2006 Archives
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Violence deters Nuevo Laredo missions
Posted: 12/15/06
Violence deters Nuevo Laredo missions
By John Hall
Texas Baptist Communications
SAN ANTONIO—The number of Texas Baptist mission trips to Nuevo Laredo is down significantly this year, due in large part to violence between drug cartels there.
The Baptist General Convention of Texas Border/Mexico Missions office facilitated fewer than 10 mission trips to Nuevo Laredo this year, down from nearly 30 in 2005.
12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Child learns early lesson about selfless giving
Posted: 12/15/06
Megan Simmwell, age 7, sits among the 100 arts and crafts supplies she received for her birthday. Simmwell donated all the gifts to children served in STARRY’s emergency shelter program. Child learns early lesson about selfless giving
By Miranda Bradley
Children at Heart Ministries
ROUND ROCK—Most adults find it hard to be selfless, no matter how many sermons they hear about it being “more blessed to give than to receive.” But Megan Simmwell, age 7, learned the lesson early—and has become hooked on giving.
Recently, she gave her own brand-new birthday presents to children served by STARRY’s emergency shelter program. STARRY is a community-based agency of Children at Heart Ministries that serves children, teenagers and parents in crisis.
12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Protestants decide there’s something about Mary
Posted: 12/15/06
Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem in The Nativity Story. Protestants decide there’s something about Mary
By Sarah Price Brown
Religion News Service
LOS ANGELES—Scot McKnight, a religious studies professor, was teaching several years ago when he had an “aha” moment.
McKnight had just read aloud the Magnificat, the Virgin Mary’s hymn of praise from the Gospel of Luke.
12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Love of reading modeled for children, single moms
Posted: 12/15/06
Love of reading modeled for children, single moms
By Miranda Bradley
Children at Heart Foundation
ROUND ROCK—For the 10th consecutive year, Christmas came a bit early for some Round Rock children, as 21 teachers with the Austin chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society brought cookies, books and the joy of reading to Texas Baptist Children’s Home’s Family Care residents.
“We get to give our time and our books to these kids,” chapter President Shirley Shay said. “It makes for a very special experience.”
12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Shrink stress and save sanity by getting organized
Posted: 12/15/06
Shrink stress and save sanity by getting organized
By Ken Camp
Managing Editor
’Tis the season for anxiety attacks as to-do lists grow longer while days before Christmas grow shorter. But families can reduce holiday stress by following a few simple organizing tips, Christian author Marcia Ramsland said.
“The holidays are as much a matter of organization as they are a matter of the heart,” said Ramsland, author of Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay that Way. “If you do anything in life more than once, organize it and simplify it. That’s especially true at the holidays.”
12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Texas Tidbits
Posted: 12/15/06
Texas Tidbits
Baylor receives grant for lupus research. Baylor Research Institute—an affiliate of the Baylor Health Care System—has received a $6.2 million grant that will allow its immunology division to establish a Center for Lupus Research. The grant comes from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, about 1.5 million Americans have a form of lupus—90 percent of them women.
Academy alumni support Gridiron Heroes. Representatives of the San Marcos Academy class of 1976 presented a $1,976 donation to Gridiron Heroes, a Texas-based support and outreach service organization that offers services to young athletes and their families affected by spinal-cord injuries. Eddie Canales founded Gridiron Heroes after his son Chris suffered life-threatening spinal cord injuries in a football game. Both the father and son are San Marcos Academy graduates.
12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
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TOGETHER: Passion grows for being ‘on mission’
Posted: 12/15/06
TOGETHER:
Passion grows for being ‘on mission’As 2006 draws to a close, I celebrate the growing passion I see in many churches for being “on mission” with God. This passion is exemplified in many ways.
Our cowboy church leaders are responding to God’s blessings in their lives and are starting new churches across Texas. People’s lives are being turned around. Folks who have never been to church or had felt they could never again be “at home” in a church are finding God’s promise of peace and salvation to be real.
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
There are new churches in small towns on the edge of urban sprawl where God is using men and women who never before realized they could be leaders in a church to reach scores of people for Christ. Because of the passion for reaching people that bubbles up in the hearts of so many churches, we are starting 180 churches in Texas this year.
A Hispanic church in Texas is so eager for God to work through them that they started a Vacation Bible School in Guanajuato, Mexico, and now a church is there. They connected with the social needs of the people who live in that area, opened a school, now accredited by the Mexican Board of Education, which is teaching labor skills for an impoverished community. One of their families now lives as missionaries in that community, and other families have caught the vision of missions service.
12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
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Tots compel students to give
Posted: 12/15/06
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor residence dorms competed to give the most to the area Toys for Tots campaign sponsored by the Marine Corps Reserve. Tots compel students to give
By Jennifer Sicking
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
BELTON—Melissa Ochs returned from a weekend trip to find bags of toys in her dorm room at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
An anonymous donation, helped push Johnson Hall ahead of other campus residence halls in the “dorm wars” competition to collect toys for the area Toys for Tots campaign by the Marine Corps Reserve.
12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
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MORE BLESSED TO GIVE: Compassionate conservatives? Research says, ‘Yes’
Posted: 12/15/06
MORE BLESSED TO GIVE:
Compassionate conservatives? Research says, ‘Yes’By Frank Brieaddy
Religion News Service
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (RNS)—Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks may be the newest darling of the religious right in America—and it’s making him nervous. The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income.
In the book, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives—from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services—make conservatives more generous than liberals.
“For too long, liberals have been claiming they are the most virtuous members of American society. Although they usually give less to charity, they have nevertheless lambasted conservatives for their callousness in the face of social injustice.”–Arthur Brooks
(Photo by www.fotosearch.com)12/14/2006 - By John Rutledge
