Updated: 4/13/07

Woodworker labors long for
Carpenter from Nazareth

By George Henson

Staff Writer

FRIONA—A look at J.G. Baker’s hands gives a glimpse into a man who has enjoyed working with wood his entire life, but a look at his heart gives insight into a man who has placed his eternal life in the hands of yet another carpenter.

While he is approaching age 92, even a casual observer can tell he was a powerfully built man and no stranger to hard work. He and his family ran harvesting combines from Arizona north to almost the Canadian border, and then back south, ending in the wheat and maize fields of the Texas Panhandle for many years. During the off-season, Baker worked in his woodshop.

“I made whatever anybody would pay for,” he said with a smile. But woodworking has long brought a smile to his face. He still has an animal carving he made as a small boy.

“I could carve any type of animal you wanted without even looking at them from the time I was 8,” he said.

For the last 54 years, Friona has been Baker’s home. The First Baptist Church there bears the marks of both of his passions. The sanctuary pulpit furniture, the cross that hangs on the wall of the baptistry, the cabinet for the sound equipment and desks throughout the church—all those and many other pieces are evidence of his love for wood and God.

The ministry that has strewn his handiwork across the state started about eight years ago, when a man he had cut grain for 40 years started a church in Phoenix, Ariz. As a show of his support, Baker made the pulpit, the communion table, two platform chairs, two flower stands and two lecterns.

He now has made eight of those sets, the first four of white oak, the last four of red oak.

“It’s good, sturdy stuff; I can tell you that,” he said.

At the time, he averaged about one set a year, but something prompted him to make four sets in 2006. He didn’t know why then, but now he thinks maybe he does.

“It guess the Lord knew I wasn’t going to be able to do much more after I got that done,” he said.

After a lifetime of excellent health—“I was working eight to 14 hours a day before October”—his health deteriorated rapidly. A series of setbacks left him using a walker and using oxygen to breathe scant months later. He’s trying to wean himself off the oxygen, but the exertion forces him back to it.

For months, he was unable to get into his workshop, but now he’s trying to spend at least a couple of hours there each day. Even so, he confesses he does more resting than working.

His handiwork will without a doubt succeed him, because it has scores of years ahead of it.

He laughs as he recalls his meeting with a pastor in Happy. First Baptist Church there was struck by a tornado, ripping away the roof. Eighteen days later, as repairs were hours away from being completed, fire stormed through the building, leveling it.

When the church neared its rebuilding, Baker visited the community and remembers walking around the unfinished building. When someone asked what he was doing, he said he was looking for the pastor.

Baker recalled Pastor Paul Burwash told the story of the meeting when the church held its open house a few weeks later with a set of Baker’s furniture prominently featured.

“The pastor over there, he’s a joker anyway,” Baker said with a grin.

He recalled the pastor relating: “I saw this old man walking around who looked like he’d escaped from a nursing home, and then he told me, ‘I want to give you your pulpit furniture, and there won’t be any down payment or any payments afterward.’ I thought: ‘I better call somebody. He’s starting to talk irrational.’”

Most of Baker’s furniture has gone either to churches that recovered from disasters or churches just getting on their feet. He has a heart to help those who could use a dose of encouragement.

Encouraging is precisely the word Deacon Woodrow Browning used to describe Baker’s gift to Kokomo Baptist Church in Gorman. Wildfires that raced across that part of the state took no pity on the church and burned it to the ground.

“It’s hard to put into words what his gift meant,” Browning said. “It’s just unbelievable that he gave us that furniture—and what a craftsman he is. It’s comparable to when we were working on the church and somebody would come by and talk for awhile and leave us a check before they left.”

The check would have to be a big one. The church furniture he used as his model sells for $8,500 out of a catalog he found.

And that was $8,500 that definitely was not in the budget when his church finally was able to build a building after more than a decade of renting space, Pastor Monte Byrd of Mill Creek Baptist Church in Bellville said.

“This was a tremendous example of God supplying exactly what you need,” he said. “It wasn’t in our budget by any stretch of the imagination, but when we went and picked it up, it matches perfectly with our organ that was also donated, the exposed beams we have in the ceiling and the cabinets the Texas Baptist Men built for us. We couldn’t have picked it out any better if we had known what we were doing.”

Baker is thrilled his handiwork is being used for God’s glory across the state, but he said he is just as thankful he has found a way to serve.

“There’s a lot of different ways to serve the Lord, and this is one way that I found,” he said.

“You wander off sometimes from serving, but more than anything, I’ve always tried to live my life in a way where I didn’t have to make any apologies.”

Baker said he may have gotten that philosophy of living from a doctor he knew when he was growing up in McKinney.

“This old doctor had a son who had just finished doctor school, and I remember he told me, ‘I told him if you want to be a good doctor, you have to be a good man first.’ I’ve always thought that was good advice no matter what you do,” Baker said.

And so, Baker has put his hands where his heart is.

Updated: 4/13/07

Buckner orphan writes her story

By Analiz González

Buckner International

GARLAND—Only a privileged few children grow up with perks like private piano lessons, swimming classes and rigorous academic programs.

Frances Jones counts herself among the privileged. Minus parents, her childhood was almost a fairy tale.

Frances Jones

“Once upon a time, there was a 10-year-old girl named Frances who lived in an orphanage called Buckner Orphan’s Home in Dallas, Texas,” Jones writes in her new book, Orphan Journey: Memoirs of Growing up in Buckner Orphans’ Home. “Six hundred boys and girls lived there.”

Jones, 67, decided to write her story after being urged by her adoptive parents and friends to share her Buckner adventures. She enrolled in a creative writing class at Eastfield Community College in Mesquite, where her professor and classmates also encouraged her desire to write.

She wrote most of the memoir at her kitchen table. She would pick up a notebook and pen and scribble away until her childhood appeared on the pages.

“I mainly wanted to tell what I loved about Buckner and why I loved it and what they gave me,” she said.

Jones had a happy childhood.

People who don’t know any better feel sorry for her because she was an orphan, she conceded. But they’re completely wrong. In fact, when a couple offered to adopt her at age 14, she turned them down. She felt at home at Buckner. She’d been there since she was 5 months old, and as a high school student, she was pretty popular, she said.

Luckily, her adoptive parents were willing to wait until Jones was 18 before making her a part of their family. They adopted her just in time to put her new name on her high school diploma.

“I had a wonderful childhood, and even though it was cloistered within these gates and fences, I still had a lot of opportunities,” she said. “I never lacked love. I call (Orphan Journey) my love story for Buckner.”

Jones’ story includes memories of Christmas presents, basketball games and the close friendships she had with her 600 to 800 “brothers and sisters.” She also writes about the times she got into trouble with teachers.

“Mr. Holman was forever catching me talking to my neighbor,” she writes. “He would reprimand me and call me to the front of the class. Then he would get out his paddle and give me a few licks in front of everybody. You’d think that would cure me. However, I guess the temptation to talk was greater than the fear of punishment.”

Jones loves to chat. When she talks, she moves her hands and looks her listener right in the eye. In fact, her friendliness kept her from feeling lonely in the orphans’ home, she said. And with so many people around, there was always someone to talk to.

Jones also writes about how Buckner molded her into who she is now. One obvious influence was her decision to adopt her two children, Richard and Melissa. Melissa was adopted through Buckner. And Jones said both her children had strict Christian upbringing, just like the one she always knew.

“If something is good in my life, I give Buckner the credit,” she said. “I’m just very grateful.”

Buckner took in the 5-month-old after she was declared “unadoptable” because of an eye deformity. The orphans’ home made itself responsible for eye surgeries. The home’s founder, R.C. Buckner, died long before Jones was born, but she feels a special bond for this man, who did so much for her, she said.

One of her favorite pictures is of a group of orphan girls standing in front of founder R. C. Buckner's statue. They’re all smiling and facing the camera, except for one. Jones’s upper body is tilted toward the statue. And if you look closely, you’ll notice she’s clinging to the figure’s hand.

“My childhood at Buckner was all I ever knew,” she said.

It’s where she met her life-long friend, Maggie. It’s where she learned to swim and cheerlead. And it’s where she learned to sing and play piano.

Today, her piano sits next to a window in her living room, and the sunlight falls on the keys when she plays. It’s one of the things she carried with her into adulthood, along with her determination to write a memoir.

When Jones finally finished her book, she wasn’t sure how to go about getting it published. She’d always thought the only way to publish a book was by submitting it to a publisher and waiting to see if they liked it. Until one day, a friend called to tell her about a website that allows writers to publish their own work. After spending two and one-half years writing her memoir, she decided it was time to share her story with a larger audience.

Updated: 4/13/07

Within Frye's heart, there
still rings a melody

By George Henson

Staff Writer

LEWISVILLE—Ruth Frye considers herself supremely blessed. For more than 50 years, she has had the opportunity to do what she loves—serve God from the organ bench of First Baptist Church in Lewisville.

Frye began playing first for her Sunday school class as a child, and by age 9 or 10, she was the accompanist for the youth choir. Just a few years later, she began playing the organ after the church’s organist moved away.

She is quick to say, however, that she has always been part of a team.

“We’ve always had a piano, and I’ve always had that support from the pianist,” she said. “And now that we have an orchestra, there are many talented musicians that lead in worship each week.”

She may not want any applause for long-tenured service, but Associate Pastor for Music and Worship Larry Grayson is impressed.

“In this day and time, it’s pretty amazing that anyone can do anything for as long as she has,” he said. “And she has served this church for a long time and with such a sweet and humble spirit.”

During her years of service, Frye has seen many changes in her community, her church and in music. When she began playing, it was for a small, country church in a community of fewer than 4,000 people. Now, Lewisville is a growing city of almost 100,000 people, and more than 1,200 people attend worship services at First Baptist Church.

“The music has gotten progressively more difficult as the church has grown, but so far I’ve been able to keep up,” she said.

Adding contemporary choruses to the worship service presented Frye with her greatest challenge, she acknowledged.

“I resisted it within myself. I didn’t say anything, but at first it just didn’t seem like music that should be played on an organ, but I’ve grown to like it,” she said.

That flexibility is a great trait, Grayson said.

“She has seen music ministry evolve so much during her tenure,” he said. “When she began, the organ was the dominant instrument. In much of the newer music, the organ is not the dominant instrument but a part of the orchestra. She has made that transition very well, and not everyone could have done so.”

The reason she continues to play is very simple, Frye said.

“I get a lot of enjoyment out of it. And I’ve been glad to have the church music to practice on, because if you don’t have a reason to exercise a talent other things crowd in, and you don’t practice as you should, and you can lose some of your abilities.”

And abilities to serve God should always be exercised, Frye said.

“When God gives you a talent, no matter how great or small, you should use it for his glory,” she said. “It’s not about how good you are; just do your best, and stay faithful.”

Updated: 4/13/07

Wanted: Gospel preachers for South Africa 

By Barbara Bedrick

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS – Molehi Karneels Diutwileng paints a picture of Baptist ministry in South Africa that is both disconcerting and hopeful.

He describes how nine pastors serve 30 churches in one region. Thirteen churches have no buildings. He and other Baptist pastors fear they may be driving away some of the very nonbelievers they need to reach—people with HIV/AIDS.

“One person is leading six churches,” said Diutwileng, president of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa and pastor of Galeshewe Baptist Church in Galeshewe. “By the time he gets back to the church where he started, the congregation has lost what was taught in the last sermon.”

When there’s “no leadership, the church collapses,” Diutwileng laments.

Molehi Karneels Diutwileng, president of Baptist Union of Southern Africa, recruits Texas Baptists for a four-year evangelistic “crusade for souls” in his homeland.

But a South African Baptist evangelistic emphasis—Impact 2010, designed to blanket the region with the gospel by the end of the decade—could change the disquieting face of Christianity in his homeland. To make it work, he says, Baptists in South Africa need the help of Texas Baptists.

Armed with preaching invitations and letter-sized posters that read, “Wanted: Gospel Preachers for South Africa,” Diutwileng has been on a recruiting mission in Texas. His mission to encourage involvement by Texas Baptists stemmed from a meeting between Angelo Scheepers, general secretary of the Baptist Union of South Africa; Wayne Shuffield, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas missions, evangelism and ministry section; and Leo Smith, executive director of Texas Baptist Men.

Diutwileng arrived in Texas March 10 for a two-week visit. He preached and recruited at several predominately African-American churches, including First Missionary Baptist in Fort Worth, Bethlehem Baptist in Mansfield, Fellowship Missionary Baptist in Texas City and Greater St. Stephen First Baptist in Fort Worth.

He also spoke at three leadership conferences in Houston, Victoria and Lubbock to recruit pastors for Impact 2010.

“We are having a year of revival,” Diutwileng said. “And we’re inviting ministers and church leaders to come and speak in these crusades to win souls to Christ.”

Shuffield called the invitation a “unique opportunity … for Texas Baptist churches, pastors and evangelistic and outreach teams to partner with South African Baptist churches, and provide a ministry of evangelism and outreach in that region of the world.”

In 2005, Texas Baptist Men formed a partnership with South African Baptists to lead spiritual renewal emphases to encourage pastors and church leaders. TBM continues to strengthen that collaboration through renewal weekends. TBM leaders and volunteers also have conducted spiritual renewal meetings, leadership training events and pastor retreats in South Africa.  

Retiree builders helped construct a church building in Pescodia in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Baptists in South Africa hope to develop a men’s ministry, mission education for boys and disaster relief groups.  

Seeing the value in broadening their ministry base, last year TBM leaders invited Diutwileng to Texas to begin expanding relationships with other groups, including African-American Baptist leaders and the BGCT.

TBM is encouraging Texas pastors to join the “Crusades for Souls” ministry effort over the next four years. This project will focus on evangelistic outreach campaigns in different regions each year, culminating with countrywide, mass evangelistic crusades during the final year.

Building on a relationship started when the group sent Charlie Singleton, director of BGCT African American ministries, to South Africa in April 2006, TBM is moving to initiate new cultural relationships.

Singleton was instrumental in reaching Texas Baptist leaders. He worked closely with Diutwileng, scheduling opportunities in Texas pulpits and at area conferences in cooperation regional associations, including Guadalupe and Tarrant Baptist Associations, and the Baptist Ministers Union of Fort Worth.

“We found there are a number of pastors and laypersons who are interested in going to South Africa to minister to the need raised by Karneels,” Singleton said. “They want to know how to go about doing so.”

To mobilize and challenge South African churches to return to the biblical mandate to preach, share and live out the gospel, the 2007 crusade is slated for September and October on the Northern and Western Capes, he noted. It will last 10 to 14 days.

While the BGCT has no formal partnership with Baptists in South Africa, “Texas Partnerships ministry frequently enters into limited time frame, specific emphasis projects like this one from South African Baptists,” said Steve Seaberry, director of BGCT Texas Partnerships.

“We find this type of project is often very attractive to the entire Texas Baptist family. This four-year emphasis by the Baptist Union of Southern Africa to blanket their country in evangelistic efforts has the potential to involve a wider participation by Texas Baptists. I am impressed by the vision of BUSA leaders, and I am looking forward to continue exploring a possible special-focus partnership with BUSA leaders.”

In a country where residents daily face economic issues such as poverty, basic service issues like a lack of running water, and social issues including a lack of morality, an increasing population of orphans and growing HIV and AIDS concerns, Diutwileng maintains hope Texas Baptist leaders will bolster efforts to overcome his homeland’s obstacles.

As a pastor, he sees first-hand the problems facing the growth of Christianity.

“When it comes to HIV and AIDS, we need someone who can understand, come to our churches and train leaders how to help AIDS victims,” Diutwileng said.

There are more than 1.1 million AIDS orphans in South Africa, Diutwileng added. And besides the physical aspect, there is much spiritual work to be done.  

“In most cases, the way we deal with them may discourage them from attending the church … and we would be unable to show them the love of God,” Diutwileng said.

And that’s an image Diutwileng wants no one to paint.

Updated: 4/13/07

Faith & family help minorities
bridge academic achievement gap

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

WACO—The academic achievement gap between Anglo students and their African-American or Hispanic peers disappears when the students live in intact, religious families, a new study shows.

William Jeynes, a nonresident researcher with the Baylor University Institute for Studies of Religion and professor of education at California State University at Long Beach, discovered religious commitment and intact parental family structures bridge the achievement gap, both among students in public schools and in private religious schools.

“The results suggest that the achievement gap might not be quite as indefatigable and pervasive as many people believe. Given the number of efforts social scientists have launched to reduce the achievement gap, the fact that the combination of personal religious commitment and coming from an intact family eliminates the gap for African-American and Latino students is nothing short of magnificent,” Jeynes wrote in an article published in the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion.

Furthermore, in single-parent families with a deep religious commitment, the achievement gap between African-American and Hispanic students and their Anglo counterparts is halved, he noted, suggesting devotion to faith makes the key difference in academic success.

“Clearly, their faith is a source of strength,” Jeynes said, presenting his findings in a lecture at Baylor University.

Jeynes’ research focused particularly on the benefits of religious schools as compared to public education.

“According to the findings, students of low socioeconomic status and students of color especially benefit from attending religious schools,” he asserted.

Not only do students in religious schools outperform their counterparts in public schools in almost every measurable area of academic achievement, but the gaps between low socioeconomic students and high socioeconomic students—as well as between Anglo students and ethnic minorities—also are reduced and, in some areas, eliminated, he found.

His research showed the lower the student’s socioeconomic status, the greater the benefit from a religious school education. And for all academic measures, regardless of socioeconomic status, African-American and Hispanic students benefit more than Anglos from attending religious schools, he discovered.

Public schools can learn from the example of religious schools, Jeynes suggested.

“Although educators are frequently divided over the merits of school choice, there is a growing consensus that public schools can benefit by imitating some of the strengths of the religious school model. There may be limitation on just what qualities can be imitated, but the increased emphasis on character education, high academic standards and parental involvement can be imitated,” he concluded.

Jeynes offered several recommendations for educators:

• “Recognize education is not just about methodology but is also about loving the child,” he said.

• Raise expectations regarding student’ effort and work ethic.

• Encourage parental involvement. “Establish strong relationships with parents,” he suggested.

• Encourage students to draw from their sources of strength—including their religious beliefs.

However, Jeynes voiced some doubt about how effectively public educators could incorporate some of the elements that make religious schools most effective. Consequently, he supports a system of “school choice” that provides low-income and minority students access to religious schools.

Jeynes maintains it “appears illogical and potentially racially oppressive and discriminatory to deny minority students the right to more fully reach their potential via a school choice system.”

But Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, took issue with Jeynes’ call for any system that uses public tax dollars for private religious education.

“It is prejudicial to religious schools’ autonomy and ultimately a denial of religious liberty for government to subsidize—and therefore regulate—pervasively religious schools,” he said “It is simply wrong to tax citizen A to pay to teach citizen B’s religion.

“Acceptable alternatives are to tap private sources of financial aid, choice within the public schools and a serious commitment to reforming and funding public education.”

Updated: 4/13/07

Texas House bill would expand CHIP

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

AUSTIN – A bill overwhelmingly approved by the Texas House of Representatives would include more than 100,000 additional children in the Children’s Health Insurance Program in the next two years.

The legislation, which passed 126-16, allows families to stay in the program for one year instead of having to reapply every six months, and it would wave the 90-day waiting period for uninsured children. It now goes before the Senate.

The bill would be a significant step toward returning CHIP to what it was in 2003, when Texas lawmakers cut it. Before the cuts, about 500,000 children were in the program. More than 325,000 children currently are enrolled in CHIP.

The program provides health insurance for families who earn too much money for Medicaid, but not enough to buy private insurance for their children.

A family of three with an income of $34,340 qualifies for CHIP. A full-time office worker in a Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated church makes on average $25,109, and a custodian makes $26,316, according a study of all Southern Baptist churches. The total pay package is slightly larger.

A custodian with one child and a spouse who works in the home would qualify for CHIP, as would an office worker with a child and a spouse working in the home. That person also would qualify if he or she is a single parent with two children.

Suzii Paynter, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, said the proposed expansion of the program would provide basic medical care for thousands of children who go without it each year.

“HB 109 is a good step toward strengthening the fabric of health care for working families in Texas,” she said. “The legislature has negotiated a bipartisan solution that can provide medical coverage and baseline data for the next two years. “

Posted: 4/13/07

Spiritual ‘smorgasbord’ reveals
hunger for ultimate meaning

By Cecile Holmes

Religion News Service

ASHINGTON (RNS)— A new book based on interviews from the PBS program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly finds a spiritual hunger beneath the secular veneer of modern culture, with many searching for something beyond the material world.

The Life of Meaning was edited by the show’s executive editor and host, Bob Abernethy, and longtime journalist William Bole. They drew essays in the book from interviews conducted by Abernethy, who founded the show 10 years ago after four decades as an NBC correspondent. Bole has written for many publications, including the Washington Post and Commonweal magazine.

Speakers featured in their book explore personal struggles with faith and doubt, individual reflections on suffering, personal experiences of God and thoughts on the ultimate meaning of existence.

Filled with ideas of people from scientists to writers, the book dismantles the myth that postmodern thinking offers little room for faith.

“A lot of people have this feeling that there is ‘Something More,’” Abernethy said. “They find their greatest meaning in life in attempting to be in touch with, in communication with, this ‘Something.’”

Some of the people interviewed call it God or a higher power; many give it no name at all.

Some of the people in the book are religious, ranging from Hindus to Jews to Protestant Christians. Many have no formal faith affiliation but might generally be described as spiritual or truth seekers.

Bole said he learned from both types, absorbing bits and pieces of their wisdom.

“The people in this collection, they are good noticers,” he said. “Anne Lamott makes the point that just paying attention is about as spiritual as you can get. Anything that brings you into the now, the present moment, is a gift. … My kids notice more things than I do. I’m an unreconstructed philosophy major. My mind wanders at church. Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of being mindful of everyday things like walking and breathing.”

The book groups essays into sections such as “The Meaning Makers,” “Evil and Suffering,” “Prayer and Meditation” and “Paths Up the Mountain.”

In the section on evil and suffering, historian and religion scholar Edward Linenthal explores the myriad memorials found at places such as the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, crash of United Flight 93 in the rural serenity of Shanksville, Pa.

“We look for the sacred in lots of places now,” Linenthal says in the book. “We consider ourselves a secularized culture. … But I don’t think there’s been a secularization of consciousness at all. Everything—from our fascination with certain sacred sites or relics, with the apocalyptic, with that which is beyond the immediate, graspable or material—says that the religious sensibilities in the culture are very, very, very strong.”

No matter where they spring from, such sensibilities shape how we understand life and how we understand each other, Abernethy said.

“There’s no preaching here. We don’t attempt to say, ‘This is how you find a life of meaning.’ We talk to these people. We listen to these people. They are insightful, eloquent. We just lay it out.”

The book’s essays feature all sorts of people, from famous rabbis Irving Greenberg and Harold Kushner to Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh. It includes a veritable who’s who of writers—Barbara Brown Taylor, Studs Terkel, Thomas Lynch, Phyllis Tickle, Rachel Remen, Martin Marty and others.

Some have likened the book to a feast or banquet, Abernethy said, but he takes the imagery further.

“You are served at such an occasion. I think it would be a little more accurate to think of it in terms of a buffet, a smorgasbord. You can sample and choose from an enormous variety of perspectives.”

—Cecile Holmes is the former religion editor at the Houston Chronicle and now teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina.

Posted: 4/13/07

Around the State

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will host a Governor’s Forum at 9:30 a.m. April 19, featuring former Texas governors Dolph Briscoe and Mark White. It is free and open to the public.

Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene has received a rare and valuable manuscript. The ancient Sefer Torah scroll contains more than 200 columns comprising the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, which appear as the first five books of the Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Bible. Scribed in Hebrew on highly finished white cow vellum panels, the scroll about 27 inches tall. It is the product of a South Arabian Jewish scriptorium, published in the late 17th or early 18th century. The scroll has been appraised at a market value at more than six-figures, but many experts believe the document to be priceless. Robert Ellis (left), associate dean of Logsdon Seminary, evaluated the scroll after unpacking it. Doyle and Inez Kelley, benefactors of the Kelley College of Business at HSU, gave the scroll to the university. (Photo by Tiffany Turk)

• Dallas Baptist University will hold the 19th annual Norvell Slater Senior Adult Hymn Sing at 2 p.m. April 20. Last year, almost 1,000 senior adults attended the event. For more information, call (214) 333-6824.

• The modern foreign languages department of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor will present an evening of bilingual storytelling, “Our Stories—Nuestros Cuentos,” at 7 p.m. April 21 in the Shelton Theater on campus. The event will consist of readings and comments by authors Araceli Ardon and Debbie Lufburrow. It is free and open to the public. For more information, call (254) 295-4631.

• Tickets are on sale for Howard Payne University’s fourth annual “Singin’ with the Saints” Southern gospel concert for senior adults. The concert will begin at 1:30 p.m. May 17 at Coggin Avenue Church in Brownwood. Featured performers will be The Florida Boys, Gold City, The Brazos Boys and HPU chancellor and humorist Don Newbury. Tickets are $12 and can be ordered by credit card at (800) 950-8465.

• Five inductees have been added to Hardin-Simmons University’s Hall of Leaders. Honored were George Anderson, who served as a trustee of the school 61 years; Bill Thorn, former pastor, author and president of Dallas Baptist University; Lee Hemphill, a former pastor andvice president emeritus of HSU; Jim Flamming, who was pastor of First Church in Abilene 17 years, chairman of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and BGCT vice president; and Jesse Fletcher, former HSU president and chancellor, professor at Logsdon Theologi-cal Seminary and Baptist historian.

• Rick Akins of Round Rock has been elected chairman of the board of trustees at Howard Payne University. An HPU graduate, he has been a member of the board 14 years, beginning in 1990. He is a member of First Church in Salado.

• Don Looser is retiring as vice president of academic affairs at Houston Baptist University after 43 years of service to the university. He joined the faculty in 1964 as an assistant professor in music as the first classes of the school were enrolling. Looser will continue serving the school in various capacities.

• Dallas Baptist University has presented the inaugural Tom Landry Leadership Award to Congressman Sam John-son.

• Charla Kahlig has been named controller at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

• Pattie Orr has been appointed vice president for information technology and dean of libraries at Baylor University.

• The Wayland Baptist University Students in Free Enterprise Team won one of 17 regional competitions held across the nation. The teams create economic opportunities in their communities by organizing outreach projects. The Wayland team organized 28 projects in Plainview and the surrounding area that included working with older adults, businesses and school-aged children.

Larry and Melinda Ewing		Trent and Kay Jones
John and Lucy Long

• Three couples with Texas ties have been appointed missionaries by the International Mission Board. Larry and Me-linda Ewing serve in Central and Eastern Europe in university ministry. Members of First Church in Lubbock, they have three adult children. Trent and Kay Jones will serve in South America; he will be a strategy planner and she will work in community outreach. He previously served as youth minister at Martindale Church in Martindale and Primera Iglesia in San Marcos. She was a youth intern at First Church in Wimberley. Travis Avenue Church in Fort Worth is their home church. John and Lucy Long will be church starters in Western Europe. He previously served three churches in Florida and College Heights Church in Plainview, where he was minsiter of education. They have one adult daughter.

Anniversaries

• Joe Walton, fifth, as director of missions for Double Mountain Association, April 25.

• Oakalla Church in Oakalla, 100th, April 28. A fellowship time will begin at noon, followed by a meal and song service. Clay Cole is pastor.

• John Hatch, 25th, as pastor of First Church in Lake Jackson, April 29. For a schedule of activities, e-mail rtedder@fbclj.org.

Deaths

• Jesus Perales, 64, Jan. 30 in Odem. He was pastor of Primera Iglesia El Calvario in Edroy. He is survived by his wife, Olivia; sons, Joel Perales and Orlando Serda; daughters, Elizabeth Ortiz, Yolanda Villarreal and Celinda Ermis; mother, Juanita Perales; step-son, Freddie Martinez; brother, Jose; 13 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Student Body President Chris Burkley presented former U.S. first lady Barbara Bush with a bowl filled with purple and gold chocolate kisses to commemorate her speech at the school as part of the College of Business McLane Lecture Series. She also was awarded an honorary doctor of humanities degree.

• Aaron Guajardo, 70, Feb. 15 in Mineral. A pastor for more than 40 years, he led churches in Corpus Christi, Portland, Ingleside, Rockdale and Pleasanton. He also started churches in Oregon and Washington. The last five years, he was pastor of Primera Iglesia in Mineral. For more than half his ministry, he was a bivocational pastor, while serving as a schoolteacher and later as a principal. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Delpha Martin. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Livia; sons, Aaron and Josue; brothers, Alcides and Able; sisters, Aurora Garcia and Amanda Revelle; and nine grandchildren.

• Harry McConnell, 93, March 2 in Richmond, Va. A Foreign Mission Board missionary, he served in Chile 40 years. While there, he helped establish the Baptist Theologi-cal Seminary in Chile and later served as its president. He later served two years in Colombia, and then moved to El Paso, where he was the volunteer editor at the Baptist Publishing House. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary. He is survived by his daughters, Elizabeth Finch, Ann Hollan-der, Martha Jelsma and Grace Alarcon.

• Avium Jordan, 100, March 9 in Abilene. During the 1950s and ’60s, she travelled across the state instructing churches on how to establish programs for preschoolers. From 1969 until her retirement in 1984, she supervised programs for preschool children of ap-pointees preparing for foreign mission service with the SBC Foreign Mission Board. She was preceded in death by her husband, Horace. She is survived by her daughter, Dorothy Fletcher; son, James; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

• Dan Boling, 71, March 22 in Petaluma, Calif. A retired professor of Christian education at Golden Gate Seminary, he was an Austin native. A Baylor graduate, he was Baptist Student Union director at the University of Texas at Arlington. He went on to serve as a minister of youth or minister of youth and music at a number of Texas churches before becoming assistant director of the Baptist Counsel-ing Center at Southwestern Seminary. He is survived by his wife, Elaine; daughters, Dianna Boling and Sara Gustafson; and two grandchildren.

• Virginia Koch, 96, March 26 in Dallas. She worked for the Baptist General Convention of Texas as an administrative assistant 20 years. She also was a volunteer at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, earning a 50-year service award. She was a member of Park Cities Church in Dallas. She was preceded in death by her husband, John. She is survived by her daughter, Virginia Lee Sher-man; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

• Carlos Paredes, 89, April 12 in Dallas. A Baylor graduate, he turned down an offer to sing tenor with the Metropolitan Opera to follow his call to ministry. In 1942, he was appointed by the Home Mission Board to be pastor of Primera Iglesia in Austin, where he served more than 27 years. During his tenure there, he also served four years as executive secretary and six years as president of the Mexican Baptist Convention of Texas. He chaired the committee that recommended unification with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He later served as vice president of the BGCT. In 1970, he joined the convention in the evangelism division as he led efforts to reach Hispanics across the state. He preached in rallies across in the United States, Spain and several South American countries. He also served as interim pastor of Primera Iglesia in Dallas on several occassions. He was preceded in death by his sisters, Amelia Paredes and Tita Huizar; and brothers, Saul, Jose, Pedro and Abel. He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Irene; daughters, Ann Paredes, Sylvia Dela Rosa and Miriam Castonon; son, Charlie; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Retiring

• Royce Measures, as pastor of Golden Acres Baptist Church in Pasadena, after 20 years of service there and more than 45 years in the ministry. A reception will be held at the church honoring him and his wife, Chris, April 29 at 11:30 a.m. For information, e-mail minofed@myweb.net or call (281) 487-0582.

• First Church in Midland held a ceremony commemorating placement of a historical marker granted by the Texas Historical Commis-sion April 15. The marker notes the church’s constitution in 1886. Gary Dyer is pastor.

• Agape Church has moved to its new location, the former site of Ridglea West Church in Fort Worth, April 15. The Ridglea West congregation gave the year-old congregation the facility at no cost after the 58-year old church decided the new church would better serve the community. Kris Barnett was pastor of the Ridglea West congregation. Paul Sands is interim pastor of the Agape congregation.

• Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Seminary, will speak at Orchard Hills Church in Garland April 22 at 10:30 a.m. He will share his testimony of how he came to know Jesus Christ as his Savior after being born a Muslim. Dickson Rial is pastor.

• First Church in Dever will hold its fifth annual gumbo cookoff and gospel sing April 28. Gumbo will be served at 5 p.m., and the singing will begin at 6 p.m. Featured vocal groups will be The Martins and The Rileys. For more information, call (936) 549-7653. Harry Mc-Daniel is pastor.

• R.L. Sumner, editor of the Biblical Evangelist, will speak at Northside Church in Highlands May 13 at 6 p.m. David Brumbelow is pastor.

Licensed

• Richard Robinson to the ministry at First Church in Kenedy.

• Meredith Stone to the ministry at Crosspoint Fellowship Church in Abilene.

• Ken Durham to the ministry at Richey Street Church in Pasadena.

• Mario Ramos to the ministry at Ridgemont Church in Abilene.

• Jay Monrad to the ministry at First Church in Woodsboro.

Ordained

• Charles Howard to the ministry at Christ the King Church in Waco.

• Amy Grizzle to the ministry at Wilshire Church in Dallas.

• Lonny Parson to the ministry at Powderly Church in Powderly.

• Gerardo Alfaro and Jeronimo Aviles to the ministry at Iglesia Getsemani in Fort Worth.

• Johnny Moore to the ministry at Temple Church in Gainesville.

• Terry Smith to the ministry at First Church in Floresville.

• Doug Kello to the ministry at Calvary Church in Weimar.

• Dustin Creech to the ministry at College Heights Church in Abilene.

• Brad Echols to the ministry at First Church in Vernon.

• Rick Hertless to the ministry at Meadowbrook Church in Rockdale.

• Trent Jones to the ministry at Martindale Church in Martindale.

• Mike Lyons to the ministry at First Church in Blanco.

• Roy Taylor as a deacon at Dixie Frontier Church in Whitesboro.

• Jerry Harris and Raymond Jeffrey as deacons at Wynnewood Church in Dallas.

• Sherrie Gunter, Marcus Martin, Mauricio Martinez, Marsha Mills, Pat Packard, Frances Phillips, Laura Trubey and Weldon Wells as deacons at Cliff Temple Church in Dallas.

• Joe Pullin as a deacon at First Church in Taft.

• Mark Patton, Roger Hughes, Jack Bray and C.T. Kutschke as deacons at Holly Brook Church in Hawkins.

Revivals

• Jericho Fellowship, Plainview; April 19-22; evangelist, Ed Sena; pastor, Joe Barrera.

• First Church, Cisco; April 22-23; evangelist, Dan Curry; music, Kade Curry; pastor, Craig Curry.

• First Church, Natalia; April 22-25; evangelist, Jonathan Hewitt; music, The Atens; pastor, Billy Morse.

• Friendship Church, Doddridge, April 26-29; evangelist, Clayton Sheets; pastor, Phil Starrett.

• Enon Church, Doddridge; April 29-May 2; evangelist, Jim Moss; pastor, Jim Rust.

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

Posted: 4/13/07

Small coffee company takes
‘fair trade’ one step further

By Joanna Corman

Religion News Service

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—For the 15 years that Tom Angus worked for a company that negotiated the lowest possible prices for coffee beans, he occasionally would travel to Costa Rica, meet with farmers and hear about their desperate poverty and how they were losing their land.

Angus insists he was able to remain “mentally disconnected” from the poverty he saw.

Yet on Sunday mornings, when his pastor at Pioneer Congregational Church here would talk about living out one’s faith, something would nag at him.

By 2003, Angus could no longer ignore that nagging feeling and quit his job.

Tom Angus and Jinxi Allen founded Beneficio Coffee Co. in 2004. The company takes the Fair Trade coffee model one step further by giving part of its profits back to the communities where the coffee beans are harvested.

In May 2004, with his friend and fellow church member Betty “Jinxi” Allen, Angus started Beneficio Coffee, a Sacramento-based importing and roasting company.

But rather than adopt the Fair Trade model that guarantees a fair price for coffee growers, the pair wanted to go further.

Most Fair Trade companies buy coffee from grower’s cooperatives for $1.26 a pound; Beneficio pays $1.39, plus a separate wage for coffee processors.

After deducting its expenses, Beneficio channels 20 percent of its proceeds back to the farming communities, and sends an additional 10 percent to a charity of the buyer’s choice.

And because the company bills itself as “more than Fair Trade,” it has opted not to pay 10 cents a pound for a Fair Trade label from a certifying organization.

Instead, it gives that money directly to the farmers.

“It makes you think when you’re picking up that cup what your choices are and how much of a blessing it is, and how much work goes into that simple daily pleasure that is so cheap for us, but literally decides someone’s future,” Angus said.

So far, most of Beneficio’s customers are churches, but it also sells to schools, service organizations, small companies and individuals over the Internet. The company is nearly at the break-even point, Allen and Angus say, and they are working on lining up investors.

Beneficio—which means “benefit for all” in Spanish—is part of a growing movement of for-profit companies for which social and environmental gains are as important as profits.

Stephen Hamilton, a retired United Church of Christ pastor in Portland, Ore., who makes presentations about Beneficio at churches nationwide, says buying coffee from a socially responsible company lets him be faithful to God.

“From a mission point of view, from a theological, spiritual point of view, if there’s violence in the world then we seek to correct the violence,” he said. “What we’re doing by our choice of purchasing coffee is helping (the farmers) to be more self-reliant but not depend upon any other organization to be able to do that.”

In 2004 and 2005, the company gave $16,900 to the farmers and to groups in the United States. Some of that money bought uniforms and supplies for children in Costa Rica, allowing some to attend school for the first time, and a year’s worth of lunches for 55 orphans.

John Sage, co-founder and president of Pura Vida Coffee, a for-profit Fair Trade company in Seattle, said it’s plausible for small companies that have strong relationships with their customers and growers to shun the Fair Trade label.

“You can very reasonably say we know we do as good or a better job in terms of ensuring economic opportunities and environmental stewardship and so we don’t need the mark,” he said.

So far, Beneficio has sold roughly 37,000 one-pound bags of its “heavenly blend” coffee for $6.25 each—a miniscule slice of the nation’s $11 billion specialty coffee market.

Still, the company is making a big difference to the families on the ground, said Gilbert Ramirez, international operations manager for CoopeAgri R.L., a Costa Rican coffee grower’s cooperative that processes Beneficio’s coffee.

“Beneficio is the only company that gives back money to the coffee farmer in this region,” he said. “Beneficio Coffee opened our eyes because it’s a new way to make a business.”

Posted: 4/13/07

Book Reviews

River Rising by Athol Dickson (Bethany House)

Welcome to 1927 Louisiana. Pilotville is a sleepy little Gulf Coast town, unique it its equal treatment of all people, regardless of their color. It’s a town that takes pride in its generous spirit while turning a blind eye to the shroud of fear that sits heavy on its African-American citizens. Until, that is, Reverend Hale Poser arrives in search of his past.

River Rising is a story about the search for a lost baby girl by a man in search of his parents. What he discovers is that Pilotville, an apparent oasis of equality, is really the last stronghold of slavery and racism.

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

The novel also is the story of faith. And as we follow Poser’s realization that he is a miracle worker, we discover the greatest mystery of all. True faith is something we must work out “behind our backs.” The moment we become aware of it, it disappears.

River Rising is a poignant look at the subjects of faith and racism. A seeming island in the midst of a segregated South, Pilotville becomes a metaphor for modern society, and we can’t help but re-examine our own assumptions about equality. Are we indeed equal in every way except where it matters most?

Let the reader decide.

Kathryn Aragon

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living With a Grande Passion by Leonard Sweet (WaterBrook Press)

Coffee fans, Leonard Sweet will have you salivating for a sip of your favorite latte or wanting the feel of that hot mug of java between your hands as you absorb his fresh musings on coffee and insights into the Starbucks atmosphere and way of doing business.

Our culture desires to have EPIC spirituality (Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich and Connecting), and your local Starbucks coffee shop offers this EPIC experience every day.

Sweet suggests followers of Christ, the church, can learn lessons from a coffee shop microcosm of society and a company that knows people want something even more savory than a beverage. God invites us into a life of immersive relationship and experience with him that is truly EPIC.

The book additionally provides questions to brew up small-group conversation.

There may be no better way to debrief Sweet’s ideas than to share this spiritually rich discussion over a warm, dark communal cup of joe.

Greg Bowman,

minister to students

First Baptist Church

Duncanville

Why Study the Past? The Quest for the Historical Church by Rowan Williams (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams asks some timely and thought-provoking questions in this little volume: Why is the study of history important for the modern church? What lessons does history have to teach Christian believers in the 21st century?

In each age, the church has had to define itself against the movement of culture in which it stands. So, the study of history should include the attempt at understanding the different ways of thinking about the varying circumstances and events that greatly influenced the writings, reactions, and theology of the people who have gone before.

This approach can help us to be salt and light as we view ourselves in changing times today. Or, as the archbishop states, “A church that shares the widespread and fashionable illiteracy of this culture about how religious faith worked in other ages is grossly weakened in its witness.”

Ultimately, the person of Christ, God’s presence in history and his Scripture are the anchors that bind the body of Christ through the ages.

Greg Bowman, minister to students

First Baptist Church, Duncanville

Posted: 4/13/07

Baptist Briefs

Georgia Baptist communicator killed.

Diane Reasoner, 57, longtime communications specialist for the Georgia Baptist Convention, was killed in an auto accident April 1 in metro Atlanta. Her husband, Richard, clinical director of Christian Counseling and Psychological Service, in Suwanee, Ga., was injured in the three-car accident on Interstate 985 that killed two and seriously injured five others. Diane Reasoner had worked for the Georgia Baptist Convention 20 years. She oversaw the work of the Georgia Religion News weekly radio program, electronic media, the convention website, public relations and print materials. She also was developing Georgia Baptists’ Internet radio ministry, scheduled to launch in May. In addition to her husband, she is survived by two sons, Rich and Rob, and three grandsons. Reasoner was a member, along with her husband, at First Baptist Church of Duluth, Ga.

Baptist historian to be honored.

Alabama Baptist historian Wayne Flynt will receive Baptists Today’s annual Judson-Rice Award for leadership with integrity. Flynt—who taught at his alma mater, Samford University in Birmingham, before joining the Auburn University faculty in 1977—is regarded as a strong advocate for the poor and as a bridge builder across racial divides. A tutoring program he organized at Rosedale High School in Homewood, Ala., produced the first African-American students to attend Samford. More recently, Flynt helped found Sowing Seeds of Hope, a long-term ministry effort in rural Perry County, Ala., and the Alabama Poverty Project. He has written and lectured extensively on race and poverty.

ABP opens New York bureau.

Associated Baptist Press has launched a news bureau in New York City. ABP Assistant Editor Hannah Elliott opened the independent news service’s New York bureau March 15, a little more than a year after she joined ABP’s staff and began running its Dallas bureau, working from the Baptist Standard office. Her husband, Spencer, recently accepted a promotion with a financial-services firm, transferring him from its Dallas office to New York. Elliott will continue to fill the assistant editor’s role, which includes writing, editing and posting stories online. ABP Executive Editor Greg Warner said the organization plans to re-staff the vacant Dallas bureau when funds are available.

National Baptist group rejects paroled former leader.

Henry Lyons, former president of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. and convicted felon, was defeated in his bid for the presidency of the Florida General Baptist Convention. Participants at the state convention’s annual meeting instead elected James Sampson of Jacksonville, Fla., to lead Florida’s oldest predominantly African-American religious group, which is associated with the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Lyons, 65, gained notoriety in 1999 when a Florida jury convicted him of state grand theft and racketeering charges. They also found that, while president of the National Baptist Convention, he stole millions of dollars from convention partners like the Anti-Defamation League. He ended up serving more than four years in state prison and will remain on federal probation until 2008. The scam was uncovered after Lyons’ then-wife set fire to a $700,000 home owned by Lyons and his mistress. A subsequent investigation into Lyons’ personal affairs uncovered his other misdeeds. Lyons currently serves as pastor at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Tampa, Fla.

Posted: 4/13/07