Around the State: Joni Eareckson Tada addresses DBU, Model UN team from HPU wins

Joni Eareckson Tada, founder and CEO of Joni and Friends International Disability Center, spoke in chapel at Dallas Baptist University April 24 and met with faculty and staff at a luncheon to talk about embracing disabilities within the church. A diving accident in 1967 left her a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair at age 17. After two years of rehabilitation, she emerged with new skills and a determination to help others in similar situations. She became an international advocate for people with disabilities and helped guide evangelism strategies among people with disabilities worldwide as senior associate for disability concerns for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. “I bless the disability, because it shows me my deep dependence on God,” she said at DBU. “I need him desperately, and I do not know if I was on my feet if I would realize how urgently I require his strength. Perhaps the truly disabled are those who jump out of bed in the morning and give Jesus no more than a tip of the hat on the way out the door to another day set on cruise control.”

Howard Payne University students (left to right) Caleb Kostreva, Lainee Hasty, Joshua Dykes, Jaclyn Bonner and Braxton Clark received awards at the Milan International Model United Nations conference.Howard Payne University’s Model United Nations team recently won four out of an available six best delegate awards and an honorable mention at the International Model United Nations conference in Milan, Italy. Model United Nations takes current world issues and asks students, assigned to represent varied countries as delegates, to solve them through diplomatic means. Students learn the art of diplomacy through caucusing, writing position papers and presenting in formal settings, all while following the model of the United Nations. Best delegate award recipients were Jaclyn Bonner, senior from Lytle; Braxton Clark, senior from Southlake; Caleb Kostreva, sophomore from Clifton, Colo.; and Lainee Hasty, junior from Runaway Bay. Joshua Dykes, senior from Mount Pleasant, received an honorable mention.

Wayland Baptist University’s board of trustees approved a $64.8 million operating budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year. The budget reflects a $1.1 million or 1.68 percent decrease from the previous year. Wayland operates 13 campuses in six states, as well as a program in Kenya, and has more than 50 teaching sites affiliated with the campuses.

Howard Payne University’s Student Speaker Bureau won individual and team awards at the 20th annual National Christian College Forensics Association Invitational National Championships, held at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Ariz. Freshmen Erin Haley from Mason and Brooklyn Britton from Brownwood were awarded novice national champions in dramatic duo interpretation. Senior Gabby McWhirter from Brownwood and junior Reagan Grisham from Arlington won fifth place overall in open dramatic duo. In parliamentary debate, the HPU team won third place overall debate sweepstakes. The junior varsity team of Christopher Freeland, sophomore from Bangs, and Tyler Olin, sophomore from Howe, advanced to the final round. Olin was named fourth top junior varsity speaker, and Freeland was named seventh top junior varsity speaker. The junior varsity parliamentary debate teams of Grisham and Morgan Ashmore from Brock advanced to the semifinals. The novice parliamentary debate team of Madi Neal, freshman from Chandler, and Isabelle Stahrfisher, freshman from Fort Worth, advanced to the semifinals round.

Anniversary

Jody Hickman, fifth, as pastor at First Baptist Church in Rosebud.

Ordinations

Joyce Ahearn, Sarah Smith Bell, Sylvia Wade Drake and Carolyn Hazel McConathy as deacons at River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston.

Becky Tucker to the gospel ministry at First Baptist Church in Abilene, where she is director of children’s ministries.

Retirement

Houston Garner as pastor of Hebron Baptist Church in Bells May 14 after 54 years at the congregation.