Posted: 11/30/07

South Texas church helps hunters feel at home

COTULLA—Hunting means big business in South Texas, worth tens of thousands of dollars each year to ranchers and the overall local economy. First Baptist Church of Cotulla decided to capitalize on the annual influx of visiting hunters—not for the benefit of their church, but for God’s kingdom.

Pastor Steve Parker recognized what happens every hunting season. The town fills with visitors from all over the world. The county continues to lengthen its airport runway to accommodate ever-larger corporate jets.

After observing this for a couple of years, Parker and other church leaders asked what they could do to minister to local residents who work on the ranches 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as to visiting hunters who might be interested in attending an informal worship service.

The church developed strategies to meet both needs. It declared the first Sunday of whitetail deer season this year “Camo Sunday” and advertised it on a sign in front of the church, located on the main thoroughfare through town. Members were encouraged to attend church wearing camouflaged clothing, and about two-thirds did—enough to make any hunter in his or her gear feel welcome.

A couple of out-of-town hunters took advantage and attended the morning worship. To promote the event, the church sent more than 125 invitations to area landowners who live away from Cotulla most of the year.

“Most of these folks are, in one way or another, impacted by the hunting trade. And though they may not have participated in this particular event, they now have a document in their hands that lets them know where First Baptist is and that this church welcomes and appreciates hunters,” Parker said.

During the worship service, Parker told visitors and members, “Every Sunday can be Camo Sunday at First Baptist in Cotulla, because this church loves people, desires for people to worship the Lord, and isn’t so concerned with how people might be dressed when they come to worship.”

As another outreach strategy, the church hosts an informal lunch and Bible study for men every-other Tuesday during hunting season. While it is open to any men, it is scheduled at a time when many who work on local ranches can participate.

Five attended the first Bible study lunch meeting, and Parker shared the gospel and prayed with the men, some of whom had not attended church in a long time because they were unavailable for Sunday services held at traditional times.

“Reaching people impacted by the hunting trade is an uphill climb, and the church will probably not see many tangible results for awhile,” said Jimmy Smith, director of missions in Frio River Baptist Association. “But its members are convinced that God wants them to reach out to the people who live in and visit Cotulla.

“Only God knows where these efforts may lead, but the church seems to be on the right track and is excited about going along for the ride.”

Posted: 11/30/07

Posted: 11/30/07

Conservative Christians show
growing acceptance of divorce

By Adelle M. Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When Pentecostal power couple Randy and Paula White recently announced they were headed to divorce court, the most remarkable part of the reaction was that there wasn’t much reaction at all among their supporters.

For increasing numbers of clergy, a divorce no longer generates the kind of career-killing hue and cry of decades ago, in part because plenty of people in the pews have experienced divorce themselves.

The shifting views on divorced clergy reflect a growing concession among rank-and-file conservative Christians that a failed marriage is no longer viewed as an unforgivable sin.

For many evangelical Christians, the line seems to have shifted from a single acceptable reason for divorce—adultery—to a wider range of reasons that some say can be justified biblically.

“I am probably one of those evangelicals who would say it would be three A’s for me—abuse, abandonment and adultery,” said Chris Bounds, a theologian at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind.

With the Whites’ breakup, Randy White now leads the Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla., and Paula White remains prominent in Christian broadcasting. Not long after they announced their divorce, Atlanta evangelist Juanita Bynum filed for divorce from her husband, Bishop Thomas Weeks III, after he allegedly assaulted her in a hotel parking lot.

Former Southern Baptist Convention President Charles Stanley and his wife of 40 years, Anna, divorced in 2000 after several years of on-again, off-again separation. He remained pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta, and continued his In Touch media ministry.

Beyond the church, polls by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicate the divorce records of GOP presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and John McCain have not hindered their popularity among white evangelical voters.

Christianity Today, a magazine that often serves as a barometer of evangelical culture, published an October cover story called “When to Separate What God Has Joined.” In the article, David Instone-Brewer, a senior research fellow at Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, concluded adultery, physical and emotional neglect, abuse and abandonment are all biblically justified reasons for divorce.

Mark Galli, the magazine’s managing editor, said conservative Christians reject divorce in principle but accept it in practice, in part because almost everyone knows someone who’s been there.

“I think conservative Christians are becoming more liberalized in the sense of, I guess, making more room for the acceptance of divorce and remarriage,” he said. “You’ll see a lot of churches that plunge right in and have divorce ministries. … Marriage is a really difficult thing in our culture right now.”

But the reaction to Instone-Brewer’s article reflected a lingering discomfort with divorce. Galli estimated 60 percent of responding readers registered a negative reaction. Prominent author John Piper responded that he found Instone-Brewer’s reasoning “tragic” and an “astonishing extension of the divorce license.”

Statistics bear out that divorce affects conservative Christians just as much as anyone else. A study this year by the Barna Group, a California research firm, showed 27 percent of “born-again” Christians have been divorced, compared to 25 percent of non-born-again Americans. In 2005, Phoenix-based Ellison Research found 14 percent of clergy have been divorced, and the vast majority of those have remarried.

The Assemblies of God recently changed its rules to say a marriage crisis should not permanently disqualify someone from ministry. The church voted this summer to permit remarried ministers if their divorce occurred because their spouse was unfaithful or was an unbeliever who abandoned them. Still, the church does not allow divorced ministers to serve under all circumstances.

“I think that in Christian circles, people are more relaxed about the reasons,” said Bill Jones, a divorced Pentecostal pastor and spokesman for an online Christian dating service. “I still think that divorce is pretty much a difficult subject for anybody—and rightfully so, but … we allow more rules, more worldly concepts to prevail.”

Posted: 11/30/07

DOWN HOME:
Children of Zacapa: God bless them all

Pichi grabbed my attention. Alex fired my imagination. Manuel warmed and broke my heart.

They live in an orphanage in Zacapa, Guatemala. I met them when a group from my church, First Baptist in Lewisville, spent most of a week there. We’ll send three mission teams per year for at least three years to Zacapa, working in cooperation with Buckner International.

Pichi came up to me as we entered the compound. She didn’t say a word, but she spoke with the biggest, brownest 4-year-old eyes I’ve ever seen. She smiled; I got weak in the knees.

Later, Pichi nestled into my lap as we listened to a Bible story delivered in English and translated into Spanish. She didn’t squirm, but leaned into my chest and traced the outline of my fingers with her own. If the laws of two countries didn’t prohibit it, I’m sure I could’ve been convinced to buy an airline ticket and bring her home to Texas.

Alex amazed me two minutes after I met him. My friend Jamie pulled out a parachute, and Alex immediately realized the possibilities for fun and how to lead the other children—even before Jamie could give instructions.

“Una casita!” Alex screamed, and all the children flipped the parachute up, ran underneath and pulled it down behind them, giggling uncontrollably. When Jamie and I threw whiffle balls onto the parachute for the children to bounce, Alex figured out how to time their motions so the balls would fly high, and he called out instructions, which the others followed with gusto.

I couldn’t help but wonder how far Alex will fly—if the uncertainty of life in an orphanage doesn’t zap him of his zest for life.

Manuel appears to have been zapped already. He’s part of a trio identified as “the bullies,” not so much because they prey on smaller children, but because they project callous indifference. A scar down the back of his head indicates Manuel is acquainted with pain and possibly violence, in addition to neglect.

Manuel attracted my attention early and often. The more I watched him, the more I saw new dimensions to his personality. Like how he always said “thank you”—in English—for kindnesses, and the way he and William and Jefrey looked after each other, and how he made eye contact when he talked. I saw a lonely little boy underneath that tough-guy façade.

“Manuel,” I called to him one afternoon. “Habla Ingles?”

“Poquito,” he replied, holding his thumb and forefinger close and smiling for the first time.

We stood there, discussing English words he knows and Spanish words I know. I noticed his arm around my waist, and I put mine over his shoulders. No more Mr. Tough Guy; no more Gringo Americano. Just a little boy and an older friend whose heart remains in that orphanage.

I can’t pray without recalling the children of Zacapa.

–Marv Knox

Posted: 11/30/07

EDITORIAL:
A view from both sides of the pulpit

Preaching is a lot like playing shortstop.

When I was a young man, Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith mesmerized me with the way he played shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals. With Ozzie, grace defied gravity. He turned baseball into ballet, equal parts beauty and power. Most amazingly, he made it all look so simple and easy. I wanted to be like Ozzie; I wanted to play shortstop.

Then, just once, the manager of our church-league softball team moved me from right field to short. I was thrilled. Then humiliated. When I tried to field grounders, somebody in the stands wondered why I wore cinder blocks instead of cleats. And when I tried to throw a runner out at first, the second baseman ducked. It was a long night.

Like playing shortstop, preaching is a lot harder than it looks. In this issue, we’re examining this divine craft. Preaching, not shortstop. I spend most Sundays in a pew, listening to someone else preach a sermon. So, I resonate with Baptist laypeople the world over. But my job sometimes affords me the opportunity to stand behind a pulpit and seek to deliver a message from God. So, I empathize with preachers. From that vantage point, I’d like to offer a few words to both groups.

First, to my friends in the pews:

• Give your preacher a break. If you think it’s easy, try writing a 20- to 30-minute presentation that’s interesting, compelling, relevant and based on a complex and challenging ancient book. Then imagine doing that up to three times a week for 50 weeks a year, year after year. Don’t forget that you’ve got to work that preparation in among a zillion other tasks, like visiting the sick, comforting the afflicted, mending marriages, burying the dead, marrying the in love, seeking the lost, and planning and running a business. Oh, and every time you stand to deliver, you’ve got a room full of critics.

• Quit comparing. Sure, you can hear better sermons. But most of the preachers you hear on the radio, Internet and CD get to spend 20 to 40 hours working on a single sermon. And they pay researchers to look up all those amazing facts and sniff out all those heart-warming illustrations. Unless you pay your preacher just to preach and hire an assistant, it’s not fair to compare him to your evangelical icon.

• Pray for your preacher. Through the week, ask God to inspire and equip your preacher. During the sermon, ask God to help your preacher focus, with passion.

• Offer ideas. Some preachers may cringe, but most would appreciate your ideas about sermon topics.

Now, to my brothers (and a sister or two) behind the pulpit:

• Start and end with the Bible. It is our true, trustworthy and infallible guide. Its depth and breadth exceed human imagination. It is our source for godly thinking and living. It always leads us Home.

• Apply Bible truth to today. Laypeople are starving to know how to live their lives in the real world. Help them. Keep up with current events. Pay attention to what’s going on in your community. Listen to the stories of your people. And then bring the Bible to bear on all this. What happens on Sunday morning ought to help folks on Thursday afternoon or Saturday night.

• Don’t be afraid to preach your life. You are part of your church and community. Many of your fears and doubts and joys and aspirations resonate with everyone in the room. Have the courage to be open and honest; your transparency can encourage and bless your people.

• Steal ethically. You can’t possibly be smart enough to think up everything that needs to be said. Seek inspiration from others. And let folks know where you found it; they may want to go there, too.

• For God’s sake, don’t bore us. You’re telling the greatest story ever told. Lives hang in the balance; eternity is at stake. Preach with passion and conviction. To bore is to sin.

Posted: 11/30/07

Engage conferences designed
to inspire, equip for evangelism

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—Engage and Radical Engage—conferences designed to inspire and equip Texas Baptists to evangelize the state—are scheduled Jan. 13-15 at LakePointe Church in Rockwall and feature speakers from around the nation.

The events continue a long tradition of bringing Texas Baptists together to focus on what God has called them to do—share the gospel, said Jon Randles, director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Evangelism Team.

“Throughout the history of Baptist life, especially here in Texas, the evangelism conferences have been a major player for us to come together around what truly unites us, which is evangelism and missions,” Randles said. “People come together for practical seminars, inspiration and times of fellowship that refresh us to reach those who need Christ in our state.”

To help Christians reach urban, postmodern settings, the Jan. 13-14 Radical Engage conference includes Alex Himaya, senior pastor of The Church at Battle Creek in Tulsa, Okla., the top Oklahoma congregation in terms of baptisms in 2006, and Jose Zayas, international teen evangelism director for Focus on the Family. Shane and Shane also will be part of the program.

Himaya and Zayas also will participate in the Jan. 14-15 Engage, designed to help churches and leaders in more traditional settings.

Other featured speakers include Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, who will describe what is taking place in his congregation following Hurricane Katrina; Gary Dyer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Midland; Jerry Pipes, director of personal and event evangelism at the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board; Sammy Gilbreath, director of evangelism for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions; James Lankford, Falls Creek program director for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma; and Randles.

Many Texas Baptist churches are either plateaued or declining in membership, Randles noted. Engage and Radical Engage will provide practical ways for congregations to increase their evangelistic efforts, he said.

“I don’t see this conference as a fix-all,” Randles said. “This is the beginning.”

Additional evangelistic training and outreach sessions called Engage XP are scheduled Feb. 10-14 in El Paso, San Antonio, Belton, Midland and Kingwood.

“We’re going to go out to the areas where there will be training during the day and during the evenings hold evangelistic revivals,” he said. “We’re going to offer a relationship with Christ. People can bring their unsaved friends to these events and help them find a relationship with Christ.”

Posted: 11/30/07

Faith Digest

Christian groups commit to cooperation. More than 240 Christian leaders said they left an international summit in Kenya committed to building closer ties among the world’s Christian denominations. The Global Christian Forum, meeting near Nairobi, brought together Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, and Pentecostal and charismatic Christian leaders. It also assembled groups that had sometimes been at odds, including the World Council of Churches and the more conservative World Evangelical Alliance.

Oral Roberts University president resigns. The embattled president of Oral Roberts University resigned amid intense scrutiny over allegations of financial, political and other wrongdoing at the charismatic Christian university in Tulsa, Okla. Richard Roberts, son of the university’s namesake founder, submitted a resignation letter to ORU’s board of regents Nov. 23. The resignation came just days before the board was scheduled to hear the results of an outside investigation of allegations against him and his wife, Lindsay. Roberts, chairman and CEO of Oral Roberts Ministries, had placed himself on an indefinite leave of absence Oct. 17 as university president. But he had said he expected to return to the post in “God’s timing.” He was the second president in the 42-year history of the 4,000-student university, succeeding his father, Oral Roberts, in 1993. The allegations that sparked the turmoil over Richard Roberts’ presidency were raised in a lawsuit filed Oct. 2 by three former ORU professors who claim efforts to act as whistleblowers cost them their jobs. The lawsuit in Tulsa County District Court alleges illegal political activity and lavish, unchecked spending by Richard Roberts and his family.

Family sues over snake-handling death. The family of a woman who died from a snakebite during a religious service last year has filed suit against a Kentucky hospital, alleging that poor care contributed to her death, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. Linda Long, who died Nov. 5, 2006, was rushed to Marymount Medical Center in London, Ky., after receiving a bite from a rattlesnake she was handling during a service at East London Holiness Church. The lawsuit states the hospital did not adhere to proper standards of care in Long’s case, which contributed to her death. The Herald-Leader also reported that “the complaint … says the unprofessional comments about Long’s religious beliefs were discriminatory and caused her and her family emotional pain and humiliation.”

Pope plans U.S. visit next year. Pope Benedict XVI will make his first papal visit to the United States next spring, stopping at the United Nations in New York and the White House in Washington. Vatican Ambassador Archbishop Pietro Sambi, addressing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Benedict’s visit is scheduled April 15-20. Benedict’s visit is timed to mark the establishment of the first dioceses in the United States nearly 200 years ago, Sambi said. In addition to celebrating Masses at New York’s Yankee Stadium and the Washington Nationals’ new ballpark, currently under construction, Benedict will visit Ground Zero in New York, with the families of people who were killed there Sept. 11, 2001.

Posted: 11/30/07

Ghana minister to Texans: ‘We need help’

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS—Yaw Ofori traveled from Ghana to Texas to communicate a very simple message: “We need your help.”

Christians in Ghana need people to provide training to help them plant new churches, said Ofori, director of missions for the Ghana Baptist Convention. Of the 75 people groups who live in Ghana, 15 are unreached with the gospel, he said.

Ofori’s main emphasis has been letting Texas Baptists know about ministry opportunities in Ghana, both short- and long-term hands-on missions, as well as the need for financial support.

“The field is white in Ghana, but we need help with the harvest,” Ofori said. “We need prayer support; we need financial support; we need the physical support of people coming to help us.”

The Ghana Baptist Convention includes 1,000 churches with more than 100,000 members, but most are very poor, he said.

“We are reaching many people and have many ministries, especially to the poor. All we need is a little push, a little help, and we could do so much more,” he said. “Through partnership, we can do more than we can do alone.

“There are many villages where there are no Baptist churches and many other villages with no church of any kind.”

More than 150 villages have been identified as having no church, he said, and each is home to more than 300 people.

Volunteers are needed to do medical evangelism, train potential pastors and other church leaders, and possibly teach in the national seminary.

A gift of $400 a month will support a home missionary in church planting efforts, and $100 a month will provide for a pastor, he noted. The stipend a pastor receives decreases each year, and by the fourth year, the church is expected to be self-supporting.

“We don’t want to develop a dependency syndrome,” Ofori said. “Some places it is difficult, because the people are so poor, but that is the challenge we put before them.”

Ministry in Ghana is accessible to American volunteers because English is the trade language of Ghana and is taught to children in schools, he added.

The Ghana Baptist Convention concentrates much of its ministry on children—particularly efforts to stop child trafficking. It is common for parents to sell their children as slaves to fishermen or caretakers of pagan shrines, some of which have up to 600 children working as shrine slaves. The convention is working to have child trafficking laws enforced and to provide an education for children rescued from these operations.

Many children also come to the city alone to find work because their families can no longer afford to feed them. These street children are forced to turn to crime and prostitution to survive. The convention is building a house to give some of these children a safe place to sleep and learn a trade.

“We have great opportunities, but we need help,” Ofori said.

Posted: 11/30/07

Church greeter has firm
grip on thousands of names

By Dee Anne Finken

Religion News Service

ANCOUVER, Wash. (RNS)—Some people preach. Others bear witness to their faith with a song of praise.

Rich Liedtke ministers with his hands. That is, he offers a firm, two-handed grip that lasts long enough for him to look straight into a churchgoer’s eyes, memorize the face, and announce cheerfully: “Hi, I’m Rich. And you are?”

The 64-year-old is a “master greeter”—his own term—who proclaims his faith by welcoming newcomers and members to church every Sunday, each by name. Over the years he has memorized thousands of names and faces, though he stopped keeping a tally at his own church three years ago at 3,000.

“People want to be known as individuals, and a person’s name is the key to that,” Liedtke said.

His passion for making visitors and members feel welcome frequently has him traveling across the country, and even to Asia, to lead seminars.

A handyman by trade, he shows congregations how to “enhance a culture of friendliness,” from memorizing names, to using the proper grip, to fostering the sincerity that makes a person feel at home in a new church.

His message is more significant than many might think.

A Gallup Poll reported church attendance across the nation declined about 4 percent last year. So extending a sincere welcome to a newcomer can be crucial, said Jerry Hickson, chairman of the department of religion and Christian ministries at Warner Pacific, a liberal arts Christian college in Portland.

“People who visit a church decide within the first five minutes if they are going to come back,” Hickson said.

Ministerial leaders might not realize it, Hickson said, but “there is no question many churches do a poor job of greeting.”

At Vancouver First Church of God, which Liedtke has attended for 30 years, Carol Ludwig said Liedtke’s remembering her name—on her second visit—prompted her to take lessons from him.

Standing next to her mentor on a recent Sunday, Ludwig said: “When someone remembers you, you want to come back. My gosh, it made me think, ‘I must be pretty special.’”

One after another, Liedtke greets worshippers as they pour through the church door—Judy, Tom, Dave, Kelli, Ally and Natalie.

It was Kelli Wright, new to the church three years ago, whose name was the 3,000th Liedtke memorized. The next Sunday, he greeted her with a helium-filled balloon to celebrate the milestone. And he has been known to mark other special occasions, like handing out chocolates near Valentine’s Day.

“I felt welcome and important that he cared enough to know my name,” Wright said.

With newcomers, Liedtke pauses to hold their hands a moment longer while making a mental note. Sometimes, on a folded 3-by-5 card, he’ll jot down a name, followed by a description—beard, tall, flowered shirt, blond.

Liedtke, who has been married 40 years to the appropriately named Joy, is admittedly outgoing, but he understands some people just don’t want to open up.

It’s rare, however, he said. In the eight years he’s been formally greeting, Liedtke can count only six people who have declined to reveal their names.

Most are like he was, he said, when years ago two older gentlemen welcomed him into church and opened him to the practice of extending a hand to others.

“I liked that. I felt welcome.”

Posted: 11/30/07

Lewisville volunteers share pure
water and Living Water in Guatemala

By Marv Knox

Editor

ZACAPA, Guatemala—Members of First Baptist Church in Lewisville delivered both Living Water and pure water during a late-fall mission trip to an orphanage in Guatemala.

They told the children about Jesus, the Living Water, who can quench their spiritual thirst. But they also completed a filtration system that now purifies the orphanage’s parasite-laced water supply.

Brittainy Holmes of First Baptist Church in Lewisville shows Christ’s love to a girl in an orphanage in Zacapa, Guatemala, during a mission trip coordinated by Buckner Interna-tional. The church is sending three teams a year to the state-run orphanage.

Working in cooperation with Buckner International, First Baptist in Lewisville has developed a partnership with Hogar Zacapa, a transitional care facility for children up to about age 12. Some of the children are true orphans, whose parents are dead. But others are “social orphans,” whose parents cannot care for them and who become wards of the government-run facility.

The church has committed to send at least three ministry teams to Zacapa, a metropolitan area of about 175,000 residents 90 miles east of Guatemala City, each year for at least three years.

Ongoing ministry embraces two key elements, explained Truett King, the church’s missions minister.

First, each mission trip features tangible improvements to the orphanage facility, he noted. On two previous trips this year, volunteers worked on the water-filtration system. Earlier this year, workers also picked up shards of broken windows, to make the grounds safer, and cleaned and painted bathrooms. In November, in addition to completing the water system, they built storage cabinets. Next year, volunteers plan to build a greenhouse within the compound.

Orphans in Guatemala open presents from volunteers on a mission trip coordinated by Buckner International. (Photos by Ron Gibson)

“These things improve the children’s lives, although they probably don’t realize it,” King said. “But they also strengthen our relationship with the orphanage administrator, who realizes we have the best interest of these children at heart and we’re willing to invest in this orphanage—both financially and with our labor—to make it a better place.”

Those efforts have produced unanticipated benefits, King and several other repeat volunteers noted when they arrived in November. Since the church began working on the facility, the government has funded additional improvements. They include a dormitory expansion, new roofs, tile in bathrooms and fresh paint. The government also made the facility safer by replacing a chain-link fence with a cinder-block/stucco wall around the compound.

The second element of each trip is more personal, heartwarming and eternal, King added. First Baptist missionaries spend hours loving the attention-starved children.

The November trip featured a Vacation Bible School, with stations for Bible stories and crafts, English as a Second Language, sports camp and games. A medical team performed physical exams on all the children, and the church paid to send some of the children to visit a dentist.

Children received medical care during the trip.

The volunteers treated the children to a movie night, featuring a Spanish-language child-oriented version of the “Jesus” film, plus pizza and soda pop. They also provided each child with a new set of clothes, plus many more pants and shirts for the orphanage.

But mostly, they spent time loving the children. Whether they communicated through a crew of Buckner interpreters, used their own fledgling Spanish, or simply smiled and laughed and hugged, the volunteers showed the children they are loved.

“Every minute I was with the kids, I just loved it,” Nancy King said. “I just couldn’t get enough of it.”

“Missions is God using you to show his heart,” Ron Gibson added. “That’s one of the most important things to do in life—show God’s heart to others.”

Reflecting on their days at the orphanage and particularly a tearful farewell with the children, Julio Amaya confirmed the children did see God’s heart and reciprocated the volunteers’ love.

“The kids kept hanging on, saying: ‘I don’t want you to go. I’m going to miss you,’” Amaya, who grew up in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and speaks Spanish fluently, told the other volunteers. “And they would have said the same thing to all of you if they had been able.”

Many of the First Baptist team hope they’ll get that chance again someday, when they return to Hogar Zacapa.

Posted: 11/30/07

Howard Payne coeds mentor
girls at juvenile correctional facility

By George Henson

Staff Writer

BROWNWOOD—Each week, 39 Howard Payne University students travel a few miles down the road to another world. They visit the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex to show girls there how to experience the different life that Jesus offers.

Students Chassidy Carroll and Chaley Perkins share their lives with girls who need positive role models. Carroll, who helped begin the program three years ago, now mentors four girls during her twice-a-week trips to the facility.

“We’re very open that this is faith-based mentoring, but we talk about anything they want to,” Carroll said. Some of the mentors from the university lead Bible studies or devotionals for the incarcerated girls. While Carroll mentors four girls and Perkins two girls, most mentors invest themselves in a single girl.

“A lot of these girls are really struggling,” Carroll said of the 13- to 18-year-olds at the facility.

“But the girls who have realized a need have requested a mentor, so they’re interested in changing their lives and want to know how God can help in that.”

Staff members at the high-security juvenile facility also sometimes request a mentor for younger girls entering the system, Perkins added.

“The staff see a change in the girls that have mentors, so sometimes they will set up a meeting with a mentor to see if a relationship develops,” she said.

While the length of stay for girls in the correctional facility varies with their offense, most are incarcerated one to two years, the students said. That length of stay allows for some deep, trust-filled relationships to be built.

It also necessitates that mentors commit to at least a school year of continuous contact.

“We train the mentors before they meet with girls, and the biggest thing we stress is that it is a commitment,” Carroll said. “The girls really need them to show up on a regular basis.”

“These girls have been let down so much, if we’re not there, it’s just someone else letting them down,” Perkins added.

Showing the love of Christ is very important, Carroll said.

“God’s love is the underlying theme of every question they ask,” she said.

“These girls come from very broken backgrounds and that someone loves them is very hard for them to understand.”

The program is part of the Baptist Student Ministry at Howard Payne. The students who are a part of the program gain as much from the interaction as those who are mentored do, BSM Director Katy Blackshear said.

“HPU students who mentor at the State School are able to take a glimpse outside of their world into a reality that is not their own, be strengthened in their own faith by hearing how God’s redemptive love is at work, as well as be challenged to know the word of God and be ready to share the gospel freely,” she said.

She identified only one negative aspect to the mentoring program—a waiting list of girls who have requested a mentor and not enough volunteers to fill the need.

Posted: 11/30/07

Groups say hunger stats, food prices up

By Heather Donckels

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—While millions of Americans stock their kitchens for holiday feasts, many groups are concerned about people who will go hungry during the festive season—and in the weeks and months to come.

Inflation has made food more expensive, making it harder for families to put food on the table and more difficult for food banks to keep their shelves stocked.

“We’re very concerned about the people who live in food-insecure households,” said Jean Daniel, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which recently released its annual study on hunger in America.

The study showed the number of people living in households with “food insecurity”—where their normal diets changed due to lack of food or money—increased from 35.1 million in 2005 to 35.5 million in 2006.

The Bread for the World Institute also released its annual hunger report, calling for the United States to “make it a national goal to cut hunger and poverty in half by 2015.”

The report applauded the government’s recent decision to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by July 2009, but it stressed that low-income families need access to affordable health insurance and child care.

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless released its own report that chided 22 cities for new laws that they say punish individuals and groups who feed the homeless in public areas.

In Dallas, for example, “anyone caught sharing food with a homeless person without a permit may be fined up to $2,000 and/or jailed for up to six months,” the report said.

“We need to encourage, not arrest, good Samaritans,” said Michael Stoops, the acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless.