My Creed

I believe in God, The I AM, The Who Was and The Is and Is Too Come, Who has created all things and loves His creation.

I believe in God Who listens to His people and provides direction to those that trust in Him.





I believe that God provided His Son Jesus as a way to speak and to demonstrate to humanity His love for us. I believe that Jesus was born of a virgin woman, blessed those that had the good fortune to have contact with Him and continues to bless those that call upon him and trust that He was God's Only Son. He was crucified as a covering for our sin and overcame death through His Father’s Promise and ascended into Heaven and awaits the coming of those who love God the Father.






I believe in the Holy Spirit, which was sent to earth by God after His Son Jesus ascended to Heaven. The Holy Spirit is the still small voice in those who trust the Lord and are called according to His purpose. This is what guides us in our lives and encourages us to do the work of the Father.

I believe that I am called to worship the Father not through any group of people, nor by praying to any departed souls to pray to the Father on my behalf.



I believe that when I pray to the Father, He listens and He answers. As His Son asked, I pray to the Father in the Name of Jesus.








I believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that it has been handed down throughout the years by God’s people. I believe that it should be studied to know the historical significance and etymological meaning and context of the text.





I believe that God’s people will be persecuted just as they have throughout history, because evil dwell within this world and the world unseen, but God will draw His people unto Himself in a manner the world will never comprehend.

Amish Charity Based in Ohio Raises $191 Million For The World

By Barb Galbincea of the Cleveland Plain Dealer

BERLIN, Ohio - Christian Aid Ministries is a charity, plain and simple.
Like the Amish and conservative Mennonites who are its core supporters, Christian Aid's international headquarters in pastoral Holmes County does not crave attention. Its cream-colored, single-story building, simply furnished, sits chastely on a rise just off state Route 39, not far from a billboard touting the shortcut to Heini's Cheese Chalet.

Visitors who flock to Berlin for handmade quilts, woodcrafts, folk art and homemade baked goods probably have no clue that they're a stone's throw from a charitable organization that raised more than $191 million from private sources in 2005, ranking it 76th nationwide, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Nor is it likely the tourists ever imagine that the same locals who clip-clop through traffic in horse-drawn buggies may also board jets for Pakistan, Indonesia or other far-flung destinations to minister to those in need.

"They don't even drive a car, but they'll fly halfway around the world to help," said David Troyer, the soft-spoken, 54-year-old general director of Christian Aid. "The Lord works through his people."

Posted at Christian Aid's main entrance is a Bible passage from Galatians that is the organization's guiding principle: "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith."
Founded in 1981 as a tax-exempt nonprofit, the effort began as an outreach to Christians behind the Iron Curtain. Now, Christian Aid annually channels more than 15 million pounds of food, medicine, clothing, seeds and religious literature to people around the world.

It has major programs and staff in six countries - Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Haiti, Nicaragua and Liberia - and limited programs in places such as Costa Rica, El Salvador, China and Kenya. Aid also was shipped last year to people in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Grenada, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Latvia, North Korea, Tajikistan and Uganda.

Many of the Christian Aid programs stress self-help. For instance, there are sewing centers where women learn a trade. The students give away the first three garments they make and keep the fourth.
A dairy farm, populated by cows flown in by Christian Aid, is next to the charity's orphanage in Romania and serves as a training program for the older children.


Although Christian Aid has a mailing list of 30,000, "we don't go around and beat on doors," Troyer said.
"That's not God's way. A cheerful giver is more effective," he said.
"People want to help, so we are kept busy trying to arrange that. We show them quite clearly how they can help.
"Among our type of people, that's how you do it. As the Scripture says, 'It's more blessed to give than to receive."'

Of the more than $191 million raised in 2005, $169 million was in donated items - mostly medicines that Christian Aid gets through an intermediary from pharmaceutical companies.

Among other donations:

More than 2 million pounds of clothing.

20,645 handmade comforters, at an estimated 13 hours each.

122,337 pounds of raisins.

177,838 pounds of fabric.

75,552 toothbrushes.

63,896 pounds of boneless beef.

101,880 pounds of fresh chicken.

The meat, along with some that is purchased, is processed at Christian Aid's cannery, next door to its warehouse in Ephrata, Pa. The canned meat is then shipped to people in need.

Last year, Christian Aid volunteers processed nearly 400,000 cans of chicken, beef and hamburger. In all, the charity tallied 141,685 hours from volunteers in 2005 at the warehouse and cannery and its clothing collection centers in the United States, in overseas projects and in relief programs for victims of disasters like Hurricane Katrina - an effort that drew more than 27,000 volunteer hours alone.


With many skilled carpenters among the Amish and Mennonites, Troyer said, their construction know-how is especially welcome in places devastated by natural disasters. That's why Christian Aid volunteers flew to Indonesia after the tsunami and to Pakistan after the earthquake there.

"We go and we build homes," Troyer said. "But the main idea is to share the love of Christ person to person. The most important thing is to show them that God loves them. We try to be his ambassadors."

Speaking In Tongues

Last week I heard a story on National Public Radio. They’ve been doing a series of audio postcards. A man was talking about living in a Christian community and had a wonderful evening with his friends singing and dancing and praising God. He spoke and sang in tongues just like his friends. But while he was praying in tongues he said he was contemplating the purpose of a form of prayer that he did not understand and was wondering if God understood.



His exact thoughts were, “When I dance and sing in the Spirit, it makes my body and my mind feel good. But God, do you hear what I’m saying?”


The night wound down and the folks went to their separate sleeping quarters. He said that he sat bolt upright at 4 am. This was very unusual for him as he was a sound sleeper. He got up and walked to the kitchen and headed for the basement. He did not know why, but he felt an urgency to go to the basement. There he saw that a water pipe had burst and was leaking and starting to flood the basement. He found the main shutoff valve. Then began the task of mopping up. He stayed up until 7 am. He found a phone directory and called the first plumber listed. The plumber said that he happened to have a cancellation and would be right over. The plumber put a patch on the pipe and the house had water again. This all occurred before the other residents were awake.

The fellow closed the story by saying, “I didn’t know what I should pray for, but God did.”



Speaking in tongues or Glossolalia has been a controversy in the Christian Church since before the Second Chapter of Acts was written. Some folks feel very strongly against this type of prayer and others feel quite the opposite. Some folks that pray in tongues feel this is to be done quietly and in private while others not just speak in tongues but practically shout in tongues.



I used to have strong feelings about this matter. As I’ve matured I find, as I find with my walk with God, everyone has a different path. Prayer is ultimately between you and The Lord. Praying in tongues might give some people the jibblies. Some others may be offended. There are times when I feel uncomfortable around some Christian groups. At those times I’m usually thinking, “Been there, done that people. You’ve got a ways to grow.”


Glossolalia (from the Greek, "γ?λ?ώ?σsσsαa" (glossa), tongue and "λ?αaλ?ώ?" (lalô), I speak) comprises unintelligible utterances, often as part of religious practice. Glossolalia is claimed by some to be an unknown mystical language. And others claim that glossolalia is the speaking of an unlearned foreign language
While some feel that the language they are speaking is actually a foreign language. This would be categorized as Xenoglossia. This would be more in line with what actually happened in Acts verse 2. However Paul later goes on to describe the experience as speaking in an "unknown tongue".

In 1st Corinthians 14:2 The King James Version has word 'unknown' in italics, indicating the word "unknown" does not appear in the original Greek manuscripts. Paul refers to tongues again in (1 Cor 14:14-19), known as theopneustic glossolalia. Although the Apostle Paul commands church brethren, "Do not forbid speaking in tongues" (1 Cor 14:39), and that he wishes those to whom he wrote "all spoke with tongues" (1 Cor 14:5) and claims himself to speak with tongues more than all of the church at Corinth combined ("I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all" 1 Cor 14:18), Paul discourages simultaneous speaking in tongues directed at people rather than God, lest unbelievers think the assembled brethren "mad" (1 Cor 14:23, 27). Tongues, says Paul, is speaking to God, rather than men, mysteries in the spirit (1 Cor 14:2), edifies the tongues-speaker (1 Cor 14:4), is the action of the praying of a person's spirit (1 Cor 14:14), and serves to bless God and give thanks (1 Cor 14:16-17).


Biblical descriptions of persons actually 'speaking in tongues' occur three times in the book of Acts, each time coupled with the phenomenon of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:4
Acts 10:46
Acts 19:6

Some of the Orthodox hymns sung at the Feast of Pentecost, which commemorates this event in Acts, describe it as a reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel as described in Genesis 11. In other words, the languages of humanity were differentiated at the Tower of Babel leading to confusion, but were reunited at Pentecost, resulting in the immediate proclamation of the Gospel to people who were gathered in Jerusalem from many different countries.



We are living in times when Christians are facing worse persecution than the days of the Roman empire. Whether one congregation says praying in tongues is not in accord with our interpretation of Scripture or another says yes it is Scriptural seems to be a very small point in the scheme of things.