STAR Summer '21

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GOD ENDS FAMILY'S GENERATIONAL TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION loyd Miles Jr. grew up on the hard streets of Harlem. It was Fbefore the late 1940s when Floyd Jr. started using heroin, and he knew what was happening, heroin had him – slowly

claiming his life, shot by shot. But that didn’t stop him from falling in love. He met a beautiful young woman, Naomi, in the neighborhood and they eventually got married. Sadly, not long after, Naomi also started using heroin. She died at the age of 28 of an overdose, but not before she and Floyd Jr. had two children.

Floyd Jr. was in jail for drugs when his wife died in 1963.

Although his mother-in-law was a hardworking, Christian woman, she was bitter toward Floyd Jr. and blamed him for her daughter’s drug addiction and death.

Floyd III was five years old when his mother died of an overdose.

He and his 6-year-old sister, Denise, were separated; Floyd III went to live with their maternal grandmother, while Denise went to live with her maternal grandmother’s sister.

“My grandmother worked hard to put food on the table – I really only saw her at night, Saturdays when she wasn’t working, and when we went to church on Sundays,” Floyd III says. “My aunt, who lived with my grandmother, had the responsibility to take care of me and her two children. She did her very best, however, she drank a lot. I had very few male role models. The men in the streets were the ones who took the place of my dad.

To be truthful, as I look back on my life, in their own strange way these ‘men of the street’ looked out for me.”

Floyd III was a bright youngster and was placed in the gifted program at school. Although it seemed his future held potential, he began hanging out on the streets. Unknown to him, he was following in his father’s footsteps as he began hustling drugs and working in the numbers gambling racket.

“I would see my dad from time to time on the street,” Floyd III recalls, “but when he would see me, sometimes he would turn and run – embarrassed at what he had become.” Floyd III also came to believe his father was racked with guilt over the death of Naomi, as he introduced her to heroin.

But then something remarkable happened. As Floyd III was beginning to learn the “street game,” Floyd Jr., who had been homeless and on the streets for years, visited the food outreach ministry of The Soul Saving Station in Harlem. This

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small but powerful church had long been associated with Teen Challenge (now known as Adult and Teen Challenge, an AG U.S. Missions ministry).

There, Teen Challenge graduate Alonzo Smalls, a friend of and former heroin addict with Floyd Jr, helped get him into Teen Challenge. (Smalls later founded Pivot Ministries, which is still serving those with addictions in South Norwalk and Bridgeport, Connecticut.)

“The deal was that you would receive a free hot meal, but you had to attend the service first,” Floyd III explains. “I don’t know exactly what was preached that day, but when the altar call came, my dad responded and as he tells it, in seconds he went from a 19-year heroin addict to a born-again follower of Christ.”

In the late 60s, with the help of Smalls, Floyd Jr. entered the original Brooklyn Teen Challenge program started by David Wilkerson, graduated, and began working as a counselor for Teen Challenge. He remarried in 1970, but he could see that his now teenage son and daughter were being pulled into the mean streets of Harlem.

Yet even his father’s undeniable transformation couldn’t convince Floyd III to seek help. He was sniffing cocaine and then started using Angel Dust (also known as PCP, a hallucinogenic).

“Eventually, I knew my life was going nowhere, so I decided to sign up for the military,” Floyd III says. “I had a send-off party and I was set to be flown to San Antonio for training, but when I arrived at Fort Dix in New Jersey, as I recall I weighed in about six pounds overweight. They sent me home – I was crushed.”

With that rejection, Floyd III turned even more heavily to drinking and drugs. His father, as he had in the past, urged him to go to Teen Challenge, but he refused to listen. Depression and drugs began to consume him, just as they had his father.

“I lost my way,” Floyd III admits. “My life rattled out of control and I found myself living in an abandoned building in Harlem.

But that day, in that building, I couldn’t be any lower and I used a shoe polish applicator to write the word ‘Help’ on the wall . . . the Lord heard my cry — just as in Psalm 40:1-3 — and suddenly all the things my dad was telling me about Teen Challenge started sounding pretty good to me.”

It was 1982 when Floyd III entered the Brooklyn Teen Challenge — the same one his father had attended. There Floyd accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. As he was preparing to graduate from Teen Challenge, however, he was heavily considering going into the military, though ministry was another option.

“I attended a Morris Cerullo evangelistic event,” he recalls.

“While praying at the altar, God had given Brother Cerullo a Word of Knowledge. He came up to me and said, ‘You’ve been debating whether to go into the armed forces or the ministry — God called you to the ministry.’”

Floyd III followed God’s undeniably clear leading and headed to Bible school. First, he attended Youth Challenge Bible Institute, formerly Teen Challenge Bible Institute, which was started by David Wilkerson. Wilkerson even helped Floyd III financially to get started in Bible school.

Afterwards, Floyd III earned an undergraduate degree and then a master’s from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, located in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. He was ordained as an AG minister in 1991, then became a licensed counselor.

Floyd III has used his life experiences and education to reach those trapped in addiction, just as he once was. He and his wife, Mary, served at the Teen Challenge in Brockton, Massachusetts, for 10 years. They then pioneered the first Teen Challenge in Connecticut (New Haven). Following that, God used them to pastor an inner-city Assembly of God church in Indianapolis, Indiana, for seven years. In 2011, Floyd III accepted a position at the Adult and Teen Challenge of Texas where he serves today in the corporate office, located in San Antonio, as the director of Training.

Floyd Jr. passed away at the age of 60 in 1988 of emphysema, but even though he didn’t get to witness it on Earth, his daughter, Denise (Floyd III’s sister), came to the Lord and went through Philadelphia Teen Challenge program in 1990. She is now an ordained minister, an elder in her church, and currently works in a program serving troubled women.

Before Floyd Jr. died, he wrote a book, giving his testimony, called Black Tracks: 19 Years on the Main Line. Floyd III, inspired by his father’s efforts, followed suit, sharing his testimony in his own recent book called Harlem is Where I Began: The Journey of Floyd A. Miles III, with the forward written by his “spiritual father,” Adult and Teen Challenge co-founder, Don Wilkerson.

Floyd III says he looks back and can see where God was working in his life, drawing him, even while he was steeped in drugs, sex, and crime.

“I remember I was on a street corner with some of my friends, a cigarette in my mouth, and a beer in my hand,” he recalls.

“A guy who had just become a Muslim was telling us what he believed and one of my friends asked me what did I believe.

Out of my mouth came the words, ‘I believe Jesus Christ is God’s Son. He loves me, He’s my Savior, and He died for my sins.’ The entire corner got quiet and they just looked at me as if to be saying, ‘What are you doing out here?’”

A few years ago, Floyd III went back into the projects and some of his friends were still in the neighborhood doing the same things. “I got them into a circle and prayed for them and hugged them,” he says.

Floyd III says that the influence of Smalls on his father’s life, and the impact of his grandmother and Teen Challenge on his and his sister’s lives, has had him praying since 1989 for a miracle — for an Adult and Teen Challenge center to open in central Harlem.

Today, the generational cycle of poverty and drug addiction has been broken in the Miles’ family and replaced with compassion and ministry. Floyd III and Mary have been happily married for 36 years. Mary is a licensed AG minister and children’s pastor at Bethel Covenant AG in San Antonio, where she and Floyd III also serve as elders. They have four children and five grandchildren.

“I give God all the glory — for what He has done, is doing, and what He is going to do . . . as I continue to stay in faith,” Floyd III says.

REad the Rest of Floyd's Story in his book Floyd A. Miles III is a successful Teen Challenge and ordained AG minister and one of our South Texas Ministers. Currently, he serves in the corporate office of Adult Teen Challenge of Texas as the Director of Training. Also, Floyd & his wife Mary are elder's at Bethel Covenant AG, located in San Antonio, TX. Mary Miles is a licensed AG minister and serves as the Children's Pastor at Bethel.

"Harlem Is Where I Began....The Journey of Floyd A. Miles III" tells the riveting and miraculous story of how God ends an ordained AG minister's generational trail of destruction.

Your purchase of this book on Amazon will go towards providing free copies to any TC center in the USA or abroad who requests it.

For more information and to purchase find Floyd's book on Amazon.com here: amazon.com/dp/B08Q7B1PCZ

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2021 ASSEMBLIES OF GOD

SENIOR ADULT CONFERENCE Sept. 2–4, 2021 Branson Convention Center Branson, MO

YOU’RE INVITED!

Discover the important role God has for you during this season of life. Register today!

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Doug Clay

General Superintendent

Donna Barrett General Secretary

Alton Garrison

Director Acts 2 Journey Initiative

Rick Allen

National Director Men’s Ministries & Light for the Lost

Special musical guests: Steve Green, Joel & Rose Perales, The Harvesters, The Kelleys

Registration Cost: $85*

Includes 2 Breakfasts, General Sessions, Breakout Sessions Ticket to see Jesus at Sight & Sound Theatre

For more information, visit SAMconference.ag.org or call (417) 862-2781, ext. 4004. *Registration cost: $85 through September 1, 2021. $95 Onsite. Hotel reservation not included.

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In this edition we shine the spotlight on Hallettsville Community Church.

In the spring of 2013 Apolonio (Junior) Garcia was returning home to Yoakum, from an air-conditioning service call. As he approached the very center of Hallettsville and waited for the light to turn green, he heard the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit leading him to plant a church in that city. Junior and his wife Bobbie lived twenty minutes south of Hallettsville in Yoakum.

After returning home and sharing with his wife about the encounter he had with the Lord they began to pray and seek God’s direction.

After praying and believing this is where God was leading them, they stepped out in faith and began sharing with their leaders about the vision God had placed in their hearts. Soon after, they sold their home in Yoakum and began searching for a new home in the city of Hallettsville - the entire process all going incredibly smooth. By the end of 2014, Hallettsville Community Church had begun meeting in their home in Hallettsville. They continued to meet in their home for two years and eventually purchased a piece of property on the south side of Hallettsville known as ‘by the tracks’. It was through the church’s

faithfulness and desire to see the kingdom of God move forward that by the end of 2016 the church had also purchased a building for the property. Hallettsville Community Church has become a very healthy church pursuing in the vision that the Lord continues to place in the heart of Pastors Junior and Bobbie Garcia.

In February 2019 Hallettsville Community Church became a sovereign General Council affiliated church and the church continues to fulfill the great commission of building disciples in Jesus Christ. They have become great supporters of their community giving shoes, food, gifts and other resources and support in any way that becomes available.

They are driven to reach the unsaved in Hallettsville and in the surrounding counties. They continue to ‘Enrich in Christ, One Soul at a Time’.

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Ministers & Churches Changes and Updates New Certified

Alexandra Garza

New License

Christopher Brown

Upgraded to Ordained Jason Bone Christina DiGirolamo Janice Earl Vicki Evans Andrew Jirrels Karren Kearley Bobbie Knowles

Reinstated

James Mayhair

Daniel Garza

Benita Holguin

Reiner Vorster Elaine Miller Emi Naituku Barbara Remmers Christopher Rhoades Miranda Rich Matthew Robertson Philip Shelley

Roger Sherwood Beverly Smith Raymond Teague Johnson Varkey Rachel Varkey Gwendelyn Welch Thomas Welch

Richard Ybarra Jr.

Transfers in

Stephen Pendleton – Minnesota District

Norman Reed – Wyoming Ministry Network

Transfers Out

Darren Widner – Southern Missouri District

New Pastors North Side Assembly of God – Houston, TX Pastor: Derreck Eugene Sr. – Senior Pastor

New PAC Church: Gateway Fellowship Church Downtown – San Antonio, TX Parent Church: Gateway Fellowship Church – San Antonio, TX Gateway Fellowship Church Lytle – Lytle, TX Parent Church: Gateway Fellowship Church – San Antonio, TX

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2021 Schedule Date

Level 1 Courses

Level 2 Courses

June 5

MIN191 Beginning Internship

MIN291 MIN391 Intermediate Internship Advanced Internship

Summer Break

July & August

Summer Break

Summer Break

Summer Break

Summer Break

September 13

THE142 BIB115 AG History, Missions & Acts: The Holy Spirit at Governance Work in the Believers

THE311 Prayer & Worship

Discussion to be Announced

(Certified)

(License)

Level 3 Courses (Ordained)

Leadership Exchange

MIN171 Spirit Empowered Church

MIN261 Introduction to A/G Missions

October 4

MIN181 Relationships & Ethics in Ministry

MIN281 Conflict Management for Church Leaders

MIN381 Pastoral Ministry

Discussion to be Announced

November 1

BIB114 Christ in the Synoptic Gospels

MIN123 The Local Church in Evangelism

BIB313 Corinthian Correspondence

Discussion to be Announced

December

Christmas Break

Christmas Break

Christmas Break

Christmas Break

Hosted at the South Texas Assemblies of God Ministries Center, 12106 East Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77044 All students must RSVP 2 weeks prior to each class. Classes start at 7pm.

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How to Start BGMC in your church 1. Look for a person with a heart for missions to be the BGMC Coordinator.

2. Plan to promote BGMC once a month.

3. Order your BGMC supplies from www.myhealthychurch.com.

4. Send money directly to the National Office: Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge 1445 N. Boonville Ave. Springfield, MO 65802 For more resources and information: www.bgmc.ag.org bgmc@ag.org 417-86202781 ext 4009

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Girls Ministries - Who We Are Our goal is simple: To see every girl moving toward a deep relationship with Jesus Christ, and to realize her importance and potential in the kingdom of God. Weekly Discipleship Opportunities Small Group Study Gender Specific Ministry

Scripture Memorization Discussion Based Questions Fosters Friendships

We offer Church-wide Leadership Training Girls Ministries Basic Training Momentum: Including Children with Disabilities Sticky Lessons: Learning that Lasts Leaving a Spiritual Legacy

Check us out: www.stxgm.org South Texas Girls Ministries 16

stxgirlsministries

Melissa LeClare STXGM District Director mleclare@stxag.org 713-455-1221

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5+ MILLION HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN TEXAS NEARLY 8 OUT OF 10 DECISIONS FOR CHRIST HAPPEN BEFORE GRADUATION

REACH THE SCHOOL. REACH THE COMMUNITY. WE’RE HERE TO PARTNER WITH YOUR STUDENT MINISTRY. CAN I BUY YOU A CUP OF COFFEE? 806-577-1929 20

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A podcast designed to help men follow Jesus with courage, strength, and endurance in every area of their life.

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GOOD READS

FROM CALVIN M. DURHAM Humorous and heartwarming stories from the lives of real people that teach profound lessons—of love and service to God. Written in the author’s unique, personal style.

The Days After...

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Father’s Journ Grief & Recov al of ery

Calvin M. Du

rham, D.D.

$15 each or both for $25 Purchase at the South Texas District Council table, or via: Calvin M. Durham Ministries, Inc. 3376 FM 1956 Nocona, Texas 76255 durhamcm@msn.com paypal.me/calvinmdurham 25

If a Pastor Guards the Flock,

Who Guards the Pastor?

A MUST READ FOR EVERY CHURCH LEADER! Author Randy Orr, long-time church deacon and lay leader, discusses the role and ministry of church leaders in these troubling times.

• Is a church board member called of God? • How can church leaders nurture the Pastor’s vision?

• What role does a church board play in the health of a congregation?

• What role does a church board have in the church’s long-term mission?

• What is an “armorbearer,” and why does a Pastor need one?

• What are the signs of a healthy church board?

• What are the symptoms of spiritual disease and disunity?

$15

Excellent for individual or group study by every deacon, church support staff, and church board.

Purchase today!

Randy L. Orr, author 713.806.1333 randyorr92@gmail.com

at the Council

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