Vol. 42, No. 4 March 2, 2015

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Hungry for God. I love this theme that we had for our community’s 42nd Birthday Celebration! It echoes the call of the Holy Spirit on the lives of the early members of our commu-nity. There was an amazing outpour-ing of the Holy Spirit in the 1970s. As these families were hearing God call them forward, they gladly sought out as much clear teaching and examples (formation) that they could find.

I had the privilege of interview-ing three of these people: Rev Chuck Hunt, Bill Beatty and Carolyn Clark. The particular question I asked them was, “How did Alleluia’s ministry of Spiritual Warfare and Deliverance be-gin in the early days?” Of course, this is just one slice of our overall charism, but it is an important one.

There is no doubt that there are serious obstacles in the life of the Christian who earnestly desires to move forward in his/her spiritual walk, and that some of these are be-yond the realm of simple psychology. Any person who is hungry for God wants to remove these obstacles and continue to remain free from them.

The Holy Spirit brought Alleluia

into fellowship with a group of Evan-gelical ministers who were based in Florida, the Holy Spirit Teaching Mission. This group included Derek Prince, Don Basham, Charles Simpson and Bob Mumford. These men had a teaching charism with a particular anointing for Spiritual Warfare and Deliverance. Some of our Elders vis-ited them and attended some of their early conferences. We learned a great deal from them. Each of these preach-ers visited Alleluia at different times and spoke at some of our Southeast Regional Conferences. Derek Prince, in particular, wrote a number of very helpful books on this subject during those years.

The Holy Spirit was also bringing the Catholic Charismatic leaders into a national fellowship, and we devel-oped relationships with the commu-nities in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and South Bend, Indiana. These groups, too, were growing in an understand-ing of the Deliverance Ministry and included Catholic clergy. One priest in particular, Fr Francis McNutt, brought the Catholic sacramental traditions into perspective, affirming the value

of gaining freedom from the oppres-sion of evil spirits in our lives. One community offered community-wide deliverance/prayer ministry once a year, and we found this to be a useful tool for maintaining our own spiritual freedom. Fr Rick Thomas (from Texas) was also a blessing to us in this area.

Ecumenical unity is one of the spe-cial charisms of Alleluia, so we were able to forge a unique balance in this ministry. Frequently, we used group prayer to come against discerned at-tacks of deception, distraction and ap-athy. Parents were encouraged to pray protection over their children, both in the morning and at night. Individual ministry has always been available. Dale Clark, one of our founding El-ders, was very gifted in setting up and assigning the most appropriate people to lead each ministry session. These always involved at least two people doing the praying. When it seemed needed, a separate group of people gathered to pray for its success. Prayer sessions always began with prayer of protection over the family and proper-ty of all involved in the ministry. The

Pamela Nestor

Spiritual Warfare andDeliverance

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people were encouraged to follow-up with prayers for inner healing to dis-cern the entry points of these spirits and oppressions. They ended with sealing the person with the powers of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We learned the hard way not to allow these ses-sions to last for hours and hours!

Many people showed up at our doorstep who heard about our minis-tries by word of mouth. Others were sent to us by clergy in the CSRA. Some of our earliest ministries were quite dramatic, and beyond the scope of this article. One of these involved the miraculous rescue of a woman from out-of-state who was deeply involved in the occult. Members of her coven tried in vain to retrieve her; they even knew the address of Faith Village but remarkably were unable to find us! Surely this woman’s life was saved by this ministry! Many of the ‘old tim-ers’ can share other interesting testi-monies about powerful experiences with deliverance. The people I inter-

viewed have amazing stories, some of Augusta ministries and others in national and international settings. There were one-time prayer sessions, and some ongoing prayer sessions. Some were intense, others not so much. The fruit was very good.

In conclusion, I want to mention that all three people who shared with me said that the absolute majority of spirits they dealt with had the root of rejection. Let’s all be alert to fighting the attacks of Satan with the Word of God and the Power of the Name of Je-sus.

On January 2, 2015 a group of eighteen youth and adults from Al-leluia left the O’Brien Center for the Passion 2015 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. On the way there, I discussed with the people in the car what gifts we thought God would have us bring to this conference. We were not ex-tremely confident in our responses, but we all decided to go into the weekend as open-minded as possible so that we could experience all that God had in store for us. I could not have even imagined the incredible weekend God had planned for us.

The first night was full of surprises and left me completely awestruck. We were in the Philip’s Arena with 20,000 youth (ages 18-25) who were extreme-ly friendly, on fire for the Lord, and unashamed to praise Him openly. The music leaders were phenomenal and led the music in such a way that it was impossible not to enter into a great state of worship. If you place yourself in the best prayer meeting you can ever remember, (filled with the Holy Spirit and people going crazy for God) this was that prayer meeting times ten thousand. Everyone in the sta-dium sang, with hands outstretched, giving praise to God. This alone had a huge impact on me. Before this week-end, I did not think it was possible that 20,000 people, and even more so young people, could worship God as freely as I witnessed and was a part of. When participating in this praise, I felt like I was in the throne room of heaven, and everyone else surround-ing me was worshipping God as well. Being a part of this really encouraged me because it helped show me that we are not alone. We are not the only people trying to build God’s kingdom on Earth. There are thousands of oth-ers who have our backs and who are willing to run the race with us.

In addition to the amazing praise and worship at the conference, the guest speakers were incredible. These five men came from all different back-grounds of life, and yet every single one of their talks hit home for me. My favorite talk was given by Carl Lentz and was about our main mission in life, which is to SHINE for God and to bring the light of Christ everywhere we go. After listening to a number of words mentioned about this at the last prayer meeting, I know this is some-

An Unforgettable ExperienceBy Bernadette Hartney

Daughter of Tom and Judy Hartney

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Editor: A few of our high school se-niors were able to attend a Passion Conference in Atlanta in January. This is a gathering of young adults between the ages of 18–25, more specifically college students. Its purpose is “...uniting students in worship and prayer for spiritual awakening in this genera-tion,” using Isaiah 26:8 as their theme verse: “Yes Lord, walking in the way of Your truth we wait eagerly for You, for Your name and renown are the desire of our souls”. The following articles are their reactions to the experience.

2015 Passion Conference

Pamela Nestor is an Elder’s wife and an Alleluia Handmaid, one of twenty women who provide overall insight to the Community Elders from a womanly perspective. Pam has been serving in pastoral care for about 30 years. She also serves on the Provident and Re-sourceful Team. She and her husband, Bob, have been members of Alleluia since 1976. They have five children, ten grandchildren and live in Augusta, Georgia, where they are members of St. Joseph Catholic Church.

Deliverance Through Ministry

Alleluia Dove 3

Alleluia Youth at Passion Conference

thing the Holy Spirit really wants to be our mission of 2015. However, Carl Lentz did not stop by reminding us to shine, he emphasized that we all need to “occupy your street” and to do this with urgency while wide awake!

So many of us (myself included) get caught up in our day-to-day lives and commitments, but as a result of this, we end up not living in the moment because we are just going through the motions in order to get by. Carl’s talk, however, helped me re-alize that there is so much more we can do! We can bring an incredible amount of love, joy, and light every-where we go simply by making an ef-fort to be present in every moment and by living out every day to its full-est potential.

So I encourage you to think of where you can be a light to others in your everyday life. Where can you shine for God? Questions such as this one really struck me hard during Pas-sion and seemed to stir up a strong desire in me to be all I can be. They made me think about things in a way that I have never fully thought about them before, and they helped me re-alize how much of a difference I can make by merely doing the small things in life, like smiling more frequently or hugging someone without a specific

I was lucky enough to go the Pas-sion 2015 Conference in Atlanta, Geor-gia, January 2-4. I went not knowing what to expect but was completely as-tounded by how amazing the confer-ence was, and I was so blessed by this experience.

The first night we were there, we were able to get floor seats, a few rows away from the stage in the Phil-ip’s Arena. They were perfect seats for the opening night. The music that night was phenomenal, but the most outstanding thing I experienced that night was the introduction to the con-ference.

All the lights in the arena went out and the screens around the arena lit up and prompted us to raise our cellphone lights every time we could answer yes to a question displayed on

We are Unified

the screens. The first questions were simple like “Do you have an iphone,” “Do you have an android,” and oth-ers like that. Gradually, the questions got deeper and more personal. They asked things like, “Are you worried about your future?” and “Do you feel like you’ve drifted away from God?” For every question, even the deep, personal ones, there were multiple people who felt the same way. They were able to look around and see that others felt like them. It was amazing to see that in a group of people from across the world, no one was alone in their fears for the future and in their hopes and dreams.

By Deanna DoughtyDaughter of Don and Patti Doughty

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Family MattersBy Ethan Balducci

Son of Paul and Rachel Balducci

I was one of the lucky Alleluia representatives to attend the Pas-sion Conference in Atlanta. Let me just start by saying it was amazing! So many inspiring talks and electrifying music from dozens of devout, God loving people! The entire event was extremely inspiring.

The aspect that struck me the most, however, was the family groups. The 20,000 or so attendees were all split into groups of a few thousand into respective categories (high school seniors, college aged, etc.). Those groups were then split into groups of eight which were called families. The families would go over questions based on the talks that day and have discussions thereafter. It was so in-spiring to meet kids from different

backgrounds that had similar relation-ships with God and had thoughts that I could relate to. Our family became very close-knit over the course of the event, and we still share our experi-ences with God over the phone or on social media.

I realize now that through God we are all connected. When we share the love of God, healthy relationships form easily and can last much longer than when Jesus is absent from the re-lationship. Because of Passion and the works it did, I now have seven friends that I can go to so that I can talk about God or to be there to encourage them when they have questions. Passion was a fantastic experience, and I hope to go there again next year.

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Unforgettable

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© 2015 Alleluia Community, adm. by Alleluia Christian Service Center, Inc. P.O. Box 6805, Augusta, GA 30916-6805, (706) 798-1882. All rights reserved.

Throughout the weekend, the point that we are not alone was ham-mered home. There were times dur-ing the weekend that I was able to look around the arena and see people from a different country worshipping the same God as me, in the same way as me. It was awesome to see 20,000 kids my age singing and worshipping in unison with a passion that I have never before seen my generation ex-hibit.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity of attending the Passion Conference in Atlanta with several of my friends. I had never heard of it be-fore, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

My first impression was the in-credible amount of people, around 20,000, that were attending. The most remarkable thing, however, was not the number of people, but the en-thusiasm with which they were prais-ing Jesus. The experience of 20,000 people united and praising the Lord in the giant arena was both inspiring and refreshing.

Growing up in Alleluia, I had always known that a fair amount of people shared my faith, but I had never really imagined that so many

other people could come together and praise the Lord like we do here. The conference was like our prayer meet-ings, but with about a hundred times the people.

Meeting some of those people was another great experience. We were separated into groups, and I got to meet all these people from around the country, from Minnesota to South Carolina. Even though we didn’t have long, we formed friendships that we plan on keeping. Having these friends who share similar experiences is a witness to me and a real encourage-ment, because it reminds me that we are not the only people trying to make a difference for God. With all the great talks I heard and the people I met, I’m glad I went to the conference.

Incredible Enthusiasm

By Billy ConkrightSon of Bill and Kajse Conkright

reason, simply to show God’s love for others.

All in all, Passion was an absolute-ly incredible experience which I wish everyone could take part in. Not only did it open my eyes to the fact that there are thousands of others who are unashamed to praise God with every-thing in them, but it also opened my heart to the realization that we should not live our lives while selling our-selves short. We can never know how much longer we have on Earth, so why should we waste any time? Why would we ever want to live in such a way that we would look back on our lives and say, “I wish I had done this differently” or, “I wish I had lived out my faith and life more fully for God”? I know that personally, I do not want to live a life that would result in these wishes to rewind time. Because of this, I am determined to do whatever it takes, to grow closer to God, and to shine for Him, so that in the end I will not have to look back and have any regrets.

Not Alone

Whatever It Takes

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On February 28, the 1st place win-ner of the Augusta Chapter of Geor-gia Right to Life Oratory contest, Ania Hatfield from Alleluia Community School, competed in the State compe-tion in Norcross, Ga., and again won 1st place. She will be attending the National Right to Life Oratory Con-test.

Ania is the daughter of Full Cov-enant members Andy and Janet Hat-field. and is a Junior in Alleluia Com-munity School.

We wish her well as she prepares for the National Competition in Cleve-land, Ohio.

Ania Hatfield Wins First in State Oratory Competition