Around the State

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor College of Visual and Performing Arts, Department of Art and the Musick Alumni Center and Museum have joined to present “People and Places in UMHB History,” an exhibition featuring historical paintings and photographs on display in Arla Ray Tyson Art Gallery in the Townsend Memorial Library through Aug. 13. The display includes portraits of people who have provided leadership, encouragement and financial resources to establish and develop the campus, and who have contributed to the welfare of their communities. Open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the gallery is located on the second floor of the library. Admission is free. For additional information, call (254) 296-4678.

• Dillon International will present a free adoption information meeting from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. July 22 at the Buckner Children’s Home Campus in Dallas. An overview of adoption from China, Korea, Haiti, India, Hong Kong and Nepal, plus new opportunities in Ghana, will be presented. A domestic adoption program for Texas families and adoption programs in Russia, Ethiopia and Honduras also will be discussed. For information or a reservation to attend the meeting, please call (214) 319-3426.

• Paisano Baptist Encampment will hold its 90th consecutive general encampment beginning the evening of July 25 and continuing through noon lunch on July 30. Morning worship begins at 11 a.m. daily with the evening service at 8 pm. Supper is served in the dining shed at 6 p.m. Everyone is welcome. In celebration of the 90th anniversary, a few long-time Paisano attendees will share memories during the evening services. Mariwyn Blythe Maloney, Mary Barton Robinson, Ruth Collins Wilkerson and Ed Wittner will recall their years at Paisano. Wednesday evening will feature an old-fashioned campfire, with testimonials, devotionals and singing. Preaching will be Duane Brooks and Hulitt Gloer. Tommy Brisco will lead the Bible study. Jim Cleaveland will lead the music. Between services, activities are available that exercise the body and spirit. Nursery, preschool, children’s day camp and youth programs occupy the mornings while adults have their own experiences. Paisano Baptist Encampment is located in Paisano Pass, between Alpine and Marfa, in far West Texas. For more information, please visit the website at www.paisanoencampment.org.

• Baptist Child & Family Services has opened a transition center in San Antonio to facilitate youth transitioning into life on their own. The center not only will include foster youth, but also young adults returning to their communities from out-of-home placements such as the Texas Youth Commission. Services included at the center are life-skills training, job placement, conflict mitigation courses, parenting classes, college and vocational school tuition vouchers, mentoring, a computer lab and others.

• Howard Payne University honored several faculty and staff at its annual awards luncheon. Julie Welker, professor of communication, was the recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Member Award, and Randy Weehunt, director of administrative computing, was presented the Outstanding Staff Member Award. Excellence in teaching awards were presented to Athena Bean, assistant professor of psychology and university counselor; Lance Beaumont, assistant professor of music; Derek Smith, assistant professor of physical science; and Rusty Wheelington, assistant professor of Christian studies. Eydie Henderson, administrative assistant for the School of Christian Studies, and Debbie Childs, facilities coordinator, were recipients of excellence in service awards.

• Gil Stricklin, founder, chairman and CEO of Marketplace Ministries, was named a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Southwest-Area North. Marketplace Ministries is the nation’s leading provider of workplace chaplaincy services to employees in the corporate workplace.

• Nancy Kucinski has been named dean of graduate studies at Hardin-Simmons University. She has been at HSU since 2001, serving as a professor of management and director of all the school’s master’s level business programs.

• “Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness,” a painting by 17th century artist Anthony Van Dyck, now hangs in the Belin Chapel of Houston Baptist University. The painting is a gift from William and Sharon Morris.

• A group to support the East Texas Baptist University’s Mayme Jarrett Library has been formed. The Mary K. Armstrong Society is named for a longtime librarian of the school. A membership drive will be held in the fall.

Anniversaries

• Adamsville Church in Adamsville, 135th, July 5. The church will celebrate the milestone July 25 with a meal following the morning service. Kelly Wolverton is pastor.

• Aiken Church in Lockney, 100th, July 11. A meal will follow the morning service. Dennis Butler is pastor.

• Calvary Church in Friona, 50th, July 11. Rick Burton is pastor.

• Fermin Flores, 50th, in ministry. He is pastor of El Buen Pastor in San Antonio.

• First Church in Ore City, 90th, Aug. 1. Several former pastors and music ministers are expected to attend, including Paul Saylors and Randel Trull, who are expected to speak. Exhibits of the church’s history will be on display. A meal will follow the morning service. Rob Casey is pastor.

Deaths

• Gene Kimler, 82, May 23. He made a profession of faith in Christ at age 10 during a family devotional time in Mexico. When his family moved to Pasadena, he, his parents and two sisters were all baptized at Memorial Church there. He served in Douglas MacArthur’s General Headquar-ters staff during World War II and the occupation of Japan. During his time off, he taught English and Bible at a Christian school in Tokyo. After he returned to college, Japanese students would write to him and ask “When are you coming back to tell us more about Jesus?” God used these pleas to call him to missionary service. After graduating from Baylor University, he pastored Spanish-speaking missions in Fort Worth, Ranger and Cisco, and also was pastor of Calvary Church in Breckenridge. He and his wife, Eva Nell, were commissioned as missionaries to Venezuela in 1958 by the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board. They started more than 20 churches and missions during their 40 years of service. When the returned to Texas in 1999, the started a Spanish-speaking church in Forney and later worked with a mission in Crandall. He is survived by his wife of 55 years, Eva Nell; sons, David and Nathan; daughters, Mary Johnson and Elizabeth Leininger; and 13 grandchildren.

• Lillian Beard, 101, June 10 in Kingwood. An orphan, she was given at age 3 months to a couple who could not speak or hear, so her first language was sign language. She used that skill to start the deaf ministry at First Church in Houston and lay the groundwork for Woodhaven Deaf Church in Houston. She became the First Church’s first deaf interpreter in 1924 at age 15, signing for her parents and a few other deaf members. More deaf people soon came and a Sunday school class and deaf ministry was launched. That ministry became Woodhaven Deaf Church, which serves the deaf community, families with deaf individuals and their friends. Beard helped start the Southern Baptist and Texas Baptist conferences for the deaf, and she was the primary sign language interpreter for the 1952 Billy Graham evangelistic crusade in Houston. She also went around the world on mission trips, and as a result, there are deaf Southern Baptist missionaries in Thailand, South America and Central Europe.

Events

• Members of Cornerstone Church in Dallas and a Victim Relief Ministries team from South Garland Church in Garland were among the volunteers who helped distribute food and other supplies to more than 3,000 low-income South Dallas residents June 18. Feed the Children provided the supplies, and Operation Care-Dallas provided the distribution venue and security at Fair Park in Dallas. Pastor Chris Simmons of Cornerstone Church noted many of the volunteers from his church who participated in the food distribution had been recipients of similar ministries in the past and wanted to repay the kindness they had been shown.