Geri and Bob Boyd, the husband and wife team and hosts of Issues in Education, a radio ministry, were given the award by Frontline Ministries Inc., and Exodus Mandate Project, Christian Newswire said.

The award, which was established in 2007, is given to Christian leaders who show moral courage through their contribution to the advancement of Christianity in the nation’s life and culture, according to Christian Newswire.

The Boyd’s were awarded, Christian Newswire said, because of their successful international radio program, which focuses on K-12 Christian education and homeschooling, which they have run for more than 20 years.

Issues in Education is aired in more than 650 stations and four satellite networks, the largest being the Christian Satellite Network which has 424 stations, Christian Newswire said.

The show is intended to convey to listeners the need for their children to either attend K-12 Christian education and home schooling, or to send them to a quality Christian school. The program also aims to support and encourage those who already home school, has played a large role in contributing to this endeavor, Christian Newswire reported.

On their website, Bob and Geri say, “Don’t simply ask what kind of education you want for your children, ask what kind of people you want them to become.” They also point out the link between quality of education and the future of the nation.

The website also contains a list of radio stations, states, cities and times when their program is aired, and contains samples of previous radio programs. There are also videos that show examples of lessons taught in public schools.

Dr. Robert Dreyfus, whom the award has been named after, is a prominent, retired Florida dentist who is distinguished for inventing a medical appliance to relieve neuromuscular pain. He was a former president of the Florida Dental Society of Anesthesiology and is Florida State Coordinator for the Exodus Mandate Project, which seeks to encourage Christian parents to take their children out of public schools and to ensure that they have a good Christian education, Christian Newswire said.

Christian Newswire quotes Bob and Geri saying, “Just as a craftsman takes time in woodwork or art or music, so the cultivation of godly children takes time, but the results outlast anything else.

“If you want to do it right, invest yourself in your child. Children are a gift from God, not to be sent away, but nurtured and cared for with love and attention to every detail. It’s called home schooling.”

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See You At The Pole is an annual tradition every September, where students from 20 countries, and throughout the U.S., congregate at their schools’ flagpoles to pray for their families, friends, schools, classmates, neighborhoods and countries; and to seek God’s guidance, healing and protection, Christianity Today reported.

Since its inception, a number of other nations have launched their own SYATP movements including Australia (which celebrated it on May 20), Korea, Japan, Turkey, the Ivory Coast and Canada (which followed the same date as the U.S.), according to their website.

SYATP was initiated by students in Ft. Worth, Texas in a suburb called Burleson in 1990. That year, on Sept. 12 over 45,000 teenagers in four states met at their school flagpoles to pray before the start of school, Seacoastonline said.

The intent was to ask God to bring a spiritual and moral awakening to schools and countries. Paul Fleischmann, president of the San Diego-based National Network of Youth Ministries, which coordinates with SYATP said, “Every year, it offers a fresh challenge for [students] to minister to their friends,” the website reported.

Every school determines how they will celebrate prayer on SYATP. Some sing, others include Scripture, but all pray.

In Jacksonville, Texas, high school student Lauren Eyre told the Jacksonville Daily Progress,Jacksonville Daily Progress “Every year I look forward to the chance to gather with fellow Christians to pray for our school and our country. I am so thankful to have the freedom to be able to join in with other believers on our school campus and simply cry out to God for revival to break out in our school.”

In fact, students took the event (which usually takes place before classes) one step further and spent the whole morning praying renaming it, Saw You At The Pole. Another high school student, Hannah Earle told the Jacksonville Daily Progress, “I just think it’s cool how what one person says or prays can make a difference in so many lives.”

In Florida, a group of students from Winnacunnet High School prayed for their teachers and schoolmates. They prayed for their school “to come together as a community,” and asked for healing and “a general sense of wellness over the school,” Seacoastonline reported.

Other prayer requests were for the WHS Student Council and Class of 2010, that they would provide good leadership for underclassmen and provision of finances for their college studies in the future, Seacoastonline said.

Peter Kimball, a leader of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes told Seacoastonline, “I thought it [SYATP] went really well. There was a lot of participation from the students, and kids really got involved in the prayer.”

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The National Day of Prayer has been recognized and observed by every U.S. President since 1775.

The American Humanist Association (AHA) is at it again. The group recently embarked on a mission to replace the word “God” in the national motto “In God We Trust” with “Good” (see The Underground’s article Humanist Group Unveils “In Good We Trust” Billboards). Now they have set their sights on the National Day of Prayer, arguing instead for a “National Day of Reason,” according to CNS News.

The group’s movement started on the heels of last week’s federal court ruling that the National Day of Prayer was indeed unconstitutional because it violates the separation of church and state. U.S. District Court Judge Barbara B. Crabb wrote of the 1952 statute creating the National Day of Prayer that its “sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function,” according to the official AHA web site.

White House spokespersons have reported that President Obama will still recognize the traditional observance of the National Day of Prayer on May 6, as the court’s appeals process will not yet be exhausted by that time.

AHA Director Roy Speckhardt disagrees with the president’s decision.

“The government should not be directing citizens to pray,” he said. “In addition to being unconstitutional, it’s also specifically offensive to people who don’t believe in a god and are made to feel excluded by the observance.”

Historically, there have been several recorded National Days of Prayer, even before the 1952 ruling establishing the observance we now recognize as a nation. In 1775, the Continental Congress marked a day to designate “a time of prayer in forming a new nation.”

Former U.S. President John Adams would later declare May 9, 1798 “a day of solemn humiliation, fasting and prayer.” He asked Americans to pray “that our country may be protected from all the dangers which threaten it.”

The National Day of Prayer became a requirement of U.S. presidents’ recognition when, on April 17, 1952, former President Harry S. Truman signed a bill declaring that all subsequent presidents observe the day.

In recent years, the National Day of Prayer was reintroduced to the nation due, in part, to the efforts of the Reverend Billy Graham and certain members of both the House and the Senate. Together, these men implemented a joint resolution to mark an annual National Day of Prayer, “on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.”

Peter Spriggs, senior fellow for policy studies at Family Research Council told CNSNews.com, “The American Humanist Association and their allied groups have every right to promote a new celebration if they want to – and if they can persuade people to participate voluntarily, that’s fine, but I don’t think they have a right to do away with a long-standing tradition that is deeply rooted in our nation’s history – which is calling the people to prayer.”

Spriggs also added, “[The National Day of Prayer] is inclusive of the vast majority of Americans who believe in a Supreme Being and who do pray, and it is inclusive of the vast majority of Americans throughout the history of our country –and the vast majority of the leaders of our country through our history.”

Of Judge Barabra Crabb, Spriggs concluded, “Judge Crabb was inferring that she found something in the Constitution that every president and Congress since 1775 has not.”

The case is expected to have its day in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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These days everything seems unsafe.

People are being caught in the merciless radar of terrorism.People are being attacked and killed in the name of politics and religion. Recent incidents show many fall victims to this evil.

On the other, big and small business establishments lace their products (food stuffs, medicines etc…) with spurious materials which lead innocent people to different kinds of ailments to a slow process of death.

Lastly the recent outbreak of bird flu which hit the country made people panic all over the nation.

In every sphere a certain kind of uncertainty and panic prevails.

People don’t want to believe each other. Trust is lost among all spheres. Everywhere a kind of fear and unbelief is taking place.

Even in such situation God’s people need not fear because we are under the great control and cover of the creator of the universe.

We are safe and secure under the wings of the almighty one.

Yes, we are under the protection of the mighty and unchanging God. He never changes nor forsakes those who put trust in Him.

When we are on this earth we too have to undergo such panic situation or to face trails and persecutions and even death. But believers need not get panic in such situation, because we are in the palms of the Lord almighty.

We have a blessed hope in Christ. When we finish our course on this earth we will meet our Savior and we will be with him forever and ever.

What a blessed hope we believers have in Jesus Christ. Whereas, others (those who are without Christ) should get panic that they do not know where they are going.

We are a blessed people Eph.1:3; 2:6 makes it very clear that we are rich in Christ, we are raised up together with him and made us sit down together giving us joint seating with Him in heavenly sphere in Christ Jesus, the Messiah, the Anointed one.

The Scripture is filled with comforting words for the believers, if we trust Him fully; we need not fear anything or anybody on this earth. Circumstances may frighten us, things may go against us, rulers and leaders may rise up against us, but you need not worry, you are in the safe hands of the Lord Almighty.

The recent incidents proclaim that our Lord’s coming is very close. Dearly beloved of God, we are so blessed people, as mentioned in Ephesians, we are rich in Christ.

What are you going to do with these riches?

Or what are you going to do with the other fellow brethren who are perishing without these riches?

Are you making any efforts to share this richness to them? Let us make note that these blessed privileges and positions He has given us not to keep it for ourselves but to share with others. Many a times we hold these blessings for ourselves for our selfish interests.

Abraham is a good example. Lord Jehovah brought him from the clutches of idol making and idolatry and blessed him abundantly.

He became a leader and the father of the nation. Even after obtaining huge blessings he did not hold back the blessings for himself. Instead he shared it with others. Let us emulate his nature, let us be in his category, so that Lord will bless us with much more blessings.

Let us be a blessing to many around us, let us share the greatness of this God which we are enjoying today to others, then they too will be blessed and through them others also may be blessed.

Dearly beloved in the Lord, we do not have much time on this earth.

Let us not hold this blessings for our own selfish interest, instead let us do something to bring the perishing souls to His fold with all the heavenly riches. Let us share it for the glory of our Lord. May God help us.

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