MURRIETA, CALIFORNIA (ANS) – For Jeff Thompson, founder of Eastern European Outreach in Murrieta, California, the past year of 2009 represented both contraction due to the recession and expansion as God opened new doors.

Jeff Thompson with Suren, director of Full Life in Stepanavan, Armenia

Eastern European Outreach ministers to thousands of at-risk children and families throughout Ukraine, Armenia and Kosovo. But the recession Jeff says, caused them to have to cut back.

“During the year of 2009 the recession posed some very challenging decisions for us.” Jeff Thompson said. “We always pray and ask the Lord to guide and direct us, but those prayers are usually regarding effectiveness and expansion, not ministry and personnel cutbacks.

“Our finances have been down as supporters were forced to cut back in their giving. The first few months made it clear that some programs must be cut. That was particularly challenging because we didn’t want children to suffer as a result of the reduction in finances, but sometimes you have to make hard choices.

“Historically we (EEO) have always had the extra finances to support children while they were waiting for a sponsor. This year that was curtailed.”

Despite the financial challenge Jeff says they stepped out in faith to start a new ministry in the UK:

“It was interesting; simultaneously to this recession we had the opportunity to expand things by starting a new ministry in England called Mercy Project International,” Jeff said.

“Mercy Project did not require a large investment to get started and God has provided both people and funding. So we are excited to see what He is going to do with it.” Jeff explained.

“We see it as an expansion of what God would like to do through us, bringing God’s justice to the downtrodden, the poor and the needy. I’ve been encouraged to see the response of British churches and the interest of people.”

Another highlight in starting the work in the UK was a partnership with a U.K. Christian media organization United Christian Broadcasters, who’ll be broadcasting the charity’s first radio series Mercy Project Minute on digital radio across the country in 2010.

“UCB has welcomed us and embraced our shared vision for helping the poor. So yes it’s been challenging but we’ve seen God’s blessing as well,” he said.

Jeff went on to share how Northgate Church in Chester has become a “significant supporter” of Mercy Project.

“After speaking at their morning services, people lined up at our table to sponsor children,” he said. “The response was spectacular. I understand they are sending Christmas cards and one day hope to actually visit their children.

“With Mercy Project U.K., and EEO in the U.S., sponsors can literally stay with their children through college helping them to get an education and really change the world they live in.”

Highlights Included College Students Living In An Orphanage

Jeff shared that in 2009 a group of students from Vanguard University in Southern California lived in a Ukrainian orphanage as part of their mission experience.

“Learning God’s heart for orphans and widows means understanding them, spending time with them,” Jeff said. “How can we understand in a two hour visit? I call that ‘drive-by’ missions and I don’t agree with it

“The students from Vanguard actually lived in the orphanage, ate their food, observed their life, and spent a week with them getting to know them. It was very emotional for them all when they had to say good-bye. Yet, these students are now interested in giving their lives to serve at-risk children. God desires to break our hearts so He can use us to touch those who live around us. Indeed, serving Jesus can get messy. It is supposed to.”

Jeff Thompson went on to say, “In Armenia this year many young people came to know the Lord.” Jeff shared. “They have a Christian heritage in Armenia, but many people do not know what it means to be ‘born again’ or experience a personal relationship with Christ. So you must clearly explain what it means to give your life to Christ. The young people simply embraced that message. It was really fun.”

Jeff shared that he is grateful for the trust and support of donors in the U.S. and the U.K.

“Our ministry is like a tool,” he said. “We wouldn’t exist without concerned

A family in Armenia where the grandmother, mother, and daughters taught Jeff to make cheese

Christians who desire to make a difference in this world. You can sponsor a child almost anywhere in the world, but with EEO and Mercy Project, you don’t just send your money in, you can be as personally involved as you want to be. We encourage sponsors to write and go visit their children. This is unique in child sponsorship.

“We are thankful for every single person that decides to sponsor a child or go on a trip. We are building up treasures in heaven and seeing needy children’s lives changed by the love of Christ.

“Despite a nagging recession and cutbacks, our Lord promises a bright future. Our Scripture verse for 2010 is Jeremiah 29:13 which says:

I know the plans I have for you says the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.

“May the widows and orphans experience His kindness and love through our ministry in 2010,” he concluded.

For more information please visit: www.eeo.org 

Peter Wooding is a TV, radio and print journalist and media consultant having spent 10 years as news editor with UCB Radio in the UK. He has traveled extensively reporting from countries including Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Dubai, South Korea, Zambia, Gambia, Mozambique, Croatia, Israel and India. He reports regularly for CBN News, KCBI radio, ASSIST News and Sorted Magazine. Peter and wife Sharon live in North Wales, UK with their three children. Passionate to see God’s Justice and Mercy impact lives, Peter is director of a new UK ministry Mercy Project International (www.mercyproject.org.uk) to help at-risk young people in Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Kosovo, the Middle East and beyond. Contact Peter for consultation at woodingpeter@hotmail.com or tel. +44 1244 549167/+44 7500 903067.

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Assist News

Pastor Chuck Smith, 82, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, California, and the father of the “Jesus People” phenomenon in Southern California, is continuing to recover in a local hospital after suffering two “mini-strokes” at his home in the early hours of Sunday morning (December 27, 2009).

A message posted on the church’s website) says, “Dear praying friends, Pastor Chuck has now moved into the rehabilitation stage of his recovery. He is doing very well and appreciates your prayers. Doctors are still advocating lots of rest as he moves into this stage. The family thanks you for the outpouring of love, concern, and respect for their privacy during this time.

“The best way for anyone to communicate with Pastor Chuck during this time of recovery is to send an email to pastorchuck@calvarychapel.com.”

Brian Brodersen, who serves as associate pastor to Chuck Smith at the church, told the Sunday morning congregation that “Pastor Chuck is doing very well” and added that he is “hoping to return home sometime later this week.”

About Chuck Smith

It was back in 1965 when Pastor Chuck Smith began his ministry at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Only twenty-five people attended at the time. What began as a small chapel has now grown into a church that seats over 2,000 and is filled almost nightly.

From the beginning, Pastor Chuck welcomed all, young and old, without judgment, placing his emphasis on the teaching of the Word of God. His simple, yet sound, biblical approach draws 25,000 people weekly to the church and also millions of radio listeners who hear his sermons.

With a sincere concern for the lost, Pastor Chuck made room in his heart and his home for a generation of hippies and surfers; generating a movement of the Holy Spirit that spread from the West Coast to the East Coast, bringing thousands of young people to Jesus Christ.

Included among this generation of new believers were Greg Laurie, Mike MacIntosh, Raul Ries, and Skip Heitzig, as well an estimated 1,500 leaders who have gone on to establish their ministries around the world. This also has included the myriad of other members of the church body who call Pastor Chuck their “Pastor.”

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He went to the cross for us all

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – President Barack Obama, abortion, the Supreme Court and health care dominated pro-life news in 2009. As LifeNews.com looks back on the year — the first with a new pro-abortion president — we find the pro-life movement essentially on the defensive.

Thanks to a pro-abortion president and Congress, pro-life advocates spent most of their time attempting to hold back the opening of the floodgates ushering in an expansion of abortion and taxpayer financing of it.

With the health care debate continuing into the new year, those efforts will be forced to continue — although the potential for pro-life gains in the 2010 elections provides significant hope for the future.

1. Health Care: The health care debate has become the central focus of the pro-life movement during the latter half of 2009 and for good reason. If the abortion language in the final bill is anything like what is currently in the Senate version of the legislation, the result would be the greatest expansion of taxpayer funding of abortions since the 1970s when the Hyde Amendment was adopted. The Senate bill not only would allow the forcing of taxpayers to pay for abortions but would let the Obama administration force insurance plans to pay for them as well.

The end result? With Hyde getting credit for stopping more than 100,000 abortions annually, the health care bill could result in a 10% or greater increase in abortions — all financed with government money. This doesn’t even touch on the rationing, promotion of assisted suicide, and lack of conscience protection for medical professionals found in the bill.

2. Barack Obama promoting abortion: The influence of the president of the United States on abortion policy can never be underestimated, despite some who still think the president doesn’t have any impact.

LifeNews.com has the most comprehensive chronicle of Obama’s pro-abortion actions, but the most consequential ones include his overturning of the Mexico City Policy and allowing tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to flow to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood and Marie Stopes International that not only do abortions by lobby pro-life nations to overturn or water down their laws. Full story at LifeNews.com

Planned Parenthood Found 2009 Difficult With Abortion Centers Closing Rapidly
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in the United States, doing 305,310 abortions in its own facilities or just under one-third of all American abortions. But the billion-dollar abortion giant faced a tough year in 2009 as it saw abortion centers close at a higher rate than normal.

Jim Sedlak, the director of STOPP International, a watchdog group, told LifeNews.com today that he’s seen Planned Parenthood centers close over the year but never as fast as in 2009.

“STOPP has been fighting for 25 years to close down Planned Parenthood abortion facilities. During that time, we have seen the number of Planned Parenthood non-express clinics fall from a high of 938 in 1995 to 797 today,” he explained. “More significantly, 2009 saw the rate of Planned Parenthood closings go from one a month to over two a month,” he said.

“Although the organization reported record income ($1.04 billion) and a record number of babies killed in its own facilities, there have been a number of signs that Planned Parenthood is beginning to feel the relentless pressure from those of us who will not stand by and watch it take our money and kill our children,” he said. Full story at LifeNews.com

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By Dan Wooding

We are fast approaching the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which was the first manned mission to land on the moon.

Launched on July 16, 1969, it carried Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. On July 20, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon, while Collins orbited above.

The mission fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s, which he expressed during a speech given before a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961 when he said: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

This moon landing anniversary got my mind thinking back to a rather unusual meeting I had with Astronaut James Irwin, who served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 15, from July 26 to August 7, 1971, and he walked on the moon, but couldn’t figure out how to work a British pay phone.

And that was how I managed to secure an interview with Irwin a couple of years after his epic moon walk.

The BBC had asked me to go to the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, London, England, to try and interview Irwin, but because of a traffic snarl, I arrived well after his press conference had ended.

When I approached him, my BBC tape recorder in hand, he told me, “I’m sorry, but I’m not giving anymore interviews.”

However, like any journalist worth his salt, I decided that was not the end of the story, so I followed him across the lobby of the Hilton Hotel and watched him, confusion written over his face, trying to work out how to make a call on a British pay phone.

The deal…

After a few minutes, I approached him again and said, “Mr. Irwin, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll make the call for you if, in return, you will give me an interview.”

A wry smile came over his face and he handed me some coins, gave me the number he was trying to connect with and I did the rest.

Astronaut James Irwin uses scoop to sample lunar soil.  Photograph taken on August 2, 1971 during Apollo 15

I then retreated so he could talk to the person on the other end of the line in privacy and then, when he had finished, he came over to me and said, “I guess, young man, you’ve earned the interview.”

Irwin laughed and added, “Can you believe it? I landed on the moon, but couldn’t work one of your pay phones!”

Irwin, a born-again Christian, then gave me a fascinating interview in which he said, “It is more significant that God walked on earth than that man walked on the moon….my own life is given purpose and perspective through God who walks on this earth in Jesus. In that sense we are a visited planet!”

He went on to say, “It was my experience in exploring the moon on the Apollo 15 mission that moved me to devote the rest of my life to spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.”

His companions on the moon flight were David R. Scott, spacecraft commander and Alfred M. Worden, the command module pilot and Apollo 15 was the fourth manned lunar landing mission and the first to visit and explore the moon’s Hadley Rille and Apennine Mountains which are located on the southeast edge of the Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains).

Their lunar module, “Falcon,” remained on the lunar surface for 66 hours, 54 minutes-setting a new record for lunar surface stay time — and Scott and Irwin logged 18 hours and 35 minutes each in extravehicular activities conducted during three separate excursions onto the lunar surface. Using “Rover-l” to transport themselves and their equipment along portions of Hadley Rille and the Apinnine Mountains, Scott and Irwin performed a selenological (lunar science) inspection and survey of the area and collected approximately 180 pounds of lunar surface materials.

He even showed me a piece of moon rock that he was carrying with him.

Irwin had by now became the founding president of the High Flight Foundation, an inter-denominational evangelical organization based in Colorado Springs, and he said, “I felt the power of God as I’ve never felt it before.

“While on the moon, at the end of the first day exploring the rugged lunar highlands, I was reminded of my favorite Biblical passage from Psalms. While speaking by radio to Mission Control in Houston, I began quoting the passage, ‘I’ll look into the hills from whence cometh my help,’ and then I added quickly, ‘but, of course, we get quite a bit of help from Houston, too.”

And, on this occasion, Irwin, who sadly died of a heart attack in Glenwood City, Colorado, on August 8, 1991, “looked” to a British journalist to get some help in operating a British pay phone…

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California Capitol Update
by Karen England

The National Education Association, a labor union with 3.2 million members, voted to endorse homosexual marriage, adoption, and more at its national meeting this month.

“They will help to overturn legislation that is discriminatory against same-sex couples,” Jeralee Smith, cofounder of the Conservative Educators Caucus within NEA, told OneNewsNow.

A five point action plan on homosexual issues was adopted by NEA’s Representative Assembly, where thousands of delegates passed it by voice vote. This means NEA will lobby for policy changes on homosexual marriage, legal and healthcare benefits for same-sex couples, and more.

Observers believe that NEA wants to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act, though they call it an implied intention, rather than a stated goal.

A commenter on the Queers United blog wrote, “There were many of us who wanted stronger language, but were happy to have something that would pass in more conservative areas.”

An effort to remove religious protections was soundly rejected by delegates.

Yet NEA’s action plan only affirms that religious institutions have the right “to refuse to perform or recognize same-sex marriages.” This raises questions about church freedom on homosexuality, apart from marriage, such as in a church’s hiring decisions.

The plan also fails to address freedoms for individuals and privately owned businesses. Companies that do not offer same-sex partner health benefits — or adoption agencies that decline to place children with same-sex couples — could find NEA lobbyists working against them.

At least one delegate tried to speak against the action plan.

“As soon as she mentioned the words ‘marriage should be between a man and a woman,’ she got booed,” Smith said, according to Baptist Press.

“The chair stopped the booing and reminded everybody that in a democracy everyone gets to have their say,” she said.

Smith also said that the Conservative Teachers Caucus hoped to speak against the action plan, but did not have an opportunity.

Certainly, not all teachers share the official NEA position on issues like homosexual adoption.

Yet schools have been sufficiently effective, in teaching students to support homosexuality, that many activists say future generations’ textbooks will tell how backward Americans once were.

This makes it vitally important for families to teach the rationale and historical backing for traditional values like man-woman marriage.

The Representative Assembly vote, which opens the way for NEA to spend large sums of money on pro- homosexuality advocacy, underscores NEA willingness to promote an activist social agenda.

“Money that NEA teachers make by teaching our kids is being spent to combat our longstanding American values,” said Karen England, Executive Director of Capitol Resource Institute.

“NEA delegates may have passed the action plan by a clear majority, but every time this issue has gone to state voters, the result showed a very different set of priorities,” she said.

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