WACO—It wasn’t the worst story Viviana Triana had heard in her role as bilingual counselor at the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims & Children.

The center provides free short-term counseling to primary and secondary victims of crime in Waco, which among other issues includes sexual or physical abuse, robbery, homicide or suicide. So, Triana had heard terrible stories before. But this one was different.

A woman and her two young children had come to the center one Friday seeking help to deal with the domestic violence the husband inflicted on them. Encouraged, the woman planned to return the following Monday to begin counseling with Triana.

When the woman missed her appointment, the case manager followed up. The news was not good. Her abusive husband had beaten her severely over the weekend, in front of their children. She remained in a coma for two weeks before losing her final battle.

With the husband incarcerated, the victim’s sister was given custody of the children, and she, the sister’s mother and the two children began coming to Triana for the treatment their loved one didn’t get a chance to receive.

“The sister just sobbed and sobbed at the first session,” Triana said. “She couldn’t speak, and I just sat there with her and let her cry. We support them in their grieving.”

Not many people can sit as witnesses to unspeakable pain, but Triana, who earned her Master of Social Work/Master of Divinity degrees in 2008 from Baylor University’s School of Social Work and Truett Theological Seminary, believes that for her it is both gift and calling.

“When a person first comes, you see the pain the suffering, and you wonder how this person can make it; she has experienced too much,” she said. “And then you start working with them, it is so amazing to see them begin to heal.”

Oftentimes, the victim is deeply shamed—not only at her circumstances, but also at revealing such raw emotion, Triana said. “I tell them: ‘It is a gift to be a part of your healing process. It is a privilege you are giving me.’”

This quietly confident young woman sitting in her softly lit office exudes a sense of calm and assurance. Her presence is like balm for a victim ravaged both physically and emotionally.

“Sometimes they have been keeping the secret for so many years,” she said. “Here they will find someone who will listen, who will not judge, who will validate what they’ve been through.”

A native Colombian, Triana came to the United States in 2000 to attend Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio. She came to Waco in 2004 to begin her dual degree at Baylor while her future husband, Carlos Charco, finished his degree at Dallas Baptist University. They married in 2005, and both were active in helping establish the first Board of Immigra-tion Appeals-recognized immigration service center in Waco, called the Ruth Project.

She interned at the advocacy center in fall 2007 and began work as a counselor there a week after her May 2008 commencement. Although she always believed she would be involved in clinical work, it took her first client at the center to remind her of the call on her life.

When she was a 13-year-old girl in Colombia, one night she had a dream. In it, she was sitting in an office and many people were lined up outside her office waiting to see her. These people were in great emotional pain. They were screaming and yelling and overwhelmed, she recalls.

“One by one, I placed my hand over their hearts,” she says, “and then their whole demeanor would change. They were no longer in pain; they left my office laughing.”

The wonder of that revelation still shines in Triana’s eyes as she shares her story. She says that, at 13, she thought her gift was one of healing through prayer. And admits she mostly had forgotten the dream—until she met with her first client at the advocacy center.

“She was a child, the victim of sexual assault by her stepfather. I met with her mother first, and she was crying and screaming, very passionate. She couldn’t believe this was happening. That’s when the dream came back to me.”

Now, she sees from 20 to 30 clients a week and leads a support group for Spanish-speaking clients. She has learned it is better if she does not go straight home after work; instead, she exercises at a gym or buys groceries. She values the support of her colleagues at the center to help her debrief and cope with atrocities she hears. She has learned how to set emotional boundaries for self-care without desensitizing herself to someone else’s pain.

“When things get tough, I have to go back to that dream,” she said. “I go to God and say: ‘I know you have called me to this. Give me the strength, because this is hard.’”

And then there are the glimmers of hope—such as the family whose mother was murdered. After working with them for a couple of months, Triana sensed they wanted to give back in some way but didn’t know how. Triana began a Wednesday night support group with the idea that women who had come further along the path of healing could help women whose pain was much newer, and she invited this family to attend.

“The first session was very difficult. But as they began to get stronger, they reached out to others,” she says. “One will say, ‘This is what helped me get through that stage …’ or ‘Don’t worry, it is going to get better.’

“That they can do that for one another in the midst of their own pain. I find that amazing.”

The victim’s two small children still come for counseling with Triana, but these days, they tell her, “We have two moms—the one in heaven and the one waiting for us outside.”

Two wounded hearts that Triana has touched have begun to heal. “When you see the little bit of hope return, then you know you have made a difference.”

LAFAYETTE, Ga. (RNS)—For Travis Hutchinson, the life of a pastor in a small-town Georgia church is about preaching the gospel, ministering to the needy and, increasingly, figuring out how to handle an ever-growing list of risks.

Some new risks are real and demand vigilance, said Hutchinson, pastor of Highlands Presbyterian Church in LaFayette, Ga. For example, conducting a criminal background check on everyone who works with children has become a necessity.

Other risks are more remote, he says. Still, vendors stoke anxiety about everything from shooting sprees to federal audits.

“I get lots and lots of stuff that just seems like fear mongering, and apparently that’s taken hold in some places,” Hutchinson said. “One of the things we have to do as a congregation is ask ourselves: How much of our time is (risk management) eating up? And how much time are we spending doing what God wants us to do?”

In the wake of the Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse crises and several church shooting incidents in recent years, risk has become a hot topic for churches. The National Association of Church Business Administration last year convened 30 first-time regional workshops to raise risk awareness among the 85 percent of churches it says are vulnerable because they don’t have a professional administrator.

“Risk management is a huge issue in the church right now,” NACBA Deputy Chief Executive Officer Phillip Martin said. “It carries everything from child protection issues … to the issue of security as it relates to guns, protection of pastors, staff and congregants.”

This year, GuideOne Insurance is responding to rising demand from churches by rolling out new types of coverage, such as insurance against income loss caused by a church intruder.

For some church leaders, raising risk awareness and taking steps to prevent disasters is a matter of faithfulness. Tom Danklefsen, executive pastor of Grove City United Methodist Church in Grove City, Ohio, coaches pastors of small and mid-sized churches on a range of risk issues, from protecting a church’s tax-exempt status to thwarting the efforts of pickpockets during worship services.

“We’re managing God’s resources, and we want to do that well,” Danklefsen said. “We have to do due diligence. (Using safeguards) frees us to do better ministry. We don’t have to worry, ‘Well, gosh, is this guy a criminal?’ We know the background” because the church does background checks on employees and volunteers who work with children or the elderly.

But some say churches can become so concerned with minimizing risk they forget how take risks appropriate to Christian discipleship.

Theologian Scott Bader-Saye worries, for instance, that churches preoccupied with institutional safety may become unwelcoming toward poor people because embracing them could pose hazards to their bottom lines.

“We’re seeing faithfulness being reduced to good business management,” said Bader-Saye, a professor of moral theology at Seminary of the Southwest in Austin. “There are things more important than being safe. Those things involve loving God, loving neighbor, pursuing the good. … If we teach our children that our fundamental objective is safety and security, then we don’t prepare them to take the kind of risks they need to take to be disciples and to have joyful and fulfilling lives.”

In the ministry trenches, pastors sometimes are working out principles to help them distinguish between risks to mitigate and risks worth taking.

For instance, Highlands Pres-byterian Church offers worship space and humanitarian aid to immigrants, whether they’re legal citizens or not.

Highland elders have taken heat for such displays of hospitality; one elder had a brick thrown through a window at his home. But they willingly keep taking such risks, Hutchinson said.

“The question being lost in today’s risk management is: What are we willing to lose for the sake of the gospel?” Hutchinson said.

In Las Vegas, a nondenominational church known as The Village makes a point of taking risks to show God’s love for people in need. For example, rampant drug-related violence in Tijuana, Mexico, didn’t deter 25 church members from traveling there in November for a weekend effort to renovate an orphanage.

“The basic model (of church in America) has been: We’ve got this safe place for you … we’ll look after your teenagers, we’ll provide all these programs, (and) you can be kind of insulated from the world around you,” said The Village Pastor Barry Diamond. “I think that’s the very opposite of what Jesus wants.”

Looking forward, Bader-Saye hopes churches will invest as much effort in discerning which risks are worth taking as they now put into being safe. At present, he observes, that isn’t happening often enough.

“Churches haven’t asked the more basic question about what kind of risks should we be taking, and what kind of risks should we be resisting?” Bader-Saye said. “It’s not in the end a question of taking risks and or not taking risks, but recognizing that there are proper risks to take.”

One sees them occasionally. Abandoned church buildings in rural areas stand in mute witness of changing times. In urban areas, big brick structures, once crowded with eager worshipers, now house restaurants, community centers or even nightclubs.

Sometimes churches die. Like individuals, some may reach the end of a long and fruitful life and pass away with a sense of triumph. Others may die from years of self-destructive choices.

Every denomination in the United States has scores of churches that expect to die within a decade. No one can prevent the cultural shifts that leave behind churches unable or unwilling to adapt.

Weakened, vulnerable and sometimes paralyzed by uncertainty, membership dwindles until death seems inevitable.

Some leaders failed to prepare churches for the cultural change occurring in their midst. Other churches lacked the know-how or the resources necessary to change. Some churches simply refused to change.

Whatever the reasons for decline, once church members believe they lack the resources and energy necessary to affect a turnaround, recovery becomes almost impossible and they focus solely on survival. Unable to accept impending death as an option, church members sometimes seek someone or something to blame.

Phil Rodgerson, retired from the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, has identified classic options churches often consider when facing their own demise. Unfortunately, 58 percent of the time, the church chooses to remain and do nothing—an approach that almost guarantees an inglorious end.

Experts insist a healthier, theologically appropriate approach is to celebrate the life the church has known, consider its options and prepare for a death that honors Christ and leaves a kingdom legacy. When a church completes its mission and dies, members will mourn, but they also will celebrate the church’s ministry successes.

If 42 percent of declining churches want their ministries to survive, what can they do?

• Let old dreams die and envision something new.

Born in 1907 to reach a thriving, new community in south Richmond, Va., Weatherford Memorial Baptist Church had declined terribly. By 2000, the surrounding area had changed, but the church had not. Finally, the few members who gathered weekly realized they could not continue.

“We saw what was happening, but we didn’t want to acknowledge it. We were in denial,” lamented Ruth Guill, a former member.

In 2005, Pastor Ricky Hurst, assisted by Glenn Akins, assistant executive director of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, led Weatherford to embrace an extraordinary dream. Despite offers from other churches to buy their property, the congregation voted to give its $2 million facility to St. Paul’s Baptist Church, a rapidly growing African-American congregation in another part of the city. Weatherford’s gift enabled St. Paul’s to minister at a second site. In the three years since Weatherford Memorial became St. Paul’s South, attendance has grown to over 500.

The desire for a lasting legacy also led Weatherford Memorial to establish an endowment for mission purposes by the Richmond Baptist Association and the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.

• Remain but develop a community consciousness that creates ministry opportunities.

Like many other urban congregations, First Baptist Church of Clarendon, now called simply The Church at Clarendon, experienced stagnation and decline. In the past 30 years, resident membership dropped steadily from 871 to 236. Worship attendance, however, has begun to climb again as the congregation has embraced a new vision.

Located in a suburb of Washington, D.C., Clarendon’s property values soared making it nearly impossible for mid-level professionals to live where they worked. Firefighters, police officers, teachers and nurses increasingly had to commute long distances to work because they could not afford nearby housing. Church member Ellen Bartlett reports The Church at Clarendon decided to leverage the value of its property, tear down its aged facilities except for the main entrance and steeple, and build a 10-story structure. The church will occupy the two bottom floors while the upper eight stories will provide affordable apartments with rent based on income levels.

• Change as the community changes.

Bon Air Baptist, a growing congregation in Richmond, chose to use its size and strength to change as the community changes. Toward that end, Pastor Travis Collins is leading the congregation to reflect the racial and cultural makeup of the communities around its primary campus on Buford Road and its three other locations.

• Remain at a central location while establishing other sites for worship and ministry.

Pastor Bob Sizemore led Fairview Baptist, located in an older section of Fredericksburg, Va., to establish Fairview at River Club. The River Club site, led by Dee Whitten, has grown to an average attendance of 550.

• Remain, but share the use of facilities.

Akins of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board points out that although shared use often has a community ministry component, the motivation most often is financial. For that reason, this option postpones rather than prevents further decline.

• Refocus.

Exercising invention and adaptability, some churches change the type of ministry they offer—shifting from a neighborhood church to a specialized ministry, for example.

• Relocate.

Anytime a church moves, it requires church members to abandon a sacred place. Rarely can churches relocate without experiencing disunity, Akins noted.

• Merge with another congregation.

Congregational mergers often create one slightly larger, weak church from two smaller, weak churches, Akins asserted.

•Re-church.

The established church “goes out of business” then reopens after reorganizing and retraining. The obvious difficulty, observes Akins, is that many of the people remain the same, taking the same assumptions that failed before into the new church.

Fair Park Baptist in Alexandria, Va., could see the end approaching and chose to become a different kind of church.

To avoid the attitudes and practices that led them to decline, the church turned over decision-making to a group of trustees who brought expertise from outside the congregation. The trustees constituted the Convergence Church, specializing in ministry to Alexandria’s sizeable arts community. Led by Lisa Hawkins and a leadership team she put together, the new church is gaining numbers and vitality.

Another version of this option occurs when a church gives itself to a stronger, larger church whose members fill key leadership positions. This approach can change the DNA of the new church.

• Simply disband.

Akins challenges churches to engage in ongoing assessment of their success within their cultural settings. He points out that every church faces many internal and external circumstances beyond its control. Church members die or move away. Businesses shut down, neighborhoods change and buildings age.

But churches can control the way they live out their faith, their worship styles and their responses to circumstances that lie beyond their control.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Close to half of Americans admit to harboring prejudice against Muslims and negative feelings about Islam, a new study from the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies shows.

The level of anti-Muslim prejudice—43 percent of Americans admitted feeling at least “a little”—is more than twice as high as Americans’ reported feelings toward Buddhists, Christians and Jews.

Fifty-three percent of respondents said their view of Islam was “not too favorable” or “not favorable at all,” according to a 32-page Religious Perceptions in America report.

“It was interesting to note that Americans admit no more prejudice against Buddhists and Jews than they do against Christians,” said Dalia Mogahed, director of the Washington-based center. “So, this isn’t just simply a problem against minority religions. There is a somewhat unique issue with Muslims in particular.”

The report also seemed to debunk the conventional wisdom that greater exposure of individual Muslims can be an antidote to anti-Muslim prejudice. Researchers found personally knowing a Muslim may “soften extreme prejudice,” but it can’t eliminate bias altogether.

“It suggests that you can know a Muslim but if you have a negative opinion of the faith as a whole because of media exposure, you can perhaps explain that this one friend of yours is an exception,” said Mogahed.

The study drew on media studies that have found prominent television news coverage of Islam tends to be negative and focuses on extremism. That, in turn, fuels anti-Muslim prejudice, Mogahed said.

“The default state for Americans is not having prejudice,” Mogahed said. “Americans really have to learn prejudice by being inundated by negative information.”

Perhaps more concerning is that the 43 percent of self-professed prejudice is likely “an underestimation,” Mogahed said, because people are hesitant to admit it. If the real number actually is higher, that’s “even more alarming,” she said.

Mogahed, who focuses on interfaith dialogue as a member of the White House’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said she hopes the findings will influence future bridge-building efforts between people of different faiths.

One key finding is that people who are extremely prejudiced against Jews are very likely to hold the same views of Muslims.

“There are more and more parallels between the typical things that are said against Jews and those said against Muslims,” she said, “including conspiracy theories that Muslims are trying to take over the nation and the world, that they’re taking over Europe.”

The report showed a disparity between Americans’ perceived views of Muslims about gender equality and findings by Gallup researchers who studied populations in majority-Muslim countries.

While just 16 percent of Americans think Muslims around the world believe men and women should have equal rights, majorities of respondents in predominantly Muslim countries—including 85 percent of Saudi Arabians—think so.

“By presenting more accurate, representative information … some of the perceptions can be better informed,” Mogahed said.

In general, researchers found Americans are quite ignorant of non-Christian faiths. While 63 percent had very little or no knowledge of Islam, 72 percent said they had very little or no knowledge of Buddhism, and half of Americans said they had very little or no knowledge of Judaism.

The Gallup World Religion Survey, which was used as a base for most of the report’s findings, was conducted in October and November 2009 by phone of a random national sample of 1,002 adults; it has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

The dramatic increase of payday lender storefronts in Texas has left some Christians wondering how to respond. What does Scripture say about high interest rates? Can the church offer solutions?

“Payday loans perpetuate American poverty,” said Bill Tillman, T. B. Maston Professor of Christian Ethics at Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene. “If we take Christianity seriously, we are not in this world to make all we can, but we’re in this world to serve others. The authenticity of our relationship to God is dependent on how we treat other people.”

Payday loans are small-dollar loans with high service fees and interest rates that offer instant cash with no credit check. These loans, usually $300 to $500, are secured with a personal checking account and a service fee. Often, borrowers pay $20 or more for every $100 borrowed. If the loan is not paid in full within two to three weeks, then the borrower can pay another service fee and roll over the loan.

A recent survey conducted by Texas Appleseed, an advocacy group for low- income families, found most payday loan borrowers roll over loans at least once, and several people roll them over multiple times.

With this model, payday lenders profit from a cycle of debt. Most payday loan borrowers in the survey earned an income of $30,000 or less and used the loan for recurring expenses of basic needs like rent, utilities and food. While the Texas Finance Code sets some restrictions on small-dollar loans, many payday lenders operate as consumer service organizations avoiding licensing and regulation by the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner.

Christians can look to the Bible for instruction regarding unethical business practices and financial systems, biblical scholars note. Several references to charging interest appear in the Old Testament. Exodus 22:25 of the Covenant Code and Leviticus 25:36 of the Holiness Code—the two central instructions for forming community—both urge Israel not to extract interest from the poor. Later, this instruction is confirmed in Psalm 15:5 in reference to worship practices and Proverbs 22:7 in the wisdom literature.

Prohibition of interest to the poor is consistent with the great prophetic emphasis on social justice, especially seen in Amos 2:6-16.

It is difficult to compare ancient society to our capitalist, egalitarian society, said James Nogalski, professor of Old Testament at Baylor University. Still, he sees how certain thematic ideas regarding righteous and just living can be applied to Christians’ lives. A righteous person, as described in Psalm 15:5, does not charge too much interest or make a profit at the expense of someone who is in need.

In ancient society, it was not uncommon for lenders to collect 40 percent, 50 percent or more interest, and some even took children as slaves, but such practices ultimately were considered too much.

Furthermore, people who oppress the poor through exorbitant interest rates and other practices are called unjust.

“There is clearly a point where all the literature agrees,” Nogalski said. “When lenders take back more than is justified and oppress the poor, the prophets in particular offer powerful words of judgment.”

The modern debate today is over the point where interest rates become too high in our society, Nogalski explained. When we take more than is justified, especially from those least able to pay, we are in danger of living like the unrighteous or unjust against whom the prophets and the psalmists rail, he said.

The Old Testament is concerned with forming a community in covenant with the living God, said Bill Bellinger, chair of the religion department at Baylor University. The biblical witness summarizes God’s instruction in terms of loving God with all we are and have and loving our neighbor. 

“Extracting interest, especially high interest, from the poor is decidedly not a neighborly practice,” Bellinger said.  The Bible calls the community of faith to a life that lifts up the poor, and thus, the community of faith is called to bear witness to practices that bring justice and hope to the poor. 

“The usury of payday and car title loans are in direct conflict with these goals,” he said. 

The New Testament also talks about financial systems and treatment of the poor. Jesus summed up the Old Testament witness with his command to love God and love our neighbor explained Dennis Tucker, associate dean of Truett Theological Seminary.

“Loving a neighbor means keeping someone from being victimized,” he said.

Many times we think of loving our neighbor as an overt act, but it also includes seeking justice, he explained. Jesus spoke against systems that dehumanized people like in the case of the adulterous woman in John 8.

“As Christians, we need to critique systems that oppress the poor,” Tucker said. “But we also need to be a part of the answer.”

The early church in Acts 2 actively sought answers to problems by meeting people’s needs itself rather than relying on political structures. Likewise, there is a movement in churches today to reach out to the needs of their immediate communities. Churches are discovering new ways to help raise questions and find solutions at home.

Tillman encourages Christians to offer their business skills to help those people caught in the cycle of debt from payday loans. Christians and churches can offer financial education or help to develop alternative small-dollar loan products. Tillman explains that Jesus’ good news was socially relevant; it actually saved lives.

“To be socially relevant in our day, churches must remember the nature of Jesus’ gospel,” he said.

The church should respond proactively to the harmful practices of payday loans, said Joe Trull, editor of Christian Ethics Today.

“Churches can teach basic economic principals, helping people to make the most out of their money,” said Trull, formerly an ethics professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Many people who use payday loans use them because their parents used them,” he observed. Churches can teach about financial practices that will keep people from using payday loans.

“We do this kind of thing for young married couples. Why don’t we do it for the poor?”

Amy Wiles is a student at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and plans to graduate with her Master of Divinity degree in May 2011. Before entering seminary, she taught music in public schools five years, after completing her undergraduate degree at Baylor University. She is serving a public policy research internship jointly sponsored by the Christian Life Commission and the Baptist Standard, made possible by a grant from the Christ is Our Salvation Foundation of Waco.

KERENS—Members of First Baptist Church are seeing a fire that burned the congregation’s facilities to the ground as a new beginning.

Early Oct. 17, a blaze tore through the sanctuary, children’s area, nursery, library and office, burning them to the ground. Only the youth and education building remained. The cause of the fire has not been determined.

“I was hit with a sense of helplessness,” Pastor Wes Johnson acknowledged. “But a lot of friends circled around me, a couple pastors came in and the director of missions. It was a very emotional day. I still get emotional when I talk about it.”

That shock has shifted to rebuilding. A local Methodist church bought 150 Baptist hymnals for First Baptist Church. The congregation has been meeting in the Kerens Ex-Students Association building for worship. The Baptist General Convention of Texas provided some financial relief, and its architectural team continues providing guidance.

The fire has allowed the congregation to step back and re-examine how it uses its facilities and plan buildings that better fit those ministries, Johnson said. The fire destroyed buildings but not the church—the people, Johnson said. The congregation now is charting a course for its future ministry.

“My role since October in one sense is to increase my role as an encourager and an uplifter, to let them know this is not the end of things but a new start and new beginning as God leads us,” Johnson said.

Texas Baptists’ architectural team have helped guide the congregation through assessing the way it wants to use space for ministry. Staff members recently have completed conceptual drawing plans for how First Baptist Church’s proposed future facilities can function. They also address how to work with architects, engineers and builders.

“BGCT has helped us in a major way in several areas,” Johnson said.

Keith Crouch, director of the BGCT architecture team, said the fire has given First Baptist Church a chance to pray for a vision to guide its future. Because of the prayer-bathed process of planning, the congregation is beginning to see what the future may hold. It may be in a new building within the year.

“It really is an opportunity,” he said. “Most churches that experienced a disaster event come out better on the other side, believe it or not.”

That future already has begun, Johnson said, as the congregation rebuilds for the “glory of God.” As members have gone through the process of dealing with the loss of the buildings and looking to the future, opportunities have arisen. Some people have become more open to hearing what members have to share. Some people in the community are more willing to hear and contemplate the gospel.

“Amazingly to me, this has opened some doors of witness that weren’t open before,” Johnson said.

Six pairs of crutches and a cane are among the items Hardin-Simmons University students, faculty and staff donated to a Haiti relief effort. Donations were so numerous, they covered every table in one of the labs of the Sid Richardson Science Center as they were spread out for sorting.

Science professors Steven Rosscoe and Michelle Dose were the leaders of the collection. Rosscoe said he wanted to contribute something to the relief effort for Haiti and realized many other people on campus wanted to do the same, including colleague and associate professor of chemistry, Michelle Dose.

With the help of junior lab assistant Zach Rose, Dose and Rosscoe wrapped large boxes in paper and labeled them then distributed the boxes to seven locations around the campus. Every other day they emptied the boxes. In about 10 days, they managed to collect enough items to fill up 24 large boxes of supplies, which shipped to Haiti at the end of February.

Dose says the supplies will be distributed with the help of Project CURE (Commission on Urgent Relief & Equipment), which already has sent several shipments of supplies to the earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Project CURE was founded in 1987 to help meet the need for medical supplies, equipment and services around the world. Project CURE builds sustainable healthcare infrastructure by providing the supplies and equipment medical personnel need to deliver healthcare.

Dose has worked with the organization in the past, so she knew it would be the perfect avenue to get the HSU donations into the hands of the people who need them.

Students, faculty and staff left grocery bags full of supplies in the collection boxes, Dose and Rosscoe noted.

“After three days, we realized we would not be able to count all of the items,” Dose said.

Items included at least 100 boxes of toothpaste, dozens of toothbrushes, bandages, gauze, peroxide, baby wipes and diapers.

Holding up a box of Hannah Montana bandages, she said, “This is one of the funniest items we collected. Some little guy or girl in Haiti will enjoy these.”

The HSU donated supplies will be part of a sixth shipment by Project CURE to Haiti. Since its inception, Project CURE has delivered medical relief to needy people in more than 120 countries.

Steven Rosscoe said of the university collection of supplies, “We wanted to help, and we could.”

HOUSTON—Since Hurricane Ike left Larry and Melissa Beach’s home in Kemah severely damaged, they have been living in two FEMA trailers parked in front of their house—with their 13 children, ranging in age from 23 years to 22 months. 

While undergoing difficult circumstances, the family’s strong faith in Christ remained their solid foundation and served as an example for others. 

Nine of their children are adopted and several have special needs. In the Beaches’ 23 years of marriage, they have been foster parents to more than 85 children. 

Following the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, the Beach family wasn’t focused on their damaged home. Instead, they reached out to the community and helped with the cleanup efforts.

Larry Beach worked as a lineman for the power company and restored power throughout the city, while his wife volunteered at a local food pantry.

Their generous spirit didn’t go unnoticed.

In early January, a knock on their door brought an unexpected blessing for the Beach family, who are members of Ecclesia Church in Houston—and the timing couldn’t have been more fitting.

On Melissa Beach’s 40th birthday, she opened the door to find the crew from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition announcing that her family was selected to receive a new home.

“This is one of those families who was perfect for Extreme Makeover, even before the storm,” said Robbie Seay, who leads worship at Ecclesia. 

The Beach family arrives at the construction site to see their new home.

Seay nominated the Beach family for the popular reality show and has a deep connection to this family. While Seay was growing up, Larry and Melissa Beach were his Sunday school teachers.

Today, Seay is mentoring the Beaches’ oldest sons and giving them music lessons.

“Larry and Melissa Beach are an inspiring couple, and the new home allows them to open their door to more orphans through adoption and foster care,” Seay said.

During the Extreme Makeover project, thousands of volunteers from the surrounding area worked together, and in only a week’s time, they created a spacious 6,340-square-foot home, with eight bedrooms and four bathrooms. 

Pastor Chris Seay (left) Ecclesia Church in Houston and his brother, Robbie, worship leader at Ecclesia, help with the construction of the Beaches’ home in Kemah.

Special features include an elevator, therapy room and rooftop solar panels.

To accommodate their children with special needs, the home was built to meet standards set by the American with Disabilities Act, with wide doorways and bathrooms large enough for a wheelchair.

The episode is scheduled to air in late March, and Seay is among those eager for viewers to see Christ’s love displayed throughout this project.

“Hundreds of people from Ecclesia were honored to be a part of the construction of the Beach’s home, and it was such a blessing for our church to be able to work together in the rebuilding process,” Seay said. “On a daily basis, this family displays the love of God by reaching out and caring for the most vulnerable and needy in our society.

Ty Pennington, of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, talks with the Beach Family about their new home.

“No matter what circumstances they’ve endured, their first response was to help others. As a result, this family has shown that their faith in Christ is stronger than anything a storm could bring their way.”

CLIFTON—The churches of Bosque Baptist Association are distributing 2,500 New Testaments as part of Texas Hope 2010, an initiative to share the gospel with every Texan by Easter 2010.

Area congregations have distributed about 1,000 New Testaments since Jan. 1 and will continue sharing them through Easter, Director of Missions Bill Roe said.

Bosque Association churches hope people will come to Christ through their efforts, Roe said. They are excited to see how God moves through their ministry.

“They really caught a hold of it,” he said.

First Baptist Church in Clifton ordered 500 New Testaments in English and another 180 in Spanish. Its youth are mapping how the congregation will distribute the New Testaments.

For more information about Texas Hope 2010, visit www.texashope2010.com.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—Children wander amid rubble, lost, hungry, scared and emotionally numbed by all they have seen. These images of Haiti’s children—the most fragile citizens of an already impoverished nation plummeted into full-blown crisis by January’s earthquake—have mobilized well-meaning Americans to want to do something to help.

Rebecca Hackworth, director of social services for Dillon International, a nonprofit agency affiliated with Buckner International, is at work in Haiti, helping Dillon’s sister agency, the Foundation for the Children of Haiti, with relief efforts at its orphanages, school and hospital in Port-au-Prince. She has witnessed firsthand the dangers posed to children.

“There are children on the streets who don’t even know their last name. They are vulnerable and easy prey for evil purposes of all kinds,” she said.

It’s a situation that wrenches the heart. The impulse to rescue is strong.

“Immediately following the earthquake in Haiti, the public reaction was that there would be scores of children coming over to America that would need a place to stay,” said Deniese Dillon, Dillon International’s co-founder and executive director. The agency, which offers international adoption opportunities in 10 countries, received thousands of calls and e-mails from families eager to open their homes to children who lost everything in the earthquake. “They really had good intentions, and they were so caught up in the emotion of the moment.”

Rebecca Hackworth, director of social services for Dillon International, has witnessed firsthand the dangers children in Haiti face as she has worked the Foundation for the Children of Haiti and its relief efforts at orphanages, school and hospital in Port au Prince.

However, adoption is not an option in the immediate wake of the disaster. Time must be taken to determine if a child truly is orphaned by the earthquake or temporarily separated from family members in the midst of the chaos. Then there are other alternatives, such as placement with extended family members or domestic adoption within Haiti, to be explored.

“Generally speaking, removing children from their birth country should be a last resort,” Dillon said.

When international adoption becomes a possibility, it is a decision families should reach after careful analysis, never on an emotional impulse, Hackworth added.

“Many people are moved by the disaster and think helping one child is a manageable thing to do. They have not always thought through their desire to be parents or the length and intensity of the international adoption process,” she said.

“International adoption includes background checks, home studies, verification of financial resources, meeting health and age criteria, the support of friends and extended family and the ability to take a lengthy initial leave from work to help the child attach to his new family.”

There are other ways families can share their love with Haiti’s children, she added.

“If you want to rescue someone, choosing a child sponsorship program that will enable their physical and educational needs to be met is an excellent alternative to help,” she said.

Families longing to reach out to Haiti’s children right now are urged to offer prayer support and to donate to reputable relief organizations that have well-established plans for meeting the needs of Haiti’s children, said Dillon, whose agency has provided humanitarian relief in the country for 20 years.

Rebecca Hackworth with some friends in Haiti.

Together, Dillon and Buckner International have a longterm commitment to build a brighter future with the people of Haiti.

“Buckner’s direction and purpose in Haiti is to help Haitian families rebuild their ability to care for their own children with the guidance and reinforcement of people from that country,” said Randy Daniels, Buckner’s vice president for global operations.

“There’s an impulse for people to want to jump on a plane and do something, but that is not always the best thing. If you want to help now, you need to empower agencies that are already established and working in Haiti to do the work unless you have skills that are needed today.”

Although the tragedy in Haiti inspires a sense of urgency, Dillon noted other countries also engage in a daily struggle to meet the needs of their children.

“Every child that is in our care has had an earthquake or tsunami-type heartbreak in their lives. And long after the focus shifts from Haiti, the work of making a better life for homeless children everywhere will go on.”

Tebow ad confused viewers. Focus on the Family’s Super Bowl ad featuring star quarterback Tim Tebow may have gotten a lot of press but left many viewers with confusion regarding the commercial’s meaning and sponsor, according to the Barna Group. According to a poll based on 1,001 telephone interviews, including the night of the Super Bowl, when asked to describe the main message of the commercial, one in five viewers could not venture a guess; 38 percent described it as an anti-abortion; and 19 percent said it was about being “pro-family” or “expressing that family is important.” The Barna poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

Obama advisers split on tricky church-state issues. The 25-member council advising the White House on faith-based issues has voted on two contentious issues for religious charities that receive government funds. By a 13-12 vote, the council members said the government should require houses of worship to form separate corporations in order to receive direct federal funding for social services. When asked whether the government should permit charities to offer social services in rooms containing religious art, symbols, messages or Scripture, 16 said yes, two said no, and seven said they should be permitted if no other space is available. Melissa Rogers, chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based & Neighborhood Partnerships, said the votes will be included in a forthcoming report for President Obama.

Want to make friends? Bars beat churches, survey says. Americans say bars are better places than church to meet new friends, according to a new survey. Restaurants, bars or pubs attract 18 percent of Americans as a place to meet people, while churches draw 16 percent and online venues like Facebook pull 11 percent, said the survey released in late January by Group Publishing, a nondenominational Protestant publishing house in Colorado. The online survey polled nearly 800 respondents, more than three-quarters of whom identified themselves as Christians, and has a plus or minus error rate of 4 percentage points.

Monks’ high-powered wine packs a punch. A small band of Benedictine monks in the south of England has come under fire for producing a fortified wine that critics describe as the “scourge of Scotland” for its high alcohol content. Officially known as “Buckfast tonic wine” but nicknamed “commotion motion” or “wreck the hoose juice” by devotees in Britain’s far north, the wine is turned out at Buckfast Abbey, a monastery in the Devonshire hills of southwest England. But “Buckie” has become a national favorite brew in Scotland—doubtless in part because it contains about 15 percent alcohol by volume. In other words, it packs a punch, as the police report. In one Scottish police constabulary, in Strathclyde, “Buckie” has been mentioned in some 5,000 crime reports, one of every 10 of them involving violence, over the past three years. Police Superintendent Bob Hamilton said, “I think it’s clear from the figures that there is an association there.”

GEORGETOWN—The message of hope found in Christ hasn’t changed, but Christians must change their method of delivery and their methods of evangelism to share the gospel relationally if they are going to reach the lost in society today, David Dykes, pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, told the recent Engage evangelism conference in Georgetown.

Dykes joined pastors and leaders from across the state to teach at one of 13 Engage regional evangelism conferences sponsored by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Many of the speakers and breakout session leaders stressed evangelism must be done in love and on a relational basis in order to see the gospel spread through the state.

“It is so vital that we use relational evangelism because there are trends today showing that people are more likely to trust other people than institutions,” said Scott Willingham, director of church evangelism with the BGCT.

“If these people don’t go back and share through relationships, there will be a gap in society with more and more people who don’t know Christ. We still can reach people. We just have to be relational, intentional and then share with a great deal of love.”

Engage conferences are equipping churches to take part in Texas Hope 2010, an evangelistic effort to pray for the lost, care for the hurting and hungry, and share the hope of Christ with all Texans by Easter 2010.

The Georgetown Engage put Texas Hope 2010 into practice as the host church, Crestview Baptist Church, also held a four-day revival led by Jon Randles, Texas Baptist evangelism consultant, and an evangelistic dinner for several English-as-a-Second-Language classes in conjunction with the conference. Through the efforts, 29 people made professions of faith in Christ, and more than 600 people were involved in some way with the training or evangelistic rallies.  

“We are always doing evangelism at the church, but we wanted to do something that would energize the church in joining in the mission of reaching the community,” said Dan Wooldridge, pastor of Crestview Baptist Church.

“There have been decisions for Christ through the revival, but there are many more decisions for discipleship and growth from our senior adults, youth and all ages.”

Throughout the sessions, conference participants were challenged to get outside of their church buildings to build relationships with the lost, to allow God to use them to bring hope to the lost world.

Jon Randles (center) and Dan Wooldridge, pastor of Crestview Baptist Church, worship as the Justin Cofield Band leads those who attended the evangelistic service closing a three-day rally at the church and the one-day Engage evangelism conference.

Gary Dyer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Midland, emphasized Christians must never get too comfortable inside the church. They must be outwardly focused and look to bring the lost to the salvation Jesus offers.

“Don’t ever be satisfied to come and gather just to be with people who love the Lord,” Dykes said. “Have the zeal and drive to see the lost come to Christ. The best thing you can do for a person is to bring them to Jesus. That is what evangelism is about. It’s you bringing your friends, neighbors and family to Jesus.”

If a congregation wants to bring new people into the church, its members must be intentional about inviting non-Christians to any and all events, said James Craver, associate pastor of First Baptist Church in Allen and leader of breakout sessions on evangelizing senior adults. But first, church members will have to be intentional about meeting non-Christians in their everyday lives.

Craver stressed the need for senior adults to build relationships within their age group and to evangelize, stating that 8,000 people a day turn 60 years of age and 58 percent of older Americans have no religious affiliation.

“They are at the most receptive time to accept Christ, but the church is not ready for this,” Craver said. “We have to get the senior adults in the church to realize that there is someone they know who isn’t saved. We cannot take it for granted that all senior adults are saved, and that’s what we have done for the last 40 years. We have to start caring about people—it’s all about relationships.”

To help senior adults bridge conversations to the hope of Christ, Craver told them to become aware of the unbelievers placed in their lives, commit to pray for these people and for opportunities to share with them, show they care in some way and be ready to share the gospel when the opportunity arises.

Dennis Parrott, BGCT congregational strategist for East Texas, said churches easily can use Sunday school and small groups as evangelism tools as long as members are focused on outreach and not making the group closed off and exclusive.

The Engage conferences are equipping churches to take part in Texas Hope 2010, an evangelistic effort to pray for the lost, care for the hurting and hungry, and share the hope of Christ with all Texans by Easter 2010.

“The culture has to change in our churches where it is not primarily about ministry to us but about others,” Parrott said. “We have to rethink the purpose of Bible study and Sunday school. Our primary reason for Sunday school should be for reaching the unchurched for Jesus.

If Bible study and fellowship are the only purpose of Sunday school or any activity in the church, it will become self-focused, Parrot said. But if outreach is the center of the event or group, this will produce an open atmosphere to bring in non-Christians and promote discipleship in the group. To have an open, welcoming small group outreach, members first have to be out in the community, building trusting relationships where an invitation to Bible study can be offered.

Once believers become active, share their faith and see others accept God’s grace, efforts cannot stop there. It is important to teach new believers and new church members about discipleship, helping them assimilate quickly into the church, Dyer said.

“You can’t expect them to mature and become solidified in their discipleship on their own,” he said. “Assimilating believers is absolutely vital as far as their functionality as a believer.”

Dyer suggests the church create an intentional plan to encourage new believers and members to get involved, be honest with them about expectations and the goals of the church, ask them to help with specific ministries, help them see that serving and being involved is enjoyable, and connect them with a group in their own age range or life situation.

“We try to make sure they feel wanted, included and connected from the very beginning,” he said. “If people do not feel connected with your church in the first 90 days, then 85 percent will leave and not come back.”

Above all, personal interaction and intentional discipleship will help people grow in their walk with the Lord, become mature disciples that will help minister to others in the church, Dyer said.

For information about Engage conferences taking place around the state, visit www.texasbaptists.org/engage.