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Paul's Pen
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Board
Member's Testimony /
Poem - The Last Day /
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Corner /
2008 Resident's Testimony
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New Dormitory News /
On April 1, 2008, Paul and
Eldora Ritchie celebrated their 22nd anniversary of service to the
Lord at Bethel Colony of Mercy.
Rev.
Paul Ritchie
Dear Bethel Friends,
“One Day of God’s Favor is worth ten years of hard labor”. When
God goes before you He can open doors for you that it could take
you ten years to open. Or one day of God’s favor before the judge
could spare you ten years of prison time. I have seen it happen.
And what is God’s favor? It is called grace, “His unmerited favor”
or His enabling presence which enables us to do far above all that
we ask or think.
Eph. 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that works in us.” And,
Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me”.
John 15:5 tells us that we can do nothing of ourselves;
“I am the vine, and you are the branches.
He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without
Me you can do nothing.” It would be well for us to
really get hold of that concept. The Lord has created us in His
image and has given us many abilities. Man has performed many
great feats without God’s agreement and even in rebellion against
God.
I would like to remind you of the tower of Babel in
Genesis 11:4-9. Where is the tower of Babel today? Where are
the great Empires of the past today? They rose up and in due time
they disappeared into the pages of time. Yet twelve men, one a
traitor, and the apostle Paul with the Lord Jesus, empowered by
the Holy Spirit have accomplished the impossible having endured
all of the attempts of men to stamp out the Christian Faith.
God can make a way when there seems to be no way. The Cross of
Christ is the greatest favor that has ever been offered to the
human race.
Rom 5:7-11; “For scarcely for a
righteous man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man would
someone even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward
us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much
more then, having now been justified by His blood, we have been
saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were
reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having
been reconciled, we have been saved through His life. And not only
that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
The day that you accept the favor of God’s appropriation of
justification that was made on the cross for you and me will
forever change your eternal destination. It is God’s favor (grace)
that is to be valued so highly. One day of God’s favor, the day
that God knocked on the door of your heart and you invited Jesus
Christ to come IN and become your Lord. That day you were no
longer hanging over the fires of eternal damnation, but you became
a new creature in Christ.
Ephesians 2:8; “For by Grace you have
been saved though faith, and that not of yourself; it is the gift,
(favor) of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.”
I am saved from the guilt and penalty of sin. (Now)
I am in the process of being saved from the habits of sin. (Now,
day by day)
I will be saved into the likeness of Jesus. (In the future)
With God’s favor I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me as I take hold of that which God has already
appropriated for me.
Romans 12:2; “And do not be conformed
to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God.”
If you are lost, not in the family of God through a new
(spiritual) birth, it is not God’s will.
2 Peter 3:9; “The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is
longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but
that all should come to repentance.”
If you are a Christian, and you are not walking in God’s favor;
why not? This is a part of your heritage as a member of the family
of God. Maybe you are not aware of all that God has for you. This
is one reason that I put all of the above Scripture in this
article. Jesus went to the cross to make us right with God so that
we may come boldly in to His presence.
Heb. 10:19; “Therefore, brethren,
having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a
new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil
that is, His flesh.”
Or maybe you only know Jesus Christ in your head and not in your
heart. Until head faith becomes heart faith it is dead faith.
However head faith can become heart faith (saving faith) if and
when we believe with all of our heart. When is that? When your
heart compels you to respond to what you say that you believe.
Rom. 10:8-13; “But what does it say? ’The word is near you, in
your mouth and in your heart’ ‘that is, the word of faith which we
preach’: For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the
Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him
will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew
and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon
Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Some of the men that come to Bethel find that the reason that they
have no power in their life is because their faith has only been a
head faith rather then a heart faith; many have even been to Bible
School. The answer to that problem is to get truly saved. See
Rom. 10: 8-10 above. If there is no power in your life check
your head vs. your heart. Believe and give it life with
confession.
The Lord bless the Bethel Colony Partners in 2008!
Pastor Paul Ritchie
Executive Director,
Bethel Colony of Mercy, Inc.
2007 EXPENSES & 2008 BUDGET
Every day that a man is at Bethel is a man day, or a day that we
had 60 men at Bethel. That would be 60 man days. Last year we had
a total 23,715 man days. Our fiscal year is from November 1st
through October 31st each year.
2007 Report
Beginning Balance 11/01/2006 $40,209.34
Total Receipts $495,223.98
Receipts and Opening Balance $535,433.32
Total Disbursements ($524,231.48)
Closing Cash Balance $11,201.84
Cost per man per day = $22.11 a man per day
Avg. Day was 65 men or $1,436.86 per day,- $10,058 per week, -
$43,686 per month.
Praise the Lord! —- We are so thankful
for all of our precious faithful partners who pray for, and give
to God’s work here at Bethel Colony. Because of your prayers and
financial support we can continue to operate Bethel debt free,
2008 Budget
A budget is the estimation of what it will cost to do the work
that we have planned. At last, we have all of the permits and
expect to make great progress on the new dormitory when the
weather breaks. We have been given a $200,000 grant over the next
two years and a promise of a considerable amount of building
materials which will get us well on the way.
Budget
Total Receipts & Foundations $701,903.00
Expenses -$171,100.00
Maintenance, Ins; New Construction -$230,701.00
Personnel & Insurance -$300,102.00
STAFF OF:
Three Ministers, eleven other staff members which includes
volunteers, part time and full-time paid.
Our staff is one of our most important assets that God has
provided Bethel Colony along with a great Board of Directors. God
has Blessed this Ministry.
Member of Bethel's Board Of Directors
I consider it a blessing to share
testimony of how God has changed my life. I am originally from
Richmond, Virginia, where I spent the first 31 years of my life.
My mother and father divorced when I was 6 and I have one sister
who is 4 years older than me. My mother remarried and I had a
stepfather from age 7 until I was 15. From age 15 on, my mother
did her best to teach me right from wrong and to raise me on her
own. Like most 15 - 16 year olds, I was very hard-headed and I
became very rebellious, not listening to my mother’s advice. In
the early years, my life seemed to be okay. I played baseball and
football for our local youth program. We lived in a nice brick
home with a pool in the backyard so I was very content with life
and seemed to be headed in the right direction. Little did I know
that my life would soon take a different path.
As I reached middle school and began to lose interest in sports, I
found myself with other interests such as girls and trying to fit
in and be “cool”. This was also about the time my mother and
stepfather divorced. I started hanging around people who were
doing the wrong things and before I knew what hit me, I was
entangled in a life of sin. I made some very bad decisions as a
young teenager, decisions that would change my life completely. I
was so easily influenced by the people around me that I began to
do the things they were doing in order to be accepted by them.
What I didn’t realize was that the people I was trying to please
and be accepted by didn’t care anything about me or my future. As
I reached high school, things continued to spiral out of control.
My loving mother, bless her heart, tried to educate me about the
things of this world that do nothing but destroy lives and
relationships. Nevertheless, I thought I knew what was best for me
and the harder she tried the more I rebelled against her. I often
wonder now why it was so easy for me to hurt the ones I loved most
and the ones that loved me most. As I hit my freshman year in high
school, I began to use drugs and alcohol, starting off slowly
using marijuana and drinking. From there, as I grew, so did my
need for harder drugs. Living where I grew up, drugs were as
accessible as a loaf of bread. From pot and alcohol, I moved to
harder drugs. The devil had completed his mission.
I never intended on developing a drug habit but for the next 10
years I couldn’t stop using. My first marriage ended after only 2
years. I couldn’t keep a steady job. All that mattered anymore was
how I would get my next fix. My life had hit rock bottom. I ended
up stealing to support my drug habit and also ended up serving 6
months in jail facing a 20 year prison sentence for various crimes
I had committed.
Finally my will was broken. I knew I had to change or I would soon
be dead. That’s when my sister began to tell me about Jesus. She
herself was born again at the age of 18. I was broken, willing to
try anything to change my life. I began to listen and the more I
heard about Jesus, the better I began to feel. He was already
starting to work in my heart. She told me about a place called
Bethel Colony of Mercy, a ministry designed specifically to reach
the addicted men of America. She told me they have a 65 day
program that teaches men that their addiction is sin and the only
answer for sin is Jesus Christ. She explained that all I needed to
do was call for more information, so I did. They told me they
could take me in about 2 weeks. God had already begun to open
doors for me. Two weeks later I arrived at Bethel Colony located
in the foothills of North Carolina.
Leaving Richmond and arriving at Bethel was like moving to another
planet. I was scared and alone. My family was no longer around me
for support. Men were walking around praising the Lord and
hollering “Hallelujah!”. I didn’t know what I had gotten myself
into. This was all new to me because I had never been around
Christians like this. I settled in and began my journey. They
taught me about God and His love for me. One night while I lay in
bed reading my Bible, God really began speaking to me through His
Word. I closed my Bible and my eyes and began to cry to my Father
in Heaven. I will never forget that night. I told Him that I was
done, that my life belonged to Him and that if He would forgive me
I would follow Him. I started to grow closer to the Lord through
weekly counseling and daily Bible teaching. One day during one of
my counseling sessions I shared my heart with my counselor. He was
so happy about my decision to live my life for Christ and he
prayed with me and assured me of my salvation. I ended up
completing the 65-day program and volunteered to stay on as a
staff member. Fifteen months later, God was leading me to move on
and begin my new life outside of Bethel. Little did I know He
would keep me in Lenoir, NC.
God was answering so many of my prayers and showing me how much He
loved me. He was giving me my life back. I was now walking around
hollering “Praise the Lord!” and “Hallelujah!”. I called a local
furniture company and they told me to come right on up. I filled
out an application and they hired me the same day. What a
wonderful God we serve! Soon after I started working there, I met
a wonderful girl who was so sweet and nice and also loved the
Lord. Eventually I made her my wife. That was all 11 years ago. We
now have 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys. More evidence of God’s
faithfulness and His love for me.
What an important decision I made that night in my room at Bethel!
My life is totally different now. Not because I don’t have
problems or run into trying times. No, those things still happen,
but not as often. Simply because Jesus has taught me that He is
there with me through it all and He will bear the burden; I don’t
have to. I’m no different from you. The only difference may be
that I have received forgiveness for my sins - past, present and
future. Forgiveness not because of anything that I did, but for
what Jesus did. Don’t wait for tomorrow to receive this free gift
of salvation. Tomorrow may never come. Don’t think you have to
wait until you’re a better person. Jesus says come just as you
are. So, I invite you today on behalf of my Savior. Come just as
you are.
Thank you and to God be the glory!
Donald Gurnsey
Bethel Graduate,
Bethel Board Member (1994
-
currently)
The
Last Day
By: Charles Belch
Bethel, 2008
Another week has gone by so fast.
How much longer will our time on earth last?
As we’re never promised tomorrow;
There is no time we can borrow!
Sooner or later our flesh will turn to dust;
All of our material things will start to rust.
As the end of time is drawing near;
God has not given us a spirit of fear!
Paul said it is better to be absent from the body and present with
the Lord,
But all Christians don’t seem to be in one accord.
On that Last Day there will be no turning back
Because that Eastern Sky will surely crack!
Is everyone ready to see the Streets of Gold?
And never worry of growing old?
Will every believer arise to the sky
And leave the rejecters here to cry?
We had all better start the prophecy
Because with Jesus is where we’ll be.
To all you Christians: We had better start to pray
That we don’t leave anyone on that Last Day!
Counseling
Corner
Reverend Don Loss
Fear - A Volatile Emotion
I would like to address the spirit of fear that we are all
susceptible to experiencing. This emotion can overrun us before we
know what hit us. It is like a flood that gains strength coming
down a mountain stream. You are sitting by the bank not suspecting
or seeing the coming deluge. Then you hear the noise, fear sets
in, you see the wall of water approaching, fear rises up, the wall
of water hits, sweeps you away, and fear engulfs you.
How can this happen? It can happen in many ways, but the focus I
am taking concerning fear is in the realm of relationships. We can
all relate when we get an unexpected phone call, an unexpected
delay where one you love doesn’t show up, an unexpected
abnormality when a spouse doesn’t show up with a paycheck and the
T.V. is gone, an unexpected jolt when your children have made
choices that endanger their lives, a sickness that devastates a
child’s or other loved one’s health, and other unexpected
situations that have fallen on some of you reading this article.
You may be like King David who cried out to God,
“My heart is severely pained within
me....fearfulness and trembling have come upon me...and
terrors...have fallen upon me.”
Psalm 55:4&5. Did you notice that David cried out to God in
prayer? “Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide yourself
from my supplication.”
This is the first step in handling fear. “Be
anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the
peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard our
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Phillipians 4:6&7
More than likely you’ll need some warfare prayer to get to the
place of peace. In my own experience, I have succumbed to a spirit
of fear in a fearsome scenario that would begin to race in my
mind, with a resultant fear in my heart and a churning in my
stomach. Unknowingly, Satan takes advantage of the fear and
“the enemy comes in like a flood....”
Isaiah 60:2.
At this point, you must take authority over the spirit of fear
that is racing through the mind with all kinds of imaginations.
You must pray with authority against the spirit of fear and
command it to leave you. You must bind any thought that is
flooding through your mind that is authored by the enemy, and only
receive communication in your mind that is authored by the Holy
Spirit! I have found that this will help subdue the spirit of
fear. But even after doing all this, I have still had an awful
feeling in my abdomen. As I began to praise the Lord, I have felt
a release come through me and felt the peace of God. It was the
Scripture manifesting itself in my whole being;
“when the enemy comes in like a flood, the
Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”
Isaiah 59:19
After the spirit of fear has been disarmed, you need to take a
position on the firm foundation of the Word of God. Speak out loud
the Scriptures: “For God has not given me a
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.”
II Timothy 1:7 Now take advantage of that word ‘love’. For you
see, it’s God’s love for us that will magnify His protection over
us since He is the “Great Shepherd of the
sheep...” in
Hebrews 13:20. It is this perfect love that He has for us and
our knowledge of it that will cast out fear.
So, let’s lay the sword of the spirit into our enemy with this
verse; “There is no fear in love, but
perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he
who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
I John 4:17
It is this stand of our trust in God that has been accomplished
through prayer, warfare in the mind, and in resting ourselves in
the arms of the Great Shepherd that will manifest itself in
“the peace of God which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.”
May our Great Shepherd bless you!
Rev. Don Loss
top
When I came into the world on October 21, 1976, I
was very sick and the doctors told my parents I only had a 5 - 10%
chance of living. Aspirating fluid in my lungs, I had to be put on
a respirator to breathe. My mom told me that our whole church had
a prayer meeting just for me. Through their prayers and the grace
of God, I came home from the hospital 2 months later a healthy 9
pound baby boy!
God blessed me with loving Christian parents and grandparents.
They loved me, taught me about Jesus, took me to Sunday school and
church, supplied all my needs and a lot of my wants. I remember a
very happy childhood, no bad experiences that I can recall. At
around the age of 12, I remember starting to be disobedient and
rebellious. I started experimenting with drugs and alcohol mostly
because it was what the older guys in the neighborhood were doing
and I thought it was cool. I stopped wanting to go to church. Life
was all about me. I became very selfish and prideful. I wanted to
please the older guys I was hanging out with rather than God or my
parents.
Through my junior high school years, I had average grades, played
basketball and baseball on the school teams, had a lot of friends
and I guess you could say I was one of the popular kids in my
school. Mostly I focused on what I thought was cool, smoking pot,
drinking, and lying about how many girls I had been with. God,
family, school - the most important things in life - I cared the
least about. I started dating my high school sweetheart in the 9th
grade. She became a big part of my life. She was a great gal and
we had some great times together. When it was just the two of us,
I felt I could be myself. I didn’t have to drink or do drugs or
feel like I had to be cool or impress her. She liked me for who I
really was. But, away from her, I was a real hell-raiser.
Through high school I continued to play sports and get average
grades. I don’t know how as I went to school stoned everyday. My
teachers, coaches, parents and many other people always told me I
had the potential to do anything I wanted. I never listened or
believed them. I was very hard-headed and stubborn. Given the
opportunity to play baseball at about any college I wanted, I
chose to attend a community college in Wilmington, NC. because it
was near the beach and I heard it was a party school. Having been
voted “biggest partier” in my high school, I wanted to continue
that legacy in college. When I got to Wilmington, my drug and
alcohol use escalated. I hardly ever went to class. After multiple
DUI’s and arrests, my girlfriend of 6 years broke up with me which
sent me into a severe depression. This was my first experience
with the mental institution and anti- depressants. Now I was using
illegal drugs, alcohol and prescription drugs! A lethal
combination. From age 19 to about 24, I call my ‘chasing the wind’
years. During those years, I traveled a lot; Australia,
California, New York, Florida and all sorts of places in between.
I partied with celebrities worked for them, associated with them,
and at times I seemed to be on top of things. But, I was always
empty inside. I could never do enough drugs or alcohol to fill
that void. No matter who my friends were or how much money I had,
I was never truly happy.
From age 25 to 30, I spent most of my time in institutions. All of
the drugs and alcohol abuse had taken a toll on my mind.
Basically, it had driven me into insanity. Over the past 6 or 7
years, I have been in and out of over 30 institutions, mostly
mental, some jail time and various rehabs. At times I would ask
God for help, but I never would surrender to Him. One of the last
times that I was in a state mental institution they had to strap
me down for 3 days because I was such a danger to myself and to
others. While strapped down, in my mind I went to Hell. I heard my
mother crying and saying; “Chad, we all have to leave you now.”
The first thing I experienced was being left behind. I heard the
trumpet sound and the rejoicing and then all of a sudden dead
silence. Then I felt the building shake. I heard screaming and
crying and felt like I was falling. I could actually feel the heat
and hear the screams. But, the worst part was the feeling of
lonesomeness, knowing I would never see my loved ones again. I
would have to feel this terrible feeling that I can’t even
describe forever. This really traumatized me, but it still didn’t
stop me from using drugs. This horrible experience and many others
such as laying on an emergency room table and having my heart stop
from abusing cocaine didn’t stop me. Seeing friends die from drug
abuse and even having one die in my arms didn’t stop me. I was at
the point of using anywhere from $100 to $500 a day of crack
cocaine, drinking and taking medications for bi-polar and
schizophrenia. I had become a slave to drugs.
A friend told me about Bethel Colony and my father called and got
some info from them. Finally, one day I called and applied to come
to Bethel. I arrived at Bethel Colony on October 28, 2007, beat
down, broken, barely hanging on to what existence I had left,
wanting to die, scared, confused and lost. On my second day at
Bethel, I was anointed with oil, prayed over and led to the Lord
Jesus by my counselor, Don Loss. That same night I went down to
the little chapel, got on my knees and cried out to God for
forgiveness and for help. I whole- heartedly surrendered my
miserable, broken life to God. The peace that surpasses all
understanding came upon me. Words can’t describe it. I literally
felt 20 years of sin, addiction, mental illness, hell and torment
instantly lifted from me. I thought I was gonna float away. I was
in shock, and a bit frightened by the power of God to do that. For
3 days I cried tears of joy and I haven’t been the same since.
My eyes have been opened and I realize now that I had a sin
problem. Drugs and mental illness were symptoms of my sin. I was
my own biggest problem - selfishness, foolish pride and other
things of the sinful nature I now realize I was born with. When I
chose at the age of 12 to live independent from God, I chose
death. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God which is
salvation means eternal life. I now have a passion and hunger for
the Word of God. I love Him with all my heart, mind, body and
soul. He has filled me with love, joy, peace, happiness and all
the fruit of the Spirit. I will dedicate the rest of my life to
God and to serving Him. In my heart, I feel He has called me to
evangelize, to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to let the
whole world know what He has done for me so that God may receive
the glory. Only by the grace of God and prayer am I able to write
this testimony. I owe my life to Bethel Colony for the men of God
that are here are the vessels who led me to the Lord Jesus and are
continuing to help me get rooted in God’s Word.
The key to getting set free from addiction or any sin is
surrendering all to Jesus Christ. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ
everyday for saving me. I also thank Him for Bethel Colony of
Mercy!
Chad Wagstaff
Bethel, 2008
Pouring the footing for the
new dormitory!
Praise the Lord!
Paul and Eldora Ritchie,
the Staff, & Students
Thanks for praying for us . . . Let us pray for you
Contact Us at
Bethelcolony@charter.net
With Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
Bethel Colony of
Mercy is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, gifts to which are
deductible as charitable contributions for Federal income tax
purposes. Financial information about this organization and a copy
of it’s license is available from the State Solicitation Licensing
Branch at (919) 733-4510. The license is not an endorsement by the
State.
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