CHURCH SHOOTING SUSPECT HAS MENTAL ILLNESS FROM LYME DISEASE

MARYVILLE — A man suspected of killing the Rev. Fred Winters during a church service in Maryville on Sunday morning had developed mental illness from a tick bite, his family has said.

Police did not release the name of the suspect, who was seriously injured in a struggle with members of the congregation after the shooting of Winters at the First Baptist Church.

But a source close to the case confirmed late Sunday that it is Terry Joe Sedlacek, 27, who was the subject of a Post-Dispatch story in August about how Lyme disease had attacked his brain.
His home in the first block of Zachary Court in Troy, Ill., about three miles from the church, was searched late Sunday
afternoon by police, who seized some gun cases and a computer. They would not comment.Vehicle records show that Sedlacek is part-owner of a Jeep Wrangler parked outside the crime scene.Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said that the vehicle, which was kept under guard, was believed to have been used by the attacker. Trent described the gunman as a 27-year-old who lives in Troy with no criminal record and no state firearms-owner identification.Trent declined to confirm the suspect's name, pending filing of charges.Winters, 45, was shot about 8:30 a.m. by a man who walked down the aisle during the service, exchanged words with Winters and fired his .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun four times before it jammed, police said.The first shot shredded Winters' Bible, sending paper shreds into the air like "confetti," Trent said. One of three more shots hit Winters in the chest. Nobody else was hit.Two church members wrestled the attacker down as he slashed them, and himself, with a knife.The attacker and one of the wounded congregation members, Terry Bullard, 39, of Troy, were treated at nearby Anderson Hospital and airlifted to a St. Louis hospital for surgery, officials said. Both were reported to be in serious condition. Winters died at Anderson.The other injured congregation member, Keith Melton, 51, of Troy, was treated at a hospital and released. Melton could not be reached, but his home answering machine has a message thanking callers for their concern.Trent called Bullard and Melton "heroic" for stopping something that could have been worse.Police and some congregation members said the shooter had no known connection to the 1,200-member church at 7710 Illinois Route 162, a short distance west of Interstate 55-70.Trent said the motive for the shooting was unknown."We haven't spoken with him yet," Trent said at midafternoon. "He's still in surgery." He said the gunman suffered a stab wound to his neck.

It appeared that nobody was home late Sunday afternoon at the house on Zachary, where a state trooper stood guard until other officers arrived, ostensibly with a search warrant.The home is listed as the address of Sedlacek and his mother, who co-owns the Jeep.Neighbors told a reporter that Sedlacek appears to be mentally ill and would sometimes stand in the street and shout obscenities for no apparent reason.He was the subject of an Aug. 6, 2008, Post-Dispatch article about his battle with mental illness attributed to Lyme disease.

The man's mother, Ruth Abernathy, said her son, an avid hunter and outdoorsman, may have contracted the disease after being bitten by an infected tick on a family farm in the late 1990s.He became ill during his junior year at Edwardsville High School and had taken several medications, including anti-seizure drugs, to combat the disease. It nearly killed him in 2003, but he survived after a series of treatments and was reported to have lesions on his brain.Abernathy could not be reached for comment Sunday.

The attack stunned about 150 church members attending the early service. "Some thought it was some type of skit or program at the time," Trent said.Police will review video and audio tapes made of the service, Trent said.Church member Linda Cunningham said she was sitting in the back of the church when the shooter walked up the center aisle.Winters' wife, Cindy Lee, and their daughters, Alysia Grace, 14, and Cassidy Hope, 12, were in the church but not in the sanctuary when the shooting occurred, church members said. The couple were married in 1987.Some churchgoers initially believed the shooting was part of a dramatic sketch — something that is common during Winters' services.After the first shot was fired, Cunningham said, "All you could see was confetti."Andy and Kris Nothnagel, of nearby Glen Carbon, were sitting about five rows from the pastor when the gunman opened fire.They, too, said they thought it was part of a play."We didn't know if it was real," Andy Nothnagel said. The couple, who have belonged to the church for about 12 years, said they had never seen the gunman before."He didn't look scary," Kris Nothnagel said. "He could have blended in with anybody."Security experts say church shootings are particularly shocking because worship sanctuaries are so often thought of as a respite from the world's evils, where people come together for the sole purpose of praise and love.Yet that very notion, say safety experts, leaves them more susceptible to danger.

"The biggest thing churches need to do is get over the 'it can't happen here' mentality," says Jeffery Hawkins, who has worked in law enforcement and security for 30 years and last year started the Christian Security Network. "It's the No. 1 stumbling block of churches."Officials said the church had been working with some of its members to develop an emergency readiness strategy.The Rev. Mark Jones, its worship minister since 2002, told reporters assembled outside the church: "People cannot stop living their lives. They cannot be paralyzed with fear."The sprawling grounds of the church are on the east edge of Maryville, tucked between farmland and an unfinished subdivision.

The website says Fred Winters is the former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.T.J. Beckman, a church member whose twin 12-year-old sons, Jordan and Canaan, were baptized by Winters last fall, described him as a "man of courage and integrity" who dedicated his life to the church."He is a modern-day martyr," said Beckman, 47, of Collinsville. "We're shattered, shocked by this heinous crime, but we know there is hope beyond this."Beckman said Winters' death should bring the church's members closer."This is not the end of this church," she said. "I think this church is going to grow even stronger. We have that hope."

ONE MINUTE PRAYER MOVEMENT OR JUST A MINUTE PRAYER TIME ; JOIN AND MAKE DIFFERENCES IN YOUR COLLEGES,HIGH SCHOOLS AND IN YOUR CITY

Dear friends,

Prayer has a great significance in our life which we often forget in our day today busy life. our lives have become so busy that prayer has been erased from our life now. realizing that fact and the power of prayer we the ICPF DELHI, is going to start a new movement called one minute prayer movement. i believe that one minute can make a great difference. We are starting this movement mainly focussing on the high school and college going students. A one minute prayer for your college , for the students and the staffs can make differences. As well as for the office going people, tak a minute and pray for the office , he staffs as well as for your friends. Pray for them and just see the difference that God is going to bring. We are not asking your precious time , just only .ONE MINUTE

I belive this movement is going to make a great differences in the colleges , high schools as well as in the offices. Yes we together are going to change the destiny and the history of the nations.

In World War II an advisor to Prime Minister Churchill organized a group of people who stopped what they were doing each night at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and peace. This had an amazing effect as the bombing raids over England stopped.

Fast-forward to 2009 where another group of people are taking a page out of the history books to organize the same sort of Prayer Movement in New Delhi,India.
Everyday,students and office going people is going to stop whatever they are doing and spending at least one minute praying for the youth’s in the colleges,our national leaders, our President, our citizens and that our nation would remain, "One Nation Under God."
We are inviting everyone to join in this movement with us .

II Chronicles 7:14 (KJV) - "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have, and someone once said that if we really understood the full extent of the power we have available through prayer, we might be speechless.
Please encourage everyone you know to join this new Prayer Movement along with ICPF , NEWDELHI and let's believe that God will turn His face toward us and will pour out a blessing that we could not contain!

One minute prayer movement is a prayer evangelism strategy for high school,colleges campuses and also for those who are busy in their office schedules . this is small prayer format to which our prayer should focus on.
Segment 1: God, Thanks!God, I bow my knee in humility to You. I know your loving presence will be with me all day. Thank you for loving me today. I love you, too! "...love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind." ( Matthew 22:37 )
Segment 2: God, Touch Them!Prayer: God, touch the teachers, administration and students on my campus today. One touch from you, Father, can change someone's destiny. Touch them through me. "...Love your neighbor as yourself." ( Matthew 22:39)
Segment 3: God, Tell Them! God, the message of Jesus' love for my campus must be told. Use me as the messenger. I will tell those around me how much you love them. "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." (Matthew 28:19 )

Those who love to be a part of this prayer movement , please do mail me, call me or SMS me on titto.nidhi@gmail.com, mobile no: 09810243273 .please do tell me the one minute time slot you are going to take. love and prayers ICPF , DELHI

SEVEN ABOARD MISSIONARY PLANE MISSING IN VENEZUELA

BRYANT - A Jackson County missionary pilot, his wife and five others are feared to have met the same fate as his father when their plane apparently crashed in a Venezuelan jungle Feb. 16.
Bob Norton, 48, of Bryant "grew up with a missionary spirit and was carrying on for his dad" Elwin, who was killed in a plane crash 29 years ago while serving as a missionary pilot in Mexico, said Bob Norton's mother, Nytta, by phone from her home in Bryant Wednesday.

Norton was accompanied on the flight by his wife, Neiba, a registered nurse. Their passengers included two adults accompanying two sick children, and Gladis Zerpa, another missionary serving as a teacher at La Gran Sabana Adventist School in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar.
A volunteer search team coordinated by Bob Edwards of McMinnville,Tenn., who had worked with Norton on several search and rescue missions a number of years ago, hopes to get satellite images to locate the plane in the dense jungle.
Venezuela's National Civil Aviation Institute and several air rescue groups stopped searching for the plane 72 hours after it was reported missing.
Betsy Burgdorff, a spokeswoman for Gospel Ministries International near Collegedale, Tenn., said that the satellite will not be in position to photograph the location until next Wednesday. Because of the high cost of the project, the team is seeking donations to pay for the images.
Based at the campus as director of Adventist Medical Aviation Venezuela, Norton was on his way to have the plane inspected at Ciudad Bolivar when he received a call to pick up two sick children in the village of Carun and take them to a medical center in another village, said Burgdorff.
Shortly after taking off from Carun, Norton and his passengers encountered bad weather. "There was radio communication, but it could not be determined whether they were in trouble," she said. "But we do know the weather was bad and that it's believed the plane went down in a very dense jungle."
On the night of Feb. 16, Nytta Norton said she received a call from the radioman who had been tracking her son's flight that the aircraft was missing and a search for it and its occupants had begun. She said her youngest son, Bill, and his wife had left the same day to serve as missionaries in New Guinea.
Nytta Norton said her husband was about three minutes from an emergency landing strip when his plane crashed while on a mission trip. They were both serving as missionaries in the country at the time, she said.
Norton said chances are probably slim that her son and his wife and their passengers will be found alive.
"It's extremely dense jungle" where the plane is believed to have crashed, she said. "It may take weeks or months before they find them. But it's all in God's hands, and I'm happy to leave it at that."

THREE MARTYRED IN ERITREA; PRAY AND MAKE DIFFERENCE IN ERITREA

Eritrea ― The persecution in Eritrea has not let up as hundreds of Christians remain imprisoned, many of whom are tortured and eventually killed.
Eritrea is currently ninth on the International Christian Concern Hall of Shame. The Hall of Shame is a list of the ten countries with the worst Christian persecution worldwide. Eritrea follows other very high-risk areas, including North Korea, Iraq and Iran.
Eritrea has no constitution and is run by a singular communist ruling party. Since 2002, 2000 Christians have been imprisoned in military barracks and sometimes metal shipping containers. ICC remembers the deaths of three martyrs this month.
All three faithful followers were arrested for being believers outside the specified ramifications. Anyone outside of approved Christian denominations (which consist of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Eritrean Lutheran Evangelical Church, and the Roman Catholic Church) does not have permission to worship and may be imprisoned, forced underground or thrown out of the country. For these three believers, imprisonment, torture and death were the results.
One woman was horrifically tortured until she was finally given the option to either sign an official document recanting her faith, or be killed. Two other men were also given this option on separate occasions. Two of the three were purposely exposed to malaria and given the incentive of medicine if they recanted. After suffering immeasurable torture, all three faithful believers were killed for their bold refusals to deny Christ.
These direct attacks affect many other believers indirectly. Believers who are imprisoned or have been martyred leave families behind. One of the three martyred Christians mentioned was 42 with a wife and children at home. ICC pleads for you to pray for the victims of this spiritual warfare, including those who are imprisoned, tortured and killed, as well as their afflicted families.

MURDERED ILLINOIS PASTOR DEFLECTED GUNSHOTS WITH BIBLE

MARYVILLE, Ill. - A pastor shot and killed during his Sunday sermon deflected the first of the gunman's four rounds with a Bible, sending a confetti-like spray of paper into the air in a horrifying scene that congregants initially thought was a skit, police said

The gunman strode down the aisle of the sprawling First Baptist Church shortly after 8 a.m. and briefly spoke with The Rev. Fred Winters, then pulled out a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and began firing until it jammed, Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said.

Churchgoers wrestled the gunman to the ground as he waved a knife, slashing himself and two other people, Trent said.

None of the about 150 congregants seemed to recognize the gunman and investigators do not know details of Winters' conversation with him, but they planned to review an audio recording of the service, Trent said. The service was not videotaped.

"We thought it was part of a drama skit ... when he shot, what you saw was confetti," said congregant Linda Cunningham, whose husband is a minister of adult education at the church. "We just sat there waiting for what comes next, not realizing that he had wounded the pastor."

Winters had stood on an elevated platform to deliver his sermon about finding happiness in the workplace and managed to run halfway down the sanctuary's side aisle before collapsing, Cunningham said.

Two congregants tackled the gunman as he pulled the 4-inch knife, and all three were stabbed, police said. The gunman suffered "a pretty serious wound to the neck" while one congregant had lower back wounds, Trent said.

Congregants knocked the gunman between sets of pews, then held him down until police arrived, said church member Don Bohley, who was just outside the sanctuary when the shooting began.

"People came running out and told us to call 911," said Bohley, 72.

Winters was pronounced dead at Anderson Hospital, hospital spokeswoman Natalie Head said.

Authorities didn't know whether Winters, a married father of two who had led the church for nearly 22 years, knew the gunman. Police described the gunman as a 27-year-old from nearby Troy but would not release his name pending possible charges.

Trent said investigators had not immediately uncovered evidence of a criminal background or mental illness.

"We don't know the relationship (between the gunman and pastor), why he's here or what the circumstances came about that caused him in the first place to be here," said Illinois State Police Master Trooper Ralph Timmins.

The Rev. Mark Jones, another pastor at First Baptist, said he briefly saw the gunman but not the shooting, though he heard a sound like miniature firecrackers.

"We have no idea what this guy's motives were," Jones said outside the church.

The gunman and 39-year-old congregant Terry Bullard underwent surgery at St. Louis University Hospital and were in serious condition Sunday evening, spokeswoman Laura Keller said. The other victim, Keith Melton, was treated and released from Gateway Regional Medical Center.

"I would call it heroic," Trent said. "While many understandably were stuck to their seats, they took to action."

First Baptist had an average attendance of 32 people when Winters became senior pastor in 1987; it now has about 1,200 members, according to the church's Web site. Winters also was former president of the Illinois Baptist State Association and an adjunct professor for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, according to the site.

"Our great God is not surprised by this, or anything," Nate Adams, executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association, said in a statement. "That He allows evil and free will to have their way in tragedies like this is a mystery in many ways."

The red brick church sits along a busy two-lane highway on the east side of Maryville, a fast-growing village of more than 7,000 about 20 miles northeast of St. Louis. A farm sits directly across from the church, but subdivisions of newer homes can be seen from every side.

"Things like this just don't happen in Maryville," Mayor Larry Gulledge said. "We've lost one the pillars of our community, one of our leaders."
Sharla Dryden, 62, pulled into the church parking lot for a 9:30 a.m. service Sunday to see "just a lot of chaos, lot of police, fire, and people just devastated."

"I would have been devastated if anyone had been shot, but to hear it was the pastor was terrible," Dryden said. "You just never expect this to happen at a church."

At Winters' two-story brick home in Edwardsville, several friends gathered to pay their respects but declined comment. Family members also declined comment.

A statement on First Baptist's Web site asked for prayers for Winters' family, the congregants who tackled the gunman, the gunman and his family, and church members.

More than 20 investigators remained inside the church hours after the shooting, said First Baptist spokesman Marty King. An evening prayer service was planned for members at Metro Community Church in nearby Edwardsville.

Last month, a man shot and killed himself in front of a cross inside televangelist Robert H. Schuller's Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif. In November, a gunman killed his estranged wife in a New Jersey church vestibule as Sunday services let out.

In July, two people were killed and six wounded in a shooting rampage at the Tennessee Valley United Unitarian Church in Knoxville, Tenn. An out-of-work truck driver who police say targeted the church for its liberal leanings pleaded guilty to the shootings and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.