Posted: 10/30/06

Wellness: On the go

By Tamara Quintana

Let’s face it. Most of us live our lives always “on the go.” But we still need to take the time to be healthy. I recently shared this “on the go” wellness information with our marketing staff who accumulate thousands of frequent flyer miles each year.

Eating

Eating on the go often means making poor food choices. To make better choices, keep these things in mind:

Stay away from fast food restaurants and buffets. Eating healthy is all about making wise choices: portion control, grilled vs. fried, salad dressing on the side, fresh vegetables instead of fries, fresh fruit for dessert, etc.

Eat three to five times a day. Be sure to eat breakfast. It doesn’t have to be big, just a protein, a carb, and a dairy will kick-start your day. Grab an extra yogurt or fruit before you leave home for a mid-morning snack. Eat lunch. Have an afternoon snack and then eat a light dinner.

Drink plenty of water.

Exercise

Take every opportunity to exercise when you are on the go.

When traveling by car, take frequent walk breaks at parks, rest stops, tourist sites, etc. If traveling by plane, check in if necessary, then walk around until time to board.

However you are traveling, it is important to exercise your legs. While sitting, blood can collect in the lower part of your body and create deep vein thrombosis (blood clots). Just moving each heel up and down for a minute will pump the blood to the upper portion of your body.

Most hotels have some type of exercise facility. If not, exercise in your room with a jump rope, exercise bands or a DVD.

Sleep

It can be difficult to get a good night’s sleep when you are away from home. Some tips for improving sleep:

Exercise more than one to two hours before bedtime.

Don’t eat a big meal just before going to bed.

Bring your pillow from home. Sometimes that is all you need.

Bring some “white noise” to drown out unfamiliar noises. This might be radio music played very low or actual “white noise” that you can pick up in stores like Sharper Image.

Remember, if you have to be on-the-go, get going with wellness.

Tamara Quintana is a graduate of All Saints Episcopal Hospital School of Vocational Nursing and the director of the employee wellness program for GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Posted: 10/30/06

Wellness: Nutrition facts

By Tamara Quintana

If you’re trying to plan healthy meals and snacks for yourself and your family, you already have all the information you need. Since 1994, The Food and Drug Administration has required “Nutrition Facts” labels to be placed on most food packaging.

At first glance the label might look confusing, but it is a great resource when trying to make healthy food choices.

Serving size and servings per container

It is important to know exactly what “one serving” is because all other information is based on it.

For example, you might think a pre-packaged muffin would be one serving. But if the label lists the serving size as half a muffin, with 200 calories per serving you’d be eating a whopping 400 calories if you ate a whole muffin!

Nutrients

Nutrition Facts labels list certain key nutrients that have an effect on your health. They are separated into those you should limit and those you should get enough of.

Since Americans generally get enough or too much fat, cholesterol, sugar and sodium, you should try to limit the amount you get in a particular food. Since we generally don’t get enough fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium or iron, you should choose foods higher in these.

Percentage of daily value

This number tells you how much of a specific nutrient you get from eating one serving. You can use the numbers to determine if a food has a little or a lot of the nutrients listed. Here’s a quick rule of thumb.

If a food has:       It is considered to be:

5% or less      low in a nutrient

10% to 19%      a good source of a nutrient

20% or more      high in a nutrient

In this way you can use food labels to decide if a food is generally nutritious without having to keep track of percentages. When you choose a food that is high in the nutrients you should limit, like fat or sodium, you can balance that by choosing other foods that day that are low in these nutrients.

Create a well-balanced diet

Use Nutrition Facts labels to:

Control your portion sizes.

Limit fats, cholesterol, sugar and sodium.

Choose foods higher in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron.

Make healthier food choices.

Compare similar foods.

It make seem complicated at first, but with a little practice, you’ll be able to quickly see how to make good nutrition choices for yourself and family from the Nutrition Facts right at your fingertips.

Tamara Quintana is a graduate of All Saints Episcopal Hospital School of Vocational Nursing and the director of the employee wellness program for GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Posted: 10/30/06

Wellness: Dental health

By Tamara Quintana

We all know that the foods we eat affect our overall health, but do you consider the health of your teeth when you make food choices?

According to the American Dental Association, there is a growing concern among America’s dentists that many of their patients are consuming record numbers of sugar-filled drinks and non-nutritious snack foods that can harm teeth.

When you eat these types of foods, and even some foods that are otherwise healthy for your body, the bacteria in your mouth come in contact with sugars and starches and produce acids. If left in the mouth, these acids attack the teeth and destroy the enamel, eventually resulting in tooth decay.

Choosing the right foods at the right time

To protect your teeth, limit the amount of sugary and starchy foods you eat and the number of between meal snacks. Because the acids can remain in your mouth for 20 minutes or more, snacking throughout the day puts your teeth at greater risk.

Sugary snacks are not the only culprits when it comes to tooth decay. Even healthful foods like fruits, milk, bread, cereals and even some vegetables contain natural sugars and starches that can lead to tooth decay.

Of course you shouldn’t stop eating these foods that are healthful for your body. You just need to be smarter about how and when you eat them. For example, when choosing fruit as a snack, firm, crunchy fruits like apples or pears and raw vegetables like carrots, celery or broccoli are a better choice.

Try to save foods like bread, soft fruits (bananas, raisins) and acidic fruits (oranges, lemons, tomatoes) to eat with a meal when the mouth is producing more saliva, which washes away some of the acids.

When you do snack, choose foods that are tooth-friendly like cheese, raw vegetables, nuts or plain yogurt. Choose water as your beverage between meals, and drink plenty of it.

Come clean

Most importantly, brush and floss regularly. Whatever you eat, the sooner you get food particles and the acid they produce out of your mouth, the better off your teeth will be. You should brush your teeth at least twice a day and preferably after every meal and snack. Flossing is also important for good dental health. You should floss at least once a day to dislodge any food particles stuck between the teeth.

Finally, visit your dentist regularly for check-ups and cleanings. With good choices and a little care, you can have the bright, healthy smile you want throughout your life.

Tamara Quintana is a graduate of All Saints Episcopal Hospital School of Vocational Nursing and the director of the employee wellness program for GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Posted: 10/27/06

Former White House insider urges Christian political ‘fast'

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)—A tell-all book by a former White House insider is roiling the conservative movement with its charge that top officials in President Bush’s administration have been pandering to Christian conservatives for their votes while delivering little of lasting value to the constituency.

But David Kuo’s memoir of his years in the White House and elsewhere in the conservative movement is also notable for its afterward. In it, the author—who has impeccable Religious Right credentials—calls on all Christians, conservative and otherwise, to take a two-year “fast” from political activity to re-focus on the gospel.

“Maybe Christians need to begin a fast—from politics,” Kuo wrote, in Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.

“We need to eschew politics to focus more on practicing compassion,” Kuo, former deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, wrote.

“We need to spend more time studying Jesus and less time trying to get people elected. Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year in support of conservative Christian advocacy groups … let’s give that money to charities and groups that are arguably closer to Jesus’ heart. And we Christians should spend less time arguing with those on the other side and more time communing with them.”

Kuo’s book caused an uproar a few days before its release, when excerpted sections in which Kuo alleges Bush officials used the faith-based issue for political gain became the basis of news stories.

Among Kuo’s more explosive allegations was that, while Bush was a man of deep evangelical Christian faith, many top White House officials ridiculed prominent Christian leaders behind their backs.

“Christian leaders, Christian media, and Christian writers…didn’t dare question or challenge (Bush) or the White House. He wasn’t a political leader to them, he was a brother in Christ,” Kuo wrote.

“What they didn’t get to see was what the White House thought of them. For most of the rest of the White House staff, evangelical leaders were people to be tolerated, not people who were truly welcomed. No group was more eye-rolling about Christians than the political affairs shop. They knew ‘the nuts’ were politically invaluable, but that was the extent of their usefulness.”

He continued: “National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy.’ The leaders spent much time lauding the president, but they were never shrewd enough to do what Billy Graham had done three decades before, to wonder whether they were being used. They were.”

Top White House aides would hold weekly conference calls with some of the most prominent leaders of the Religious Right, ostensibly to solicit their advice, Kuo said. In reality, he said, the calls were mainly to humor those leaders and keep them quiescent.

The calls regularly included leaders such as Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; high-level representatives from groups such as the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family; and conservative Christian radio hosts.

“This network of people covered virtually every area of evangelical Christianity,” Kuo wrote. “The calls began with an overview of what the president would be talking about in the coming week. If necessary, participants were asked to talk to their people about whatever issue was pending. Talking points were distributed and advice was solicited. That advice rarely went much further than the conference call. There wasn’t any malice or negligence behind this. It was just that the true purpose of these calls was to keep prominent social conservatives and their groups or audiences happy.”

Kuo also asserted the White House both heavily politicized and woefully underfunded the faith-based push, which was an effort to increase the ability of churches and other sectarian charities to receive government funding for social services.

He related the story of a meeting Bush had with a group of African-American pastors to discuss the initiative. Kuo, called in to brief Bush on the meeting, said Bush should speak to the group about how he had implemented reforms to make it easier for churches to apply for government funds.

“He interrupted me. ‘Forget about all that. Money. All these guys care about is money. They want money. How much money have we given them?’” Kuo quoted Bush as saying. “For two years I had bitten my tongue and toed the line. We in the faith-based office didn’t speak too loudly or thunder too much. We were nice. I wasn’t angry now, but I was no longer willing to lie. ‘Sir, we’ve given them virtually nothing because we have had virtually nothing to give.’”

Kuo said Bush and Karl Rove, his senior political adviser, appeared stunned when he told them there were only a few million more dollars in grants available to faith-based groups. Rove pointed to an $8 billion figure.

“He was remembering our own spin from the winter,” Kuo wrote. “Yes, I told the president, because of new regulations there was technically about $8 billion in existing programs that were now eligible for faith-based groups. But, I assured him, faith-based groups had been getting money from those programs for years.”

Kuo said Bush responded: “Eight billion. That’s what we’ll tell them. Eight billion in new funds for faith-based groups. OK, let’s go.”

Kuo said that, while Bush probably personally believed in the “compassion agenda” that included government funding for faith-based social services, he and his surrogates were not willing to expend much political capital to push an agenda that would increase social spending through Congress.

Because of those experiences, Kuo wrote, he became increasingly disaffected with pushing the agenda of the White House and the conservative Christian groups it depended on for votes. He left the faith-based office in 2003 after developing a brain tumor and now is an editor for the website Beliefnet. In opinion pieces and testimony before Congress, he has criticized the way the faith-based initiative was handled.

But, in the book, Kuo goes farther than that: He calls on Christians of all ideological stripes to abstain from politics for the next two years in order to re-evaluate our priorities.

“Patriotism—a good thing—has become part of our religion. So has partisanship,” he wrote. “We have been quietly and gradually nursed to the point where our faith and God himself are merely part of a political cause. Invoking God’s name is just a rhetorical device.”

But, he said, the moment presents “an opportunity. For the next 24 months, candidates for president, senator, representative, governor, judge, county clerk and sheriff will be seeking the conservative Christian vote, our money and our energy,” Kuo wrote. Every politician needs evangelicals. And like a teenage boy on a date with a beautiful girl, they will say anything and everything to get what they want.”

He continued: “Let’s not give it to them. Let’s tell them we are fasting from politics for a season.”

That may not be as easy as Kuo hopes. Since the book’s revelations were first publicized by MSNBC prior to it release, White House allies have shot back at Kuo. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and former colleagues of Kuo’s from the faith-based office have disputed some of the book’s allegations.

One of the nation’s most prominent Christian groups, meanwhile, reacted by dismissing both Kuo and the “big media” publicizing the story. Focus on the Family issued a statement calling the furor over Kuo’s book “little more than a mix of sour grapes and political timing,” and said Kuo’s allegations and the timing of their release “paint the picture of a dissatisfied federal employee taking shots at the White House.”

Posted: 10/27/06

Seminary delays endowment transfer

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

FORT WORTH—Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary delayed action on a recommendation to transfer $90 million in seminary endowment funds from the Baptist Foundation of Texas to Southwestern’s in-house foundation.

According to a trustee document, Paige Patterson, president of the Fort Worth-based seminary, recommended moving the funds at the Oct. 16-17 trustee meeting. A Southwestern spokesman did not say why the funds were being moved but acknowledged the action was delayed.

In the days leading up to the meeting, several Southern Baptist bloggers questioned the proposal. Some suggested Patterson, an architect of the fundamentalist movement in the Southern Baptist Convention, wanted to take a swipe at the Baptist Foundation of Texas, one of the largest Christian foundations, because it is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas rather than the fundamentalist Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.

Other bloggers objected to the recommendation because it included a provision that the transferred funds be invested through a consortium of non-profit endowments called The Investment Fund for Foundations. Its various investment funds include several “sin stocks”—shares in companies related to alcohol, tobacco and gambling interests.

SBC bloggers also objected to Patterson’s recommendation of John McStay to become the new chairman of the Southwestern Seminary Foundation board.

McStay is managing partner of a Dallas investment firm. A previous firm he ran was cited for conflicts of interest and nondisclosure to clients and fined $200,000 by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In addition, a biographical sketch of McStay that Southwestern officials provided to the trustees’ institutional advancement committee lists him as an elder at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas. The congregation is part of the Presbyterian Church (USA), a mainline Protestant group that allows women in pastoral roles and takes other positions at odds with the conservative SBC.

Posted: 10/27/06

Dell volunteers staff festival for
children & families in need

By Miranda Bradley

Children at Heart Foundation

ROUND ROCK—More than 200 Dell employees pitched in to sponsor the third annual Dell Fall Festival for children and families served by Texas Baptist Children’s Home and STARRY.

“We’re always blessed by Dell’s involvement in our ministries,” Texas Baptist Children’s Home Executive Director Keith Dyer said of the computer firm. “Their contribution to our children and families is immeasurable.”

The festival represents one of several volunteer projects involving the child and family services agency and Dell employees recently. In September, more than 560 Dell team members donated their time, money and work to the ministry. Projects included scraping and painting exterior and interior campus walls, landscaping and fulfilling wish lists.

“They are very dedicated, hardworking people who truly believe in what we do,” said Brenda Gilbert, volunteer coordinator at Texas Baptist Children’s Home. “It’s a pleasure to host them on our campus.”

The Dell Fall Festival was the brainchild of a Dell team three years ago. They wanted to provide one day of play for families and children in care. It has grown into a carnival atmosphere, complete with a mini-train ride, petting zoo, cakewalk, inflatable bounce houses and rock-climbing wall.

“This is awesome,” one STARRY resident said. “It’s like Christmas without Santa.”

Each child who participated in games received tickets redeemable for toys and other prizes at the end of the day. Dell volunteers cooked hamburgers and hot dogs and provided drinks alongside cotton candy, snow-cones and popcorn.

“It’s an amazing display of support for our kids,” STARRY Executive Director Don Forrester said. “The festival really gives our families a chance to forget about their worries for a little while and just enjoy each other.”

STARRY and Texas Baptist Children’s Home, both located in Round Rock, are part of Children at Heart Ministries, which cares for children and families in need. Texas Baptist Children’s Home consists of family care, a residential program for single mothers and their children; campus life, which provides a Christian home-like setting for displaced children; and HOPE—Healthy Opportunities that Protect and Empower, a community outreach program for needy families.

STARRY provides care through emergency shelter, a residential program for children removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect; foster care, which provides a temporary home for children leaving a shelter; and counseling, which provides services and programs at no charge.

Posted: 10/27/06

Second-generation UMHB student
from Zimbabwe makes mark

By Jennifer Sicking

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor

BELTON—Spectators at University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football games have a hard time not noticing Tatenda Tavaziva on the sidelines, decked out in a gaudy purple-and-gold outfit and sporting a flag of Zimbabwe on his back.

It’s Tavaziva’s way of showing pride in both his past and present.

His father, Timothy Tavaziva, graduated from UMHB and is now an associate pastor at the largest Baptist church in Zimbabwe. After he learned about the Texas Baptist school from missionaries, he moved to Central Texas to study, along with his wife and 4-month-old son, Tatenda.

Tatenda Tavaziva in full Crusader regalia at a UMHB football game. (Photo by Carol Woodward)

Upon graduation, he went back to Africa, but he dreamed of seeing his son return to Texas to attend his alma mater.

Betty Sue Beebe, UMHB alumni development director, knew Timothy Tavaziva when he attended the university and First Baptist Church in Belton.

“It’s unusual for us to have children of international students to come,” she said of Tatenda. “He’s a young man that’s liked by everyone. He fits into the culture on the campus.”

Tatenda, now a second-semester sophomore, is on his way to earning bachelor’s degrees in accounting and business management. Before he completes his studies at UMHB in 2009, he plans to earn a master’s degree in accounting.

While Tatenda doesn’t remember the university from the first time around, he’s making his mark this time—particularly at sporting events, where his attire combines passion for the Crusaders and his home country.

“Tatenda’s his own person, for sure. He eats, sleeps and breathes the Cru,” said Bear Garza, campus missionary and Tatenda’s friend. “At games, he goes nuts, and people respond to that.”

He wears a hat made from the skin of a kudu, decorated with purple-and-gold tape, along with Zimbabwe and UMHB flags. Sunglasses, with lenses removed, likewise are decorated with purple and gold. His pants have two university flags attached onto them. His shoes are wrapped with purple-and-gold tape and covered with UMHB stickers. He often carries a university flag in one hand and a Crusaders shield in the other.

The Zimbabwean flag he wears on his back is “so I never forget where I came from,” he said. “A lot of people who have gone overseas have forgotten their country’s values and where they came from. I don’t want to forget.”

Although he knew of his father’s dream, Tatenda didn’t think it would be possible for him to attend UMHB. He planned to make a career working at camps in Zimbabwe, and eventually work his way up to a camp director position.

Then one Saturday in January 2004, he returned home from a camp.

“Dad said: “Pack your bags. You’re going to Mary Hardin-Baylor on Thursday,’” he recalled.

Tatenda arrived in Texas without his luggage. After missing one of his numerous connecting flights, a domino effect ensued, and for two weeks his bags—containing everything to last him five years—were lost.

“I was praying, ‘God, am I supposed to be here?’ I was flipping out,” he said.

He also had a university tuition bill and no money to pay it. When his father attended, international students had scholarships to pay for their tuition.

All of that, he said, taught him to trust in God.

“At home, I trusted Mom for money, Dad for money for fuel, or friends for a place to stay and hang out,” he said. “Coming here put me on the edge. It was symbolic, the lost bags and the $5,000 I had to pay.”

God has continued to provide a way through scholarships, jobs and friends, he noted.

At the end of semesters, he has warned friends he may not return because of a lack of funds.

“The last day before money is due, someone would say, ‘Here Tatenda, God said to give you $2,000’ or I’d get a new job that pays more,” he said. “God always comes through.”

He also has been the recipient of the Townsend Memorial Scholarship for two years.

God also has provided in smaller areas. Tatenda often would awake to find a bar of soap, a T-shirt or a new pair of shoes by his door, left by an anonymous donor.

He’s also learned about trusting God with his studies and serving others.

At UMHB, he is sophomore class president, works three jobs and is on several club teams, as well as attending football and other sporting events in his purple-and-gold garb.

“By God’s grace, he’s still giving me a 4.0,” he said, noting he was a mediocre student during his high school years in Zimbabwe. “I’ve just been willing to serve others. I don’t think I got any cleverer or suddenly saw the light.”

Garza said Tatenda has made an impact on the campus, almost since he started.

“He’s a good bridge, a liaison between believers and nonbelievers. He meets them where they are,” he said. “He’s a leader. If he has a vision, if he puts any effort into it at all, it’s going to go through.”

UMHB students have embraced Tatenda as well.

“It’s been good to see the campus unite around him and be the family for him,” Garza said.

Tatenda plans to take what he has learned in and out of the classroom when he returns to Zimbabwe. There, he wants to open a Christian camp, of which there are few in Zimbabwe, for the young to the old.

“Dad always wanted me to preach. Mom wanted me to be an accountant. I always wanted to have fun,” he said with a laugh. “I think a camp covers that.”

Posted: 10/27/06

Mexico trips spark desire
to meet needs immediately

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

LOS MOCHIS, Mexico—Texas Baptist leaders are finding it too difficult to see ministry opportunities in Mexico without starting to meet them.

During the first two Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored vision trips to expose Texas Baptists to the needs of nearly unreached people groups in Mexico, participants felt called to help immediately.

Dexton Shores, BGCT Mexico and Borderland missions director, volunteered to provide a $500 monthly stipend from Cooperative Program funds to support a Mexican Baptist missionary ministering in San Luis Potosí.

A church started to reach the Mayo people of Sinaloa, Mexico, meets under a ramada—a primitive pole structure.

On the second vision trip, he bought eight bicycles to be used as the primary transportation for eight Mexican pastors working with the Mayos in Western Mexico. Without the bicycles, the pastors were walking up to eight miles a day as part of their ministry.

An additional $2,000 was used to purchase land for a church ministering to the Mayos. Buying land is difficult for churches in an area where people make as little as $7 a day.

Marsha Tribe of Crossroads Baptist Church in The Woodlands—who went on the first vision trip—said the needs are great in Mexico. Indigenous believers are committed to ministering in areas where few people are evangelical Christians but lack resources—and, in some cases, training—that could make ministry more significant.

“I see a huge need for long-term connection down there—for long-term leadership training,” she said.

Juan Pacheco from Primera Iglesia Bautista in El Paso said Mexican churches need help starting health clinics, training members for service and buying land. Texas Baptists can partner together to coordinate ministry efforts strategically and assist Mexican Baptists.

“Texas Baptists can help their brothers in Christ in many ways,” he said.

Don Graham of First Baptist Church in Llano said the trips furthered his resolve to assist Mexican Baptist ministry. Seeing the needs of the Mayos helped him understand how he can help the ministry there.

For more information about adopting unreached and nearly unreached people groups in Mexico, call (888) 244-9400 or visit www.bgct.org/bordermexico.

Posted: 10/27/06

Josue Valerio to lead BGCT missions section

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Josue Valerio, an associational director of missions and former campus minister and missionary, has been named team leader of the missions section within the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions, Evangelism and Ministry area.

Wayne Shuffield, director of the BGCT Missions, Evangelism and Ministry team, said Valerio is passionate about helping churches share the gospel throughout their communities and around the world. His connections with the National Baptist Convention of Mexico should further strengthen the BGCT’s partnership with Mexican Baptists, he noted.

“Josue is the ideal person to lead the BGCT missions team,” Shuffield said. “He understands Texas Baptist ministry and is committed to facilitating greater mission work throughout the state and around the world. He will be a great asset in helping our churches fulfill the calling God has placed on each of them.”

Valerio comes to the Baptist Building staff after serving as director of missions for the El Paso Baptist Association where he facilitated an increase in the number of church starts each year he was there. In 2002 to 2003, the association started 16 churches. It started 30 congregations in 2004 and 60 in 2005.

Valerio has extensive experience in collegiate ministry, serving as the West Texas regional coordinator for BGCT’s collegiate ministries and having started a Baptist Student Ministry at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville.

He also directed Baptist student work in El Paso and Texas A&M University in Kingsville and served as the associate director of Baptist Student Ministries at the University of Texas-Pan American.

Valerio served as a missionary in Mexico eight years, coordinating the student missions program there and teaching seminary classes.

He also served as youth director at Primera Iglesia Bautista in Carrollton.

He is work on his doctorate in ministry in leadership training at Fuller Theological Seminary. He earned a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas-Pan American.

Posted: 10/27/06

Youth Revival Movement honored at Truett

By Marv Knox

Editor

WACO—Participants in revivals that began at Baylor University and spread across the nation six decades ago looked back in gratitude and forward with expectation as they gathered on the campus where it all began.

Scores of senior adults transformed by the Youth Revival Movement of the 1940s and ’50s reassembled at Baylor to dedicate the Youth Revival Heritage Room at the university’s Truett Seminary Oct. 22.

They reminisced about how God used the revivals to change their lives and how the movement mushroomed far beyond anything they could have been expected from their meager skills and limited experience.

Jack Robinson (standing, right) speaks at a dedication service for the Youth Revival Heritage Room at Baylor University’s Truett Seminary. Seated are (left to right) BO Baker, Ralph Langley, Charles Wellborn and Buckner Fanning. (Photo by Steve Fanning)

“The artless, unsophisticated young people chosen by God for the Youth Revival Movement were absolutely, completely ill-equipped,” recalled Jess Moody, who later founded Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida and was pastor of Shepherd of the Hills Church in southern California.

“All of us together didn’t have a good sermon,” quipped the late Bruce McIver in a memorial video. McIver went on to become pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. His book, Riding the Wind of God, chronicled the movement.

Several speakers recalled how Baylor students—convinced America’s campuses needed spiritual awakening during the closing days of World War II—planned a citywide student revival for the spring of 1945.

But before that meeting, the students prayed for revival for 90 straight nights, Moody noted. “This revival came as a response to weeping long nights of prayer.”

“We were pleading with God for spiritual awakening,” added Howard Butt, who became a businessman and author, in the video.

As word of the Waco revival spread, the young evangelists received invitations to spread the gospel to students in other cities. “The movement of the Holy Spirit was driven past Texas,” reported Ralph Langley, who retired after a longtime pastorate at First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala.

"All of us together didn’t have a good sermon," said Bruce McIver, whose book, Riding the Wind of God, chronicled the movement.

Soon, the students preached and sang in Houston and Fort Worth and Dallas. And later, the movement covered the South, in cities such as Birmingham, Knoxville and Atlanta, and in small communities as well. Eventually, the revivals reached all the way to Honolulu and touched lives that spanned the globe.

“I’ve preached in 100 countries,” noted Jack Robinson, an All-American basketball player at Baylor who went on to become pastor of First Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga. “Everywhere, people come up and say, ‘I was saved at such-and-such a service.’” Thousands of people became Christians through “our feeble attempts at witnessing for such a mighty Savior,” he acknowledged.

The spirit of revival also spread beyond students, said Charles Wellborn, who later was pastor of Seventh & James Baptist Church in Waco and eventually taught at Florida State University.

Wellborn described a “protracted” revival meeting in Olney in 1948, when the young preacher told an 80-year-old unconverted man, “I will bet my life if you will give God a chance, he will shake you up.” Late in the second week of the meeting, the man walked the church aisle, shook Wellborn’s hand and said, “Kid, you won your bet.”

“One soul saved; one life changed,” Wellborn remembered. “But you and I know that’s what it’s about—God changing lives.”

Often, results of the revivals could only be described as miraculous, said Buckner Fanning, who was pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio for more than 40 years.

In Knoxville, two girls who attended the Tennessee State School for the Deaf made professions of faith in Christ “without hearing a word,” Fanning reported, explaining, “The Spirit of God touched their lives.”

In addition to the lives changed in the revival meetings, the Youth Revival Movement’s impact spread because it took root and shaped a generation of ministers, added BO Baker, who retired from Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving.

“One of the most significant impacts of the youth revival era was the filling of our seminaries,” Baker insisted. “We needed the breath of heaven, the filling of God. We needed it, … and when we filled the seminaries, it happened in our churches and in our states.”

Consequently, creation of a Youth Revival Movement heritage center at Truett Seminary on the Baylor campus is entirely appropriate, Baker noted—a sentiment echoed by the seminary’s dean, Paul Powell.

“The Youth Revival Movement needs to be memorialized at Truett, where we’re training the next generation of ministers and missinaries,” Powell said.

The Youth Revival Heritage Room at the seminary is the depository of historical documents and memorabilia and will be a center for research, said Ralph Wood, chair of the steering committee that planned the room. Wood described himself as a product of and participant in the movement. He later became pastor of First Baptist Church in Waco.

“We envision a new generation of Baptist students taking up their mantle as we once again experience an outpouring of God’s Spirit,” Wood said.

“We pray for students who are inflammable, who will feel the fire, who will spread the fire to reach America’s youth,” Moody added.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to John Wood as Ralph Wood.

Posted: 10/27/06

Around the State

• Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business will host a business ethics forum titled “Five Years Later: Leadership Lessons from Enron and Andersen” Nov. 1-3. The forum will begin Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. with a panel discussion, and events will continue through Friday afternoon.

• The annual Miss Mary Hardin-Baylor Pageant will be held Nov. 3-4 at 7 p.m. This year’s theme is “Rock the Runway.” Friday evening will be the talent competition, with Saturday featuring the evening gown and interview portion. General admission is $10 for both nights or $7 for one night.

• Tye Newkirk has been named director of student activities at East Texas Baptist University.

• Rebecca O’Banion has been named director of alumni relations at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. She is a 1993 graduate of the school and current president of the alumni association.

• Debra Berry, associate professor of nursing at Houston Baptist University, has been presented the Christa McAuliffe In Search of Excellence award by the Houston West Chamber of Commerce. David Capes, professor of Christianity, also was a nominee for the honor.

The congregation at Rainbow Church in Rainbow recently witnessed the baptism of all seven members of the Drake Family—Frank, father; Shannon, mother; and children, Andrea, Christopher, Franchesca, Bethany and Justice. The family is unique in Rainbow because it includes two sets of twins. At the time of the family’s baptism, Pastor Clyde Somers had baptized 14 people this year.

• Howard Payne University has added three honorees to its Sports Hall of Fame. New inductees include B.J. Korenek, a four-year starter on the Yellowjacket football team, who played running back, quarterback, defensive back, kicker and punter; Bobby Robbins, a three-year starter on the football team, who played fullback and center; and Terry Cosby, who played tight end and kicker for the football team, but made his mark as a track-and-field athlete participating in the shot-put and discus—winning the conference championship for the shot-put in 1976 and 1977 and for the discus in 1977.

• Michael Morrison has been named director of Baylor University’s Center of Inter-national Education, effective Feb. 1. Morrison joined the Baylor Law School faculty in 1977 and was designated an outstanding professor in 1997. He takes the post of William Mitchell, who has led the center since 2000. Under Mitchell’s leadership, the number of students studying abroad has increased from 575 to 855, and the number of exchange and study-abroad programs has expanded to nearly 60 in 26 countries. The diversity of international students studying at Baylor increased to 76 home countries.

• Loretta McBeath, a member of North Park Church has been named lay person of the year by Abilene Association. Southwest Park Church was named church of the year. Lee Fuller of Wylie Church was named pastor of the year for larger congregations and association moderator for the coming year. Greg Clemmer of Cowboy Heritage Church was named pastor of the year for smaller congregations. Vernon Ferguson, minister of missions at Broadview Church, was named the outstanding staff member.

Anniversaries

• Primera Iglesia in Corpus Christi, 95th, Oct. 28. Rolando DeLeon is pastor.

• Shiloh Church near Mexia, 125th, Oct. 29. Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade brought the morning message. Doyle Purifoy is pastor.

• Bell Avenue Church in Amarillo, 40th, Oct. 29. Charter members Gene Massey, L.R. Mitchell and Marilyn Hooten were recognized. Danny Logan is pastor.

• West End Church in Houston, 100th, Oct. 29. Family members of seven pastors, including the first pastor, R.R. Burr, were present. Curtis Freeman, former pastor and current director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School, was the guest speaker. Michael Quintanilla is pastor.

• First Church in Athens, 150th, Nov. 5. Former Pastor James Bond will speak in the 8:30 a.m. service followed by a combined celebration. At 10:45 a.m., a contemporary worship service will be held. People who attend the first service will have lunch at 10:50 a.m., while those attending the second service will eat at noon. Kyle Henderson is pastor.

• Friendship Church in Beeville, 100th, Dec. 3. Former Pastor David Brumbelow will preach in the morning service. Vernon Helgren is pastor.

Deaths

• Rodney Thomas, 42, Aug. 22 at Fort Hood. Thomas, a Baptist General Convention of Texas-endorsed chaplain, died of a heart attack shortly after returning from service in Kuwait. In his military career, he served two tours of duty in relation to Operation Iraqi Freedom and one tour of duty in South Korea. He earned the Bronze Star, Army Commen-dation Medal, Army Achieve-ment Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal. During his last tour of duty, he served a group of 1,200 soldiers and airmen as battalion chaplain. He logged more than 12,000 miles visiting troops throughout Iraq, and he prayed with every convoy that left Kuwait for Iraq. Thomas entered active military service in 2001 after serving nine years as pastor of First Church in Mullin. He was a member of First Church in Goldthwaite. He is survived by his wife, Lori; father, Jack; and brother, Ronald.

• Benny Anderson, 72, Sept. 18 in New Boston. He was a Baptist minister. At the time of his death, he was a member of Calvary Church in Simms. He is survived by his wife, Mackie; daughters, Rhonda Gerrald and Lisa Barron; brothers, Kenneth, Arlon and Avon; sister, Dorthy Monroe; and five grandchildren.

• Curtis Mathis, 78, Oct. 14 in Athens. He was ordained to the ministry by Second Church in Houston in 1949. While attending Baylor University, he was pastor of First Church in Tehuacana, and he was pastor of First Church in Tioga while attending Southwestern Semin-ary. After graduation, he was pastor of First Church in Old Ocean, Central Church in Jonesboro, Ark., First Church in Athens from 1966 to 1978, Calvary Church in Beaumont and First Church in Harrison, Ark. In 1988, he entered full-time evangelism and moved to Athens. He conducted revivals in Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, California, Louisana, Korea, Scotland, Japan and Venezuela. He also was pastor/teacher for several senior adult camps at Highland Lakes Encampment. He was interim pastor of seven East Texas churches. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Anna; mother, Elsie; son, Curtis Jr.; daughter, Cynthia Ann Mathis; two grandsons; and one great-granddaughter.

Events

• The contemporary Christian band SonicFlood will perform at Wedgwood Church in Fort Worth Nov. 4 and at Houston Baptist University Nov. 6. For more information, go to sonicflood.com.

• The B.H. Carroll Theological Institute will hold a luncheon during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Dallas Nov. 13. Tickets for the luncheon can be ordered at nexus.bhcti.org/catalog.

• First Church in McKinney will hold a three-day seminar for Christian leaders, authors and speakers Nov. 13-15. Florence and Marita Littauer will be the featured speakers for the seminar designed to give confidence and comfort to anyone who stands in front of a crowd. For more information, call (972) 562-7447.

• The North Central Chapter of the Singing Men of Texas will present a concert at First Church in Saginaw Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. Danny Howe is pastor.

• A Turning Hearts event for parents and teens desiring to grow closer will be held Nov. 17-18 at First Church in Lubbock. The event is divided into three segments—forgiving, living and turning. For more information, go to www.lifeway .com/turninghearts/about.asp.

• Inglewood Church in Grand Prairie has renamed its residence for furloughing missionaries to honor the 37 years of service by missionaries Don and Nita Jones. The couple began serving in Korea in 1957. The Joneses lived in the missionary house in 1989-90, and returned to Grand Prairie upon retirement. She died in 2004, but he remains a member there. Shawn Barnard is pastor.

Posted: 10/27/06

DOWN HOME:
Never too late to do something new

When you get to be my age (late-late-late young adult; OK, middle aged), you don’t get to do many things for the first time.

But last week, I did something I’ve never done before.

Months ago, I received an invitation to preach in chapel at Howard Payne University, one of our Texas Baptist schools, in Brownwood.

I quickly accepted, although some people would question my logic.

You see, chapel is mandatory at our Texas Baptist schools. If you go there, and you want to graduate, you’ve got to get so many “chapel credits.” At most of the schools, maybe even all of them by now, students scan their ID cards to get credit for attending chapel. Some schools, I am told, even require the students to scan their cards when they leave; they can’t sneak out.

So, some people say preaching in a Baptist college chapel service is sort of like prison ministry. You’re working a captive audience. But the good thing about a captive audience is that it’s at least a large audience. Crowds are good.

I like college crowds for several reasons.

First, they seem to appreciate my humor. Some parts of the Bible are deadly serious, of course. But many parts are funny. I like those parts. And I’ve discovered college students usually do, too. So, we tend to have fun in chapel.

Second, I love to preach out of the Old Testament, which is full of interesting stories about people who mess up their lives and find grace and redemption in the arms of God. And here’s the good part about that: Many college kids don’t know those stories, so they listen to find out what happens.

Third, if any part of one of those stories happens to be about sex, then the college boys will wake up and pay attention.

Anyway, back to Howard Payne: I arrived late on a stormy night and followed printed directions through the campus to the parking lot behind Veda Hodge Hall. Then I got my luggage and walked, as instructed, around to the front of Veda Hodge Hall and found Shawna, the resident assistant, in the office where I was told she would be.

When I mentioned my name, Shawna said, “I’ll show you to your room.” We walked down a hall and through a couple of doors, past two signs that said, “No men beyond this point.”

When I arrived at Hardin-Simmons University, another of our Texas Baptist schools, in Abilene 31 years ago, the rivalry between Howard Payne and Hardin-Simmons already was generations old. And through the subsequent decades, I can’t tell you how many of my wonderful Howard Payne friends have called me by their nickname for Hardin-Simmons students and grads—Hardened Sinner.

But by the time Shawna showed me to the guest suite in Veda Hodge Hall, even a naive Hardin-Simmons grad like me had figured out the first time in my life that I would spend the night in a women’s dorm would be on the historic and sacred campus of Howard Payne University.

–Marv Knox