Good News - June 2020

Facing unprecedented times is often a catalyst for innovation. This month Good News Wants to Know... What do you think is the greatest in- vention in your lifetime and why? While the answer for many would be the cell phone, the greatest invention of our time for me is the GPS. Sure, it provides critical positioning capabilities to the mil- itary, civil and government users around the world, but the real purpose of the GPS was to keep Oksana Horton from spending her life driving around lost. It could well be that the Thomas Guide was Satan’s way of exacting revenge on the directionally-challenged, of which I amPresident Emeritus. But then God, in HIS infinite mercy, had Dr. Gladys West, a black female mathematician, create the GPS thereby freeing forever those in bondage to turning the wrong way down one-way streets and having to stop in horrible gas stations to ask very sketchy looking guys “How do I get to the freeway from here?” God Bless Dr. Gladys West! Oksana Horton , Artistic Director, Torch & Trumpet Theater Co., a subsidiary of Revelation Ministries Real Time GPS. No more maps, no expending unnecessary time and emotion to fig- ure out the destination. Now, I can arrive on time, taking the quickest route with lower stress levels anywhere (mostly) on the planet! Alan Platt, Global Leader, Doxa Deo/City Changers A wonderful invention that I use throughout every day is recorded audiobooks and teachings! If I stop long enough to sit with a book, I usually will fall asleep. Instead, I start the day listening to the Bible, then transition to a teaching, and move onto in- spiring Christian novels after that. There is nothing like being transported in history, deepeningmy walk with God, and being inspired while doing themundane like brush- ing my teeth or driving around doing errands. Dr. Andrea Hazim, President and Founder, Elev8Life Educational Foundation The smart phone is the greatest invention of my lifetime. Think about the capability to connect all over the world. We use our smart phone to talk with people on video and phone calls, you can access the web on the go, utilize apps, or listen to music, it’s impressive. There are countless things we can do on our devises, from the palm of our hand. Ariana Reid , Executive Director, Hope Women’s Centers The greatest invention inmy lifetime is the cellular phone. It allows us to communicate instantly and stay in touch with friends and family, read and share the Bible from the palm of our hand and instantly obtain an answer to almost any question. On the other hand, like anything useful for good, without some discipline it can damage those same relationships and take us down dark paths. William “Bill” C. Davell, Director, Tripp Scott Attorneys at Law The greatest invention of my lifetime has to be the heart stint. Not only does this make me sound smart, it also makes me seem like a guy that cares about others. Very few inventions have saved more lives since the advent of the heart stint. Bob Denison , President, Denison Yachting The greatest invention of my lifetime happened right up the road from us here in Broward County. It was the invention of the personal computer by IBM engineers at their Boca Raton campus. This invention brought the power of computing from de- vices that took up rooms for equipment, to a product that would fit on a household desk or table. This invention, along with the development of cellular technology, has also brought us the smartphone, whichmost generations have today. This technology has also equipped me with the ability to write this email and send it wirelessly to The Good News! Chip LaMarca, State Representative, Florida House District 93 My answer to this question is the smart phone because it brings amini-computer with access to information and commerce while being a great communication device. All the things I bought at Radio Shack in the 1970’s and ‘80’s e.g. a clock radio, a calcu- lator, an answering machine, a camera, a cell phone, a television, a video recorder/player, a flashlight and many more things now reside on my smart phone. It occupies a too important place in my life, but it is a great tool when I control it and it doesn’t control me! H. Collins Forman, Jr., P.A. I asked my grandfather this question once. He said, “Electricity. It changed every- thing.” Wow! The greatest invention of my lifetime would not be possible without elec- tricity - the personal computer. It's put incredible power and opportunity into the hands of the individual, improved productivity and knowledge sharing, and lead to other in- credible innovations like the smart phone, smart watch, smart TV’s, etc. It’s literally enhanced every industry and catalyzed entrepreneurship around the world.And from a Kingdom standpoint, it’s allowed the gospel to go places never before reached with such efficiency and low cost that millions of lives are being impacted at rates never before possible. To quote my grandfather, “It’s changed everything." Craig Huston, Huston Consulting Group, LLC I would say the Internet, because it allows us to reach hundreds of thousands even millions of people all over the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ in amatter minutes without even leaving our homes. Daryl Nelson, Pastor, Calvary Chapel of the Palm Beaches In addition to many electronic inventions that led up to it, I think the best is the cell phone, which now can make the word of God accessible in over 1300 languages in cities or the most remote, restricted access areas – even without cell towers. Over 2 billion people haven't yet heard (many of these are oral cultures), but God has recently given us the technology so that ". . .the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14) Deborah Cusick, FAUCampus Volunteer, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship I am sandwiched between the 20th and 21st Century, so the greatest invention(s) in my lifetime is three-fold ... the personal computer, smart phone, and God’s mercy. After all, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are NEW every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22- 23). Why .... the computer/phone are temporal but God’s mercy is eternal. #grateful Dennis DeMarois, CEO/Executive Director, Gathering Palm Beach Medical advances have grown leaps and bounds in my lifetime. But as a lover of all things technological, I also love the advances in communication technology; in radio, television, cell phones, podcasting, computers, publishing, and not the least of which is the internet. My professional world has advanced in the extreme, but what a per- sonal blessing to connect with friends, coworkers, or far-away family using various platforms of the internet. DoloresKing-St.George, President,KingCommunicationsandGraceNetMedia Wants to Know… Oksana Horton William “Bill” C. Davell Bob Denison Chip LaMarca Alan Platt Dr. Andrea Hazim Ariana Reid