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PHILIPPINES/ THOMASTOWN (Vic)
Frontline Foundation’s Pilot Project a continuing success

Connect City Church’s Tess Abadilla, founder and CEO of Frontline Foundations – dedicated to empowering one Filipino community at a time – is delighted to report that its Let Us Sell Goods project is an ongoing success.

‘The Badjao Community Livelihood Cooperative Program (BCLCP) led by Pastor Albert Santiago in Libjo, Batangas City Philippines has completed its first year of implementation. It’s received the complete funding as per its original proposal,’ says Pastor Tess.

She adds, ‘This pilot project is a success story as it continues to have significant impact to the community. The project proposal initially targeted 34 families in one community but reached over a hundred. Now the program has extended to two other Badjao communities and the Tagalog community.’

 

‘Products usually being traded are cultured pearls, malong (traditional Badjao cloth), fancy accessories, second hand cellphones and prime commodities,’ explained Tess Abadilla. ‘Their market includes their fellow Badjao in the community, tourists, and local folks. They go from province to province selling their goods. The capital lent to the family will be returned again to the project with 5% interest of the total amount borrowed, of which to be added up to the livelihood fund, to help more Badjao families.’

The Badjaos, categorised as ‘the poorest among the poor’ and the most primitive among the ethnic groups in the Philippines, are a Filipino Muslim Ethnic group called sea gypsies or group of ‘boat people.’

Frontline Foundation’s project also educates families on family capital management and financial responsibility towards the project, and provide additional market for their cultured pearls and malong products (See June 2014’s TheBuzz).

August to November are lean months for the Badjaos. Selling and retailing are not that productive due to the saving for the Christmas season of the masses. The frequent typhoons affecting Batangas is also one of the factors that affects the businesses of the Badjaos. But most of the loans were reconstructed to suit the lean months for the Badjaos – who faithfully stayed longer in far-off places selling.

Mid-November is the start of buying season for the masses, and the Badjaos’ businesses begin to flourish. In December (the buying season), two days before Christmas, they returned to the community, resulting in being able to pay off their loans from the cooperative. After Christmas they really enjoyed their Hariraya festival.

‘By January 2015, most of the Badjaos renewed their loans and other groups have since sought membership with the cooperative regarding loans for business capital,’ reports a delighted Tess Abadilla.

‘As a result the program today is ongoing and continuing in its successful operation in the Philippines’ she added. ‘The project focus now will be in monitoring and assessing the level of impact of the Badjao Cooperative Livelihood initiative in changing lives and reducing poverty (sustainable livelihood) for the next three years.’

Further details/donations/enquiries – links: www.frontlinefoundation.org.au / Tess Abadilla enquiries@frontlinefoundation.org.au /(+61) 0421238948.
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AUKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Second Warning – Bill Johnson and Bethel Church

Andrew Strom, Revival School Moderator, shares concern in his latest blog excerpted below…

A couple of years ago we sent out a warning itemising a number of facts about Bill Johnson’s ministry and Bethel Church in Redding. Numerous witnesses and videos from Bethel show that this church is spreading an ‘anointing’ very similar to Todd Bentley – ie. Spiritual ‘drunkenness’, jerking, hysterical laughter, ‘angel orbs’, ‘fire tunnels’, spirit travel, mystical ‘portals’, and such. Plus constant talk in their ministry school of bizarre angel encounters and trips to the ‘third heaven.’ All of it has an extremely New Age feel. And it is still going on today. (But even worse – as we shall see).

Bill Johnson strongly defended Todd Bentley – even after his divorce and remarriage. No wonder, for the ‘anointing’ that both men carry seems almost identical (though their ‘style’ is very different). These facts are beyond dispute and have been confirmed by many witnesses.

But whenever I say such things about Bill Johnson, people rush to defend him, saying what a ‘great guy’ he is, and what a great ministry he has. And yes – he is a very charming man who does say good things. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be so dangerous. Deception always wraps itself in the best ‘sheep’s wool’ it can find. Otherwise it would have no chance of deceiving the sheep! Why do you think the Bible warns of ‘seducing’ spirits in the last days – and ‘lying’ signs and wonders? If the deception was not so ‘seductive’ then nobody would fall for it. And this stuff is very seductive indeed.

Things get worse
Several years ago the Bethel crowd put out a book which we only found out about recently. It was co-authored by Bill Johnson’s administrative assistant Judy Franklin with a foreword by Bethel pastor Kris Vallotton. Bill Johnson wrote two of the chapters and his wife Beni wrote another. In other words, it has Bethel’s stamp all over it. (It is still sold on the Bethel website).

So what is this book about? Here is what the blurb says – ‘Exploring the mysteries of God in sound, light, vibrations, frequencies, energy, and quantum physics.’ Does that sound New Age to you? Yes – and it gets even worse. Please remember that this book has Bill Johnson’s name on it – and Bethel’s strong endorsement and participation.

When you open the book you find chapter headings like these – ‘Vibrating in Harmony with God’, ‘Good Vibrations’, ‘Quantum Mysticism’ and ‘The God Vibration.’ And some of the sub-headings are even more astounding: ‘Dolphins and Healing Energy’, ‘The Power of Colour’, ‘Human Body Frequencies’.

You might ask: What kind of ‘Christian’ book is this? The answer is that it is Bethel and Bill Johnson’s kind of Christian book. It literally has Bill’s name on it. This is a peek into the real Bethel behind the scenes. When you look at this publication, suddenly you understand why we see all these weird videos and testimonies from Bethel of strange New Age terminology and bizarre spiritual practices. Now we know why. We have the evidence in black and white.

So openly New Age
We have shown the contents of this book to leaders and people that have been fans and supporters of Bill Johnson. They have verified the source of it. And just reading this content has turned most of them from being a supporter of Bethel into an opponent in a matter of a few hours. It really is that bad. So openly New Age you could hardly believe it.

With all this talk of ‘vibrations’ in the book, perhaps we can now better understand why Beni, Bethel co-pastor, wrote in her blog: ‘I was talking with Ray Hughes the other day and was telling him about using a 528 HZ tuning fork as a prophetic act. Someone told me that this tuning fork is called the tuning fork of love… the sound of this fork brings healing.’ (Please note that crystals and tuning forks are used in New Age therapy – not Christianity.

This might also help explain why Beni Johnson recently released a photo of herself ‘soaking’ (lying down) on the grave of a dead Christian leader – and why Bethel students also put out photos of themselves ‘grave sucking’ (as it is called) – trying to ‘soak up’ the anointing from the graves of dead preachers. I am not exaggerating. They actually do this. I hope you can see how dangerous and unbiblical it all is.

 

Somebody needs to confront Bill Johnson about it. That is why I am including a whole new section of these disturbing facts in the 2015 edition of my book Kundalini Warning. And why I’m writing this article.

Strange fire!
When Nadab and Abihu offered ‘strange fire’ before the Lord in the Old Testament, they were consumed by God and died (Lev 10:1-2). ‘Strange fire’ is still deadly today. The body of Christ needs to be warned.

As one of the graduates of the Bethel ministry school (BSSM) wrote to me: ‘There would be all kinds of distracting behaviour (random shouting, laughing…) during school sessions and church services. When any guest speaker came to school, students would flock to the front to get as close to the speaker as possible. We were taught that any anointing we wanted could be received by simply ‘claiming it’ for ourselves… The drunken behaviour and questionable teachings from some, if not all, of these speakers was shocking at times… I would always hear people talking about their encounters with angels and how they visited heaven. One young woman I knew said she could see angels everywhere, she talked to them all the time, and she would help her friends to do the same.’

In summary, this is a very dangerous movement and the warning needs to be sounded as far and wide as possible.

Links: http://www.revivalschool.com / prophetic@revivalschool.com. Note: Currently Andrew Strom has a special offer on his book – ‘As always, we are offering this book for *Any* Donation – even if you can only just cover the postage costs. We do not want anyone missing out on this book just because of lack of finances, so if you can at least cover the postage, then we will gladly send it to you. (Postage to the USA, Canada, UK, and the world is only USD $2.35; Australia  only AUD$2.35; NZ  only NZD$1.65). But if you can afford to send an actual Donation, that would be a big help to us. Orders:  http://www.revivalschool.com

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JERUSALEM, ISRAEL
Iran threatens ‘80,000 rockets at Tel Aviv and Haifa’

ASSIST’s Dan Wooding reports: Iranian officials have been ‘thrown into a fit’ over ‘distorted comments’ attributed to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon that have swept across the internet and include popular anti-Israel sites, says the Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com) , in a dramatic story.

A report by Iran’s Fars news agency on Wednesday claimed that the defense minister supposedly said ‘We are going to hurt Lebanese civilians to include kids of the family. We went through a very long deep discussion … we did it then, we did it in [the] Gaza Strip, we are going to do it in any round of hostilities in the future,’ while speaking at an unnamed ‘conference in Jerusalem.’

Misquoted wording corrected
‘The quote was most likely based on Ya’alon’s comments from the May 5 Shurat Hadin conference,’ said the Jerusalem Post. ‘He was recounting targeting decisions in which he was involved when it first became apparent that Hezbollah was purposely placing weapons in civilian homes in Lebanon.’

The paper corrected the quote saying the defense minister actually said, ‘If we don’t intercept the rocket-launchers in advance, civilians will be hurt, if not killed. If we hit the launchers, it will hurt or kill Lebanese civilians.’ He also said a ‘long, deep discussion’ regarding the ‘moral and legal considerations’ took place before the final decision to strike the rocket launcher.

Another quote attributed to Ya’alon, for which a basis could not be found, claimed that Israel would act ‘as the Americans did in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, causing at the end the fatalities of 200,000.’

The Jerusalem Post stated that in response, Iranian Major General Rahim Safavi threatened Israel with violence, saying that ‘the Zionists and the US are aware of the power of Iran and Hezbollah, and they know that over 80,000 (Iranian) missiles are ready to rain down on Tel Aviv and Haifa.’

 

 

Sign in the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

‘We have displayed part of our military capabilities while we have kept many of our achievements and capabilities hidden to outsiders,’ a comment which comes just a month after P5+1 countries agreed to a framework deal with Iran. ‘Our response will be crushing not just to the Zionist regime, but to any other aggressor who intends to take action against us.’

Mistaken exaggeration statements
Jerusalem Post added that Iran’s UN envoy Gholam Ali Khoshrou also mistook the exaggerated statements for real and issued a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. ‘Moshe Ya’alon’s recent remarks and the Zionist official’s implied reference to the possibility of using nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic like what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and also his threats against the Lebanese civilians, including the women and children, shows more than ever the regime’s aggressive nature.’

Recommended: ASSIST News Service Link: www.assistnews.net
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IRAQ
Friar saved ancient Christian manuscripts from ISIS destruction

Mark Ellis (See also Impact article) brings this great report of courage…

With ISIS fighters visible in the distance and bullets whistling over his head, Friar Najeeb Michaeel sprang into action to save hundreds of ancient Christian manuscripts in his possession.

Previously, Michaeel was forced to take his priceless collection from Mosul to Qaraqosh during an Islamist insurgency in 2008, when thousands of Christians fled the city. Last year, the friar watched as ISIS fighters seized town after town, destroying priceless artifacts and documents in museums and libraries in their charge across Iraq and Syria.

‘You are going to get us killed with your archives,’ his assistant complained as they struggled to haul six boxes of the documents out of Qaraqosh, according to a report by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

As ISIS seized the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria on May 21, Friar Michaeel (left) told AFP in Paris how he was gripped with the desire to preserve the remnants of Iraq’s 2,000-year-old Christian heritage: ‘It was imperative that these manuscripts, conserved in the Dominican library in Mosul and then in Qaraqosh, escape the systematic destruction of the non-Muslim cultural heritage.’

‘I thought we were going to die’
When ISIS seized Mosul in June, a short distance from Qaraqosh, Michaeel took action. ‘We loaded a large part of the manuscripts in a truck and drove them to Erbil, which is 70 kilometers (40 miles) away.’

When the jihadists descended on Qaraqosh on August 7, causing the remaining Dominican friars to escape, he hid the valuable manuscripts in his car: ‘We were engulfed in the massive exodus of Christians and Yazidis who were fleeing to Erbil. We could see the black flag of Daesh (ISIS) from a distance. We were protected by armed peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) but they wouldn’t let our car cross the border.’

He added, ‘So I started to take the boxes of manuscripts out of the car and hand them to passersby. Bullets were whistling above our heads and I thought we were going to die. Children were crying, women too. I was carrying six boxes; it was heavy; I couldn’t run.’

Luckily, a car was waiting for them in the Kurdish region, and all the boxes arrived safely and are now hidden in Erbil.

The Friar’s archive includes historical and philosophical texts, music and literature written in Aramaic, Syriac, Arabic and Armenian. They bear witness to the long Christian tradition in Mesopotamia – considered the cradle of Western civilisation – which survived as most of the region converted to Islam in the 7th century.

Mesopotamia: Crossroads of cultures’
Michaeel’s collection is ‘a bridge between civilisations; they bear witness to the past and say a lot about the present,’ the friar told AFP, adding he sees them as his ‘children.’

The friar and his staff have been working to digitise the ancient collection, photographing them and storing them on a hard drive. ‘Since 1990 we have digitised 8,000 manuscripts from the region. Half of the originals no longer exist as they have been destroyed by the Islamic State,’ he said.

Copies of seven of these documents are currently being displayed at the National Archives in Paris at an exhibition entitled: ‘Mesopotamia, a crossroads of cultures.’

Mark Ellis is a seasoned ASSIST senior correspondent (www.assistnews.net) and founder of the acclaimed www.Godreports.com