San Diego County Edition Vol. 29, No. 10
October 2011
www.christianexaminer.com
Community
Archeology
Forget the masquerades, God created each of us in his image
Christmas Tabernacle event to bring back true focus of holiday
230 tons of dirt, debris removed from ancient Canaanite water system
page 13
page 19
page 7
FREE
Mark Larson
Cell ’n out for God Inmate turns life around, heads up Protestant ministry in San Quentin By Lori Arnold
More than 500,000 children are at risk in the Horn of Africa because of the severe drought.
Famine in the Horn of Africa By Elizabeth Griffin SEATTLE — On July 20, the United Nations announced that a famine has hit a large section of Somalia, with severe drought conditions throughout the Horn of Africa. An estimated 10 million people have been affected in northeastern Kenya, Somalia and eastern Ethiopia. This is the first official famine in the region since 1984-85, when one million people died in Ethiopia and Sudan. Famines mean a lack of resources to meet the basic food requirements for the population, acute malnutrition in more than 30 percent of the population and a death rate equal to five out of 10,000 people per day. Somalia has not had rain for the past two years, and no rain is predicted until October. Without the rain, the people, who rely on
agriculture for sustenance, have no food. At least 500,000 children from the region are at risk of death, according to UNICEF. The challenges in Somalia are not new. According to Dave Eller, president of World Concern, the nation has existed in an almost feudal system of government since the official government collapsed in the early 1990s. Militarized control of shifting regional governments has resulted in oppression. “Somalia is like the wild, wild west,” said Derek Sciba, marketing director of World Concern. The nonprofit Christian relief organization based in Seattle has worked in the nation since the mid-1980s, digging wells to provide water, improving the agricultural system and teaching hygiene and See SOMALIA, page 10
SAN QUENTIN — Robert Lott makes no excuses for his austere surroundings. It’s the price to be paid for a life derailed by bad choices and drug addiction. Even his Christian upbringing failed to reign in his rebellion. “He’d be good for three or four months then he’d get back on the drugs,” said his father Andy Lott, a retired El Cajon firefighter. After each cycle of incarceration—sometimes jail, sometimes prison—the younger Lott, a graduate of Christian High School, would seek out a construction job, work diligently at sobriety, become depressed, relapse and then often steal to finance the next buzz, his father said. “He’d tell his mom, ‘Do not pray for me’ because she would pray that he would get caught and he always did,” his dad said. “That was a blessing because he didn’t fry any brain cells.” Years later, the father still hears his son’s mantra ricocheting around in his head. “Dad, you don’t know how good the high feels,” Robert would tell his disappointed father. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m high on life. I don’t need anything else in my life. I love the Lord,’” the elder Lott said. The Lord, however, was the farthest thing from Robert Lott’s mind when he broke into a local
A team of spiritual leaders pray over Robert Lott at a ceremony marking his ordination at San Quentin.
Three strikes: Critics of California sentencing law say it’s time for reform ..........3 garage looking for loot to finance his habit. He got caught, and with two priors he qualified for California’s three strikes law. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and shipped off to Centinela State Prison in El Centro. Once inside those walls, Lott said he could no longer escape a most certain reality: “Sometimes God is trying to get a hold of you. How far are you willing to go for God to get your attention?” His father quickly recognized the change of heart.
“God was talking to him,” Andy Lott said. “God put a burden on his heart. Twenty years will get your attention.” With the state now in control of his physical life, Lott finally surrendered his spiritual life. “Before long, my cell was full of guys wanting to hear what I had to say about the Bible,” Lott said. “I told Him, ‘If you are really calling me, I will do what I can to prepare myself for ministry.’” Following through on a promise In the El Centro prison, Robert Lott was asked to serve on the ChapSee INMATE, page 2
Homeschoolers pool their talent, raise $2,500 for audio Bibles By Lori Arnold RANCHO BERNARDO — A group of North County homeschoolers raised $2,500 for Talking Bibles that will be distributed to the Fishermen Village churches of Machiliphatnam on the Bay of Bengal in India. “The people receiving the Talking Bibles are all lower-caste, Hindu illiterates who have no access to any form of education and have never heard the Good News even once,” Dan Meek, vice president of development for Talking Bibles said in a news release. “They get together in Listening Bible Study Groups which are supervised by national church planters.” The money was raised through a talent show organized by two homeschoolers who took to heart information they learned at a “Do Hard
Things” conference this summer. Founded by teenagers Greg and Brett Harris, Do Hard Things is a movement that challenges young people to move beyond themselves by extraordinarily ministering to others through the power that only comes through Jesus Christ. “It was an amazing conference,” said Rory Eggers, who took two of her seven children, Jordan, 18, and Christianne, 15. “So many times we go to conferences and hear a lot of things and that’s all we ever do, go to conferences.” On the way home from the conference, Rory asked the teens how they would like to put what they learned into practice. “I think they needed to hear and be encouraged by (the message),” she said. See STUDENTS, page 9
A group of student dancers performs at a benefit for Talking Bibles. The talent show was organized by two local teenagers.
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