SIERRA LEONE—Hundreds of people in two villages in Sierra Leone gained access to clean water, and at least 75 accepted the gift of Living Water, thanks to three Texas Baptist Men volunteers.

Dee Dee and Tim Wint from The Village Church in Flower Mound and Billy Joe Wall, pastor of Avenue Baptist Church in Hereford, spent two weeks drilling and installing wells and conducting health and hygiene classes, working in cooperation with the Konoyima Educational Fund. 

Devastated by civil war and Ebola

The TBM volunteers worked in the Kono District, the easternmost province in Sierra Leone—a region known for its diamond mines but devastated by 11 years of civil war, followed by an Ebola outbreak.

“Schools and churches were closed more than 11 years, and a whole generation of schoolchildren was left without education,” said Dee Dee Wint, vice president of the TBM Water Ministry. “They are behind economically and educationally.” 

More than 70 percent of the people live below the poverty line. About half the men and three-fourths of the women are illiterate.

Providing access to pure water

Children in Sierra Leone express appreciation to Texas Baptist Men for the gift of clean water.The Konoyima Educational Fund has started Christian schools and churches throughout the district, but many are in areas that lack clean water, Wint said. The Kono District is experiencing an 80 percent infant morality rate due to water-borne diseases.

“We worked in two villages, and neither had a clean water source,” she said. “The people were either walking long distances to fill containers from a hand-dug exposed well or from a river that is downstream from the mines.”

The TBM team drilled wells in each of the villages at least 40 feet deep, tapping into an aquifer far below the polluted groundwater seepage, she explained.

Global missions rookie but experienced well driller

The trip to Sierra Leone marked Wall’s first overseas experience with the TBM water ministry, but he brought more than three decades of experience as a water-well driller to the mission field.

“I started working as a kid in my family’s water-well-drilling business,” Wall said. “It’s a blessing to be able to use the gifts God put in my life over the years.”

Wall left the well-drilling business to work several years as a Baptist camp manager before he accepted his first pastorate at age 63.

“That’s kind of old to be starting out as a pastor. I’ve learned you don’t question the Lord. You just do whatever he calls you to do,” he said.

‘The Lord was already there’

In addition to applying his well-drilling expertise in Sierra Leone, Wall also preached in two Sunday worship services.

“I wanted to share the love of the Lord with the people, but when we got there, the people were already singing and praising him,” he recalled. “The Lord was already there. We just got to be a part of what the Lord was doing.”

Teaching health and hygiene

Dee Dee Wint (center) teaches health and hygiene in Sierra Leone.In addition to installing wells, the TBM volunteers also led health and hygiene classes. Dee Dee Wint trained 27 church leaders, who in turn led classes in two villages.

Among other lessons, participants learned how to make “tippy taps”—a portable hand washing station constructed from plastic bottles.

“We emphasized the importance of hand washing with soap and running water, as it can reduce diarrheal disease-associated deaths by up to 50 percent,” she said.

At one of the health and hygiene classes led in a community center by church leaders, 209 people attended, and 75 made professions of faith in Christ, including seven women from Muslim homes.

Ministry among Muslims

The volunteers also presented the gospel at dedication ceremonies for the wells—one of them installed next to a church and Christian school built on land donated by a Muslim leader.

“At the dedication, we told the people we were giving the well to Jesus and the community. We made it clear the well is open to everybody—not just the students who attend the Christian school,” Dee Dee Wint said.

A Muslim imam attended the dedication to express gratitude, and children sang thank-you songs, she added.

In spite of the crippling poverty in the region, Wall noted the generosity and kindness of the people he encountered—Muslim and Christian alike.

“The Lord opened my heart up to the people,” he said. “I’m ready to go again. It’s a privilege not only to bring water to people, but also Living Water and the Spirit. That’s what it’s all about.”

DEWEYVILLE—When the Managan family took up residence in Deweyville for the summer to coordinate disaster recovery, each member played a valuable role in helping families rebuild their homes after a devastating flood.

Vaughn and Sunshine Managan served as volunteer coordinators with Texas Baptists’ disaster recovery program, now a part of Texas Baptist Men’s disaster relief ministry.

Throughout the summer, the Managans coordinated church and associational groups, mobilizing more than 200 volunteers as they worked on nine homes.

All in the family

Milo Managan, age 7, works with his father, Vaughn, to sweep away sand after installing a paving-stone porch for a Deweyville family.The Managan’s children—Jax, age 13; Lily, 11; and Milo, 7—accompanied them each day, delivering supplies to work groups, helping tape and float drywall, hauling limbs and debris from yards, playing with homeowners’ puppies and learning what being the hands and feet of Jesus looks like.

The Managans are not expert carpenters or homebuilders. In fact, they learned many skills like floating and mudding drywall alongside the volunteers.

“We are not always called to something we are good at, but in those places, you need God more,” Sunshine said. “This fit our personalities. We like being with people and doing hard work.”

‘Ministry of drywall’

The Monagans first engaged in disaster recovery in 2013, following a fertilizer plant explosion in West. The couple felt called to help coordinate efforts, but having their family along with them was important. Vaughn took a two-month leave of absence from his job as an engineer, and they moved to nearby Waco for the summer while they worked in West.

Three years later, the Managans began saving to spend their summer doing similar work. Following the Deweyville flood in March, just miles from Vaughn’s childhood home in western Louisiana, the Managans felt called to go. They contacted Marla Bearden, disaster recovery specialist, who put them in touch with Pastor John Fortenberry from Calvary Baptist Church in Deweyville, and plans began to fall into place.

“We were doing the ministry of drywall,” Vaughn said of the summer work. “This is what people have needed. Day and night, as long as there were volunteers, we were putting up drywall.”

Living out faith through service

Jax Managan removes a fallen tree limb from the yard of a Deweyville family.One of the Managans’ greatest joys in serving was having their children with them and teaching them about living out faith through service to people in need.

Jax served as his dad’s right-hand man for the summer, riding shotgun in his truck on every project. Milo and Lily made innumerable trips to home-improvement warehouse stores with their mom to pick up last-minute supplies for a day’s projects.

“We needed it as a family, and it came at a beautiful time for us to stay connected— sweating together and talking more,” Vaughn said.

God provides

“It is good to hear kids talking about how God is providing,” Sunshine added. “You don’t always see this in regular life, even when God is providing. We are praying the kids don’t forget how God provides here. Even the little stuff matters.”

“Little stuff” includes things like needing an electrician to work on a house and finding a master electrician on the team that just arrived. Or the time a local company donated a truckload of sand to help level paving stones to create a porch for two homeowners. Children at a Vacation Bible School at North Orange Baptist Church donated the money to purchase those paving stones.

Without an operating budget and with minimal funds for supplies, the Managans saw God daily meet needs to accomplish each task set before them.

Building lasting relationships

The Managan family not only helped rebuild homes, but also built lasting relationships with the homeowners they served.

And their children gained several honorary Deweyville grandparents.

At the mention of going to visit Miss Lena, Milo and Lily’s faces radiated excitement. Pulling up her driveway, Lena would wave exuberantly and welcome the children with the same affection and love. As she walked through her home, which was nearing completion in mid-July, Lena explained the work done by each of the Managans. From the closet Milo helped clean out, to the seam in the middle of the wall Lily helped cover with mud and Sunshine sanded down, every ounce of work was met with an overflow of appreciation.

Detailing the many ways God provided for her following the storm, “most of all God sent Vaughn, Sunshine, Milo, Lily and Jax,” Lena said.

The Managans encourage other families to consider taking time to serve with their children in mission work of some kind.

“Jesus gave us everything. How can we not give everything?” Sunshine asked. “People say we are ‘good people,’ but we aren’t. God doesn’t need us, but he chooses to let us be involved, and it is such a privilege.

“It is worth whatever you have to give up. Don’t waste this time when your kids are under the roof of your house. Stop talking about it, and do something they can do with you.”

ZAMBIA (BP)—Elephants, antelope, hippos, crocodiles, buffalo and the occasional lion number among missionary Kenny Vines’ travel companions as he moves about his ministry in the African nation of Zambia.

On multiple occasions while on his way to a village for Bible study, he was cut off by a herd of elephants and had to travel another path. At other times during days of extended ministry, lions calling, hyenas laughing, elephants trumpeting and hippos bellowing provided the soundtrack to his nights as he lay in his tent.

‘Mister Livingstone, I presume’

Vines is “a modern-day Livingstone,” suggested Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Along the Zambezi River, missionary Kenny Vines carries a vision to nurture villagers with hearts for evangelism. (Photo by Adam Covington/Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary)“Tucked away in the most remote regions of Zambia, Kenny Vines and his family come close to reproducing the earliest experience of missions in Africa,” Patterson said, recalling the ministry of David Livingstone, a 19th-century explorer and missionary.

“Living far from stores or provisions, his wife (Lesley) cares for the family and, as a doctor, works with those in need of medical assistance. Kenny teaches the Bible, leads men to Christ and is frequently called when there is a lion, buffalo or elephant threatening people and they need a man with nerves of steel to face the challenge. Life for Kenny Vines and his family is more breathtaking than any novel that could be penned.”

Praying for God to open doors

Many Southern Baptists will pray for missionaries like the Vines family during the Week of Prayer for International Missions and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, Dec. 3-10.

The Vineses have ministered along the Zambezi River in southern Africa since 2009. Deployed to Zambia about seven years ago, the couple eagerly prayed God would open doors to spread the gospel. Not long after they arrived, their prayer was answered for what would become the first of many times.

While still in the language-learning phase of their deployment, Vines traveled to Luangwa, the village where he and his wife ultimately would be stationed, to explore the location and oversee the preparation of their home.

When returning to the language school, Vines stopped to pick up two people who were flagging his vehicle for a ride. As it turned out, his passengers were the wife of a chief and the chief’s aide.

“Later, when we moved to Luangwa, we went to see the chief and introduce ourselves to him,” Vines recounted. “That divine appointment with his wife and aide helped to pave the road to a great relationship with the chief. In our area, you need the chief’s blessing for all that you do, and because of how the Lord worked in the beginning, our ministry has been able to move and function in this area with no hindrance.”

Community ministries help establish relationships

One of the Vineses’ primary avenues for ministry is community endeavors, such as digging water wells, assisting in building projects and performing any other tasks a village might not be able to do alone. Such undertakings allow the missionaries to “get (their) feet in the door” and—they hope—begin Bible studies in villages with no church or missionary work.

The community ministry projects allow the couple to “show the love of Christ through actions,” as well as giving them “the ability to evangelize and teach a weekly Bible study in those villages,” Vines said.

“Community projects and community involvement are a great way to open doors of opportunity, as well as model faith and works,” he said.

Dealing with ‘problem animals’

Another ministry avenue unique to Vines’ Zambian mission field is assisting the Wildlife Department, serving as a volunteer the past three years. He often goes out at night to confront “problem animals,” he said. More than an opportunity for adrenaline-fueled adventure, these night calls open doors for spiritual conversation.

“When we head out on a call, we will oftentimes sit in the village around the fire for hours while we wait on the problem,” Vines said. “This gives me an insight into the village and culture that I cannot get via books or even an interpreter.

“Something happens when the sun goes down and you are sitting around the fire. People begin to open up in ways that I would never be privy to. In and through my relationship with the Wildlife Department, I have been able to peer into this culture, and God has given me so many new tools to use in sharing the gospel now that I didn’t have before.”

Sowing gospel seeds

The Vineses also teach in a local Bible school, volunteer at the village clinic, coach basketball at a nearby high school and provide one-on-one mentorship with aspiring church leaders.

In a weekly 30-minute radio program, Vines asks the community for questions—topics ranging from “Abaddon to Zion”—and offers answers from the Bible.

“This is a great form of broad seed-sowing since there is only one radio station in our area,” he said. “This means that for 30 minutes each Sunday evening, the gospel is being shared to everyone who turns on the radio.”

Making disciples who make disciples

In the midst of these efforts, one of the most rewarding aspects of the Vineses’ work is seeing people grow and mature in their Christian faith—including developing a zeal for evangelism.

“It is rewarding to see those whom you have trained show up at your gate and ask for more gospel tracts,” Vines said. “Then, as you say, ‘Sure,’ you are racing through your mind, trying to remember how you forgot that we were supposed to go out visiting today, when he says, ‘No, we aren’t going out.’ This is something he organized on his own. (It is rewarding) to see those whom you have mentored out doing the very thing, on their own, you have spent so much time teaching.”

Just as David Livingstone’s pioneer ministry beckoned others to follow in his evangelistic footsteps, so Vines encourages fellow believers to join him in spreading the gospel along the Zambezi River.

“There is an urgency to the call of sharing the gospel amongst these people,” he said. “But we can’t do it alone.”

FALLS CHURCH, Va.—The 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative is calling on President-elect Donald Trump to appoint an ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in his first 100 days in office.

In an open letter, the human rights and religious liberty organization also urges Trump to maintain the position of special adviser for religious minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia. 

The 21st Century Wilberforce Initiativest Century Wilberforce Initiative released the letter, dated Jan. 25, 2017, on Nov. 29 to allow people concerned about global religious liberty issues to endorse it online. 

Standing with religious minorities

“We stand in solidarity with the many religious and ethnic minorities around the world facing serve persecution for their deeply held religious beliefs or commitment to no belief,” says the letter from Randel Everett, president of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative and former executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Everett cites a Pew Research Center finding that three-fourths of the world’s population live in places with high or very high persecution.

“People of all faiths—Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus included—face persecution that at times manifests itself both as heavy-handed government restrictions that try to control people and violent social hostilities that undermine the rule of law,” the letter continues.

Examples of persecution

The letter cites multiple examples of persecution, including the continued genocide of Christians and others in Syria by the Islamic State, increased anti-Semitism throughout Europe, blasphemy laws, tightened control over Tibetan Buddhists, attacks on secular bloggers in Bangladesh, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar who are displaced and denied citizenship in their own country, and minorities in Nigeria who face famine created by Boko Haram. 

“By nominating a new ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in your first 100 days and maintaining the position of special adviser for religious minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia, you not only signal your commitment to people of faith and freedom of conscience, you also do so in a way that requires no new taxes and no new legislation while strengthening what has been a highly effective office,” the letter to Trump states.

“As the first nation to constitutionally guarantee religious freedom, the United States has a great history of standing for this ‘first freedom’ around the world, a right closely tied to other human rights, economics and security. Your swift action in this regard would extend American leadership in this most critical of issues at this most pressing of times.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The nation knows how evangelicals, Protestants and Catholics voted on Election Day. Hard data exists on much smaller religious groups—Mormons and Jews. We even have the numbers to distinguish between the voting preferences of white and Latino Catholics.

But Muslim voters? No.

That’s because—at 1 percent of the electorate—Muslim Americans barely register in the national exit polls.

Data on Muslims in America

Pollsters and other students of politics say the day has not arrived when the Muslim vote makes a significant imprint on national elections. But that doesn’t mean they lack meaningful statistics on how Muslims in America lean politically. Nor does it mean politicians can safely ignore this demographic.

Besheer Mohamed “The picture is mixed,” said Besheer Mohamed, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center who specializes in religion.

“On the one hand, it seems clear that Muslims are a pretty small part of the population. On the other hand, they are concentrated in some states and metro areas that might increase their voting powers in those specific areas.”

Muslim Americans number about 3.3 million, with larger Muslim communities in New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, Michigan, Illinois and Texas, Pew reports.

Racially and ethnically diverse

The racial and ethnic diversity within the community, and—although many more lean Democratic than Republican—their tendency to align with Democrats on some issues and Republicans on others lends Muslims political clout, Mohamed said. A 2011 Pew study on Muslim Americans showed they were more supportive of Barack Obama than Americans in general.

American Muslims are black, Southeast Asian, Arab and white, with no one group accounting for more than 30 percent of all Muslims. Many are immigrants. Many are not.

Consider their views of immigration. Surveys show no “Muslim” view of the subject, Mohamed said. While a little more than half of African-American Muslims, most of whom are born in this country, say immigrants mostly benefit the nation, eight in 10 immigrant Muslims hold that view.

Not easy to pigeonhole

If he had to characterize a “typical” Muslim American voter, Mohamed said, he would describe “a big-government social conservative.”

They tend to support more social services and government help for the poor. “But they also share some of evangelicals’ concerns about same-sex marriage and homosexuality being accepted by society,” he said, citing Pew studies.

Jon McHenry Jon McHenry, vice president at North Star Opinion Research, a Northern Virginia firm that advises Republican candidates, said Muslims’ influence in elections will depend in part on whether they side with the majority or minority party wherever they may vote.

“To the extent they’re in California, they could have an outsize influence if they vote Republican. If they vote Democrat, they’re yet another group that votes for Democrats in California.”

McHenry compares Muslim voters to Jewish voters, who—at about 2 percent of the U.S. population—also represent a small portion of the electorate. But in some congressional districts, they make up a significant group of voters.

And even nationally, with many Jewish communities in swing state Florida, for example, they show up on both Democrats’ and Republicans’ radar, even though about three-quarters of Jewish Americans tend to vote for Democrats.

Not numerous enough to register nationally

Why aren’t Muslims showing up in the national exit polls? They haven’t crossed the pollsters’ threshold.

The National Election Pool, a consortium of six major news organizations—ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and the Associated Press—pays for national exit polls. Since 2003, the consortium has contracted with Edison Research, a New Jersey-based company, to conduct exit polls at hundreds of polling places nationwide.

Joe Lenski, Edison’s executive vice president, said 8,246 voters this year were asked about their religion, and of them, about 1 percent identified themselves as Muslim.

That translates to about 80 people, well short of the 100-person minimum the consortium told Edison it needs to release data on a voting subgroup. The margin of error for a group of less than 100 rises above plus or minus 10 percentage points—which the consortium considers too high for the statistics to be strong enough to report.

Edison has found Muslims have held steady at about 1 percent of the electorate since 2004.

When will there be enough Muslim voters to make a dent in the exit polls? Unclear, but it’s not likely by the next national election.

Pew researchers project Muslims will grow to about 2.1 percent of the national population by 2050, or about 8 million people.

American Muslims still are heavily an immigrant group, and it takes some time for immigrants to gain citizenship and voting rights, McHenry said

And the rate at which the Muslim electorate grows from its current 1 percent also may depend on President-elect Donald Trump, added McHenry, whose firm worked for GOP rival Marco Rubio. Trump has called for both a ban on and “extreme vetting” of Muslims coming into the United States.

“If he has his way, it may stay at 1 percent or decline,” McHenry said. “We’ll see.”

HAVANA (BP)—Cubans and Christians familiar with the church in Cuba remember Fidel Castro, who died Nov. 25 at age 90, as both an unwitting catalyst of revival and an opponent of religious liberty.

Castro’s death is unlikely to yield significant increases in religious liberty for the island nation until the fall of the communist government he inaugurated 57 years ago, some Baptists with ties to Cuba said.

Revival emerges from oppression

When Castro led a revolt that overthrew then-Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, he instituted a communist regime that viewed Christians as “anti-revolutionaries.” He barred them from attending universities or entering certain professional fields, according to the persecution watchdog group World Watch Monitor. But the global decline of communism in the early 1990s yielded decreased oppression of believers in Cuba.

Castro’s government was “really hard on the churches during the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,” said Cesar Perez, a Cuban-born American who directs Hispanic ministries at First Baptist Church in Richmond, Ky.

“Then because of the economic situation” when the Soviet Union fell and no longer could support Cuba, Castro “just let the churches go a little bit,” Perez said.

Cuba’s communist party remains in control, he added, but the easing of restrictions “helped the churches.”

The more moderate pressure on churches continued after Castro ceded power to his brother Raul in 2008. Among ongoing restrictions, construction of church buildings requires government permission, as do large gatherings, Perez said. Yet those restrictions have driven Cuban believers to launch a house-church movement that has spurred “a revival for the whole island” for the past 20 years.

Heberto Becerra, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-area pastor who served in the 1970s as president of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba, confirmed the report of revival in Cuba. He also said immediate change in Cuba’s treatment of churches is unlikely.

“Communism has set in already,” said Becerra, pastor of First Baptist Church in Plantation, Fla. “It doesn’t matter if (Castro) died or not.”

Three predictions

Jim Denison, founding president of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, has traveled to Cuba eight times in the past 16 years, working with Cuban pastors, business leaders, scholars and other professionals.

In an article carried by The Huffington Post, Denison offered three predictions for Cuba following Castro’s death: 

• “The government will renew its commitment to the failed policies of Castro’s revolution.”

Denison noted improved relations with the United States under Raul Castro have created little benefit for the average Cuban.

“Tourism is booming in Cuba, which benefits those who work in tourist destinations but harms everyone else. The limited resources of the island are so focused on tourist areas that the rest of the country has even less,” Denison said.

“For years, government leaders have adamantly claimed that Fidel’s death would not change their commitment to their socialistic revolution, despite the failures of its policies. We should not expect them to change their position, especially in the short term.”

• “The Cuban people will rise above whatever adversity they face.”

Denison praised the Cubans’ “work ethic, resilience and passion for excellence.”

“I have seen mothers in corrugated tin shacks sweeping their dirt floors with immaculate care,” he said. “I have seen doctors driving taxis to support their families and lawyers working as doormen for tourist tips, yet they do this with a humble spirit that astounded me.

“The Cuban people are some of the best-educated in the world. Their passion for excellence in their lives and work will sustain them in the turmoil of the days ahead.”

• “The spiritual awakening in Cuba will continue to grow.”

More than 1 million Cubans have become Christians in recent years, Denison reported.

“Churches are starting in homes, fields, farms, schools or wherever people can gather to worship Jesus,” he said. “Pastors are braving the threat of government persecution to continue preaching the gospel with fearless joy.

“I have preached on six continents and can testify that the Cuban church is more like the New Testament church than any I have encountered anywhere I have been. Changes to their government will not hinder Cuban Christians in their commitment to Christ.”

Baptist experience in Castro’s Cuba

Southern Baptists experienced the Castro regime’s totalitarian rule firsthand in 1965, when Home Mission Board workers Herbert Caudill and David Fite were arrested along with 53 other Christian leaders in Cuba, according to the Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists.

At the time, Baptist Press reported the two missionaries were charged with “illegal foreign currency exchange.” Caudill was released in 1966 and Fite in 1968.

In 1995, a Southern Baptist Convention resolution listed Cuba among nations experiencing “notable occurrences of oppression” directed at Christians.

In 2000, the world’s Baptists witnessed the apparent softening of Castro’s restrictions on religious life when Havana hosted the Baptist World Alliance General Council. At that meeting, the BWA adopted a resolution criticizing economic embargoes against Cuba as restricting access to food and medicine for innocent Cubans.

Castro sent greetings to the BWA and specifically thanked meeting participants for the resolution. He also met with BWA leaders for two hours.

Florida Baptists continue Cuban outreach

In the post-Fidel Castro era, a Florida Baptist Convention leader who has been coordinating missions in Cuba 18 years said Baptists will continue to influence their neighbors in the Caribbean, although they expect little immediate change in the Cuban government.

“Things aren’t going to change a whole lot (in Cuba) until the last name (of its leaders) changes. And it’s still Castro,” said Craig Culbreth, the Florida Baptist Convention’s lead catalyst for missions and ministries. “I think there will be some changes. How fast or how many, I don’t know.”

In the meantime, Florida Baptists plan to continue sending an average of one mission team to Cuba every eight days, Culbreth said. That translates to about 40 teams per year assisting the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba and 10 assisting the Baptist Convention of Eastern Cuba.

The Florida convention provides 51 percent of the western convention’s budget, Culbreth said.

For Pablo Miret, pastor of Iglesia Bautista Discipulos de Cristo in Miami, Castro’s death offers a ray of hope for Cuba’s future.

In a Facebook post he wrote, “What truly moves those of us who lived the communist experience in and outside of Cuba is the hope of a better future.”

With additional reporting by Managing Editor Ken Camp

Advocates of church-state separation found little comfort in President Elect Donald Trump’s announcement he plans to nominate Betsy DeVos, a leader in the self-described school reform movement for more than two decades, to head up the U.S. Department of Education.

Read it at Baptist News Global.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (BWA)—Neville Callam announced his intention to retire as general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance Dec. 31, 2017.

Policy requires the general secretary, chief executive of the international umbrella organization for Baptists, to give a minimum notice of 12 months.

Callam, a Jamaican, was elected to the position in July 2007 during the BWA annual gathering in Accra, Ghana. Since the BWA’s founding in 1905, all previous general secretaries were American or European.

Baptist World Alliance General Secretary Neville Callam shakes hands with former President Jimmy Carter. (BWA Photo)Callam took on the BWA leadership post just when economic recession occurred. Working with the budget and finance committee, he led the organization through the financial crisis and global economic meltdown. Under his direction, BWA streamlined its office administration, employ relevant technology to improve BWA functions while minimizing cost, and put in place a conference management system to secure greater economic sustainability. BWA also merged several divisions.

BWA membership has grown since Callam came into office, from 214 to 235 member organizations in 122 countries and territories.

BWA adopted a Covenant on Intra-Baptist Relations to provide a framework for response to the diversity of language, culture, opinions and perspectives in meetings and in the various operations of the international body.

In his retirement notice letter, Callam said his commitment in serving the BWA was to “draw attention to the church’s mission as the mission of God,” locating the ministries of relief and development, the defense of freedom and justice and a commitment to the unity of the church within that vision. He ceaselessly insisted “on the theological foundation for these values.”

“You are one of those gifts from God for the church,” BWA President Paul Msiza said in response to Callam’s announcement. “I have been touched and encouraged by your deep faith and commitment to God and to the mission of the church. Your hard work and sacrificial service describe your deep commitment and love for the BWA.”

“My first response was one of sadness. It felt I was losing something very significant and precious,” said John Upton, former BWA president and current chair of the human resources committee, upon learning of Callam’s plans to retire from the organization. 

“I have been deeply grateful for the opportunity to work alongside Neville, not only while serving as president of the BWA, but in every other capacity. His deep commitment to the BWA and his tireless service to it will long be appreciated.”

Noting Callam’s scholarship and commitment to theological rigor and integrity, Upton said he “modeled unsurpassed excellence of service” and that “his leadership has challenged the BWA to become increasingly an authentic global Baptist community.”

Callam acknowledged God’s guiding presence and the support of his wife, Dulcie. “Serving in this position, God has never failed me and, through all the opportunities and challenges, I have benefited from the unwavering faithfulness of my wife who has helped me selflessly,” he said.

Conversations about death and dying may not rank high on the list of preferred topics when families gather for the holidays. But advance directives concerning end-of-life care may be the most precious gifts imaginable for loved ones, some Baptist hospital administrators and chaplains insist.

Joe Perez “Letting family and friends know our wishes for this difficult part of the human journey is a tremendous gift to them,” said Joe Perez, vice president for mission and ministry at Valley Baptist Health System.

When a patient faces a terminal illness or irreversible medical condition, the disease or injury victimizes both the patient and the people he or she loves, Perez said.

“But if we don’t make our wishes known in advance and prepare our family for the decision-making associated with that situation, they become victims twice—to the tragedy and to the process,” he said.

Instead of leaving behind victims, Christians can provide advance directives that empower family members to become “informed champions to uphold the wishes” of someone they love.

Important documents

Advance directives include two vital documents, Perez noted.

One grants medical power of attorney—the legal authority for a surrogate to make health-care decisions for someone who is incapacitated.

The other is a directive to physicians and family or surrogates, sometimes called a living will. This document allows an individual to make his or her wishes known about end-of-life medical treatments before a crisis occurs.

Issues include when or how long a person would want to be placed on mechanical ventilation or tube feeding, if and when a person wants to be resuscitated, and how aggressively physicians should seek to extend life through artificial support.

More is not always best

During a panel discussion at a workshop during the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, three hospital administrators—Joel Allison from Baylor Scott & White Health, Tim Lancaster from Hendrick Health System and Glenn Robinson from Baylor Scott & White-Hillcrest—emphasized the importance of advance directives and end-of-life planning.

Hospital administrators (left to right) Tim Lancaster from Hendrick Health System, Joel Allison from Baylor Scott & White Health and Glenn Robinson from Baylor Scott & White-Hillcrest participate in a panel discussion on health care during a workshop at the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting in Waco. (Photo/BGCT Newsroom)“One of the greatest gifts we can give to our children is not putting them in the place of having to make the decisions,” Lancaster said.

Robinson noted 60 percent of an average American’s lifetime expenditures on health care occur in the last six months of life.

“We need to teach Americans how to die differently,” he said. “Giving more health care is not always best.”

Allison offered praise both for the spiritual care chaplains in his system provide and for the palliative care physicians offer, not only at the end of life, but also as a part of chronic disease management.

Understand what is available

As families discuss end-of-life issues, they need to understand what is available, the administrators noted.

Palliative care—sometimes called “comfort care”—is specialized medical attention focused on relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illness. It is designed to improve patients’ quality of life, the administrators explained.

They distinguished between palliative care and hospice care, noting palliative care is one dimension of hospice care but is not limited to it.

Hospice care typically is reserved for terminally ill patients during the last six months of life, assuming a disease follows its normal course, and normally is offered in a home setting. Palliative care helps keep patients as comfortable as possible through various phases of a life-limiting condition, whether in a home, hospital or nursing facility, and it may extend for years.

Families can benefit from the resources Baptist hospitals offer with regard to end-of-life planning—particularly the pastoral care or chaplaincy staff, the administrators noted.

David Cross, director of chaplaincy services for Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, who attended the panel discussion, noted most chaplaincy programs offer advance directive workshops for the communities their hospitals serve. Chaplains also typically are willing and eager to talk to churches about how families can prepare, he added.

Bring the conversation to church

While churches offer messages of hope about everlasting life, too often they shy away from discussions about the dying process, Perez noted.

“We don’t talk about death and dying much. We hope for a miracle, and if that doesn’t happen, we just say it was God’s will,” he said.

Consequently, Christians often are least prepared to take advantage of end-of-life services and most inclined to seek aggressive treatment at that stage, he noted, pointing to a published study of patients with advanced cancer. 

However, spiritual care and end-of-life discussions by the medical team and pastoral care providers can reduce aggressive treatment and increase use of hospice care, the study showed.

The study underscores the importance of chaplains—as well as health-care providers who work in an environment that encourages them to offer holistic care, Perez observed. During the summer, chaplains at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen led an educational campaign involving more than 900 employees, from physicians to food-service staff, about advance directives and related issues.

But the study also points to the need for more end-of-life education in churches, Perez noted. Congregations can do more to facilitate end-of-life discussions and create an environment that values advance planning, he said.

See what the Scriptures say

A Bible study or sermon could focus on what he called “the first advance directive”—the story of Barzillai of Gilead in 2 Samuel 19:31-39, who received the king’s blessing for making his end-of-life wishes known.

He also pointed to another Old Testament passage, Isaiah 38:1, when the prophet commands an ailing King Hezekiah, “Set your house in order, for you shall die.”

Christians can learn best from the example of Jesus—not only in terms of how he dealt with the awareness of his approaching death, but also in how he talked about it with his closest followers, Perez observed.

“Jesus prepared his disciples for his own death,” he said. “What are we doing to prepare the people we love for that aspect of life? … Have the conversation.”

FARMERS BRANCH—Royal Haven Baptist Church in Farmers Branch has a vision rooted in Isaiah 58:12—to rebuild, repair and restore its community. 

Lofty goals for a congregation that had dwindled from 2,000 in attendance 30 years ago to about 40 five years ago. That’s when Rick and Carol Dorman returned to the church where they grew up, came to faith in Christ and felt God’s call to ministry.

“We heard God calling us back here,” said Rick, who served nearly four decades as a bivocational church planter, most recently in Denton Baptist Association. At ages 60 and 58, the Dormans were the youngest members at Royal Haven.

Inwardly focused and concentrated on survival

As they drove through the neighborhoods where they spent their childhoods, the couple barely recognized the area.

“The demographics had changed. In the process, the church had become inwardly focused,” Rick said.

The congregation, which historically had a rich history of missions involvement, concentrated on its own survival rather than on serving the surrounding community, he added.

Adopting an elementary school

Renewed community involvement began when the Dormans led their church to adopt a local elementary school, helping provide school supplies and uniforms, and then to expand the ministry by adopting a second school.

Through a conversation with the principal of one of those schools, Carol learned about a need that captured her heart.

Carol Dorman rejoices in the way the food-distribution ministry at Royal Haven Baptist Church has served as a launching pad for other ministries. (Photos / Ken Camp)“The children were going home on the weekend, and there was no food for them to eat until they came back to school on Monday,” she said. The Dormans started making trips to a wholesale discount grocer to buy food to fill backpacks for children in need each Friday. In time, the church decided to tap a fund set up in memory of a missions-minded member to provide for 13 children each weekend.

Even so, Carol was haunted by the thought of the hungry children they could not feed and of the children’s families who lacked food. So, she contacted Jana Jackson, director of family and community ministries at Dallas Baptist Association.

Community Distribution Partners

Jackson, one of the leaders of the faith community action team of the Dallas Coalition for Hunger Solutions, told her about Crossroads Community Services and its Community Distribution Partners network. 

Betty Miser checks the shopping list carefully as she gathers groceries a family will receive from the i58 ministry.Crossroads, which grew out of First United Methodist Church in downtown Dallas, developed the network to empower congregations and other nonprofit organizations too small to serve as a North Texas Food Bank agency.

Crossroads serves as the hub, securing food in bulk from the food bank and maintaining a centralized client database. The 80 churches and organizations in the Community Distribution Partners network serve as the spokes of the wheel, providing food to preregistered families once a month at a site near where they live.

Volunteers pick up food at Crossroads early on the morning of a food-distribution day, transport it to a remote site, package it for pre-approved families and provide it to them.

“I found out we could feed whole families better food for less money,” Carol said.

A center for missions

Royal Haven agreed to become one of the Community Distribution Partners. In the meantime, the congregation sold its old building, secured the property formerly occupied by Brookhaven Baptist Church before that congregation relocated to McKinney, and merged with Valley View Baptist Church.

The building where Valley View Baptist worshipped before the merger became Royal Haven’s missions center—home to a Spanish-language congregation, a Kenyan congregation, a Korean pastor-training center and the once-a-month food distribution site.

Royal Haven provided food to its first 12 families in February 2015. At the October 2016 distribution day, the church served 44 preregistered families and completed the application process for two additional households.

Baptists around the state help support the ministry through their gifts to the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering. 

Involving volunteers in service

In addition to providing fresh produce and other food, Royal Haven also allows clients to “shop” for free clothing before they pick up their groceries. Volunteers carefully sort all the donated clothing to make sure everything is lightly used, clean and appropriate.

The food distribution and clothes closet initiative—part of Royal Haven’s i58 ministry, based on Isaiah 58:12—involves at least 40 volunteers on any given Saturday, equal to the number of people who attended the church when the Dormans returned five years ago. Today, about 200 people attend Bible study and worship services at Royal Haven.

Likewise, longtime members of Royal Haven—and members of Valley View Baptist who joined after the two congregations merged—rediscovered their passion to meet needs in their community, share the gospel and extend God’s kingdom, Rick said.

Wesley Pollet, a fairly new member of Royal Haven Baptist Church, volunteered with the i58 ministry the first time in October. “They have caught the vision of missions they always had deep down but that had been lost,” he said. Volunteers range in age from pre-teens to members in their 90s.

Wesley Pollet, a relatively new member of Royal Haven, worked with i58 for the first time in October, bringing his children along with him.

“I want my kids to learn to be servant leaders,” he said. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity.”

Developing meaningful relationships

Through the food-distribution ministry, Royal Haven is establishing meaningful relationships with families the church likely would not have reached otherwise, the Dormans noted.

Jaymeson Adams delivers groceries to the car for Maria Laura Viera.“The food is meeting a real need in the lives of these families, but it’s even greater as a tool to enable us to meet” people in the community, Carol said.

“We are building relationships and establishing trust. They come to us with legal issues and with immigration issues, when their 15-year-old daughter becomes pregnant and when their kids have school issues and the parents don’t know how to communicate with the teachers. They all have my cell phone number.”

Thanks to a Spanish-to-English translation app on her phone, Carol is able to respond and help them find the assistance they need. In the process, she is seeing lives changed.

“There was one woman who had dropped off the grid,” she recalled. “She hadn’t been to the mission center for at least two months. Then one day, she called. She said: ‘I just wanted you to know I’m doing great now. You helped me when I was in such need, and I wanted to thank you.’”

Expanding ministries

In January, Royal Haven hopes to start English-as-Second-Language classes on Sunday mornings for parents to attend while their children attend Sunday school.

“We want to help them be able to obtain better jobs,” Carol said.

Royal Haven also is seeking to intervene early in the next generation by improving the literacy skills of young children. Working in partnership with Literacy Connexus, a ministry of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission, volunteers built 55 bookshelves for children and provided them a basic children’s home library. 

Three couples who participated in the bookshelf-building project had no connection to any church, but they learned about the ministry and wanted to help, Rick recalled.

“We spent a lot of time that day talking to them about the Lord,” he said.

Royal Haven has expanded its involvement with the school district to include five neighborhood schools. Principals and teachers have learned to call the church when they hear about families with needs. And the congregation continues to expand the scope of its community ministries.

“The food has served as a launching pad for all kinds of ministries,” Carol said.

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The Community Distribution Partners program involving Royal Haven Baptist Church is one of 10 proven strategies the faith community action team of the Dallas Coalition for Hunger Solutions identified to fight hunger.

Jana Jackson, director of family and community ministries at Dallas Baptist Association, helps lead the coalition’s action team to engage churches and other faith groups in effective hunger-fighting approaches.

Community Distribution Partners uses a “hub-and-spokes” distribution model to increase the efficiency of food distribution in areas of greatest need. Crossroads Community Services, an urban outreach ministry created by First United Methodist Church in Dallas, serves as the hub, obtaining food in bulk from the North Texas Food Bank. Other churches and community ministries serve as the spokes of the wheel, distributing groceries to clients in their neighborhoods. 

The coalition’s faith community action team identified nine other strategies. While some are specific to the Dallas area, most can be replicated throughout the state. They are:

• The Summer Meals Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides summertime nutrition for children and teenagers who receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year. Churches can serve as meal sites or can provide volunteers to staff a site in their community, and they can provide enrichment activities for students before or after meals.
• The Community Partner Program enlists congregations to help people use online resources to apply for and manage public benefits.
• Cooking Matters is a six-week program that teaches participants how to be smart grocery shoppers, make healthier nutritional choices and cook affordable meals. Churches can offer classes and involve members as teachers.
• Meals on Wheels (www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/) delivers nutritious, freshly prepared meals to people who cannot provide for themselves due to advanced age, illness or disability. Congregations can enlist and coordinate volunteers to deliver meals.
• The Family Garden Initiative helps churches and other groups teach their neighbors—particularly in urban areas—how to grow nutritious food in small gardens in backyards or apartment patios.
• Community Gardens provide fresh vegetables for families in urban areas and supply produce for food pantries. Congregations are encouraged to turn nonproductive plots of land into community gardens, developed in partnership with the individuals who benefit from what is grown.
• Congregate Meals offer balanced, nutritious meals for older adults at a senior center. The social setting allows the senior adults interaction with peers, and meal sites also may provide nutrition education classes. Churches can provide volunteers for the senior centers or sponsor a Congregate Meal site.
• Nourishing Neighbors is a volunteer-driven program of the North Texas Food Bank that delivers groceries to homebound senior adults and mature adults with disabilities. Participants receive at least 10 pounds of nutritious, easy-to-prepare food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, every-other week. Churches can recruit volunteers to deliver groceries or interview applicants for enrollment, and they can become a distribution hub to serve seniors in locations across the 13 counties the North Texas Food Bank serves.
• Nutrition Education through the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service incorporates research-based, practical lessons in basic nutrition, food preparation, food budget management and food safety in settings convenient for participants. The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program helps families with children, and Better Living for Texans is designed for adults on public assistance programs. Churches can schedule the programs for their members or serve as host sites for programs in their communities.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—By combining songs rooted in a firm foundation of faith with a desire to influence future generations, Michael W. Smith hopes his latest album, Hymns II, Shine On Us, brings new life to old hymns.

“I released my first hymns project two years ago, and the response was overwhelming,” Smith said.

“This record is a little different from the first one. On the first record, almost all the songs were older hymns, and it was a little bit of a simpler production. This record is a mixture of half old songs and half new songs. It was a great joy to do work on a hymns project again, and I couldn’t be happier with the way the album turned out.

“I hope that every song on the album is going to be special for someone and connects with them. Music is the most powerful thing in the world. It still blows my mind that a three-and-a-half minute song can change somebody’s life. Someone can be in deep depression, but when they hear a certain song, everything starts to shift and gives them hope. The power of a song changes the atmosphere.

“There are some great lyrics in these old hymns, and I am so grateful for what the lyrics of these hymns mean and how they shape our faith.”

Throughout his musical journey spanning more than three decades, Smith has been amazed and humbled at how God guides and directs while providing opportunities to share the gospel in various settings.

“Whether I am hanging out with presidents, prime ministers or orphans, each platform provides a chance to share Christ’s love in a unique way,” Smith said. “I’m very grateful for these opportunities and having the chance to share about a message that has changed my life.”

Through the years, Smith’s catalog of achievements includes an American Music Award, three Grammy Awards and 45 Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association.

Despite the accolades, Smith remains committed to shining the spotlight on Christ and delivering powerful messages about grace, love and redemption through his songs.

In addition to his music, Smith desires to create platforms that would reach and help people in need. He established Rocketown, an entertainment venue in his hometown of Nashville, which serves as a safe place for young people to enjoy music and artists to be discovered.

Smith also raises awareness for a variety of missions organizations, including Compassion International and Samaritan’s Purse.

In December, Smith will help promote and support Operation Christmas Child while touring and performing festive holiday songs and traditional carols with a full symphony orchestra alongside fellow Grammy Award-winning recording artist Amy Grant and special guest Jordan Smith, season nine winner of NBC’s reality singing competition The Voice. They will perform alongside the Plano Symphony Orchestra Dec. 2 at Verizon Theatre in Grand Prairie.

Since its inception in 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan’s Purse, has sought to spread Christ’s love to impoverished children around the world through a shoebox full of small gifts at Christmas.

“We are living in challenging and chaotic times, when so many people are going through trials and adversities,” Smith said. “Through my songs, I want to remind people that God’s hand is still upon them.

“Songwriting is typically inspired by life experiences and walking with people who are struggling. When I turn on the news and see all these horrific things going on, it often leaves me wondering if I will be able to put these emotions into words. It really takes spending time in prayer and asking God to give me the right words to minister to people who are hurting and struggling.”