Posted: 8/19/05

Irving church becomes
missions learning lab for students

By Leann Callaway

Special to the Baptist Standard

IRVING–The missions program of Oak View Baptist Church became a learning lab for eight student missionaries this summer.

Six of the workers served a week at the Irving church before departing for other assignments through the Baptist General Convention of Texas Center for Collegiate Ministry. Two students–Caroline Nel-son from Baylor University and Jessica Neuwirth from Hous-ton Baptist University–spent all summer at Oak View.

Student missionary Caroline Nelson poses with a young girl.

“I've always loved stepping out of my comfort zone and serving the Lord in different places, wherever he calls me,” Nelson said.

At Oak View, the students served in the Jerusalem Project, an outreach through which the church has established nine missions in surrounding neighborhoods. The program was founded by Jim Gerlach, Oak View's pastor, and is overseen by Oak View's minister of missions, Sergio Matassa.

Spending even a week with the church's far-reaching missions work made a difference in the students' lives, they reported. And for some, it provided additional preparation for a life in ministry.

The larger group of student missionaries led Kid's Clubs at three of Oak View's missions, and 21 children made professions of faith in Jesus Christ.

“We saw the Holy Spirit work according to his timetable, instead of our agenda,” said John Williamson from Texas A&M University. “At one of the apartment complexes, the kids were rough, and the gangs have had a big influence on many young lives. They could even be uncontrollable at times.”

Children at Oak View's missions show how much they enjoy the activities.

The games, songs and other activities students led at two other apartment complexes made no impact on the young people at that complex, so the student mission volunteers changed their approach.

“We ended up meeting the kids where they were and doing things like dancing around to Christian rap music, playing football and finding ways we could relate with them,” Williamson said.

“As a result of laying down our own agenda and actually showing a genuine interest, three guys that we thought were impossible to reach accepted Christ. It was amazing to see the Holy Spirit take control.”

As the rest of this group headed to the Northwest, Nelson and Neuwirth continued helping Oak View make an impact on the community.

“I knew that God was calling me to serve him this summer and to focus on others and not on myself,” Neuwirth said. “Being used to do God's work and showing love to these kids is incredible. I've never been a part of anything like this before. This experience at Oak View has been so amazing. The prayers and the blessings that have come from this church and the people who have encouraged us have meant so much. I'll never forget this experience. It has blessed my life so much.”

Student missionary Richard Benavidez dressed up as a "Ninja Turle" to capture the Children's attention.

Posted: 8/19/05

Baylor professor a delegate
to ONE Campaign summit

By Carla Wynn

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

WACO–A passion commitment to end poverty in Africa and a newspaper editorial describing the continent's needs landed Baylor Uni-versity professor Jon Singletary in Edin-burgh, Scotland, when the world's eight wealthiest nations gathered in nearby Gleneagles for this summer's G-8 Summit.

Singletary, an assistant professor of social work, was one of more than 100 ONE Campaign delegates in an international mobilization effort encouraging G-8 leaders to prioritize ending poverty in Africa.

“We were there to encourage the (U.S.) President and other leaders to continue building their support to make poverty history throughout Africa and in other developing nations,” Singletary said.

The ONE Campaign–a movement to rally Americans around crucial issues of global hunger, poverty and AIDS–and Bread for the World selected Singletary in part because of his past involvement in advocacy for Africa and his activism potential.

After Singletary wrote an editorial called “Keeping our promise to Africa” that appeared June 24 in the Waco Tribune-Herald, he was asked to serve as a delegate.

A week later, Singletary was on a plane to Philadelphia for the internationally broadcast Live 8 concert. He and other delegates then traveled to Scotland, where they met with aides to President Bush, participated in training events, and exchanged ideas for raising awareness and community support about global needs. Summit leaders made a five-year, $25 billion aid commitment to Africa, in addition to canceling debts of some poorer countries and making AIDS drugs more available to Third-World countries.

Singletary, director of Baylor's Center for Family and Community Ministries, has a particular interest in Africa, which grew during his pastorate of a Mennonite church that took several trips there.

“Out of that, I developed a passion for Africa and the needs there,” he said.

Earlier this summer, Singletary participated in Baylor's university-wide trip to Kenya, where he led his social work students. His passion for Africa intersected with the G-8 Summit's priority on addressing needs on the continent. “It made it all the more important and relevant to me,” he said.

Posted: 8/19/05

On the Move

William Campbell to First Church in Port Aransas as pastor.

Charles Collett to First Church in Kopperl as interim pastor.

Ron Cook has completed an interim pastorate at First Church in Mart.

Gary Davis to First Church in Atlanta as church administrator.

Jeremy Green to First Church in Bellmead as pastor.

Tim Guthrie to First Church in Lucas as pastor.

Michael Howard to Cowboy Church in Ennis as pastor.

Todd Mabie to Danieldale Church in Dallas as pastor.

Eric Mathis has resigned as minister of music at First Church in Valley Mills.

Todd McGrew to First Church in Linden as minister of youth.

Reagan Miller to First Church in Granbury as associate pastor of education.

O.D. Oliver, retired pastor from Gilmer, to Boca Church in Balboa, Panama, as interim pastor.

Franklin Orr to Center Grove Church in Linden as interim pastor.

Jim Reimers to Hilltop Church in Fort Worth as pastor.

Paul Stripling has completed an interim pastorate at First Church in Bellmead.

James Teafatiller to Nevada Church in Nevada as pastor.

Aaron Young to First Church in Mart as pastor from First Church in Van Vleck.

Posted: 8/19/05

Richardson woman clarifies
missions calling in Sri Lanka

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

When Glenda Boyer, a member of First Baptist Church in Richardson, was in junior high, she felt called by God to Christian service. She responded in a public commitment but fearfully asked her pastor, “Does this mean I have to be a missionary?”

Assured that there were other vocational choices for someone wanting to share her faith as she worked, she dedicated herself to becoming first a teacher and then a counselor.

“I would stop and ask myself every once in awhile, 'Is this it?' And while it often came very close–especially when I counsel with hospitalized children–I always wondered if there was more,” she said.

This summer, as part of a Baptist Child & Family Services mental health team that worked in Sri Lanka, she found the answer.

“Every single thing I've done in my 53 years has contributed to me being right here, right now,” she said as she took a tea break with a class of trainees that included Buddhist housewives, evangelical pastors' wives, Catholic nuns and college students.

“We could not have hand-picked better students. They are insightful and open. No one is worried because I'm here because of my Christian faith.”

Boyer, a counselor in the Allen Independent School District, and her close friend and fellow Texas Woman's University graduate student Sandra Silva, taught their group how to use play therapy to help children deal with traumatic incidents.

“If they don't deal with the emotions, the trauma can even be perpetuated into the next generation because of what kind of parents they will be,” Boyer explained.

She especially was touched when a young man, whose father died in the tsunami, confided the sessions had helped him deal with his own grief and anger as well as prepare him to help others.

The two Texas women brought five “play therapy kits.” They each filled oversized duffle bags for continued use in Sri Lankan classrooms. “Each of the trainees is anxious to use them. They all told us of specific children they knew would be helped.

“There was a world's gap between what I knew about a child's emotions and what I learned from you,” said Felice, whose husband is pastor of an evangelical church near Colombo. “This is going to make a difference in my life and in the lives of the children at the free school I started for tsunami victims in my home.”

Posted: 8/19/05

Texas Tidbits

Churches, associations honored. The Baptist General Convention of Texas honored three churches and three associations for their work in starting African-American churches. First South-west Baptist Church in Houston, where Rickie Bradshaw is pastor, received the Antioch Award for starting the most African-American churches in the last two years–14 congregations. Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Dallas started the second-most congregations with nine, and Lakeside Baptist Church in Dallas started eight. Dallas Baptist Association, where Gary Hearon is executive director, received the Barnabas Award for the association starting the most African-American churches–37 congregations. Union Baptist Association started 35, and Waco Baptist Association started 13. Glenn Majors, director of BGCT Cooperative Program services, received the first E.B. Brooks Excellence in Service Award for encouraging and connecting new African-American churches with BGCT resources.

Byron Weathersbee

Baylor names interim chaplain. Byron Weathersbee, co-founder and president of Legacy Family Ministries, has been appointed interim university chaplain at Baylor University. Weathersbee, 42, will provide leadership for Baylor's twice-weekly chapel services, and pastoral care to the university community. He also will lead university ministries, directing resident chaplains, discipline-specific mission opportunities and the sports chaplain program, as well as relating to Baptist Student Ministries. Weathers-bee is a graduate of Baylor, and he earned a master's degree in religious education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of education degree in leadership from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served in staff positions at First Baptist Church in Gatesville, Immanuel Baptist Church in Temple and Columbus Avenue and University Baptist churches in Waco. In 1995, Weathersbee and his wife, Carla, founded Legacy Family Ministries, a nonprofit organization that does relationship development with students, marriage preparation courses for engaged couples and family camp weekends. The Weathersbees have three children–Bo, 18; Brittney, 16; and Casey, 12. They are members of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church.

BGCT revises church profiling efforts. The Baptist General Convention of Texas is revising the way it attains yearly information about churches in an effort to better serve its constituency. The convention is streamlining the traditional LifeWay Annual Church Profile reporting form from 51 categories to 17 to make it easier for congregations to indicate aspects of their respective ministries. BGCT leaders also are making category titles more generalized rather than program-specific to accommodate a wider range of outreaches. The new process will have fewer stewardship categories because some financial data can be based on actual funds given through the BGCT. Church contributions for the Texas Cooperative Program, Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions, Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions and Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions already are known and do not need to be reported through the ACP. The new forms will be capable of being scanned to help associations cut down on the amount of data entry required for each church.

Aging adults seminar focuses on Boomers. "Beckoning the Boomers" is the theme of two aging adult ministry leadership seminars, Sept. 22-23 at the Baptist Building in Dallas and Sept. 29-30 at Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston. Deborah Perkins of Virginia Woman's Missionary Union will be the featured speaker at the Dallas seminar. James Ellor and Dennis Myers from the Baylor University School of Social Work, authors of a new workbook for ministries to aging adults, will speak at the Houston seminar. For more information, e-mail jerry.reynolds@bgct.org.

Posted: 8/19/05

TOGETHER:
This could be God's perfect time for us

The Samaritan woman came to the well at noonday. It was a terrible time to have to fetch water but God's perfect time for her. That day, she met a man who gave her Living Water. And she was never the same again.

Jesus Christ Living Water was the theme for the centenary Baptist World Congress in Birmingham, England, where a drama troupe from Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston helped us understand at a deeper level the gift Jesus brings to thirsty souls. The Tallowood Players is a team of 13 high school students, selected from the 90-member youth choir and led by Randy Kilpatrick, the church's associate minister of music and founder of the drama ministry.

Executive Director BGCT Executive Board

Baptists of the world loved them. As a Texan, I was justifiably proud that they represented Texas Baptists, their church, their families and their Savior with such grace and poise. What did it mean to them to be there?

Peyton will attend college this fall out of state and admitted to being fearful about leaving her family and home church. But she said, “Seeing so many people at the BWA who were the only believers within a couple of hundred miles, or who lived in a country where Christians were persecuted, I quickly realized that hundreds of people everyday are in worse conditions than I will be in, and they are simply grateful that they know our amazing God.”

Emily described being at the BWA as eye-opening. “I saw people there representing countries I had always thought of as completely lost. It was amazing to see that the power of Jesus is everywhere. … Jesus is the common thread in every heart that was there.”

You might wonder what else I took away from the week. Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in California, presented his vision of harnessing the passion and presence of churches around the world in addressing five critical global challenges–spiritual emptiness, self-centered leadership, poverty, disease and illiteracy. He offered a solution based on the power of God's salvation in Jesus Christ, the widespread presence of churches and the willingness of Christians to voluntarily follow their Lord into the hardest places of life. His PEACE plan calls on Christians to partner with and plant churches, equip servant leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick and educate the next generation.

I reflected on a rising tide of commitment on the part of Christians across America and worldwide to make a Christ-like difference in our world. I believe we are going to see more cooperation, more determination and more passion for working together to address global needs. I believe people will again expect the life-changing power of God to flow from our lives. And once again, people will be drawn to Jesus because of the way his people love one another.

This quote captured my imagination: “We must quit praying for God to bless what we are doing and begin to pray, 'God, help me get in on what you are blessing.'” Warren gave Henry Blackaby credit for that word. Whoever said it first, I want to pass it on to all Texas Baptists because I believe this is God's perfect time for us.

We are loved.

Charles Wade is executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Posted: 8/19/05

Agency offers healing from
tsunami's emotional damage

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

As staggering as the visible destruction from last December's tsunami still is in Sri Lanka, the hidden emotional damage–especially to children–probably is even worse, Baptist Child & Family Services officials insist.

Eight months after the killer waves shattered the country, the evidence is plain to those who know where to look and listen.

In Matara, schoolteachers have moved all classes to the upper floor because frightened children refuse to meet in the ground-level rooms.

In Hikkaduwa, a college student confesses to massive guilt because he heard a friend's father calling for help but was too afraid to try to rescue him.

A displaced child living in a tent in Galle, Sri Lanka.

In Galle, against all cultural norms, a man stands in the middle of a tent-camp and weeps uncontrollably in front of visitors because he has almost no food and almost no hope.

In Batticaloa, a 13-year-old boy who lost his entire family and was twice swept out to sea himself–surviving by clinging to a large piece of Styrofoam–draws pictures of body parts floating alongside crowded boats.

Also in Batticaloa a 5-year-old girl still hasn't been told her mother drowned last December. She thinks she has “gone away on vacation.”

That's why Baptist Child & Family Services and its international arm, Children's Emergency Relief International, has launched two separate-but-related projects in the Indian Ocean island country.

The agency's primary effort is establishing a permanent foster care/child protective services program for the Sri Lankan government. The second is a training program to equip Sri Lankan volunteers to provide mental health counseling to their family, friends and neighbors.

“Before the tsunami, there was not really a pressing need for a foster-care program because the extended family usually took over the care of orphaned children,” said Marla Rushing of Baptist Child & Family Services, one of two agency staff members who led a nine-person counseling and training team to Sri Lanka for two weeks in July.

A worst memory drawing from the tsunami shows survivors in boats and dead bodies floating in the ocean.

“But the government has identified 500 orphans in just the northeast province country alone. We were a little surprised when they asked us to set up this pilot program–and so were agencies like UNICEF and the Red Cross–but we are glad we are able to do this.”

After carefully drafting guidelines and procedures that combined the best of American child care practices with the cultural realities of Sri Lanka, the program began working with the first four foster families in early July. Currently, 30 children are in supervised care, “with about five being added every week–we already need to hire more staff,” Rushing said.

Rushing, along with volunteer Lari Ainsworth from Calallen Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, concentrated on working with the children in care and in training the foster parents. Sri Lankan society has a general attitude toward tragedy of “just get over it,” and “the concept of counseling is pretty much unknown,” she acknowledged. “We were warned people wouldn't want to talk about their feelings, especially to foreigners. But we found that once a trust level was established, they had lots of things to share.”

She particularly was impressed with one foster father who not only participated in the art therapy sessions designed to surface the negative emotions and remind the drawer of the hope for “safe places” in the future, but also was the most enthusiastic person in the group.

“He told me that before the tsunami he had hated Christians. He wouldn't even speak to them. But since Christians were the first people to come and offer help and since we are still here, 'not asking anything from us, not forcing us to change our beliefs–just helping,' he had learned to appreciate Christians,” Rushing said.

Sri Lanka also is overwhelmingly Buddhist and Hindu, “two religions that are pretty fatalistic in saying that whatever happens is either punishment of just destiny,” noted Richard Brake, the staff psychologist on the Baptist Child & Family Services trip. “Even the Muslim population holds teachings that everything is Allah's will and should be accepted–so to get them to see that it was still OK to talk about emotions is major progress.”

Three two-women teams, all connected to Texas Woman's University in Denton, conducted training sessions in three coastal towns as part of the child care agency's effort. Brake worked with all three teams, as well as with the foster families, primarily using art therapy developed by Bill Steele of the Trauma Loss Center for Children in Detroit.

The five-step process begins with asking participants to draw a picture of their worst experiences, followed by a detailed drawing of the event and then an illustration of “what part of your body hurts the worst when you think about this event” before asking for a drawing of “a safe and secure place,” Brake explained. The final exercise is filling in eight sections of a piece of paper–putting the “worst event” in the first section but then listing seven good things that have happened since.

“The purpose is to acknowledge the pain of the trauma and to begin dealing with it–but then to help them see that there really is hope and that the pain isn't permanent, no matter how deep and real it is,” Brake said. He also found that the fourth step, picturing a safe place, didn't follow the textbook pattern.

“Eight months after the fact, most of the 150 people we worked with couldn't really imagine a safe place–a good sign that they hadn't dealt with the emotions,” Brake explained. “So we had them imagine a time in the future–no matter how far out that might be–when they could be in a safe place. That seemed to work.”

The training group in the northeast province was exclusively Hindu, while the three groups on the west coast were a mixture of Buddhists and Christians.

The trainers were heartened that, by the end of the sessions, the two often-antagonistic groups were planning how to work together to counsel others.

Each team also reported that trainees repeatedly requested additional training.

“They were so grateful and open to learning,” said Barb Cheatham, a registered nurse from Plano and a graduate student at TWU. “I prayed every morning that God would be present in the training and prayed every night to thank him for doing just that. Realizing how all these trainees will go back to their villages and towns and neighborhoods and work with others is humbling.

“They certainly are not fully qualified counselors, but they have some basics now. And imagine the ripple effect as they work with others who work with others.”

Posted: 8/19/05

Pray for Muslim women

By Meghan Merchant

Communications Intern

WACO–Women passed through the door expecting to learn more about Islam and enjoy a cup of tea. Instead, they found themselves covering their heads with scarves and removing their shoes as they entered into a time of prayerful intercession for Muslim women.

During a workshop titled “Tea for Muslim Women” at the Texas Leadership Conference, session leader Teri Hamilton enlightened Baptist women about some of the experiences Muslim women go through daily.

The conference is sponsored by Woman's Missionary Union of Texas, which is supported through the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.

“Through our prayer time, we will touch Muslim women all over the world,” Hamilton said. “We will share the burden of Muslim women and intercede for them.”

Going through the “seasons of prayer” by assuming five prayer positions, the women began to pray for the group that represents 10 percent of the world's population.

The five body movements–standing, listening, bowing, worshipping and kneeling–were designed to help participants identify with Muslim women who share similar movements in their ritual praying.

Muslim women cover themselves as a sign of modesty and respect, Hamilton explained. The tea-time setting was an example of the hospitality Muslim women display.

As the gathered women prayed, Hamilton encouraged them to use their veil to help block out distractions and focus on God.

Posted: 8/19/05

WMU challenges: Share the light

By Meghan Merchant

Communications Intern

WACO–Speakers at the Texas Leadership Conference at Baylor University urged Baptist women from around the state to share the light of Christ.

“We are the light in the darkness,” said Nelda Taylor-Thiede, president of Woman's Missionary Union of Texas. Texas WMU sponsored the conference, focused on the theme “Sharing the Light … Passing the Torch.”

She reminded women in the audience that they are reflections of the light, Jesus Christ, and she challenged conference participants to let their God-given passions shine bright.

Speakers at the conference's eve-ning worship celebrations shared ways Texas Baptists are sharing Christ's love across the world, the United States and in their communities through ministries such as the Christian Women's Job Corps and mission work supported by the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.

Missionaries from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, South Asia, Cambodia and Sri Lanka shared personal experiences from their time in each highlighted country and ways in which God is working in that area.

Leaders then prayed specifically for the country or region, many in the area's native tongue.

A multitude of international flags decorated the stage, and the conference's evening celebrations were translated into Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese, reminding participants of the diversity of Texas Baptists and the kingdom of God.

During the focus on sharing the light in Texas, Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade praised Texas Baptist women for their innovative and creative approaches to ministry. He des-cribed how the Mary Hill Davis Offering is making a difference across the state through Texas missions and ministries of the BGCT, including its River Ministry.

“There's no major turning point in my life untouched by the Mary Hill Davis Offering,” said BGCT President Albert Reyes, who also is president of Baptist University of the Americas. Reyes participated in a question-and-answer time with Taylor-Thiede about the impact the offering has made in Texas.

“I like to say that Mary Hill Davis is one of my wealthy aunts that made things possible,” he joked, after explaining how funds from the offering provided for him in the ministry and helped Baptist University of the Americas to receive its accreditation this year.

Closing the final celebration of the conference, Texas WMU Executive Director Carolyn Porterfield reminded participants why they attended this year's event.

“You only came here to go back home and share the light,” she said.

Posted: 8/12/05

Baptist camp comes alive for
employees and their families

By Elizabeth Martin

Baylor University

Residents of Tigona, a village on the edge of the Rift Valley in the hill country west of Nairobi, serve as staff for Brackenhurst Baptist International Conference Centre and live on the camp grounds, located a short distance from the village’s market.

Although their children live within the gates of the resort-like camp, they generally can’t use the camp’s rock-climbing room or tennis courts. That changed when an outdoor recreation team from Baylor University made the conference center their base camp for missions.

Team members spent most of two weeks in the nearby towns of Limuru, Tigoni and Banana Hill. But three nights were just for the staff and children.

Brackenhurst serves as a summer camp for missionaries’ children, a vacation spot for missionary families and a location for various foreign missions conferences.
“It was great to give the staff the opportunity to use the tennis courts and rock room. They all helped to build this camp, and I’m glad they have finally been able to enjoy it,” Camp Administrator Amanda Clark said.

The male staff members had the first turn on the second night of the team’s stay at Brackenhurst. At first hesitant to climb the walls, the men voiced concern at the prospect of an American woman, team member Sierra Toney, handling the ropes. With skeptical frowns, the men eventually decided to climb at the urging and reassurances from the American team. Later, the wide grins on the faces of the men who reached the top of the walls assured the team of the night’s success.

“I was so proud of Sierra,” Baylor tennis teacher and Outdoor Rec. team member Darrell Thompson said. “The men didn’t want to trust her, but she never let it get to her, and we all ended up having a great time.”

Later that week, the female staff members took their turns on the indoor climbing walls and, like their husbands, began the night with concern etched on their faces. After much encouragement from the American team, however, the Kenyan women eventually shed their characteristic shyness and enjoyed their first chance to climb. It was the staff’s children, though, who most visibly enjoyed their climbing experience.

Cries of excitement and unrestrained laughter echoed from the rough yellow climbing walls and concrete floors the cool night of the children’s climb. More than 50 children strapped on harnesses and mounted the walls. So many children came to climb, the entire American team was called to help manage and belay. Each child climbed several of the high walls, practiced without harnesses in the low caves and grinned as they snapped pictures of their friends and siblings hanging by ropes 20 feet overhead.

The next afternoon Thompson, brought racquets and tennis balls to the camp’s tennis courts to give a lesson to the staff’s children. With only four balls and five racquets for more than 20 children, Thompson organized several relay-type team games for the children. With the help of his wife, Missy Bice-Thompson, and several other team members, he gave the children a chance to enjoy a game previously they had only observed.

“The tennis lessons with the staff kids was one of my favorite activities of the trip,” Baylor junior Jennifer Bubel said. “They had such a good time, and I absolutely loved watching them laugh and play.”

Though tired after several long days serving the Kenyans in the villages outside Brackenhurst’s high iron gates, the American team recognized the importance of serving the camp’s staff those nights and afternoons. The men and women who staff the Baptist camp served as maids, drivers and cooks for the Americans with smiles—smiles that only grew wider when the Americans decided to serve them and their children in return.

Storylist for week of 8/08/05

• Commentary: Christian nurses helping people in difficult circumstances

• Court turns down motion to rehear Missouri case

• Roberts donated legal work to gay rights group

• New BWA president preparing for a marathon challenge

• BWA unveils first 'identity statement' since 1923

• Blackaby warns that 'seeker-friendly' may leave out nature of sin

• Spirit works best when we're weak, Fong says

• Minister remembers call to preach during 1939 congress in Atlanta

• Groups asks BWA to focus on HIV/AIDS

• 'Telling the story' aim of BWA evangelism program

• Baptists should be 'biased toward the poor' speaker says

• Ministries shining light of Christ into brothels

• Praise by 'every tribe, tongue and nation' ends congress

• Woman will head Asian seminary consortium


Articles from our 8/08/05 issue:



• A World of Baptists



• Shoes for Orphan Souls launches annual national drive

• Buckner marks 10 years of international orphan ministry

• Pastor urges Christians to 'get in the game'

• God wants his people to share blessing with everyone

• Bartimaeus church looking for a lift, hoping for help

• Texas Baptist author feels dead certain of prayer's power

• Partnership links Kenyan college and Plainview church

• Texas Baptists care for Hurricane Emily's victims

• On the Move

• Around the State

• Texas Tidbits




Baptist World Centenary Congress
• A World of Baptists

• Africa the new center of Christianity

• British Baptists encouraged by strong showing in Birmingham

• 'We belong to each other because we belong to Christ'

• Fight terrorism with dinnertime conversation

• Fundamentalism divides Christians, Carter tells Baptists

• Couple celebrates 50th anniversary at BWA Congress

• Carter: Hunger for healing, desire for justice transcend differences

• Church should become new health service for the world

• Christ's love commands compassion for hurting & needy

• Newest BWA members feel the power of relationships

• British Baptist unanimously elected BWA president

• Tour helps Texas Baptists understand their heritage

Previously Posted
• Texas, Virginia approved as Baptist World Alliance members

• Warren calls SBC withdrawal from BWA a 'silly' mistake

• Persecution the norm for many Christians, panelists note

• First African elected to lead BWA women

• BWA session looks at world needs

• BWA gathering reflects 'paradigm shift' Lotz says

• Latest bombings not detering BWA meeting



• Vermont partnership positively impacts Temple church

• Northeast a 'frontline ministry,' missions leader insists



• Reviewed in this issue: Why the Rest Hates the West by Meic Piese
Whose Religion is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West by Lamin Sanneh
Honor, Infamy & Just Deserts: Persian Stories That Build Ethics and Character by Norma Walters
Sabbath Keeping by Lynne M. Baab
A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren



• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cartoon

• Classified Ads

• Around the State

• On the Move



• EDITORIAL: There's no place like home (in the BWA)

• DOWN HOME: His 'kingdom' for a glass of iced tea

• 2nd Opinion: When should a child be baptized

• TOGETHER: BWA celebration exceeds expectations

• Texas Baptist Forum

• Cyber Column by Berry D. Simpson: Balancing act

• Cyber Column by Brett Younger: Footsteps of Jesus?

• Commentary: Christian nurses helping people in difficult circumstances



• BaptistWay Bible Series for August 7: God's justice and an unrepentant world

• Family Bible Series for August 7: Once and Future Life

• Explore the Bible Series for August 7: Use Godly Tact and Discretion

• BaptistWay Bible Series for August 14: Follow God daily to be prepared for end times

• Family Bible Series for August 14: Until Jesus comes, live faithfully

• Explore the Bible Series for August 14: Daniel's faith was strong before the lion's pit


See articles from previous issue 7/25/05 here.