Posted: 3/4/05

2nd Opinion: A year of transition & opportunity

By Albert Reyes

We are the generation of Texas Baptists who have lived through some of the most dramatic transitions in world history–the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square Incident and the Russian coup, all in the summer of 1989. We were ushered into the 21st century 11 years prior to the chronological birth date of the new millennium. This triplet alarm changed our world in one summer, and we have not returned to the way things were since then.

The second major alarm alerting us to a changing world was the terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists slammed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City. The ends of the earth came to our shores and redefined our way of life.

A third alarm alerting us to our changing world was the tsunami that hit our globe on Dec. 26, 2004. Devastation was redefined that day in ways we could never have imagined.

So, what will be our response, our perspective to these changes? Will we respond in fear or faith?

Modern-day prophets like Steve Murdock of the Texas State Statistical Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Phillip Jenkins, professor of religion and history at Pennsylvania State University, have attempted to exegete our emerging context.

Murdock predicts that between 2000 and 2040, the Texas population will grow from 20 million to 50 million, with 96 percent of the change in population coming from non-Anglo cultural groups. His inference is that Hispanics will comprise the largest increases in our future population shift.

Jenkins, in his book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, predicts the center of Christianity will firmly shift to the southern half of our globe by 2050 and only one in five Christians worldwide will be non-Latino white.

Our world, even our state, began to radically change in the summer of 1989 and promises to be an incredibly different place in the next 35 years.

As I reflect on the challenges of the future, I do not believe it is an accident or coincidence that Texas Baptists are in the midst of the most dramatic reorganization in the last 50 years. We are revising our constitution, developing new bylaws, and we are encouraging and supporting Charles Wade as he reorganizes the Executive Board staff to increase our effectiveness, increase accountability and increase our sensitivity and service to our 5,700 congregations and 23 institutions.

In short, we are redefining what it means to be Texas Baptists in the 21st century, and we should. Now is the time for us to rethink and review our ministry together, because the door of opportunity for the gospel is wide open.

We are considering new ways to partner, new ways to cooperate and new ways to touch the world through our cooperative giving plan. We are finding new ways to do more together than we could possibly do alone.

Our greatest challenge may not be to change our denomination; rather, it may be to change ourselves. Leo Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but nobody thinks of changing himself.”

Let's renew our minds, and let's be transformed into the kind of people who will boldly become new hope for the 21st century.

Keeping our eyes focused outward will lead us from transition to strategic opportunity. The world next door is waiting for us.

Albert Reyes is president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and president of Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio.

Posted: 3/4/05

From demons to dogs, viewers find religion in films

By Marshall Allen

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–The horror movie Constantine features demons, exorcisms, readings from a Satanic bible, suicide, graphic depictions of hell and a gory scene involving an electric chair.

Many evangelical Christians couldn't wait to see it.

Pastors, seminary students and youth leaders said Constantine could provoke valuable discussions about subjects like heaven and hell; angels and demons; and God and salvation. They cite the film as an example of God using unusual channels to communicate with people.

Another recently released film–Because of Winn-Dixie–is a family- and faith-friendly movie about a young girl who adopts an orphaned dog. The movie's official website features a Bible study to connect moral themes in the story with passages in Scripture.

Perhaps it's more obvious than Constantine, but Christians who want their entertainment to reflect their morals are excited about Winn-Dixie.

Neither movie is overtly religious, but they are both crossovers–mainstream movies that also appeal to people of faith. After religious filmgoers helped The Passion of the Christ reap more than $611 million worldwide, some say the two films may also be harbingers of films to come.

Jonathan Bock, a publicist who markets mainstream movies, including both Constantine and Because of Winn-Dixie, to religious audiences, said the number of films that take faith seriously is increasing. Many are now in production or being considered for development, he said.

“To me, it's quite apparent a new trend in mainstream films are stories that resonate with people on a deeper spiritual level than we've seen in the past, films that strive to be divinely transcendent,” Bock said.

Because of Winn-Dixie is based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Kate DiCamillo. In the film, a lonely girl named Opal befriends a dog, and the two breathe new life into a small town.

Wayne Cordeiro, 52, pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship, a church of 11,000 in Oahu, Hawaii, said he's been heavily promoting Winn-Dixie in his church services. The congregation will purchase advance tickets for screenings of the movie, he said. It's the first movie the church has promoted since The Passion of the Christ, he said.

“This one has morals to it, character building, and it's done creatively,” Cordeiro said. “And when you go away from it, you feel awfully good.”

Viewers will likely not leave Constantine with the same warm feeling. The movie is the latest and perhaps most extreme example of the evangelical embrace of popular culture. Those who recommend the movie acknowledge the R-rated film's graphic nature and muddled theology.

In the movie, Keanu Reeves plays a man who has the ability to see angels and demons, the latter which he hunts and destroys in an attempt to earn his way into heaven–clearly not an orthodox understanding of grace. It's violent, fast-paced and utterly appealing to the same breed of Christians who enjoyed discussing the philosophical and religious beliefs that undergirded The Matrix.

Bible study guides based on Constantine have been prepared at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and elsewhere to facilitate discussions about the film.

“What I love about the movie is that it takes evil seriously,” said Craig Detweiler, a screenwriter and film professor at Fuller and Biola University in La Mirada, Calif.

“It treats the devil as a definable quantity, and yet suggests that God is much more powerful, creative and enduring.”

For years, Fuller Seminary has been highlighting the confluence of faith and film. The seminary founded the Reel Spirituality institute in 1998 to encourage theological reflection on film, and the school's pop culture classes are some of its most popular.

Fuller graduates Matt Westbrook, 31, and Colin Johnson, 25, wrote the Bible study guide for Constantine. Westbrook said the belief that people can perceive God through creation is essential to understanding the intersection of theology and film.

“God is everywhere. He's all around us,” Westbrook said. “God can speak to us through anything, so films are just one small part of that.”

Ken McCoy, 51, of Escondido, Calif., also is designing a Bible study based on Constantine.

McCoy said his Bible study is written to help youth leaders discuss the film with their students. Bible studies based on movies represent a shift in the evangelical attitudes toward popular culture, he said.

“I'd rather not admit it, but there has been a loosening of standards and an absorption of mainstream culture into the Christian culture,” McCoy said.

A generation ago, evangelicals would do more to separate themselves from mainstream culture, he said. But youth leaders now realize they were kidding themselves back then–there never really was any separation, he said.

With the Bible study guides, youth leaders can now “arm themselves,” so they can help redeem popular culture by talking about the issues raised in films, McCoy said.

Eric Bryant, college pastor at Mosaic, a church that meets in Pasadena and at a Los Angeles nightclub, said about 20 leaders from his congregation attended advance screenings of Constantine. Bryant said he attended the screening so he could talk about the film, but it's not something he would recommend to others.

Not every evangelical who's thinking about theology and film is openly embracing Constantine. John Hamilton, director of the Cinema and Broadcast Arts Department at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, Calif., said just because a movie deals with the supernatural does not mean it's instructive.

Azusa Pacific was asked to publicize Constantine like it did The Passion of the Christ, Hamilton said. The school declined.

“Hollywood is trying to jump on the bandwagon to get Christians to come see anything that deals with the supernatural,” he said. “There's a lot of interest in the spiritual now and the occult, and it's not all good. We have to be careful not to be too star-struck with things like this.”

Marshall Allen writes about religion for the Pasadena Star-News in Pasadena, Calif.

Posted: 3/4/05

Continuum of care by BGCT-
affiliated child and family services

FAMILY CARE/PREVENTION PROGRAMS

Church-based counseling services–South Texas Children's Home

(Corpus Christi)

Community-based counseling–Baptist Child & Family Services (San Antonio); Buckner Children & Family Services (Longview, Marshall); STARRY/Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services (Round Rock)

Emergency assistance–Buckner Children & Family Services (Dallas, Fort Worth, Longview, Lufkin, Rio Grande Valley)

Family Care program–South Texas Children's Home (Corpus Christi); Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services (Round Rock)

Family Place transitional housing–Buckner Children & Family Services (Amarillo, Dallas, Lufkin, Midland)

Gracewood/Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services (Round Rock)

Mentoring–Baptist Child & Family Services (San Antonio); Buckner Children & Family Services

(Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco)

On-site supportive social services–Buckner Children & Family Services (Amarillo, Beaumont, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Waco)

Parenting classes–Baptist Child & Family Services (San Antonio); Buckner Children & Family Services (Beaumont, Dallas, Lubbock, Rio Grande Valley)

Parenting and marriage training–South Texas Children's Home

(Corpus Christi)

FAMILY INTERVENTION

Counseling–STARRY/Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services (Round Rock)

Emergency shelter–Baptist Child & Family Services (Luling, San Antonio); STARRY/Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services (Round Rock)

Homemaker services–Buckner Children & Family Services (Lubbock)

Life-skills training–Buckner Children & Family Services (Amarillo, Dallas, Houston, Lufkin, Midland)

COMMUNITY MINISTRIES

Colonias Community Centers–Buckner Children & Family Services

(Rio Grande Valley)

HOPE (Healthy Opportunities that Protect and Empower)–Texas Baptist Children's Home (Round Rock)

On-site Supportive Social Services–Buckner Children & Family Services (Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Waco)

Southwest San Antonio Community Ministries–Baptist Child & Family Services (San Antonio)

EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAMS

Day care–Buckner Children & Family Services (Amarillo, Lufkin, Marshall, Nacogdoches)

Great Start and Parenting is for All–Baptist Child & Family Services

(San Antonio)

Healthy Start–Baptist Child & Family Services (Laredo)

Mi Escuelita–Buckner Children & Family Services (Dallas)

TRANSITION/AFTER-CARE PROGRAMS

College assistance/vocational training–South Texas Children's Home (Beeville)

HOPE (Healthy Opportunities that Protect and Empower)–Texas Baptist Children's Home (Round Rock)

ICM/PAL (Intensive Case Management/Preparation for Adult Living)–Buckner Children & Family Services (Beaumont)

Post-PAL (Preparation for Adult Living)/mentoring/Chafee–Baptist Child & Family Services (San Antonio)

Texas Youth/Alumni Initiative–Baptist Child & Family Services (Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio)

TRAIL (Transition to Adult Independent Living)–Buckner Children & Family Services (Beaumont)

FOSTER CARE

Baptist Child & Family Services

(San Antonio)

Buckner Children & Family Services (Beaumont, Dallas, Houston, Longview, Lubbock, Midland, Rio Grande Valley)

STARRY/Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services (Round Rock)

South Texas Children's Home (Beeville)

MATERNITY/ADOPTION SERVICES

Baptist Child & Family Services

(San Antonio)

Buckner Children & Family Services (Dallas)

YOUTH PROGRAMS

After-school programs–Buckner Children & Family Services (Amarillo, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Longview, Lubbock)

Decisions for Life–Baptist Child & Family Services (San Antonio)

HOPE (Healthy Opportunities that Protect and Empower)–Texas Baptist Children's Home (Round Rock)

KAPS (Kids Averted from Placement Services)–Baptist Child & Family Services (Kerrville, San Antonio)

Miracle Farm–Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services (Brenham)

PAL (Preparation for Adult Living) and Post-PAL mentoring–Baptist Child & Family Services (San Antonio)

STAR (Services to At-risk Youth)–Baptist Child & Family Services (Del Rio, San Antonio, Victoria); Buckner Children & Family Services (Beaumont, Rio Grande Valley); STARRY/Texas Baptist Children' Home & Family Services (Round Rock)

Texas Youth Alumni Initiative–Baptist Child & Family Services (Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio)

RETREATS AND CONFERENCES

Camp Buckner–Buckner Children & Family Services (Burnet)

Parenting and marriage conferences–South Texas Children's Home

(Corpus Christi)

Summer day camp–Buckner Children & Family Services (Longview)

RESIDENTIAL CARE

Baptist Child & Family Services (Luling, San Antonio) Buckner Children & Family Services

(Beaumont, Dallas, Lubbock, Rio Grande Valley) Miracle Farm/Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services (Brenham) South Texas Children's Home (Beeville, Goliad) Texas Baptist Children's Home (Round Rock)

Posted: 3/4/05

Children's home program brings
HOPE to elementary children

By Miranda Bradley

Texas Baptist Children's Home

ROUND ROCK–Among the chemical charts and beakers in the science laboratory at Round Rock's Gattis Elementary School, students take part in different kind of experiment–designed to improve their reading skills. And the data shows it's a success.

Texas Baptist Children's Home's HOPE program has helped children make strides through its readers' theater, held in the science lab because it was the only space available.

“Several kids have made a year's advancement in their reading,” said Kristal Shanahan, counselor at Gattis Elementary School. “Others are participating in class more and showing more self esteem. It's just a remarkable difference.”

The readers' theater provides 15 slots for economically disadvantaged children to participate in acting out parts in small plays. In addition, each story line has an activity associated with it to further the comprehensiveness of the program.

“The scripts are in story form, and the activities allow the kids to improve in their language, reading and even comprehension,” said Melanie Martinez, supervisor of the HOPE program.

HOPE stands for Healthy Opportunities that Protect and Empower, and it offers various activities and programs in apartment communities and schools in the Round Rock area. This is HOPE's third year partnering with Gattis Elementary School.

“As far as I know, there is no other free program like it,” Shanahan said. “And they provide a snack and transportation. That is huge for these families.”

Gattis Elementary has a sizeable lower-income population that fluctuates regularly, Shanahan said.

“Whereas some schools might have 10 new students in a year, we might have 10 new students in a day. Programs like this help fill that gap for teachers,” she continued.

Teachers often find themselves helping new children catch up with their grade level. The readers' theater allows those kids another outlet for learning.

Principal Jennifer Lucas said some parents underestimate the importance of reading to their children.

“We're lucky if we can get some parents to spend 20 minutes a night reading to their children,” she said.

“It is so important because it sets the foundation for so many other skills. Just the cadence and rhythm helps with so many other functions in life.”

To help parents better understand their children's needs, HOPE and Gattis Elementary plan to partner in the future to provide parent workshops.

By offering programs where the school's parents live, they hope to help bridge the gap of learning.

“Promoting something for the parents is the key to helping the kids,” Martinez said.

They hope to offer programs about how to teach children responsibility, homework encouragement and ownership of behavior and problems.

“These are the basic things kids need, but sometimes we get so busy in our lives that we forget how important they are,” Martinez said.

The new program is slated for April. Until then, the handful of children in the readers' theater stumble through their lines, and some even bow when they are finished.

“Our ultimate goal with this program is to serve the community by helping children reach their full potential,” Martinez said.

“And we have such a great partnership with Gattis Elementary School to let us do this for the kids. It's hard work, but very worth it when you hear the results.”

Those results include making chatterboxes out of children who were once so shy they never engaged in conversation, never said a word.

Today, they read scripts aloud in front of an audience of their peers, and observers note they make every story a success story.

Posted: 3/4/05

Legislation to reform Child
Protective Services advances

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

AUSTIN–Two bills are moving rapidly through the Texas Legislature toward the same goal–reform the state's system of providing child protective services. And they are changing as they go.

“This is a huge reorganization,” calling for cooperation between various levels of government and private service providers, said Suzii Paynter, director of citizenship and public policy for the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Christian Life Commission.

“It involves a very complex mix of funding streams, criteria and evaluation at the local and statewide jurisdictions,” she said. But there is a “real willingness on the part of the House and Senate leadership to work together for a seamless reform process.”

Both bills–HB6 and SB6–call for increased privatization of state services, but there are differences, Paynter said.

Large numbers of investigators would be added to the state payroll under both bills, she said. Investigators check out reports of child abuse, neglect and poor living conditions, and then they rate the level of need. The recommended national standard is 23 cases per investigator, but Texas investigators handle two to three times that number.

Case management workers, who monitor a child's situation, also are in short supply. Sometimes the same person functions as both investigator and case manager, but ideally they are separated, Paynter said.

The House bill calls for all case management to be privatized, meaning the state would contract with non-government providers, she said. The Senate bill calls for a “pilot project” of privatization.

One “big issue is how much money will follow these things,” Paynter said. And it is difficult to determine how the money should be spent. If too much money is spent on investigation, more cases are identified, but not enough money is available to help solve some of the problems that are discovered.

Also, 75 percent of foster care and adoptive services already are provided through private organizations, such as the children's ministries affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

The BGCT institutions provide “value added” services for adoptive and foster children, adding at least 19 cents for every 81 cents provided to care for a child, Paynter said.

If all of the state money goes into investigation, then adoptive and foster care providers will have to supplement those services at an even greater rate, she said.

A more obvious difference in the two bills is that the House version would privatize the role of “independent administrator,” whereas the Senate bill would keep that as a state function as it is now, Paynter said. The administrator reviews the investigations and assigns children to appropriate service providers.

Gov. Rick Perry has made Child Protective Services legislation a priority issue, and “the governor's people are very concerned that there is quality in a new system and no inherent conflicts of interest in the independent administrator's office,” Paynter said.

A third bill, HB 478, also is in the mix. It takes “a very in-depth look at a transition plan for all of this,” she said. HB 478 has “a lot more detail about what case management functions the state would retain and what private providers would pick up.”

This third bill also would require that the independent administrator be with a regional not-for-profit corporation.

Psychotropic drugs are dealt with in all three bills, Paynter said. These are doctor-prescribed medications that deal with psychological issues.

The bills offer “a plan for monitoring medications that are given to kids in foster care” through the use of a “medical passport” that would follow the child wherever he or she is living, Paynter said.

Posted: 3/4/05

Foster parents can't say 'no' to children who need a home

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

BULVERDE–If Cliff and Karen Sepulveda's house seems crowded with foster children, it's because their hearts won't let them say “no.”

Less than two years ago, the members of First Baptist Church in Bulverde decided to open their lives to “show some kids who've been removed from abusive homes that where they came from is not all there is.”

Now the Sepulvedas are on their third placement–even though none lined up exactly with their request for “one boy, younger than our son.”

ABOVE: Cliff and Karen Sepulveda get to know their latest foster child, a 14-year-old girl (with her back to camera) the couple convinced Baptist Child & Family Services deserved "one more chance" after they had agreed to take her 11-year-old brother. BELOW: The 14-year-old girl shared a prized possession with Karen Sepulveda–a framed photo of her mom and two other siblings she is separated from. (Photos by Craig Bird)

First was a 15-year-old girl. Then they added a young boy who came as part of a package deal with two younger sisters, as well as two other brothers who had been in another foster home for two years.

The last week of February, the placement request was for an 11-year-old boy–but when the Sepulvedas heard his teenaged sister was about to be terminated from the foster program for disruptive behavior, they petitioned to take her too.

“Sometimes it seems like we just can't say 'no' when a caseworker calls from Baptist Child & Family Services,” Mrs. Sepulveda admitted as the latest set of foster children were unpacking. “That may be true, but each time it has just seemed like the right thing to do, and God has been with us each step of the way, so we say we'll take them.”

That is pretty typical of foster families, said Asennet Segura, who directs the program for Baptist Child & Family Services in San Antonio.

“I call them 'super parents' and 'superheroes' because if they come to us and say they want an infant or a 7-year-old or whatever, we still train them and expect them to be able to take care of the whole range of children who need foster care, because a child who matches their request may have a sibling needing placement who might be anyone from a 6-year-old who is ADHD to a sexually abused teenager.”

Such scenarios were not even on the radar when the Sepulveda's decided to become foster parents in 2003.

They had just completed and moved into their “retirement home” in a gated community in Bulverde, just north of San Antonio. Five of their six children were either married or in college at Texas A&M. They looked around and saw a nearly empty nest and an opportunity for a special ministry.

In 2003, San Antonio newspapers and television stations were full of stories about abused and neglected children and articles about problems with the state's Child Protective Services program. Perhaps that planted the idea in Mrs. Sepulveda's mind. One day, she asked her husband, “What would you think about getting a foster son–one a little younger than Shawn, one we could take to church with us and show that families can be different, can be loving and kind?”

He didn't need convincing. So they literally got out the Yellow Pages and looked up “Foster Parents.”

“We had never heard of Baptist Child & Family Services, but since we're Baptist, that would have gotten our attention even if they hadn't been the first name on the list,” Sepulveda insisted. “We didn't even know there was a stipend to help with the extra expenses. We just felt like we needed to help.”

After some home visits, some intensive training and a pile of paperwork, they were good to go–except there were no boys in the system right then. But there was Faye.

“So we kicked our teenage son out of his bedroom so a 15-year-old girl could move in,” Sepulveda said.

The placement lasted less than three months. Twice they had to admit her to a mental hospital because of continued threats to hurt herself. After the second commitment, she ran away from the hospital and called the Sepulvedas three days later asking them to bring her money.

“She had had only two meals the entire time, but I told her if we brought her money, we would be breaking the law and as much as we wanted to help her, we couldn't do that,” Mrs. Sepulveda recalled.

“Then I told her that if she wanted me to come pick her up and take her back to the hospital I would. She agreed but didn't tell her boyfriend (who had helped her run away). She just told him we were bringing some money.”

She ran away a second time, however, and they have not heard from her since.

“I cried and cried,” Mrs. Sepulveda said. “I felt like we failed her, that there was something we could have done to reach her.”

The couple still keeps pictures of her wearing the formal they bought for her to attend a military ball at Randolph Air Force Base.

That was the somber mood when Baptist Child & Family Services called again in the summer of 2003.

They had a 10-year-old boy, but there was a complication. He was currently in a foster home with two sisters, 7 and 5.

“Not a problem,” replied the Sepulvedas. The boy could share one bedroom with Shawn, and the girls could have the other bedroom. The weekend visit was successful, so they told BCFS to move ahead.

Then came another phone call. There were two younger brothers at a second foster home. The two sets of siblings had been separated for two years, but it would really improve the chances of them all being adopted together if they could live together.

“We've had six kids in our house before,” Mrs. Sepulveda reminded her husband. “There's no reason we can't have six again.”

But when the 4-year-old and the 2-year-old, arrived they had reason to wonder. The baby, diagnosed with severe fetal alcohol syndrome, could only say three words: “no,” “stop” and “welcome” (for “your welcome”). He could not walk, and he was unresponsive.

“You could talk to him, pick him up and move him, turn off the television or turn on the radio–he never changed expressions, never responded,” Sepulveda recalled.

Actually, he would react sometimes. The first time the Sepulvedas tried to give him a bath, he began to tremble “like he was having a seizure” when they turned on the faucets, and they had to bathe him in the kitchen sink. The official prognosis was that he would never talk and never walk.

Meanwhile, the other children also started displaying behavioral problems–lying, bedwetting, defying authority or simply withdrawing into silence,

So Mrs. Sepulveda arranged her work schedule to be off every Friday, and her husband took off every Monday. They took their five foster children to church and to Sea World and out to eat. They played games and just sat and talked.

After a few weeks, the behavioral problems disappeared, and the 2-year old was running around the house and jabbering.

The first Internet posting of the children as adoptable attracted 20 responses, including three families who already had passed home visits. So the Sepulvedas figured their time with this placement would be short. But none of them worked out.

Months passed. Members of First Baptist Church in Bulverde fell in love with the children, and Miranda made a profession of faith and was baptized there.

“Somebody said that I acted like those kids were my own, and they were right,” Mrs. Sepulveda said. “They were my kids, and they better treat them right.”

After 18 months, the five became so embedded in the family that when their teenaged daughter asked her parents to come meet her boyfriend and his family, she insisted her foster brothers and siblings come along too. At that point, an adoptive family appeared.

“It was hard,” Mrs. Sepulveda said. “But we also knew that that is what we had hoped for and prayed for them. They were scared and cried, but we told them they were afraid because they didn't know the family yet, that they would not be afraid after they joined them.

“We're just grateful that they were adopted by a San Antonio family instead of someone from West Virginia–we've been able to see them from time to time. We asked their new parents to think of us as grandparents and not competitors,” because all kids like to go visit their grandparents sometime.

The adoption was finalized just before Christmas, and the Sepulveda house became suddenly quiet–until a caseworker from Baptist Child & Family Services called about a boy needing a home. He has a sister, but she had been so disruptive at school (23 discipline referrals since September) she was being removed from the foster program.

They couldn't ask the Sepulvedas to take her because they couldn't be expected to take off from work all the time to meet with the school principal.

“Well, maybe she needs one more chance. Let's see what we can do,” Mrs. Sepulveda said, recalling one of their foster sons “had problems at school before he got here, but he did great in this system.”

So their new foster daughter signed a contract that if she has more than three referrals, she will have to leave the Sepulvedas and her brother and be placed in a group care facility. She also agreed to other specific rules.

The first weekend went smoothly. “Sunday after we went to church, we went out to eat and then went bowling,” Mrs. Sepulveda reported. “I think they are going to be OK.”

Posted: 3/4/05

SUFFER THE CHILDREN:
State may look to private providers to ease CPS crisis

By Ken Camp

Managing Editor

More than 500 Texas children died of abuse or neglect in a 2 1/2-year period. One-fourth of them had been investigated by Child Protective Services caseworkers. In response, Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order last summer directing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to review and recommend reforms in the system.

Faced with the challenge of implementing those reforms, some lawmakers in Austin now see private providers–including faith-based agencies such as child and family services affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas–as an answer to the crisis in Child Protective Services.

Representatives of those agencies welcome the proposed privitization of some Child Protective Services functions–sort of.

“One day, I feel like this is a time of unlimited opportunity for us to make the system better. The next day, I think I see a train wreck coming,” said Don Forrester, executive director of STARRY, a community-based agency of Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services in Round Rock that provides services to children, youth and parents in crisis. “Privitization is a good idea, but there are a lot of unknown variables. There's so much that's still up in the air.”

Some Austin lawmakers see faith-based providers–such as child and family services agencies affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas–as an answer to the crisis in Child Protective Services. (Photo courtesy of South Texas Children's Home )

A variety of legislative proposals are on the table, and agencies and lawmakers alike seem unsure exactly what may develop. But prominent voices in Austin have called for outsourcing two functions of Child Protective Services–foster care placement and the case management of families in crisis–so the governmental agency can concentrate on investigating and intervening in cases of suspected abuse or neglect.

“The state needs to focus on investigations and ensuring the safety of the kids,” said Felipe Garza, vice president and general manager of Buckner Children & Family Services.

Currently, about three-fourths of foster children in the Child Protective Services system are placed by private agencies, many of them faith-based.

Agencies fall into two broad categories–for-pay providers who receive government money and no-pay providers who do not.

Generally speaking, among Texas Baptist institutions, Buckner Children & Family Services and Baptist Child & Family Services are for-pay providers. Texas Baptist Children's Home is a no-pay provider, but its sister STARRY entity is a for-pay provider. South Texas Children's Home accepts no state or federal funds.

Agency representatives agreed the state demonstrates a strong bias toward placing children in private foster homes rather than residential cottage settings. Child Protective Services views residential campuses as “institutional,” even though house parents often care for fewer children per cottage than foster parents who operate group homes.

That's just one of the flaws in the current system, some provider agency personnel asserted.

“There's an inherent conflict of interest in the current system, where the state is charged with overseeing, licensing and regulating the care of children while at the same time the state is in charge of the house. The state does not make a good parent,” said Randy Daniels, director of operations for Buckner Children & Family Services. “Shifting the entire foster care responsibility to the private sector makes sense, but the revenue has to come with it.”

If lawmakers think they will save money by moving foster care responsibility to private providers, they are mistaken, Daniels said.

“The shift to privitization is not even cost-neutral. It will cost more,” he said, pointing to the example of Kansas, where a similar initiative was implemented.

In part, that's because the system has been underfunded for years, said Nanci Gibbons of Baptist Child & Family Services. It is difficult to provide quality programs because of the difference in the amount the state pays to providers and the actual cost incurred by agencies, she explained. However, she added, reputable private agencies are committed to providing quality of care that exceeds state-mandated minimum standards.

“CPS also will have to monitor for quality,” she added, noting this has been a criticism of the agency in the past, and the responsibility will be even greater–and the cost higher–if additional tasks are outsourced to private providers.

(Photo courtesy of South Texas Children's Home)

“Around our house, I like to remind staff that we can be very professional and unapologetically Christian with those we serve,” said Jerry Bradley, president of Texas Baptist Children's Home & Family Services. “Our Christian beliefs are not restricted by any relationship with government. We have a greater responsibility to be sure that we are providing quality care, while striving to exceed any regulation imposed by the state of Texas. That can be a dilemma at times, especially when legislation aimed at a problem hits us. Thus far, there has been no restriction on our exercising Christian principles, but we are concerned about attempts to improve the service delivery system through regulation.”

One thorny issue revolves around creating a level of mid-management to determine which agencies receive contracts.

“I have real concerns about how the decisions will be made about where the children will go,” Gibbons noted.

Another concern is a proposed “no reject/no eject” clause that could put some agencies in a position of accepting children whose specialized needs are beyond what a particular provider could offer, Forrester noted.

In addition to the foster care component of Child Protective Services, some legislative proposals recommend outsourcing case management–working not only with children, but also with families in crisis.

Several Baptist agencies already have multiple services to families, ranging from offering access to individual therapy and counseling to providing parent-education programs.

But agency representatives said the greater the involvement with troubled families, the greater the risk of legal liability, and they want lawmakers to offer some protection.

“There needs to be caps on liability when it comes to case management,” Garza said. “A couple of big lawsuits could put an agency out of business.”

“Would we even be able to get the insurance to do it? That's yet to be determined,” Forrester added.

To a large degree, it all comes down to allocating money, and Texas has a poor track record in financing services to abused and neglected children, Daniels observed.

In response to the governor's executive order, the inspector general's office at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission reviewed 2,221 Child Protective Services cases. The study found that in more than half of the cases where action was needed, caseworkers failed to maintain contact with the child, failed to review the case with a supervisor or failed to provide needed services.

In the 2003 fiscal year, Child Protective Services failed to investigate more than 55,000 reports of neglect and abuse–roughly 30 percent of all reports.

Observers agree that's due primarily to being understaffed. In 1998, then-Gov. George W. Bush declared the system “in crisis” when investigators' caseloads averaged 24. Now, monthly caseloads are between 72 and 75–the highest in the nation.

At the same time, funds for prevention programs have been cut and in many cases eliminated. Private providers, such as Baptist agencies, have tried to fill at least part of that void by offering a variety of mentoring, parenting, after-school, school-based and community-based programs.

But if private agencies accept the additional financial burden of more foster care and greater involvement with families in crisis, it will stretch their resources.

“Will we ever have to make a choice between prevention and caring for children who are in the system?” Daniels asked. “I don't want to be in the position of having to make that decision.”

Posted: 3/4/05

Abuse victim finds restoration at Buckner Children's Village

By Felicia Fuller

Buckner News Service

BEAUMONT–A family member stole her innocence. Her Heavenly Father restored her soul.

“I used to tell myself if I was a child of God, he wouldn't let me go through what I went through,” Tiffany said. “But I realized that what I went through was to build my testimony. I am strong. I survived. I am making something of myself.”

Though she appears a confident 19-year-old college student today, there was a time when Tiffany–not her real name–could scarcely lift her eyes or speak above a whisper. Her constitution was so fragile and her self-esteem so low, she didn't consider herself worthy to walk among common folk.

Raped at 6, suicidal at 7, homeless at 8 and snared into prostitution at 9, Tiffany had come to expect the worst from life and from those who claimed to love her.

There was a trusted relative. “I hated him doing that to me. I had that feeling deep inside my heart, and I didn't like it. I felt dirty. I thought for the longest time that I was crazy.”

Then a parade of predators followed suit. “By the sixth time, I just gave up,” she said shyly.

School was especially difficult, she said. “I was known as the stinky one in class,” she recalled. “Someone I thought was my friend told everybody I was molested. I became the outcast.”

For years after her parents divorced and after the family was evicted from their home, Tiffany, her mother and brother moved repeatedly, sleeping on park benches and in seedy motels–almost any place would do.

Panhandling and prostitution became primary sources of income. Eating scraps of food from dumpsters was commonplace. With all their belongings in storage, the children were left only with what they could carry on their backs.

Tiffany's body still bears the scars of wearing clothes and shoes three sizes too small– double-jointed toes and permanent bruises on her upper thighs.

Despite her horrid experiences, a glimmer of girlishness remains in this young woman forced to grow up far too soon. Her bedroom at Buckner Children's Village in Beaumont is strewn with stuffed animals, frilly pillows and shiny trinkets. Also among the layout is an assortment of Bibles.

“I never had a Bible until I came to Buckner,” she said, displaying a concordance signed and presented by Buckner President Ken Hall as a high school graduation gift.

After being bounced between foster homes, family and friends, Tiffany arrived at Buckner three years ago. Her counselor, Tammy Parsons, remembers her as foul-mouthed and fast on foot.

“She started stealing, skipping school, taking pills and having sex, which are all high-risk behaviors,” Parsons recalled. “She was acting out her emotional stuff. She needed higher structure. Things started getting worse and worse, and that's when she had to go to the residential treatment facility.”

The residential treatment center is a secure building on campus where children with severe behavioral problems are monitored around the clock. Residents adhere to strict schedules from sunrise to sunset. Activities are designed to build discipline, character and spirituality. No one is allowed outside the center except to attend campus school. Everyone receives weekly individual and group counseling.

“We have a behavior modification system here, which we apply to all of our kids,” Parsons said. “We try to be consistent and fair, and we're very clear about our boundaries and our rules. Many of our kids have no boundaries. They've never been taught respect for self and others. That's their biggest challenge.”

It was Tiffany's biggest challenge, too. “I was laying in my bed thinking, 'I'm locked up, popping pills, having sex, stealing, doing everything I promised myself I'd never do.”

During her stint in the residential treatment center, with only a Bible and school books as reading materials, Tiffany gave her life to Christ and resolved to break the cycle of dependency and depravity that had become her family mantra. Soon she re-assimilated into the general population at Buckner Children's Village.

“I learned a lot. I learned respect and how to hold myself, take care of myself,” she said. “I wanted to graduate and make something out of myself. I was determined to do that, and I changed.”

In the past several months, Tiffany has required less therapeutic intervention, Parsons noted. She graduated from high school last May and now is a college freshman majoring in child psychology.

Like many young adults, Tiffany has some apprehension about venturing out on her own. But her counselor reminds her Buckner is an ever-present source of help through programs such as Transition to Adult Independent Living. A partnership between Buckner Children & Family Services and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, TRAIL provides support and promotes self-sufficiency to young people 16 and older who have been in state-sponsored care.

“They can come back to us any time, and we're still there for them,” Parsons said.

Tiffany “has come a long way. As she goes through developmental stages and enters more intimate relationships, some of those old issues might come back up. If she chooses to let it control her life and be the center of her life, then it will be that. But if she chooses to deal with those issues, they won't become as powerful. Over the three years she has been here, those things don't control her.”

Of all the methods Tiffany has tried to purge the pain of her past–pills, sex, even ritualistic cutting–prayer has proved the most potent. Today, she encourages others like her to be victors instead of victims.

“When girls come with their problems, I say, 'Here, read this,'” she said, lifting her Bible. “Romans 10, verses 9 and 10 are for salvation. John 14 and 16 are about asking for the Holy Spirit.

“My favorite book of the Bible is Job because, after all that he went through, he would not curse God. Job lost so much, but he got so much more back. So have I.

“I got my pride back. I got my life back.”

Posted: 3/4/05

Shelter workers respond to
emotionally, physically abused children

By Craig Bird

Baptist Child & Family Services

SAN ANTONIO–They are the first responders to the emotional and physical wreckage of abusive and violent homes. With a maximum of 90 days to do their jobs, the men and women who serve as direct-care workers in emergency shelters for children must deal with the anger, fear and trauma of infants to 17-year-olds forcibly removed from their home.

Workers seek to introduce structure into their lives, closely monitor their behavior to assist in the needs assessment required by the court and try to begin the healing process of ruptured families.

“When a child dies from being beaten or starved to death, the tragedy gets everyone's attention for a while, but the problem isn't anywhere near solved just because the abusive boyfriend or the negligent mother is arrested,” said Toni Garcia, case manager at Baptist Child & Family Services' emergency shelter in San Antonio.

“The other children removed from that home need attention. In the long term, that may mean foster care or residential placement. But for the short term, they need a safe place with compassionate and concerned caregivers while all the pieces get sorted out. That's where we come in. This is a tough job emotionally, spiritually and physically, but it also is tremendously rewarding.”

She didn't always feel that way.

“The first two weeks, I cried almost all night every night because of what I was seeing,” she explained. “It's impossible to imagine what these kids have gone through, and dealing with it every day just broke my heart. My family was telling me I had to quit.”

Mike Mosley, the team leader for the Baptist Child & Family Services boys' shelter in San Antonio, intervened.

“Mike sat me down and talked straight to me. He told me to concentrate on the fact that we were the good guys here; that we were letting these kids get away from their problems to a safe place. Instead of focusing on all the bad things, I needed to remember that they would be worse off if we weren't doing our job.”

Mosley, a retired Army veteran, was just treating the new case manager the way he treats the young boys and teenagers who come into his care.

“It is easy to make the mistake of trying to be their buddy, but they don't need a buddy when they get here. They need a teacher,” he explained.

“You've got to keep yourself low and remember when they act up that they are just kids dealing with some tough times.”

Mosely, who has worked at the shelter six years, agrees it is a tough job.

“The first thing is you better be sure you were sent here by God because sometimes just wanting to do something to help hurting kids is not enough,” he said. “But if it's a calling, God will equip you with the insight and the gifts to be effective.”

The emergency shelter focuses on creating a Christian environment. On Sundays, there is a worship service on campus, and every-other Saturday, a local church comes on campus and provides social activities, Bible studies and praise worship. Wednesday night Bible studies are part of the program, too.

Kathy Openshaw, a nine-year veteran, sees the spiritual component as the most attractive aspect of working at the BCFS shelter.

“I worked for 26 years at a state facility, but I was frustrated because I was not allowed to incorporate spirituality and faith into what I was doing. Here we do that, and I can't tell you how important that is. Many of these kids we get have been abused, and they need faith to heal, and even more faith to be able to forgive those who hurt them so they can get on with their own lives in a whole and healthy way.”

Garcia sends the resident census to Child Protective Services twice a day, so the state always knows if any beds are open. A child will have his or her first hearing within 10 days of being removed from the home, at which time a judge will decide to rescind the removal or to assign the child for assessment.

In the latter case, the child returns to the shelter and begins intensive evaluation, including psychological testing if that is indicated. Detailed daily behavior reports from the shelter staff are key components in deciding what the long-term treatment plan will be. But within 90 days of the removal, the child will be transferred to a long-term placement.

“We are very fortunate, because we have so many services in one location,” Garcia added. “Having both a boys' and a girls' shelter means that siblings get to see each other and can be reassured that they are OK, and because we have an on-campus school, they can see each other there, too.

“If they are returned home but ordered to have intensive family counseling, we have that program on campus. If a child has been sexually abused, we are right next to the center where the child can be examined. If they are already parents themselves, there is another BCFS program that can teach them parenting skills. And, of course, we have our own residential cottages and foster care program, too. It helps create a sense of trust when a child accepts us and then remains as part of the BCFS system; there is a real carryover.”

The reference to parenting classes was not a hypothetical situation.

“We have a 16-year-old with us right now who has a 6-month-old baby,” Garcia said. “She was living with her boyfriend when CPS intervened because her 2-year-old brother was about to starve to death. All nine siblings were removed. She has been separated from her baby, too, for now and is going to be placed in a group home.”

Another current resident, a 16-year-old boy, also is bound for a group home, having overcome emotional problems that caused him to attempt suicide while he was in a juvenile mental facility. Sexually abused by both his mother and another woman who his mother gave him to and beaten by his uncle, he was addicted to several drugs when the state took custody.

“But he has responded well here,” Garcia said. “We think it is a real victory that his assessment plan is for a residential placement instead of returning to the mental facility.”

As the first-responders to childhood trauma, Garcia and her colleagues look for those victories where they can find them.

“Every once in awhile, I get to thinking I've seen it all,” she admitted. “But I quickly find out I haven't seen it all. We get another placement, and I read something else in a case file that breaks my heart for the first time. Then I remind myself that as bad as it is, they are a lot better off here, because of BCFS and Texas Baptists, than they would be in we weren't here doing our jobs. And that makes it all worthwhile–that and seeing them go from angry, frightened children who are actually sad to leave us after a couple of months.”

Posted: 3/4/05

CYBERCOLUMN:
Bonnie, a flower in the desert

By John Duncan

I’m sitting here under the old oak tree, remembering Bonnie, a flower in the desert of my life.

The year was 1987. In those days, life was a seed planted and soon to sprout. I pastored a small church in a rural community. The world at large buzzed with news—nuclear testing in Nevada; a plane crash killing 156 people in Detroit; the first heart-lung transplant in Baltimore; Fred Astaire died; Hillary Duff was born; Prozac made its debut in pharmaceuticals; Lethal Weapon was a popular movie; and Wal-Mart planned to build a Super Wal-Mart here in Granbury.

One hot August day in 1987, I stood on a porch. The boards creaked when I walked up the steps. I knocked on the door. Bonnie opened the door and invited me inside.

In the ensuing years, I spent time with Bonnie and her husband, Burl. I think of the words of the poet Walt Whitman when I think of Bonnie: “I anchor my ship for a little while only, My messengers continually cruise away or Bring their returns to me.”

I anchored my ship in Bonnie’s living room on many occasions. She was my messenger, often giving insight into God’s ways, church talk, her strong opinion about the way things ought to be and encouragement for the journey—during a time when my pastor ship sailed rough seas.

The church declined in 1987. My pastoral skills required excelled growth. The likes of Riley Robeson, John and Ruth Stewart, Dorothy Hand and Bonnie Dickson directed my life like a compass. They advised, spread wisdom, and poured water on my weary, dehydrated soul.

I anchored my ship for a little while only, myself the skipper, in the words of Whitman again, “How (I) the skipper saw the crowded and rudderless wreck of a steam-ship, and death chasing it up and down the storm.” The church declined. The church like a stearn ship appeared crowded and rudderless, a church ship on a wrecking course. The church, in my mind at least, seemed like death chasing it up and down the storm. The storm winds blew. The lightning and thunder raged. The storm rocked the ship, tossing it like a bottle on the rolling, ferocious waves.

Then suddenly the storm calmed. The church ship found a harbor of peace. The church suddenly grew, the church ship alive, vibrant, active, full of joy. And there on the shore amid the desert of my life a flower bloomed. Her name was Bonnie.

I stood at her gravesite just the other day. Bonnie lived 84 fruitful years. She once vowed after a storm on her farm never to shortchange God. She once told me I was the best pastor she ever had, “my brother John,” she boasted. She once helped calm a storm in the days of my youth. She once wrote a note in her Bible given to her by her son, Tom, one Mother’s Day in the 1960s. She wrote about God’s “true book.” She once instructed the preacher which verse to read at her funeral.

Now, almost 18 years later, I stood in the sunshine at the cemetery. In the words of Emily Bronte, life lengthens, “shadows on shadows advancing and flying!” The sun lengthened the shadows. The family walked through the valley of the shadow of death. And memory flooded my mind.

I remembered the porch, the door swinging open, the words, the night her husband, Burl, died, the storm, and the flower in the desert. And somehow, somewhere her words came rushing afresh, like a flower in the desert, like dew on fresh-cut grass, like a cool breeze whisping over a calm sea, the ship afloat in the calm. What were her words? Her words were similar to those she instructed to be read at her funeral, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me.”

I stood at the gravesite and gave thanks to the Lord for flowers in the desert, of whom Bonnie was one, a flower that blossomed in my life one August day.

Tom told me that she went peacefully, he slipping his hand into hers as she gasped for her last breath. As she breathed her last, she slipped quietly into God’s hand. And that’s where she is now—no longer a flower in the desert, but a flower radiating and wafting a scent of sweetness in heaven. And sometimes, yes, sometimes, that’s how life goes.

Let not your heart be troubled.

John Duncan is pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Granbury, Texas, and the writer of numerous articles in various journals and magazines.

Posted: 3/4/05

Execution of minors ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court

By Robert Marus

ABP Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (ABP)–The Supreme Court ruled March 1 that the execution of convicts who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes constitutes the sort of “cruel and unusual” punishment barred by the Eighth Amendment.

The high court's decision overturns one of its own cases from less than 16 years ago and means several dozen 16-and 17-year-old offenders currently on the nation's death rows –including 29 in Texas–will receive a new lease on life.

The 5-4 decision turned on the idea that, since the court last ruled on this issue in 1989, “the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society” have changed in regard to executing juveniles.

“When a juvenile offender commits a heinous crime, the state can exact forfeiture of some of the most basic liberties, but the state cannot extinguish his life and his potential to attain a mature understanding of his own humanity,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy in the court's majority opinion.

“The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest.”

While 19 states still officially permitted the death penalty for minors prior to the March 1 decision, the practice has become exceedingly rare in recent years –with only Texas, Virginia and Oklahoma actually executing 16- or 17-year-old offenders in the past decade. Several other states have outlawed the practice since 1989.

In a dissenting opinion, the court's three most conservative justices–Chief Justice William Rehnquist and associate justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas–took Kennedy to task for appealing to international practices in his opinion.

But Kennedy, in noting that “the United States is the only country in the world that continues to give official sanction to the juvenile death penalty,” also said that reasoning did not control the majority's decision but merely “provides respected and significant confirmation” of the majority's decision.

“It does not lessen our fidelity to the Constitution or our pride in its origins to acknowledge that the express affirmation of certain fundamental rights by other nations and peoples simply underscores the centrality of those same rights within our own heritage of freedom,” Kennedy concluded.

Posted: 3/4/05

DOWN HOME:
Do redtip 'sticks' have real purpose?

Deb handed the phone off to her husband, David, and I got right to the point: “Do you provide marriage counseling?” I asked, somewhat anxiously.

David didn't expect that question. He owns a landscaping business and has one of the greenest thumbs I know. However, my guess is that very, very few folks have come to him for marriage counseling.

But he's a kind, good-natured guy who's always willing to help. So, after pausing briefly, he chuckled and answered: “Well, sure. I guess so.”

“Great,” I replied, “because I think maybe I really messed up this time. …”

David listened patiently as I described my plight. The redtip bushes on the southwest corner of our house were the culprit. OK, actually I was the culprit, but the redtips had provoked me into frenzied bushwhacking passion.

Those redtips have grown in that spot since our house was new, more than nine years ago. Early on, I naively thought they looked great about five feet tall. “I think I'll keep them trimmed about five feet tall,” I remember telling myself. Looking back, I'm glad I only talked to myself about horticulture and not something really significant, like stock investments or hair plugs.

Soon, the redtips were eight feet tall. Then they started brushing underneath the eaves of the roof.

I've trimmed them at least twice a year. A couple of times, I've almost fallen off the ladder, leaning out to trim the top inside branches. (If you ever start falling off a ladder while gripping the power switch of a hedge trimmer, you'll catch up on your prayer life real quick. I could write a book about it: 40 Nanoseconds of Purpose.)

But no matter what happened, the redtips grew up and out faster than I could trim. I was beginning to think they could film an episode of Lost in those bushes.

So, I did what any self-respecting guy with a semi-sharp bow saw would do: I whacked them down. Not all the way. Just down to anywhere from four to six feet high. But since all the leaves had grown to the outside of the monsters, only about 11 or 17 leaves remained after I got done.

My theory is that when the sap starts to rise, it will push new leaves out all over the bare-naked branches. And we'll have new, short redtips where the behemoths once towered.

Joanna looked them over and issued the ultimatum: “If they don't stop looking like sticks, you've got to do something.”

She's right. They look like sticks, leaning every which way on the southwest corner of our house. Only someone deeply into postmodern landscaping would say the redtip remnant looks good right now.

But David said if I put nitrogen under them, they may grow back. May grow back. So, I'm fertilizing and dreaming about what plants I'll buy if this doesn't work.

You know, yardwork–especially gardening–sometimes reminds me of a person's spiritual life. The task of pruning and weeding and cultivating never stops. Even then, you sometimes feel overrun. But for the grace of God (or a green-thumbed friend), you would be overrun.

–Marv Knox