CATEGORIES

Holiday Angels

It’s their busiest time of year

A slice of heaven

Pumpkin pie was Mom’s favorite

Finding Enchantment in Imperfectness Can Heal Us All

Look intently with Beauty Hunting

We are Stewards of Our Bodies

STEWARDSHIP MINISTRIES Paul Holt Director of Finance and Administration

THE PRINCESS AND THE BABY

A long time ago in Egypt, there was a young Hebrew girl named Miriam. Her family had just had a beautiful baby boy. There was a big problem, though. The Pharaoh of Egypt had issued a decree that all Hebrew baby boys be killed to decrease the population of the Hebrew people, who were enslaved by the Egyptians.

SOUTH AMERICA

Bishop Gabriel Vidal was saved at the age of five and has been involved in church work his entire life. In 1984, he moved to New York after finishing three intensive years in a school of business in Santo Domingo and then lived in Rhode Island from 1985 to 2000. He co-planted a church in Providence and later became regional youth leader for both Southern New England and the Northeast Hispanic regions. He has also served as administrative assistant for the Spanish Voice of Salvation ministry and director of the World Language Department before his appointment as general presbyter of South America. He and his wife, Hanny, have two children.

How Living in the COGOP Orphanage Changed My Life

I recently contacted a few of our children’s home directors and asked if they could get in touch with a former student who would be willing to share how living in the Church of God of Prophecy children’s home affected them and influenced their lives. The following testimonies are examples of how your donations and prayer support are helping to raise men and women of God in a loving home–not only in providing physical care, but spiritually impacting their lives and their eternity.

CARIBBEAN

Dr. Clayton Martin entered full-time ministry in 1987 as a pastor and district overseer in the Cayman Islands. He later served on the Biblical Doctrine and Polity committee for the COGOP and national overseer for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands prior to being selected as general presbyter for the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean Islands. He received a Bachelor of Religious Education from Christian Bible College and a Master of Arts in Religion with Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Sonia, have one daughter.

AFRICA

Bishop Stephen Masilela is the general presbyter for the COGOP in Africa. He is also a counselor and registered marriage officer and currently serves as president for Evangelical and Pentecostal churches in Africa. He holds a diploma in Personnel Management and Training (IPM) from Bible Training Institute and is enrolled with the Gordon Conwell/COGOP Leader of Leaders Master’s Degree program and the Extension School of Ministry of Swaziland College of Theology for a theology degree. He is married to Sibongile and they are blessed with three children.

Visions of Lynn

Is that you, Lynn? I blinked awake. I was lying in bed in my Texas home. Another dream. For months, I’d been plagued by vivid dreams— wood splitting, things coming apart, visions of my parents, and now my cousin Lynn. She’d appeared to me in a flash, like a cameo in a TV sitcom. A beautiful teenager, how she looked when I last saw her. She smiled at me. Then I woke up.

The Firefghter's Warning

When I arrive at the scene, the old frame house on Chicago’s South Side is burning furiously. Smoke and embers dance crazily in the windy winter night. I give the order to unroll the hoses and then dash madly inside. I pull out three people and administer CPR to two of them before the ambulance arrives, rubber screeching on asphalt. When the blaze is finally under control, someone from the department comes up to me.

Scammed!

BEEP-BE-BE-BEEP!

On Her Way…

New Year’s Eve, 1984. My husband, our two little boys and I were visiting my in-laws in Amarillo, Texas. We watched the ball drop and welcomed the new year together.

A Little Slice of Heaven

I sorted through some cookbooks on the kitchen counter. My husband, Steve, worked next to me in silence. We were going through his parents’ farmhouse near Rock Port, Missouri, trying to decide what to do with everything in it. We were overwhelmed by the 60 years of stuff that had accumulated.

TYLER'S BIBLE

I’ve got to remember to call Tyler today.… The thought came to me while I was waking up, still hazy from sleep. Then I remembered— our son was gone.

What Heaven Was Like

“What was it like when you died?” my friend Olivene asked me. Her voice was surprisingly strong, given how frail she looked propped against the stark white pillows of her hospital bed.

Kids' Meal Miracle

It was the week of my last visit with my 10-year-old mentee, Sam. After four years together, he felt like family, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing touch with him. But how could I make sure he remembered me, even after our time together ended?

A Bonded Pair

“You can get a kitten,” I promised my seven-year-old daughter, Cali. “As soon as we get settled in our new apartment.” Her life had been uprooted when her father and I divorced, and I wanted to give her something to look forward to. So one Saturday morning, shortly after we unpacked the last box, we headed to North Bay Animal Services to pick out her new pet.

21 Dreams

Years ago, after reading a book by a therapist and minister who showed that God can often speak to us in our dreams, I began writing down my own. Every morning, while I still remember them, I make a quick note in a journal about what I dreamed.

THE HEARTFUL STRATEGIST-PART 7

So far in this series, RAVI VENKATESAN has introduced the Heartful Strategist framework, and explored how our consciousness results in the strategies we adopt, the choices we make, which in turn have consequences that impact the ecosystem of which we are a part. He has also explored the concept of thought patterns, and learnt how past impressions create these tendencies or thought patterns in us. He reviewed the Heartfulness technique of Cleaning, which uses the power of auto-suggestion or self-suggestion to introduce positive shifts in our subconscious and thought patterns. In the last article we specifically explored Turiya, the level of consciousness that we would consider the ideal for a Heartful Strategist.

The Heartful Chef

VIJAY SADHU is a perfectionist. Whether he is standing in the kitchen of one of his many successful restaurants in the United States, competing with Bobby Flay, or simply sitting in meditation, Chef Vijay determinedly puts his heart into everything he does. The result? Great food that is filled with love, hard-earned and well-deserved success, and a daily effort to show up as his best possible self. Sitting at a table at Fausto’s, Kanha Shanti Vanam’s Italian Restaurant, he shares more about his passion for cooking and his journey of becoming a chef with MAMATA VENKAT, how finding a Guru and diving into spirituality changed his attitude in the kitchen, and how all of his experiences have shaped his most important role: being a parent.

Taste of life

It’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.

Stuffed zucchini

Zucchinis, also known as courgettes, are delicious in many dishes. They are easy to cook and they can be eaten in many ways – raw, baked, stir fried and steamed.

Love

Silently, smoothly love glides.

The New Children

TERRAN DAILY begins a series of articles that offer parenting and teaching tips for today’s children. She sets the scene by explaining the consciousness shift we are undergoing from a mechanistic worldview to a systems worldview, and how as adults this changes the way we nurture our children.

Service, Simplicity & Songwriting part 2

With an Ivy league education, this MTV rap/hip hop star was living the American dream and working on Wall Street when the events of 9/11 unfolded in front of his eyes. Giving up the corporate world, NIMO PATEL decided to pursue his passion for music in LA, but a chronic health issue led him to seek Ayurvedic treatment in India. He stayed back for 6 months to volunteer at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad and continues to this day working with the slum children of the city when he’s not working for his own non-profit organization, Empty Hands Music. In part 2, VANESSA PATEL continues to learn more about him and his mantra “Service, Simplicity & Songwriting.”

JUST THINKING AND FEELING: WHAT IS A MISTAKE?

How do you handle a situation in which someone is so scared of making a mistake in the decision they need to make that they panic? If most of their energy is focused on the panic, then very little is left to deal with the problem that is worrying them. So, let’s see how we can reduce anxiety. The first thing to do is to take a deep breath and relax.

A User's Guide to Living - Part 9

Happiness, Food and Resources

A Love Letter to the Future: Part 1

“What we do now echoes in eternity,” said Marcus Aurelius. The transition of the past few months has been stressful but also a time to remove obsolete habits, to rebuild our priorities, and to explore new paradigms. With this in mind, PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN interviewed DR. ELIZABETH DENLEY on our ability to adapt to changes during COVID times. Elizabeth holds a PhD in ecology as well as having spent over 30 years practicing Yoga and studying the yogic sciences. She sees the bridging of science and spirituality as the way of the future.

TIME TO LAMENT

Reconciliation through Mourning