Fresh Starts: Subtle Like a Freight Train

Fresh Starts: Subtle Like a Freight Train: When my husband and I first wed, I was all about being ‘married’.  That ring and the certificate said it was a-okay for me to prance aroun...

Urgent Prayer needed

PW hurt his back 3 weeks ago and has been in constant pain, then about 2 wks ago he said his stomach has been hurting. Yesterday we went to the doctor to have this checked because the pain was getting worse and it turns out he has a ventral hernia and needs surgery to fix this problem. It needs to be done soon before it gets worse. Since we are scheduled to leave for Latvia on April 19th we would like prayer that the surgery is uneventful and that recovery is swift so we can keep this commitment to the Bible School in Riga if the Lord wills.
Grace and Peace,
PW and Sherry

Oh my, where has the time gone?

So much has happened over the past few months that I am shocked we only have 29 days left before we leave the country.

In January, Wayne's mom got very sick and was hospitalized for several days, followed by physical therapy and doctors appointments for the whole month and then into February. Thankfully, she is feeling better. We were quite concerned for awhile there.

Then on February 27 a tragedy at our local high school. Most of you have heard or read about it; a student went into the cafeteria with a gun and shot five students. Three have died. As a result, we have been helping with some crisis counseling and other things related to the tragedy. Listening to the stories some of these young people have shared has been heart wrenching. Please keep our town in prayer as the people heal. It has opened a tremendous door for the Gospel though, and for that we are rejoicing. The body of Christ has unified in a beautiful way and given a picture to the people of what following Christ really looks like.

So now, here we are at the end of March and realizing we leave in a few weeks. Our mission this time will be in Latvia teaching at a Bible School there. We taught last year on biblical counseling and have been asked to come back and do the same. The week of April 23rd we will daily be imparting to these young people priniciples from the word of God on how to help hurting people in a hurting world. Please keep us in prayer.

We had been scheduled to go the week before to Donetsk, Ukraine but had some scheduling conflicts. We will be rescheduling that trip sometime this summer or early fall.

When we get home from Latvia, the following week Sherry will be doing a workshop at the Biblical Counseling conference in Mayfield Ohio and then we have three weeks before leaving for Jacksonville, Florida to speak on biblical counseling for a week at the YWAM base there. A busy month for sure.

You can see our itinerary by clicking on the tab at the top . We really do covet your prayers. The last thing we want to do is go and try to minister in our flesh.

We pray Gods richest blessings on you all.

With Love,
PW and Sherry

Fresh Starts: Fleas- by our daughter Jen

Fresh Starts: Fleas: Flea-less Mazie A couple of years ago I was doing the obligatory flea check on our poodle.  This is the dog that barely walks outsid...

Fresh Starts: This Land is Your Land

Fresh Starts: This Land is Your Land: Dwell: To abide as a permanent resident, or to inhabit for a time; to live in a place; to have a habitation for some time or permanence.  ...

Fresh Starts: But God

Fresh Starts: But God: A week ago this morning, the sounds of sirens and helicopters filled my neighborhood. A young man opened fire at the high school one str...

Fresh Starts: The Chief End of Me

Fresh Starts: The Chief End of Me: The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism * asks, “ What is the chief end of man? ” The answer: “ The chief end of man is t...

Fresh Starts: Distracted by Worship

Another great devotion written by our daughter. We pray it will encourage you today.

Fresh Starts: Distracted by Worship: Distract: to turn or draw from any object; to divert from any point, towards another point or toward various other objects; as, to distrac...

The Story of Hope

This poem was written by our grandson.

What sorrows do our actions bring

When think us wise to everything?

When think us understanding all

But do not listen to the call:

The call to praise our worthy Lord;

The one who rules, the one who sores.

The great and wise, and gracious King,

The Creator of everything.

A face that turns us all undone,

Yet with a heart for everyone:

A heart that calls us all to come,

Abound in His redeeming love.

~~

His grace is greatly needed since

Sin came forth at our own expense.

It happened when God made the earth;

The place that welcomed in sin’sbirth.

God made a man, and made him free

To do the will he wanted, but

He could not tend the earth alone

So God made him another one:

A woman that could help him care

For the earth which He did bare.

~~

And like the man, God made her free

To do the will she wanted; she

Who listen to an evil snake

That told her it was wise to take

The fruit God told her not to eat,

But smelled so good and tasted sweet.

So she went willing into sin

And gave some to her husband then.

So bitter the fruit did taste

When they discovered their new fate.

~~

For now they new both right and wrong.

But good was weak and evil strong.

And sin spread quickly through the world.

We brought it on our own accord.

Dooming all the human race

And sealing our eternal fate.

But on God’s hardened holy face

There was a strong redeeming grace.

He sent His Son, oh, Jesus Christ

As an eternal sacrifice.

For He was beaten, bruised, and killed

That purity in us be filled.

We hung His body on a cross

And hope now seemed completely lost.

For He was dead and in a tomb

And all was gone, and we were doomed.

But miracles could happen still,

And Satan could not have his will.

~~

After three days of lying dead,

Jesus rose up once again!

Out of the grave, Jesus stepped,

For in His light He conquered death.

And rescued now we are from Hell;

That darkened land where Satan fell.

And you may step into the light

If you will only chose what’s right.

In hearing this I hope you know

That in our sin God loved us so.

In Jesus’ wounds our sins He bore,

That we may live forevermore.

That for the filthy human race

God sent His Son to show his grace!

Nathan Gorton

January, 2012

Fresh Starts: Smells Like...Holy Spirit

Fresh Starts: Smells Like...Holy Spirit: When I am in the library reading magazines and I come across one of those fragrance strips that appeals to me…I look around all secretive-...

Iligan City's Typhoon Tragedy

Please pray for our brothers and sisters in the Phillipines. This tragedy has left many homeless and grieving and it is a wonderful opportunity to share the gospel. Our friend Rannie Lamento and other pastors he is associated with are there showing Gods love in practical ways. They covet your prayers.
Thank you so much..

Merry Christmas

Praise the Lord for His unfailing love and mercy. While we were living in darkness apart from Him, He chose to send His only Son to redeem us.
This Christmas and throughout the year, may you know and revel in His unselfish, unending, unfailing and perfect love.
With much love,
PW and Sherry, Adrian, Jen and the 5 Gorton kids

43 years of Marriage

We praise the Lord for working in our lives all those years ago. The first 8 years were touch and go BUT GOD. He is so faithful. So as we celebrate today, we marvel at His workings in us and thank Him for restoring our marriage. We love each other more and more each day and find such joy in helping others who are struggling in their marriages. The secret? Live under the Lordship of Jesus, obey his word and apply it to your marriage. Amazing things happen when we are willing to die to self and live for HIM.

It’s (Past) Time for a Charismatic Reformation

It’s (Past) Time for a Charismatic Reformation
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It’s (Past) Time for a Charismatic Reformation
Wednesday, 26 October 2011 09:05 AM EDT J. Lee Grady Newsletters - Fire In My Bones

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In honor of Reformation Day, here are some complaints I’m nailing on the Wittenberg door.
Long before there was an Occupy Wall Street, Martin Luther staged the most important protest in history. He was upset because Roman Catholic officials were promising people forgiveness or early escape from purgatory in exchange for money. So on October 31, 1517, Luther nailed a long list of complaints on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Luther’s famous 95 theses were translated from Latin into German and spread abroad. Like a medieval Jeremiah, Luther dared to ask questions that had never been asked, and he challenged a pope who was supposedly infallible. Through this brave monk, the Holy Spirit sparked the Protestant Reformation and restored the doctrine of grace to a church that had become corrupt, religious, dysfunctional, political and spiritually dead.
“I’ve grown increasingly aware that the so-called ‘Spirit-filled’ church of today struggles with many of the same things the Catholic church faced in the 1500s. We don’t have ‘indulgences’—we have telethons. We don’t have popes—we have super-apostles.”
I am no Luther, but I’ve grown increasingly aware that the so-called “Spirit-filled” church of today struggles with many of the same things the Catholic church faced in the 1500s. We don’t have “indulgences”—we have telethons. We don’t have popes—we have super-apostles. We don’t support an untouchable priesthood—we throw our money at celebrity evangelists who own fleets of private jets.
In honor of Reformation Day, I’m offering my own list of needed reforms in our movement. And since I can’t hammer these on the Wittenberg door, I’ll post them online. Feel free to nail them everywhere.
1. Let’s reform our theology. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. He is God and He is holy. He is not an “it.” He is not a blob, a force, or an innate power. We must stop manipulating Him, commanding Him and throwing Him around.
2. Let’s return to the Bible. The Word of God is the foundation for the Christian experience. Any dramatic experience, no matter how spiritual it seems, must be tested by the Word and the Holy Spirit’s discernment. Visions, dreams, prophecies and encounters with angels must be in line with Scripture. If we don’t test them we could end up spreading deception.
3. It’s time for personal responsibility. We charismatics must stop blaming everything on demons. People are usually the problem.
4. Stop playing games. Spiritual warfare is a reality, but we are not going to win the world to Jesus just by shouting at demonic principalities. We must pray, preach and persevere to see ultimate victory.
5. Stop the foolishness. People who hit, slap or push others during prayer should be asked to sit down until they learn gentleness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
6. End all spiritual extortion now. Christian television ministries must cease and desist from all manipulative fundraising tactics. We must stop giving platforms to ministers who make outlandish claims of supernatural financial returns, especially when Scripture is twisted, deadlines are imposed and the poor are exploited.
7. No more Lone Rangers. Those who claim to be ministers of God—whether they are traveling evangelists, local pastors or heads of ministries—must be accountable to other leaders. Any who refuse to submit their lives to godly discipline should be corrected.
8. Expose the creeps. Churches should start doing background checks on traveling ministers. Preachers who have been hiding criminal records, lying about their past marriages, preying on women or refusing to pay child support should be exposed as charlatans and shunned if they do not repent.
9. Stop faking the anointing. God is God, and He does not need our “help” to manifest Himself. That means we don’t sprinkle glitter on ourselves to suggest God’s glory is with us, hide fake jewels on the floor to prove we are anointed or pull chicken feathers out of our sleeves to pretend angels are in the room. This is lying to the Holy Spirit.
10. Let’s return to purity. We’ve had enough scandals. The charismatic church must develop a system for the restoration of fallen ministers. Those who fall morally can be restored, but they must be willing to submit to a process of healing rather than rushing immediately back into the pulpit.
11. We need humility. Ministers who demand celebrity treatment, require lavish salaries, insist on titles or exhibit aloofness from others are guilty of spiritual pride.
12. No more big shots. Apostles are the bondslaves of Christ, and should be the most impeccable models of humility. True apostles do not wield top-down, hierarchical authority over the church. They serve the church from the bottom up as true servants.
13. Never promote gifts at the expense of character. Those who operate in prophecy, healing and miracles must also exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. And while we continue to encourage the gift of tongues, let’s make sure we don’t treat it like some kind of badge of superiority. The world needs to see our love, not our glossolalia.
14. Hold the prophets accountable. Those who refuse to take responsibility for inaccurate statements should not be given platforms. And “prophets” who live immoral lives don’t deserve a public voice.
15. Let’s make the main thing the main thing. The purpose of the Holy Spirit’s anointing is to empower us to reach others. We are at a crossroads today: Either we continue off-course, entertained by our charismatic sideshows, or we throw ourselves into evangelism, church planting, missions, discipleship, and compassionate ministry that helps the poor and fights injustice. Churches that embrace this New Reformation will focus on God’s priorities.

J. Lee Grady is contributing editor of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter at leegrady. He expounds on these topics in his 2010 book The Holy Spirit Is Not for Sale (Chosen).

Saying Good bye

This is our home away from home when
we are in Ukraine.....Nehemiah Guest House
The service is superb, the staff is wonderful
and it always makes us sad to leave.



Wayne and Sherry with Tanya.
Tanya and her husband Vasiko are precious
friends who head up the ministry at Nehemiah
Ukraine. We have known Tanya for 11 years and
Vasiko for about 6. They make a great team.



We spent a day in Budapest on our way
home to rest. The city is beautiful and we took
a walking tour to see the area around our hotel.
The buildings are lovely and very old and there
are statues everywhere of those who lived there
and made a difference. The Danube River flows
through the middle of the city and divides it. One
side is Buda and the other Pest. That is where you get
the name.



I could not resist taking a picture of this
charming phone booth.



This is a square with a Roman flavor. The statues
are breathtaking and full of detail of charioteers
and others on horse back. It must be a memorial
of some sort, but it was not written in English and
we did not have a tour guide. The square was surrounded
by museums.


This is a sampling of the gorgeous old homes in
the city. They speak for themselves and one
can only imagine what the past residents were like.

We are always sad to leave our friends in Ukraine because they are very dear to us and we sense God's call on us to be there and strengthen families. This trip was no different. We were very busy with ministry each day and sense that there will be good fruit from our time in Ukraine.

The DVD's are almost totally completed. They were able to print 33 of sessions 1 and 2 and willl be finished soon. Thanks to Valodya and those who worked so hard on this project.

Thank you to all who prayed for us and who gave financially to make this trip possible. When we go, you go.
As much as we enjoy going, we love coming home even more to our family and our church. There is something about understanding the language and culture and eating familiar food. :>))))) Thanks Pastor Bill and Edie for the wonderful job you did taking care of CCF while we have been gone. You are a continued blessing and strength to us.

Grace and Peace
PW and Sherry

Church Picnic Ukranian Style

Traditional Sack Races



A special Ukranian soup cooked from scratch
over an open fire with all fresh ingredients.
It was delicious.



Two sisters who are Pastors wives
Elizabeth from Uzghorod
Angela from Chop with her new baby.



Sherry in a contest to see who can peel a potato, chop an onion and a
pepper in small pieces and slice a loaf of bread the quickest. I won the first round and
then in the final run, I had to make a sandwich for PW and he had to eat
it. My competitors husband chewed faster so she won the contest and the
ribbon. It was great fun.



Two little kids who thought it was fun to
walk in a tent. They rolled it all over the place.



Dads enjoying their little ones



A friendly game of soccer between the men



A few songs before the message




PW preaching a short message on relationships.
He was very funny and everyone was laughing.
The congregation had been encouraged to invite
unsaved friends and there were quite a few in
attendance. He ended the message by presenting
the gospel and telling them what true love was in
the form of the cross. Note the megaphone the translator
is holding. She has a soft voice so they brought this
for her to use while translating.



PW and I with Natalie and Nikola
We ended our day by having dinner with
them at a local pizza shop.

Two more days and we will be home. We are so homesick at this stage and look forward to seeing our family and church family.
We want to thank Pastor Bill and Edie for holding down the fort and going above and beyond the call of duty this time in ministry to our church family. What you do does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. You are the best.

Blessings to you all as you worship tomorrow.
PW and Sherry

Thursday - Friday

Thursday evening almost 100 people showed up for the
seminar on Love and Relationships. We are excited to report
that more than half of them were unsaved people. Not only
were they attentive, but PW was in fine form and made
them laugh often as he taught on these things. Many came up
afterward and had questions and said that it was a very helpful
seminar. Praise the Lord.



Here Wayne and I are standing in front
of the entrance to a park in the city. We have never been here
before and it is lovely. The entrance reminded us of a KOA campground.
Inside there were lots of beautiful trees overhanging a paved walk and
little log houses and a playground. Pastor Edik and Elizabeth had brought
us here after lunch for a little walk....3 miles.



About half way on our walk we came across this
field of yellow black eyed susans. It was breathtaking in person. I hope
you can get an idea of what it looked like. This field was running along side
the river and went on for acres. Double click the picture and it will enlarge.



This adorable little girl was dressed in a sweater to keep
her from catching cold. (mind you the temp was near 80) Her grandma
said it was her 1st birthday.



At the end of our walk we came to a cafe by the river
and Edik and Elizabeth treated us to a cold drink with ice. That is a new thing
here in Ukraine. We sat for over an hour and fellowshiped and just enjoyed
getting to know them better. Edik celebrated his 38th birthday on Thursday.



Friday night we once again went to the English school
to converse with the students who had lots of questions about our seminar.

Afterward several of them asked us to go to the cafe for more talk. So here

we are with them talking about relationships and marriage. We had a wonderful

time with them.

More Pictures

Pastor Viktor from the Gypsy church
introducing PW and Sherry



The couple in the 3rd row are the ones
who came to share what God had done
in their marriage.



Wayne and our friend Valodya sharing
the word.



One of the gypsy grandmas
and her grand daughter - note
the smiles...This is common for
this lady because joy fills her heart.
Everytime we come here to this
church she is smiling from her eyes.




The English school that we attended last night
after the meeting. It was fun conversing with
these girls as they practiced their English
We played Apples to Apples with them as part
or our time together.



This is a wonderful Chocolate store that serves
fresh homemade chocolate and melt in your mouth
ice cream. The girl is Monica. We met her when she
was only 10 back in 2000. She is has grown into a
godly young woman who just wants to serve God with her life.
She is being persecuted for her faith at her university but
continues to stand strong for God. PTL...

Scroll down to the next post to see the pictures from Khust.
Blessings to you all,
PW and Sherry