Posted: 8/20/04

Mission volunteers overcome fears, make impact in Mexico

By Iris Gonzalez

Special to the Baptist Standard

XOXOCOTLA, Mexico–En route to Mexico on a missionary trip, Karla Olalde felt uneasy, and she was concerned about the possibilities of getting sick there.

What she didn't realize was that she and her church family from Segunda Iglesia Bautista in Corpus Christi would help change the lives of Abelito, Ester, Victorino and many other residents of Xoxocotla, a small town in southern Mexico.

“I was a little nervous, but the whole trip was worth going,” Olalde said.

The 38-member group recently traveled to the Mexican state of Morelos–about 30 hours by bus–to offer hope and fellowship with a community hungry for love and stricken by poverty.

The group took clothes, toys and Bibles to share with Xoxocotla, but their main goal was to share the message that Jesus Christ saves.

“Most of them don't know that,” said Kitzia Cruz, a member of Segunda Iglesia Bautista.

Few Xoxocotla residents have running water or electricity. And while a few children finish school there, many will never even walk into a classroom.

So when church members began to hold classes in a makeshift church in the town, some were not comfortable taking part. Onlookers stood by the simple tent, not sure what to say or do.

“Some people were outside, and they didn't want to come in. I think they were afraid, kind of embarrassed,” Gabriela Rodriguez said.

Cruz's father, Rogelio, encouraged many to join the Bible and arts and crafts classes.

And while some declined the invitation, many walked into the patio area covered only by a canvas top and neighbored by a small kitchen that feeds the hungry there.

Abelito, who was probably about 4 years old, travels daily to the mission with his sisters and cousins. His hair is unpleasant, covered in mud, and his small feet are dirty, but he seems to take little notice of his need.

“When I showed him a shirt, he just smiled. We gave him shoes and shorts too. He was so happy,” Cruz said.

Estella Cavazos, who has traveled at least eight times on the church's summer missionary trips to Mexico, will remember Hermila, a deaf-mute who in her need found hope.

“She couldn't talk, and the pastor gave her the plan of salvation. She accepted. She made me cry,” Cavazos said.

For Olalde, whose travel to Xoxocotla was her first missionary trip to Mexico, the opportunity to meet 7-year-old Victorino helped her see life from a different perspective. He too, like Abelito, lives with overwhelming needs.

“I would think if I came dirty, I would probably just be thinking about that, but he didn't. He was ready to learn. You really grow from these experiences,” Olalde said.

Cruz agreed.

“God really showed me that he gives me so much, and I don't take enough time to thank him for it.

“He showed me to tell him thank you.”

Posted: 8/20/04

Texas hunger offering helps provide
food, water for refugees from Sudan

By Mary Crouch

BGCT Summer Intern

Texas Baptists are responding to a humanitarian crisis in Sudan and the surrounding region by providing refugees with food, water and medical attention.

So far this year, the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger has provided about $31,500 to the Sudan Interior Church and its refugee support program.

The allocation is part of a larger program sponsored by the Baptist World Alliance, in association with the Baptist General Convention of Texas and its Christian Life Commission.

Texas Baptists' gifts will aid refugees at the Kakuma camp in Kenya, the Gulu and Koboko camps in Uganda and the Pindyu, Bongo, Sherikola and Deme camps in Ethiopia.

Sudan is in the midst of “the biggest humanitarian drama of our time,” said Jan Egeland, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, in a statement on the U.N. website.

She notes more than 1 million Sudanese now are homeless and 50,000 are dead after attempts to fight off Arab militias in the Darfur province.

According to Ramadan Chan Liol, the general secretary in Nairobi, Kenya, many Sudanese have even fled to neighboring countries, like Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. But when they arrive at a refugee camp, they are not given basic necessities like food and water, and as a result are dying of starvation and malnutrition.

Posted: 8/20/04

Fewer than one-third of Protestant
teens read Bible on own each week

WASHINGTON (RNS)–Two-thirds of U.S. Protestant teens say they read the Bible alone less than once a week or not at all, according to a recent survey by the National Study of Youth and Religion.

Just 32 percent of Protestant teens report that they personally read the Bible alone once a week or more often, the report said.

Southern Baptist teens were third among other Protestant groups, with 39 percent indicating they read the Bible alone once a week or more. Teens within the Church of God in Christ were first at 48 percent, while Assemblies of God teens were second at 44 percent.

“Most religious traditions teach that faith and spiritual maturity do not happen automatically but that these must be intentionally cultivated and practiced,” said Christian Smith, principal investigator of the study.

“Just as becoming good at sports or playing a musical instrument requires constant practice, living well a life of faith also requires practice–that is what most religious traditions have always taught. But these findings suggest that only a minority of U.S. teens are getting much practice at faith in the form of Scripture reading.”

Smith, associate chair of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said a reason for the pattern may be that many Protestant adults fail to read the Bible regularly.

“It could be that most Protestant adults are not very good role models for their teenagers when it comes to basic, personal religious practices like reading the Bible,” he said.

Southern Baptist teenagers did lead the pack when asked whether they attend church services regularly. Just under half, 48 percent, said they did.

The study, funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc., was based on random-digit-dial telephone interviews with more than 3,350 teens along with one of their parents. The full report may be viewed at www.youthandreligion.org.

Posted: 8/20/04

Lawsuit filed over van rollover deaths

By Jonah D. King

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–The estates of five young people killed in a single-vehicle church van rollover accident last year have sued Ford Motor Co. and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, claiming Ford was negligent in manufacturing its Econoline E-350 15-passenger van, and Enterprise knew the vans were dangerous.

Calling the 2002 Econoline E-350 “a death trap waiting to happen,” plaintiff's attorney Brian Panish said inexperienced drivers and full loads increase chances such vans will roll over.

Ford has made changes to its 2006 model vans, designed to provide more stability when sensors detect unusual side-to-side movement, but the company said in a statement, “We remain confident that this is a very safe vehicle.”

In 2002, the National Transportation Safety Board said the center of gravity of 15-passenger vehicles rises when the van carries more than 10 passengers, and rollovers are more likely.

Because of this finding, the board recommended in July 2003 that Ford strengthen the roofs of its 15-passenger vans and provide more safety belts, and it called for training Econoline drivers to better maneuver in emergency situations.

The current suit, filed in Almeda Superior Court in California, stems from an accident in Yermo, Calif., nearly halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. A van carrying 14 young adults to a religious retreat rolled over on Interstate 15, killing five passengers.

The group had gathered at St. Antonius Coptic Church in northern California the previous day and set out on the 400-mile trek south, crashing onto the median only 20 minutes away from their destination.

The van's driver, Peter Demian, had been awake 19 straight hours at the time of the accident, according to the California Highway Patrol. No charges were filed against Demian, and he has not been sued.

Posted: 8/20/04

Church's missions fair inspires
personal involvement with church builders

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS–Jeff Patton may not be sure about next week, but he is certain where he will spend the third week of July next year, thanks to a missions fair held at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.

At the missions fair, organized by Associate Pastor Preston Bright, Patton first learned about a group who spend a week in July building churches across the United States.

Patton immediately found the idea intriguing. But he became convinced the ministry of the Baptist Church Builders of Texas must be valuable when he saw one of the people he admires most attending the builders' booth at the mission fair–Dot Laux.

“I saw her and thought, 'If it's good enough for Dot Laux, well John Brown, it's good enough for me,'” he recalled.

Laux and her husband, Ed, have a long history with the group.

Their first building project took place in Billings, Mont., in 1982. They have been members at Wilshire 42 years.

The third week of July has become one of the times of the year the couple most eagerly anticipates.

“You just look so forward to seeing all these people,” she said.

Zack Johnson, another Wilshire member who has nine years invested in the builders' ministry, said, “It's like a family reunion.”

But Frances Jones, a Wilshire member who has been taking part for even longer than Johnson, said it's better than that.

“It's like a family reunion, except there's no black sheep there,” she quipped.

Patton enjoyed the comraderie, all right. But for a man with a bit of construction in his work history, it was the building project itself that left him most amazed.

“This was a 12,000-square-foot building and every one of the walls was up before lunch on the first day. I'd never seen anything like that in my life,” he said.

Workers for the day included 331 men, women and children from 31 churches. Four of those churches were Church Builders' projects in previous years.

“I was excited about going, but to see how everyone worked so well together and the work got done so quickly was more than I could have ever dreamed about,” Patton said.

“All the talking and all the pictures in the world can't begin to tell the story. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.”

Despite the mass of people working on a fairly large job with few direct orders being given, Patton said, everything worked like clockwork.

“I've had 58 employees, and the hardest thing to do by far is to get everybody lined out on what they were supposed to do.,” he said.

“But nobody ever told anybody what to do, or maybe they did and I just didn't see it. It was like the big Supervisor in the sky gave them their orders.”

Each day at the construction site begins at 7 a.m. with a devotional and prayer. The same happens with the kitchen crew a little later in the morning.

Preparing the noon and evening meals for more than 300 people each day is its own brand of work.

Peeling more than 400 pounds of potatoes especially stands out for Jones.

“But we were having so much fun, you really didn't notice,” she said.

While the fellowship is great, make no mistake, the work is hard, participants agreed.

“None of us work this hard for a living,” said Johnson, whose forte is setting the roof trusses and then staying off the ground for most of the remainder of the project.

In addition to the building and kitchen crews, another group teaches a Vacation Bible School for local children.

Laux said a good mixture of ages help each year. Her grandchildren look forward to the week as much as she does and always bring friends along who usually return as well, she said.

Patton said one of the things he won't forget is the small church his 8-year-old son, Jeffrey, and other children made from scraps. Or the $200 offering Jeffrey brought to churchwith pride after cajoling the money out of his father's pockets.

“He was so proud to walk up there, and I was so proud to see him do it,” Patton said.

The builders also are a shot in the arm to the congregation whose building they construct, Laux added. “The people in their community drive by Monday morning, and all they see is a concrete slab. When they come home that evening, they see all the walls, the trusses and a bit of the roof–that makes some of them wonder what's going on there,” she said.

Pastor George Mason frequently challenges Wilshire members to become involved personally in missions, Patton noted.

"He's always telling us: 'It's great you're a Christian, and it's great that you love Jesus, but what are you going to do to share that with others?'" Patton said. That recurring message from the pulpit coupled with a wife who is involved in prison ministry caused Patton to have a open heart, waiting for the right ministry to become involved in himself.

All of which has made Patton not only a strong proponent of the Church Builders ministry, but of missions fairs, as well.

“If it hadn't been for the mission fair, I still wouldn't be involved because I'd never heard of Church Builders. Every church should have a missions fair,” he said.

For more information about the Baptist Church Builders of Texas, call (325) 573-4730 or visit the group's website at www.bcbot.com.

Posted: 8/20/04

One girl's witness sparks series of conversions

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

WACO–Earlier this year in Mexico City, 30 people stood in a church service to note a common connection. Each traced his or her salvation experience back through links of family and friends to a single encounter five years ago at a park in Utah.

That was the day an 11-year-old girl asked her dad if she could go to the park with him and witness to people about Jesus. William Ortega let his daughter, Vasti, go along.

She spied another girl her same age and went to talk to her about Jesus. Before she was through, Vasti had led the girl, two siblings and their mother to faith in Christ.

But the story didn't end there. The mother went home and eventually led her husband to Christ. That family became friends with the Ortegas, and they attended church together.

Later, federal authorities discovered the new Christian family was in the United States illegally and deported them to Mexico.

Back in their homeland, they shared their newfound faith with others, who also followed Christ.

The Ortegas had been preparing to move to Mexico City as missionaries before the other family was deported, and they all eventually were reunited.

Vasti Ortega–now 16–was in the Mexico City worship service when 30 people stood to testify they came to Christ as part of the chain reaction of faith she started five years earlier.

“God blessed … because someone was not afraid to witness,” Orpha Ortega, Vasti's mother, told participants at the recent Texas Leadership Conference in Waco.

Posted: 8/20/04

Posted: 8/20/04

Rural church's missions vision
reaches from Zephyr to Athens

By George Henson

Staff Writer

ZEPHYR–One Texas pastor wants to use any means possible to spread the news of Christ: From Plan A to Z, or really Z to A–Zephyr to Athens, that is.

Zephyr Baptist Church sent Pastor Steve Baker and his wife, Joyce, to meet and greet visitors to the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. They are traveling with Randy Taylor, the church's recently retired minister of music, and his wife, Ginny.

It was the wives who initially recognized the opportunity.

“I'm a GA leader, and missions is really my heart,” Ginny Taylor said.

“I haven't taken many mission trips, but I was immediately drawn to this.”

A sixth-grade teacher for many years, she also recalled lessons she had taught on ancient Athens and was intrigued by the possibility of getting a first-hand look.

For Joyce Baker, the attraction was the crowds that are drawn to the Olympics.

“I love the thought of fulfilling the Great Commission in one location with people coming from all over the world to one place,” she explained.

It definitely is a change–only about 500 people live within an eight-mile radius of their home church.

Baker doubted whether the trip was a workable idea.

“This was too big, too out there to really consider it at all,” he said, noting he's more accustomed to taking mission trips to Colorado.

Gradually, however, he began to see it might be a possibility, and now it is a reality.

The two couples are part of a team of eight volunteers. Other members of the team are from Southside Baptist Church in Brownwood and a church in Louisiana.

The effort is the latest in a series of events that has gradually widened the vision for missions at the rural church, located between Brownwood and Goldthwaite.

“Up until three or four years ago, this church hadn't really been involved in missions outside the walls of the church,” Baker said. “They have been giving to missions all along, but there hadn't been much personal involvement in missions.”

The church's first foray was a trip to Fort Worth, where a church held carnivals to reach out to apartment complexes. The people from Zephyr ran the carnival rides, while members of the Fort Worth congregation got to know the people coming to the carnivals.

That venture led to their efforts in Colorado, where they helped a congregation with Vacation Bible School.

Now, the church is helping its pastor minister almost halfway around the globe as an extension of the church's ministry.

“They're not concerned about my being gone at all,” Baker said prior to the trip. “They have been very supportive–asking questions about our financial support, reminding us that they are praying for us. They've even been helping us to find Texas mementos we can take to a church in Greece that we will be visiting.”

Mrs. Baker said she expected the trip would give her a new viewpoint on a lot of things.

“I expect I will come back with a better and different perspective on different worldviews, since we will be meeting people from all over the world,” she said.

“Also, I expect to know God in a different way. Everything you go through in life helps you to know him in a different way–as either Father, Son, Savior, Lord or any other of the many ways he shows himself to us. I expect to know him better as I rely on him each day, I just don't know what form that will take,” she said.

“I'm going to see God work,” Mrs. Taylor said. “I don't know how it will be done, but whenever God works, you are changed. So, I expect to come back changed, and I'm leaving it to God how he's going to do that.”

The experience should have a ripple effect on the congregation left at home as well, Baker said.

“One thing that is true is that you can't grow a church beyond where you are yourself,” he noted.

“I don't know exactly how God may use us in Athens, but I think he will expand the faith that I have that he can use me to reach others. Then I can encourage the people here to reach out to the people around them.”

It's important to Baker that the trip not become a footnote in the church's history books one day, but the first step of an even longer journey.

“I don't want us to do this so we can say, 'Look what we did one time,' but something that will instill in us a desire to minister wherever we are–including here in Zephyr, our Jerusalem,” he said.

Posted: 8/20/04

Cybercolumn: Of marathons and truth

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, thinking about the Olympics in Athens, Greece.

The Olympics buzz with prospects for heroic feats by well-trained athletes. The United States team—the swimmers, the runners, the sand volleyballers, the basketballers, the divers, the shot putters and the like—have prepared themselves for their respective events.

I cannot watch the Olympics without thinking of two things—the marathon and the Apostle Paul.

The marathon is so named because the Greeks defeated the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. A Greek general dispatched a messenger, who ran to Athens to announce the victory. His name was Pheidippides. He ran a distance of 26 miles from the plains of Marathon, by the coast, through the foothills to Athens. When he arrived, he announced, “Rejoice, we conquer!” After his brief victorious announcement, he died. If it’s your time, your swan song, I can’t think of a better way than going out on a winning note.

The Olympics also remind me of the Apostle Paul.

In Athens, he visited a place called the “Areopagus,” also known as the “council of court.” On a rocky hill between the Acropolis and the agora or marketplace (think of Wal-Mart), the Areopagus is the place where Paul debated the philosophers and Sophists of his day. They worshipped an unknown God. Paul announced God could be known in Jesus. Down here in Texas, we proclaim a God who changes lives in Jesus. Wow!

During the Olympics, television photographers shoot video of Athens and scan the Acropolis. It houses an infamous structure called “The Parthenon.” Known to the Greeks as the “place of virgins,” it was a pagan temple in Paul’s day. Through the years, it has also housed a mosque, a Christian church in sixth century and other pagan temples. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

All this brings me back to Marathon and the Apostle Paul. We, as Christians, all run a marathon in life, running in the victory of Christ. And in a world of paganism and the offering of many gods, Paul’s word of truth in the resurrection power of Jesus who can be known is still the important message of the day.

The Olympic motto is “faster, stronger, higher.” In ancient Greece, the Olympics included processions, sacrifices and banquets. The victors were crowned with a garland of wild olive twigs. A lot has changed through the years—from olive-leaved crowns to gold medals. All this reminds us that we live in a changing world, a world that runs marathons, celebrates with banquets and honors gold-medal winners. Still, it is a world where Paul’s message of gospel truth forms a rock-solid foundation stronger than the Parthenon.

By the way, this old oak tree has added another year, another ring around its trunk. Maybe I should travel to Athens.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines

Storylist for 8/23/04 issue

OUR FRONT PAGE ARTICLES
• Buckner partners with ministries in Northwest

• Sunday no day of rest for Christians sharing the gospel at motor speedway



• Buckner partners with ministries in Northwest

• Sunday no day of rest for Christians sharing the gospel at motor speedway

• Reyes to be nominated for BGCT president; first non-Anglo in history

• Texas Baptist volunteers join multi-state disaster relief effort in Florida

• DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXANS: Pitcher Andy Pettitte: Close to home

• Minister steps off baseball playing field and into evangelistic harvest field

• Astros' chaplain sees star athletes as 'somebody's kids'

• Life threw her a curve, but young athlete now safe at home

• Ministry springs from just a load of beans

• From northern Mexico to northern Bryan, volunteers unite to reach the Brazos Valley

• Floor mosaic represents God's love

• Mission volunteers overcome fears, make impact in Mexico

• Texas hunger offering helps provide food, water for refugees from Sudan

• Lawsuit filed over van rollover deaths

• Church's missions fair inspires personal involvement with church builders

• One girl's witness sparks series of conversions

• Korean WMU officers elected

• Rural church's missions vision reaches from Zephyr to Athens

• BaptistWay lessons back in Baptist Standard

• On the Move

• Around the State

Previously Posted
• Chosengirls ministry teaches teens the merits of modesty

• Small church builds big sanctuary to house its pipe organ

• Parents should pray early, often for children's salvation, consultant says

• Speaker offers parents peacemaking tools, principles for communicating with teenagers

• After 44 years of inner-city ministry, Kube still prays: 'Here I am; use me'

• Temple church believes God used adversity to build renewed sense of unity

• Houston church see pews packed again after it disbands, donates facility

• Veteran youth minister offers stable presence in teens' lives

• Prayer the focus of slumber party slated at My Father's House, Lubbock, next month

• Summer camp means missions service for DBU Pace



• Baptist Briefs

Previously Posted
• In spite of SBC withdrawal, Baptist leaders in U.S. pledge BWA support

• BWA must continue to defend human rights, stand for freedom and justice, leaders insist



Sermons on the Mound
• DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXANS: Pitcher Andy Pettitte: Close to home

• Minister steps off baseball playing field and into evangelistic harvest field

• Astros' chaplain sees star athletes as 'somebody's kids'

• Life threw her a curve, but young athlete now safe at home



• Fewer than one-third of Protestant teens read Bible on own each week

• Girls Scouts' loss is American Heritage Girls' gain

• Presidential powers used to advance faith-based initiatives

• Coalition criticizes Bush campaign for recruiting in churches

• Church-going evangelical men least likely to abuse families, research says

Previously Posted
• Democratic liaison to religious leaders resigns after drawing fire from Right

• Post-Enron age could be era of ethics, values in business



• Texas Baptist Forum

• Classified Ads

• On the Move

• Around the State



• EDITORIAL: Ride glory train to South Carolina?

• EDITORIAL: RM 2493 hoax still lives on

• DOWN HOME: Still newlyweds, 5 decades later

• TOGETHER: Yearn for the sea, vault for the gold

• GUEST EDITORIAL 'Presence of Christ' calls for integrity, homework & courage

• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cybercolumn by John Duncan: Of marathons and truth



• LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Aug. 29: Despite disobedience, God offers new beginnings

• LifeWay Family Bible Series for Aug. 29: Following Jesus is definitely not for sissies

• LifeWay Explore the Bible Series for Sept. 5: Don't give up hope; God has a plan for your life

• LifeWay Family Bible Series for Sept. 5: God has invited us to know him intimately

• BaptistWay Series for Sept. 5: When you suffer, remember, you always have a prayer

See articles from previous issue 8/09/04 here.