The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-10/03/2016 DISCLAIMER: Baptist Press should be credited for any reprinted stories that originate with BP. Suggested credit line: Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. Please note that Baptist Press periodically carries stories from other sources by permission. Individuals interested in reprinting non-BP stories should contact the entity where the story originated to seek reprint permission. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Illusionist catches attention for Gospel sharing by Erin Roach Date: October 03, 2016 - Monday MUSKOGEE, Okla. (BP) -- Some believers might cringe at the idea of a "Christian magician," but Bart Glatt has seen many people come to faith in Jesus as he has used the art of illusion to catch attention and disarm people before a Gospel presentation. Glatt is pastor of volunteer ministries at First Baptist Church in Muskogee, Okla., and he also is a professional illusionist, photographer, videographer and voiceover artist. He has traveled the world using illusions to share Christ and illustrate biblical principles. "There are things that you can do with [illusions] that you can't do any other way visually in such a short time to help explain things," Glatt told Baptist Press. His fascination with performing staged tricks or illusions began in the 7th grade when his English teacher told the class to learn to do something they had never done before by going to the library and choosing a book on the subject. Glatt had recently watched the 1953 drama "Houdini" starring Tony Curtis and was inspired to learn more about how to be an illusionist. But learning these types of skills from a book "is next to impossible," Glatt said. "I was trying to make my hands look like the illustrations, and a friend of my father's walked up and said, 'You're holding the cards wrong.' … It turns out he had been a professional magician. I never knew that, and I begged him to teach me." The man said he would teach Glatt one trick, and if he could master that one he would teach him another. "That went on for several years," Glatt noted. "He used to always tell me, 'This will open up doors for you that you couldn't enter any other way.'" One day the man left Glatt's house, returned home and died of a massive heart attack. "It dawned on me, out of all the times we'd spent together and the number of times he told me, 'This will open up doors for you,' I had never taken 10 minutes to share with him how to open up the door to heaven," Glatt said. "So I decided at that point to take the talent that he had given me and use it to share the Gospel." Glatt said his use of illusions, juggling, puppets, comedy and other tools is a way to gain an audience's attention before sharing the Good News. "Jesus used things to startle people," Glatt said. "All of a sudden, He had their attention." An example of something Glatt has done is to hang upside down in a straitjacket 100 feet in the air, held by a crane over a festival in Louisiana. There was no safety net, but there was a spotlight, and "the entire fairgrounds came to a halt," Glatt said. "I told them, 'If I get down from this, I will explain to you all how to perform the escape that Houdini never mastered,'" Glatt said. "When I got down, everybody was listening, and I said, 'If anybody could escape from death, Houdini would do it. Tonight I'm going to tell you how you can escape from eternal death to eternal life.'" That stunt went over so well at the notoriously raucous festival that Glatt was invited back -- and paid -- to perform for the next 18 years, he said. Another time, he was witnessing door-to-door in Salt Lake City and came upon a rough-looking motorcycle gang. Glatt used his illusionist skills to disarm the gang members. "I told them, 'People have tried looking to cards for answers to their problems. Some people have tried gambling, figuring that if they got enough money it would solve their problems. Some people have tried fortune telling with decks of cards, but there's nothing there that will solve any problem that you've got. These two cards that you've picked are different.' "I turned the first one over and said, 'Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die today you'd go to heaven?'" The gang leader told Glatt not to turn over the second card because he knew it would change his life. He asked Glatt to come back later so he could gather up some others to listen. When Glatt returned that Friday night, the man had moved furniture from his apartment to accommodate a crowd for Glatt's tricks and Gospel presentation, Glatt said. Several people accepted Christ that night, including the gang leader. Glatt's skills have opened doors for him to share Jesus in prisons and in countries where it is dangerous to evangelize. "It appeals to all ages," he said, adding that he is careful to explain that what he is doing is an illusion, not real magic. On Wednesday nights at First Baptist Muskogee, Glatt teaches a class for people who plan to go on mission trips and want to learn "magic" tricks as icebreakers. He also teaches these tricks to a group of homeschoolers because he believes it's important to share with the next generation -- just as his father's friend shared knowledge of illusion with him -- so they can have an opening to share the Gospel with people who are searching. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Modern-day chroniclers' hone skills at Fall Forum by Sharon Mager Date: October 03, 2016 - Monday ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP) -- Defining purpose, identifying an audience, solving problems and sharing calls to action were all key topics at the Baptist Communicators Association's (BCA) third annual Fall Forum. Held this year at the North American Mission Board's facility in Alpharetta, Ga., the Fall Forum brought communicators from across the country together to hear about and present topics on storytelling, reaching diverse audiences in a variety of media formats, responding to today's challenges in Baptist life, and offering the appropriate calls to action. Judy Bates, BCA professional development coordinator, served as the emcee for the event, welcoming guests, and introducing each presenter who delivered a "TED Talk" type of presentation. Bates is head of the Mission:Dignity department at GuideStone Financial Resources in Dallas, Texas. Award-winning photojournalist Stanley Leary, who serves as an expert in corporate communications and a consultant for Chick-fil-A, challenged attendees in person and online, asking, "What is your purpose? What are you doing for your audience? People are busy. For them to stop and take the time to read your story, they want to know they're going to get a problem solved. "One thing you need to understand is you're a problem solver, not just a communicator," Leary said during the Sept. 23 forum. Writers must identify their audience, grab their attention, keep them engaged, and make them the hero, he added. Charlotte Spivey, supervising multimedia producer for GuideStone Financial Resources, was an online presenter and focused her presentation on videography. She emphasized providing engaging content, using humor and emotion, and making videos brief. "The best practice for keeping your videos the right length is to keep it short," she said. "After two minutes, viewership takes a dive." For a website, the goal is under two minutes, and 90 seconds is even better, she said. Facebook videos are best at 35 to 45 seconds, making them easily shared. Spivey echoed Leary's comment about a call to action. "What do you want your audience to do?" "Your video has a purpose, and you must keep that in mind throughout." Former International Mission Board missionary Marc Hooks, currently serving as director of communications and associate missions director of Collin Baptist Association in Fairview, Texas, said, "As Baptist communicators, we are modern-day chroniclers of our faith." Future generations will look at what we've done in our present day and use that to inform their future, he said. Hooks shared about Pray4everyhome.com, a nationally recognized prayer ministry tool Collin Association developed using a database of people in neighborhoods throughout the U.S. Those who sign up on the free site receive the names of 100 neighbors, broken down in increments of five a day, for whom to pray. Hooks said that prayer walking is wonderful, but as a former IMB missionary, when he knew he was being prayed for by name on his birthday, it was special. The goal is that every household in the nation prayed for by name. So far, nearly 1.9 million prayers were logged into the system and there are over 12,000 praying neighbors. Mike Ebert, NAMB's executive director of public relations, spoke about maximizing a leader's impact and effectiveness. Ebert emphasized knowing the leader represented, taking advantage of time spent with him in various situations, and understanding there are moments that being a communicator can mean being a ministry partner and a co-strategist. The communicator's role is amplifying the impact of a leader's focus through words, understanding him or her, learning their style, being trustworthy, honoring the office, knowing the "big picture" of the organization, telling stories well, and having an action-oriented communications plan. Ebert, referring to a David Ogilvy quote regarding the famous Greek orator Demosthenes, said, "You really don't want people to walk away and say, 'Wow, he's a great speaker,' or 'Wow, that's a great point.' You want them to walk away saying 'Let us march!'" John Ambra and his wife Teresa reach over half a million people with their cooking blog, "Can't Stay out of the Kitchen." They use their love of cooking to share the love of Christ. If you want to start a blog, John said, during a video presentation, think through things ahead of time, and know your audience, and what you want to say to them, he advised. John urged would-be bloggers to learn from the journey of others, and discussed several other blogging tips: designing a template, keeping content backed up, engaging the audience, generating traffic, being regular, and being authentic. He noted patience is also important. It took more than four years to get their blog firmly established. Amy Van Vleck, senior corporate communications editor at GuideStone Financial Resources, in a video presentation, gave some practical advice about using metaphors to help liven up communication -- especially information or topics that have to be covered repeatedly. She suggested listing three key messages, pulling out three key words and searching these key words on Google images to find photos that create these mental pictures. This can help provide metaphors, preferably in a theme, to be used in the writing and graphic design. Adam Covington and Matt Miller, communication directors for Southwestern Seminary, shared 25 tips they've learned in their 25 years in the communications industry. It was a fast, sometimes funny, list that included practical tips such as, "Love the city where you live, or move to a different one," "Even the Lone Ranger had a sidekick," "Commitment is easy to break but a calling is irrevocable," and "Integrity matters." The men both agreed there is a time to put down the camera. Sometimes people need you as a believer who will cry or rejoice with them. The final presenter, Lori Johnston, co-owner of Fast Copy news service in Athens, Ga., shared about turning to and relying on the next generation. Johnston said the ministry was "born out of prayer." She and her husband were incredibly busy journalists but not finding a work/life balance. "We prayed about how to grow our business and have time for our church and for mentoring others," she said. By working with students at the University of Georgia, where Lori teaches, the couple was able to provide more workers for themselves, but also an opportunity to shape and mold a new godly generation. Johnston said there's a great opportunity to teach young communicators the knowledge to write and make videos, to be leaders in the workplace, and ultimately, to be a great example of Christianity through their workplaces and lives. Throughout the conference, hundreds of people tuned in on Facebook Live and now, the conference is available in segments on the BCA Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/BaptistComm). The 2017 BCA Fall Forum will be at GuideStone Financial Resources. BCA is a professional organization of communicators. Learn more at http://www.baptistcommunicators.org. -------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM THE SEMINARIES: Race relations panels at NOBTS and SBTS by BP Staff Date: October 03, 2016 - Monday Today's From the Seminaries includes reports on race relations discussions at: New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary; Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. 'Talking about Race' speakers underscore incarnational living By Gary D. Myers NEW ORLEANS (BP) -- Discussing race in America is complex, difficult, risky and necessary. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary joined the conversation with its "Talking about Race" conference Sept. 27. Sponsored by the seminary's Institute for Faith and the Public Square, the event brought together Andrew Young Jr., Noel Castellanos and Raymond Bakke -- three men who have given their lives and careers to some of the most vulnerable people in American society. Young, a civil rights icon, served as a pastor, mayor, congressman and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Castellanos, chief executive officer of the Christian Community Development Association, has ministered to urban Latinos since 1982. Bakke, a pastor and urban ministry professor, is founder and executive director of International Urban Associates, an organization dedicated to taking the Gospel to the urban centers of the world. The men set a hopeful tone from the start sharing stories from their own experiences, encouraging grassroots change, one person at a time. The solution, in their view, comes when people of different backgrounds and ethnicities live out life together. Ultimately, each speaker placed their hope for lasting reconciliation in Christ. "It was an exciting and thought-provoking event," said Lloyd Harsch, NOBTS professor and director of the Institute for Faith and the Public Square. "The speakers addressed reconciliation out of their own personal experience in light of biblical teaching. "Reconciliation is not an academic goal. It becomes a reality on the personal level as each person listens to the story of the other person and begins to intentionally live Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of treating each other by the content of our character, not the color of our skin," Harsch said. Young: 'Amazing Grace' from 'the power of the Lord' Andrew Young opened the conference by weaving together stories from his childhood, ministry and political career. The common thread was his call for a calm, patient approach. For him, high emotion is an enemy to reconciliation. Young said he first learned to control his emotions in the face of racism as a young boy in New Orleans. At the time, he lived across the street from the American Nazi Party's New Orleans headquarters. "My father said, 'Look, you have to realize that white supremacy is a sickness and you can't get angry with sick people. If you react emotionally, you can catch the sickness,'" Young recalled. Later, as Young and his father watched newsreels of Jesse Owens' record-gold medal performances in the 1936 Olympics, they took note of his actions when he was snubbed by German leaders. Instead of lashing out, Owens focused on his task and set three world records. Emotion and fighting, Young said, will not make a difference. Instead he encouraged dialogue with people who are different in order to gain mutual understanding. Young carried this philosophy with him during the civil rights movement even as some grew tired of Martin Luther King Jr.'s non-violent approach. In his view, King's steady, loving approach brought great progress for black people in America. More progress will not be easy, Young said, because the sin of looking down on people who are different remains prevalent today. "There is something in humanity that makes us sin and fall short of the glory of God," Young said. "There is something in humanity that makes us insecure until we find ourselves in Christ." Later, Young reminded the audience of the history behind the hymn "Amazing Grace." The song was written by a former slave trader, John Newton, whose life was changed when he found Jesus, Young said. "If it can happen to a slave trader, how much more can we do with the power of the Lord, the love of each other and taking advantage of the technological and scientific advantages of our time," Young said. Castellanos: a long journey to progress Noel Castellanos compared the struggle for racial reconciliation to an arduous 500-mile camino (journey) he took through the mountains of northern Spain several years ago. The Camino de Santiago spanned 31 days as he climbed mountain after mountain. Each mountain brought new discouragement, Castellanos said, but he put his head down and simply put one foot in front of the other until he made it to the top. Again and again he faced yet another mountain. People are experiencing a similar type of discouragement in the current racial situation in the America, Castellanos said. "We have gone through so much pain and so much hurt to get to where we are and we look around the bend and, wow, now there's another mountain we have to climb," he said. "The camino of life is hard, the path of life on this side of eternity is going to be difficult." Though he was born a U.S. citizen to parents who were citizens in Texas, Castellanos was closely connected to Mexico. Spanish was spoken in his home and his parents labored as migrant workers until he was 7. Unfortunately, Castellanos said, he has experienced the bitter sting of racism firsthand. "I could be paralyzed by that pain," he said, however: "The pain has prepared me to do ministry in the context that God has called me to do -- in very vulnerable immigrant neighborhoods in our country. "The way you make an impact for the Kingdom is you do it the way Jesus did," Castellanos said. "You enter into the pain of the reality that people live in every day and you live in solidarity with them." In living among the hurting, Castellanos said one learns not only their pain, but their aspirations and dreams. Living life in community with the hurting allows the believer to offer encouragement and help in building a community in a God-honoring way, he said. In Chicago, Castellanos joined a primarily African-American church to better understand the struggles of his black brothers and sisters in Christ. Since then a diverse group of people has joined the church. With the changes, the congregation stopped identifying itself as a "black church" but rather as a church located in the black and Latino community. Castellanos said this change in thinking opened the congregation to anyone willing to enter in. It is in this openness to work together, worship together and live in community with people of different backgrounds that lasting progress happens, he said. Bakke: Colossians, Philippians or both "Nations are now in the neighborhoods," Bakke said, noting that one New York neighborhood is home to people from 133 different nations. God is bringing the nations to the urban centers of the world, which is making it easier for the church to participate in God's Great Commission, Bakke said. "It is the greatest bargain in world missions," he said. "[Missions] is no longer across the world, it is across the street in almost every one of our cities. Thank God. I think it is the Lord's agenda." Bakke said he often divides audiences into two groups. He assigns one group the book of Colossians and asks them to pretend it is the only scripture they have. The other half is assigned Philippians with the same guideline. Bakke then gives the groups time to study and develop a ministry for their city based only on their assigned books. To guide the process, Bakke asks them to pay close attention to how Jesus is presented in each case. When the Colossians group reports back, they see Jesus "high and lifted up" at the right hand of God in the book, Bakke said. They want to clean up their city -- removing toxic dumps, taking on corrupt banks and working to fix public schools. The group assigned Philippians finds Jesus living in the hearts of believers, Bakke said. They want to do prayerwalks, church planting and evangelistic crusades. In America, these two visions of Christ were separated during the fundamentalist-modernist controversy, Bakke said. The modernists took the "public Christ" while evangelicals focused on the "personal Jesus," he said, pointing out that both books share an understanding of Christ that is needed today. Setting forth a unique interpretation of the books of Esther, Nehemiah and Ezra written during the time of the Persian Empire, Bakke noted that in Esther when the Jews faced persecution, Esther and her uncle Mordechai worked to change laws. "The book does not mention the name of God," Bakke said. "I think that is a deliberate strategy of the author telling us that when sin is written into the law, you can't repent of it, you have to access power and change law." Esther's actions made it possible for Nehemiah to begin rebuilding Jerusalem, Bakke continued. He compared Nehemiah to a community organizer who worked with local people to accomplish his task. People in the surrounding communities cast lots to see who would live in the rebuilt city. Ten percent moved inside the walls. "What about tithing your congregation to move into bad neighborhoods?" Bakke asked. "That's happened in Fresno. Twenty-seven families moved into the worst neighborhood called Lowell and have transformed it -- not running any programs, just being neighbors. The crime went down. The mayor and the chief of police are believers in Jesus. It's a miracle." Because of Esther and Nehemiah, Bakke said Ezra then was able to go back and rebuild the temple. It took a team of people to address the problems created by the exile and, likewise, Bakke believes teams of committed people are needed to address urban problems today. Ongoing discussion Some in the audience took exception to Young's belief that the current problems surrounding race in America are more related to economics than racism. They instead see systemic racism at the root of many of the recent cases involving racial injustice. Meanwhile, DeAron Washington, a master's degree student in the NOBTS counseling program, said he was disappointed that none of the speakers offered a definition of racism or racial reconciliation, and none addressed whether racism is individual, systemic or both. The speakers also failed to address the recent high-profile police shootings involving African-Americans, he said. However, Washington saw the event as a positive step that could spark additional conversation and, by the morning after the event, had already been in contact with other NOBTS students, professors and staff members who were interested in continuing the dialogue. For more about New Orleans Seminary's Institute for Faith and the Public Square, visit faith-publicsquare.org. ************ Understanding injustice needed for reconciliation, panelists say By Andrew J.W. Smith LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) -- The evangelical church needs to stand against the continuing problem of racism in the United States with a message of reconciliation, panelists said at a forum sponsored by the ONE student organization at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The Sept. 26 forum, titled "Seeking Justice: A Response to Racialized Violence," was moderated by Jarvis Williams, associate professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Seminary, and featured panelists from the seminary and broader Louisville community. Williams asked each participant to discuss justice and injustice from their area of expertise, from education to civil law. Toni Stringer, a retired Jefferson County district court judge, noted, "We have the only system that I know of in the free world where you had institutionalized racism and laws that make people of African descent less than human, and those laws were on the books for a long time." Stringer added that racialization, the act of looking at people differently because of their ethnic or social background, has been present in America from the first colonies. "It wasn't until the Civil Rights Act of the 1960s that things started to get a little bit better. But they still haven't quite arrived," she said. Ryan Fullerton, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Louisville's Shelby Park, which is predominately black, said white people like himself need to listen to the many stories of racially charged events in the lives of their African-American friends and fellow church members. "You can't sit in a room full of African-American brothers without hearing story after story after story of being followed by police and pulled over by police in ways that I have never experienced," Fullerton said. "Whites have a responsibility, in the words of Job, to search out the cause of the oppressed. I still haven't experienced [racism personally], but it would be impossible for me to deny that it exists, because I have friends who, when someone [in the neighborhood] is shot, are thinking about maybe having the wife pick up the kids that night because they don't want to send the husband out in the car. It becomes a reality that you recognize your brothers and sisters are dealing with as a live and present issue in their daily lives." Kevin Jones, associate dean of academic innovation at Boyce College, Southern Seminary's undergraduate school, said whites don't understand African-American culture, which is often framed in an untruthful way, such as the common claim that black fathers abandon their children. Many whites don't understand the complex, racialized injustice preceding supposed social problems in African-American communities, he said. "Black fathers really don't leave their kids," Jones stated. "Black fathers historically have been separated from their kids systemically, purposefully, so that little black kids couldn't know their fathers." As another example, Jones, who has an academic background in education, said that when the educational system was established in colonial America in the 1600s, blacks were forbidden from participating, and those racial injustices continue to affect many educational problems today. Even the desire to be educated, Jones said, comes from the motivation white children receive from their educated parents. Black children often do not receive that motivation if their parents are uneducated, so black children often do not develop a desire to become educated. "If you don't have the parents at home, there are so many people who fall through the cracks," Jones said. James Westbrook, pastor and church planting resident at the Sojourn Midtown campus in Louisville, noted a crucial difference between race and ethnicity. Some white Christians can embrace the race of an African-American person but fail to embrace his or her ethnicity -- the culture informing one's racial identity, Westbrook said. "As long as you have Christians who believe, 'I am better than you' or 'I just don't like your ethnicity, I don't like your culture, I don't like your hip-hop,' then you will never be successful at reaching that group, and I fear it will be the downfall of the American church." The ONE student organization at Southern Seminary, according to its website, exists to "create a format for healthy dialogue and the organic formation of gospel-centered relationships" in matters of race. Audio of the panel will soon be available on the ONE page on the Southern Seminary website. -------------------------------------------------------------------- CCCU adopts new membership policy by J.C. Derrick/WORLD News Service Date: October 03, 2016 - Monday ASHEVILLE, N.C. (BP) -- The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities has adopted new guidelines to address evolving differences among member schools on the definition of marriage. "We believe that this document rightly articulates both the core and the breadth of the CCCU in a way that will make us the most effective witness and advocate for Christian higher education," board chairman Charles Pollard, president of John Brown University, wrote to CCCU presidents in a letter dated Sept. 22. The new policy proposed by a membership task force includes six criteria the council will use to align institutions in one of three associational categories: governing membership, associate membership, or collaborative partnership. All three require CCCU executive and board endorsements for acceptance. Governing members, the only ones who can vote, must meet all six criteria: Christian mission, institutional type and accreditation, cooperation and participation (dues), institutional integrity (financial ethics), employment policies, and Christian distinctives and advocacy. The sixth criterion has four sub-points, including a required belief in God as Earth's creator (and a sustainability mandate), marriage as between a man and a woman, the worth of every human being, and the need for racial reconciliation. The council will require associate members to meet all requirements except for the second one -- meaning the category is for seminaries, Bible colleges, non-accredited schools, and undergraduate institutions without a full curriculum in the arts or sciences. Collaborative partnerships will include institutions that meet the first four criteria but not the last two -- meaning, among other things, the category applies to schools that may change their hiring policies to include persons in same-sex marriages. The new associational categories form the latest chapter in a controversy that began in July 2015. In the wake of the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision, Eastern Mennonite University and Goshen College changed their hiring policies to include gay and lesbian employees -- then signaled intent to remain as full CCCU members. Eastern Mennonite, Goshen, and Bluffton University eventually withdrew from the council over their new hiring policies. Five others left citing concern over adherence to biblical orthodoxy: Union University, Oklahoma Wesleyan University, The Master's College, Cedarville University, and Shorter University. The new policy creates space for Eastern Mennonite, Goshen, and Bluffton to return to the council as collaborative partners. But based on prior public statements, it seems unlikely the five conservative schools would return under this arrangement. According to the CCCU's statement announcing the membership task force last September, nearly 25 percent of its membership "did not support either member or affiliate status" for the three schools that changed their employment policies. The task force, chaired by Philip Ryken, president of Wheaton College, and Barry Corey, president of Biola University, submitted its report in July, following nine months of deliberations. The board voted unanimously to accept the report after making unspecified "minor changes," according to Pollard's letter. Pollard said CCCU President Shirley Hoogstra would contact each member president in the next three months to discuss which associational category is appropriate for each school. He said the vast majority should be self-evident and would not require dues changes. Hoogstra will present any unresolved questions to the board's membership committee when it meets in January. The CCCU expects full implementation to take effect at the beginning of the next membership year, beginning July 1, 2017. A small group of schools founded the CCCU four decades ago in common commitment to Christ-centered education and to preserve their right to hire only professing Christians. It has since grown to 182 member and affiliate institutions serving more than 450,000 students and 1.8 million alumni around the world. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Missionary to Russia loses anti-evangelism appeal by Diana Chandler Date: October 03, 2016 - Monday ORYOL, Russia (BP) -- A Baptist missionary convicted under Russia's new anti-evangelism law and compelled to end his ministry there has lost his first court appeal in Oryol, Russia, but has vowed to continue legally fighting for the cause of religious freedom. An appeals court judge Sept. 30 upheld the conviction of Donald Ossewaarde on charges of conducting missionary activities in violation of the new law that prohibits evangelizing outside church walls and without a government permit. "[My attorneys] assured me that this case will play an important role in determining the future of religious freedom in Russia, not just for foreign missionaries, but also for ordinary Russian believers," Ossewaarde updated readers on his webpage. "My attorneys are confident that the law is on our side, and the courts must eventually rule in our favor if any impartial justice can still be found in Russia." The Independent Baptist missionary had been charged Aug. 14 under Article 5.26, Part 5 of the new religion law for holding religious services in his home, advertising services on bulletin boards in nearby neighborhoods, and failing to give authorities written notification when he began his religious activities. He was fined 40,000 rubles, about $600, and advised by a court appointed attorney that anything might happen to his family while in Russia. "I was hoping to wrap things up here and return to my family as soon as possible, but the issue is an important one, and duty demands that I press the case as far as I can," Ossewaarde wrote on his website. "Obviously, [the judge's decision] is a disappointment." The new law, which went into effect July 20, defines illegal evangelism as activity by an authorized representative of an officially registered religious organization who uses media to publicly spread the organization's doctrine to non-members to convince them to join the group, Ossewaarde contends. He and his wife Ruth had been sent on the mission field by Faith (Independent) Baptist Church in Bourbonnais, Ill., and had raised financial support from churches across the U.S., but do not represent an official religious organization. Speaking in his own defense at the Sept. 30 appeal hearing, which had been continued from Sept. 19, Ossewaarde summarized his passion for the ministry he had begun in Russia in 2002 when it became legal to preach, teach, evangelize and distribute literature there. "I came here to exercise those constitutional rights, and I did so without any trouble for 14 years. A few months ago, when I heard about the Yarovaya Law (named for bill coauthor Irina Yarovaya) I thought that maybe the time had come when I could no longer legally share my faith," Ossewaarde said. "I am determined to be a law-abiding citizen, and I would pack my bags and go back to America right now rather than violate the law." But the law does not define evangelism in a way that encompasses his ministry, Ossewaarde argues, even though he has ceased ministry in the country and plans to return to Illinois when his appeals are exhausted. "Even though Russian is not my native tongue, even I was able to understand that my activity does not meet this definition, so I have not broken any laws," Ossewaarde wrote in his latest case update. "I am exercising the rights guaranteed by the constitution and the laws of the Russian Federation." Ossewaarde has conducted street evangelism, distributed printed materials and held weekly Bible studies and prayer meetings in his home. He was joined in court by attorneys, friends and representatives from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. His wife Ruth returned to Illinois after the couple received what Ossewaarde called a thinly veiled threat against their lives. He believes Russia will amend the law to accomplish its intent, if needed. "I really think that the political situation in Russia has reached a point where they are going to, one way or the other, they're going to get rid of me," he told BP. "So I really decided to end my operations here. It's sad because there are people here that really enjoy what we do. It's a big part of their life." Ossewaarde's case has received international attention. He was arrested with five other ministers of various faiths and denominations within a month of the law's passage. Fines were levied on them varying from 5,000 to 50,000 rubles, with only one man, a Hare Krishna, acquitted. Ossewaarde continues to request Christian prayer. "Please continue to pray. I am overwhelmed at the feedback I am getting from people in many countries who are following the case and praying for us," he wrote on his webpage. "Your prayers are felt, and we need them now more than ever. God bless you."