Posted: 8/22/03

SARS detour opens student's eyes
to a new world vision in Germany

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

A Baptist General Convention of Texas student summer missionary learned to live intentionally for Christ by traveling the long way to serve him.

Melissa Forehand, a senior business major at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, was supposed to serve in Southeast Asia this summer. Her plans changed, however, when she was reassigned to Berlin due to the threat of the SARS virus.

“It was really hard,” she said. “It had been such a difficult decision to go to Vietnam, but now I know he used that to get us to Berlin.”

Forehand and her team of fellow summer missionaries immediately noticed a spiritual “darkness” in Germany, she said. The people they encountered never smiled and rarely talked to each other.

The team of student missionaries sought to bring light to German lives by meeting people in parks and floral shops and sharing the gospel when possible.

On one occasion, Forehand said, God led her to exercise with a Muslim woman. To the surprise of the rest of the team, Forehand took off running with the woman. The missionary and the woman became friends, and the student later shared her faith in the woman's home.

“God really does prepare you and organize circumstances the way he wants them,” she said. “Things would happen and you would see him working.”

Although the team did not see any professions of faith, Forehand said she believes the missionaries “moved a lot of rocks” that will pave the way for future conversions. An International Mission Board missionary will follow up on their work.

The summer experience taught Forehand she can share her faith no matter what she is doing at home or abroad. She can witness to others consistently if she remains focused on Jesus, she said.

Posted: 8/22/03

Children find faith through Bible stories

HOUSTON­June 26 and July 24 will live forever in the minds of Brandy Jacobson and the 15 children she led to Christ those days.

Jacobson, a senior elementary education major at West Texas A&M, served as a Baptist General Convention of Texas student summer missionary at the Houston Mission Center. She helped primarily with the Kid's Club program and the food pantry.

She vividly recalls going through a Bible lesson June 26 and looking up to see all the children staring at her. Jacobson felt God tell her to close the lesson and extend an invitation to the kids.

She ended the lesson in prayer and told the children that anyone who wanted to commit to live for Jesus Christ could remain while the rest could go play. To her amazement, nine stayed.

Jacobson admits she was unsure what to do next, but she stumbled her way through leading the children to pray the sinner's pray and profess faith in Christ.

“You're so humbled, but you're so high,” she said. “God is so exalted. It was the most beautiful moment I've ever had in my life.”

July 24, six more children professed faith in much the same manner, she explained.

Toward the end of her stay, Jacobson gave the children bilingual Bibles, with Spanish and English, at their request.

“They wanted Spanish too, so they can share with their parents,” she said. “That's encouraging.”

Jacobson did not come into the summer expecting to lead 15 children to professions of faith, but she hoped to tell about Jesus as believers had shared with her.

In addition to that work, Jacobson sang and gave her testimony at various churches throughout the city. One evening, she was listening to the message when she said she felt God asking her to give her life completely to him. She committed to do so and said God revealed her calling to her.

“When I told him he could have it, he told me missions,” Jacobson said. “Now I know that it's missions. I know it is my calling.”

Posted: 8/22/03

Missionary gets warm welcome

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

Eastern Europeans love Americans, according to a student summer missionary. But they had no idea what this American stands for until they met him.

Still grateful for the aid provided in past wars, Eastern Europeans celebrate everything American, including July 4.

They waited on Wade Ashby, a Baptist General Convention of Texas student summer missionary, “hand and foot,” even fighting to make his bed. They offered him women “left and right,” he said.

Ashby and his missionary teammate witnessed to the people by correcting their misguided ideas about what the Texan was like. He discovered a schedule was difficult to keep because he felt God calling him to share his faith with people he encountered. Sometimes he spent hours explaining a Bible passage to a Muslim.

“A lot of times, they would have preconceived notions from what they saw in movies,” Ashby explained. “We would have to explain we're not like that.”

Helping people understand his beliefs was one way Ashby built relationships as he taught English and computer science classes. Eastern Europeans asked a lot of questions about his faith, and he quickly learned he could not testify without God's presence.

“You come to the realization you know things by faith,” said Ashby, a senior business major at Angelo State University. “I can't tell (the gospel) without God. Through a language barring you, you can't share Christ unless the Holy Spirit moves.”

Although Ashby did not see any professions of faith in Christ from his efforts, he trusts God will work through his International Mission Board supervisor to lead people to Christianity. Several of the people Ashby met will help propagate the gospel, he believes.

“There were a lot of good relationships built,” Ashby said. “There were a lot of people in the computer science classes the IMB people wouldn't have met who will be great translators.”

The student also was encouraged when he saw a European Christian lead a fellow countryman to Christ at a café. He said he is considering a return mission trip to the area after he graduates in December and is hopeful a wave of indigenous reproducing small churches and cell groups will spread across the region.

“God has already been there,” Ashby insisted. “He's already working. He was minister before I got there, and he's still there now.”

Posted: 8/22/03

Dallas Baptist University student Micah Blalock (with guitar) leads Russian orphans and American volunteers in worship during a summer camp session for orphans.At right, DBU student Andrew Briscoe poses with a new friend, Vova, a Russian orphan boy.

Texas students travel to Russia with love

DALLAS–Andrew Briscoe, a graduate student at Dallas Baptist University, has devoted much of his life to learning in the classroom. But after a month-long summer missionary internship working in the orphanages of St. Petersburg, Russia, he is quick to tell listeners that education also takes place on the hard surface of the mission field.

DBU students Leslie Whitlock and Danny Krumbholz provide recreational fun for an orphan

Briscoe and eight other DBU students joined students from six other colleges, including Baylor University, to work as summer missionaries, or interns, through Buckner Orphan Care International. The team provided a Christian witness–and love –to children living in Russian orphanages and orphanage hospitals through summer camp programming, Vacation Bible Schools, personal attention and support of shorter-term volunteers.

For Briscoe, the internship was a learning experience in missions involvement. “I wanted to be a part of this trip so I would have a greater understanding of missions. The entire month was an incredible learning period and the spiritual growth we experienced was amazing,” he said.

DBU senior Jared Ambra felt an equal impact from his summer internship experience.

Describing many of the people he saw as having “a look of hopelessness on their faces,” he explained that “the first week was not easy at all. The children are really friendly, but orphanage life takes a toll. It's truly a test of your ability to trust that the Lord can take hopeless situations and turn them around.”

The interns ministered in a situation that calls for a strong Christian witness, explained Mike Douris, vice president for Buckner Orphan Care International, noting that interns and other volunteers often must adjust to seeing children living without love or hope.

In St. Petersburg, Russia, Baylor University student Justin Henry of Longview cradles an infant in an orphanage hospital. This was Henry's second year to serve in summer missions through Buckner Orphan Care International.

DBU student Lana Jones receives help transporting a craft station.

“These students were providing the love of Christ to children who have perhaps never been told they are loved and have never been exposed to the message that Christ can save. In addition, they live in some of the poorest conditions imaginable,” he said. “I can't begin to voice how crucial a part these students had in spreading the gospel and its message to these little ones. The interns provide the children a long-term, consistent message that they are loved.”

Echoing Douris' thoughts, Ambra said that those they worked with “need to know the hope that Christ can bring to their lives. Russia is definitely a country in need of the gospel.”

DBU President Gary Cook emphasized that the interns are an example of how missions partnerships among Baptists can work. He noted that while DBU and Baylor students provided the volunteer efforts and Buckner provided the organization, programming structure and contacts in Russia, a third partner, Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, provided funding for the internships.

Briscoe hopes the service he and fellow students gave will affect the future of Russia on a national scale.

“Perhaps the hope of this nation will be found in its children,” he said. “The orphans we met were so eager to be loved and accepted, and we were able to share with them the love of Christ, a love that will never leave or abandon them.”

Posted: 8/22/03

2003 Summer Missions Snapshots

BGCT student summer missionary Angie Cornett poses with children she met prayerwalking in Northern Africa.
Jason Ellis of Texas A&M-Commerce plays with a child in Sabine-Neches Baptist Association.

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 8/22/03

Texas team bikes among villages

Four college students from Texas spent a month in Zambia doing mountain bike evangelism.

Justin Childress, Richie Conry, Randy Kelley and Mickey Matlock served through the Baptist General Convention of Texas Baptist Student Ministry and the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board.

Childress is from Texas A&M; Conry from the University of North Texas; Kelley from the University of Houston; and Matlock from Midwestern State University.

Mountain bike evangelism is a relatively new ministry in Zambia in which volunteer teams visit remote areas and unreached people groups. The students camped in the bush and biked from hut to hut in the villages sharing the gospel.

“God made me dependent on his word for my words, because when we would come upon a house there were times when I had no words to say but Scripture, and it was powerful,” Conry said.

Their other objectives besides telling people about Jesus were to discover what the spiritual background and practices of the people.

Zambians are considered eager to discuss spiritual things and often follow the first religion that comes their way, mission workers report. Cults such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism and the New Apostolic Church have a foothold there.

The students discovered most Zambians have heard of Jesus but don't understand he is the Son of God and “the way, the truth, and the life,” as the Bible states.

The first place the four Texans went was a sparsely populated area near the Democratic Republic of Congo. They biked within a few hundred meters of the border. There is one Baptist church in this area, with a membership of about 50.

When they first pulled up, the Zambians were so excited they did not stop singing and dancing until well into the night. Some of the locals brought their children by so that they could see a mzungu (white person) for the first time.

The mountain bike team camped the majority of the trip. They ate military rations, drank filtered water and went for days without bathing. They tried to fight off mosquitoes, but half the team still contracted malaria.

While tough, the students still found the trip rewarding.

“You are always seeing the glory of God personified through the incredible landscapes and animals,” Kelley said.

Posted: 8/22/03

Texas Tidbits

Amarillo hospital ranked highly. Baptist-St. Anthony Hospital in Amarillo was ranked among the best hospitals in the United States this year by U.S. News & World Report. In the magazine's annual evaluation of hospitals by specialization, Baptist-St. Anthony ranked among the top 50 hospitals in neurology and neurosurgery as well as for treating kidney disease.

Flamming to speak at HSU. James Flamming, pastor of First Baptist Church of Richmond, Va., since 1983 and former pastor of First Baptist Church of Abilene, will speak at Hardin-Simmons University's Sept. 4 convocation program in Behrens Chapel. Dedication services also will be held for the new Elwin Skiles Social Sciences Building and the Linebery Boulevard and Linebery Clock Tower. That evening, dedication services will be held for the renovated Caldwell Music Building.

Another Flowers blooms. Leighton Flowers has accepted a part-time position as consultant in youth evangelism with the Baptist General Convention of Texas Center for Strategic Evangelism. Effective Aug. 1, he assumed many of the responsibilities previously carried by his father, Chuck Flowers, who is on medical leave from the BGCT. Flowers, 29, is a graduate of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. He has served nearly two years as staff evangelist at Cornerstone Baptist Church of Wylie. Previously, he was youth minister at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Cedar Hill. While attending seminary, he was pastor of First Baptist Church in Era.

Texas men serve shrimpers. Baptist disaster relief volunteers served about 500 meals to Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishermen who were forced to dock as they waited out Tropical Storm Erika. The storm, which fell short of hurricane intensity, made landfall before dawn Aug. 16 in northern Mexico.The South Texas disaster relief unit from the Corpus Christi and Beeville area was activated Aug. 15. Texas Baptist Men volunteers from the region set up a field kitchen in Brownsville to serve shrimp boat crews at the request of the Salvation Army.

Posted: 8/22/03

TOGETHER:
Baptists affirm priesthood of believer

As I have participated in the ordination of Baptist deacons through the years, one doctrinal conviction most often mentioned in their testimonies has been the priesthood of the believer. Baptists have cherished this biblical doctrine and have believed it to be a bulwark against any authoritarian religion that is pressed down on others by some formal or informal religious hierarchy.

The Old Testament role of priest was to serve the people, intercede with God on their behalf and lead in the worship rituals, including offering sacrifices. When Jesus offered himself as the perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world, he brought an end to the sacrificial system. He became the Great High Priest and made those who believe in him priests who serve under him.

It is not that Baptists do not believe in the importance of priests. Rather, we believe the role is so important that God has called all Jesus' followers to be priests. We have the privilege of standing beside one another, for we all need priests who can intercede in prayer for us, listen to us with spiritual ears, help us see the sin in our life, and love and serve as Jesus commanded us to do.

The relationship of pastor and people is one of mutual respect and submission to God. God gives the church spiritual leadership through his calling and gifting of some individuals. But the church must identify and call those people to be their spiritual leaders. No one stands in an authoritative role between God and us.

The doctrine of the priesthood of the believers means there is no division between clergy and laity. We all can do the work of God. Clergy are called by God to lead, and they are also called by the people to their particular place of service in the church. Laity are called by God as well. Their particular role is given to them by the church, as the congregation calls them to serve in accomplishing kingdom work.

Benefits of this doctrine are many. God's people are freed up for service. They are able to move out of a role of dependency on some spiritual leader. They are released from any narrow legalism some teacher or preacher might seek to impose. They are able to enter into the true mystery of God's grace and not into some artificial mystery concocted by ritual and tradition. The mark of every believer's calling into this priesthood is baptism.

Requirements that fall upon these believer priests are significant. A priest of God must seek the will of Christ. Decisions made individually and in the life of the congregation are determined not by one's preferences but by one's prayerful understanding of what God desires to be done. A priest of God has the invitation to come boldly into the presence of God and make one's petitions and intercessions known.

What we have been invited to do we must do faithfully and courageously. A priest of God must serve God passionately. Half-hearted service is never acceptable, but especially is it not acceptable for those who are called to be God's priests.

We love him, and we love one another. Those are commands, and we dare not ignore them if we are serious about our calling as priests in his kingdom.

We are loved.

Posted: 8/22/03

UMHB student gains new view from Palo Duro musical

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

CANYON–Texas Baptists who ventured to Pioneer Amphitheater at Palo Duro Canyon this summer saw a product of their own mission work on stage.

Josh Stockel, who played one of the lead roles in this summer's production of the “Texas Legacies” musical, is a senior at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton.

UMHB is one of eight universities affiliated with and supported by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, preparing students to be both vocational ministers and lay leaders in congregations.

“Texas Legacies” is the new production staged in Palo Duro Canyon, successor to the “Texas” musical that ran for more than 30 years.

Stockel, an exercise and sports science major, auditioned for the show after seeing a notice posted at school. The Katy native vaguely remembered seeing the outdoor drama as a child.

“All I remembered was a cowboy shaking my hand and a lightning bolt,” he confessed.

Stockel was “pretty surprised” when he was offered the role of J.C. Travis, a range boss who figures prominently in the storyline.

About 1,300 people auditioned for the 43-member cast.

Stockel left for Canyon the day after his last final exam at UMHB in May. After three weeks of rehearsals, the production ran six nights a week from June 5 through Aug. 16.

After the last show, Stockel went straight back to Belton, a day late for training as a dormitory resident assistant.

Stockel, who played football for Mayd Creek High School in Katy, was recruited to UMHB as a football player. He also received a choir scholarship.

Through participation in the university's Concert Choir and First Baptist Church of Belton, Stockel expanded his experience in music and drama, while continuing to prepare for a career in high school coaching.

He landed a role as an extra in “Second Hand Lions,” a motion picture filmed in Austin and scheduled for release Sept. 26.

His unexpected opportunities in singing and acting have caused him to ponder his future, he admitted. “I'm really trying to seek God's direction. This is just boom–God has opened so many doors for me in the last year with acting. If God wants me to teach, I'll do that. If God wants me to act and sing, I'll do that. …. I don't want to close any doors.”

Regardless, his experience in the Panhandle this summer provided both professional and spiritual development, he said.

Although raised in the Houston suburbs, he had some experience with the outdoors and with horses through his career as a Boy Scout. But the Eagle Scout discovered life in rural West Texas is a far cry from the big city.

“Life is completely different here,” he said, explaining he benefitted from learning how to ride bareback and wrangle horses.

Stockel also has learned more about acting this summer, he added. “This is the biggest role I've ever had. I had a lot of people work with me–acting coaches, the director. I've had a lot of one-on-one time with experienced people. I ask a lot of questions and try to learn stuff on the go.”

The outdoor amphitheater presents its own unique challenges, Stockel reported, including learning to project without microphones and keeping constant watch for unexpected obstacles on stage.

“We've had a lot of rain and winds this summer. It's real weird trying to deliver your lines with rain rolling off your hat. Also animals, lots of things with little creatures. A deer ran across stage. One of the horses got loose and ran across stage. We had a scorpion on the stage and a tarantula.”

Off stage, Stockel has soaked in the beauty of the canyon, hiking and rappelling regularly.

He's also found quiet time to pray and study the Bible, he said, explaining that Buddy Young, Baptist Student Ministry director at West Texas A&M, has provided a weekly Bible study for the cast this summer.

Stockel's past spiritual experience has taught him there may be more to life ahead than he could have anticipated.

Before becoming a Christian at 16, he was “your typical football player,” he said. “I got in a lot of trouble.

“But then I discovered there's really more to life than I thought there was,” he said. “From then on, it's been a great ride working with God. Everything I do is through God and not because of my own actions.”

Posted: 8/22/03

SPANISH SERENADE:
Wayland musicians on mission

By Jonathan Petty

Wayland Baptist University

PLAINVIEW–After being tucked away for more than 20 years, “A Espana” finally made its successful debut before a captivated Spanish crowd.

The piece was performed by a group of Wayland Baptist University students who participated in a mission trip to Spain this summer. The work, composed by Wayland Assistant Professor of Piano Gary Belshaw, was designed to combine Scripture readings with music for both band and choir.

It was the crowning achievement of the group's two main concerts while spending a week in Valencia, Madrid and the surrounding areas of Spain.

“I originally wrote it in 1981 in English,” Belshaw said of the first piece. “I rearranged it for our group to sing in Spanish.”

The composition was made up of three movements, which took about 15 minutes to perform. After dusting off the original piece, Belshaw added two other pieces, which were designed specifically for the members of the group traveling to Spain to perform in the native tongue.

“For some reason, we didn't have anything in Spanish in our repertoire,” he said.

Belshaw, who received his doctorate from Texas Tech University, said it took about a month to complete the work, “stealing time from other activities.” Not knowing any Spanish, he used a Spanish version of the New American Standard Bible, translated from original manuscripts, and his parallel Bible to set the Scriptures he wanted to use to music.

The piece begins with the first chapter of John–“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”–and from there moves through Scriptures that focus on the importance of God's promises to humanity.

Being able to perform a piece written specifically for the trip was meaningful, especially for Belshaw, who wasn't sure how anyone would react.

“Even the students and faculty were more receptive than I thought,” he said. “They liked doing something original.”

While the piece made its debut in Spain, Belshaw said it is far from finished. Even the title isn't set in stone. In Spanish, there are two words meaning “for.” Belshaw said the translator changed the name of the piece from “A Espana” to “Para Espana.”

“I'm thinking about changing it to 'Whenever I go to Spain,' or 'Songs for Spain,'” Belshaw said.

Wayland music professor Robert Black, who organized the trip, said the students were “unbelievably effective.”

“We made lots of good music, made friends and helped a lot of Baptist churches and ministries in Spain by giving them some credibility.”

Posted 8/18/03

Land 'troubled' by Ten Commandments
judge's defiance of federal court ruling

By Mark Wingfield

Managing Editor

In his first public comments on the plight of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, Richard Land said Aug. 18 he is troubled by the Southern Baptist judge's open defiance of a federal court ruling.

Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, has been a frequent apologist in the national media for Religious Right causes. But an article on the website EthicsDaily.com Aug. 15 noted Land had been noticeable in his silence on the case of the Alabama chief justice erecting a massive Ten Commandments monument in the state judicial building.

A federal court has ruled that Moore must remove the display because it violates the United States Constitution by endorsing one religion over others. Moore has declared he will not remove the 5,280-pound edifice and will appeal his case directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Some of his supporters have threatened to engage in civil disobedience to prevent law enforcement officials from carrying out the order of U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson. Thompson has mandated the monument be removed from the courts building by Aug. 20.

The unusual case has left no safe ground for Religious Right figures who also specialize in church-state law. Land joined Jay Sekulow, head of Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, in questioning the legal path Moore has undertaken.

"However much sympathy I may have for Judge Moore's beliefs and convictions about the Ten Commandments and the role they have played in Western civilization and American jurisprudence, I am dismayed at the prospect of a judge defying a court order," Land said. "One of the foundational principles of American law is that we believe in the rule of law."

On his Aug. 15 syndicated radio broadcast, Sekulow voiced doubt, "legally speaking, that Judge Moore is correct here."

He added: "I support the display of the Ten Commandments. I think it is the Western foundation of law (and) clearly displayed at the Supreme Court building of the United States."

However, Moore and his legal team have taken an unorthodox legal stance "that is going to require a constitutional showdown in Alabama," Sekulow said.

Other figures associated with the Religious Right have taken up Moore's cause, however.

Rick Scarborough, who resigned as pastor of First Baptist Church of Pearland last year to give full attention to his Vision America organization, sponsored a "Restore the Commandments" rally Aug. 16 on the steps of the Alabama State Supreme Court building. An estimated crowd of 4,000 people participated in the rally.

Members of Vision America's advisory board include prominent Southern Baptist pastors Jerry Falwell, Ronnie Floyd and Adrian Rogers, as well as Houston layman Paul Pressler.

Among the speakers were Falwell, former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes and former Constitution Party presidential nominee Howard Phillips. Baptist Press reported that Focus on the Family founder James Dobson sent a letter of support for Moore, while James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries sent a box full of 150,000 signatures supporting Moore.

Falwell, who took a decidedly different tone than Land's later comments, said that before flying to Alabama he was asked by someone why he was supporting a person who was "breaking the law."

"I said, 'Did you ask Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that question?'

Falwell asserted that "civil disobedience is the right of every one of us when we feel that breaking man's law enables us to keep God's law."

Land countered two days later that Moore had not exhausted all avenues of legal action before forcing the looming showdown.

"As I understand it, while civil disobedience may be an ultimate option for individual Christians as a matter of conscience, it would only be justified morally when all legal recourse has been exhausted," Land said. "And then, civil disobedience, to be justified, must be non-violent, and the person who feels compelled to disobey the law must be willing to pay the consequences of disobeying the law.

"After all, what gave Dr. Martin Luther King's 'Letter From Birmingham Jail' its biggest impact was the fact he wrote it from the Birmingham jail, where he was being incarcerated for refusing to obey an unjust law after having exhausted his legal recourse," Land said.

Nevertheless, Land said, he believes Moore's Ten Commandments display is constitutional.

"It's my understanding that the Ten Commandments display was paid for by Judge Moore and private sources and that no public money was used to construct the display," he said. "If that indeed is true and a display of items from another faith would be accommodated if a judge from another faith wished to erect a similar display on public property, then I believe this would fit within the parameters of government accommodation of the people's right to express their religious convictions in public forums."

The Baptist Joint Committee, the religious-liberty watchdog organization defunded by the SBC more than a decade ago but still funded by Texas Baptists, has opposed Moore's monument as unconstitutional.

More than 40 Alabama clergy and religious leaders signed on to an amicus brief prepared by the BJC opposing the Alabama monument. Also joining the brief were the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-defamation League, the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, the Interfaith Alliance, the Interfaith Alliance of Alabama and Clifton Kirkpatrick as stated clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

The BJC brief argues the display "violates the freedom of conscience of those outside the Judeo-Christian faith by endorsing particular sectarian beliefs of that tradition."

Posted 8/13/03

True Love Waits program in East Africa
encouraged by Bush commitment

By Clinton Wolf

International Mission Board

ENTEBBE, Uganda (BP)–Baptists working with the True Love Waits program in East Africa are encouraged following President Bush’s commitment to U.S. support of abstinence-based programs in the war on AIDS.

Such programs headed the president’s list as he outlined a strategy for battling the spread of the AIDS virus in Africa and around the world.

"We will work with governments and private groups and faith-based organizations to put in place a comprehensive system to prevent, to diagnose and to treat AIDS," Bush told an audience of about 100 during his visit to Uganda this summer as part of a five-country visit to Africa.

"We will support abstinence-based education for young people in schools and churches and community centers."

Bush’s comments were made following a visit to a clinic in Entebbe, less than 10 minutes from the airport where his plane landed.

Noting the success of Uganda’s triple emphasis on abstinence, marital fidelity and the use of condoms, Bush commended the country as a model for AIDS treatment across the continent. More than 30 million people in Africa live with the AIDS virus, but in Uganda the infection rate of the disease–how fast it is spreading to others–has fallen from 30 percent to 5 percent since the early 1990s.

Andrew Mwenge, senior pastor of Kampala Baptist Church in Kampala, Uganda, and longtime volunteer with True Love Waits, believes the president’s comments will increase the credibility of True Love Waits’ focus on abstinence. Although True Love Waits has been in Uganda since 1994, Mwenge believes the program often has been sidelined by agencies.

"The money is here, but the problem is sometimes getting to it," Mwenge said. "I think we will have a better hearing. This has brought it to the forefront."

Mwenge and his staff already have been at work on proposals to fund True Love Waits in its next phase, taking the message of abstinence until marriage to teacher-training colleges.

In neighboring Kenya, staff at the Baptist AIDS Response Agency–a joint effort between the Baptist Convention of Kenya and the International Mission Board’s Baptist Mission of Kenya–were equally encouraged by the president’s support.

Debby Marshall, strategy consultant for AIDS work in Kenya, noted that the True Love Waits program has faced challenges in obtaining funding because of its insistence on abstinence, rather than the use of condoms. Marshall said she hopes the president’s support of abstinence-based programs will ease some of this difficulty.

"I’m very hopeful," Marshall said. "It’s encouraging because abstinence is biblically based, and the president is supporting something from a biblical perspective, not a secular perspective."