[ag-news] AG NEWS #1793: March 22, 2010

----------------------------------------------------------------
AG-NEWS: Monday, March 22, 2010 
Please send story leads to news@xxxxxx for consideration
----------------------------------------------------------------

**Outreach seeks Global Prayer Initiative partners

Convoy of Hope seeks people to partner with it in Global Prayer
Initiative. Individuals asked to pray for the poor and
suffering noon to 1 p.m. every Tuesday. More information about
initiative found at http://pray4hope.org.


**Women addicted to porn: sites are no longer attracting just
men

Pornography addictions no longer specific to men, now more
women falling victim to it. This addiction harm individuals
emotionally and spiritually, destroy relationships. Women may
find it beneficial to have accountability partner in church,
join addiction recovery accountability support group and seek
individual counseling to overcome struggle.


**This week in AG history -- March 22, 1941

Featured in this week's March 22, 1941 issue of "Pentecostal
Evangel" are articles by Ernest S. Williams, Lilian Yeomans,
Lorne Fox, Sarah Foulkes Moore, and others!


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Grueling marathon or refreshing motivator?

For too many couples, marriage can become a bad marathon
experience ? where couples pound out the days in repetitive
boredom as they push themselves to reach some far off finish
line. But that's not the kind of relationship God intended. Let
Marriage Encounter help transform your marriage into a lifelong
experience you'll look forward to every day! Sign up today at
http://agme.org.

Upcoming events: March 26-28 ? Lafayette, Indiana. April 9-11 ?
Virginia Beach, Virginia. April 23-25 ? Denver, Colorado;
Spokane, Washington. April 30-May ? Ontario, California; Kansas
City , Missouri; Lake Oswego, Oregon. Additional events
scheduled through June (see above link).
----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Church & the Holy Spirit
 
Nourish your church with solid teaching on the spiritual gifts.
These trustworthy tools are easy on your budget:
http://gospelpublishing.com/store/startcat.cfm?cat=iHOLYSPIRI&;
mastercat=&path=iHOLYSPIRI
----------------------------------------------------------------------


----------------------------------------------------------------------
**OUTREACH SEEKS GLOBAL PRAYER INITIATIVE PARTNERS

Convoy of Hope is seeking prayer partners for its recently launched
Global Prayer Initiative.

"As Convoy of Hope continues to reach out to the poor and suffering
by holding citywide outreaches, responding to disasters, and feeding
hungry children, we knew we could be even more effective if we
undergirded our efforts with organized and deliberate prayer," says
Thomas E. Trask, chairman of the organization's Global Prayer
Initiative. "Through prayer we believe hearts can be changed, the
poor and suffering can be healed, communities can be reached, hope
can be restored to individuals and families, and the impossible can
be made possible."

Leaders from the Global Prayer Initiative are seeking prayer
partners who will pledge to pray from noon to 1 p.m. every Tuesday.

According to Hal Donaldson, president and founder of Convoy of Hope,
the Global Prayer Initiative is desperately needed.

"Each year more than 16,000 children die from hunger-related
causes," he says. "One billion people do not have regular access to
clean drinking water. And countless people die daily having never
heard an adequate gospel presentation."

Trask and his team started holding prayer summits on January 21 ?
the first being in Phoenix ? and they will continue to meet in
cities throughout the nation. Harold Sallee is serving as U.S.
director, and Tommy Lofton is international director.

"Our goal is to regularly intercede on behalf of the poor and
suffering and bring attention to their plight," says Trask. "The
Global Prayer Initiative aims to raise up a multitude of followers
of Christ who are committed to praying for the poor and suffering."

To become a prayer team member, visit http://pray4hope.org.

--Pentecostal Evangel


----------------------------------------------------------------------
**WOMEN ADDICTED TO PORN: SITES ARE NO LONGER ATTRACTING JUST MEN

It¹s an old, familiar story. The onlooker lusts over an athletic,
good-looking figure, seeing the naked image on the screen only as a
sex object. But the clientele of Internet pornography has shifted:
women now are doing a lot of the leering. It turns out that sex
addiction isn¹t gender-specific. However, the result is the same:
relationships are harmed, sometimes beyond repair.

³This is a rather new phenomenon,² says Rick Schatz, president of
the Cincinnati-based National Coalition for the Protection of
Children & Families. "Until five years ago, the coalition believed
98 percent of those looking at pornography were men. But because of
the messages of the sexualized culture being delivered, especially
to young women, we find about 40 percent of those struggling with
sexual addiction under the age of 35 are women.²

TopTenReviews reports that one out of three viewers of porn sites is
female and one in six women struggles with porn addiction.

³Society has gone several steps beyond the pale in overt expressions
of sexuality,² says Marnie C. Ferree, director of Bethesda Workshops
in Nashville, Tennessee. ³People feel they have license to act out
because it¹s not against social mores. Only church people are saying
that it¹s wrong.²

Insecurities many women have about their body shape create a key
factor as to why more women are viewing porn, according to Ferree,
53.

³Sexual addiction is really an intimacy disorder,² says Johna Hale,
a woman in her 60s who has been married five times ? the first four
times, she says, to fellow addicts. ³A woman looking at men ? or
women ? in porn increases her inability to connect emotionally or
spiritually with others.²

³Teenage girls and young women say one reason they look at Internet
porn is to learn what is ?expected¹ by males,² says Schatz, 65.

Until the early 1990s, four out of five women addicted to porn had
been sexually abused in childhood, according to Ferree. But the
availability and anonymity of porn on the Internet has resulted in
the possibility of anyone with self-esteem problems or relationship
difficulties being vulnerable, she says.

Many women who look at porn with a partner either are hoping to
learn what pleases him or are hoping to keep the companion from
leaving the relationship. Such tryouts may be enough to get them
hooked.

OUT OF CONTROL

That¹s what happened to Cyndi. She started watching porn at 24 to
learn ³new techniques² to try to please a more experienced boyfriend.

³I didn¹t want to appear stupid or boring or backwards to him,² says
Cyndi, who lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. ³But after I watched it,
I really liked it.²

So Cyndi began voraciously viewing pornography on videos, computer
and cable television. Soon she looked at porn as a means of coping
with anger, loneliness and hatred. She had been sexually abused by a
male relative as a child and raped as a teenager.

³I felt dirty and ashamed, but I kept going back to it,² says Cyndi,
now 40. ³I don¹t understand why I did it. But I wish I had never
seen those images. I can¹t get them from my mind.²

Cyndi says her addiction to porn altered her behavior. She became
promiscuous. She shut down emotionally. She viewed God only as a
punisher.

In 2006, at the end of her rope emotionally and financially, Cyndi
sought help from a church when she didn¹t have enough food for her
9-year-old son. She found compassion rather than condemnation, and
counseling helped her begin healing from a twisted perspective of
sexuality. Last year she stopped her 15-year porn compulsion, helped
by Internet filter controls, an accountability partner and a support
group.

³There¹s no way anybody can fully recover without Jesus in their
heart,² Cyndi says. ³There¹s a lot of shame. Women aren¹t supposed
to like porn.²

MEDIA INFLUENCE

Yet for college-age women and even girls in high school, Internet
pornography almost has become a norm.

A lure to porn can begin via a soap opera, romance novel, fashion
magazine, chat room or social networking site.

Wanton women are celebrated heroines on television, in programs such
as "Desperate Housewives." Females who become obsessed with porn may
be desensitized by watching shows such as "Sex and the City," which
offer subtle messages that highly educated characters shouldn¹t have
any hang-ups about premarital or extramarital sex.

UNHEALTHY MANIFESTATIONS

³From a Christian perspective, it¹s sin,² Schatz says. ³Those who
look at porn bring other people into sexual relationships.²

While many men keep their pornography addiction a secret, women are
more likely to act out beyond visualization, Ferree says. In an
effort to find a perfect relationship they have conjured up in a
fantasy world, women may:
? Dress provocatively to attract attention
? Track down former partners via social networking sites
? Meet in person those with whom they have formed an online connection
? Experiment with lesbianism
? Commit adultery

³The more a person dwells on fantasies in the mind, it¹s only a
matter of time before she starts acting out,² says Rose Colón, a
counselor at Pure Life Ministries in Dry Ridge, Kentucky.

Addiction also arrests emotional development.

³When a person becomes compulsive about this behavior ? which for
many people now is mid- to late-teens ? their maturation process
stops at that point,² Ferree says. Thus, some women in their mid-20s
date teenage boys because they see them as peers.

STIGMA AT CHURCH

Experts agree that churches these days usually applaud men for
seeking help with sex addiction problems. Not so with women.

³The stigma and shame is far greater for women who struggle,² Ferree
says.

Because of that, many won¹t seek help until the addiction spirals
out of control.

Starting when Ferree was age 5, a trusted family friend molested her
for 15 years. As an adult, Ferree went through a series of sexual
relationships and believed she couldn¹t be redeemed. Ferree couldn¹t
break her sexual addiction even after being diagnosed with cervical
cancer (caused by a sexually transmitted disease) and enduring three
surgeries and increasingly frequent suicidal thoughts.

Only when she learned that a former partner had died of AIDS did
Ferree seek successful treatment from a Christian counselor who
understood sexual addiction. She also joined a 12-step support
group. Bethesda Workshops, where Ferree is director, began offering
the first treatment program specifically for women in 1997.

³By and large it¹s a secretive, isolating disease,² says Hale,
founder and executive director of L.I.F.E. (Living in Freedom
Everyday) Ministries, a Christian sexual addiction recovery support
group ministry in Lake Mary, Florida. ³Women are dealing with
rejection, abandonment and shame.²

FINDING HELP

The greatest power pornography has is its secrecy. Reaching out for
assistance can be mortifying for a woman active in church.

Ferree says while confession to God is an important initial step
toward freedom, accountability to another Christian is usually
necessary to stop inappropriate sexual behavior.

³No woman can recover alone,² Ferree says. ³I hear a lot of women
saying, ?I thought I was the only one.¹ When they believe they are
uniquely perverted, it¹s hard for them to talk.²

Ideally, that initial contact to confide the secret should be
another woman who is a trusted friend. An addiction recovery
accountability support group and individual counseling also may be
beneficial.

With God¹s help, wives can stop trying to medicate past traumas and
can become vulnerable, transparent and trustworthy in a marital
relationship. Without hope, it¹s not uncommon for a woman to move
from relationship to relationship ? and sometimes marriage to
marriage ? in an attempt to find fulfillment.

Despite the reservations in Christian circles about discussing women
addicted to porn, there is progress. For instance, when Ferree wrote
"No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Shame" in 2002, she had to
publish it herself; no Christian company wanted to touch it. In
March, InterVarsity Press will release an updated version.

Colón, citing Jesus¹ conversations with the woman caught in adultery
(John 8:11) and the woman at the well with five husbands (John
4:18), notes that the Savior offers hope to women caught in sexual
sin.

³Women in sexual sin are afraid to come into the light because they
don¹t want to be labeled,² Colón says. ³The enemy tells us, ?You
can¹t tell anyone that. What are they going to think?¹ But when
women take a step of faith, they already have started on the pathway
to freedom.²

--John W. Kennedy, Pentecostal Evangel


----------------------------------------------------------------------
**THIS WEEK IN AG HISTORY -- MARCH 22, 1941

What kind of emotions should the Christian exhibit? Ernest S.
Williams, former General Superintendent (1929-1949), suggested that
emotions should flow from Christ-like character in his article, "A
Meek and Quiet Spirit," in the March 22, 1941, issue of the
"Pentecostal Evangel."

Also featured in this issue:

* "The Valley of Dry Bones," by Lilian Yeomans
* "The Light That Has Not Failed," by Lorne Fox
* "Results of Praying Through," by Sarah Foulkes Moore
* "The Way of the Cross"

And much more! Click here to read this issue now:
http://s2.ag.org/mar221941

"Pentecostal Evangel" archived editions courtesy of Flower
Pentecostal Heritage Center (http://iFPHC.org). For current editions
of the "Evangel", click here: http://pe.ag.org.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
   For a regularly updated list of upcoming significant Assemblies 
   of God days and events--many linked to informational, registration 
   or ordering pages--see the following address:   
   <http://ag.org/top/events/index.cfm>.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------
AG-NEWS: The A/G News & Information Service, (c) 2010
  A service of the Assemblies of God's Office of Public 
  Relations. This mailing list was created to inform the media 
  and public of current events within the Fellowship and 
  continuing developments among its many ministries.

  If you have a news lead, contact us at news@xxxxxx

    Office of Public Relations
    General Council of the Assemblies of God
    1445 N. Boonville Avenue
    Springfield, MO 65802-1894
    USA

    Phone: (417) 862-2781
    Fax:   (417) 862-5554
    Email: news@xxxxxx

  You are subscribed as: jonahs@xxxxxxxxxx
  
  To UNSUBSCRIBE, send an email to: leave-ag-news@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit http://news.ag.org/u?id=99822.08f13f1b12009f1924e09b43f7882e89&n=T&l=ag-news&o=3291953
  To SUBSCRIBE, please visit: http://ag.org/top/news/news_subscribe.cfm
  If you have problems UNSUBSCRIBING, send an email to listmaster@xxxxxxxxxxx

  VISIT OUR WEBSITE
  (http://www.ag.org/)
----------------------------------------------------------------