Brothers find home for Christmas

Posted: 12/05/07

Brothers find home for Christmas

By Bill Martin

Children at Heart Ministries

ROUND ROCK—For one of the few times in their young lives, Trey and Derek Atkins will have a real home for Christmas, thanks to Charlie and Cindy Goble, a Burnet couple who thought their childrearing days were behind them.

“To see God working and then be allowed to be right in the middle of it is an amazing and humbling experience,” Cindy Goble said.

Derek (left) and Trey Atkins had been in and out of children’s homes most of their young lives, and they never thought they would be adopted. Charlie and Cindy Goble of Burnet thought their childrearing days were over. But they all believe God had other ideas. (Photo courtesy of Children at Heart Ministries)

When Derek, 11, and Trey, 12, arrived at Texas Baptist Children’s Home—part of Children at Heart Ministries—last February and moved into a cottage with house parents Marta and Robert Brock, it was an all-too-familiar environment.

After their mother died a few years ago, their father tried to raise them on his own, but severe health problems made that difficult.

Seven times they were placed in a children’s home in Louisiana. Seven times they were taken out.

“He would place them in the home when he got sick, then take them back out when he got better,” Jason Schmidt, their case manager at Texas Baptist Children’s Home, explained. “Then he would get sick again and put them back in. He really wanted the kids with him, and he was fighting tooth and nail to keep them.”

Eventually, he moved to Dripping Springs where an older daughter was living. As his health deteriorated, he tearfully asked Texas Baptist Children’s Home to care for the boys. A third brother, a little older, elected to stay with his father.

“They are the most delightful little boys you have ever met,” Schmidt said. “Everyone fell in love with them.”

As part of their counseling, last summer they attended Camp Agape, a Christian bereavement camp near Lampassas for youngsters who have lost a loved one. It was a chance for the boys to deal with emotions stemming from the death of their mother.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Cindy Goble, having raised three children and becoming grandparents, were settling into life as empty-nesters. They even downsized to an 880 square foot, two-bedroom, one-bath home on several acres near Burnet.

The Gobles, members of First Baptist Church in Burnet, had been praying for a ministry in which they could become involved. When they heard about Camp Agape, Mrs. Goble began to make gifts for children at the camp.

At camp, each boy is paired with an adult “buddy.” But during the week before Derek and Trey were to arrive, the camp director e-mailed the Gobles to say they were one buddy short for the next session.

“Charlie said he would love to do it,” Mrs. Goble recalled. “But he has his own business and had two clients waiting for some work that had to be done by that Friday, and he just couldn’t get out of it.”

The day before camp started, the Gobles drove out to deliver their gifts and meet the staff. When the camp director asked Mrs. Goble if she had talked to anyone to find another buddy, before she could respond, her husband volunteered. At the last minute, his clients had informed him that they wouldn’t have the information he need to do his work. He was at camp at 8:30 the next morning.

“We knew it was God opening a door to allow him to go to camp,” Mrs. Goble said. “But at the time, we thought it was just to be available for the boys. Now we know that it was more than that. It was part of the plan.”

Goble was the camp buddy to Derek, and they bonded immediately. On Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Goble attended an afternoon luau at the camp.

“I was probably there for an hour, and Trey sat right across the table from me,” she remembered. “There weren’t many words spoken, but something clicked when I looked into his eyes.”

After that, the Gobles became host families through Texas Baptist Children’s Home for the brothers, having them in their home one weekend a month.

“We really began to pray about how we could keep a relationship with these boys,” Mrs. Goble said. “We really felt led by God, that the Holy Spirit was giving us an opportunity, telling us we needed to have the boys in our home permanently.”

The Gobles told Schmidt if the opportunity ever presented itself in the future, they would be willing to adopt the boys. The boys weren’t told anything about it, but two weeks later, when Marta Brock picked up Trey from school, looking very serious he said he wanted to talk to her about something.

“I’ve been thinking,” he told Mrs. Brock. “I would like someone to talk to my father to see if he would let us be adopted.”

“I called the Dad and asked him what he thought,” Schmidt said. “He said that was what he had been praying for. The older daughter said that was what she had been praying for, too. And their grandmother in Louisiana, who had lost contact with them, called me and said she had been praying for years that this would happen.”

“Their father said he had mixed emotions, but he felt like God’s hand was in it,” Mrs. Goble said. “He felt like we had been sent their way to make sure the boys would have a permanent home.”

In a matter of days, the Gobles picked up Trey and Derek, and they were enrolled in school in Burnet. Their father signed a power of attorney, and the process of a legal adoption is underway. The boys have totally adjusted to their new home.

And at each step in the process—from a last minute change that allowed Charlie Goble to take part in Camp Agape, to long-term prayers being answered, to an unexpected windfall of money needed to pay the attorney’s fees for the adoption, to much more— everyone involved sees the fingerprints of God.

“We know without a shadow of a doubt that this is God’s hand at work,” Mrs. Goble said. “You look at every little instance in this, and you see how God has already laid it out. I’ve experienced God in several ways, but not on this level.”

Then there’s the matter of adoption from the Texas Baptist Children’s Home in the first place. Practically speaking, it just isn’t done.

“We do not have a formal program for adoptions and do not facilitate them,” said Kip Osborne, Campus Life Supervisor at TBCH. “Almost all of the families of children who are placed here would not agree to give up parental rights.”

While Derek’s and Trey’s father has agreed to do what appears to be best for the boys, the Gobles have promised that the boys won’t lose touch with their father or with their other siblings. In addition to the brother who still lives with the father, an older brother and two younger sisters previously were adopted into Christian homes in Louisiana.

This year, Derek and Trey finally will be home for Christmas. Of course, it’s a bit cramped, since the Gobles moved into a two-bedroom, one-bath house. But they have already started thinking about an expansion.

“No doubt God will take care of that too,” Mrs. Goble said.





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South Texas Children’s Home names president, CEO

Posted: 12/07/07

South Texas Children’s
Home names president, CEO

BEEVILLE—Todd Roberson has been named president and chief executive officer of South Texas Children’s Home, where he has served 15 years in a variety of administrative posts.

Roberson becomes the fifth president of the children’s home, succeeding Jerry Haag, who resigned earlier this year to become president of Florida Baptist Children’s Home.

Todd Roberson

Roberson has served as interim president of the children’s home since July 1.

He joined the South Texas Children’s Home staff in 1992 as assistant business administrator. He went on to hold two vice presidential posts—first for business administration and later for development—before becoming chief operating officer.

Roberson’s history at the agency offered the board of directors ample opportunity to get to know him, said Chairman John Weber.

“We have had an opportunity to observe the quality of his work, and his dedication to children, to the Lord, and to the South Texas Children’s Home,” Weber said, noting the board unanimously elected Roberson.

As Roberson takes the helm of South Texas Children’s Home, he said he wants to continue its legacy of reaching hurting children and families in Christ’s name.

“We must treasure our heritage, celebrate today and focus on tomorrow,” Roberson said. “We must always be sensitive to where the Lord is leading us to minister. And by following the Lord’s direction, we can effectively help those in need and provide others with an opportunity to serve their fellow man.”

Roberson is a member of First Baptist Church in Beeville where he is a high school Sunday school teacher, deacon, trustee and serves on various committees.

He is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He and his wife, Jill, have two children—Lindsey Brooke and Parker Ross.

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BaptistWay Bible Series for December 9: A Faith Worth Acting On

Posted: 12/06/07

BaptistWay Bible Series for December 9

A Faith Worth Acting On

• Mark 2:1-12

By Andrew Daugherty

Christ Church, Rockwall

The Gospel of Mark continues with the main idea stated in the opening verse that this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1:1). Just as his identity as Christ is linked to his baptism as the beloved Son of God, Mark now adds another dimension to his divine identity: the authority to forgive sins.

This is a radical moment in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus stops right in the middle of what he is doing to direct his full attention to the hole in the roof. Maybe Jesus’ carpentry skills would be put to good use later, but for now, he tends to more important matters than a potential leaky roof. Persistence pays off for the friends of this paralyzed man. As soon as Jesus’ sees them carrying their friend on a stretcher, he says, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (2:5). The extraordinary resolve on the part of the paralytic’s friends results in his being forgiven. Notice that it wasn’t the paralytic’s faith that Jesus saw. Jesus saw “their” faith (2:5). Thus, the faith of his friends moves Jesus so deeply that he offers the free gift of forgiveness to the paralyzed man. He didn’t ask any questions nor did he request patient information. Jesus was moved with compassion by what he saw and his immediate reaction reveals his compassionate instincts.

This pronouncement of forgiveness sets him at odds with the religious leaders of his time. Ultimately, it would bring the charge of blasphemy against Jesus, which would lead to his death. Yet to deny compassion and forgiveness to this utterly helpless son of God would have been to deny his unique identity as the Son of God. So instead Jesus does not flinch in the face of the paralyzed man’s critical need. In fact, his pronouncement of forgiveness is so all-encompassing it affects a medical outcome: the paralyzed man slides off the stretcher and walks home!

The spectacle of this miracle may have led some in Jesus’ day to speculate about the circumstances and life choices surrounding the paralyzed man. After all, many made a close connection between illness and sin. This is not the point of Jesus’ pronouncement. He is not snidely making an example of this man who suffered a physical affliction.

Remember again Mark’s opening sentence: this is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (1:1). That Jesus forgave sins was a sign of his ultimate authority over the source of all human pain, woundedness, and suffering. Jesus pronounces his forgiveness, because Jesus wanted him to be freed from every burden that kept him from knowing his own identity in God as a beloved son. What Jesus heard at his baptism is what he desired for this paralyzed man to hear, too.

Think about the points of view represented in this scene. Have you ever felt as helpless as the paralyzed man lying on the stretcher? Have you ever gone to great lengths to help someone in serious need? Have you ever, like Jesus, been moved to the depths with compassion by watching someone else assist someone in a dire circumstance?

Of course we are moved when we witness the extraordinary sacrifices people sometimes make for people in serious need. We may think of the firefighters and police officers in New York on 9/11 running up stairs and through the fires to save a life. Perhaps we are moved with compassion by the way we watch a husband or daughter care for a spouse or parent during an illness or injury. Nursing homes are full of geriatric physicians and chaplains and physical therapists that tenderly assist the aged with spiritual, physical, and medical needs.

What lies underneath all these tender acts of compassion may be the healing balm of forgiveness. No matter who a person is or what a person has done, if the source of all our suffering is rooted in the brokenness and sin of this world, then forgiveness surely is the cure. As Jesus shows, the power of forgiveness can affect every dimension of our lives.

A recent documentary film profiles this power, too. The Power of Forgiveness, a documentary film directed by Martin Doblmeier, presents several short stories related to the spiritual practice of forgiveness. Stories are told about people’s struggle to forgive in the face of unspeakable tragedies. From Belfast to Beirut to Ground Zero to the Amish countryside, real life stories are told about the human need to offer forgiveness and receive forgiveness amidst the ongoing process of God’s redemption in the world.

What led Doblmeier to make this film was a result of attending a conference where scientific researchers, psychologists, and physicians were presenting findings of their studies in forgiveness. These scientific minds were coming together in the health care world to give critical attention to the virtue of forgiveness. Though religious researchers and biblical scholars have talked about forgiveness for hundreds of years, the burgeoning scientific fascination with the subject stirred Doblemier to bring together both scientific and faith perspectives.

These scientific studies reveal the effects of un-forgiveness on a person’s physical and psychological health. Re-living a painful experience from one’s past can trigger damaging physical consequences including difficulty breathing, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and sweating. Furthermore, the pleasure pathways of the human brain light up when we feel the biological urge to get revenge on someone who has wounded us deeply. This growing body of scientific evidence says that holding on to grudges is harmful to physical health. Forgiveness can be good for health!

What we don’t have in this story from Mark are the specific details of the paralyzed man’s life. Was he deeply hurt in some way in the past? Did he simply have a physical disability or illness from birth? Did he really believe that his illness was a result of some sin in his life? What kind of personality did this man have that made dealing with his physical affliction easier or more difficult?

We are not given such information. What we are given is a preview of who Jesus is and the daring lengths he will go to make forgiveness a real possibility in the world one precious life at a time.

It is so important to him that he will eventually risk his own precious life by practicing it shamelessly in front of people who have the power to put an end to this forgiveness business altogether. News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.




Adams provides pastoral care to HIV/AIDS community in New York

Posted: 12/03/07

Adams provides pastoral care to
HIV/AIDS community in New York

By Patricia Heys

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

NEW YORK—In the mid-1980s, as the growing prevalence of AIDS began to capture the attention of Americans, Ronnie Adams attended an educational session about the disease. The lesson he learned—not from the presenter but from the people seated next to him—changed the course of his ministry.

At the time, Adams served as the minister for singles adults at First Baptist Church of Plano, and he decided it would be important for a minister to learn more about the epidemic. But he wasn’t prepared for the reaction he received when he introduced himself at the training session.

Ronnie Adams

“When I introduced myself as a Baptist minister, the two people beside me actually moved their chairs away from me,” Adams said.

“I realized they feared that I would judge them, so I just said, ‘I’m here today because I feel like if Jesus were walking the earth that he would want people living with AIDS to know that God loves and cares for them.’

“There was a sigh of relief, and people began to have tears in their eyes as they told me how they had been kicked out of their churches because they were infected with AIDS.”

Two decades later, Adams is still carrying the message of God’s love to people living with HIV/AIDS. Since 1995, he has served as one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel in New York City, where every 18 minutes someone in the city is infected with the disease.

“My passion and what I love the most is providing pastoral care to that community,” Adams said. “It’s been a difficult journey, but an incredible journey. I’ve ushered many people into the kingdom in their last days.

“So many of the people I work with have had a faith connection, but they’ve been condemned or judge out of it. They come to realize it was not God, but a religion that did that. So, as I begin to share with them God’s love, God’s compassion and God’s mercy, they get reconnected.”

While treatments exist to help ease the effects of AIDS, there is still no cure for the disease. Adams’ ministry also focuses on building awareness and educating people about prevention, treatment and how they can be the presence of Christ to those living with the disease. He is part of the Fellowship’s HIV/AIDS Network, which resources individuals and congregations involved in HIV/AIDS ministries.

Adams partners with several housing communities that serve the HIV/AIDS community, including Housing Works, the nation’s largest provider of housing for people living with HIV/AIDS. Each week he travels to three communities in different neighborhoods of the city, leading Bible studies, building relationships and providing pastoral care.

“The Bible studies give me the opportunity to meet people and develop relationships, and usually that leads to counseling and hospital visitation, educational opportunities and unfortunately memorial services,” said Adams, a Dallas native.

“To me it’s the most open community to the gospel that I work with. They are so open for the love of God. I’ve probably seen more people come to know Christ through that ministry than all the other ones combined. It’s really been incredible.”

Adams has met people like Frank, a resident of Housing Works, who learned in his late 50s he was infected with AIDS. Frank attended a weekly Bible study and rarely spoke, but something changed after he participated in a spiritual retreat and was encouraged to tell his story.

“There was something about that pathos of sharing his story. Frank opened up, and he became this whole new person,” Adams said. “He realized that God was not against him, but that God was for him. And through accepting that belief that God was with him, he became more outgoing.

“It just shows what the love of Christ and other people can do for someone. It radically changed this man. He was still a very humble, quiet man, but he became a leader in the group.”

In September, Adams was at Frank’s bedside at 2 a.m. as his fight with AIDS came to an end.

“I said to him: ‘Frank, you’ve lived great the last year and done well. God loves you and cares for you. You tried hard to beat this, but it’s time to rest. And God is going to be there with you,’” Adams said.

“I prayed for him, prayed with him and kissed him on the forehead. Two minutes later he was gone. It was one of those sweet moments, and I’ll never forget it as long as I live—to watch this man go into eternity, when just a year before he didn’t think he had a chance of being with God.”

 


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Study links video violence to aggressive behavior

Posted: 12/05/07

Study links video violence
to aggressive behavior

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

Repeated exposure to video violence—particularly interactive games—influences aggressive behavior more than drug use, poverty or domestic abuse, a University of Michigan researcher has asserted.

In fact, the correlation between media violence and aggression is at least as strong as the link between exposure to second-hand smoke and lung cancer, said Brad Bushman, psychology professor and research associate in the university’s Institute for Social Research.

Bushman, who focuses on laboratory experiments to assess the immediate effects of exposure to media violence, is collaborating with social psychologist Rowell Huesmann, who examines the long-term impact of repeated exposure, in an ongoing major study funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Their findings so far point to a clear relationship between media violence and aggression.

“A high and steady diet of TV violence in early childhood increases the risk that both females and males from all social backgrounds will become violent, aggressive adults,” Huesmann said in a statement released by the research institute. “Media violence can affect any child from any family—not just those who are violence-prone.”

Huesmann based his conclusion on analysis of studies that have tracked 846 individuals from Columbia County, N.Y., and their children more than 40 years, examining the amount of violence the subjects viewed on television when they were young and what impact it had on their behavior later.

By the time men were in their early 20s, those who had been exposed to large doses of violent TV shows between ages 6 and 9 were twice as likely as other men to become physically aggressive with their spouses and three times more likely to be convicted of crime, Huesmann and his colleagues discovered.

Women who were heavy viewers of violent TV as children were four times as likely as other women to have punched, beaten or choked another adult, the researchers found.

But violent video games appear even more pernicious than televised violence, Bushman said.

“Playing video games—particularly first-person shooter games—may be much more dangerous than watching violent television shows or movies,” he said.

“Playing games is highly active, and it requires players to identify with violent characters. It also rewards aggression, and the amount of violence is almost continuous.”

Brain function changes when players become immersed in an aggressive video game, and it desensitizes chronic players to real-life violence, Bushman has demonstrated in the laboratory.

The “compelling and common sense study” underscores the message that video images cause violent images to become embedded in the imagination, said Suzii Paynter, director Texas Baptists’ moral concerns and public policy agency.

“Violence grows into a lens and a behavioral probability that is triggered whenever the imagination is triggered. Repetition builds the habit of expecting violence and the danger of finding it familiar so that violent acts are rationalized as normal. When violence becomes normal, it prevents us from seeing ourselves and others as God intends for us to see them,” said Paynter, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Christian Life Commission.

In an interview, Bushman offered several recommendations to parents:

Restrict access. “Most doctors recommend no more than two hours of media per day, and that’s all kinds of media—TV, video games, computers or whatever,” he said.

Block objectionable content. Use available parental blocks on media to prevent unsupervised children from gaining access to inappropriate content.

Communicate. “Watch the programs or play the games with the kids, and then talk about it,” he said. “Unfortunately, only about 10 percent of parents do it. And that’s a pity. … Many parents use media as a babysitter, and it’s a pretty bad one.”

Keep it in the open. “Move the media to a public location,” he suggested. “Don’t allow kids to have televisions or game consoles in their rooms. Keep them in public places where they are easier to monitor.”

Teach decision-making skills. “Ultimately, it comes down to teaching kids to make good choices,” he said. “You can’t watch them all the time. But when they are at a friend’s house, it is hoped that their parents will have taught them how to make the right choices, whether they are with them or not.”

In addition to shielding impressionable children from violent images, parents can help children make wise choices by exposing them to alternative images—real-life examples of peace and love, Paynter added.

“As adults, we need to model self-control and moderation. We need to talk explicitly about the decisions that we make to be self-controlled in matters of violence,” Paynter said. “These decisions are often invisible to our children, but they can learn when we share just how and why we are making choices for non-violent responses to feelings of anger or fear. 

“Jesus’ examples and teaching about violence are very relevant to today’s game generation. Don’t wait to share these parts of the gospel until adolescence, but share Jesus’ example with children of all ages, showing Jesus’ strength in the face of temptation and evil.”



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Family Place helps mother leave fear behind

Posted: 12/07/07

Family Place helps mother leave fear behind

By Analiz González

Buckner International

MIDLAND—Ambra Riley spent the night in her daughters’ room holding her baby tightly in her arms. She put something over the doorknob so she’d know if her husband tried to enter.

Her husband may have stolen her self-esteem and robbed her family of happiness, but he would not take her son, she reasoned.

Ambra Riley hugs her children outside her home at Buckner Family Place, a self-sufficiency program for single moms working towards a college education in Midland, Texas.

“He probably wanted him because he was a boy,” Riley said. “He was verbally abusive to my oldest daughter, always telling her she was fat and to get off the trampoline because she’d break it.”

Riley, now 27, spent two years hiding in her daughters’ bedroom before she finally left the abusive household. And when she did, her world changed.

“I don’t know why I didn’t do it earlier,” she said, with steady eye contact. “I guess I was trying to keep the family together. After I left (my husband) the first time, he told me I was going to hell for breaking up the family. I felt powerless, so I took him back.

“When we’d come back from church and turn the corner to come to our trailer home, the kids would be waiting to see if his truck was there. If it wasn’t, there would be this sigh of relief. If he was, they would zip their mouths and go straight to their bedrooms.”

Riley started attending nursing school in the fall of 2006, when she and her three children were still living with her husband. He didn’t like the idea of having a wife who was more educated than he was, and he refused to help support the family.

While she and the children survived on rice and beans, and the family dog went for days without eating, he’d come in sporting new clothes. Meanwhile, Riley was taking 15 hours of classes, caring for the children and working weekends and 12-hour night shifts at a nursing home. She made straight As that semester.

After leaving the abusive situation, she sought help at Buckner Family Place in Midland, Texas, where she’s lived for the past two months.

Family Place is a self-sufficiency program where single parents who are going to school can live with their children under a rental cost based on their family income.

Since Riley came to Family Place, she’s been inspired to pass on the blessing she’s received.

“I want to help people,” she said. “I don’t know what, but something amazing.”

“They’ve really helped me out a lot. This is a wonderful program. If you want it to work out for you, it definitely will. The means are there. I never had a bed so pretty. I had a mattress that I slept on the floor before this. They furnished the apartment and if we graduate, we get to take it with us.

“When I found Buckner, I was overwhelmed that I’d finally come to something that was going to help me.

“My oldest daughter used to have anxiety attacks because she thought my husband was going to kill me,” Riley said. “She’s having fewer breakdowns and they all feel good that Mommy isn’t stressed all the time.”

Riley credits God with giving her the strength to leave her husband and for guiding her to Family Place. Before she left him, she met a friend who was going to church. She contacted the pastor and attended that Sunday.

When the service ended, the pastor’s daughter asked Riley her name. When she told her, she asked if she had a sister named Ashley.

“Apparently, the pastor’s daughter had babysat for my sister and my sister had asked her to pray for me,” Riley said. “She told me she’d been praying for me for years.”

Since then, the Rileys have learned a lot about God’s concern for them and how God will fill the hole where her father used to be.

When Riley’s middle child was celebrating her birthday, she was scheduled to attend a supervised visit with her father. But she didn’t want to see him.

“She was crying, so we got on our knees and prayed together,” Riley said. “We asked God to find a way for her to not have to see him on her birthday. Then we drove there and she started crying when we pulled into the parking lot. Right when I parked the car, we got a call from the building and the visit was canceled. She started screaming. She turned to me and said, ‘Mama, God really does hear my prayers, huh?’

“That same day, the pastor’s daughter threw her a big birthday party with a theme of Disney princess. The whole wall was filled with presents. I could not have done that for her. God did that for her.”

Her son, now 3, used to feel bad that he didn’t have a father. But not anymore, she said, straightening up in her chair.

“Just because we don’t have a Dad doesn’t mean we’re crippled. For father’s day, my son made me all this stuff and said, ‘I am so thankful that you are my Mom and my Daddy, too.’”

And Riley has grown a lot since she and her husband parted.

“I don’t fear him anymore,” she said. “I don’t fear. If he wants to do something to me, I’m ready for him. … God has healed my mind. Now I know that I’m smart. I can learn. I can do this. I can take care of these kids. I don’t need a man in my life. … I can wear whatever I want. I can come and go as I please. I can go to church all I want. My oldest daughter doesn’t have to worry about the way she looks. I tell her every day that she’s beautiful.

“Sometimes we’ll drag my mattress out and we’ll all have a campout in the living room. All of us sleep together sometimes like we used to when I was with my husband. Back then we did it out of fear. Now, we do it because we want to.”





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Mission workers help bring clean water, love of Christ to Ethiopia

Posted: 12/07/07

Mission workers help bring clean
water, love of Christ to Ethiopia

By Carla Wynn Davis

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

RIFT VALLEY, Ethiopia (ABP)— Nearly 75 percent of Ethiopians—about 55 million people—lack access to clean water. It’s a crisis not discussed often enough, according to missionary workers there.

Many Ethiopians drink from rivers in areas known for famine, malnutrition and cholera outbreaks.  That “silent tsunami” is responsible for the deaths of millions around the world each year, said David Harding, a field representative with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

In Ethiopia, children often spend a lot of their time each day fetching water instead of going to school or helping on their family’s farm. (CBF Photo)

Needless to say, a rush of fresh, drinkable water brings a rush of joy to people in Ethiopia. Harding works to make that happen.

Harding, works with Living Water Ethiopia, a group that helps churches use simple techniques to bring clean water to the Rift Valley region. Since July 2006, they have drilled nearly 30 wells that provide hundreds of people with clean water. They also use seeds and sand filter techniques to clean water. 

A working well means no more trips to the muddy river to gather water and haul it home. It means less disease, more crops and less famine. It means more time with family and greater opportunity for education.

Access to water can transform communities and unite people, Harding said. During one of his trips to Africa, the Christian and Muslim communities worked together to drill a well. When the drill bit became lodged many feet underground, both faith communities joined hands and prayed for God to intervene. 

“It was probably the first time they did anything together,” Harding said. “Water has that draw. Everybody needs water, and the church was able to use the water to say: ‘We care about you. Access to safe water is a human right for all.’”

A child of missionaries, Harding was born in Ethiopia, and he lived there 10 years. Now based in Orlando, Fla., Harding travels to Ethiopia about four times a year.

He returns often because about half the wells in Africa no longer function, he said. Most are broken because they aren’t well-maintained, Harding said, so teaching people to care for the technology is essential.

“If improving access to safe water for a billion people in the world was simply a technical problem, it would have been solved long ago,” he said. “It’s a behavioral problem where people need to see the connections between water and disease and to feel empowered to do something about it.”

It costs Living Water Ethiopia about $2,500 to dig a well that services up to 400 people initially. As more wells are established in a community, wells typically serve 50 people and their livestock.

In short, training and maintenance can translate directly into less disease, more crops and less famine—true tranformation.

In addition to working in Ethiopia, Harding serves in other developing countries as the Fellowship’s coordinator for international disaster response.

Most years, the Hardings travel to a developing country to serve as a family. Harding’s wife, Merrie, a physical therapist, uses her skills through local clinics, and their three children—Dave, Leah and Merrie Grace—help dig wells or assist in orphanages. While in Orlando, the Hardings collect hats and dresses to distribute in Ethiopia and other countries.

“Working out of what Christ has done for us is a statement of care,” David said. “People want to know why, and it’s because we are first moved by God’s love for us.”




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Stem-cell breakthrough may not end debate—at least for now

Posted: 12/04/07

Stem-cell breakthrough may
not end debate—at least for now

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP)—Although many religious conservatives cheered the recent announcement of a breakthrough in stem-cell research, the moral controversy over the practice may not end any time soon.

The announcement—made by independent teams of scientists working in Japan and Wisconsin—holds the promise of cures for a host of debilitating and terminal diseases. Scientists have studied embryonic stem cells for more than a decade because of their potential to become any one of more than 200 types of tissues in the human body.

However, such stem-cell research has proven highly controversial because human embryos are destroyed in the process. In addition, some scientists have proposed cloning human embryos from patients with certain diseases. Such cloning would prevent rejection of any new tissues or organs grown from the stem cells and used for those patients.

Religious conservatives—and many non-religious bioethicists—find both prospects ethically troubling.

But the new research has the potential to render both moral quandaries moot because, for the first time, it reprograms adult cells to act in ways that are apparently identical to embryonic stem cells.

Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and a team led by James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin conducted the research. Yamanaka’s research was published online in the journal Cell, and Thomson’s was published in Science.

Both teams used four genes to “reprogram” human skin cells, which essentially reverted to the stem-cell format of their ancestors.

Religious conservatives who consider embryonic stem-cell research tantamount to abortion and who oppose cloning were ecstatic at the announcement.

Dubious “experiments involving embryo cloning and embryo destruction are being rendered obsolete. Scientists can now work with ‘embryonic-like’ stem cells without ethical concerns,” wrote Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, in an e-mail newsletter to supporters of the activist group.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center was more reserved in its praise for the study’s potential.

“Such strategies should continue to be pursued and strongly promoted, as they should help to steer the entire field of stem-cell research in a more explicitly ethical direction by circumventing the moral quagmire associated with destroying human embryos,” a statement from the Philadelphia-based group said.

“These strategies also circumvent a second series of moral objections by providing a method for obtaining patient-matched stem cells without cloning human embryos or using women's eggs.”

But some scientists—and politicians—have said the announcement doesn’t mean embryonic stem-cell research should cease immediately.

“Even though these announcements are momentous, until a reprogrammed panacea cell is used to make stem cells that actually function properly to repair a damaged nerve, spinal cord or heart, all avenues of research must be funded and pursued,” wrote Arthur Caplan, head of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, in a column for MSNBC.com.

Caplan noted that the way the researchers reprogrammed the cells could make creating new tissues or injecting them into patients problematic. Yamanaka and Thomson’s gene-therapy technique, he wrote, “uses viruses to get the reprogramming done. Those who have worked with gene therapy know that retroviruses do not always put genetic material where it is supposed to go.”

Such misplaced genetic material can lead to unintended consequences. For instance, one study on mice with spinal-cord injuries noted that stem-cell therapy caused increased mobility but also significantly increased pain due to renewed and significant nerve growth.

Other such genetic misplacement can cause tumors to grow.

“This does not obviate the need for human embryonic stem-cell research," Story Landis, the head of the National Institutes of Health’s stem-cell task force, told the Los Angeles Times.

Researchers noted that they have yet to confirm whether the cells they created really are identical to embryonic stem cells. And Thomson cautioned that embryonic stem-cell research should continue.

Several members of Congress—Republicans and Democrats alike—who have supported federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research have announced that they would continue to push for such research. A bill to lift President Bush’s ban on embryonic research funding has passed Congress twice but failed to muster the necessary support to override Bush’s vetoes.

That’s the way it should stay, the Family Research Council’s Perkins said.

“Rather than accept the fact that these new reprogramming studies show tremendous promise for basic stem-cell research, politicians plan to push their embryo-killing legislation, even though they know they don't have the votes to override the president's veto,” he wrote in a newsletter. “It would be a shame if ideology trumped the latest science.”


News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.




Veteran Baptist journalist Roy Jennings dies at age 83

Posted: 12/03/07

Veteran Baptist journalist
Roy Jennings dies at age 83

By Lonnie Wilkey

Tennessee Baptist & Reflector

GERMANTOWN, Tenn. (ABP)—Veteran Southern Baptist journalist Roy Jennings died Nov. 22. He was 83.

Jennings is best known in Southern Baptist circles for his work as news editor in the newsrooms at the annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was also instrumental in helping Southern Baptist journalists gain the respect of their secular counterparts.

“Roy Jennings was the consummate news professional, a model citizen in his community, a loyal churchman, devoted to his family, and a personal friend whose memory I shall cherish all of my days,’ said W.C. Fields, the retired director of Baptist Press, the news division of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Fields said Jennings’ work as copy chief in the newsroom was well-known and respected.

“A reporter for the New York Times once told me that if it were not for his own sense of pride, he could take Roy’s twice-daily wrap-up stories on the SBC meeting and, without reading them, attach his own byline and put them in the Times,” Fields said.

Jennings earned a journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. He began working shortly afterwards at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn., where he covered police and federal courts before becoming the night city editor.

Jennings left The Commercial Appeal in 1959 to begin a career in Southern Baptist communications. He joined the staff of the former Southern Baptist Convention Brotherhood Commission in 1959. During his 22-year tenure with the Memphis-based agency, Jennings organized and directed an editorial department to prepare missions materials for 600,000 men and boys throughout the United States.

In 1981, Jennings began work to establish a communications program and public relations program at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. With the establishment of the Baptist Memorial Health Care System two years later, he added the public relations functions of the system to his duties.

Dan Martin, a former news editor for Baptist Press, said Jennings was a “solid professional” during the SBC’s turmoil in the 1970s and 1980s. He exemplified one of the reasons Southern Baptist journalism did so well during that period, Martin said.

Marv Knox, editor of the Baptist Standard, worked with Jennings as a reporter in the SBC newsroom and as feature editor with Baptist Press.

“One of the first things I think about Roy is that through his work in the newsroom he lifted the quality of Baptist journalism for at least two generations of reporters and editors,” Knox said.

Knox said Jennings demonstrated that Baptist journalists had the same quality and professional standards as journalists at major daily newspapers and wire services.

“Other journalists trusted and respected the work we did in the newsroom because they trusted and respected Roy’s professionalism,” Knox said.

Knox said Jennings was a good teacher, as well.

“He had very high standards, but he also worked with the newsroom staff with a great sense of grace and respect. People who worked with him learned a tremendous amount about journalism just by being around him and seeing how he edited their stories.”

Jennings was a president of the Memphis chapter of Public Relations Society of America and the Baptist Public Relations Association (now Baptist Communications Association).

He retired from the health-care system in 1989. Jennings is survived by his wife of 63 years, Marye, and a daughter, Gail Jennings of Roswell, Ga.





News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.




Baptist pastor on hit list in Turkey

Posted: 12/03/07

Baptist pastor on hit list in Turkey

Washington, D.C. (BWA)–A Baptist pastor in Turkey has been placed on a death list.

Ertan Mesut Cevik, pastor of a Baptist church in Izmir, the modern name for biblical Smyrna, and Turkey’s third largest city by population, has received increased police protection after his name was found on a list carried by three suspected terrorists. The three, who are arrested, are suspected of planning wide scale attacks after a large cache of weapons was found in their possession.

Cevik has been under police protection since April 2007 after he hosted a funeral service for one of three Christians that was killed in Turkey on April 18. Two of the murder victims, Necati Aydin, 36, and Ugur Yuksel, 32, were Turks who converted from Islam to Christianity. The third man, Tillman Geske, 46, was a German citizen.

The Baptist pastor was also protected after he and the Baptist congregation were accused in a Turkish newspaper article, published after the three murders in April, of engaging in “coercive evangelism” by using money and drugs to attract young people. These charges were denied by the church.

Cevik was ordained by the Union of Evangelical Free Churches in Germany, a member body of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). The Izmir congregation was founded in 2001 and is an associate member of the European Baptist Federation (EBF), one of six continental federations that are part of the BWA.

EBF General Secretary Tony Peck and General Secretary of the German Baptist union, Regina Claas, are appealing for prayer for Christians in Turkey and for the Baptist congregation in Izmir in particular.


News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.




Need help understanding the Old Testament? Ask an African Christian

Posted: 11/30/07

Need help understanding the Old
Testament? Ask an African Christian

By Hannah Elliott

Associated Baptist Press

SAN DIEGO (ABP)—African Christians tend to understand and appreciate the Old Testament far better than their Western counterparts, author Philip Jenkins told a group of evangelical scholars.

Jenkins, a professor of religious studies and history at Pennsylvania State University, spoke in San Diego to fellow members of the Evangelical Theological Society. His speech was one of several addresses and papers presented during the body’s 59th annual meeting.

Cultures that espouse tribal identities and are intimately acquainted with animal sacrifice, dietary restrictions, polygamy, sacred rocks and the like are well-equipped to read and identify with the Hebrew Bible’s stories

Many ideas about Christianity that are most difficult to convey to a contemporary Western audience make intuitive sense to many indigenous African audiences, as well as some Asian audiences, Jenkins asserted.

Cultures that espouse tribal identities and are intimately acquainted with animal sacrifice, dietary restrictions, polygamy, sacred rocks and the like are well-equipped to read and identify with the Hebrew Bible’s stories, Jenkins said.

“Teaching people (in the developing world) to obey the Bible if it means the Old Testament is not difficult,” he said. “In fact, for many of the new Christians in the world today the big problem is … telling people that the old law must be made subordinate, must be treated as inferior, to the new law.”

In Africa, Jenkins continued, Western missionaries often must convince people the Old Testament is not the only or primary revelation of God’s work. If Martin Luther hated it, he joked, it goes down great in Africa.

In light of that cultural context, Jenkins said, the fundamental task of Christian believers should be to determine how much of the old religion has to be done away with in order to bring in the faith of Christ and to teach hearers to obey the things Jesus commanded.

On the up side, Jenkins said, African and Asian tribes easily recognize and understand aspects of the traditional religion of the Old Testament as shaping what they should practice in light of the New Testament. And they often understand those aspects better than Christians in the Western world.

The idea of atonement, for instance, is difficult to describe to someone who does not come from a culture that embraces animal sacrifice. But it is easy to talk of the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus with someone who understands sacrificial rituals as “a continuing reality,” he said.

Most evangelicals never have seen an animal sacrifice or even a harvest, Jenkins said. “Now imagine that ideas like this are part of the fabric of your mind!”

Another aspect of the New Testament that connects easily with many indigenous African and Asian cultures, he added, involves Jesus’ subversion of his society’s class markers. Just as in Jesus’ culture, one of the clearest markers of class is what—and with whom—wealthy or powerful people are allowed to eat.

Jesus’ inclination to share meals with low-caste people like prostitutes, or his tendency to touch or spend time with people that his society considered unclean, make him an even more striking figure in African and Asian cultures than in Western ones, Jenkins said.

“Look at so many of the passages that we are used to in the West and that we don’t even read any more and which are the most explosive,” Jenkins said.

“Look at the passages which carry the most weight for women’s groups reading the Bible in the global South. Think of the story of the woman with the issue of blood. Now imagine reading that story in a society that believes in blood contamination (and) that believes in blood impurity.”

After receiving the faith of Jesus, churches should “cauterize the culture” that has grown out of Christianity over the past two millennia and leave the core message, Jenkins concluded. But that is something, he said, the new Christian communities must do for themselves.

“It is not for outsiders, for Westerners, to tell rising African and Asian churches what to do in this regard,” Jenkins said. “The best example of teaching to obey is by teaching to read—teaching to think and absorb and make relevant.”



News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.




Around the State

Posted: 11/30/07

Around the State

E-mails of support for military personnel and their families are being collected for inclusion with Christmas cards and care packages to be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan during the holiday season. The e-mails can be sent to OperationEagle@comcast.net.

Andy and Joan Horner have been named recipients of the 2007 Russell H. Perry Free Enterprise Award by Dallas Baptist University. Gov. Rick Perry was the keynote speaker, and Bo Pilgrim, founder and CEO of Pilgrim’s Pride, was the honorary chair of the dinner, which drew more than 1,200 in attendance. The Horners are the founders of the Premier Designs direct-sales jewelry company and are members of First Church in Dallas.

Judy Lyssy, a San Marcos Baptist Academy parent, made a $25,000 donation to the school to fund new media and development tools and equip the golf team with new equipment and uniforms. She made the donation in support of the school’s centennial celebration capital campaign. The campaign has a phase one goal of $2.1 million, and a $3.6 million goal for the second phase. Other projects slated for funding include dormitory renovations, improvements in the athletic fields, campus-wide technology upgrades, and building renovations and upgrades.

The East Texas Baptist University Office of Alumni Relations presented its J. Wesley Smith Achievement Award to Lanny Loe, executive pastor of First Church in Jonesboro, Ga., in recognition of his mobilization of more than 20 percent of the church’s members in foreign missions projects. The W.T. Tardy Service Award was presented to Jim and Janet Palmer. He taught at the school 26 years, and the couple has supported the school with their time and financial gifts. The Alumni Achievement Award was presented to Tequecie Meek and Randy Pegues in recognition of their contributions to society. Bob and Carol Braly received the Unsung Hero Award for his work as a pastor and chaplain to law enforcement agencies in Louisiana and her support of his ministry. Bonnie Kay, the university’s oldest-living alumnus at 99 years of age, received the Sallie M. Duncan Life Enrichment Award.

Priscilla Heard, a piano teacher and music educator, has been inducted into the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor music department’s hall of fame as its 30th Distinguished Musician.

Lanny Hall, president of Howard Payne University, has been elected to serve on the board of directors of both the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas.

Anniversaries

Gene Tone, 10th, as pastor of Cibolo Valley Church in Cibolo, Nov. 4.

Schuyler Batson, 20th, as minister of music at Lakeside Church in Dallas, Nov. 11.

Gene Horton, 40th as pastor of First Church in Rio Hondo and 55th in ministry, Jan. 2. A celebration of his ministry will be held Jan. 20 at 9:45 a.m.

Spicewood Church in Spicewood, 100th, Jan. 12-13. The church also has scheduled other events throughout the year in celebration of the church’s centennial of service. Former members are encouraged to send their addresses to 7903 CR 404, Spicewood 78669 or e-mail swoodbap@zeecon.com. Bill Mc-Cormick is pastor.

First Church in Sinton, 100th, April 6. Registration and coffee will begin at 9:30 a.m. A time of fellowship will follow the morning service. Former members are asked to contact the church at P.O. Box 1056, Sinton 78387 or e-mail fbc777@sbcglobal.net. Mack Caffey is pastor.

Deaths

Jean Childre, 77, Nov. 18 in Garland. She was a charter member of South Garland Baptist Church in Garland and served on the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas from 2002 to 2004. She was eligible to serve from 2005 until 2007, but she resigned in 2005 when the board was restructured to facilitate it moving to only 90 members. She is survived by her husband, Bart; son, Brad; and two grandchildren.

James Coggin, 86, Nov. 27 in Fort Worth. He was pastor emeritus of Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth. Other churches where he was pastor include Ridgeway Church in Memphis, Tenn.; First Church in Texarkana; First Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Rosen Heights Church in Fort Worth; North Euless Church in Euless; and Crowley Church in Crowley. He served on the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, was a trustee of Dallas Baptist University and twice served as chairman of Southwestern Seminary’s board of trustees. He was president of the Southern Baptist Pastors’ Conference in 1965 and vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1972 to 1973. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Carolyn; daughters, Olivia Eudaly; Lyn McDonald and Rebekah Hyde; sisters, Mabel Hill and Ada McDuffie; eight grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

Ordained

Ken Ellzey to the ministry at First Church in Sour Lake.

Martha Kate Hall to the ministry at Northside Church in Corsicana.

Jeffrey Burns to the ministry at Heights Church in Temple.

Kevin Fleming and John Purswell as deacons at Memorial Church in Baytown.


News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Baptist churches, in Texas, the BGCT, the nation and around the world.