Dr. Dan Yachter has always advocated getting to the root cause of disease, not just treating the symptoms. Now, the chiropractor and public speaker on holistic health is taking the same approach to the human trafficking epidemic.

On Oct. 22, the Florida-based doctor is sponsoring a 5K walk/run to fight human trafficking, a crime that the U.S. Department of State reports is affecting at least 1 million new victims every year. Half of those victims are children.

The charity event is being held on behalf of Run for Freedom, a ministry outreach of Florida nonprofit organization Dream Again Ministries. Together Yachter and Run for Freedom will help spread awareness about human trafficking and establish Dream Homes across the country as safe houses where rescue victims can receive emotional healing, education and hope to re-enter society.

“We believe in one Great Physician, that’s God. True health, wellness and healing only comes from a proactive standpoint,” says Yachter. “The only way you can move closer to what God created you to be body, mind and spirit is by removing interference.”

Yachter believes this month’s 5K will raise awareness of human trafficking and remove its interference from within the community. “As people become more aware of human trafficking there is a greater ability to identify it and protect our community against it. Awareness creates prevention from more human trafficking occurring.”

Yachter believes the money, campaigning and corporate approach to fundraising should be geared toward equipping people with the tools and resources they need to prevent sickness and disease. On Oct. 22, Yachter plans to equip the Lake Mary, Fla., community with the tools and resources they need to prevent human trafficking. Following the 5K, Yachter’s practice, Y360 Health, will host a lunch, as he shows the 2005 drama Human Trafficking.

“Our charity 5K to fight human trafficking is proactive because it helps prevent the crime,” Yachter says.

For more information on Run for Freedom, or to register for the 5K click here.

Source:Florida Doctor Organizes 5K Run for Human Trafficking Awareness

Beyond the protests on Wall Street, there is a battle brewing between the religious left and the religious right.

So-called “religious left” voices have praised Wall Street occupiers whose demands range from cancellation of all debt, open borders, government control of health care and free college education, among other expansions of big government.

Institute on Religion & Democracy president Mark Tooley points squarely at Sojourners chief Jim Wallis, who has praised the Wall Street occupiers. Tooley also notes pacifist activist Shane Claiborne, who has compared the occupiers to St. Francis of Assisi. Even Massachusetts clergy joined the occupiers wearing saintly white robes, Tooley notes, and officials of United Methodist Women flocked to the occupiers with their own similar placards urging class warfare.

“The many college-age Wall Street occupiers concerned about college debt and real world responsibilities can be possibly excused for youthful naiveté. But middle-aged church activists, some of whom may be trying to relive their street activism of 40 years ago, should show more discernment and wisdom,” Tooley argued. “Covetous battle cries for class resentment and even greater coercive wealth redistribution through an ever expanding big government do not resemble traditional Christianity.”

As Tooley sees it, wise religious leaders should call their flocks to the common good. They would know that in a fallen world, he says, no government or system of laws can seize property or massively redistribute income without creating even greater injustice.

“The Scriptures call for believers to put away childish things,” Tooley says. “Religious activists who have aligned with the Wall Street Occupation should model mature Christian discernment, not echo angry resentments that dream of a secular utopia.”

Which side of this debate are you on?

Source:Wall Street Protest Stirs Christian Controversy

President Obama sat down with evangelical leaders on Wednesday to discuss hot button issues.

Obama’s meeting with the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) took place in the Roosevelt Room after the president spoke at the White House Forum on American Latino Heritage at the U.S. Interior Department.

The Obama-NAE meeting focused on five issues: international religious freedom; domestic religious freedom; budget and poverty; immigration reform; and the Jobs Act.

Evangelical leaders had the opportunity to express what is important to Christian constituents and discover areas in which the evangelical community can collaborate with and support the president.

Charisma News caught up with Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference and a member of the NAE executive committee, to learn more about the relationship between the NAE and Obama, as well as the outcome of the meeting.

Charisma News: What was the tone of the meeting with President Obama?

Rodriguez: Very affable. Very much a conversation amongst friends. We had about 19 evangelical leaders—all an integral part and members of the NAE—and we had a great conversation with the president. We had the opportunity to share with the president. Although we may disagree with the president on certain issues, we did it with great deference and civility. Not only was the meeting cordial, it sounded like a conversation amongst believers. The meeting was edifying, to say the least.

Charisma News: That’s good news. I always like to hear those reports.

Rodriguez: It is good news. And again, there was a unique aspect to this meeting. I have participated in a number of meetings with the president. This one had a very positive tone to it. The president was more than inclined to listen to our concerns and really demonstrated a genuine level of concern likewise and of understanding. We really appreciate that.

Charisma News: What did you discuss surrounding religious liberty?

Rodriguez: We discussed religious liberty not only abroad with the current situation in Iran and, of course, the recent intervention of our State Department as it relates to the evangelical pastor. But we also went beyond that to Coptic Christians and all Christians, for that matter, in Egypt and around the world.

We also discussed the religious liberties we have here in the U.S. as it pertains to hiring practices. We talked about the concern we have with regard to legislation that was already passed through the House but is getting stuck in the Senate. We all know that there is genuine support for legislation to protect religious liberty but it is weighted down with some procedural matters on the Senate side.

Charisma News: What about the budget? What were the sentiments there?

Rodriguez: We want to lower the debt and we know what a sacrifice that is. There are some services that we provide to the poorest of the poor that we need to continue to provide. We affirm that commitment.

Charisma News: Where do we go from here?

Rodriguez: It wasn’t a meeting that facilitated or requested from the president any level of commitment. It was just a cordial open conversation between America’s evangelical leaders and the president of the United States. But again, it felt like a conversation amongst Christian brothers and sisters. The spirit of the meeting was very positive, affirming and validating. I  am encouraged. I think it’s important that the president understands where the evangelical community stands on a number of these issues.

Source:Samuel Rodriguez Says Obama Meeting Was Like Talk ‘Amongst Believers’

The dust has settled, so to speak, on See You at the Pole (SYATP). Millions of students gathered at their schools’ flagpole to pray—including 25 students from the Illinois School of the Visually Impaired (ISVI), in Jacksonville, Ill.

With a student population of 75, this was 33 percent of the school in attendance for the first SYATP was held on its campus.

Fernando Jimenez, a visually impaired senior and a regular attendee of the youth ministry at Jacksonville Assembly of God, organized this year’s SYATP at ISVI. Jimenez, who started attending ISVI last year, was the first student from the school to also start attending youth services at Jacksonville AG, and has invited friends to come as well.

“It was awesome to see a student get in there and do something that hasn’t been done before, especially something like SYATP,” says Josh Tattershall, youth pastor at Jacksonville AG.

Since the SYATP event, a few ISVI students have started attending youth services, along with a few students who had attended before. Currently, six students from ISVI are regulars, and several of them serve in various capacities, such as closing the service in prayer, taking prayer requests and running the sound booth or projectors.

“We are excited to see what God is doing in the lives of students at ISVI,” says Tattershall, who has served as youth pastor for the past year. “I never knew that we would have students from the school doing ministry in our group.”

Since the SYATP event, Tattershall requested a copy of the Braille Book of Hope from the Center for the Blind to give to an ISVI student that recently attended youth service. Though students have Bibles, they can read the Book of Hope as supplement to the Scripture, Tattershall says. The Book of Hope contains the text of the four Gospels and documents the life of Christ from conception to ascension.

While Tattershall didn’t intentionally establish a special needs ministry, the students are thriving in his youth services. “Myself, my students and staff just love them, support them and talk to them about their lives. Other than the fact that they are visually impaired, they’re just normal students like everyone else.”

Tattershall plans to use a focus group in the upcoming months to determine what youth members have a passion for and help them use their passion in ministry. “I am trying to get every student involved,” says Tattershall. “It’s definitely a work in progress, but hopefully they will really start to plug-in to ministry.”

Source:Prayer Event Sparks Visually Impaired Youth Ministry

Economic reforms in Cuba are well underway, but they don’t appear to be having the intended effect.

Raul Castro’s regime implemented massive layoffs of hundreds of thousands of public employees that were meant to be absorbed by Cuba’s almost non-existent private sector. The resulting poverty has given way to despair.

Meanwhile, churches are seeing growth. For years, they pushed the legal limits just by meeting, and it’s still dangerous for students, religious teachers and leaders, especially in rural areas, to be outspoken Christians.

According to WorldServe Ministries, Christians are considered counter-revolutionary, meaning they may be unemployable, denied access to housing and put under surveillance. The government has also placed restrictions on the church, thus concealing success and growth by limiting the size of each church.

Even with these challenges, WorldServe’s John Dyck says, “God is sovereign in these things. And as events in Cuba are changing politically and socio-economically, it opens up opportunities for us to make the gospel even more relevant to people there.”

Cuba’s new spiritual dynamic includes rapid house church (casas cultos) growth, evangelistic missions, and relief work and community development. Dyck goes on to explain, “In speaking to pastors and leaders, they talk frequently about the fact that people in the midst of difficult economic times are realizing that they don’t necessarily have a lot of power in their own lives to change things, so they turn to that spiritual side.”

As a result, revival is springing up in Cuba, and many are coming to Christ. “A few months ago,” Dyck says, “there was a series of amazing meetings in Guantanamo: a young lady was called by God to speak to crowds of people, and that spread to other parts of eastern Cuba, particularly. That’s one area of revival. There are other parts where pastors are going in to plant new churches.”

Resourcing this growth is a challenge. “We’re hoping that God will open doors for us to, in the end, send about 100,000 Bibles into Cuba,” says Dyck. “It can be very difficult to get a hold of a Bible because there are no Christian bookstores. So be praying that God works this out so that we can bring in the Word of God and make it available to people.”

A visit last month with Tyndale House publishers and the head translator of the Spanish Contemporary Language Bible has brought some exciting news. “We had an opportunity to meet with over 800 pastors and leaders in different conferences throughout a week of meetings and discuss what this Bible could be,” says Dyck. “These pastors looked at this as an opportunity for the gospel to become something more contemporary for people who are reading the scriptures.”

In order to get permission to bring in 100,000 Bibles, WorldServe is working through the Bible Commission, which is part of the Council of Churches in the government branch. The cooperation has opened many new avenues of opportunity.

Dyck urges prayer over the whole project. There’s a lot at stake. “Once the man on the street is able to read a Bible himself,” he says, “I really believe that God will use His Word to reach people.”

Source:Cuba Sees House Church Revival Despite Oppression