Survivor Reveals How God 'Wrapped His Arms Around Me' - KELLIE VAN GILDER/BGEA

Mayor Ray Nagin looks over the Bible of an 85-year-old woman who was killed during a tornado in a government-provided trailer at the site of her home in the Pontchatrain Park neighborhood of New Orleans. (REUTERS/Lee Celano)

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Survivor Reveals How God 'Wrapped His Arms Around Me'

2/20/2017 KELLIE VAN GILDER/BGEA  charisma news

Tales of brushes with death aren't uncommon these days in Louisiana, where residents are trying to pick up the pieces after four tornadoes recently ripped through the New Orleans area. The storms injured 33 people and damaged hundreds of homes.

No lives were lost, but many, it seems, were impacted in a mighty way.

Al New, chaplain coordinator with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, recently met with one such gentleman personally affected by the natural disaster. Crisis-trained chaplains deployed to New Orleans East in the aftermath of the storm and are offering emotional and spiritual care alongside sister ministry Samaritan's Purse.

On that particular Thursday, New was serving in the Mobile Ministry Center and was outside when the gentleman pulled up in a new white van.

"He proceeded to tell me that he was in the tornado area in his personal van working when the tornado came and picked him up in his van, spun him around and slammed him about 15 feet away," New said. "It totaled the van, and he said, 'Bless God. I didn't have an injury nowhere.'"

The man, sharing from the driver's seat of his rental van, was thankful to be alive, and New began to help the New Orleans East resident dig deeper into that blessing. Soon, the man realized that beyond thanking God for safety, he wanted to know Him personally. When New asked if he wanted to have a relationship with the Lord, the man responded, "I sure would. Now would be a good time."

They continued the conversation inside the Mobile Ministry Center, and the man decided to accept Christ as his Savior.

Roots run deep in this community, and New soon learned this man was related to a pastor in the area.

"He said, 'I am going to go to church Sunday at my cousin's church, and I am going to testify to what happened to me in the storm and to what God has just done for me here,'" New recalled.

"I got a call from them [the church] on Sunday saying he came to church. He not only came to church, he testified, and he joined the church. Now he's got a home church where they're going to continue discipling him and mentoring him. We're praying that he'll continue to go."

Testimonies abound in this tight-knit community, particularly in a six-mile stretch where houses stand near one another and the residents draw even closer. Newcomers can give rise to suspicion, yet the residents have found a comfort with the chaplains and Samaritan's Purse volunteers. That has helped open doors for even more sharing.

One homeowner told the chaplains that on the day of the tornadoes, he had just returned home from his job of driving a truck. He just happened to look out the bathroom window when he saw the tornado. He went to the hallway and stood motionless.

"He said, 'I know God wrapped His arms around me because the whole house was up and gone, but nothing touched me,'" New said.

Many homes in the area sustained heavy damage, and these residents who climbed back from flooded homes after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 are wondering how they'll rebuild again. As of Tuesday, Samaritan's Purse had received 100 work orders for primary residences.

New said sometimes it's hard to find the right words, but his goal—as well as that of the chaplains—is to continually point to the hope that only Jesus Christ offers.

"You just try to bring them hope and comfort and tell them that they've been through this before; you know that you came through that," New said. "And with God's help and with hope in Him, they're going to come through it again.

"We encourage them to stay strong and trust in the Lord." 

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Recession 2016: In Some States, A Very Deep Economic Downturn Has Already Arrived - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Recession 2016: In Some States, A Very Deep Economic Downturn Has Already Arrived Posted: 22 Feb 2016 Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG Did you know that there are some U.S. states that have already officially fallen into recession?  Economic activity all over the planet is in the process of slowing down, and there are some areas of the country that are really starting to feel the pain.   In particular, any state that is heavily dependent on the energy industry is hurting right now.  During the years immediately following the last recession, the energy industry was the primary engine for the growth of good paying jobs in America, but now that process is completely reversing.  All over the U.S. energy companies are going under, and thousands upon thousands of good jobs are being lost. On Sunday evening, Bloomberg published an article entitled “The U.S. States Where Recession Is Already a Reality“. The following is an excerpt from that article… As economists size up the chances of the first nationwide slump since 2009, pockets of the country are already contracting. Four states — Alaska, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming — are in a recession, and three others are at risk of prolonged declines, according to indexes of state economic performance tracked by Moody’s Analytics. The three additional states that are “at risk of prolonged declines” are Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma.  What all of those seven states have in common is a strong dependence on the energy industry.  Last year, 67 oil and gas companies in the United States filed for bankruptcy, and approximately 130,000 good paying energy jobs were lost. If the price of oil does not go back up, this could be just the beginning.  It is being reported that a whopping 35 percent of all oil and gas companies around the planet are at risk of falling into bankruptcy, and the financial institutions that have been backing these energy companies are getting very nervous. Of course things could shift dramatically for oil and gas companies if World War 3 suddenly erupts in the Middle East, and that could literally happen at any time.  But for the moment the outlook for the energy industry continues to be quite dreary. Let us also keep in mind that the problems for the U.S. economy are not limited to the energy industry.  According to CNBC, corporate profits in the United States have now declined for three straight quarters, and this is the very first time this has happened since the last recession… With 87 percent of the S&P 500 reporting, total blended fourth-quarter earnings have shown a decline of 3.6 percent, according to FactSet. Assuming the trend holds up, it will mark the first time profits have fallen for three straight quarters since 2009. But the road ahead doesn’t get any easier. FactSet is now projecting that earnings will decline 6.9 percent in the first quarter, a stunning move lower over time considering that in September the expectation was for 4.8 percent growth. As corporate profits fall, layoffs are starting to increase.  Just the other day we learned that the number of job cuts in this country shot up 218 percent during the month of January according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It is starting to look very much like 2008 all over again, and I am convinced that it will soon be much, much harder to find work in America. Here are some more numbers that indicate that the U.S. is heading into a major economic slowdown… –U.S. exports were down 7 percent on a year over year basis in December. –U.S. manufacturing activity has been in contraction for four months in a row. –U.S. factory orders have fallen for 14 months in a row. –The Restaurant Performance Index in the United States has dropped to the lowest level that we have seen since 2008. –Orders for Class 8 trucks in the United States dropped by 48 percent on a year over year basis in January. But the mainstream media continues to try to convince all of us that everything is going to be just fine.  Earlier today, CNN ran an article entitled “U.S. recession fears fade after market rally“, and the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled “The U.S. Economy Is in Good Shape” that got a tremendous amount of attention. Well, if the U.S. economy is in such great shape, then why are some of the biggest retailers in the entire nation shutting down stores at a frightening pace.  The following list of store closures comes from one of my previous articles… -Wal-Mart is closing 269 stores, including 154 inside the United States. -K-Mart is closing down more than two dozen stores over the next several months. -J.C. Penney will be permanently shutting down 47 more stores after closing a total of 40 stores in 2015. -Macy’s has decided that it needs to shutter 36 stores and lay off approximately 2,500 employees. -The Gap is in the process of closing 175 stores in North America. -Aeropostale is in the process of closing 84 stores all across America. -Finish Line has announced that 150 stores will be shutting down over the next few years. -Sears has shut down about 600 stores over the past year or so, but sales at the stores that remain open continue to fall precipitously. Perhaps things look fine for the moment in New York City or Washington D.C. or San Francisco or wherever it is that these “reporters” write their articles. But for ordinary Americans that operate in the real world, the pain of this new economic downturn is already exceedingly apparent.  Here is more from Bloomberg… Dale Oxley doesn’t need to hear about rising odds of a U.S. recession to dread the future. For the West Virginia homebuilder, the downturn has already arrived. “Everyone is going to have to tighten their belts,” said Oxley, the 48-year-old owner of a Charleston-area construction company. “The next couple of years are going to be difficult.” Unfortunately for hard working Americans like Oxley, what we have seen so far is just the tip of the iceberg. We have entered a long downturn that is ultimately going to be even more painful than the last recession was. And everything changes if Saudi Arabia and Turkey get trigger happy and decide to invade Syria.  If that happens, it could very well be the spark that sets off World War 3 and a full-blown meltdown of the global financial system.

South Carolina House Passes Bill Excluding Sharia Law From State Courts - Breitbart.com

SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images

South Carolina House Passes Bill Excluding Sharia Law From State Courts

Breitbart.com Jan. 28, 20160

by JORDAN SCHACHTEL28 Jan 2016

The South Carolina House has passed a bill blocking Islamic sharia law from being recognized or approved in the state, after years of debate over similar legislation.

The legislation voted upon was explained as “A bill to amend the code of laws of South Carolina … so as to prevent a court or other enforcement authority from enforcing foreign law including, but not limited to, Sharia Law in this state from a forum outside of the United States or its territories under certain circumstances.”

On Thursday, the legislation passed with 68 for the bill and 42 opposed.

Sharia law is the legal and political system mandated in the Koran and other Islamic texts. It include laws governing religious practice, such as praying and ritual washing. But sharia also rules what Westerners see as non-government social practices — divorce, child-rearing, free-speech, clothing or sexual behavior, for example — and it also rules government responses to crimes, such as theft and murder.

Sharia law relegates women and non-Muslims to a lesser status, and grants men enormous authority over wives, daughters and sons. It allows for the primitive treatment of women and non-Muslims, and allows fierce punishment — sometimes, “honor killings” by fathers — for refusing to complying with sharia mandates.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Chip Limehouse. He told Breitbart News following the bill’s passage:

“This goes to demonstrate that the South Carolina House of Representatives is committed to preserving and protecting the American way of life here in South Carolina.”

“Sharia Law has been used as a defense in American courtrooms,” he adds. “We are working towards making that defense not an option for radical extremists from any country.”

“In South Carolina, we’ve had cases where people have tried to use [the rules of] Sharia Law as a defense, and we are speaking very clearly from the South Carolina House,” Limehouse said. “Shariah Law can not and will not be used as a legal defense in the state of South Carolina.”

Because the bill was passed at the beginning of the current legislative session, Rep. Limehouse said he was optimistic that the Senate would have enough time to pass the bill. In order for the bill to become law, it must now be passed by the South Carolina State Senate and signed by Governor Nikki Haley.

Tea Party and conservative grassroots organizations are credited with initiating the movement to ban sharia rules through the state legislatures. Conservative leaders Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann have publicly advocated for the need to enact nation-wide legislation against the threat of sharia.

Underground sharia courts operate in Muslim communities throughout Europe and alsoin the United States. Last year, Breitbart Texas reported that a “voluntary” sharia court had already been established in Texas.

Several countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, have many underground sharia courts within migrant communities. In the U.K, the government has formally deputized at least one sharia court to decide non-criminal issues among people who agree to use the court, even as public concerns rise that immigrant women are socially pressured to accept the courts’ authority

U.S. opponents of sharia courts point to Europe for evidence that western democracies can gradually cede more de-facto legal authority to self-segregating Muslim communities, so enabling the self-segregation of Muslim communities into no-go zones within cities.

Several states–including Alabama, Arizona, Kansas, Louisiana, North Carolina South Dakota, and Tennessee–have passed “foreign law” bans against sharia. More than a dozen other states are currently considering similar legislation.

Carolyn Hyde - The back routes - Heart of G-d Ministries

Carolyn Hyde

The back routes

Heart of G-d Ministries

Nov. 13, 2015

As I was driving along the bridge road in Louisiana, the L-rd put it on my heart to prophesy over the waters, that a great Exodus will come through this region, an exodus of Jews and Christians will help them to get to the ocean to take ships to go home to Israel. There will be canoes, lifeboats, rafts, speedboats, and all kinds of small crafts that will carry the people down the rivers, the tributaries, the bayous.

"But how will people know the way to take?" I asked.

"They will need native born people from Louisiana to show them the back routes."

And then it hit me what happened earlier today! I was doing Aliyah counseling with a dear friend and I didn't notice my gas gauge so I ended up running out of gas along the highway in Louisiana. I was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere! There were three or four trailers off the side of the road but there was a tall fence with a bayou separating me from them. 

But suddenly a man walked out of his house to pick up his mail and he saw me as I was waving to him. So when he walked over to the fence and heard how I had run out of gas, he offered to bring his truck around and help me. Bless his heart! His name was Michael and he is a native born person from Louisiana.   After we got the gas in the portable tank, Michael said to me, "I'm going to take the back route to get you back on the highway."

The back route! That's what the L-rd is speaking to me about! And He will make a way!

Traffic jam in Baton Rouge! So I started complaining a little and I heard the L-rd say, "you have it so easy, girl". And I repented and realized that when the great Exodus begins from America, it's going to be nothing like the situation I'm in now. I'm a little stuck in traffic, and I'm a little tired because I only got five hours of sleep last night, but I have nuts and berries and water and I'm driving an air-conditioned car. 

I have Internet and GPS and all that I need to get to where I'm going. When the great Exodus begins the Jewish people and the Christians who will be helping them will have very few of these things. So yes, L-rd, you're right! I have it easy. Please forgive me for just trying to be comfortable and get to where I'm going so that I can rest and have a nice meal and shower.

More about the back routes - David took the back route when Saul was looking to kill him and he escaped with his life. After Ehud drove a knife in the evil king's belly, he was able to escape out the back door.

Moshe escaped death by the back route in a basket on the Nile and later he escaped to Midian. Stories abound of back routes in the Bible, featuring the Exodus as a whole book!

There was always some kind of preparation for back routes - making the cradle from tar so Moshe wouldn't sink, gathering dough in baskets, plundering the Egyptians, etc.

I walked in the mall and who's the first person I talk with? An Israeli named Dolev! Oy! Dolev put cream on one of my eyes and told me to come back and he would do the other eye.

Then I ran to the Apple store and they told me it would be at least an hour but maybe even not because I didn't have an appointment. But a young man named PJ helped me. He took the time and did all the necessary paperwork and even gave me a new iPhone! He's a Christian and he's getting married next year so I told him to come to Israel and that's exactly what he's been wanting to do but he needed some advice. I love how the L-rd works! So I made a new friend.

While in the store I got a letter from my prophetic friend Rhonda who is from Louisiana, telling me that she can join us on Thursday at an Aliyah meeting...

On the way out of the mall, I realized I passed by Dolev's place so I went back to talk with him to tell him that I really don't have time for a treatment. Standing with him was another Israeli name Moshe. We had a nice talk and they told me that there's a new Chabad house in the mall. I said I don't think they would like me very much because I'm a messianic Jew. So they asked me how did that happen and I was able to share my testimony with both Israelis!

When I finally arrived at Sonja's, what was the main thing she talked about from the beginning? Back routes!

May G-d bless you and cause His face to shine upon you always,

Carolyn