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CHARLES W. SHEPSON has served for more than sixty years as pastor, educator and counselor. He is the founder of Fairhaven Ministries, a counseling and retreat center in Tennessee and has served for more than three decades as its president. He is also the founder of the Canadian-based Fairhaven Ministries in British Columbia. He has ministered in thirty-seven countries and has authored fifteen books.
Read MoreALLYN K. SLOAT (B.A., Trinity College; M.Ed., University of Illinois) is the former Pastor of Education and Adult Ministries at Winnetka Bible Church in Winnetka, Illinois and editor of Christian Education.
Read MoreJOHN C. WHITCOMB (A.B., Princeton University; B.D., Th.M., Th.D., Grace Theological Seminary) is a former President of the Board of Spanish World Gospel Missions Inc and also served as Professor of Theology and Old Testament at Grace Theological Seminary Winona Lake, Indiana for 49 years. He has lectured around the world and is the author of Daniel and Esther from the Everyday Bible Commentary series, among other titles.
Read MoreJOSH MCDOWELL As a young man, Josh McDowell considered himself an agnostic. He truly believed that Christianity was worthless. However, when challenged to intellectually examine the claims of Christianity, Josh discovered compelling, overwhelming evidence for the reliability of the Christian faith. In 1961 Josh joined the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ International. Not long after, he started the Josh McDowell Ministry to reach young people worldwide with the truth and love of Jesus.
Read MoreDR. CHARLIE DYER served for thirty-three years on the faculty and in the administration of three different institutions, including twenty years at Dallas Theological Seminary and ten years as Provost of the Moody Bible Institute. In 2010, Charlie became Professor-at-Large of Bible for Moody Bible Institute and host of The Land and the Book radio program, which is heard on more than 350 stations across the United States. For much of his time in ministry, Charlie has taken groups to Israel and the other lands of the Bible. In addition to his speaking, teaching, and guiding, Charlie has authored or coauthored numerous books, including The Rise of Babylon, What’s Next?, The Christian Traveler’s Guide to the Holy Land, 30 Days in the Land with Jesus, 30 Days in the Land of the Psalms, A Voice in the Wilderness, The ISIS Crisis, and Clash of Kingdoms. He also contributed to The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Nelson’s Old Testament Survey, and The Moody Bible Commentary.
Read MoreVICKI ROSE is a strong Bible teacher with a relevant, life-changing message. She was born and raised in New York City and upon graduating from Sarah Lawrence College in 1975, Vicki began her retail career at Saks Fifth Ave and went on to marry Bill Rose in 1977.After almost 10 years of marriage, Vicki found herself the single mother of a 1 ½ and 4 year old, separated from her husband who was addicted to cocaine, woman and work. 1 ½ years later, Vicki accepted Christ through an outreach dinner at age 35 and became a passionate follower of Jesus Christ with a deep hunger for His word. As Vicki began to pray for her husband to also know Christ, her heart toward him changed and they were reconciled after he accepted Christ, entered rehab and they spent time in counseling. They had been separated for 5 ½ years. Both Vicki and Bill are Jewish believers though neither was raised in a religious Jewish home. Vicki has taught, facilitated and led many Bible Studies for women in her church as well as acted as Prayer Coordinator for the Women’s Ministry and has taught and shared her testimony all across the U.S. as well as in Nicaragua, Poland, Russia, Bulgaria and Italy.
Read MoreCHRISTMAS CAROL KAUFMAN received her unique name in honor of her Christmas morning birth in 1901 in Elkhart, Indiana. She was raised in a Mennonite home and spent some time as a student at Goshen College. When she was 22, she married Norman Hostetler. However, tragedy struck when two months after their second anniversary, Norman was killed in an electrical accident. She worked in a sewing shop following the wake of her loss, but in 1928, her bishop recommended that she get away for a while and enroll as a Bible student at Hesston College. It was there that she met the man who would be her life partner—Nelson Kaufman. The two were married in 1929. Five years later they were commissioned by the Mennonite General Mission Board to start a mission church in Hannibal, Missouri. It was in their 22-year ministry in Missouri that she found the inspiration to write her many novels. In 1956, they returned to Elkhart where Kaufman wrote her last several books. She died in Elkhart on January 30, 1969.
Read MoreDR. LYLE W. DORSETT is a prolific author and accomplished speaker and teacher. Dr. Dorsett received his B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is now retired from teaching and pastoral ministry after serving many years in a number of different roles, including universities in Missouri, California, Colorado, and Alabama. He is the author of numerous books, among them biographies of Joy Davidman (Mrs. C.S. Lewis), E.M. Bounds, Dwight L. Moody, and Billy Sunday. Keenly interested in the life and writings of C. S. Lewis, he published a volume of Lewis's Letters to Children, The Essential C. S. Lewis, and Seeking the Secret Place: The Spiritual Formation of C. S. Lewis. His most recent book is Serving God and Country: U.S. Military Chaplains in World War II. Dr. Dorsett and his wife, Mary, have a grown son, a daughter in heaven, and four grandchildren.
Read MoreCai Sujuan, also known in the West as Christiana Tsai, was born the 18th of 24 children in Nanjing, China. Sujuan grew up in a fortunate setting, but she was often sad and a very serious child—she even considered becoming a Buddhist nun. She was fascinated by the English language and was initially introduced to the Gospel at a missionary school. Soon after, though she was inclined to disbelieve, the message of Jesus Christ struck Sujuan’s heart and she became a Christian.Sujuan grew in love and faith, and upon graduation decided to return home to bring her family to Christ. In all, 55 members of her family eventually followed the Lord.Later in life, Sujuan contracted malaria and spent much of the rest of her life bedridden. But her ministry only grew! From her bedside, Sujuan was able to comfort lost and broken souls more effectively than she ever had before.After many decades of faithful service to the Lord, never losing her love for her homeland, Sujuan went to be with Jesus on August 25th, 1984.
Read MoreREVEREND WILLIAM DYER was born in England in 1632. During his earlier ministry he was a pastor with the Church of England at Chesham and Cholesbury. He and many other pastors were known as “Puritans” because of their desire to purify and reform the state church. However, in 1662, Dyer and over two thousand other Puritans pastors were ejected from their parishes because of a lack of compliance to the new policies of the church. In the year following his dismissal from the church he wrote two of his most enduring books, A Cabinet of Jewels and Christ’s Famous Titles. In his later life he worked alongside the Quakers because of their zeal for Christ and passion for souls. He was buried among them in Southwark, England in April of 1696. From his writings he is seen to have been a man of great character, earnest to win men to the Lord, and eager to build up the saints in the love and confidence of Christ.
Read MoreEVA STUART WATT was born in Australia in 1891. Her father was a successful businessman in the tea trade in Great Britain. He was an agnostic, but converted to Christ during D.L. Moody’s tour in Great Britain from 1873-1875. Ten years later, her father and mother left the Isles to be missionaries in Africa, but because of health concerns they moved to Australia. It was on this respite that Eva Watt was born. At the age of ten she went to Ireland for the first time so she could get an education. In 1914, she returned to Africa to serve alongside her parents. In 1928, after fourteen hard years in the field in which she lost her father and brother to fever, she returned to Ireland where she founded the Young Ireland for Christ mission in Dublin. She continued ministry in her home country until her death. During her lifetime she wrote many books about her missionary efforts both in Ireland and in Africa.
Read MoreCHARLES LEACH was born in England on March 1, 1847 and started from humble beginnings, having to begin work at the age of eight. He worked hard and eventually went to Ranmoor Theological College. In 1873 he took up a pastorate in Sheffield, and for the next thirty years, preached, ministered, and lectured all around England. He also took several trips to the Middle East and the United States. While he was successful in his professional life, he was not as fortunate in his personal life as only two of his six children were alive at his death. In 1908 he joined the Liberal Party to run for Parliament. Although initially thought to be a weak candidate, he won his seat in 1910. While in Parliament he introduced several bills and was fairly influential. Because of this and his ministry background he was named Chaplain to the Armed Forces at outset of World War I. After this, he began to step back from public life because of physical and mental deterioration. He died in England on November 24, 1919 at the age of seventy-two.
Read MoreHELEN LEE is an award-winning freelance writer and editor with nearly two decades of experience publishing in the Christian market. She is the co-editor of and contributor to Growing Healthy Asian-American Churches (IVP, 2006) and co-founder of the Best Christian Workplaces Institute, which runs the annual “Best Christian Places to Work” survey. Helen has written numerous articles for publications such as Christianity Today, Today’s Christian Woman, re:generation quarterly and Leadership Journal (LJ). In both 2008 and 2009, her articles for LJ earned Higher Goals awards in reporting from the Evangelical Press Association. As a former editor and writer with Christianity Today, she has worked with or interviewed a wide range of evangelical luminaries, such as Michael Card, J.I. Packer, and Chuck Colson. She is married to classical pianist and Moody Bible Institute professor Brian Lee; together they have three young sons. Helen is also a homeschooling mom and seeks to provide her sons with a classical Christian education; she and her family reside in Chicagoland.
Read MoreLINCOLN BRUNNER has been a journalist for 22 years. After cutting his teeth as a sportswriter and general assignment reporter in central Wisconsin in the early 90s, he went on to edit a small daily paper in Illinois. He then served as an editor for several trade magazines. In 2004, he felt a strong call to do full-time reporting about Christian missions work and went on to report on missionaries around the world for two different missions organizations. These days, he works as managing editor for a Bible translation organization. Lincoln and his wonderful wife, Ann, have three daughters and live in Texas.
Read MoreJOHN ANKERBERG (B.A., University of Illinois; M.A., and M.Div., Trinity Evangelical School; D.Min., Bethel Theological Seminary) is the president and founder of The Ankerberg Theological Research Institute and the producer and host of the nationally televised John Ankerberg Show. He is the author, co-author and/or editor of 76 books, including Middle East Meltdown, The Da Vinci Code Controversy and Ready with An Answer for the Tough Questions About God. John and his wife, Darlene, have one daughter and reside in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Read MoreJEN BARRICK is an inspirational speaker who travels all over the country, with her mother Linda, sharing their miraculous story of faith, hope, and forgiveness. She suffered a traumatic brain injury over a decade ago when her family's van was struck head-on by a drunk driver going 80 miles per hour. Even though Jen still suffers from vision impairment and memory loss, she knows there is no limit to what God can accomplish through her life. She completed a diploma from the Institute of Biblical Studies at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Connect with Jen and Linda at hopeoutloud.com.
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