Religion: Pure or Plain?

Rebeca Knowles still fit into her wedding gown seventeen years after her wedding. I know this because I had known her less than two days when I danced as part of her marriage-vow-renewal celebration on a boat in the middle of the Sea—the Sea of Galilee. And she wore that dress.

Brian and Rebeca, part of our group of journalists touring Israel at the invitation of the Ministry of Tourism, told us about how their marriage stunk until Jesus Christ transformed it. They wanted to go public with their renewed commitment to each other. So we rocked the boat dancing with them.

For the next week we ate fish by the sea, prayed at the wailing wall, and sang at the empty tomb together. And on bus rides between stops, Rebeca and I found our hearts connected—she knew our “son,” Carlos; we both write and speak; and we're both adoptive parents. It’s in this last capacity that I want to introduce you to her.

Rebeca’s somewhat of a rock star in the Spanish-speaking world. Her popular reflections “One Minute with God” are broadcast on radio and television throughout Latin America. With Brian she is cofounder and director of the ministry Reaching Out Network, Inc. (RONI), an organization that now supports families and helps establish strong marriages. Together they produce the radio and TV show “Healthy Marriages with Brian and Rebeca Knowles.”

Recently Rebeca told a reporter with Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) Russia, “Life for an orphan is not better once they are adopted. Life is better once they know that in God they can find their true Father. That’s why God did not give the church the mandate to adopt, but to ‘visit,’ ‘take care,’ [and] ‘take charge’ of the orphan, and in some cases this involves adopting.”

She recalls the first time she entered an orphanage. “I was in Brazil, and my heart was filled with the Father’s love for those orphans. From the two orphanages in Russia where I adopted my children, hundreds [of children] were left who will never be adopted. Statistics say that 80 percent of the ones who are not adopted will end up in a Russian jail once they leave the orphanage at the age of eighteen. Eighty percent of them will not live to see the age of twenty-one. They will die due to crime and drugs.”

Rebeca determined to do what she could to change that stat. “When my husband and I met with the TBN Russian president and his wife, we knew instantly that this would be the flag project for ‘Pure Religion,’ to show ‘The Smile of a Child’ in each Russian orphanage,” she said.

TBN Russia has successfully placed this children’s channel in 300 Russian orphanages, but 700 remain. The Knowles’s ministry, “Pure Religion,” wants to reach every orphanage so children “can know that God loves them, and in Him you can find a Father.”

“We are not preaching a new religion,” Rebeca insists. She says they are emphasizing what has been required of God’s people all along. “In James 1:27 God gives us clear instructions that involve God’s justice and the holy life of his children. This verse says that ‘Pure religion’ and being faultless in the eyes of God the Father consists of taking care of the distress of the orphans and the widows and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

This weekend Rebeca and Brian launch this aspect of their ministry into the Spanish-speaking world. And they can use help in four ways.

• They ask for your prayers.
• They need your encouragement. Considering cheering them on by sending a note of encouragement to info@reachingoutnet.org
• They need financial help to make possible the broadcasts (see web site info below).
• They need volunteers--people who will use their vacation time to go overseas and help by doing anything from office work to leading workshops.

For more information, go to www.religionpura.com (Spanish) or www.SayYesToPureReligion.com (English).