Sponsored by the Ladies Ministries of the Wisconsin District UPC, the second annual Holiness Conference was held at Abundant Life Apostolic Church, in Oconomowoc, Friday-Saturday, November 21-22nd. Conference speakers were Sister Ruth Harvey, the National Daughters of Zion Director, CT District Ladies Ministries Secretary, author, and recording artist; and Pastor David K. Bernard, founder and pastor of New Life United Pentecostal Church, Superintendent of the South Texas District UPC, and President of Urshan Graduate School of Theology.

We left the conference enriched and with a greater understanding of why holiness is so vital to our Apostolic calling and anointing. Holiness unto the Lord is about being like Him. While societies change, God’s standards do not. The speakers acknowledged we are living in a world where truth does not matter, but the Church must not be intimidated; it must be salt and light.

On opening night, in a message entitled, “I am the Lord. I Change Not,” Sis. Harvey compared King Manasseh’s transgressions against the Lord to America’s breakdown of God’s laws. Like Judah under King Manasseh, America has done according to the abominations of other nations (2 Kings 21:2). She has set up “high places” (e.g. altar of abortion) like Judah shed innocent blood (2 Kings 21:16). The city set upon a hill has become, like Judah, more evil than some of the heathen nations (2 Kings 21:9) she followed and, like Judah (2 Kings 21:12), stands to be judged for her sins against God’s unchanging laws of holiness. In judgment, Manasseh repented and God restored his kingdom (2 Chr 33:13). So, there is hope that, even in judgment, God will bring revival to America and not forsake His covenant with the people.

Thus, she said the Church needs a greater fear of the Lord in this hour. Those who do not feel holiness is important right now are going down a pathway of deception from which they may never recover! The greatest fear is that the Church will change with the world. Instead of conforming itself to the “image” of God, she feared the Church is trying to conform to the image of the world and losing its saltiness. The anointing will never come by becoming weak and watered down, she said. Now is the time for the Church to turn up the light and stand for truth for the darkness is very great (Isaiah 60:2).

Bro. Barnard preached on “A Call to Die,” which he said was the key to Apostolic revival. He said the Apostolic movement must go back to the Cross and re-consecrate itself to the principles of sacrifice, holiness and obedience to experience revival. Jesus submitted his human will to the will of the Father, he said, and, in this sense, we should follow Him. He said there should be a sacrificial attitude in our lives and that, paradoxically, is the way to eternal life. It may mean to sacrifice goals and dreams; it may mean to be persecuted and ostracized by society, but if we want results, we must follow the path God has called us to.

Using John 12:24 as his text, Bro. Barnard said there is potential for a great harvest in just one grain having life, but it must first fall into the ground. This is contrary to the world’s counsel, which pushes celebrity endorsements and big programs. If we, in our zeal to attract people, somehow relax the teachings of the Bible, it will not stop with one teaching. He feared churches are becoming social centers. Where, he asked, in all of this is the opportunity for repentance, confession, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit?

He made a distinction between legalism and holiness. While we are under grace, there still are commandments we have to obey! Holiness is dying to sin in the world; it is dying to self-will; it is becoming like Jesus. He said if we take away the commandments of holiness and sacrifice, we will not have the same move of God and, after a while, the Church becomes just another program. Therefore, Apostolics need to go back to their roots and renew their commitment to holiness and sacrifice.

On Saturday, Bro. Barnard presented a two-part seminar on “The Life of Holiness” and “Holiness in Adornment.” He said that while the new birth is necessary to enter in, believers must travel on the highway of holiness to reach their destination. And the first thing to destroy holiness is a root of bitterness, the reason why holiness first and foremost is the attitude of the heart, not outward appearances.

Sis. Harvey taught a powerful message entitled, “What Direction is your House Facing?” Using Abraham-Lot (Genesis 13:11-13) and Jacob (Genesis 33:18-20; 35:1), she taught that the enemy will not always come as a terrorist, but he will get us to turn our direction. When we make alliances with the enemy, it becomes hard to pray until those alliances are broken. Her concluding message was on the devil’s work in society to blur distinctions between the male and female genders and mar the covenant relationship we have with God through obedience. The devil wants to dismantle what God has joined together because a sanctified bride is a picture of redemption. She said, yes, holiness in attire does matter. If we do not have on the proper wedding garment (holiness) we cannot be part of the bride!

To obtain a CD or DVD of the messages, go to www.wiupci.org and click on Media Missions.

Submitted by Sis. Carole Keller
WDN Section 2 Representative

Aug. 1st Friday morning at 8am – a small group of men met at the campgrounds Brother Jimmy Ogle led us in a great time of prayer, asking God to move and equip the men of Wisconsin for a meaningful spiritual adventure.

About 40 men played golf, and the tournament was won by a 4some from the Green Bay church, as they turned in a score card of 5 under par. Other winnings were awarded for the longest drive, longest put, closest to the pin, and most balls in the water.

We regrouped at the campgrounds at 6:30pm for more prayer, and church started at 7:00pm. Brother Rob Jadrnicek led the men in powerful worship – nothing like hearing a large group of men singing and worshiping together – it was awesome! Brother Mike Williams (President of UPCI’s Apostolic Men) preached, referring to Noah, that there is life after the flood. Great Life…

Bro. Mike Williams

After the service we enjoyed pizza in the cafeteria, and much fellowship followed.

Saturday morning we met early for prayer, ate breakfast, and then Brother Andy Vik led us in worship – again the power of God moved in mightily, as our Wisconsin Men lifted up their voices and sang with strength and power.

Bart Stamper moved into his own powerful story of deliverance from a life addicted to pornography. He offered practical helps (www.covenanteyes.com software program & the book Every Man’s Battle) and spiritual strength to fight this … a great time of prayer followed.

Bro. Bart Stamper

We enjoyed a conversation about this subject with Brother’s J. Putnam, E. Kaske, A. Tamel, & R. Grant, along with others that spoke out from the audience. Much wisdom and practical insight was given. Brother Mike Williams preached a wonderful closing message to tell us that “IT IS TIME” – time for God to move – time for Men to expect the Miraculous – when the world is at its worst, you can expect God to move and for God’s people to win a great victory – truly it is time…

We finished with more food…good food and great fellowship, leaving with anticipation high towards next year when we can get together again with the great men of Wisconsin. Brother Lee Stoneking has already made plans to be here with us next year…

~ living for God has always been the greatest of adventures. ~

It is Time…for the men of Wisconsin to move forward and begin to “Live the Adventure”

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Report submitted by Pastor Steve Rogers, Milwaukee.
Pictures by Pastor Chappell, Dodgeville

Every year, the departments of the Wisconsin district gather together for the purpose of planning the coming year’s events and activities. The news department is included in the planning and advises the departments on their advertising options.

This year, one of the news department decisions was to adopt a mascot. A small stuffed moose was selected and will now be making an appearance anytime we can persuade someone to be photographed with it.

As you can see, our very own District Superintendant, Bro. Putnam, has volunteered to be the first to be photographed with our new mascot, ingeniously named “WDN Moose”.

It is with regret that I have to pass on the news that our district’s beloved Home Missions Director, Pastor Michael Schmalz, has gone on to be with the Lord. The funeral will be held on Tuesday, September 9th at Apostolic Truth Church (see church website for details). Please take a moment to pray for his wife and children.

You may wish to revisit the appreciation of Pastor Schmalz we posted a week or so ago.

To Rev Mike Schmalz
In Appreciation for Dedicated Leadership
Wisconsin District UPCI Home Missionaries

Ralph Russell Tinkham

Ralph Russell Tinkham enjoyed the challenge of building lighthouses in remote, inaccessible areas. As a junior engineer of the U.S. lighthouse establishment, he was sailing up the North Shore as an assistant on the Rock of Ages Light project off Isle Royale when the ship he was on passed an isolated cliff of anthracite rock, poised like a sentinel above the waters of Lake Superior.

He didn’t know it at the time, but the construction of Split Rock Light Station at that point would consume almost 1 1/2 years of his life and catapult his career with the newly renamed U.S. Lighthouse Service. He did all the architectural work, figured out material and labor needs, and watched over the construction on site, living in the upstairs of the first storage barn after its completion early in 1909.

By the time of his retirement in 1946, Tinkham had become the chief engineer of the entire U.S. Lighthouse Service, and had planned and watched over the construction of stations in Hawaii and Alaska, among others.

Engineering

The construction of Split Rock Lighthouse was an engineering feat in an organization already known for building structures in remote locations.

The first challenge in the spring of 1909 was erecting a steam-powered hoist and derrick for lifting supplies off the supply boats on the lake, more than 110 feet below. A construction crew of 35 to 50 men had to be supplied by boat through the entire construction period using this method. Three hundred ten tons of building materials were hoisted over the length of the construction period without a major accident.

The construction workers stayed in canvas tents on the open cliff top as construction proceeded. The construction firm of L.D. Campbell & Son of Duluth supplied all the construction labor necessary – carpenters, brick masons, demolition men for dynamiting the hard rock of the cliff for foundations, and common laborers collected from all over the Great Lakes region — to assemble a light station at one of the most remote places one had ever been built.

By the time Split Rock Light Station was completed in mid summer 1910, workers had spent 13 months on the desolate cliff, with only a break during the worst months of winter. They were exposed to the elements and connected to civilization only by occasional supply boat visits. When the light was first lit on July 31, 1910, it stood as a monument to the will of the men who built it, as much as an aid to navigation.

Missions of Today

Ralph Tinkham and his fellow laborers endured harsh and unwelcome environments and spent weeks, months and years to build a beacon of light that would be a guide to the iron ore ships that sailed around the remote shores of the northern Great Lakes. The need was great as over 22 ships met there demise in the northern coastal waters of lake superior before the Split Rock light house was erected and put into service.

There is a great analogy that we can draw from this story and apply it to the modern day building of Home Mission churches in remote untouched areas of Wisconsin. Like Ralph Tinkham we know that it takes the vision of a solid organization and a leader who is willing to take the vision and make it a reality. The Home Missions team under the leadership of Rev Michael Schmalz is doing such a work. As home missionaries we find ourselves much like the lighthouse construction laborers in remote and alone areas at times. But then there is the supply ships of Home Missions support that come to the missionaries aid combined with great leadership such as Mike Schmalz that assists the man of God, the Home Missionary, complete the task of building an Apostolic Gospel Lighthouse in his city of calling. Knowing light houses were erected successfully around the Great lakes for the preservation of life on the dangerous waters of the Great Lakes how much more noble is the goal of building 100 Apostolic Churches (Lighthouses) around the state of Wisconsin by 2010.

To show our appreciation to Rev Michael Schmalz director of the Wisconsin District Home Missions Department, the Home Missionaries of Wisconsin would like to express our appreciation to him and his wife for dedicated leadership. We would like to present to Bro. & Sis Michael Schmalz an original water color painting of the Split Rock Lighthouse painted by artist Peg Sandin and a copy of a “Pictorial Guide to the Lighthouses of the Great Lakes”.

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Picture and report submitted by Bro. Morey, Waupaca

Here are the results of the 2008 Christmas for Christ offering by our Home Missions department. Well done to everyone who gave to this worthy cause.

Click on the thumbnail for the full-sized image.

Doctrine needs to be taught. This was the driving-home point of the seminar held at Apostolic Truth Church in Appleton. In September, the Sunday school teachers of the state were given the opportunity to attend a Sunday School Seminar with speakers Bro. Jonathan and Sis. Judi Maki.

I was unable to attend the Friday evening seminar but heard that Bro. Maki did an excellent job teaching on the importance of knowing doctrine. He said that we possess a great truth and with a great truth comes great responsibility. It is our responsibility to fill our cities with doctrine, to polish it up and make it shine.

The Saturday morning sessions featured Sis. Maki. She talked about the importance of including doctrine in our Sunday school lessons as much as possible and gave us practical ways to do so. “Use every opportunity…Put it in every lesson” she said. Here are some examples. Teach the gospel in our prayer time, worship time (see song), Bible story (not at the end), room decorations and practical story. She says she changes the stories a little so the characters (i.e. grandma) attend a Pentecostal church and she adds a salvation message.

Sis. Maki then discussed discipline in the classroom. This was excellent and would have been great for parents as well as teachers to attend. According to Judy, discipline is NOT controlling the children. It is teaching them to control themselves. The ultimate goal is self discipline. We want them to do what is right because it is right.

Five ways she shared to help eliminate discipline problems are:
1) Love and accept the children just as they are.
2) Plan meaningful activities (not just a craft – a Bible learning activity)
3) Give choices
4) Be realistic, consistent and calm
5) Focus on the positive

This seminar helped me resolve to do a better job with student discipline and encouraged me to take a strong stand for doctrine and make sure my students hear about the gospel and what it means regularly.

If you ever have an opportunity to hear this dynamic couple speak, take it. They will bless you.

(To the tune “Do Re Mi”)
Do you know that Jesus died?
Rose again in three short days.
Me, the one for whom he died,
Far away He took my sins.
So I’ll love Him evermore.
Love, I never knew before.
“T” the shape of Calvary
Means that Jesus died for me.

Written by: Loretta Lundt
Section One WDN Representative

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

Praise the Lord! There are twenty-two new names written down in Glory!

It was 6:30 PM on November 3rd at the Oak Hill Correctional Center (just outside of Fitchburg and Madison) when men rose from the dead to walk in the newness of life; as stated in Romans 6:4. There was much jubilation and celebration at the church service which followed!

The institution did not allow pictures of this amazing harvest, but there were many witnesses. The security was in full force, if you can imagine; this being a prison and all. Our Nigerian brother Okoye, who is the fulltime Apostolic Chaplain at this facility, along with the writer of this report, brought them up out of those watery graves. The Creator of the vast Heavens of Heavens loosed them from the chains that had them bound for so many years, Glory to His Name! Oh the Blood of Jesus. How precious is the flow that made them white as snow!

A few months prior to this, an equal number of men experienced the same new birth. Some of those men are teaching the new babes that came forth on this great night.

The sisters involved in the ACTS AODA group at the Ellsworth Correctional Facility in Union Grove (just outside of Racine, Wisconsin) are experiencing large classes of nearly one hundred women. They recently graduated thirty from their class.

The Bible Study that meets prior to this class is seeing thirty in attendance on any given Saturday. The ladies from Elim Tabernacle and Cornerstone Christian Life Tabernacle Church (Home Missions Church from West Allis) have been very faithful in overseeing this Harvest. They now are going to have prayer meetings on Mondays or Tuesday at this same Facility.

Sister Robin, from Apostolic Faith Church in Kenosha, is going over the border into the State of Illinois and combining her efforts with Brother and Sister Farley in the correctional facility there. They are conducting an ACTS AODA class and Bible Studies. Pastor Barnette is teaching Bible Studies at the Kenosha jail during the week.

I could go on and on about the great works that the called out ones are doing and the great harvest in this hour. Wisconsin is experiencing great deliverance in the prisons of Wisconsin!

It is time to keep the pressure on the neck of the enemy and stand firm in the power of our God. Let’s Go Apostolics! His Truth is marching on!!!!!
For God’s Service

Bro. Mel Luckman
Wisconsin District Chaplain

The date was Friday, August 10th, 2007. The place was Bobcats Arena, Charlotte, North Carolina. The event, National Youth Congress 2007.

Three young men took the stage for what was destined to be a historic performance. Fallen Chains, comprised of Joe Campbell, and brothers Daniel and David Badger, were the first group to perform in the Small Group category, presented by the Pentecostal Music Association. Other categories included Male Vocalist, which debuted Wednesday Night, and Female Vocalist, which took place on Thursday Night.

The UPCI youth of the nation decided the winners by using their cell phones or paper ballot. From the first notes of their song Jean Skirt Girl, the arena was enthralled. When the crowd of 18,000 realized they were singing about an Apostolic girl unafraid to be modest and stand for righteousness, the place erupted. For many, this was one of the first songs they had heard about honoring our Apostolic girls.

Later that evening, Fallen Chains was awarded 2nd Place in the North American Talent Search. As a band, Fallen Chains has been playing at various events, at home and throughout the country. They have played together over the past three years at numerous UPC Churches, Youth Rallies, Youth Conventions, Neighborhood Outreaches and Home Mission events. All three members attend college and are involved in their local church’s praise and worship teams – Joe at Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Wausau, and Dan and Dave at Pentecostal Assembly in Eau Claire.

Fallen Chains can be reached via email at badgerbeat@hotmail.com

Report submitted by
Bro. Corey Boyte

This years Wisconsin District Sunday School Seminar, which was held at Apostolic Truth Church in Appleton was very well attended. Pastor Mike Schmalz, and Bro. Ron Turner, as well as their church team were excellent hosts.

This year we were blessed by the ministry of Evangelist Jonathan Maki, and the training of Sis. Judy Maki.

Friday night at the rally Bro. Maki preached an excellant message on keeping the doctrine. As he usually does Bro. Maki used plenty of scripture to support his case.

Saturday morning Sis. Maki taught one session on “Feed My Lambs – what every child needs every week in Sunday School”. In her second session she spoke on the subject “Discipline Boot camp”, discipline in the classroom. In the first session the marvelous glory of the Lord was manifested, which extended the session some but no one seemed to mind the wonderful interruption.

It was one of the best Seminars we have had, and are thankful for the burden, and dedication of the Maki’s.

Pastor Robert Meyer
District Sunday School Superintendent