The Youth and Christian Education Department is planning and coordinating the annual STEP missions trips to the Casa Hogar Alfa y Omega Orphanage in Poza Rica, Mexico.

The President’s Volunteer Service Award will be conferred on 32 Heartbeat International affiliated pregnancy resource centers and 55 volunteers who serve Heartbeat affiliated centers this week. Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Joxel Garcia, M.D., M.B.A., will bestow the honors on Heartbeat’s affiliates and volunteers for the significant contributions they have made to their communities.

Four Hindu priests were recently assassinated in Orissa, India. The Hindu people blame the Christians, though the identity of the assassins is unknown. As a result, the Christians in the state of Orissa are under attack.

Although God has not called me into the pastorate at this time, His call for me do to missions is so strong that I can only imagine what pastors go through and feel in their hearts as they pastor a church. In missions, my heart goes out to the people I meet. My most recent trip to Honduras was the best trip so far, and the worst. It was the best because I loved each and every moment of being there and ministering to everyone; it was the worst because my heart is still in Honduras.

As Hurricane Ike approached the Texas coast on Friday night, warnings of catastrophic destruction were given to those remaining behind. Law enforcement officials were instructing people to write their social security numbers on their forearm for identification purposes. No one could have accurately predicted the utter destruction as Ike unleashed his fury for more than eight hours.

According to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association, approximately 11,000 individuals suffer a spinal cord injury every year in the United States through sports, auto, or work-related accidents. Over half of these accidents occur to men under thirty years old.

Husbands and wives make great ministry teams and they serve in many different areas, but not too many serve together as law enforcement chaplains. Billy and Robin Rider, from Maryville, Tennessee, serve as law enforcement chaplains with the Blount County Sheriff’s Department. Billy has served the Sheriff’s Department for two years and Robin has now been with them for one year.

Dr. Hong Yang, special assignment field representative, was recently honored at the Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio. The following is what the school said about Dr. Yang:

With the launch of the brand new social networking site www.holyrevivalradio.com, ratings and listenership are continuing to rise. Some set back was noticed initially as Holy Revival Radio began using SWCast as an interface for licensing and paying royalty fees. This switch was necessary for Holy Revival Radio to be one of the very few gospel internet stations that operate legally and complies with the rules and regulations as they stand now. Holy Revival Radio has great pride in being able to offer Christian and Gospel Artists not only a place to be heard, but a place that will also enable them to receive royalties for their music that is played on the station. This is important as not all internet radio stations comply with this.