April 28, 1999

'Angel Alert' suggested for missing kids
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___AUBREY--A North Texas pastor, concerned about the disappearance of several children in recent weeks, has issued an appeal for believers to activate an "Angel Alert."
___Preston Harrison, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Au-brey, noted Dallas/Fort Worth law enforcement agencies and broadcast outlets have developed an innovative effort to launch an "Amber Alert" when a child is reported missing.
___"So why not an Angel Alert?" asked Harrison. "I am suggesting that all believers, when they hear a report of a missing or abducted child, consider the Scriptures and call for the protection of God's angels upon these children."
___The Amber Alert is named in memory of Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped from her home in Arlington in January 1996. After her abduction, police and broadcast media designed the Amber Alert to let people know quickly the name and description of missing children.
___In recent days, the distinctive-sounding Amber Alert has been sounded with the abduction of 6-year-old Opal Jo Jennings from her Saginaw home March 26. And it was activated April 17 when 3-year-old Christy Ryno was missing from her mother's Irving apartment.
___Whiel the Amber Alert might help, "the law really can't protect these children," Harrison said. "I wondered what kind of protection we can call on, and God led me to Psalm 34:7." That Psalm says: "The angel of the Lord encamps all around them who hear him and delivers them."
___"Then I read Psalm 91:9-15 which says, 'God shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands, they shall bear you up.'"
___Harrison went on to 2 Kings 6:15-17, which mentions a ring of fire around the prophet Elisha, and then to Matthew 18, where it says angels "see the face of God."
___As he watched the news reports about the abduction of Opal Jennings, he "looked at the people's faces, and as I looked at them, I remembered this could have been my family."
___The pastor, who served bivocational churches in Oklahoma and Kansas before coming to Texas two years ago, said he felt overwhelmed for the families and knew that "many of the families who have lost children are not in church. We (the believers) are not praying for them because it is not our children who are missing.
___"But it could have been our own children, and the Lord just put it on my heart to pray for them," he said.
___Harrison encourages Christians, when they hear of a missing child--whether it is an Amber Alert in the Metroplex or another report somewhere else in the state or nation--they begin to pray immediately.
___"You don't even have to close your eyes. You can pray with your eyes open as you drive down the road," he said. "I believe God is waiting for believers to begin to seriously pray for these children and their needs. He is waiting on us to get serious and to claim the power of Christ."
___He suggests believers pray for seven specific things when they hear a report of a missing or abducted child:
___ Physical health of the child.
___ Protection from abuse.
___ Angels to put a "ring of fire" around the child.
___ The family.
___ The law officers.
___ That the kidnapper--if kidnapping is involved--will have a "confused mind" and won't be able to think about abusing the child or what direction to travel.
___ For a quick deliverance.

---

Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!