September 1999 Newsletter

PRESSING THE GATES IN BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, SEPTEMBER 17-21, 1999

We are calling saints throughout the southeast to join us in coming to the aid of our brothers and sisters in Birmingham who are being capriciously arrested by an out-of-control Birmingham policeman who intimidates, harasses, threatens, and arrests gentle warriors at a whim. Theology will become biography at the local abortion mills, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, high schools, and the city courts in Birmingham

SCRIPTURES IN SCHOOLS (SIS), SEPTEMBER 19-25. 1999

We will be kicking off the national Scriptures In School (SIS) campaign in Birmingham on Saturday evening, September 18, with a play written and directed by Rusty Thomas called, "SAMMY". This is a powerful dramatic vignette portraying a young boy named Sammy who is visited by God and called to bring the Ten Commandments back to his school. This play is a "living parable" illustrating the battle that is taking place for the hearts and souls of our kids in the government schools of our day. Through laughter and tears you will hear God's voice calling each one of us to run to the roar.

It is our prayer that you are preparing your youth and public school teachers to bring their Bibles to school during this fourth week in September. They will be joining millions of kids and teachers who are doing the very same thing in their schools. This will require courage, but our kids are looking for a reason to stand for Jesus. Give them one! Listen to the words of the father of Rachel Joy Scott (one of the young Christians killed at Columbine High School) as he addressed the United States Congress:

"As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America and around the world to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students to be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your conscience and denies your God-given right to communicate with Him … My daughter's death will not be in vain. The young people of this country will not allow this to happen."

God is going back to school from the outside in and from the inside out, and we have the privilege of bringing Him back. Let us press the gates of hell together!

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA vs. OPERATION RESCUE, AUGUST 23-27, 1999

The United States Department of Justice is coming after us with both feet as it attempts to squeeze every last breath from a people who love Jesus and His precious preborn children. Because of the heinous act of laying our lives down that others might live at abortion mills in Dayton and Cincinatti, Ohio during the summer of 1997, we are being railroaded by our own government into paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil penalties to the child-killing industry. Though many children are alive today because of the sacrificial acts of hundreds of Christians who gave up their freedom to speak for those who could not speak for themselves, these Christians are now considered enemies of America.

"Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them." Pr 28:4.

There is no question that our nation has forsaken God's law and, because we have, the wicked are being praised and the righteous are being excoriated. It is our duty to resist governmental apostasy and rightly represent the law of God no matter the cost. And that it cost much the annals of Christian history will testify. Please keep us in your prayers as our attorneys and the saints have the privilege of representing Jesus once again in the courts of our land.

THE STATE OF NEW YORK vs. OPERATION RESCUE

The State of New York, spurred on by Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Federal Judge Richard Arcara, is hammering the saints in Buffalo and Rochester in court proceedings that have run well over three weeks. The United States District Court of Western New York is seeking to single-handedly censor the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the streets of western New York. Bob Behn, Mike Warren, Jerry Crawford, and several others are all under a massive assault by New York and the United States Government, yet they are standing firm in the Name of Jesus. Pray for their courage under fire!

New York spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an attempt to harass and intimidate the Church of Jesus Christ from the streets during Operation Save America, April 18-25, 1999. It didn't work. Now it is spending hundreds of thousands more in an attempt to make criminals out of those who love Jesus not only in word but in deed. The government of the State of New York has joined our federal government in becoming a willing dupe in the hands of the enemy of God's children (the abortion industry).

JOHN REYES LOSES COURT BATTLE IN VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT

On August 12, we received word that our wonderful friend in Christ, John Reyes, had lost his challenge to an absolutely outrageous sentence in the Supreme Court of the State of Virginia. John was the student coordinator who, in November 1997, helped us organize over 300 students from Liberty University to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, Virginia. For this heinous act and John's courageous stand for King Jesus, he was awarded a six-month jail sentence.

John has not been allowed to leave the State of Virginia for the past two years awaiting the outcome of his appeal. You will remember that there were no arrests made by the Lynchburg police when the students were at E.C. Glass. The police officers all commented on the orderly, well-behaved manner in which the Liberty students conducted themselves. It was only after school superintendent James McCormick convinced a grand jury that these students should be tried on misdemeanor trespass charges that we were brought to trial in Lynchburg. It was a fiasco!

It became very clear during the trial that the real problem was not our behavior at the high school but the content of our message that brought the true offense to Mr. McCormick. We had dared to say that his high school had become the very "gates of hell". This could not be tolerated and, therefore, I was privileged to serve several months in the Lynchburg City Jail. Now it is John's turn!

He has told me he is ready to do whatever is necessary to bring glory and honor to His Lord who despised the shame and hung naked on a cross for him. This is exactly what I would expect from John Reyes. He is a young man of courage and conviction who was hoping to finish his degree at Liberty this fall semester. If it is inevitable that John must go to jail in Lynchburg, it is imperative that he not go alone.

Please prayerfully consider joining us in Lynchburg to bring the Gospel of Christ to the gates of hell. More information to follow soon.

VICTORIES IN FLORIDA - THE GOSPEL TAKEN TO THE GATES OF HELL

By Tom McGlade

BRADENTON/SARASOTA, FLORIDA - What a busy week! On Sunday morning, July 13,1999, ORN director Flip Benham spoke at the Church on the Rock in Palmetto. Five people gave their lives to Jesus! Most of the men of the church came forward to repent of neglecting to read God's Word and committed to leading their families, by example, to the Cross of Christ! VICTORY!

On Monday morning, theology became biography as God-fearing young people, dedicated to spreading the truth of the Gospel and the message of hope to a fallen society, displayed graphic abortion signs at one of the busiest rush hour intersections in Sarasota. The Gospel was preached to the standing traffic until the Sarasota Police Department (SPD) forced us to shut down the PA system. The police concocted an off-the-wall interpretation of an ordinance that we pointed out was meant for evening noise emissions. (The week before, they confiscated two of the young people's signs and gave them citations for displaying "lewd material".) Four of Sarasota's finest agreed with the concocted interpretation even though the paragraph stated, "this applies to noise emitted between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 7:00a.m." (It was about 8:30a.m.). Rather than risk arrest, we shut the system down and demanded a clarification of the ordinance. Later that day we were informed that the ordinance, indeed, only applied to evening noise emissions. GLORY TO GOD!

On Monday evening, Rusty Thomas spoke to about 100 youth at the Warehouse (the home of WHY OUTREACH - Wholehearted Youth for Christ) in Bradenton. Several were saved and seven were baptized at the public beach.

On Tuesday, we brought the signs to another busy intersection in Sarasota. This intersection was less than a block from the courthouse. After we left the intersection, we went to the courthouse where Flip prophetically spoke (using the PA system) from Isaiah and Amos. It was a powerful proclamation of God's judgment and redemption - another VICTORY!!!

On Wednesday morning, we again went to the streets with the large signs. That night, Rusty spoke to over 1000 people at a Youth Explosion Rally at the Christian Retreat in Bradenton. Hundreds committed themselves to challenging their generation for Christ! VICTORY!!!

Thursday morning, a number of us held signs in front of the abortion mill. A woman stopped to complain about the graphic signs. We used the opportunity to share with her that we were as grieved by the pictures as she, but these children, made in the image and likeness of a Holy God, had been discarded by our society as trash. We explained that unless we repent as individuals and as a nation for the sin of shedding innocent blood, God's curse will be upon this nation. We told her that we must repent before we can find the forgiveness God brought to us through His Son Jesus. We shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her and before she left she gave her heart to Him! VICTORY AGAIN!

Thursday at noon, Rusty, Flip, and Flip's twin boys, David and Jason (both professional baseball players who love Jesus with all of their hearts), challenged about 40 youth pastors who were attending the Youth Explosion at the Christian Retreat. They called them to disciple the arrows (children) the Lord had given them and to lead them into the battle. David and Jason shared with the youth pastors how their father had taught them, through example, to carry the Cross. They told how their father's example inspired them to also follow Jesus wherever he led. It was a powerful time and a mighty VICTORY!

Thursday afternoon, we went to St. Armond's Circle, which is the spending ground for international tourists as well as the hub of the cultural crowd and "elite" of Sarasota. Here we discovered that not everyone enjoys Rev. Flip Benham's preaching. When our brother Flip started to preach the message of truth, that repentance is the only hope for a city where the blood of innocent children is shed weekly at three abortion mills, a man well known to the area merchants snuck up behind Flip and cut his microphone cable! There were cheers from the circle's business owners and patrons at the destruction of our property.

The sound system was quickly restored and Josh Turk, 19, took over the preaching task. Shortly into his exhortation, a woman approached with a pair of scissors. As she neared the PA system, Linda McGlade stepped in front of her to stop her attack. "I thought she was going to stab me," Linda reported. Unfortunately the SPD did not seem concerned with her report. The attacker pushed and grabbed Linda and managed to slip past her at which time the woman grabbed the portable PA system and began to run with it. The PA fell from her hands onto the ground. The woman, demonically enraged at this point, grabbed the PA and tossed it onto the ground - obviously intent on destroying the equipment. She flailed wildly and ran up the street past a crowd of applauding yuppies and disappeared. How chic! At the same time in another area in St. Armond's, a nicely dressed woman grabbed Scott Heldreth's sign from behind, threw it to the ground, and began stomping on it. In spite of this we continued to preach the gospel - but with police protection. VICTORY AND GLORY TO OUR GOD!

Immediately after this series of altercations, while we were still at St. Armond's the deputy chief of police and city attorney arrived to discuss the 100-foot buffer zone the SPD had been enforcing at the Sarasota Women's Health Center. This illegal exercise of power prohibited our counselors from discussing loving reproductive options with women in crisis pregnancies.

For the past month and a half, the Sarasota police showed up (at the beck and call of the mill staff) every time Christians were praying and witnessing. They would threaten arrest. Our plan was to challenge the SPD's recent addition of 90 feet to the 1992 injunction. Many Christians, including several area pastors, were prepared to step over the line as an act of Christian duty and citizenship. On the eve of the challenge, several high-ranking city officials met with ORN Director Flip Benham and Tom and Linda McGlade. The Sarasota PD admitted the 90' extension was not legally justified, and had deprived Christians of their constitutional rights. They not only apologized, but bent over backwards to protect us - much to the chagrin of the patrons and shopkeepers. They even agreed to release the large graphic signs which had been confiscated a week earlier during a gospel outreach at St. Armond's Circle. The police also admitted that the officers who had demanded a permit for operating a sound system were misinformed. There is no permit required for sound systems in Sarasota. They even helped us fix a flat tire on one of the pro-lifer's vehicles! VICTORY IN JESUS! THE CHALLENGE FROM THE CHURCH DESTROYED THE BUFFER ZONE!

On Friday, Christians met at the Sarasota Women's Health Center and celebrated the victory over the phantom 100' injunction. The mill was shut down as God's children praised and worshipped their King! Christians, including ORN leaders Rusty Thomas and Flip Benham, returned to St. Armond's Circle and continued to preach the Gospel several more times. The week of activities was capped with a visit to the Hollywood 20 Movie Theater - a major hangout for the Gothic teenage crowd. Here the graphic signs stimulated much dialogue that led one youth to repentance and salvation! Many others were deeply touched and a great harvest is anticipated as this outreach continues.

All day Saturday, Rusty intensely challenged a number of the young people through the Kingdom Leadership Institute an intensified time of training, impartation, and application which identifies, equips, and sends forth the next generation of true, godly, and righteous leaders. This activity culminated with seven people publicly following the Lord in the waters of baptism at the beach. PRAISE OUR MIGHTY GOD!

On Sunday, Flip finished the week with a sermon at Mill Creek Baptist where two more were added to the Book of Life and many more committed themselves to the daily reading of God's Word! Once again God's people experienced the faithfulness of the Lord as they endeavored to "love not their lives as to shrink back from death". As Jesus Christ was brought to the streets, Christians witnessed the gates of hell torn down and saw the King of Glory enter in.

MORE VICTORIES IN FLORIDA

On August 13, 1999 (Friday the 13th), Aware Women, the only abortion mill in Melbourne, Florida, closed its doors for good! Patricia Baird Windle, the bombastic abortion provider of Aware Women, attributed the decline in business and ultimate closing to Christians who simply would not go away. Meredith Raney, Spokesperson for Christians For Life and longtime Christian warrior for the lives of children in Brevard County, held a Celebrate Life picnic across the street from the old child-killing site. Windle apparently turned her business over to Tammy Sobieski who owns mills in Daytona Beach and Orlando. Pray that she will not be able to relocate.

Keep pressing the gates of hell in Jesus' Name,

Flip Benham

Director