Faith Archive

Setting the standard for giving a hand up instead of a hand out, Fresh Start for Children and Families in Fort Walton Beach is changing lives nine families at a time.  The program provides transitional housing for families where mom or dad are gainfully employed or employable and remain drug and alcohol free for the duration of the nine month program.  The apartment house has nine apartments, both one and two bedrooms.

Here in Navarre, Fla., a new synagogue, the Ahm Yisrael Messianic Synagogue (AYMS), has opened its new building’s doors to the community. The first-ever synagogue in all of Santa Rosa County, it is led by the Rabbi Wayne Leland. According to the synagogue website, the group began as a home-based Bible study Leland taught in 2001. From the original handful of members, the congregation grew and settled into a rented church facility which they were able to secure in 2010. Only five years later, the collection of members had outgrown that facility as well. Following the growth, they were able to procure the building now located at 9255 Military Trail in Navarre.

The statistics are alarming in regard to child abuse, both nationally and in Santa Rosa County.

One in three girls and one in three boys will be abused by the time they are 18. In the county, one in 19 children will be abused by the time they are 18.

Kohl is a very sweet young man with some big challenges.  He has Autism and some significant cognitive delays.   His speech is somewhat delayed and he is working on about first and second grade level in most areas although he is enrolled in a 7th grade special class.  He receives weekly language therapy and several other specialized services.  He can read at least 67 “sight words” and can write his name and copy information from the board. 

Doug Baldwin has come a long way from Gulf Breeze High School, establishing himself as one of the top wide receivers in the National Football League.

Seattle Seahawks’ star wide receiver Doug Baldwin will speak live at Momentum Church on Easter Sunday. Baldwin, a graduate of Gulf Breeze High School, will speak live at the 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. services at Gulf Breeze Elementary School.

It isn’t uncommon to hear an athlete thank God for his or her success in sports or to see athletes from both teams gather together for a prayer circle after a game.

Students hang on every word as Ray Millsap speaks to them inside a room at the Funplex in Gulf Breeze that is only lit by stage lights.

The resurrection-focused film “Risen,”directed by Kevin Reynolds hit theaters Feb. 19 of this year. According to the film-information website Box Office Mojo, the production budget from the Sony-owned production company Affirm Films sat at a solid $20 million for the film. With fierce competition in the theaters from other films such as “Deadpool” however, “Risen”only  garnered about $12.5 million in the box office in the film’s opening weekend. One of the larger budgeted religious films since ‘Passion of the Christ” in 2004, this film appears to be representative of a growing favoritism toward faith-based films in Hollywood.

Washington (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was remembered Saturday as a man of faith, family and the law in a funeral marked by church ritual and pageantry for the conservative jurist whose larger-than-life personality dominated the high court for nearly three decades.