New York City’s Bowery Mission spent their 135th straight Thanksgiving providing thousands of meals to the homeless of the city.
“More than 600 volunteers will prepare these meals and serve guests in the mission’s century-old chapel, with music and festive decorations for the holiday,” James Winans, chief development officer at the Bowery Mission, told The Christian Post.
The mission serves meals in two hour shifts throughout the day. The meals are traditional Thanksgiving meals with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, green beans, gravy and all the fixings.
“Pie for dessert,” Winans added with a smile.
Winans said that mission doesn’t bother with seeking someone’s “eligibility for services” or other qualifying standards for government shelters.
“We simply seek to meet their specific need, no questions asked,” he said.
The Bowery Mission was founded in 1879 and has given out almost 400,000 meals to the homeless this year.
A New York doctor who had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea has been confirmed to have contracted the virus.
Dr. Craig Spencer was rushed to isolation after reporting to the hospital with a fever on Thursday.
New York health officials are trying to calm the public after news that Dr. Spencer was seen out on the town with friends the night before the reported to the hospital, had taken a cab, visited a bowling alley and rode two subway lines.
“He did not have a stage of disease that creates a risk of contagiousness on the subway,” Dr. Mary Bassett, the city health commissioner, said. “We consider it extremely unlikely, the probability being close to nil, that there will be any problem related to his taking the subway system.”
The concern is that doctors can not say for sure that Dr. Spencer did not have a fever when he was out on the town, and if he had the fever then he could have been infectious with the virus.
At least three people have been placed into isolation because of close contact with Dr. Spencer. The subway he rode, the cab and the bowling alley are all undergoing intense sanitization.
A New York City church is offering to pay for the flights to have Meriam Ibrahim and her family leave Sudan along with providing them food and shelter.
Pastor William Devlin of Manhattan Bible Church traveled to Sudan and met with the Foreign Minister. The pastor says that he asked the Minister to intervene to allow the family to leave the country with him.
“The Devlin family has offered to bring this family back to the USA from Khartoum and have them live with us. I have been interviewed by the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C. and I have also met for three hours with the U.S. Ambassador to Sudan here in Khartoum – and his senior staff,” Devlin said in an email to The Christian Post on Sunday. “I, along with another brother in the Lord, were able to go to the Safe House where this persecuted family is currently living in Khartoum and minister to them for over an hour.”
The family is reportedly in good health despite the Sudanese government’s continued actions in keeping Ibrahim from leaving the country. The family is still waiting for the results of an ultrasound to see if newborn Maya will be able to walk after complications with her birth.
A researcher with the Family Research Council says that euthanasia is going to be an issue that the pro-life movement in the United States needs to be prepared to fight.
Arina Grossu of the FRC’s Center for Human Diginity told the Christian Post that euthanasia both at home and around the world is something that is a matter of life and that it should get more attention.
“In the pro-life movement, we’re for all human life from conception to natural death. And so we need to cover that, and especially because I think it is an up-and-coming fight for us,” Grossu said. “I think that as more cases come out where parents are trying to kill their children, or the elderly or the disabled, and we see the shortage in federal funds for healthcare, we are going to see the effect of this. And we’re going to step in. But I am hoping that people will take a proactive stance instead of a defensive stance on the issue.”
Grossu noted that in Oregon, their report for assisted suicides each year cannot guarantee that all of the assisted suicide deaths were voluntary.
She also noted that around the world, euthanasia is increasing. In February, Belgium passed a law that allows the assisted suicides of terminally ill children.
A group of New York City pastors is banding together to get the policy banning churches from using public schools for worship services reversed despite a court saying schools had the right to ban Christians from their buildings.
Pastor William Devlin told the Christian post that he was optimistic the policy would be reversed and surprised many by saying the far-left mayor of the city was on their side.
“Pastors across New York City are very encouraged about recent developments on the right to worship. We know that Mayor de Blasio is with us 100 percent and any day we will hear that he has reversed the draconian and discriminatory Department of Education policy … we have his word,” Devlin told the Post.
An appeals court in New York City ruled in favor of the Board of Education in their battle against churches holding worship services in school building after school hours.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mayor Bill DeBlasio said “I believe that a faith-based organization has a right like anyone else … to use that space.”
The ruling against churches is being appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Five children under 16 have been arrested by the NYPD after a mugging spree in New York’s Central Park.
The five children, including a 12-year-old and 13-year-old, are facing charges of robbery, assault and attempted assault.
The gang attacked a 31-year-old man on Monday morning, beating him with a stick and punching him in the face when he refused to give them all the money in his wallet. The group then attacked two female joggers and stole their iPhones and iPods.
The only suspect named by police was 16-year-old Angel Munoz. Police say that Munoz and one of the 14-year-old assailants turned themselves in to police after discovering they were the subject of a manhunt.
The victims then identified the other suspects from lineups conducted at an NYPD precinct.
A New York City megachurch pastor is calling for immediate action against what she calls an “alarming trend” for increased abortions among the African American community.
Rev. Elaine Flake said that people of faith in the African American community have a responsibility to step in and stem the tide after a report showing over half the black women in New York City aborted their babies in 2012.
“I saw that article about a month ago, someone forwarded it to me via email and I was devastated,” Flake told The Christian Post. “I thought those statistics were just outrageous, and wondered if they were true. But if they are, it’s something that I think we have to deal with as a church. As the African American community we have to educate our people a little bit better. I think we just have to be determined that we’re going to deal with some of these issues.”
Flake suggested that as a whole young women are not being taught the value of life and family and perhaps the media is partially to blame for promoting a lifestyle that devalues human life.
“I could never counsel anyone to have an abortion. I could never do that. And I think that when people are making choices, I think they would know my position on that. Again, I think it goes back to the problem of our children especially becoming sexually active so young. … It just seems to be the way the culture’s going. I think that because it is going that way we are seeing these kinds of statistics,” Flake said.
A church in upstate New York that once held designation as a historical landmark will now be stripped of that designation and have the crosses on the building ripped down so that a Muslim group can turn the building into a mosque.
The Syracuse History Preservation Board has given permission to the Muslim-driven North Side Learning Center to destroy six crosses that were placed at the top of the century-old building.
German immigrants seeking freedom of worship built the church.
The Catholic Church closed the church in 2010 because of decreasing attendance, merging the congregation with another parish. The building still had been designated as a historic landmark by the city after the closure.
A spokesman for the city said that the city did not have an opinion on the loss of the historic status for the building, saying that they wouldn’t stop the destruction of the crosses because it would inhibit the worship of the Muslims.
A pair of federal judges is endorsing discrimination against groups because of their faith in a ruling against churches meeting in New York City schools.
In a 2-1 ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the court said that New York City school officials could deny Christian groups the same right to rent space inside their buildings that are offered to other groups. The liberal judges ruled that the Free Exercise Clause did not require government to finance exercise of religion.
However, the dissenting justice pointed out the majority’s endorsement of discrimination.
“Allowing an entity to use public school space open to all others on equal terms is hardly the financing of that entity,” Judge John Waller wrote. “However, shutting the door to religious worship services in such a setting when every other activity is permitted strikes at the Clause’s core.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom, who is representing the church involved with the case, is working on an appeal of the ruling.
A New York City pastor attempting to shine the light of Christ in one of the seediest parts of the city is attempting to raise the funds to turn the area’s last strip club into the church’s new home.
Pastor Reggie Stutzman of Real Life Church told the Christian Post that a witnessing opportunity outside the club was a sign that God is going to bring “revival” into the city.
“I had an extraordinary conversation with this man who used to be a patron there. He said his life is just a wreck,” the pastor said. He was speaking with a driver outside the Platinum Pleasures club in Hunts Point. The church’s members have been meeting in front of the church every Tuesday for prayer since that day.
Now, the club has a for sale banner hanging across their front.
“God is bringing the prodigals home and He’s going to use this club and Real Life Church to be a part of the big picture, that revival is coming to NYC. It’s exciting,” said Stutzman.
Hunts Point is known as one of most dangerous areas in the city with a heavy prostitution program.
