Posted: 6/23/06

Calvary Waco bridges gap
between church, community

By Laura Frase

Communications Intern

WACO—Sharyn Dowd drives down a street lined with debilitated and deteriorating houses, testifying to the neighborhood’s poverty. But three houses particularly stand out, marked by perfectly clipped lawns, white picket fences, sidewalks and streetlamps.

A woman smiles and waves at her. The woman works a rather rough-looking yard in an attempt to beautify it.

This is North Waco, a work in progress with help from Calvary Baptist Church of Waco and the Community Development Corporation, which is affiliated with Mission Waco.

The church always has been involved with the community and neighborhood, said Dowd, ministry associate for neighborhood outreach at Calvary Baptist.

The area around Calvary Baptist has been marked by transition. As the city grew, longtime residents moved away, and the neighborhood’s ethnic and socio-economic make-up changed, Dowd said.

Student volunteers from Calvary Baptist Church in Waco color with a child at a neighborhood Bible club.

Waco’s Community Development Corporation is a faith-based organization focused on providing housing for people in need and teaching them skills to care for a house and manage money.

“We help people who are renters become homeowners,” said Darrel Abercrombie, the organization’s program administrator.

While Abercrombie stresses the importance of owning a home, he said: “Renting is not a bad thing. It’s just a temporary thing.”

The organization offers classes every Thursday night in six-week intervals that teach about down payments, credit counseling, loans and other aspects of home buying.

Even after a house has been purchased, the faith-based group offers a post-purchase program, where “we teach them how to maintain the property and to take care of their investment,” Abercrombie said.

After the new family moves into a house, Calvary members and workers with the Community Development Corporation throw a “welcome to the neighborhood” party.

“We want to create a place where people know their neighborhood and neighbors,” Abercrombie said.

His group’s vision is to have well-taken- care-of homes, sidewalks and street lamps provided by the city—“because light dispels problems; the Scripture says that,” he said.

While the vision of a well-kept neighborhood is set, “a house is not a home until you bring God into the midst of it,” Abercrombie said.

In 2001, when the Community Development Corporation started, Calvary Pastor Julie Pennington-Russell preached a sermon titled, “Fools for Christ.” She talked about how Christians do things other people think are weird, but asked, “What could be more foolish for Christians to do than to move into the neighborhood surrounding the church?”

Since then, several members have moved into the area near the church.

“The idea is to choose an urban neighborhood, and this is about as urban as you can get in a city this size,” Dowd said.

Meg and Ralph Cooper were among the first members of Calvary Baptist to call North Waco their new home. He is an attorney who works out of his home, and she is a student at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary.

The Coopers always had wanted to renovate a house, but they never thought about it as missionary work. Cooper said they were attracted to the house through the Community Development Corporation.

“The community has potential, but it needed people with skills to come in and help,” Mrs. Cooper noted.

Drugs and prostitution plague North Waco. “When we first moved out here, no pizza places would even deliver here,” Cooper said.

Even though the area wasn’t “exactly a low-crime rate area,” the couple knew they wanted to focus on the neighborhood.

“One of the ways to change the world is to change a house, a block, a neighborhood,” Mrs. Cooper said.

The Coopers provide out-of-the-ordinary ministry from their home—a bologna sandwich ministry.

“If people ask for money, we don’t give it to them. If they ask for money for food, I give them a bologna sandwich and an apple—the same thing I have for lunch,” Cooper said.

Mrs. Cooper had an unusual request one day as she was working in her front yard. A woman, who probably had not showered in two days, asked to use her shower.

“I would never have had somebody ask to use my shower before, but this was like an everyday Matthew 25 kind of thing,” she said. “What if that were Jesus asking to use my shower?”

After their first shower request, Cooper said, they’ve started thinking about turning a room in the basement into temporary lodging and making a shower available.

The Coopers are hosting a neighborhood Bible club this summer, one of several held in the neighborhood near Calvary Baptist Church.

Calvary introduced the neighborhood Bible club to give children a chance to have fun and learn about God.

“The church has always been involved with the community and neighborhood,” Dowd said.

“One of the ways we get the people involved with the community is we started out having people walk to lunch after church. We would walk to neighborhood restaurants so people would see that you won’t get mugged just walking to lunch.”

Even though Calvary has had two opportunities to move to the suburbs, the church voted to stay both times to continue ministering and bonding with the people of the neighborhood. “It’s easy to preach about it, but they are choosing to live out the Scripture in front of people. Some people don’t read Scripture, but they will read your life as you live it,” Abercrombie 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: 6/23/06

Well-drilling innovation
brings water to Kenyan villages

By Matthew Waller

Special to the Baptist Standard

RABONDO, Kenya—A Baptist missionary’s new drilling technique has been cutting the cost of water wells in third-world countries from several thousand dollars to $100, all while teaching the people there how to drill for themselves. And now the technology has come to Kenya.

Terry Waller, a missionary to Bolivia through World Concern and Southland Baptist Church of San Angelo, went to Kenya recently at the request of Lifewater International, a Chris-tian organization addressing water issues in developing countries. With five other volunteers, Waller drilled two wells and trained eight local water technicians in Rabondo, a community in western Kenya.

He developed the technology on the field in Bolivia in the early ’90s. “We wanted (the drilling technique) to be manual,” Waller said. “We purposely designed it so that local people could drill their own wells. Our idea from the beginning was that we didn’t want it to be something where highly trained technicians had to do the drilling. We wanted either locally trained boys to be the well service providers or have the families themselves be able to drill wells.”

Terry Waller pumps at a finished well.

The system uses locally made materials. Drill bits are made locally with a sample bit that Waller takes with him, and the rig uses mostly PVC pipe for the drill stem to keep the process lightweight and inexpensive.

Four to eight people use a rope and pulley to quickly lift and release the rig into a water-filled hole, so that the ball-and-dart bit, which acts as a one-way valve, can churn the ground and force the water and cuttings up the pipe and into a settling pond.

Cathy Fitzgerald, the Life-water volunteer who invited and accompanied Waller, has been visiting Rabondo biannually since 2001 to drill with a motorized, mud-rotary rig.

“When we go over with a group, we’re able to drill, but it’s not really self-sustaining,” Fitz-gerald said.

“People can’t afford a truck to move it around; they can’t afford the gas or the oil to run the engine. … We thought that doing the manual well-drilling technique and training some of the water technicians that already know how to drill would enable them not only to do cheaper wells, but also to do it on a year-around basis.”

Peter Midodo, the pastor of a nondenominational church in the Ndhiwa community about 30 miles from Rabondo, said many families in his area walk a mile to haul water.

“They can only carry a small bucket, maybe 15 or 20 liters, and by the time they go and come back, it’s all used up,” Midodo said. “Some children cannot go to school because they have to get water.”

Rabondo Baptist Church Pastor Joseph Owaga said people in the community near his church walk more than a mile to get water from the river, used for bathing and polluted by chemicals used in farming.

“We do not have one well,” Owaga said. “When the rains stop, probably next month, we’ll have a real problem with water.”

Well service providers can charge several thousand dollars for their services.

In February 2006, the African Research and Medical Found-ation spent almost $35,000 on seven wells for about 2,000 people. A Catholic school in nearby Rapogi paid $24,000 for its water system. Fitzgerald’s motorized rig costs $2,000 to drill. Hand-dug wells also cost about $2,000 around Rabondo.

“I don’t think anyone is cheating anybody,” Waller said. “Well drillers have to charge for the risk, they have to transport the machinery. They’re just giving the market price.”

Waller said an experienced crew in his area of Bolivia can dig two 50-foot wells at 60 cents per foot, complete with homemade pumps, in one day. Rabondo’s rocky hills, however, presented more of a challenge.

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Waller said. An improperly threaded bit broke off after it had passed through a rock layer. Another bit broke from using too much weight to unintentionally drill through bedrock. The local glue occasionally gave out, detaching couplings from plastic pipe and leaving the crew to fish the rig out of the hole.

Despite these problems and others, Rabondo water technician Paul Okelo, who has been with Lifewater since its first visit, said he was impressed with having finished two wells—40 feet and 27 feet—in one trip.

Melchizedeck Okello, a Rabondo technician who professionally makes hand-dug wells, also liked the completion time.

“I found this method very good because it’s saving time,” Okello said. “With this, I can drill a well in three days.” Okello said he takes about three weeks to drill a 20- to 40-foot well.

The manual technique has worked drilling through Bolivia’s Altiplano desert at 12,000 feet; through Nicaraguan hills’ volcanic pumice; through coral and gneiss rock near Sri Lankan beaches; on the sides of hills in Chiapas, Mexico; through the Brazilian Shield’s laterite-rock hills; and through the sand and hard clay of Bolivia’s eastern river valleys, where Waller lives.

On average, wells reach down between 150 and 175 feet, and 1,700 to 2,000 wells have been drilled in Bolivia, Waller said. The deepest manually drilled well went to 250 feet, and a rig using a motor to replace rope pullers went to 350 feet.

Waller organizes the drilling in Bolivia, not only through individual training, but through informal “water well clubs,” people who come together to borrow a rig after learning how to drill and shop for materials. Clubs make a well for each party in the group, handle their own finances and promise to return the rig as received.

“We do clubs so that it’s still neighbors helping neighbors,” Waller said. “Our vision is to empower people to solve their own water problems.”

Water, however, has only been one facet of the Wallers’ ministry. During the day, Waller and his wife, Kathy, help homesteaders develop ways to make a living, and they do church work in the evening.

“We want to minister holistically … to the physical side and the spiritual side,” Waller said. “Families need more than just water to prosper. They also need to have a love relationship with God. … That’s the most important thing.”

Matthew Waller is a Baylor University journalism student who recently accompanied his father, a Baptist missionary with World Concern, to Kenya and Ethiopia. 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: 6/23/06

Offering of Letters addresses hunger

By Kelly Knox

Special to the Baptist Standard

WACO—Two-thirds of the people in the world live in extreme poverty, and Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco wants lawmakers to alleviate their suffering.

For 20 years, Lake Shore has teamed up with Bread for the World, a faith-based advocacy organization seeking justice for the world’s hungry and impoverished.

Lake Shore recently took part in Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters, an event in which church members wrote legislators to express their opinions about international poverty.

“Bread for the World has provided a way for Lake Shore members to actively participate in policy change, a level of change that could potentially affect large groups of people worldwide,” church member Kate Brennan Homiak said.

“Bread for the World’s letter writing campaign engages church members of all ages to get involved. Children who cannot even write yet draw pictures to send to their representatives in Congress. Youth, alongside the adults, advocate through writing letters.”

Jon Singletary, assistant professor in Baylor University’s School of Social Work and director of Baylor’s Center for Family and Community Ministries, said one of Bread for the World’s goals includes encouraging Congress and President Bush to keep the promises agreed on during the 2000 United Nations’ Millennium Summit.

During the summit, 189 countries—including the U.S.—agreed upon a set of poverty-focused developmental goals to be reached by 2015.

“These letters are symbolic of a tithe to God. They will help to shape Congress’ decisions, and they show our country’s legislators where our hearts and minds are,” Singletary said. “We must be mindful that we are part of a global economy.”

Singletary, who has been a member of Bread for the World 10 years, led a group of Lake Shore youth to move from thinking about poverty to acting upon it.

“What are the small things we can do here that could help make a difference over there?” he asked the teenagers. “We could give food away, but we’d find the same people would keep coming back. So what can we do in the long run?”

Last year, the United States had a federal budget of almost $3 trillion. A large percentage was spent on federal defense, Social Security and health care, he said.

“But can you guess what percentage we spent addressing matters of international poverty?” he asked the teens.

Guesses of 20 and 10 percent shot across the room until Singletary’s solemn voice broke the chatter.

“We gave less than half of 1 percent,” he said. “In fact, of the 23 wealthiest countries in the world, we are 22nd or last when it comes to providing poverty-focused developmental assistance.”

Singletary proposed the youth join with other Lake Shore members in writing Congress to encourage a $5 billion increase in foreign operations spending for fiscal year 2007.

The $5 billion would go a long way toward establishing infrastructures such as clean water, basic sanitation, roads, schools and hospitals in the world’s poorest countries, he said. As a result, he continued, people in poor nations can strengthen their own economy and meet their own needs.

Singletary discovered adults in the church also were concerned about poverty and injustice.

“We have a mandate to care for the poor, and in that, there is no political boundary. Our country is so free at waving the flag, but sometimes we’ve forgotten that waving the Christian banner is a mandate too,” member Emily Fau said.

Fau noted Lake Shore’s members long have supported Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters campaign.

“The congregation is deeply invested in this project and ask about it if they think that the time is getting near but haven’t yet heard any information about it,” Pastor Dorisanne Cooper said. “And just when you think it might have slipped under people’s radar, you walk in to see the letter basket in our hallway filled with letters.”

Since Lake Shore first began partnering with Bread for the World, members have noticed Christians are doing more to look at issues of global poverty and sustainable development.

“We’re doing things in that we’re having these kinds of conversations and acting on them,” Singletary said. “People are coming together in new and exciting ways like with the ONE Campaign. Diverse peoples who wouldn’t want to be in the same room with one another are signing the same document to say, ‘Let’s make poverty history.’”

Seth Wispelwey, regional organizer for the ONE Campaign for Bread for the World, said he has seen a tremendous increase in efforts to eradicate poverty since he came to work for Bread in November 2004.

“People who participate find hand-writing letters empowering and exciting. It’s great to see the energy sparked so much last year continue in so many places rather than just fizzle out,” Wispelwey said. “It was really exciting at the end of last year to see Bread letters help turn the tide in stopping seemingly inevitable cuts to food stamp programs for the 2006 budget.”

Cooper believes addressing international poverty is the church’s responsibility.

“We don’t see it as partisan work, but simply as one piece of our attempt to try and follow Jesus’ unmistakable call to care for the poor,” she said.

For more information about Bread for the World’s 2006 Offering of Letters, visit www. bread.org.

Knox is a senior social work major and journalism minor at Baylor University. 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: 6/23/06

Texan places first at national tournament

By Elizabeth Staples

Communications Intern

Jessica Jones of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano won first place in the National Invitational Speakers Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., the fourth consecutive year the winner of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Speakers Tournament took top honors at the national level.

Jones represented the BGCT at the national tournament, along with Iwalani Caines from Westside Baptist Church in Killeen, who won first place in the state junior high Bible Drill division, and Jacob Eunice, a member of Northside Baptist Church in Del Rio, who won first in the senior high Bible Drill division.

“Preparing for this competition really helped to develop my leadership skills. I feel more grounded (in the Bible) because of what I’ve learned,” Eunice said.

All high school drillers and speakers who participate in the state finals are eligible for scholarships to Texas Baptist universities.

More than 1,500 Texas Baptist students participated in Bible Drill/Speakers Tournaments across the state. More than 85 Texas Baptist churches took part in the competition.

Competitors ranged in age from fourth to 12th grade. They began early in the fall working with leaders in their local churches.

Bible drillers pass through three levels of participation. The church drill is held each spring one or two weeks before the associational drill. Children who make no more than 12 mistakes are eligible to participate in the associational drill. At the associational drill, a child who makes no more than 16 mistakes advances to the state drill.

The BGCT offered state drill sites for qualifiers in Abilene, Dallas, San Antonio Arlington, Austin, Pasadena and Plainview.

Every participant received a certificate from the BGCT Bible Study/Discipleship team and a seal corresponding with their score. The 207 participants who did not make a mistake received a certificate with the seal of “State Perfect.” They also received the Bible with which they drilled with an inscription from the BGCT.

See the complete list of children who qualified as “state perfect” participants here. 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: 6/23/06

EDITORIAL:
SBC: Many changes, very little change

The Southern Baptist Convention held its most significant meeting in years this summer. But not much has changed in the way the SBC relates to Texas Baptists.

To be sure, the 2006 annual meeting in Greensboro, N.C., featured many changes:

• Political malfunction. For only the second time since fundamentalists set out to take over the convention in 1979, the presidential candidate hand-picked by the small group of political power brokers did not win. In fact, the brokers split, and both of their candidates lost. Frank Page, a South Carolina pastor backed by upset-minded youngish (“young” is a relative term in the SBC) pastors, defeated Arkansan Ronnie Floyd, endorsed by three seminary presidents, and Tennessean Jerry Sutton, an insider close to the convention’s bureaucratic elite in Nashville.

• Young bucks outflank old bulls. Those youngish pastors powered Page’s candidacy with their blogs—columns disseminated on the Internet. They trumped the SBC’s tightly regulated public relations arm, Baptist Press, which previously controlled information distributed to convention loyalists. The blogs gave them a tool to find each other, communicate their concerns and rally broad support.

• No hiding reality. Many Southern Baptists arrived in Greensboro openly acknowledging the SBC’s malaise, if not outright crisis. The International Mission Board is polarized by trustee infighting and dissatisfaction with President Jerry Rankin. The North American Mission Board is embarrassed by former President Bob Reccord’s administrative incompetence. Many fear the actual number of ministry students trained by the seminaries is declining. Baptisms are slumping. Young, progressive pastors are disaffected. Relationships with numerous state conventions are strained. Without so-called “moderates” to battle, SBC fundamentalists seem to be turning on each other, purging semi-charismatics from the mission field, openly discussing the minority status of Calvinism, and questioning the credibility of privileged insiders who have failed to put their money where their mouths have been, as their churches give a pittance to the Cooperative Program while they call for convention loyalty.

• Men underestimate women. For years, the SBC’s fundamentalist leaders have chafed because they can’t control Woman’s Missionary Union. Since 1888, WMU has provided the backbone of the convention’s missions support, educating Baptists about missions and raising multiplied millions of dollars for the mission boards. But WMU is an auxiliary of the convention; the SBC does not choose its governing board, unlike other convention entities. And WMU has refused to play the convention’s fundamentalist-control power game. So, the SBC Executive Committee proposed a recommendation to “extend an invitation” to WMU to become an SBC agency, so the convention could elect WMU trustees—the key to gaining control. Messengers voted that down, handing the Executive Committee an unprecedented defeat.

• “Narrowing” nixed. Led by the bloggers, messengers in Greensboro heard a chorus of protest against “narrowing the parameters of cooperation” in the convention. Issues included restrictions on international missions appointment; “recycling” the same elite insiders and their families on boards, committees and high-profile assignments; and derision felt by convention-loyal Calvinists. Concern for “narrowing” escalated to the surreal realm when Joyce Rogers, widow of SBC fundamentalist firebrand Adrian Rogers, insisted her late husband would not approve the convention’s ever-narrowing trajectory.

With all these changes, you might be tempted to think things have changed in the SBC. Think again. The SBC is no more open to traditional Texas Baptists than it was in 1998, when it welcomed a schismatic state convention with open arms. For example:

• New suit, same cloth. Sure, Page upset the power-brokers’ candidates, and he seems humble and self-effacing. But he emphatically told reporters he does not intend to “undo the conservative resurgence” in the SBC. He also specifically affirmed biblical inerancy, the litmus test of the movement that gained control of the SBC in the 1980s, which came to mean far more politically than it meant theologically. He probably won’t be as autocratic as some SBC presidents and will treat people with more respect. But he’s not inclined to include folks who think the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and not the SBC, is on the right track.

• Define “broad.” The Internet bloggers and young bucks clamored for “broadening” participation in the SBC. About time. And many of them also expressed disdain for the hardball politics played by the older generation of SBC leaders. But, like Page, they strongly affirm the “conservative resurgence,” trumpet inerrancy and call for loyalty to the Cooperative Program as they define it (supporting only state conventions and the SBC, not other Baptist organizations such as the Baptist World Alliance, Baptist Joint Committee, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and WMU). So, “broad” seems to mean young, polite inerrantists who affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message—not necessarily traditional, mainstream Baptists like most Texans.

• Once is not a trend. Page’s victory generated euphoria among bloggers and other supporters. But the SBC machine got beat once before, when Jim Henry won the presidency in 1994. Then it picked up where it left off, and nothing changed. (In fact, Henry’s nominator, Jack Graham, later won the presidency as an insider.) The old guard changed the SBC by winning every election for a decade and demanding unyielding loyalty of every appointee and nominee. The young bucks won’t pull that off if they practice what they preach about toleration. And if they hesitate or give an inch, they’ll get steamrolled.

Of course, I may be wrong. Maybe “toleration” really will become the SBC watchword. Maybe Page will appoint traditional Baptists from the BGCT and the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Maybe the young bloggers will force the old guard to include Baptists who also want to work with their state convention, the BWA and CBF. But that’s not what they’re saying. And we can only take them at their word.

Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard.

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: 6/23/06

ABP urged to pursue 'information integrity'

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

ATLANTA (ABP) — Rob Nash, one day after being elected global missions coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, urged about 300 Baptists at an Associated Baptist Press banquet to pursue “information integrity” on their way to becoming “citizens of the world.”

In his first public address since election by the CBF Coordinating Council, Nash urged listeners June 22 in Atlanta to become aware of their place in the world.

"For me, the greatest gift that I can possibly give to the world is the gift of my own self-awareness," said Nash, currently dean of the school of religion and international studies at Shorter College, a Baptist school in Rome, Ga.

It is important for Baptists to have and use credible sources of news and information, said Nash, emphasizing the value of ABP, a Florida-based independent news service, and other free Baptist media.

Cultivating self-awareness involves gathering information from a variety of sources and through differing mediums. When Americans read only American news or watch only American TV, he said, it only reinforces prejudices and confirms the “natural sense of self.”

“Self-awareness can help us to push back and overcome the powerful cultural tug,” he said. “What is demanded, though, is the spiritual discipline of awareness. That awareness occurs only through an intentional effort to step outside our personal space and see ourselves as others see us.”

The process of cultivating "information integrity," Nash said, "helps me to become a citizen of the world, even as I am a citizen of this country. It helps me to distinguish being Christian from being an American."

The son of Baptist missionaries to the Philippines, Nash, 47, lived 13 years in that country and has made extended visits to more than 30 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and South America. He said his international travel has been vital to an understanding of his own self, and only through that understanding can he help others.

“There’s something about being in a culture that seems strange to you that causes you to learn about yourself,” Nash said. “The picture of myself that I discover is often not a very flattering one."

While a visit to Asia can "help me see myself as I really am," Nash said, he can always count on American culture — like “a nice, warm hot-tub” — to lull him back to complacency. There is nothing more comfortable than spending time with people just like us, he said. And that can be deadly to Christians as they try to spread the gospel.

“When I’m around people who are just like me, I lose myself, because there is not much left against which to identify me for who I really am,” Nash said. “I think the same is true for the American church. We as American Christians often fail to see ourselves for who we really are. It’s an illness that we need to somehow overcome.”
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: 6/23/06

Around the State

• Bill Pitts, professor of religion at Baylor University, has been presented the Distin-guished Service Award for outstanding contributions to Baptist history by the Baptist History and Heritage Society. He is a member of First Church in Waco.

• Howard Payne University has presented service awards to faculty and staff for their years of service to the university. Glenda Huff, director of student aid, received a pin denoting her 30 years of service. Noted for 25 years at the school were Cheryl Mangrum, associate director of admissions processing; Allen Reed, dean of the School of Fine Arts and professor of music; Evelyn Romig, dean of the School of Humanities and professor of English; and Ed Roth, interim dean of the School of Science and Mathematics and professor of biology. Honored for 20 years of service were Nancy Anderson, dean of libraries and professor of library science; Betty Broome, coordinator of trustee relations; and Nancy Jo Humfeld, professor of communication, director of theater and chair of the department of communication and theater. Serving 15 years are Patricia Banks, associate professor of music; Olga Carter, professor of sociology; Darla Collier, cashier; Justin Murphy, professor of history and director of the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom; Elizabeth Wallace, professor of music; and Randy Weehunt, director of administrative computing. Ten-year employees include Tim Hickey, plumber; Mitzi Lehrer, assistant professor of education; Kyle Mize, director of publications; Robert Peters, dean of the School of Education and associate professor of education; Jose Romero, associate professor of mathematics; Harlan Scott, associate professor of biology and chair of the biological sciences department; and Lester Towell, associate professor of computer information systems.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor has received the “Best of Show” award for its 2005-2006 “Go Far” marketing efforts. The award was presented by the National Admissions Marketing Report. The campaign also received three awards from the Baptist Communicators Association.

• Four East Texas Baptist University professors have announced their retirements. Included are Sam Arguez, professor of modern languages; Linda Hudson, assistant professor of history; Frank Lower, professor of communication; and Claire Rodgers, professor of music.

• Students recognized at Houston Baptist University’s honors convocation included Judith Ann Clack, James Attebury, Andrea Higgins, Shondra Richardson, Andrea Legare; Angela Roberts, Cindy Ventura, Ricardo Yzquierdo, Daniel Rodriguez, Valerie Jones, Jessica Neuwirth, Sandra Mathoslah, Scott Mosher, and Melanie Stuff.

The Heights Church in San Angelo has burned its Phase 1 building note. James Miller, pastor, is shown with Cynthia Williams holding the burning note. Also participating in the ceremony were Walt Rodgers and Charles Luker.

• Deemie Naugle has been named Dallas Baptist University’s staff member of the year. Naugle, associate provost, has worked at the school 23 years. She has held numerous positions at the school and was honored in 1994 with the school’s distinguished alumni award. She is a member of Wilshire Church in Dallas.

Anniversaries

• Sammy Garcia, 15th, as pastor of Iglesia Camino Real in Denison, June 1.

• Doug Grissom, 30th, as pastor of Twin Cities Church in Sherman, June 9.

• Woodrow Church in Lubbock, 75th, June 17. Jerry Gentry is pastor.

• New Hope Missionary Church in Waco, 140th, June 11. Joe Shiloh is pastor.

• Luke Smith, 10th, as pastor of Calvary Church in Gainesville, July 9.

• Aaron Davis, 10th, as praise and worship leader at Calvary Church in Gainesville, July 9.

• Western Heights Church in Waco, 50th, July 29-30. A reception will be held on Saturday from 7 p.m to 8:30 p.m. Former pastor Bill Smith will preach Sunday with a catered lunch to follow. Lunch will cost $8, and reservations can be made by calling (254) 776-2524.

• London Church in New London, 150th, July 30. Former church staff members will lead the services. A lunch and afternoon service will follow the morning service. Randy Wells is interim pastor.

Retiring

• David Garza Sr., as pastor of Primera Iglesia in Abilene. Events noting his retirement are planned for July 29-30. A reception will be held at 5 p.m. Saturday, and a special service and presentations will follow. Long-time friend Joe Martinez will be the featured speaker both days. Garza has been in ministry more than 50 years, first serving La Palma Mission in San Benito in 1955. He also was pastor of Calvary Chapel in Harlingen, Ebenezer Mission in Baird, Emmanuel Mission in Ennis and Emmanuel Church in Houston. He has served the Abilene church the last 25 years.

• Fred Randles, as minister of music at First Church in Sulphur Springs, July 30. He has served the church 25 years and has been in the ministry 44 years. Prior to coming to Texas, he served several churches in Tennessee. He will be available for interim, supply or choir tour consultations.

• Ron Dixon, as minister of music at First Church in Texas City, Aug. 6. He has served the church 40 years. His only previous place of service was at Northside Church in Duncanville. A community reception is planned for Aug. 5 at the church from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. A retirement lunch also will be held Aug. 6 after the morning service. Reservations are not necessary for the Saturday event, but people attending the Sunday lunch should call (409) 945-2309 to make reservations.

LaWayne Hulse

• LaWayne Hulse, 83, April 28 in Garland. A retired pastor, he served churches in Mitchell County, Belmore Church in San Angelo, First Church in Mason and Alta Mere Church in Fort Worth. He was an editorial assistant of the Baptist Standard under E.S. James and John Hurt. He was preceded in death by his wife, Vanita, in 1999. He is survived by sons, James and Kris; daughters, LaRonna Fox and Karen Wilson; seven grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

• Charles Reece, 82, June 6 in Seagoville. He was a minister more than 60 years, and participated in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Margaret; daughters, Charlotte Rolan, Jan Diggs and Donna Peterson; sons, Keith and Stephen; sisters, Dorothy Hobbs and Margaret Anderson; nine grandchildren; and 23 great-grandchildren.

• Doc Beazley, 90, June 13 in Abilene. He had a 45-year association with Hardin-Simmons University, serving the school as an instructor, executive vice president, director of public relations, director of the annual college rodeo and athletic director. He may be best remembered as coordinator of the Six White Horses program at HSU, a duty he assumed in 1963. After retiring in 1985, he devoted full time to the equestrian program. The Six White Horses, an equestrian team that bears the six flags that have flown over Texas, have been seen by millions of people in places as varied as New York, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Canada, France and London, as well as smaller communities throughout Texas. The team performed at four presidential inaugurations during his tenure. He was preceded in death by his wife, Madge, and granddaughter, Virginia Lee Crooks. He is survived by his son, Bill; daughters, Pam Benson and Martha Pinkerton; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

• Virginia Crouch, 92, June 17 in Dallas. Her husband, Buel, was pastor of first at Western Heights Church, and in 1941 moved to Grace Temple Church, both in Dallas. Grace Temple had only 42 members when they began their ministry, but grew to encompass an entire city block, a place where during the next 33 years 3,150 people were baptized and 5,500 joined by letter or statement. The church also had a radio ministry to minister to many who never attended. She played piano and organ for the church during those years, and for more than 30 years worked with Girls Auxiliary. Health problems forced her husband to retire from full-time ministry in 1974, but worked with 15 churches from California to Corpus Christi until his death in 1986. After his death, she continued to attend Grace Temple and volunteered at Baptist Benevolent Ministries of Oak Cliff. She and her husband also were long-time supporters of Dallas Baptist University. She is survived by her brother, Dean Gandy.

• Ryan Hall, 15, June 20 in Dallas. He became suddenly ill May 17 and had been in ICU since May 25 with a rapidly progressing unidentified lung disease. He was very involved in the youth ministry at The Heights Church in Richardson, where his father is a deacon. He is survived by his parents, Scott and Emily; sister, Mallory; grandparents, Donald and Olive Hall, and Jeff and Lou Nelle George.

• Jack Flanders, 84, June 20 in Temple. He was a distinguished alumnus and retired faculty member of Baylor University, where he also served as chair of the religion department from 1969 to 1992. He also taught law ethics and morality for almost three decades at Baylor Law School. He was pastor of First Church in Waco from 1962 until 1969 and was named pastor emeritus in 1987. He also was pastor of Navasota Community Church in Navasota and interim pastor of 20 churches. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Tommie Lou; son, Jack; daughter, Janet Mitchell; and three grandchildren.

• Bill Daniel, 90, June 20 in Liberty. Daniel, a sixth-generation Texan, said it was always one of his ambitions as a child to attend Baylor University. So, he hitchhiked to the Baylor campus in the 1930s with $7 in his pocket and a determination to secure a Baylor education. He helped pay his way by serving as the football team’s trainer and manager, working campus flower beds, and taking care of the bear mascots, Betty Coed and Joe College. He graduated from the Baylor Law School in 1938, and now many campus facilities bear his name including the Bill Daniel Student Center. He was appointed governor of the U.S. territory of Guam by President John Kennedy. He also played the role of Col. Neill in the John Wayne film The Alamo, and supplied the film more than 400 longhorn cattle and hundreds of horses from his ranch. He was preceded in death by his wife of nearly 50 years, Vara, in 1987, and his son, Will. He is survived by daughters, Ann Rogers, Susan Daniel and Dani Brister; eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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: 6/23/06

Book reviews

Renewing the City: Reflections on Community Development and Urban Renewal by Robert D. Lupton (Inter Varsity Press)

Robert Lupton’s Renewing the City is a thought-provoking volume combining biblical insight with the challenge of community development and urban renewal.

Lupton tells the ancient story found in the book of Nehemiah. His storytelling is patterned after the Jewish tradition of Midrash. Lupton describes Midrash as “a combination of commentary, parable and poetic imagination.” He uses the first part of the book to tell the story of Nehemiah in a way that is engaging and entertaining.

The second part of Lupton’s book is devoted to community development and urban renewal. Lupton is not content simply to tell the story of Nehemiah, allowing its lessons to hover as concepts completely divorced from any particular context or present-day challenge. Instead, Lupton takes concepts from the Nehemiah story and challenges the reader to apply them to real-life urban situations.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

Reader beware! If one is looking for simplistic, black-and-white answers to the problem of the inner city, this is not the book for you. However, if you genuinely desire to struggle at the intersection of the biblical witness and real-life urban challenges, this is a book for you.

Kyle Reese, pastor

Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church

Jacksonville, Fla.

Dinner With a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering by David Gregory (WaterBook Press)

If you know someone who hasn’t yet come to faith in Christ, give this hundred pages to him or her. Light reading, but the book imagines what a restaurant dinner with Jesus would be. A contemporary visit that reflects his warm, insightful personality in the Gospels. After dessert, he hands his guest his business card!

Bob Beck

Fort Worth

Second Calling: Finding Passion and Purpose for the Rest of Your Life by Dale Hanson Bourke (Integrity Publishers)

If you are a woman who has sensed God might be whispering to you deep inside—longing to have a moment of your attention—this book is timely. Using the Old Testament character Naomi as a middle-aged example of how to live passionately and purposefully, Bourke explains what it means to invest fully in your “second calling”—one that is a holy calling rather than dictated by others.

By sharing personal lessons learned, Bourke encourages women in or approaching the second half of life. She states unmistakably the one thing that “is our passport to the greatest adventure of our lives.” I’m not going to spoil things by revealing it. Suffice it to say, through Bourke’s urging you will understand what it is you must learn to do if you do nothing else in the second half of life.

Second Calling is a quick read, earnestly written with sensible suggestions—a book benefiting women aged 40 to 60 as well as women’s groups. If you are at a place of wondering, “What’s next?” pick it up and read it.

Sheri Pattillo, planning & projects manager

Partners in Ministry

Kerrville

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: 6/23/06

Baptist Briefs

Baptist college association changes name. Members of the Association of Southern Baptist Colleges and Schools voted recently to change the name of the 51-member organization to the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities. Executive Director Bob Agee said the change reflects the association’s desire to expand its outreach to all colleges and universities that lay claim to their Baptist history and heritage. New board members elected during the meeting included Baylor University Provost Randall O’Brien and Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade.

Graham statue unveiled. Evangelist Billy Graham is larger than life for many Southern Baptists, and messengers present at the closing session of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting learned that firsthand when they witnessed the unveiling of a 7-foot-tall statue of Graham. Mounted in front of a 17-foot-tall cross, the statue of Graham will stand in downtown Nashville, Tenn., near the SBC executive offices and LifeWay Christian Resources’ corporate headquarters. At the foot of the cross are three nails and a stone inscribed with John 3:16. Pastor and sculptor Terrell O’Brien of Wyoming designed the statue, and Chris Fryer and Matt Samuelson— owners of CCL, a Christian construction management team in Atlanta—financed the project. Cliff Barrows, music and program director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and William Franklin Graham IV, grandson of Billy Graham and son of Franklin, represented Graham at the unveiling.

BWA president speaks at seminary graduation. Baptist World Alliance President David Coffey delivered the commencement address at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague. Five students graduated with master of theology degrees, and 13 students graduated with a certificate in applied theology. Eight other students were recognized as they moved to the dissertation stage of their advanced degrees. The seminary is a partner school of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Convention sermon calls ‘fat-cats’ into action. The Southern Baptist Convention cannot afford to rest at ease as a “cushy denomination” of lazy church members, Donald Wilton told the group’s annual meeting. “We are fat-cats. Just look at us,” said Wilton, pastor of First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, S.C., who preached the annual convention sermon. “Southern Baptists, I mean to submit to you today that it’s time for us to wake up as a denomination. It’s time for us to roll up our sleeves and go to work and become the soul-winners that we claim to be. God has given us our marching orders.”

Evangelism prof named NAMB interim president. Trustees of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board have enlisted seminary evangelism professor Roy Fish to serve as the agency’s interim president. Fish serves as distinguished professor of evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, where he has taught evangelism more than 41 years. Fish and his wife, Jean, have four adult children and 11 grandchildren.

President calls on SBC to do more. Outgoing Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch guaranteed Southern Baptists will meet his goal of baptizing a million people in a year. He’s just not saying what year. In his final address as convention president, Welch of Daytona Beach, Fla., urged the SBC to do “more” in evangelism , missions and stewardship—particularly in giving to the Cooperative Program unified budget. “All have agreed we ought to do more. And we should do more. And we can do more. And we will do more. For the sake of souls and the glory of God, more, more, more,” Welch said.

Crossover yields results. Southern Baptists threw muscles and prayers into Crossover—a weekend evangelistic emphasis prior to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting—using a biker rally, rodeo, block parties, puppet shows and even sweet potato giveaways to gain a hearing for the gospel. Early reports indicated more than 750 recorded commitments to Christ as a result, and Mark Gray, church planting director for North Carolina Baptists, predicted the goal of starting 19 churches would be met or exceeded. 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: 6/23/06

Shoes for orphans sought

DALLAS—Buckner Orphan Care International is launching its eighth year of giving new shoes to children worldwide through its annual Shoes for Orphan Souls campaign.

Last year, Buckner collected more than 215,000 new pairs of shoes through nationwide shoe drives. The previous year, the organization reached a ministry milestone, topping 1 million new shoes given to children in more than 40 countries.

Also last year, Shoes for Orphan Souls helped more than 29,000 Hurricane Katrina and Rita evacuees.

Individuals and organizations are encouraged to donate new shoes, along with $2 for shipping, or cash gifts of $25 to pay for shoes and distribution costs. Donated items should be for children ages 2 to 18. Due to customs regulations, only new shoes are acceptable.

Warm shoes, winter boots and larger sizes especially are needed. The organization also collects new socks and shoelaces of all sizes.

With the help of thousands of volunteers at shoe drives held in all 50 states and Canada, Shoes for Orphan Souls has sent shoes to Afghanistan, Albania, Argentina, Belize, Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Egypt, El Salvador, Ghana, Granada, Guyana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Georgia, Romania, Russia, U.S., Uganda, Ukraine, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Volunteers are needed to sort shoes in Dallas and accompany Buckner on shoe-delivery missions to China, Latvia, Kenya, Romania and Russia.

Information about the drive and volunteering locally or internationally is available toll free at (877) 7ORPHAN or at www.shoesfororphansouls.org.

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: 6/23/06

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: 6/23/06

2nd Opinion:
They die rejected, abandoned, alone

By Kay Warren

Joana crawled toward me on her skeletal elbows and knees, each movement a painful reminder of the fact she was dying.

When I met her, this emaciated woman was homeless, living under a tree. She had unrelenting diarrhea, little food, no earthly possessions and only an elderly aunt who had taken pity on her to care for her needs.

Still, she roused herself to offer me, an American visitor to her part of Mozambique, a traditional greeting.

The African pastors who brought me to visit her told me she had been evicted from her village when others learned she had AIDS. Now, in this second village, her tiny stick house had mysteriously burned after her status became known. A short time later, Joana died—rejected, abandoned, persecuted and destitute.

We may think this doesn’t happen in the United States. “People who are HIV-positive are treated better than that here,” we say. But I’m not so sure.

I live in affluent Orange County, Calif., yet a disabled man in my area who was HIV-positive was not allowed to enter his brother’s home.

He and his wife could live in the backyard, but he couldn’t come inside. To bathe him, his wife had to attach a nozzle to a hose and shoot him with a hard spray of water that, she hoped, would dislodge dirt and grime. The family dog was treated better than this man; at least it could go into the house.

Like Joana in Mozambique, this man may also die rejected, abandoned, persecuted and destitute.

As a follower of Christ, I am seriously disturbed by both stories.

Horrific and startling images confront each of us daily through newspapers, television and eyewitness accounts of people suffering from AIDS.

You can do what I did for years—choose to ignore it all because it was too painful. Or you can become disturbed—seriously, dangerously disturbed—so disturbed that you are compelled to do something.

Christians are just as guilty as non-Christians of wanting to look the other way when it comes to the problems confronting our world, especially the topics that make us uncomfortable. But we need to be seriously disturbed about homelessness, child prostitution, rape, poverty, injustice and HIV/AIDS.

Twenty-five years into the AIDS pandemic, being HIV-positive still carries stigma and shame. But God cares for the sick, and so must we.

It’s not a sin to be sick. The Bible tells us Jesus was repeatedly “filled with compassion” as he encountered broken bodies and broken minds. While polite society vigorously avoided contact with those they considered diseased outcasts, Jesus responded in a radical way: He cared, he touched, he healed.

I had no medication that could cure Joana, nothing to alleviate her pain, nothing that would restore her to health. But I offered the one thing that all of us can offer: I offered my presence. I put my arms gently around her, prayed for relief from her suffering and whispered, “I love you.”

This is a start, but much more is needed. Today, I challenge the worldwide church to take on the global giants of spiritual darkness, lack of servant leaders, poverty, disease and ignorance. It’s past time for people who claim to be Christ’s followers to join the struggle against the devastation that the HIV virus brings.

How many more like Joana have to die before you become seriously disturbed?

Kay Warren, wife of Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose Driven Life, is executive director of Saddleback’s HIV/AIDS initiative. She has traveled globally to speak and learn about the AIDS pandemic. This commentary first appeared on CNN.com and was distributed by Baptist Press. Used by permission of Kay Warren.

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.