FALL/WINTER 2019

GRACE FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL

GRACE FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL3914 Nellie Street | P. O. Box 368 | Pigeon Forge, TN 37868 | (865) 429-0450

www.GraceFellowshipInternational.com

FROM INDUSTRY TO MINISTRY—THE LAUNCH OF GFI

In the summer of 1969, Chuck began to have a dis-ease about remaining in industry. Although several years earlier (before God dealt with his life), he would have panicked at the thought of making a living ‘on the outside’, he now had total peace about leaving and knew what it was that God would have him do; but he had to have God’s confirmation. He had just organized Grace Fellowship International in May of that year with John Stevens and Dr. Buker as board members, so he thought he should have their counsel, something from the Word, and circumstances. If all of these lined up, he could be pretty certain he was following God’s direction rather than his own.

On approaching the GFI board members, they didn’t say “yes”; but they didn’t say “no” which left him to the Word and circumstances. As he read in the Word, all he could come up with was the number 40, which he later found

was the number of ‘experience’. He was coming up on age 40 which fit; but he could have been twisting this around to suit the occasion so he could not trust that either. This meant that he would have to analyze the circumstances to see if they would agree. As he summarized his position, he did not have funds to support his family unless he could find some reserve funds on which to operate as he made the break from industry and transitioned to ministry. If he quit his job, he would only receive vacation pay whereas if he were to receive a layoff, company policy dictated that he receive 11 weeks of pay plus his vacation. However, the company was not in a layoff mode and since it was not likely that management would be in favor of such an option, he did not bother to inquire about it.

Chuck began to pray about the situation, then the company needed to lay off some employees. He could have offered to take a layoff to save the job of someone else,

50TH ANNIVERSARY BANQUET ANDMATCHING GIFT CAMPAIGN

GFI is celebrating 50 years of ministry with a banquet on Saturday, November 16, 2019 at Calvary Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN. You are cordially invited to join us for an evening of dinner, fellowship, worship, and praise!

Also, we are excited about a matching gift campaign! All donations to GFI will be matched, up to $50,000, through December!

Page 2 Glimpses of Grace

FROM INDUSTRY TO MINISRY—THE LAUNCH OF GFI (Continued)

however, he told the Lord that he would like for his direct supervisor to come to him with the offer of a layoff. That December, his direct supervisor came to him and said, “Solomon, what would you think about a layoff?” He replied, “I think it’s about time!”

Chuck walked out a free man the next month with no salary and no promise of financial support by a church or any individual. God had called him; and God had set the time, so Chuck was confident that He would pay for that which He ordered! His wife, however, was not so certain; and she retreated to the bedroom to pray it out and search for a job for herself at the same time. After a week or so, Sue was given total peace from the Lord about it as well, and she has walked by his side from that day forward.

Incidentally, God did provide for all their needs as He promised to do in Philippians 4:19: “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” The layoff was in January; and Chuck started full-time ministry in the basement of their home in Lakewood, Colorado on February 1, 1970. At that time, they had three teenagers, one of whom was starting college that Fall. When he left his

job, Chuck cut his salary almost in half and drew it out of the account where he had placed his severance pay; once the severance pay was exhausted, he continued to draw out the same amount from the GFI account where all gifts were deposited and which the Lord was constantly replenishing.

From the beginning, God began to honor His calling with transformed lives and to provide opportunities to speak in area churches, which resulted in hurting people scheduling appointments. After about four months of operating from their basement, John Stevens, a GFI board member, made it possible for them to have a basement suite of offices within his Savings and Loan building. He, himself, paid the first and last month’s rent in advance—$200!

God’s faithfulness was demonstrated in that they never had a need from that point forward that was not met. In addition to meeting their own personal needs, millions of dollars were supplied to GFI, not only for the initial offices established that year, but for the many related and spin-off ministries that followed.

-from The Story of GFI—God’s Faithful Intervention

A VERSATILE TOOL Charles R. SolomonI present this diagram as an all-purpose tool to be

used as a handle in preaching, teaching, evangelizing, discipleship, or counseling. It was my personal experience, as well as with many of whom I have shared, that one can enjoy the content of a message or book; but the common plaint is, “I understand it, but how do I get it?!” Upon presentation of the message in diagrammatic format, the exultation frequently comes, “now, I see it!” With ‘see’ being the operative word!

One could say it is putting the cookies on a lower shelf to be freely tasted by all! The gospel for the lost is: ‘Christ died for you’; the gospel for the saved is: ‘you died too’!

The mechanics for sharing this is detailed in Chapter 2 of Handbook to Happiness and, with greater brevity, in my Wheel and Line tract. (I could say that the tool fits any nut!) Carry it in your Bible, and you’ll be dressed for all occasions!

Romans 5:12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

We took part in Adam’s legacy When he sinned and died; (Rom. 5:12) Thus, we must be born again (John 3:7,16) That in Jesus’ life we hide. (Col. 3:3) When we are born again, We are baptized into Christ’s Life. (Rom. 6:3) Since His Life is eternal, and ours as well, We can have victory over strife. (Gal. 5:16)In Adam, we were dead in sin; In Christ, we have His Life within. (Col. 1:27b) Crucified, buried, and raised with Him — (Gal. 2:20, Rom.

6:4-6) Born into His Life we’re dead to sin. (Rom. 6:11)Since He is seated in heavenly places And we are in Him there; (Eph. 2:6) We can live in Heaven, on the way to Heaven, A life that is beyond compare!

CHRIST IS OUR LIFE Charles H. SpurgeonChrist is the object of our life.

As speeds the ship towards the port, so hastens the believer towards the haven of his Savior’s bosom. As flies the arrow to its goal, so flies the Christian towards perfecting of his fellowship with Christ Jesus. As the soldier fights for his captain, and is crowned in his captain’s victory, so the believer contends for Christ, and gets his triumph out of the triumphs of his Master. For him to live is Christ.

Christ is the exemplar of our life. Where there is the same life within, there will, there

must be, to a great extent, the same developments without; and if we live in near fellowship with the Lord Jesus we shall grow like Him. We shall set Him before us as our Divine copy, and we shall seek to tread in His footsteps, until He shall become the crown of our life in glory.

Oh! how safe, how honored, how happy is the Christian, since Christ is our life!

— From Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

“Christ, Who is our life” Col. 3:4. Paul’s marvelously rich expression indicates that Christ is the source of our life. “You has He quickened [made alive] who were dead in trespasses and sins” [Eph. 2:1]. That same voice which brought Lazarus out of the tomb raised us to newness of life [John 11:25,26,43].

Christ is now the substance of our spiritual life. It is by His life that we live; He is in us, the hope

glory, the spring of our actions, the central thought which moves every other thought.

Christ is the sustenance of our life. What can the Christian feed upon but Jesus? O

wayworn pilgrims in this wilderness of sin, you never get a morsel to satisfy the hunger of your spirits, except you find it in Him!

Christ is the solace of our life. All our true joys come from Him; and in times

of trouble, His presence is our consolation. There is nothing worth living for but Him; and His lovingkindness is better than life!

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MISSIONSCharles Ambaka co-taught a pastors conference in

Kenya in September with our team members, Dan Riley and Mark McKeehan. He has also had opportunities for preaching and pastoral counseling at Parklands Baptist Church in Nairobi. “Many are coming over for counseling sessions after the service and some making appointments for counseling. I am teaching on the truths of the Exchanged Life and many eyes have been opened to their identity in Christ and living life dependent on the indwelling Christ.”

Piet duToit recently ministered to a Zulu congregation in Natal, South Africa. They received the Wheel and Line tract in their language. Piet has been granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Team Impact Christian University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He will be awarded this degree by the chancellor at the annual graduation ceremony to be held at Joy Convention Centre (Strand, South Africa) the last week of November. The people attending their seminars take great interest in GFI’s PTSD book by Dr. Solomon and Mark Miller and a coworker is busy distributing this book. In October, Piet and Sylvia presented their Emotional Healing through the Cross seminar in Oudtshoorn (5 hours drive from

Cape Town). Likewise, Hendrik and Nehlsie deBruto continue to provide Christ-centered counseling and training in that troubled nation.

Messianic believer, Peter Mihent, continues in pastoral ministry and Christ-centered counseling in Romania. He conducts at least one conference there annually. His team finished three years Christian Counseling training with the third generation of students from Moldavia. By the grace of God they will begin training a new group this Fall. They were also able to purchase five acres of land to establish a Therapeutic Kibbutz (a kind of village for therapy).

The new director of Grace Fellowship International India traveled to Tennessee in August for the GFI Conference and Workshop. Joesam Zachariah got to meet the ministry leaders here and found great personal benefit in the training events. A founding board member of the India ministry, Professor P. P. Thomas, went to be with the Lord in September; he was 91. The India team asks for prayer for government approval for their permit to receive international donations to assist the ministry’s continuation and development.

this speculative view, based on the misinterpretation of statistical data, the church will be promoting bondage and carnage while trying, by fleshly means, to address the problem. What I encountered communicated the urgent need for cross-focused, theologically sound recovery material that highlights the efficacy of Christ’s work and transformation by His life. Our God, The Rescuer, is responding! He is doing so through believers who understand who they are in Him and the power of the cross. He is calling us in confidence even as the need signals a great urgency.

Plans are in the making for GFI’s launch of the Uncommon Recovery Conference ministry held locally and in churches across our nation. We will host the conference in a live studio setting. Digital copies, available for download, and DVDs will be available. If you would like more information on hosting or attending an Uncommon Recovery Conference, please contact me at dstevegfi@gmail.com or (703) 628-5989.

Pray with us as we launch Uncommon Recovery at GFI. We can only advance against the darkness together with prayer. I can’t emphasize that enough. You are a vital part of our ministry—as essential as Dr. Solomon or anyone else. 1 Corinthians 12:14-18:

For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.” And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.

UNCOMMON RECOVERY Don Steve

Glimpses of Grace Page 4

Grace Fellowship International will soon celebrate half a century of transformational ministry at our anniversary banquet on November 16th. As we celebrate the past, we also celebrate both present and future ministry at GFI. God has richly blessed our ministry, and He will build upon the grace-filled, glorious foundation that He laid.

One of the ways He is continuing to bless and change lives is through our recovery ministry: Uncommon Recovery. Uncommon Recovery is nearing the launch of a cross-focused, Christ-centered recovery curriculum. The Uncommon Recovery conference material and workbook are nearing completion. It is exciting to be able to bring God’s light to the darkness of addiction that is sweeping our country and world.

God is moving. His love is in action, and we get to join Him as instruments of truth and grace against the one who steals, kills, and destroys! A believer’s identification with Christ and faith-based appropriation of that identification multiplies the personal response of Jesus to this carnage through Christ in us.

The truth of the exchanged life, the hallmark truth of GFI for decades, is so crucial in this battle. I recently returned from an opioid crisis response training hosted by a national Christian counseling organization. The attendees included pastors and church leaders as well as counselors. Those presenting the training advocated a ‘disease model’ of addiction that compares addictive behavior to medical conditions such as insulin deficiency. They believe that addiction is a life-long disease that cannot be cured, only managed. The negative ramifications of this belief are immense! The presenters, speaking for the largest Christian counseling organization in the world, stated that because addiction is a disease, one who is making addictive choices is no more engaging in sin than one who has diabetes. If the church adopts

GRACE FELLOWSHIP INTERNATIONAL3914 Nellie Street | P. O. Box 368 | Pigeon Forge, TN 37868 | (865) 429-0450

www.GraceFellowshipInternational.com

MINISTRY ACTIVITIES John WoodwardOur team continues to conduct Christ-centered

counseling with individuals and couples locally and by phone/Skype. We give thanks for how the Lord faithfully leads struggling believers to find new freedom through appropriating their identification with Christ.

GFI seminars teach the counseling message in a group setting. In April, Exchanged Life seminars were presented in Litchfield Park, Arizona, and Chagrin Falls Ohio. In May, I conducted a Grace 220 mini workshop for a Soul Care Team in metro Chicago, and then a Navigating the Recovery Journey seminar in Annandale, Virginia. In July, Linda and I returned Peoples Church of Montreal where we spoke at a Marriage Retreat.

Don and I were busy throughout the summer with weekly broadcasts through IAMtv.us. This local Christian

internet station produced Uncommon Recovery programs with Don and Glimpses of Grace with me. These were published on Facebook and most of them are archived on their web site and Vimeo.com channel.

In September, I returned to Brazil to co-teach three Fermata retreats for pastoral couples. These leaders were blessed through rest, fellowship, worship, and Exchanged Life teaching. They were also given Portuguese literature and media to use in their ministries. One of the pastors messaged, “Pastor John, I read your pamphlet titled Taking Up Your Cross Daily and developed four studies for church ministry. God bless you my beloved brother in Christ Jesus. God be praised!”

Thank you for your prayers for our staff, counselees, online ministry and equipping events.

Glimpses of Grace Page 5

ASSOCIATESROB CLOGG—CANADA

Forty years ago, I attended a conference and workshop at GFI in Denver. Along with three colleagues from Vancouver, Canada, we used the professional development portion of our budget to take in the training. One night in my hotel room the truths of the training broke through in a very profound way.

I returned to Denver many times in the 1980’s. In those years, Chuck arranged for me to attend a fellowship group with Jenny Hovsepian, our Egyptian associate. I had moved to Seattle where Jenny lived and hosted a fellowship group in those years. For the first time, I experienced the blessed, sweet fellowship that comes from knowing Christ as Life.

In 1988, I traveled with Chuck to Brazil and we carried on ministry together at various seminaries and churches. Besides the teaching, my favorite memory

was watching him mingle through the airport gates initiating and exchanging conversation on the Wheel and Line tract. The dentist from Lubbock who traveled with me said “Chuck could probably parachute over the Amazon and come away with a couple conferences and workshops.”

Later in the 90’s, I served as pastor at a church in Vancouver and missionary in Hungary. Both times Chuck showed interest in where I was and what I was doing. He always had a group of young guys he mentored. Since 2014, I have served with GFI in different capacities, including my present role back here in Canada.

As I have observed GFI’s work over these years, more importantly, I have learned to observe the work that God does in the lives of people and it is always His work. This is such a relief and in one way it is a true definition of being a witness.

LOVE THEM TO LIFE—Joe & Cherri FreemanLove Them To Life provides help and hope for

families and friends of those addicted to drugs and alcohol. We do this several ways:• Cherri’s book, Beside Still Waters: Discovering Peace

in the Midst of Your Child’s Addiction is a guide for anyone walking through the heart-wrenching times of a loved one’s addiction, dealing with topics such as denial, codependency, enabling, legal issues, and more.

• Set Free Seminar—a one-day seminar that deals with the causes of addiction, the anatomy of addiction, and the effects on the addict’s family

and friends. We explore the only solution which is a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

• LTTL support groups—this is a meeting for family and friends of those addicted to drugs or alcohol. The Beside Still Waters book is used as the curriculum.

• Joe’s testimony, From Wreckage to Redemption, is a powerful reminder of how Jesus, and only Jesus, can change a life of hopelessness and despair into a life of victory and freedom.For more information, please check out our website

at lovethemtolife.com.

CROSS TO LIFE DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRIESThe team in Minnesota continue to lead individuals through their Intensive Discipleship (ID) Ministry process. David Sherman gave a testimony of how the Lord used this 12 week journey in his life; you can listen to his recent interview on GFI’s audio podcast at the GFI web site (under Resources). Likewise, Sophia

Amundson wrote an insightful testimony of her 12 week Intensive Discipleship there that was posted at our coaching blog site: ELCmatters.org. Linda Gammon, who has moved to Arizona, has been leading studies at a church near Phoenix, including The New Life, Knowing Place, and For Me to Live is Christ.

MEN’S MENTORINGSteve Ranz advocates Men’s Mentoring in prison ministries and small group Bible studies. He attended GFI’s Spirituotherapy® Workshop last August and, while in Tennessee, recorded a testimonial interview at IAMtv. This video is on the Men’s Mentoring page at the GFI web site (under About /Team).

GRACE FELLOWSHIPINTERNATIONAL3914 Nellie StreetP. O. Box 368Pigeon Forge, TN 37868

Phone: 865.429.0450www.GraceFellowshipInternational.com

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If you are one of the multitudes who order products through the Amazon.com family of online stores, there is now a creative way to invisibly donate to GFI. Visit smile.amazon.com, select Grace Fellowship International as your charity, and start shopping at smile.amazon.com. Amazon will donate .5% of the transaction (from their profit) automatically! That does sound like something to smile about!

UPCOMING EVENTSExchanged Life Conference November 1-2, 2019

Pigeon Forge, TNMarch 6-7, 2020

Pigeon Forge, TN August 7-8, 2020

Pigeon Forge, TN

Spirituotherapy® Workshop November 4-7, 2019Pigeon Forge, TNMarch 9-12, 2020

Pigeon Forge, TNAugust 10-13, 2020

Pigeon Forge, TN

MATCHING GIFT CAMPAIGNWhen Chuck and Sue launched GFI fifty years

ago, God led them to have a faith-based ministry that would not have a fee scale for counselees. So, over the years, some clients have been very generous in their donations, while others have not given at all. Ironically, professional, psychiatric/psychological counseling is usually very expensive, yet—because they use a secular approach—transformational change isn’t a realistic goal.

Since brokenness often precedes one appropriating his/her identification with Christ, often financial problems are part of the context of being crowded to Christ. And like the miracle of the healing of the ten lepers (Luke 10:11-19), it seems that a small percentage of those who have been helped ‘return’ to give thanks and support.

The GFI team is called to be faithful to the stewardship of teaching the fuller message of the Cross of Christ, equipping disciplers to apply this dimension

of the Gospel to life and ministry.Our Lord instructs us, “Give, and it will be given to

you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38). For those of you who are led to partner with this ministry through prayer and financial support over the years—thank you!

A generous supporter has provided a matching gift challenge through the end of the year. Contributions to GFI’s General Fund and approved 50th Anniversary Projects will be matched up to $50,000.00. We invite you to take this opportunity to help sponsor the international ministry of Grace Fellowship. You can give online, by check, or over the phone—through occasional or monthly donations.

May God’s grace bless you in time and eternity—good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.