25 Years

Let's have a prayer. Dear Heavenly Father. It's been twenty

five years ago to this week when Reaching Heart's International

met in Boerwin Heights Church in green Belt, Maryland, and

we weren't even a church. We're just people with a dream.

Nothing but you, and thank you. There's no such thing

as but you. You are it. You are everything. You

are God, And it's the will of the Father that

give the little flock the kingdom. Lord, thank you. I

have nothing but gratefulness in my heart for you and

for your Son and the Holy Spirit. So as we

turn our hearts to remember today, help us to look

to the future. We're living just before the end of time.

You know that more than I do. Help us to

rise in Jesus' name. Amen. Sister White has a statement now.

When I came to the door, Katie gave me this

wonderful look picture of the Church of God that she made.

Isn't that neat? She puts those things in my hands,

so I'll have a kick in my feet and I'll

be happy in the pulpit every week. I like to

encourage that spiritual gift and a few others around here.

Now having said it, it's a beautiful picture, says Happy Sabbath,

Church of God, flowers, open door, the hole nine yards.

I thought I would share that with you. Isn't that cool? Now?

We have been told in the spirit of Prophecy that

we have no fear so great that we should forget

how God has led in the past. The people die

because they lack of vision. God has been with us.

It doesn't matter if we're four hundred or thirty. God

has been with us. And I learned long ago not

to measure God's will by how popular you are. It's

how faithful we are that matters. God has called us

to faith maithfulness twenty five years. That's the title of

my message this morning. I want to tell the story,

and I wrote this out because it's hard to remember

all the details. You know what I mean. How maybe

you have photographic minds. I lost mine with COVID. Honestly,

my memory went down the chutes. I used more of

my notes than I used to. But let me just

work with me. As I tell the story of where

we came from. There'll be pieces that I don't mention

because I can't. Time is here, but I'm going to

focus on how we got here. And what God has

done for us. Twenty five years ago this week, the

Reaching Hearts International Church was birthed in pain, and it

struggled against religious and racial discrimination over its early years

to find a church home and its fight for faith

and freedom. This church was on the line for many

years when it looked like no one would support it.

I used to pastor a very large church in our denomination.

In fact, it used to be the world headquarters church

at one time our denomination. I didn't know that my

father had come into the seventh d administ church at

that church, the Sligo church that I was in. I

found that out after I left. I found his letter

to Bill Lovelace telling him how he wanted to join

the church. And he was just, you know, he was

just a simple young man trying to get his life together.

It warmed my heart to see that my dad would

never know. I'd be the pastor, the senior pastor of

that church. But one day I had a choice to

make in that church. Would I go along with covering

up for clergy sexual abuse in my staff, or would

I address the problem with conference leadership to heal the

church with a necessary biblical intervention. I'd been there almost

a year, and this thing came out as a result

of that good choice. I remember driving to the White House,

which was the administrative building, and I said, I said, Lord,

if I'd follow through with it this, it's likely I'll

be destroyed. I'd asked my wife just before I went, Honey,

is it worth it? I mean, couldn't we just kind

of excise ourselves and move on and find a new place.

She says, it's worth it. The lady who had been

seriously harmed hadn't been the church in years. Doctor John

Butler and I. I got a call one Friday evening.

I went to her house with doctor Butler. I wasn't

preaching that week. We set with this dear lady and

she opened up a box. She showed pictures and letters,

and how many people knew There was a pict there

was a letter to my conference president he knew, and

together doctor John Butler, who's one of the founders of

this church, we had holy communion with her in her house.

She had not been the church in years. And I'm

telling you, the church is not about, you know, virtue

signaling and telling everybody how important we are and what

issues we stand for. It's those people that have been

I treated that way unjustly. Now, it's interesting when I

engaged that situation, I followed the conference policy to the

tea called the conference, asked to meet with the executive officers.

I wanted an attorney there. Based on church policy, you

have about twenty four hours to report such a thing.

And that began a train of events that caused this

church to come into existence as a result of that choice,

and I was dismissed, giving a year paid leave of absence.

I was thinking. I remember I was standing on the

top of the World Trade Center with my wife Diana,

looking down before it came down, and I said, honey,

you know, we've just interviewed here and they've sent all

these communication networks throughout the World Church to recus. Let's

go into medicine. Let's just be a medical doctor. She

looked at me and she says, yeah. Maybe. So I

got a call from doctor Butler and a couple of

others here who said, look, we've been talking to some people.

We'd like to plant a church. I said, well, it

has to be in the Adventist Church. I don't plant

churches that aren't Avidists. I said, well, we're talking to

the Allegheny East and this kind of thing. And I

didn't know what was happening here. There were people here

praying and searching and giving their lives to the Lord

and having renewal. Well, I was suffering down in Tennessee

because I left. I remember when I was in the

house being dismissed. I turned to my conference president. I said, look,

you know this is coming upon me kind of suddenly.

I know what you're doing. And I regretted saying this,

but I said, you will not get to Sea of

Glass acting this way. The church, the church that is faithful,

that has that has surrounded the vision, we've cast theirs, committed,

the Avidist message, it's prophetic message, and the whole nine yards,

and this is an assault upon faith. It's the wrong

thing to do. So I said, I'm gonna get in

my car. We're gonna go down to Tennessee. We're on

for that year. We're not going to be back here.

But lots of things happened, and I don't know all

of them that did, but a group of people coalesced

who were praying. People. Now, before I came to Sligo,

I had a dream I'm not a prophet or a

son of a prophet. I'm gonna share the dream with

you I was. It was the night we were packing,

we had interviewed to come to the church, and I

had a dream of a group of people standing outside

that church trying to stay warm in the rain. And

just before in that dream, I remember running through to

come apart, running from something in the dark, and I

ran right up to the steps of the Sligo Church

and there was this group in the rain there, and

it was a dark, dreary thing, and I was wondering

because in that dream I had seen previously the old

church i'd left at the Oakwood Church in Michigan. I

saw a picture of them praying for me, but I

was outside the church, unable to get back in. And

here I was outside the Sligo Church from a distance,

looking at these people on the porch praying in the rain,

and I took in my dream. I just came up

to the front of the church and someone came down

from that church and their face I don't know who

it was, maybe no one, maybe a representation my own memory,

the Lord, maybe not, I don't know, but they said,

this dream is true for you here they were praying

for me, and that carried me for that one year

during Sligo when we had to dress these kind of problems. Well,

when I received my one year paid leave of absence,

which was really the Baton death March to go over

cliff and ever return, these dear people who were people

of conscience, fearless, I would say, led by doctor John Butler,

who was on the search committee, they brought me there,

decided they wanted to bring me back. During that year,

I had PTSD, I developed post traumatic stress disorder. I

was under the care of a psychologist, Christian Man good Man,

and I didn't want to come back to anything. You

ever wanted to quit? How many of you ever wanted

to quit real bad? I just wanted to quit, And

this dear Man of God brought me back and I

didn't know what that would mean, but I remember struggling

with it because in my DNA, I liked being liked.

You ever liked being liked? And I had to make

a decision with God to come and do a work

when I wasn't liked, where the politics had turned against me,

and how would I do that? And I remember just

going at Pocket Wilderness getting on my knees and falling

down and asking God to help me. As a result

of that choice, the group that would become Reaching Hearts

International was forced out of that larger church, to become

nomads without a home, with only a dream of planning

a new church in the Adventist Church that would follow

the Bible more closely, live out the ideals of our faith,

the seventhd Avenst Christians, and that would embrace Bible prophecy.

When I was at Sligo hadn't had prayer meaning years.

We started, we started going through the books of Daniel Revelation.

I never will forget what happened to those dear people

who were in that prayerman. We had like one hundred

and fifty people in prayer meeting at that time. As

I was taking them through the material I had learned

at the seminary, fellow Seventh day Adventist on the outside

calling them cultic because they were studying Daniel Revelation. I

want you to realize, those were the times. It was

like a mini end of the world back then. What

was transpiring at that time in my seminary experience. I'd

graduated soon the Cumlattie at the seminary. I was the

top of my generation. Academically. I was being prepped to

be a new Testament to the Elogian scholar sponsored by

Southern PhD program before I came to Sligo. But it

was the most amazing experience for me to come to

a place where the Adventist message had been abandoned by

a few who ruled the many, and yet the majority

of the people that precious congregation were committed to it,

who wanted to grow in it, who wanted to be

fed from the Word of God. And so that was

probably one of the roughest years of my life. Asking

the question, you know, I've been in Michigan Conference, Elder

Gallimer wanted to get me back, but it wasn't right.

So as a result, here we were, and this little

group had formed, and they were there and they had

brought me back. We became pilgrims in our search of

a promised land, working for the Lord, without a church home,

without much of anything. At first. Providentially we found ourselves

under the care of Elder Charles Cheatham. Haven't even know

who Elder Charles Cheatham is. He was our conference president

in Allegheny East Conference it's been over twenty years. In

the Alias Conference, he was a second father for me,

and of course Elder Marsialist Robinson, who is now the

Union president. Together these were just friends. Elder Robinson shielded

our congregation so that the attackers could not destroy it.

But there was a third person that entered the mixed

Elder Milas Martin. How many of you ever heard of

Brother Milas? Raise your hand now. Elder Milos Martin was

one of the founders of the Reaching Hearts Ministry. He

was directly interacting with Charles Cheatham, and he was world

famous in a way because he was a former journalist

for the Chicago Tribute. He was also an interventionist. He'd

worked for the IBM Corps as an leit executive. But

what he's most famous for for us is that in

the sixties, Miless Martin desegregated the Adventist Church. Here we

were waiting for the Second Coming of Christ, but if

you were an African American, you couldn't eat in the

General Conference cafeteria. Brother Milas Martin wrote an article or

two in the national press that changed that. They brought

him in. He said, brethren, now, how many of you

ever listened to your story hour about Uncle Dan aunt Sue,

which is way back. It's you know, they get different

iterations of that. Remember the devil who was talking at

the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? And

he said, Eve, you ever hear that voice way back

in those That was Milas. He was a trained actor.

He's one of the smartest men I've ever known. He

could quote Shakespeare in the Bible from memory. He could

write as an interventionist, and the devil feared his letters.

He's the only man I know who had the spiritual

gift of politics, and he used it for God's glory.

He was a humble man and he knew every General

Conference president from that time to the time of Elder

Neil Wilson Senior. He had affected this church as a

change agent. Mighty Man of God had the privilege of

helping to preach his funeral. When he died, he became

Uncle Milas in our family. He was in those early

gatherings making sure that we didn't go crazy, that we

were committed Seventh Day avenuests, and he was working behind

the scenes to make sure that what needed to happen

would happen. In the year two thousand, Elder Cheat informed

us into a mission company to become a fully recognized

church at some point in the future. We started renting

on weekends here or there, and then we secured a tent.

I mean of you remember being in the tent. We

blew the big chaffarhard you do. Some of you were there.

We met in the tent, and we'd have a clue

where we were going. We couldn't see into the future,

but we were there and we knew we wanted to

be about evangelism, about radio, campus ministry, church planting, and

that's what we did for many of those years. We

started reaching out on weekends here and there, and as

we secured that tent, our sense of community grew. Our

fight for freedom started. The year two thousand, we bought

an eight teen acre farm property in West Laurel and

Prince George's County, Maryland. That's the piece of property you're

on right now. My wife, Diana had to be in

her bonnet. She, in fact is she's the reason we

found the Cedar Ridge set. I was looking all over

the place for a church that we could rent. There

was nothing. She said, honey, you're just looking the wrong place.

You should go right down the street. So the one

that's going up, that nice facility there in Spencerville, the

Cedar Ridge Center. Go for the best, don't go for

the lowest. Said yes, ma'am, and I went there and

that's how we got into the tent, and we eventually

got into the facility. What's amazing in that journey is

that my wife had to be in her bought it

one day. She says, Mike, I'm gonna go out. I'm

going to find the property for the new church. Now

her parents are in real estate. My wife comes from

the Hassos, who who were the prominent family in the

Middle East that raised up the Adventist work in the

Middle East, you know, Middle East College and so on,

multi generational avenue. She is an entrepreneur, she's a businesswoman,

she's a visionary. And I had to be dragged along

because I'm none of those without my wife. Do I

need my wife? I need my wife. So Diana said,

I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna find this thing. And

she went out and she said, came back and I

found the property. She says, well, there's a contract on it,

but the lord's gonna make it fall through, and we're

gonna get it. I said, really, She says, yeah, And

that's exactly what happened. Diana found it right away, and

this is it was the Hamburg horse farm on riding

Stable Road or Brooklyn Bridge Road to depending on how

you look at that road. It was under contract to

be sold to someone else. That didn't stop her. She

saw our church on that property in the future. She said, Mike,

God will make sure that the contract falls through, because

God wants us to have that beautiful farm for our

new church. He doesn't want us to have something small.

He wants us to have something significant that speaks to

the community. She smiled in faith. At me, my little

wife is not a prophet. She doesn't claim prophetic powers.

Beware of people who do. I'm not a prophet. But

that day she would have passed for Moses or Elijah

with a skirt on. I mean it was almost prophetic.

Sure Enough, the contract fell through and after raising and

then the group of people that were that group that

were on the outside of Sligo started raising money to

meet a two hundred thousand dollars challenge in just a

month or two to be able to secure that property.

Now we had no bank history. We had nothing, So

how did we do this? Well, God moved on missus Hamburg.

She didn't want a housing development here. She wanted a

church on this property. So he moved on her to

finance the loan herself. So we drew up legal papers

and we had a loan. The whole thing was eight

hundred thousand, so we put two hundred thousand down, six

hundred thousand to go. We had no idea how we're

gonna pay for that. Don't have to figure those things

out if you're walking with the Lord. We were looking

forward to the day when we could worship God in

our own church building, to baptize people, to preach to weddings,

to share the gospel of Jesus his love for others.

Here there was a house. There was a farmhouse here

at that time that we did a lot of activities

in and our kids played in the field. They snuck

in the back and went to the reservoir and went

swimming at night. I found that out years later. You

can still see the rope they used to swing over

and drop into the reservoir. We chose the name Healing

Hearts International at first, but then we changed it to

reaching Hearts international because we had huge dreams for our

future to reach the world with the Avenist message. Around

that time, Christopher Jonathan, no, Christopher Jonathan's in India. He

goes there every year to help strengthen or raise up churches.

We have people here today who are in prison ministry

and other things, so our congregation sometimes more out there

than here doing ministry. But around that time, Christopher Jonathan

was seriously ill in Europe. He worked at the World

Bank and he was hospitalized and he almost died. He

had a dream. Now, look, we know the stay of

the dead don't come back from the dead to talk

to you, but it was probably more symbolic to him,

but it sure affected us. He had a dream of

HMS Richards, who started the Voice of Prophecy, telling him

to start the radio ministry to reach the world. He

came back and shared that. He said, I was there,

they rushed me to the hospital. In my delirium, I

could see this and I know that's what I must do.

So he went to WAVA and he sought out David

Ruhlman and others and he put a tape down and

they heard it, and that's how our radio ministry got started.

We took the challenge without money to go ahead, and

they bumped focus on the family in the morning the

I think it was Odyssey. They plugged us in. What

an honor. Now, Doctor David Ruhlman at Wava was a

man of God. He just died recently and he ministered

Lilac to Laurel. He was on the phone and prayed

for Laurel. He himself was dying of cancer, and he

prayed for your sister as if he was well and

everything was fine. A man of God who opened the

door for us to get on the radio. We secured

an architect, an engineer, and as we went to work

on building the new church, our radio ministry expanded to

reach the nation. Now, Carl Kent was a forming Navy seal.

He died shortly after he came back to church and

I introduced you to him. A few weeks later he

died and he felt that this church was his home

that had given him that solidity in his life. Finally,

the day came for the approval of our application for

water sewer category change. We'd done everything, all kinds of

studies and they should have passed it with no problem. Whatsoever.

At the county hearing board, we had spent almost a

million dollars. This church had raised that internally for this

step in the building process for our new church. We

paid the architect upfront. Everything was in place. It should

have moved fast. We are excited and happy that we

had found the right property in God's leading. Our church

family had given sacrificially to raise the property two hundred

thousand dollars and a lot more to get the architectural plans,

the zoning things, the legal work in play as the

water hearing. At the water sewer hearing, a prominent county

council member, I'm not going to name him by name

because he's now more of a friend than an enemy.

Prominent county council member gave a nod to turn the

project down because he didn't want our church in his

community in the West Laurel Civic Association area, and only

a few seconds the whole county council looked at him

and went right along with him and voter application down.

Case closed. We had met all the requirements by law,

and they voted us down because didn't want our church

and their county for racial and religious reasons. But they

were not spoken at the council. Two years later, we

marshaled the energy to apply a second time for the

water sewer category change. Our people pleaded with the county.

We met there in the hearing boards the second time,

and again, just like the first, they denied us the

water sewer change. We needed to build the church to advance.

The second time, I remember driving home in the rain,

tears in my eyes, devastated, angry at God. You ever

been angry at God? Angry at God? Because we had

failed our wonderful peep, our wonderful people had spent out

a fortune, and the church was tired of trying again

and again and failed. And people were saying we should quit,

we should quit. I've heard that for twenty something years

from different groups that come and go. But I'm telling

you that's not the language of the Lord. Every time

we try, we met this deliberate wall of discrimination that

counseled our dreams with smug smiles and grins that meant

get lost. I called my wife's dad on the phone

that night as I was driving back in the rain,

crying like a baby. Now, Dad, Dianah's father for many years,

was the guardian protector of this ministry and church in

ways that many of you will never know. He lost

a lot of his retirement fortune making sure that this

church can exist. He lost his health, became a diabetic

in a critical crisis in our history. He organized the

ministry and paid for its papers and collaborated with Utter

Cheatham on a yearly basis to ensure that we would

have a future. Dad now is not as strong. He

doesn't have the vital energy or really the focused capacity

of his past years. So I called my wife's dad,

who I called Dad on the phone that night as

I was driving back in the rain, crying like a baby.

A Dad had been captured by the PLO at one

point in his missionary experience, and they were capturing to

take him and execute him, and he only had a

few hours to live. As he was driving to him

on Jordan, and God had impressed upon him to do

a series of things where he drove directly in front

of the PLO headquarters. He got out of the car

and threw these terrorist bags out of the car. They

were disorry and he got in the car and sped away.

Or he wouldn't be our dad. God had saved his

life he'd have to land his missionary plane because they

were trying to shoot it down. He had lived, his

life was at risk in his work. He was sitting

on a couch in Lebanon. In Beirut, Lebanon, Diana learned

to read underneath the couch. In fact, years later she'd

get a congressional reception at the US Senate Chamber with

Al Gore recognized her as one of the outstanding Home

Studies students for the entire country, recognizing the avenue system

a real tribute. But Dad got out of that chair

one day and a sniper bull of it, right into

the back of the chair. If he'd stayed there just

a few seconds longer to be dead. Now, this man

of God, nothing less than that, had been trained by

adversity to not fear the future. And I said, Dad,

we're done. I don't know what to do. I'm finished

when I'm heartbroken. Tonight, I'm devastated. I was crying. I'll

never forget what Diana's dad. Doctor John Green said to

me that night. He said, Mike, in nature the weak die.

You listen to me. You cannot afford to be weak

in this matter. God has not called you to weakness,

but to strength, stand up to these bullies, getting handle

on your fear, and if you have to choose between

giving up and dying, die. That was a life changing

moment for me. From that point on, I have never

made decisions based on whether or not I thought I

would succeed or not. I've tried to make decisions based

on God's will for me and for others. It was liberating.

He then shared with me this promise from the Bible

in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter twenty nine and verse eleven,

where God says, I know the plans I have for you,

says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil,

to give you a future and a hope. We fought

for our church in the state court system for about

five years and we lost every single case in the

Maryland court system. Now how could we do that? You

see in the avage church, you can't fight in the

legal system as a pastor unless you're unemployed. Well, I

was unemployed. It'll cheat him in giving me back my credential.

But I had no money. I wasn't employed. So I

was free, by God's grace to go after this thing

and to go and seek a solution. In the legal system.

It's amazing how the Lord frees us sometimes. And I

remember the question that the judge asked our attorney at

the end of that first trial, local trial in Prince

George's county. She says, who is your county councilman and

in what district does he reside? Is that a question

of salient to justice? No, as if that mattered greatly

in her legal deliberation. Well it did when she got

her answers, she ruled for that local county council person

against us. Just like that. I learned that in there

that courts are political. That bad political decision was upheld

all the way up the line to the Supreme Court

of Maryland, where we lost every appeal as it dragged

on in court. No imagine a year after year, I'm

doctor Butler and I would go and we would lose, lose, lose, lose, lose,

and we'd come back to the church and say, we lost,

but God is with us. Does that sound very appealing?

I spent so much time in court I feel like

taking the bar exam that mister Coe said, Mike, you

should seriously consider taking the bar exam. I'd become a

paralegal person. I can care less about paralegal work, but

I had to with the help of our attorneys at

Shipley and Horn. Mister Russell Shipley, you started out with us.

I've been in the hospital with him. I have prayed

for him in the hospital. I have pastored these attorneys

at Shipley and Horne to this day, and mister Russell's

ship and by the way, they helped us make the

transition here to Chesapeake conference. Russell Shipley connected to us

and he said, I'm going to get haveing a meeting

with an attorney. I think that will help you. His

name was mister Wardcoe. He was a member of a

prominent legal firm in Baltimore. Is a Roman Catholic. Mister

Coe agreed to take our case. We're seventh day having us.

You know the Jews refer to people who are sympathetic

to you as righteous gentiles. Right, Well, he was a

righteous Catholic because he treated us right. Shortly after, our

church met in business session with about seventy five members, President,

how many of you are present in that decision we

took the vote to fight. Raise your hand. You see

how few of us are left. Just a few of

us are left. There were seventy five members present and

they decided, and we had to make a decision to

give up or to fight in a religious liberty lawsuit

against the county, the likes of which had never been

attempting the history of United States. We had met many

times before to pray as a church family. In our

common struggle to build on the new property. The church

was discouraged and our people contemplated quitting the effort, just

give up and move on find a new piece of property.

Some got extremely negative at me because of the challenge.

We were financially broke as a mission church, and the

legal expenses were devastating. Our energy was taxed. And I'll

tell you something about my personal journey with this property.

When we purchased the property, we signed the papers on

a soun. The following morning, I was paralyzed. I got

out of bed. I had total prowessis in my right leg.

I was in a long term recovery mode where I

had to learn to walk again. It finally resulted in

a laminectomy surgery where they removed a disc from L

four L five so pressure be off the nerve. And

to this day, if you've noticed here. I hang my

foot up here sometimes because as I'm getting older, the

tibialis interior doesn't work in my right leg. I fall easy,

and I have fallen going fly fishing. Now you boys

have seen me fall. I fall in the river because

I don't have the stability. So we entered this struggle

not in strength. I just recovered from that, and you know, frankly,

it felt good to quit. Maybe that'd be a good

thing to do. And so this was a critical time

in our history. And just when it looked like the

church would give up, a godly little grandmother and wife

named pop Fowsgay, and I wish mister Fosgay was here

to hear this today, who wouldn't live much longer. She

stood up in that meeting like a lioness. She looked

me straight in the eye. And I have only a

few minutes in my life when I've seen someone move

by the Holy Spirit. So dramatically. She turned to the

church family, facing me also, and she said, with tearful

anger and determination, are we going to give up? Are

we going to fight for this property that God gave us?

They have no right to take our land from us.

God gave it to us is that lukewarm Christianity. No.

The church voted with no descending votes that night to

proceed forward in faith, to fight for our new church

in court. Faith is a fight, and there are times

when it looks like you will surely lose. But hoping

God is the thing with wings that makes the soul

to fly. Hope gives flight to faith when faith is afraid.

I can't tell you how many times we were in

court over the years, fighting for the day our church

should be built. It is more than I can count.

Right now, I have to review the documents in my files,

which I'm saving for a book. I stayed up countless

hours doing paralegal work to keep the cost down. Others

here performed similar kinds of sacrifices. We lived for over

ten years with this legal battle hanging over our heads

as we kept the faith to functions a church or

radio ministry, planning churches, trying to survive and grow and

affect the world in the midst of the assaults of

the local county. Incessant to end us, I mowed the

property every week, praying for God to open the way.

Two days of my week out on lawnmower mowing the property.

Others did similar things. Our church family prayed right along

with me. We had to tear down the building. It

was arsonth We scrambled to put all the things together

secure it so they wouldn't take our property away from us.

Our church family prayed right along with me, and more

than me as we did our best to jump over

every hurdle see it through. There were people in our

denomination who wanted us to quit because the risk was

too high if we would lose the case. Now we

have an insuring company called Risk Management. There's nothing wrong

with It's a great company. They're going to be the

insurers of our church. We love them, but there's something

necessary in life at times when you have to take

risks or you get none of God's answers in your life.

They were more concerned about how it would look if

we lost. Some people felt it would have looked bad

for the church if we failed, since we had gone

to court. Personally, we had come to believe that this

risk was too high to just give up. Furthermore, we

looked bad anyway, so who cares about looking bad again?

If losing means dying, it's okay to look bad. Padma

Faskay had grasped all of that, and her plead to

me to not give up. I covenanted with God, never

forgetting that appealed to me to not let her down.

I've anointed her before she died. She always had that

kind of a faith. She died before she could see

her church go up. Doctor Butler died before he saw

the church go up too. Friends, if you want to

see the sweet honey of freedom, you must fight for

freedom or you will never taste it sweetness. On the

last Day, Jesus said, the one who endures to the

end will be saved. When Jesus comes and Podma's resurrected,

I'm going to give her a bear hug and let

her know that God got it done. My conference president,

Elder Charles Cheatham, gave me personal permission to not give up.

That I got official permission for my conference president to

not give up. He also gave us some money to

fight the thing in court. Sometimes that's all you need

to hear from someone. Friend, today, as your pastor, I

give you God's permission to not give up. Will you

take it? Okay? Judge Roger Tiedus ruled in two thousand

and seven that we should and could proceed to trial.

It blew the county away. They thought it would never

get there. A few days later in Arsenals through a

flammable device through the back window of our farmhouse that

was worth about a half a million dollars at that time.

They had most of our church's belongings in it, with

my huge library. Also, I had a library larger than

a h. Mist Richard's library in that house. It was

a Friday night, or at least it was comparable, let's

put it that way. I carefully selected. I knew Hmis

Richards for a bit, and I knew h Miss Richards

junior well as a ministerial student. He affected my life profoundly.

So they lit that fire to kill our dreams. In

a single night of raw terror. I got the call

from Kendi rich Don't you remember the riches here? Were here?

She used to live just beside our property here. I

got the call from Kendy rich, a local church member

who lived next to the church. There was a fire

at the farmhouse. I thought at first that my family

might have been caught and died in that fire. As

I slogged across the lawn to the burning church. Now

she assured me that was not the case. But first

I didn't know. It seemed like times stood still for

me as I watched that house go up in flames.

We had put a cross on the back of the

property for prayer. Remember that we put that cross. Dug

it in. Now that's the front of the property. That

picture was taken by the Washington Post when they interviewed

us for an article called Crusading against the Church. As

I looked across the lawn to the burning church, it

seemed like times stood still from me as I watched

it go up in flames. We had put a cross

on the back of the property for prayer, and the

shadow of the cross was cast over the smoke and

the gloom of the night as a symbol of our

hope in God and our faith for the future. There

were some local people gathered all around, gloating over the

fire that had engulfed the farmhouse. So quickly I pointed

out to some of them that our ministry supplies for

orphanage in Ethiopia was miraculously preserved to the left, and

that my library, to a large extent, was preserved of

the rights, just a hole in the middle with the

cross shining through in the night. Our communion commit equipment

was damaged by the fire. I wish I had a

chance to show it to you. Every communion, I'd see it,

because it's still with us. We use it today. Reminds

me of we went through the fire, and every communion

I'm reminded that. A few days later we took the

cross in the back field. Evan Dalby was I think

the key person who carried that cross, and we brought

it into this church. Evan carried it into the church.

A few days later we took that cross on the

back field. We carried at the front of the property

of the road as our symbol of our resistance until

we would win the lawsuit. People through all kinds of

things out their windows at that cross in the field

they stood. It stood as the symbol of our righteous

defiance of injustice and racism, and our freedom of religion,

our right to worship God, to faith and God. That

cross today stands right in our sanctus behind me. We

are the people of the Cross. That's how we got

through that. And shortly after the fire, a large rainbow

appeared over the farmhouse. You see that rainbow, I photographed it.

Kenny said, there's a rainbow over the house. It's God's sign.

I raised and I took that picture. It's not the

glory of the rainbow, it's the fading rainbow. That thing

was glorious. The rainbow is the symbol of God's cove

of peace. We needed every evidence of hope we could

get to move forward in the fight for our church.

The insurance company failed to pay the full value of

the house by half. They'd measured the house across the

street and setting up the policy. How did they do that?

But there was just enough that came in on time

to pay for the seventy five thousand dollars trial and

some of our legal expenses, so we wouldn't go. The

jury was finally selected and the trial began. I was

told the trial went seven days, seven hours, and seven

minutes until there was a verdict. No, I wasn't timing it,

but church members said they were. Well. I accept their testimony.

Our people walk through that courthouse praying all the way

to victory, up and down the escalators, praying in front

of the pictures, praying silently as the judge and everyone

was going at it. We pray for Judge Titus and

the jury without ceasing. Now I have a picture of

Judge Titus. Here see the picture of Judge Titus. This

man of God was a judge. He loved the Constitution

United States, and he said this was the most important

case of his history, reaching hearts international versus Prince George's County.

This picture will hang in this church as a testament

that this man was used by God to make a

difference here. When the jury went in for deliberations, we

knew we had won when they sent back this question.

It's how we knew. They wanted to ask the judge

if this small figure could be left out of the

huge damages claim. As soon as that question was hit,

everybody knew they decided for us. You should have seen

the look on the attorney's faces that became ashen and

pale right there on the spot. Soon after the jury

awarded our church, excuse me, three million, eight hundred and

forty three dollars and two and seventy one dollars and

fifty cents. That's the copy of the check. That really

was the first round, and more money fouled. It was

the first time in US history that a governmental body

had had been had to pay out that kind of

money to a religious organization based on the Equal Protection

Clause of the US Constitution and RELOUPA. The religious Land

used Institutionalized Persons Act, which was a bipartisan act which

was utilized to give beef to the energy to the institution.

We were so happy for God's victory to the penny.

Now we didn't get the check right away, we got

the verdict. Shortly before the trial, Kenny and Kevin Rich's

family was targeted by certain ones in the county who

wanted to make an example of their family that attended

our church. By the way, I noticed the clock is there?

Can I finish this story? You know? Shortly before the trial,

Kenny and Kevin Rich's family was targeted with certain ones

in the county who wanted to make an example of

their family that attended our church. Make sure they don't

ever do that again. A powerful county official, the same

one I mentioned before, sent inspectors to their house to

condemn it and to force the county revoke their occupancy

permit so as to get rid of them and to

send a strong message to me and all of our

people to leave. Now, I went over there to their

house one day as one of these inspectors was there

and I said, sir, I want you to send this

message straight back to this county Councilman, I'm not going

to stand still as the pastor let this happen to them,

and we are going to engage you and you'll rue

the day you messed with our church members. Now, why

would a pastor do that for his flock? You see,

a pastor's a pastor what he called, you know, pastor.

A shepherd's crook is one thing, but a shepherd's rod

is another. God calls on us to protect the flock.

The rich family they just wanted to leave. The rich

family lived right beside our church, and now they had

to go to court to save their home because they

belonged to Reaching Hearts. They were targeted because they were

seventh they having as Christians in this church. Our attorneys

now it was a reason why they were upset about this.

You know, there's been some compromise in some institutions that

carry the name Advenists, but our theology doesn't teach this

in fact, and we have a statement against it in

section three of the of the of the Ortion. Statement

was written seven years ago. But it's heavy Roman Catholic

here because there's been compromised in an institution that needs

to take the name Adventist off of it because he

doesn't quit it. These dear people in this community fight

for life. They're committed to the unborn, and they didn't

want some crazy comit here. Well, I am a pro

life advitist. Did you know that? Because the Three Angels

messages requires that we value human life before it's born,

because the Bible never calls a child anything but a

child before it's born in the Bible. And if the

Holy Spirit can being in the womb of Mary and

the womb of Elizabeth can know Jeremiah as he's being

knit together, and David in One's thirty nine, we have

no business in our church doing anything but what the

Word of God requires us to do. Now, I'm not critical.

Our theology is sound, our twenty eight fundamentals is sound.

But there are institutions that need to get their act

together and obey God in this matter. And so they

were afraid we might bring that comp I'd said, no,

we're not like that. They didn't believe us. Our attorneys

fought for them, but it costs the richest twenty thousand

dollars of their own money to save their home and

the longest and hardest hearing of the kind in the

history of Prince George's County. Mister Robert Antonetti fought for

US Roman Catholic attorney. Surely before our case went to trial,

Kennedy's family won the drawing. You know, you put something

in the county. How many you ever tried to draw something?

Never one? All right, they put something in the Family

Life Drawing of Prince George's County for families. It was

a price. You could go to the Marriat they do

genealogical work. They would whine and dine you, and you

know you don't have to drink wine, but you need

the idea for three days four days there and you

can never afford this on your own. It was a

package worth a lot of money. So before our case

went to trial, Kmny's family won the drawing for honoring

a special family in Prince George's County, letting their family

and their extended family enjoy a few days of leisure

and fun at the local Marriott hotel in green Belt, Maryland.

It was a gift worth well over twenty thousand dollars.

They won that gift from the very county that was

oppressing them. The county paid for them and for many

of us also. Why because the rich family decided that

their extended family was their church family. So we went

to the Marriott and we were serviced by these awful

leaders that were trying to wreck our church at that time.

The county paid to give us a few days paid

in full at the Marriott hotel. And how many of

you went to the Marriott and enjoyed those hotel rooms?

All right? A few of you were there. I was there.

It's great. And the county executive showed up at last.

I'm not going to say his name for his wife's name.

He was horrified to see that the rich family had

won the Family Life drawing, and that the pastor and

the Reaching Hearts and national Church, me and the leadership

the church, some of you and members of the church,

some of you were there to grin as the winners

of the County drawing. Huh. Their jaws dropped to the

floor when they saw us smiling at them all. I

spoke for a good stretch of time with the county executive,

appealing for him to stop persecuting our church family. I said,

please stop this and let us have our church. You know, hey,

how politicians are. Oh yeah, we hear you, we care

about you. Not really. I spoke for a good stretch

of time asking for him to stop that. We had

a good evening meal with the leaders of the county

as they ate and dining with us the Reaching Arts

Church of the Marria. A few weeks later, the county

executive's wife were arrested for theft and fraud as they

passed from the scene of our faith struggling to two

state prison sales. Nevertheless, the county proceeded to fight Judge

Roger Titus ruling by appealing the case to the Fourth

Circuit Court in Richmond, Virginia. The county hired a former

Supreme Court justice of that court to represent their case

before the panel of judges. The Fourth Circuit Court in

Virginia is just below the United States Supreme Court in Washington,

d C. It was a nice sunny day for us

when me and mister Coe. Mister Coe is short, I'm tall.

He had me sit down, so a short guy I'd

be facing all these tall lawyers. And we went there.

They had hired the former Supreme Court justice of the

fourth Circuit Court to fight against us. They thought they

could manipulate the panel. Little mister Coe like Napoleon, A

guidly Napoleon stood there and just argue the case. A

few weeks later we were we want it. We won

the appeal. A few weeks later, we were two weeks

away from going belly up. But I got a call.

I mean literally belly up. We were bankrupt to reaching hearts.

I got a call from a local state senator's office.

Now this senator had tried to politicize our church. He

wanted me to get out and get us to vote

on sabbaths so he would be able to be elected.

Then he would help us with the church. I said no,

didn't have anything to do with him after that. But

his secretary called me back at this point and asked

the strangest question. As she said, the county council wants

to know what they should do. At this point, I

would to be asking me that question. I couldn't believe

that they were trying to pick my brains in such

a forthright manner. Here's what I said. I said, Well,

send this message back to the County go ahead and

appeal the verdict to the United States Supreme Court. They

will respond to the appeal, most likely in the fall,

just before the elections that are coming up. I'm sure

the Washington Post will be interested in your story as before,

and that's fine with us. We're in no hurry now, Lord.

I tried to frame that right, because we're in no hurry,

because God knows no delays. So I had to say

it in a way that I could feel good about.

But I think the Lord impressed me not to be

afraid of the future. The Washington Post and Champion are

cause in a number of articles, including one that read

crusading against a church and other articles also to cry

in the racial and religious discrimination against our church. A

few days later, mister Coe called me on the phone

to tell me to come into his office in Baltimore

on Charles Street, A Gallagher, Evelius and Jones is firm

to receive a pretty check for three point eight million

dollars courtesy of the County. I don't have it there.

I'd love to show you the pictures somewhere in my files.

I can't find it right now. He shared with me

that the County leadership chose not to appeal the verdict

to the United States Supreme Court. Wise move I my dad.

That three point eight million dollar check healed us up nicely.

We paid off the property. We proceeded to move forward,

but the county defied the court order again and they

denied us our water sewering category to change again. Remember

that we filed a second lawsuit against the county, and

most of you do not know that, because at that time,

I believe that the church would have given up. I

met with the key leadership of the five oh one

C three, doctor Butler, doctor Perkins, myself, Diana's dad, and

we decided to take the risk on our own shoulders

to save this place. Now, we don't save anything God saves.

But we filed that second lawsuit against the county. It

made national news, and most of you don't watch the news.

I've learned, okay. It was carried by the AP News

Network and I was interviewed by the AP News Network

and Fox News and other channels too. I remember being

interviewed on television saying this into the camera's eye in

front of the Southern avientist sasdaks, you know in Southern Asia. Seventh,

Aavist church right there. It's where they interviewed me. I said,

we aren't going to give up. We will fight this

cause all the way to the end. This is the

United States of America. We have a constitution in this country,

a Christian constitution that represents freedom. Shortly after Judge Roger

Titus got wind of all this, he received our filing

for the second litigation. He was furious that his court order,

which mandated that water serier category change have been rejected

and defied by the county council members of our county.

He served the entire county council with federal marshals with

a preliminary finding of contempt and a legal notice that

informed the county council members that they could very well

go to jail, and he addressed it directly to the

person I won't name who was the new head of

the county council. Just before Christmas, before Judge Titus could

follow through on his legal notice, the judge fell off

a ladder and was injured. I mean, you can't make

this stuff up. Recovering in a rehab over Christmas, Judge

Titus time to calm down and offer the County a

way out. It was about six months later when both

parties finally met before the judge. He leaned over the

bench with a calm and steady look in his eye

as he told the other side to do the right thing.

He said, you're not going to win a second time.

You've already lost the first time. You need to go

to settlement conference with Judge Conolly and settle with reaching

Hearts International for more damages. Judge Titus then turned to

me and he said, up, Mervin, I think you were

there with me for that. Mervin, see when doctor Butler

could no longer sustain coming to help me. I'm going

to share with you something here. Doctor Butler loved his wife, Shirley.

She fell and broke her hip, and their health challenges began.

He put his wife life into saving his wife, and

it was lonely going to these things alone. One day

at Cedar Ridge, Mervin came to me. He says, Mike,

I know you're under pressure, a lot of it most

people don't know. But he said, Mike, I'm not gonna

let you go down. He put his arm around me.

He said, I'm with you. So Mervin picked up where

doctor Butler left off. And Terry Martin, who can't get

here on Sabbath, was always there in the mix too.

But Mervin Mervin became that person now, doctor Butler. I

have a picture of him here. I like to show it.

Till he was Shirley. See this picture. He was on

the search committee that brought me to Slago. He was

in charge of it. Now his haircut it's a lot

like doctor Butler's, doesn't I mean, like doctor Mervin's Mervin's

your hair How many of you like to see the

similarity later? A little bit? That's a positive thing, not

a negative. This man became for me second father in

my life. That's just dollar as to a man of God.

You know, you know how you can tell a man

of God from someone who's not. When you're willing to

compromise and just give up, go along with the crowd

because of the pressure in the stress, you're not a Christian.

The Bible says the fearfu will end up in the

lake of fire. Doesn't it say that? Doesn't it say

that this man was not afraid? He stood for truth.

For I wouldn't be a pastor to day if I

work for this couple and many of you, so God

be praised. Where was I at? Well? Judge Titus turned

to me after he told them you better settle, he said,

don't be greedy. That's what he told me. We settled

for about six hundred fifty thousand dollars in a one

day conference, and there are other legal expenses that started

rolling back. We were healed up as the dollar amount

went write down the middle in the sum total of

the huge laundry list of damages that I had drawn up,

because I was told it always goes in the middle.

So I put everything in the kitchen sink in there,

every little fee, anything you can imagine, and it settled out.

I'll never forget what the county attorney said to me

before we left the courtroom to end the settlement conference.

First I turned him and I said, would you please

go back and tell that certain county councilman. I'm not

telling you his name here, whose name I won't mention,

as I said, but I told him the name that

we churches in this area are not gonna sit still

and have our religious freedom taken away from us like

this anymore. We will fight for the freedom and reaching hearts,

will fight for the rights of others, and I meant it.

It was almost like little Padma fos Gay was in

the background whispering into my ear. Are we gonna fight

or give up? Visibly upset, the attorney turned to me

and said, mister Tanko, and he said like this with

his finger point in my face. If you do that,

you'll have to answer to me. I'm coming after you.

I paused and looked him straight back in the eye

and I said, mister Snotty. Now that's his name. I

didn't make that up. It's it's s n O d

D Y not t t y okay snotty, and that's

that's that was his name. I said, mister Snotty. So

far you have not been very successfully coming after me

or my church. You see our attorney, mister Coe, who's

sitting beside me. Mister Coe has defeated you every single

time in court. And if you do that to us,

you'll have to answer to mister Coe. I was telling

him that you're a loser. He's a winner. And why

I learned over the process that in nature the weak died,

don't they. I couldn't afford to be a weak person

in this engagement with them. This is contrary to my nature.

What I had to do to be able to get

through that envelope, God gave me strength. I felt like saying,

you'll have to answer to God, But then I thought,

God doesn't need me to speak for him in these matters.

I'll say it like I did when the church was

finally being built. A few years later, a person hung

a hangman's noose just outside my office to send me

a clear message, probably the arsist. Here it is, yeah,

there it is, and here here is my work helmet.

Do I look like a builder? Okay, that's a builder?

All right, all right, put that thing down. I will

keep that till the day I die. I have that

news in my office today. Is a reminder that freedom

is costly. Fear is unacceptable in the Christian life. If

you aren't willing to fight and die for freedom, you

surely don't deserve to have it in your life. It's

incompatible if you can't do that. Sometimes later I learned

from mister Coe that attorney mister Snotty, after he had

become a judge himself, he was at a conference. In fact,

Judge Titus was there who confided in him this was

the most important case in his entire legal career as

a federal judge because of its national ramifications. Mister Snotty

said to mister Coe, I'm so happy they have their church.

See he changed, and even the county councilman who had

opposed us so viciously eventually became a friend in our

community in West Laurel, Maryland during the COVID crisis. I

need a little more time. Just help me with this.

This is twenty five years ago, during the COVID crisis.

He came to our new church building that he had opposed,

where we held a local graduation for some high school

students who needed a graduation service. They were discouraged because

the Laurel High School had canceled their graduation out of

health concerns. As we stood together with masks, this was

our former adversaries officer has watched us for many years.

As we stood together with masks on our faces in

the parking lot on a platform ministering to students in need.

I turned to him and I said that he sounded

a lot like a good preacher in his speech to

the kids that morning. He replied, really, I said, yeah, really,

if you keep it up, you could be a preacher

like Martin Luther King Junior was, And he's a Democrat

and I'm a Republican or a Democrat. Doesn't matter what

I am. The point is that how many of you

value Martin Luther King Junior. Raise your hand? So he said, yeah,

so whatever we are doesn't matter. He smiled, and I

did too. Actually I'm a registered independent as a voter.

I smiled and too. I prayed for him and the

others at the graduation service who had not no idea

what went through we went through to get so they

could actually graduate in our parking lot. It was a

good day for us to pray for the kids of

our Laurel community together, Roman Catholic Councilman seventh aventis pastor

in the church. They had fought to defeat. It took

time to beat our swords in the plowshares, but we

prayed in pain and it went away. God took it away.

He has stood here in this congregation for a graduation

of youth from a troubled youth in the county, right

here in this very spot behind that cross. We made

friends with our enemies because we believe in a gospel

forgiveness and a God of peace and love and a

savior who died to save us all with God's love.

We had no idea that we win by God's providence.

It looked like we lose until we won. God won

for us the most important religious land use victory in

the history of the United States. Do you know that

that legal victory in our faith struggle would put the

lions teeth of Padma Fosgay's challenge into the Religious land

US and Institutionalized Person Act known as ralupa to Butcher's

it's the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution

of religious freedom. All over the country. Churches from all

over the country called up mister koeher help as our

case became the template for freedom so other churches could

fight back the tide of discrimination injustice, just like we

had fought for freedom religious freedom. It took time for

us to realize that our fight for faith and freedom

wasn't only about us, It was about them. Salem Network.

When this church was going up and no one else

wanted us to win, people wanted to hang your pastor, Daniel,

you're dead, and others gathered here to pray for me

and to dedicate this church when there was mud on

the ground right there. See, this was not about us,

It was about us all. It took time for us

to realize that our fight for faith and freedom was

God's will. When you stand for freedom, when you stand

for the rights of others, that's when freedom rings for us. All,

God help us stand for faith, courage, and freedom in

these last days. The apostle Paul shared this in Glatians

five to one. For freedom, crisis set us free. Stand

fast therefore, and do not submit again to Yoga's slavery.

Doctor John Butler, who was with me for every legal

case until his health wouldn't letting. Then Mervin was there

to the end. He died praying for the last He

died his last day. I was at his home, praying

for the last challenge to be surmounted. As we get

in this church. He was able to come in in

its construction phase in a wheelchair, but he never saw

it completed. He bowed his head, just struggling to be

able to live, praying that those Verizon poles would go away,

they'd be able to transition. Why because the Verizon company

wanted to charge us a quarter of a million dollars

move three Poles. It would have prevented us my occupancy.

God answered doctor Butler's prayer and they reduced the price

eventually twenty thousand dollars, and we got in the pollsman

in just in time before the winter set in. That

would have prevented us from gaining our occupancy and finishing

the parking lot and other things. I think of Abraham Porsani.

Remember Abraham who fell in the foyer from a stroke

as he was guarding the church early in the morning.

Now he was retired. He lived in his retirement with

a family member. He would walk in a compromise state

to get here early to open the doors of our church.

And he stood like a sentinel there in his house

that he had near Damascus. He had two lions. He

was from Iran that was like sentinels, so he was

our lion in the foyer. He had the stroke in

the foyer and collapse. He died a few days later.

These are the kind of people that gave us this church.

It's a disabled deacon. He would come here to make

sure this place was ready for others and for God.

Paed my doctor Butler, Abraham. We have many more who

were strong links in a chain that got us here.

They did not give up. They did not give in,

and they didn't fight for nonsense issues. They fought for

real things that matter. We have this church today because

of them and the Lord's power in their lives and

the lives of many of you and others who aren't

here anymore. I'd like to end by reading the conclusion

of Judge Roger Titus ruling of November four in two

thousand and eight, and thank you for bearing with me

this morning. It's twenty five years ago I needed to

share this with you. Judge Titus wrote his opinion November four,

two thousand and eight. A house is not a home.

The physical structure at Cedar Ridge may be a house

for RhI, but is not and cannot serve as its

religious home. Cedar Ridge has been, and is and will

continue to be insufficient for RhI to exercise its rights

under the Constitution and relupid defend its actions have forced

RhI members to limit core activities that they is seventh

A Avenists and CREY believe in and are entitled to practice.

Thanks to the actions of the defendant, RHI's exercise of

religion in this case didn't have a prayer, and this

court will now step in and attempt to right the wrong.

For the reasons stated above, RhI is entitled to relief

under the Equal Protection Clause, and reloopa six years after

the purchase of the property is now timed that RhI

be able to construct its worship facilities. With the words

of poet Thomas Hood whispering in the background, peace and

rest at length of common all the day's long toil

is passed, and each heart is whispering home, home at last.

You know, as I end this Abonist review carried our

victory for the world Church. This was not our victory.

This was a victory of the Seventh day Adventist Church

for freedom. And I was so honored to see that

review inherent article shortly after the ruling of Judge Titus.

We love our church, we love our denomination. Times. We

can have lovers quarrels, but never have a mean quarrel

with the Church because we belong to the Body of Christ.

We're indebted. Now We've had General Conference people come through

the years and strengthen us in this place, and for

that we are very grateful. How many of you are

praying for the leadership of our church worldwide. We need

to We are the remnant church of the book Revelation,

and we're going home. We're not going home fearful and afraid.

We're going to home obedient and bold. God be with you,

your heavenly Father. The problem with the latest seeing condition

is that it's unfit for heaven. There'll be no fearful

in heaven. There'll be in the lake of fire. Lord,

we are afraid by nature of the future. We see

our country moving in a church state mode fulfilling Revelation

thirteen in part. And yet how easy it is to

be blind at the signs of the times. Lord. For

seven days we fought in court for this church. I

was two days being interrogated on a witness stand with

a federal judge in front of me. Lord, it was

a very fearful thing for me and for many others,

for Tom Kunju, for doctor Butler, for those who were

not afraid, who ran the risk of losing everything they

had to give us this church. Thank you for rewarding

their faith. Lord, I didn't have faith like they have it.

And Father, I pray that we will not be less

than what we're called to be committed faithful Christians, loving

our church. Lord, We're part of a world church family.

This victory wasn't our victory. It's our church's victory, our

world church's victory. Lord, help us not to forget where

we came from. Never forget that cross stood in the

in the rain for years, that is behind us every

single Sabbath, and that giants died in the battle to

get us here. Lord, help us not to be weak squeally.

I want to get my way, crazy kind of Christians.

Help us to pour our lives in service for others.

And if we fall at our post, like brother Abraham

did and Brother Butler, may we be found in the

resurrection of the just at the end of the age.

But Lord, may we not surrender to anything other than Jesus.

Bless your people this day. I don't make calls all

the time, but today Lord, I'm going to with our

heads bowed. If you want to be a strong link

in a chain that leads to the second Coming, like

these precious people, or raise your hand right now to God.

My eyes are closed, my head as bowed. Now Lord,

you see the hands. Bless them, bless their families, save them.

Thank you that you will in Jesus' name Amen, Thank