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Died: Dr. John Edmund Haggai, Founder of Haggai International Ministry
John Edmund Haggai, a preacher and revivalist who saw the need to equip Christians around the world to evangelize their own countries, died Wednesday at 96.
Known for challenging people to “attempt something so great for God, it’s doomed to failure unless God be in it,” Haggai founded Haggai Institute for Advanced Leadership, moved it to Singapore, and trained more than 120,000 evangelists from non-Western countries, including 1,200 from Indonesia, 400 from the Philippines, 500 from India, 400 from Nigeria, and 380 from Brazil. He argued this was the best new strategy for global missions after the end of Western colonialism.
One of his first students was K. P. Yohannan, who went on to found Gospel for Asia.
“Haggai was full of stories,” Yohannan recalled. “In them all, Christians were overcomers and giants—men and women who received a vision from God and refused to let go of it. Diligence to your calling was a virtue to be highly prized. Haggai was the first person who made me believe that nothing is impossible with God.”
Haggai was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1924. His father was a Syrian refugee who had fled Turkish forces in 1912 and was welcomed to the United States. The elder Haggai converted from Eastern Orthodox to evangelical Christianity, enrolled in Moody Bible Institute, and became a Southern Baptist pastor.
The younger Haggai was inspired to follow in his father’s footsteps: He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior at four years old and announced he felt a call to preach at six. A few years later, Haggai said he wanted to be a missionary to China.
Haggai went to Moody like his father and met Christine Barker from Bristol, Virginia, a soprano who sang professionally from the age of 13 and had her own weekly musical program on the radio. She had given up a scholarship at Julliard to attend Moody. Haggai fell in love, and the two got married the day after graduation in 1945.
While the young graduate still dreamed of being a missionary to China, a civil war broke out between nationalists and the Communists, and the Haggais decided to stay in the US. Haggai soon accepted a position pastoring a church in Lancaster, South Carolina. He grew it to about 1,000 members and won praise for record-high Sunday school attendance.
Haggai also started a radio ministry, with a 15-minute weekly program called Crusade for Christ. He got a second degree in history and philosophy at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and started traveling with Youth for Christ.
He was a powerful and popular speaker on the evangelistic circuit. One ad claimed that though only a young man, he “has plumbed the depths of the Bible and emerged with usable answers to many of the problems of our time.” He condemned the moral decline of the era and urged people to turn to the Bible as a guide for life.
In one sermon, he preached that “a million hammers have banged away at the anvil of God’s Word,” and now “the hammers are broken but the anvil remains.”
Haggai did not directly challenge the racism and the segregation of the South, but he occasionally himself ran afoul of the racial codes. In one hotel, he was mistaken for a singer who was supposed to perform. In some parts of the country, ads for his evangelistic crusades spelled out his ethnicity ahead of time.
In 1950, the Haggais had their only son, John Haggai Jr. He suffered a traumatic brain injury at birth, caused by an intoxicated doctor. The couple refused to institutionalize their son, and Christine committed to caring for the boy full time. After Johnny died at 24, Haggai wrote that those his namesake never spoke more than two words at a time, he was convinced his son prayed powerful prayers, trapped inside his broken body.
A few months after Johnny’s birth, the family moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where Haggai took over as senior pastor at Woodland Park Baptist. His first sermon at the megachurch was titled: “What’s Wrong with Your Church.” He challenged the congregation to live out their faith, witness to their neighbors, and support global missions.
In 1956, Haggai moved to another megachurch in Louisville, Ninth and O Baptist Church. The Sunday school had more than 2,000 regular attenders. He baptized about 420 people his first year and grew the church’s mission class to nearly 1,000. Haggai was asked to speak at the pastor’s conference ahead of the Southern Baptist Convention that year, and decided to preach about what was wrong with preachers.
“God help us to reappraise and to re-emphasize the place of the pulpit in evangelism,” Haggai said. “Revitalized pulpits in our land with the proper emphasis on evangelistic preaching will bring a new day spiritually and socially within our drink-hazed, lust-crazed, gold-glutted borders. Forbid, O God, that we should minimize the place of the pulpit in evangelism.”
The sermon brought him national headlines. “BLAME ON PULPIT,” one said: “Ministers Who Substitute for Gospel Preaching are Scored at Baptist Convention.” Invitations to speak started rolling—more than 700 around the country—and Haggai decided to leave pastoral ministry and become a full-time itinerate evangelist.
After many years supporting mission work and encouraging missionaries, Haggai got his chance to proclaim the gospel abroad in 1964, when he was invited to preach in Lebanon. There, an interaction with Christians in Beirut changed the rest of his career in ministry. He heard some local Christian leaders complaining about missionaries.
“Frankly, it made me angry,” Haggai later recalled. “I knew that missionaries the world over had sacrificed greatly, many giving their lives. How could anyone question the methods of those willing to pay such a high price for their commitment?”
The local leaders told him that Westerners did not cooperate with local Christians and often barred them from leadership positions, even if they had more experience and education than the missionaries. They misunderstood local cultures, causing unnecessary offense, and seemed to the unconverted to represent colonial power rather than the cause of Christ.
“People aren’t rejecting Jesus,” the Lebanese Christians said. “They’re rejecting Western domination.”
Haggai changed his mind.
“It was a significant moment for Dr. Haggai,” said Ebenezer Bittencourt, director of the Haggai Institute in Brazil. “On the plane ride home, he realized that the world was changing and that the strategy for missions and evangelism had to change too.”
He developed his first leadership training institute to “equip and inspire” national leaders in 1969, in Switzerland. The first students were from Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Korea, what was then called Formosa, and Lebanon.
Two years later, with a $500,000 gift and a $130,000 loan from Cecil Day, founder of Days Inn Hotels, Haggai moved the institute to Singapore. On Day’s advice, the board members were all Singaporean, and Haggai was the only teacher with a US passport. The ministry trained evangelists from 189 countries.
“The Haggai Leadership experience, it really changed the way I see the world,” said Josie Ching, a Christian in the Philippines. “I got it, that each of us is a missionary in our right and in the place that God placed us.”
The institute celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019, with more than 600 leaders from more than 60 nations. The ministry committed to training 250,000 more leaders in the next decade.
Haggai was preceeded in death by his son, Johnny, who passed in 1964, and his wife, Christine, who passed in 2019. Haggai International is collecting tributes to his life and work from around the world and planning an online memorial service.
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തങ്ങള് വിശ്വസിക്കുന്നത് ദൈവകൃപയില്, അവിടുത്തെ ഹിതം നിറവേറ്റുവാന് ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നു : യുഎസ് വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്റ് വാന്സ്
ന്യൂയോര്ക്ക്: ദൈവത്തിന്റെ കൃപയിലാണ് തങ്ങൾ വിശ്വസിക്കുന്നതെന്ന സാക്ഷ്യവുമായി അമേരിക്കന് വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്റ് ജെഡി വാന്സ്. ഫെബ്രുവരി 20-ന് മേരിലാൻഡിലെ നാഷണൽ ഹാർബറിൽ നടന്ന 2025 കൺസർവേറ്റീവ് പൊളിറ്റിക്കൽ ആക്ഷൻ കോൺഫറൻസിൻ്റെ (CPAC) പ്രധാന വേദിയിലെ അഭിമുഖത്തിനിടെയാണ് അദ്ദേഹം ഇക്കാര്യം പറഞ്ഞത്. ദൈവത്തിൻ്റെ കൃപയിൽ തങ്ങള് വിശ്വസിക്കുന്നുവെന്നും അവിടുത്തെ ഇഷ്ടം നിറവേറ്റുവാന് തങ്ങൾ പരമാവധി ശ്രമിക്കുന്നുണ്ടെന്നും വാൻസ് പറഞ്ഞു.
ധാർമ്മിക തത്വങ്ങളുടെ ഒരു കൂട്ടം മാത്രമല്ല ക്രൈസ്തവ വിശ്വാസത്തിൻ്റെ അടിസ്ഥാനം, മറിച്ച് വിശ്വാസമാണ്. ദൈവപുത്രൻ മനുഷ്യനായിത്തീർന്നു, അവൻ മരിച്ചവരിൽ നിന്ന് ഉയിർത്തെഴുന്നേറ്റു എന്നതാണ് ക്രൈസ്തവ വിശ്വാസത്തിൻ്റെ അടിസ്ഥാനം. ഇതില് നിന്ന് മനസിലാക്കേണ്ട പാഠങ്ങളില് ഒന്ന്, മരണത്തെ ഭയപ്പെടേണ്ടതില്ല എന്നതാണ്. ഒരാളുടെ ജീവൻ നഷ്ടപ്പെടുക എന്ന് പറയുമ്പോള് പ്രധാനമായി ഒരാളുടെ ആത്മാവ് നഷ്ടമാകുമെന്ന് ഞാൻ കരുതുന്നു.
ഗർഭധാരണ കേന്ദ്രങ്ങളെ പിന്തുണച്ചും, കുടുംബങ്ങളെ വളർത്തിയെടുക്കാൻ ആളുകൾക്ക് താങ്ങാനാകുന്ന ചെലവുകൾ കുറയ്ക്കുന്നതിനുള്ള നയങ്ങൾ നടപ്പാക്കിയും, ഭ്രൂണഹത്യയെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള ധാരണകൾ മാറ്റിയും, ജീവന് തിരഞ്ഞെടുക്കാൻ ആളുകളെ പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിച്ചും ജീവന്റെ സംസ്കാരം മുന്നോട്ട് കൊണ്ടുപോകാമെന്നും വാൻസ് അഭിമുഖത്തില് പറഞ്ഞു. പ്രസിഡൻ്റ് ഡൊണാൾഡ് ട്രംപിനെ “അമേരിക്കൻ ചരിത്രത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും പ്രോ-ലൈഫ് പ്രസിഡൻ്റ്” എന്ന് വാൻസ് വിശേഷിപ്പിച്ചു. അടിയുറച്ച കത്തോലിക്ക വിശ്വാസിയായ വാന്സ് ഭ്രൂണഹത്യയെ അതിശക്തമായി എതിര്ക്കുന്ന നേതാവ് കൂടിയാണ്.
കടപ്പാട് :പ്രവാചക ശബ്ദം
U.S. Vice President JD Vance advocated for government policies and cultural values that encourage Americans to “choose life” and “start families” during an interview on the main stage of the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 20 in National Harbor, Maryland.
“[People need to] stop thinking about babies as inconveniences to be discarded,” Vance said in a Thursday morning interview with Mercedes Schlapp, a senior fellow at the American Conservative Union Foundation and the wife of ACU chairman and CPAC organizer Matt Schlapp.
“We’ve got to start thinking of them as blessings to cherish,” Vance said.
During the interview, Vance noted that the United States Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade completely changed the abortion debate in the country by allowing the “will of the people to speak on the life issue” and removing it from “unelected bureaucrats” and “unelected judges.”
Vance suggested advancing a culture of life by supporting pro-life pregnancy centers, enacting policies to bring costs down so people can afford to raise families, changing perceptions about abortion, and encouraging people to choose life.
“Maybe they’ll start thinking of babies as the blessings that we all know that they are,” Vance said.
Vance referred to President Donald Trump as the “most pro-life president in American history” for nominating three of the justices who joined the majority opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. However, he did not address the concerns pro-life advocates have raised with Trump’s recent executive order to expand and reduce the costs of in vitro fertilization , a fertility treatment in which human embryos are routinely destroyed.
Discussing his faith, the vice president, who is a convert to Catholicism, described himself as “very pro-life” and “a devout Christian.”
I just marvel at how real, and exceedingly impressive this guy @JDVance is. We are so blessed to have him as our VP.
“We put our faith in God above, we put our faith in the grace of God, and we try our best to do his will,” Vance said.
Vance discusses immigration, the economy, and energy
During the interview, Vance said the 2024 election gave Trump a “historic mandate on a few issues,” specifically on his efforts to deport immigrants who entered the country illegally, his plans to expand domestic energy and improve the economy, and his actions to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse within the government.
“The American people gave us a window to save the country and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” the vice president said.
Vance spoke about Trump’s deportation efforts, his restrictions on border crossings, and his decision to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. He said his message to drug traffickers is for them to “get the hell out of our country.”
“Your free ride is over because President Trump is back in the Oval Office,” Vance added.
The vice president said Trump intends to “unleash American energy” with policies such as more drilling for oil on American land. This, he said, will “do more than anything” to help the economy because high costs of fuel increase costs for other things.
He also said Trump will ensure “other countries stop taking advantage of us,” extend his tax cuts, and end taxes on tips. He praised the work of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to stop “wasting [taxpayer money] on garbage.”
“We want your children and grandchildren to be able to raise a family in security and comfort in the country we all love,” Vance said.
Schlapp’s interview with the vice president kicked off CPAC’s three-day conference. Other figures scheduled to speak at the annual event include Trump, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Republican lawmakers and administration officials, foreign leaders, and various conservative media personalities.
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Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a city once thriving as a booming steel town, now faces significant economic challenges, including one of the nation’s highest poverty rates. Yet, in the midst of hardship, faith-based programs are stepping in to inspire the next generation, offering truth, purpose, and hope for the future.
The view here in Johnstown is excellent—it’s a city with a rich past, but it has fallen on some difficult times. That includes a series of devastating floods, beginning with the infamous 1889 disaster. Then the economy took a serious downturn after Bethlehem Steel pulled out, and now, in its wake, there’s a lingering sense of hopelessness.
But even a city in a dark valley can shine a light. Programs like Bible2School are bringing faith to the next generation, teaching children about Jesus and instilling a sense of purpose.
“People kind of expect bad things,” says Pastor Doug Black of Liberty Grace Church. “They’ve grown up in this generational expectation that nothing good’s going to happen in Johnstown. So, it’s hard to give them hope because it’s not what they’ve experienced.”
Local pastors are meeting weekly for prayer, seeking spiritual renewal for their city. This week, they gather on a rooftop, standing in the gap for Johnstown. “God, the gospel is good news, Lord,” prays Pastor Terry Knipple. “The city of Johnstown is struggling, and they need good news.”
Their prayers may be finding an answer in the next generation. While student engagement can be a challenge for public schools, children in Johnstown are eagerly skipping lunch and recess to learn about the Bible through Bible2School.
“And who or what is the rock? That firm foundation? What does that rock represent?” asks a teacher in one of the classes.
“Jesus! The Bible!” the students respond enthusiastically.
“So many of the kids have never been told that Jesus loves them,” says Stacy Novak, Executive Director of Bible2School Laurel Highlands. “We have conversations with them, ‘Do you know that you are valued, and do you know you are loved?’ It’s like they’re hearing this for the very first time.”
Bible2School, a nonprofit organization, offers off-campus Bible classes to students in grades two through four in an area where less than 20% of residents regularly attend church. The program has seen remarkable growth, expanding from 82 registered students in 2018 to 850 today—an increase of 900 percent.
“We know a handful of families who’ve started going to church as a result of their children participating,” Novak says. “So, it doesn’t just reach the children. It reaches their siblings, their parents, grandparents.”
For students like Anhori, the program is life-changing. “It’s helping me learn more about Jesus and God and how I can grow closer to Him,” she says, telling CBN News her family is thinking about finding a church.
Katie Green, Johnstown Site Director for Bible2School, knows the struggles of the community firsthand. Growing up in a single-parent household, she relates to the challenges many of these children face. “I have always felt very strongly that within our program, we have little Davids and little Esthers—that God is rising up for a time like this,” Green says.
Yet, for many of these children, the challenges continue after school. Unstable housing, hunger, and loneliness are realities for many families. That’s where New Day, another faith-based program, steps in.
“I can tell you the kids are their spiritual leaders in their households,” says Chris Plaza, leader and facilitator of New Day’s afterschool children’s programming. “We have a lot of parents who can’t read or write—so it’s almost like their children are their educators.”
New Day provides a safe space for children after school, offering a warm meal, the gospel message, and time together. Without it, many kids would end up on the streets.
“I’m excited about Johnstown,” says Pastor Ray of Journey Church. “For years, everybody was down on it because of the drugs, the lack of jobs, things like that. And it was all just gloom and doom. I thought, why not Johnstown? Why can’t we be the epicenter of revival for our country and for our state?”
In a city scarred by economic setbacks and natural disasters, Bible2School and New Day stand out as beacons of hope. With each prayer and each family touched, a new layer is added to this young generation’s foundation of faith.
“We believe this rooftop is our watchtower,” says Josh Knipple of New Day. “Seeing what God sees in the city, seeing what’s to come… Instead of seeing poverty, we see hope.”
As the children pray, “For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory… forever and ever—amen,” it’s clear that in Johnstown, faith is lighting the way to a brighter future.
Sources:CBN News
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Nearly 2,000 Students Choose Christ in 1 Night at Ohio State: ‘God Is Moving in This Generation’
Thousands of college students gathered at Ohio State University on Tuesday night to seek the hope that’s found in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and nearly 2,000 of them made decisions to give their hearts to God.
It was the second massive revival event of 2025 organized by the Unite US movement, and this time students braved sub-freezing temperatures down in the teens to get baptized in the backs of U-Haul trucks.
“We’ve been in awe of how God has already been moving on this campus over the past year, and He met us here again tonight,” Unite US said in a social media post. “Over 6,500 students gathered in The Schott to lift the name of Jesus and almost 2,000 responded to the altar call – experiencing the freedom only He can bring.”
“God is moving in this generation, and we know that He’s just getting started!” the post exclaimed.
Tonya Prewett, the founder and visionary behind Unite US, also posted to Instagram saying, “What a night at The Ohio State University! …close to 2,000 students made a decision to go all in with Jesus! I am in awe of how God is moving on college campuses!”
The Ohio State revival follows a Unite US outreach held last week at the University of Kentucky where more than 2,000 students gave their lives to Jesus Christ and many were baptized as well.
The next Unite US outreach will be held at Purdue University in Indiana on March 5. Since September of 2023, the ministry’s events have reached more than 70,000 college students across multiple campuses.
Sources:CBN News
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തങ്ങള് വിശ്വസിക്കുന്നത് ദൈവകൃപയില്, അവിടുത്തെ ഹിതം നിറവേറ്റുവാന് ആഗ്രഹിക്കുന്നു : യുഎസ് വൈസ് പ്രസിഡന്റ് വാന്സ്
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Bible Lessons for School Kids Are Shining Hope in Challenged Cities
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