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.

Dexton Shores, director of BGCT Border/Mexico Missions, attributed the drop largely to highly publicized violence between drug cartels in the region that has deterred church groups from coming to the area.

“The Nuevo Laredo area has continued to be a hotbed of violent activity this year, due to the ongoing fighting between two drug cartels to gain control of this significant port of entry,” Shores said.

Shores understands why mission teams are avoiding the Laredo area, but he noted violent acts can happen anywhere, whether ministering in Mexico or Texas. No team that has worked through his office has encountered any violence in Mexico.

Mission volunteers should take common-sense precautions in Mexico like they would in any unfamiliar place, Shores said. These include staying together as a group and keeping clear from areas where known criminal activity is taking place. From there, Texas Baptists must trust God to protect them as they do his work, he said.

“I am in Mexico at least 30 times a year and do not feel any more vulnerable or unsafe there than I feel in San Antonio,” he said.

“We daily have crimes reported in our communities in Texas of home invasions, random robberies/burglaries, murders and kidnappings, and we understand that we live in a sinful world and must always exercise caution.

“If we believe that Jesus was serious about his followers fulfilling the Great Commission unto all the world, we must be obedient, trust him to protect us and exercise caution on the other side of the border, just as we do at home.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 12/15/06

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.

“Last year, we sort of forced the issue,” said Kim Simmwell, Megan’s mother. “We just believe it’s important for our kids to realize there are many people out there who don’t have as much as they do.”

A year ago, the Simmwells gave to a family who fled Hurricane Katrina with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

That act led to even more giving projects for Megan. Aside from donating goods, she also has helped feed the homeless and participated in food drives for the needy.

“She’s a sweet kid,” her mother said. “I think she really likes to help people.”

Before her 7th birthday, Megan’s parents gave her a choice between a large party where she would donate the gifts or a smaller party where she could keep the presents. She chose a big party that would help other children, and she tapped one of her favorite pastimes—arts and crafts—as the gift theme.

“She told me she wanted to give these things because she likes art, and she wanted all the kids to enjoy the art supplies,” Mrs. Simmwell said.

With more than 100 arts and crafts supplies loaded in the back of their SUV, Megan and her mother made a trip to one of STARRY’s emergency shelter cottages, which houses children removed from their homes by Child Protective Services due to abuse or neglect.

Mrs. Simmwell said she was given STARRY’s name by an acquaintance after calls to other nonprofit organizations went unreturned. Until they delivered the items, the Simmwells never had visited the ministry.

After touring the cottage, Mrs. Simmwell showed an interest in becoming even more heavily involved in STARRY’s mission.

“I can tell STARRY does wonderful work,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to know so many children need a safe place to come to.”

Megan knows she lives in a household surrounded by love, her mother said, but her mother wanted her to know other children are not as blessed.

“These people are part of her generation,” Mrs. Simmwell said. “Not everyone lives they way Megan lives, and you never know when someone will need to take care of you.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 12/15/06

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.

“What kind of woman would have said this?” McKnight asked his students at North Park University in Chicago.

Keisha Castle-Hughes plays Mary in The Nativity Story. Many Protestants have used the film to spark discussions about Mary and her role in Christian history. (RNS photos courtesy of Jaimie Trueblood/New Line Productions)

As he listened to their answers, McKnight, an evangelical Christian, became convinced of two things. One, most Protestants know next to nothing about Mary. And two, the popular conception of Mary as “hyper-pious, with her hands folded in prayer … like a nun,” has little to do with the “courageous, gutsy” young woman—“the real Mary”—of the Bible.

At that moment, McKnight vowed to “reclaim” Mary, a New Testament figure revered by Roman Catholics and largely overlooked by Protestants.

His new book, The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus, tries to do just that.

But McKnight isn’t the only Protestant taking another look at the mother of Jesus.

The Nativity Story, a movie that chronicles the lives of Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus, recently opened in theaters nationwide, and Protestants around the country are using the film to re-evaluate the role of Mary within Protestant tradition.

McKnight and his publisher, Paraclete Press, have helped organize more than 60 Protestant groups around the country to host forums this month to discuss the movie and the book.

The goal, as McKnight sees it, amounts to nothing short of a coup by Protestants.

“There are a few of us who are in a Trojan horse,” McKnight said. “It’s as if we’ve been released in the Vatican, and we’re swiping Mary and taking her back to the Protestant world.”

Even though The Nativity Story premiered at the Vatican, filmmakers hosted about 60 early screenings of the film for Protestant leaders to get their flocks energized about the movie.

“We’ve taken the film around to every big Protestant leader we can think of,” said Wyck Godfrey, one of the film’s producers.

Godfrey, a Presbyterian, said the film tries to portray Mary as down-to-earth.

“The bent we took was very Protestant, really, treating (Mary) as a human, someone going through something very difficult, with real emotions. We were not trying to create her as some iconic saint.”

The film’s screenwriter, Mike Rich, said his inspiration for the movie was taken straight from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Seeing Mary the way the Bible shows her is precisely the point, McKnight said.

“We are Protestants; we believe in the Bible; Mary is in the Bible,” he wrote in his book. Therefore, “we need to believe what the Bible says about Mary.”

As early as the second century, Christians honored Mary as the “mother of God.” But since the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Mary has been a point of contention between Catholics and Protestants.

On the one hand, Catholics have venerated Mary, portraying her in stained glass and statues, hailing her in their rosaries. In 1854, Pope Pius IX raised Mary beyond mortal ranks, saying she had been born without original sin. In 1950, Pope Pius XII held Mary even higher, declaring that when she died, her body was taken into heaven and reunited with her soul.

Most Protestants rejected these papal decrees, known as the “Immaculate Conception” and “Assumption,” respectively. Protestants, for the most part, have been wary of focusing too much attention on Mary at the expense of Jesus.

So, when David Hershey, a 26-year-old evangelical pastor at Pennsylvania State Univer-sity, announced recently he would lead a Bible study session on Mary to coincide with the release of The Nativity Story and McKnight’s book, a student e-mailed back, “What are we, Catholic now?”

Randy Pospisil, who teaches Sunday school at First Baptist Church in Medford, Wis., received a similar response when he said he would lecture on the mother of Jesus. In addition to “some pretty confused looks,” Pospisil, 33, got an e-mail asking whether he was “wanting to become Catholic.”

For some, these kinds of negative reactions underscore why Protestants need to talk about Mary. Tim Seitz-Brown, pastor of Paradise Lutheran Church in Thomasville, Pa., said Jesus’ mother is in need of an extreme makeover among Protestants.

In the classic Nativity scene, “Mary is beautiful and passive,” Seitz-Brown said. As he sees it, “Mary would be much feistier” than most people would recognize.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 12/15/06

Growing church family
finds room for expansion

By George Henson

Staff Writer

ODESSA—As families grow, the need for a larger home often follows. Primera Iglesia Bautista in Odessa has found what seems to be a perfect fit for its growing family of believers.

More than twice as many people have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ in 2006 than in 2005 at Primera, Pastor Mario Martinez said.

Martinez credits the faithfulness of the congregation to visit area residents using the FAITH evangelism strategy as a key to growth.

While more than 40 have professed faith in Jesus Christ this year, only about 20 have been baptized so far. New believers are discipled in an eight-week course by the same people who led them to their decision, and nobody is baptized until they understand its significance.

“Our teaching about baptism doesn’t come until the seventh week, so some haven’t been taught what baptism means yet,” Martinez explained.

Some people are delaying their baptism until New Year’s Eve, when the church plans a large celebration, he added. Martinez already has a list of about 15 people who will be baptized that night.

The church’s growth has surpassed what its facilities can accommodate. Currently, all four of the church’s education rooms are filled on Sunday mornings. Four more classes meet in borrowed space at an Anglo church across the street.

The growth in the number of Christians also has increased the number of children from when Martinez arrived at the church in 2004.

“When I came here, there were four children. One couple had two boys, and my wife and I had two children. Now, we have 20 children in the nursery and 15 in children’s chapel,” he said.

The children’s chapel meets in another small building because there is not a room large enough in main building.

That space crunch prompted the church to pray about building another structure on its property.

But Martinez said before any concrete plans were made, another church four blocks away decided to sell its property and relocate.

The initial asking price was $450,000; Primera initially offered $385,000. In mid-November, the parties came together, and Primera acknowledged it would only be able to come up with about $350,000. That offer was accepted.

“We will move into our new building in February,” Martinez said. “It has 13 classrooms for Sunday school and will seat 340 people.”

Since attendance has been about 100, that gives the church a good deal of room for growth, he said.

“Right now, we have a lot of people who come, and we are crowded in our pews, and our parking lot is full. Some people don’t like that, so they don’t come back. In our new building, we will have plenty of space for everyone,” Martinez said.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 12/15/06

On the Move

• Gary Anthony to First Church in Temple as associate pastor of music from Gaston Oaks Church in Dallas, where he was minister of music/administration.

• Larry Archer to Sylvester Church in Sylvester as pastor.

• Mike Bradford to East Side Church in Rusk as pastor from Fort Phantom Church in Abilene.

• Richard Butts to Skyline Church in Lubbock as pastor.

• Robert Chambers to Second Church in Abilene as pastor, where he was interim.

• Gary Covin has resigned as music minister at First Church in Edna.

• Jerry Eckhart has resigned as pastor of Shelton Avenue Church in Breckenridge.

• Loren Fast to First Church in Pharr as pastor.

• Dean Ferguson to Mesquite Hill Church in Midway as pastor.

• Bonita Green to First Church in Poteet as minister of education.

• Kevin Hearne to Calvary Church in Cisco as youth minister.

• Randy Heddings to Shelton Avenue Church in Breckenridge as pastor.

• Todd Hollingsworth to First Church in Celina as youth minister from First Church in Edna.

• Butch Horton to Crestview Church in Georgetown as minister to students.

• Jerry Kelly to Fitzhugh Church in Austin as interim pastor.

• Joe Dan Kendrick to Calvary Church in Abilene as youth minister.

• Reuben Lashley to First Church in Pharr as student minister.

• Lyn Means to First Church in Jourdanton as pastor from First Church in Paducah.

• Jim Mosley to Builders Church in Merkel as pastor.

• Cody Nelson to Seventh and Main Church in Bonham as pastor.

• Russell Page to First Church in Charlotte as pastor.

• Greg Rake to Lytle South Church in Abilene as youth pastor from Ovalo Church in Ovalo, where he was pastor.

• Belle Ramey to Crestview Church in Georgetown as minister to middle school students.

• Glen Ray to Timbergrove Church in Houston as pastor.

• David Rowser to New Home Church in New Home as pastor.

• Martin Spencer to First Church in Savoy as minister of worship and administration.

• Brad Stewart has resigned as minister of youth at First Church in Rosebud.

• Charles Strickland to New Life Church in Greenville as pastor.

• Tank Tankersley has resigned as pastor of Harmony Church in Eastland.

• Joel Thielepape to Woodlawn Church in Austin as interim pastor.

• Shon Wagner to Redbud Church in Lubbock as pastor from First Church in Truth or Consequences, N.M.

• Neal Weaver has resigned as education minister at First Church in Eastland.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

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.”

Family Care, a ministry to single mothers and their children through Texas Baptist Children’s Home, provides opportunities for women to gain skills in parenting, careers and budgeting. The program currently benefits 53 children and 27 moms in its seven cottages.

“Most of the parents are just blown away by the generosity these ladies show every year,” said Marian Marley, Family Care case manager. “I can’t tell you how many comments I got from moms who said it was ‘wonderful’ and ‘amazing.’”

The Bountiful Book Party is designed not only to get books into children’s hands, but also to model for mothers the importance of reading to their children.

“We want to demonstrate reading to these moms who may not have the time or the skills to do it effectively,” Shay said. “It’s important to talk about the book with the children and emphasize the words so they learn as they read.”

Along with their combined years of teaching expertise, the volunteers also brought 100 brand-new books from which each child could select two. The rest were donated to a library where all the children could have access to them.

“This is the highlight of my year,” Marley said. “It’s an important relational experience to me.”

In addition to teaching parents how to read to their children, the project also helps foster deeper relationships between all involved.

“We have two cousins who are in different cottages on campus,” Marley remembered. “By the time it was all over, they were reading books to each other. It’s fantastic to see the bonds this type of event can create in people.”

The teachers, likewise, formed bonds with the children.

“My favorite part of the entire day was reading to two twin boys,” Shay said.

“They were so precious and loved books so much. They both wanted to talk about what they read with me. It was definitely something I will always remember.

“When we leave here, we know the kids have a new appreciation for books. It’s a wonderful experience for all of us, knowing we have given them something that can last a lifetime.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

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.”

By organizing, Christians can direct their attention to the meaning behind the holiday and to creating memories with their families rather than wasting time and energy on less-important matters, she insisted.

About 75 percent of holiday stress comes in three areas—buying and giving gifts, sending Christmas cards and decorating, Ramsland noted.

Reduce anxiety by keeping a holiday notebook—a loose-leaf binder with dividers— from one year to the next as a handy reference, she recommended. Create sections designated for gifts, cards, decorating and recipes—as a well as section labeled “successes.”

“In that section, put in pages recording the best thing that happened this Christmas, and keep it from year to year,” she said, suggesting as a recommended heading, “We honored God in our celebration by… .”

Most Christmastime stress centers on buying and giving presents, she noted.

In the gift-giving section of the notebook, list people who regularly receive gifts, gift ideas, a budget, presents purchased and where the wrapped gifts are hidden, she recommended. A downloadable form is available on her website, www.OrganizingPro.com.

To save time and improve efficiency in shopping, Ramsland offers several suggestions:

•Follow a theme.

Give everyone on the gift list a distinctive present from the same store, such as a sweater or a music CD that fits a particular person’s tastes or a book related to that person’s interests.

•Shop appropriately.

“Recognize if a person is practical or sentimental,” she said. As a clue, consider the kinds of gifts that person typically buys for others. For instance, if someone usually buys power tools or kitchen utensils for others, that person probably would like a practical gift.

•Stick with success.

Buyers should keep track of where they find most of their best-received gifts from year to year and shop there first, she said.

•Keep track.

“Save your gift lists from year to year and refer back to them,” she suggested.

•Calendar craft time.

For people who like to give handmade presents, reduce stress by planning a realistic schedule of how many can be made in the busy days before Christmas—and how many are big projects that need to be started much earlier in the year. If making gifts by hand is priority, put it on the calendar and treat crafting times as appointments to be honored.

•Shop for children last.

Children go through phases quickly, and they often change their minds about what toys they want for Christmas—particularly as they see holiday advertisements.

•Shop for Jesus first.

“I like for people to put Jesus at the top of their list,” she noted. “Whether it’s a gift of time or a financial gift, pray about it and make it priority.”

Looking ahead to next year, Ramsland recommended shoppers look at Halloween rather than the day after Thanksgiving as the starting date for the present-buying season. If most presents are bought and wrapped before Thanksgiving, that leaves more time for other activities during the weeks immediately before Christmas—and fewer stress-inducing trips to malls when they are the most crowded.

Beyond the narrow issue of shopping for presents, look for ways to simplify the crowded calendar by combining social events, she suggested.

“If you’re going to a Christmas play and church, but you also want to get together with a particular couple, invite them to go out to dinner with you before the program,” she said. “Do a couple of things in one night. By multi-tasking, you free up another night.”

Once the required activities are out of the way, families have time to creatively develop their own traditions. They could be as simple as asking everyone at the Christmas dinnertable to mention one or two things that happened in the last year for which they are thankful, she suggested.

Families can reduce stress considerably simply by not holding themselves up to an impossible standard, she added.

“Check your attitude,” she urged. “Make sure you’re not expecting too much—that you’re not aiming for perfection. It doesn’t have to match what your mother did.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

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.

BUA prof joins dialogue with Catholics. Nora Lozano, associate professor of theological studies at Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio, participated in the first of a series of Baptist/Catholic theological dialogues as part of a Baptist World Alliance team. The dialogue took place Dec. 10-15 at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala. BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz and Paul Fiddes, principal of Regents Park College of Oxford University and chairman of the BWA commission on doctrine and inter-church cooperation, led the Baptist team. The BWA General Council in Mexico City this past July approved holding theological conversations with the Vatican. The BWA team is drawn from the six continental federations of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and North America, and includes special observers. Topics of discussion—slated to continue through 2010—include the authority of Christ in Scripture and tradition, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and hearing God’s word in the contemporary context.

DBU pays employees to lose. More than 100 Dallas Baptist University employees joined the school’s wellness program this semester, and about half of them weighed in with the campus nurse in hopes of earning a $100 bonus for losing at least 10 pounds. Engaging in a minimum of 30 continuous minutes a day of aerobic exercise or weight training five days a week qualifies participants to earn an additional $100 reward each semester. “The wellness program has been going on for 17 years, but when we added the financial bonus in the summer of 2003, more people started becoming interested,” explained the program’s director, Vivian Castleberry. Even though the cash awards cost the school thousands of dollars a year, the wellness program has saved DBU more because expensive insurance claims have dropped, said Eric Bruntmyer, vice president for financial affairs.

Correction: In the Dec. 4 “Texas Tidbits” column, an item titled “BUA names search committee” incorrectly identified Alfonso Flores. Flores, who was named to the BUA council of advisers, is pastor of First Mexican Baptist Church in San Antonio, not Houston as stated in the print version of that article. Our onlune version has been corrected.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

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.

I also celebrate the impact that some of our Baptist General Convention of Texas organizational changes have had on our work together.

Our new Executive Board completes its first year of service this month. They have faced several challenges—learning new responsibilities, getting acquainted with one another, working with the restructuring of our staff assignments, understanding a new budget process and facing the challenges of a report that revealed misuse of church starting funds. They have stepped forward to help me correct, in a very open and direct manner, the problems that have been identified.

All of us on the BGCT staff are committed to working through this crisis. All the motions passed by the Executive Board Nov. 13 are being addressed. The draft of the new church starting polices and procedures has been mailed to the Executive Board’s Missions and Ministry Committee; and by the time for a vote on these policies in February, members of the Executive Board will know more about church starting philosophy and methods than ever before.

I pledge that I will do everything possible to resolve all of these matters in a spirit of openness, fairness and justice. Furthermore, I am determined to work with everyone to put in place policies and attitudes that will restore to our church starting efforts the highest levels of trust and confidence.

Thank you for your many expressions of concern, support and prayer. Those who would like to use this painful episode as an excuse to undermine the future of our kingdom work through the BGCT are very few and very wrong. The BGCT has faced many critics through the years, but the spirit of our people is very strong and very united, and we know the work God has given us to do in Texas and the world is worth our commitment and our cooperation because we can do more together than we can do divided or alone.

We are all loved.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 12/15/06

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.

“The girls were extremely excited,” Ochs, a junior athletic training major from Austin, said of her dormmates.

“When we first announced it, the girls were excited and enthusiastic,” Ochs said. “They wanted to give back to the community, especially when they found out it was going to area children.”

An anonymous donor helped the dorm by giving $50 to a university officer and telling her to “give it to the dorm she liked the best,” Ochs said. The officer presented it to the residence hall, which used it to buy 54 toys.

In the end, Johnson Hall donated 158 toys, while the second-place dorm contributed 80, said Mary Dickson, president of the Sader Sports Medicine Association, which spearheads the university’s toy drive each year. By the end of the “dorm wars” competition Dec. 4, the association had collected more than 500 toys, with 350 from the six residence halls.

For donating the most toys, the women in Johnson Hall received a pizza and snack study party the night before finals began.

While this is the fourth year for the association to lead the Toys for Tots toy drive, Dickson said, it was the first year for a competition between the dorms.

“In the first meeting of the year, we had a brainstorming session to increase the number of participants on campus,” she said.

“We have a room stuffed full (of toys) waiting to be picked up by the Marines,” she said of the result.

Barbie dolls, puzzles, stuffed animals and toy trucks sit in the room waiting to be wrapped and placed under a tree for children on Christmas.

The project helps children who might not have a Christmas present, but it also provides an opportunity for university students to contribute to others.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 12/15/06

Dozen UMHB students
share Christmas joy worldwide

By Jennifer Sicking

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

BELTON—Russia wasn’t Felicia Cano’s first choice for a Christmas vacation destination, but she believes it’s exactly where God wants her to be.

“This trip, for me, is kind of a stretch,” said Cano, a junior business management major from Bay City. “I love Africa. I’ve gone to Africa. But God put Russia on my heart.”

She is among 12 University of Mary Hardin-Baylor students who will spend part of their Christmas break sharing the reason for the season with other people as part Go Now Missions, the Baptist General Convention of Texas student missions program.

Shawn Shannon, director of the UMHB Baptist Student Ministry, said past years have seen the number of student missions volunteers range from eight to 13.

“They are being great stewards of their breaks, one of the advantages of the academic calendar,” she said.

Also, the time of year lends a special poignancy to the mission.

“As one who has never lived in a world without Christ, I care about those who have not had the opportunity to know him and receive and return his love,” Shannon said. “It seems fitting—a way to pay it forward—that students would be on mission this time of year.”

To encourage student involvement, the BSM keeps passport applications on hand to encourage students to be ready in case God calls them to serve, even if that place is different than their anticipations.

Shannon sees much personal growth when the Christmas missionaries return from what can be life-changing experiences.

“Moving out into the unknown throws them into deeper dependence on God,” she said. “They discover more of who God is, who they are and what they are gifted to give. They usually move forward with larger, deeper and wiser hearts. They form new habits of giving and serving others that make it out of their Christmas breaks and into their lifestyles.”

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

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.

When it comes to helping the needy, Brooks writes: “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.”

For the record, Brooks, 42, has been registered in the past as a Democrat, then a Republican, but now lists himself as independent, explaining, “I have no comfortable political home.”

Since 2003, he has been director of nonprofit studies for Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Outside professional circles, he’s best known for his regular op-ed columns in The Wall Street Journal on topics that stray a bit from his philanthropy expertise.

One column noted that people who drink alcohol moderately are more successful and charitable than those—like him—who don’t. Another observed that liberals are having fewer babies than conservatives, which will reduce liberals’ impact on politics over time because children generally mimic their parents.

Brooks is a behavioral economist by training who researches the relationship between what people do—aside from their paid work—why they do it, and its economic impact.

He’s a number cruncher who relied primarily on 10 databases assembled over the past decade, mostly from scientific surveys. The data are adjusted for variables such as age, gender, race and income to draw fine-point conclusions.

His Wall Street Journal pieces are researched, but a little light, he admits. His book, on the other hand, is carefully documented to withstand the scrutiny of other academics, which he said he encourages.

Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks is a behavioral economist by training who researches the relationship between what people do—aside from their paid work—why they do it, and its economic impact.

The book’s basic findings are that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.

In contrast, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone’s tax dollars to support charitable causes but are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don’t provide them with enough money.

Such an attitude, he writes, not only shortchanges the nonprofits but also diminishes the positive fallout of giving, including personal health, wealth and happiness for the donor and overall economic growth.

All of this, he said, he backs up with statistical analysis.

“These are not the sort of conclusions I ever thought I would reach when I started looking at charitable giving in graduate school, 10 years ago,” he writes in the introduction. “I have to admit I probably would have hated what I have to say in this book.”

Still, he says it forcefully, pointing out that liberals give less than conservatives in every way imaginable, including volunteer hours and donated blood.

In an interview, Brooks said he recognizes the need for government entitlement programs, such as welfare. But in the book, he finds fault with all sorts of government social spending, including entitlements.

Repeatedly, he cites and disputes a line from a Ralph Nader speech to the NAACP in 2000: “A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.”

Harvey Mansfield, professor of government at Harvard University and 2004 recipient of the National Humanities Medal, does not know Brooks personally but has read the book.

“His main finding is quite startling, that the people who talk the most about caring actually fork over the least,” he said. “But beyond this finding, I thought his analysis was extremely good, especially for an economist. He thinks very well about the reason for this and reflects about politics and morals in a way most economists do their best to avoid.”

Brooks started the book as an academic treatise, then tightened the documentation and punched up the prose when his colleagues and editor convinced him it would sell better and generate more discussion if he did.

To make his point forcefully, Brooks admits he cut out a lot of qualifying information.

“I know I’m going to get yelled at a lot with this book,” he said.

“But when you say something big and new, you’re going to get yelled at.”

Frank Brieaddy writes for The Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y.

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