that if it were not through God’s hand that I would not be where I am today,” Pistorius said. “If I stop and think about everything that had to happen and the odds of that happening, then there is no doubt in my mind that that could only have happened through divine intervention.”
Pistorius fell ill at age 12 when he had a hard time staying awake. He was diagnosed with Cryptococcal Meningitis. His condition worsened and he eventually laid unconscious. His family took him home from the hospital and prepared for him to die.
He is unable to speak on his own but is now a functional member of society, married and operates a business.
Pistorius said that he never questioned God or why God was doing it to him.
“There were many, many times where in some sense I felt very alone, even if there were people around me,” Pistorius explained. “However, I always seem to pause when making that statement because while a part of me experienced the extreme loneliness and isolation, another part of me always felt the presence of the Lord.”
Samaritan’s Purse has announced they exceeded their donation goal of 10 million gift-filled shoeboxes in 2014.
Operation Christmas Child collects boxes from the United States and 12 other Western nations. The boxes are filled with small, age-appropriate gifts for children around the world who would not have a Christmas without the donations.
The organization said that 10.4 million shoeboxes came in for 2014, 8 million from the United States. The boxes then are distributed in over 100 nations around the world.
“The 10 million shoeboxes are being distributed worldwide right now. We are sending these gifts to local churches in more than 110 countries around the globe this year,” Operation Christmas Child’s domestic director Randy Riddle told The Christian Post. “That was our worldwide goal and our global goal: collecting shoebox gifts in 13 countries and sending them around the world. We are very thankful to surpass our global 10 million goal.”
In addition to the gifts, each box contains information about Christ.
“This is many times the first time that these children have ever received a gift of any kind,” Riddle explained. “Working with our local church leaders, this platform allows us to share the Gospel with children who have never heard about Jesus before, or never had an experience like this before to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel.
“We have Gospel literature that is handed out alongside every shoebox gift and there is typically a verbal proclamation of Gospel with the shoebox gift,” Riddle continued. “It teaches these children that there is someone here on this Earth that loves them and cares about them and has not forgotten them and that there is a God in Heaven who loves them as well.”
The mother of a Missouri teen believed to have died in a lake says that God brought her child back from the dead.
John Smith, 14, was playing with two friends on frozen Lake Sainte Louise when they fell through the ice. While the other two boys were rescued, the initial rescuers couldn’t find Smith. It took 15 minutes for rescuers to find his body.
Doctors at St. Joseph Hospital performed CPR for almost half an hour without success. After being clinically dead for 45 minutes, the doctors called Smith’s mother into the room to break the bad news.
Dr. Ken Sutterer said that when Joyce Smith came into the room, she refused to accept that her son was dead and began loudly praying.
“I don’t remember what all I said,” Joyce Smith said. “But I remember, ‘Holy God, please send your Holy Spirit to save my son. I want my son, please save him.’”
Within minutes, hospital personnel were stunned. John’s pulse returned. He was rushed to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center where doctors were concerned that he would have permanent brain damage due to being without oxygen for at least 45 minutes.
Within 48 hours, Smith opened his eyes and responded perfectly to doctor’s questions.
“It’s a bonafide miracle,” said Dr. Jeremy Garrett, who tested Smith’s brain function.
A North Carolina woman who was attacked and raped on a business trip is sharing the story of her choice to choose life.
Jennifer Christie won’t reveal the location of the attack other than to say it was at a hotel in a college town. She said that she opened her hotel room door and when she turned to close it, a large man attacked her, struck her in the face and then raped her. She was found unconscious on a staircase.
A month later while working on a cruise ship, she fell ill with dysentery. An ultrasound was conducted during the examination and she discovered she was pregnant.
“I spent the next week listening to a team of very well meaning doctors and nurses console me with how ‘easy’ it would be to ‘take care of it’—to kill the child,” she recalled.
Christie said that it was during that time she turned to God.
“For the first time, I thought of how God can use this, this nightmare I’d endured—use me,” she explained.
“Our little boy may have been conceived in violence, but he is a gift from God—a delicious gift that filled the hole in our family that we never realized was there,” she said. “He made us complete.”
Christie is now speaking out about what she calls the culture of death surrounding abortion.
The owner of a Chick-Fil-A franchise in Birmingham, Alabama is gaining national attention after a customer secretly videotaped him showing Christ’s love to a homeless man.
The unidentified man walked into the store last week and asked owner Mark Meadows if he could work for some food.
“We made eye contact and I asked him what would he like, what we could do for him and then he asked if he could do some work to get something to eat,” Meadows told ABC News.
Meadows responded by having the man sit down and they gave him a meal on the house. As the man was waiting for his meal, Meadows noticed he was rubbing his hands together and asked if the man had gloves.
When he said no, Meadows went into his office and brought out his gloves and gave them to the man.
Meadows was not intending to tell anyone about the incident but a customer recorded the encounter and posted it on social media.
“[My son] Bryson and I are sitting in Chick Fil A on 280. A man walked in to get warm with all of his earthly possessions on his back,” patron Andrea Stoker wrote in a status that has now gone viral. “The manager, who is on his break, got up and asked the man if he could get him anything. Before the man could even answer, the manager asked if the man had any gloves and handed him his, then got him the meal of his choice.”
“There is still so much good in this world and I’m so grateful that Bryson saw it all unfold,” she continued.
A group of Christian surfers in New Zealand say that God placed them in the perfect position to be His hands and feet to a family that faced death on Christmas Day.
The five members of the North Shore Christian Surfers Group saved the lives of a mother and her two teenage sons who caught in a rip tide off the shore of a beach an hour west of Auckland.
The woman and her sons had almost drowned when someone on the beach screamed to the five men to help. They quickly swam with their boards to the victims who were floundering about 30 yards offshore. The group placed the three victims across their five boards and slowly worked their way to shore.
“They were pretty exhausted and pretty far out, and weren’t making any progress towards land,” group member Darren Celliers said. “It was pretty freaky.”
“The younger brother was just freaking out. He was scared and in shock,” Celliers added. “We spent the first few minutes trying to calm him down and explain that he was going to be all right.”
The New Zealand Herald reported five drownings connected to vicious rip tides in the last week.