After hours of debate, the Texas House of Representatives approved for the first time in the state’s history a plan to send public funds to private schools, including religious schools.

The House voted 85-63 in the wee hours of the morning on April 17 to approve a bill authored by Rep. Brad Buckley, R-Killeen, to establish an education savings account program.

 The voucher-like program—Gov. Greg Abbott’s top legislative priority—will provide about $10,000 to each participating private school student and up to $2,000 to each participating homeschool student.

“It’s time to provide the full array of options for students and their families,” Buckley said.

‘The false flag of parental choice’

Charles Foster Johnson, executive director of Pastors for Texas Children, offered a dissenting view, calling the education savings account program “a reckless subsidy that rips public dollars out of our neighborhood schools and hands them to unaccountable private institutions.”

“This scheme fails our poorest children, violates the Texas Constitution and uses public tax dollars to fund the establishment of religion—all under the false flag of ‘parental choice,’” Johnson said.

John Litzler, public policy director for Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission, expressed disappointment in the House vote approving the education savings account program.

“While we are disappointed in the House’s passage of Senate Bill 2, the Christian Life Commission remains committed to the same values we’ve always held: supporting public education and promoting religious liberty,” Litzler said.

Education savings accounts offer a “tightly controlled” and “parent-directed” approach to educating students that prioritizes “the state’s most vulnerable students,” Buckley asserted.

The program allocates $1 billion toward education savings accounts families can direct to schools for tuition and other expenses.

While 80 percent is dedicated to students with disabilities and—broadly defined—low-income families, the general population is able to apply for the remaining 20 percent.

Opponents of the bill characterized the “universal” nature of that 20 percent as making the program available to “millionaires and billionaires.” The House rejected several amendments that would have placed an income cap on program eligibility.

Call for referendum rejected

The House voted in favor of a motion by Buckley to table an amendment introduced by Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, calling for a statewide referendum on the education savings account program.

Talarico said the idea originated with conservative activists who support what they call “school choice” and initially was supported by some Republican lawmakers

However, he asserted, Abbott threatened to veto bills proposed by any Republican who voted in favor of Talarico’s amendment and told the lawmakers he would make their primary elections a “bloodbath.”

“The governor has said private school vouchers are widely popular. … I would think the governor would welcome an opportunity to finally have a mandate on this controversial topic,” Talarico said.

He urged his Republican colleagues to exercise courage, demonstrate independence and vote in favor of the referendum.

“We do not serve the governor. We serve our constituents. … This is the people’s House, not the governor’s House,” Talarico said.

‘About power and profit’

Johnson noted the pressure Abbott applied to House Republicans to vote in favor of the voucher-like education savings account program.

“We thank God for the faithful lawmakers who stood strong—every House Democrat and the courageous Republicans who formed a new ‘moral caucus’ by putting children and conscience ahead of party,” Johnson said.

Gary VanDeaver of New Boston and Dade Phelan of Orange, former Speaker of the House, were the two Republicans who voted against the education savings account bill.

“This vote was not about what’s best for Texas children—it was about power and profit,” Johnson asserted. “A handful of billionaire donors have bought our legislature, and Gov. Abbott has handed our public school system over to them in exchange for political favor.”

Jeff Yass, cofounder and managing director of the Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International Group and an ardent supporter of “school choice,” made the largest single campaign donation in Texas history to Abbott.

The governor supported the primary opponents of rural Republicans who defeated a voucher-style proposal in the 2023 legislative session, changing the makeup of the Texas House.

Prior to considering the education savings account bill, the House voted 144-4 to give preliminary approval to a school funding bill that will provide $8 billion over two years.

Lawmakers voted on the funding bill after extensive debate and consideration of multiple amendments. The bill will increase the basic allotment per public school from $6,160 to $6,555, with 40 percent earmarked for school staff salaries.

Litzler voiced support for the House school funding bill, which includes close to $2 billion in special education funding and $750 million to increase teacher pay.

“Since Texas is now on a path to divert public funds to private schools, it will become increasingly important each legislative session that Texas passes bills to fully fund public education,” he said.

The Texas House of Representatives Committee on Corrections heard public testimony April 16 on a bill to buy and install air-conditioning and heating systems in Texas prisons.

 HB 3006, authored by Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, relates to the purchase and installation of climate-control systems at prison facilities operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Five house bills related to the matter had been filed this session, but none had received a committee hearing until today.

“We support legislation that upholds the value and dignity of life as being made in the image of God our creator. We believe this bill does just that,” said John Litzler, director of public policy for Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.

Phased installation over 10 years

The bill sets up a system where Texas Department of Criminal Justice will phase in climate control in Texas prisons over the next 10 years, which Canales noted was a “compromise” to expedite the TDCJ’s estimated timeline of 25 to 30 years for prisons in Texas to be fully air-conditioned at their current rate of installation.

The bill would allow for a phased installation of climate control not to exceed $100 million every two years and allows the use of inmate labor to reduce costs, Canales explained, noting some inmates have HVAC training.

He noted the bill’s phase-in plan means he “would expect to see a huge dent” in the number of prisons lacking air-conditioning by 2032.

Canales also pointed out not having climate control in Texas prisons is costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Legal action against the conditions has become a “cottage industry,” he noted, where the litigants virtually are guaranteed a win with “tons of litigation” every year.

“It’s already a precedent that you lose,” he said.

“And so, every time somebody gets hurt, every time there’s a stroke, we’re dishing out by the millions.”

“The situation is dire,” Canales said. The compromise bill only brings temperatures down to 85 degrees, he explained. But that reduction in temperature is the difference between life and death.

He urged committee members to visit a Texas prison to experience the conditions for themselves if they’ve never been. But, he warned them to wear a t-shirt and expect to leave drenched in sweat and with the taste of the stench of the disgusting conditions in their mouths.

Average 14 heat-related deaths per year

In her testimony, attorney Erica Grossman, who has participated in litigation related to air-conditioning in prisons, cited an average of 14 acknowledged heat-related deaths per year due to heat-related causes between 2001 and 2019.

Rep. Thresa Meza, D-Irving, questioned whether that number might represent an undercount of heat-related deaths. Grossman and other witnesses explained undercounts of heat-related deaths and injury are likely, citing Judge Robert Pittman’s comments in his 91-page ruling last month as evidence.

Grossman pointed out the court ruling in March called both the lack of air-conditioning in prisons and the TDCJ timeline of 30 years to mitigate conditions unconstitutional, without reservation.

As TDCJ had testified the only obstacle to installing climate control was funding, the ruling “invited the legislature to solve this funding problem now and solve it quickly” to implement the undisputedly necessary changes, she explained.

Treating pets better than humans

Conditions in Texas prisons are inhumane, Litzler suggested. He asserted Texas law devalues life when it requires temperatures in shelters where dogs and cats are present not to exceed 85 degrees for longer than two consecutive hours, while holding temperatures in state prisons to no such standards.

“We’re valuing dogs’ and cats’ comfort and safety over that of human beings,” Litzler lamented. “And that’s why we need this legislation in Texas, to promote a culture of life in our state.”

Litzler noted Texas Baptists minister through Philippi Church Ministries to more than 1,750 inmates, who meet in 350 groups in over 110 jails and prisons around the state, many of which are among the un-air-conditioned units.

Additionally, four of the six regional TDCJ prison chaplains in Texas are endorsed by Texas Baptists, and of all the chaplains in the TDCJ system, 1 in 4 has been endorsed by Texas Baptists, Liztler noted.

“We’re involved. We’re on the frontlines,” he observed, noting the current budget surplus means now is the time to address the need for climate control in Texas prisons.

‘What is the cost of a life?’

Other witnesses spoke of their experiences being incarcerated in these conditions or on behalf of those who have experienced the stifling heat indexes of many Texas prisons.

Jay Dan Gumm, president of Forgiven Felons, described fighting other inmates to get to coolers while he was incarcerated—not to drink the water, but to dip bedsheets in the icy water so he could tie the sheet to his hot metal bunk frame in each corner and place his fan at the end, creating his “own little bubble.”

He recalled heat-related fights at all four of the state prisons where he was held, with one leading to his solitary confinement. But when he was transferred to a private prison with air-conditioning, “I didn’t get in any fights,” he said.

It’s sad the only way climate control in Texas prisons is likely is through the courts, Gumm observed. He acknowledged pushback about the costs, but, he asked, “What is the cost of a life?”

If the mission of TDCJ isn’t just punitive, but rehabilitative: “How are we rehabilitating, at the same time killing some of the inmates because of the heat? … What is the cost of a life?” he asked again.

‘People are dying’

Jeff Edwards also spoke in favor of the bill, describing himself as “the cottage industry that was talked about.” He has been litigating this issue for the last 15 years, he said, noting he’s seen a “sea change” on this issue.

“As a civil rights issue, it’s black and white,” Edwards noted. “The courts have spoken. People are dying. People are suffering. It’s not even really up for debate.”

But, Edwards said, if it was ever analyzed from a cost-benefit perspective, it would be a “net positive” for the state on that front too. Adding air-conditioning will bring jobs, energy efficiency and savings, he said.

“It’s not just the right thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do,” Edwards asserted.

And as one of the lawyers in the current case, he said he wanted to tell the committee, “in no uncertain terms, this is going to happen,” because the court has made clear the conditions are unconstitutional.

No witnesses spoke against the bill. Brian Collier, executive director of Texas Department of Criminal Justice, provided neutral testimony.

Canales said he has been following this bill more than 10 years,  HB 3006 is Canales’ third attempt to address the need for temperature control in Texas prisons in three years, after bills he introduced in the past two legislative sessions passed the House of Representatives, only to die in the Senate.

At the close of testimony, HB 3006 was left pending.

Editor’s note: The Committee on Corrections approved HB 3006 on April 23 by a vote of 7-1. The bill was reported favorably without amendments, according to the Texas Legislature online. 

Consuelo Oliva woke up suddenly at 3 a.m. Rain was pounding on the roof and windows of her home. The rain kept falling and falling—fast and hard. She had never experienced so much rain at one time.

“I was getting scared, and the kids were getting scared. … We couldn’t sleep because we were afraid the water level was going to rise, and it did, in seconds. … I kept praying for the rain to stop,” Oliva said.

The rain continued to pour and soon it entered Oliva’s home. Their whole home flooded with several inches of water. Oliva said they stepped onto the floor from the bed and their feet were covered in water.

“It was horrible. We couldn’t find our way out. It was all surrounded by water,” she said.

A year’s worth of rain in one day

Oliva’s home was one of many that flooded in the Rio Grande Valley after excessive rain at the end of March. Some areas received more than 16 inches of rain—equivalent to one year’s worth of rain for the area—in one day.

Texans on Mission deployed assessors, shower and laundry, box distribution and flood recovery teams to the area. The flooding was so widespread, the need was great.

“The impact of the flooding in the Rio Grande Valley was felt far and wide,” said David Wells, Texans on Mission director of disaster relief. “We knew we needed to respond, but it was challenging to coordinate the teams to go since we still had teams in Missouri and Oklahoma on deployment.”

But Texans on Mission volunteers “stepped up to offer help and hope to those needing relief in the Rio Grande Valley,” Wells said.

It took three days for the water to recede from Oliva’s home. She was despondent over the damage. She and her husband bought the land her home sat on 35 years ago, and they slowly built their home over the years. And in an instant, all their possessions were lost.

Oliva’s husband started to pull out insulation. It was filled with so much water, he could wring it like a sponge and water just poured out. Sheetrock and furniture were ruined. It didn’t take long for mold to start growing as well.

“I told my husband, ‘Please tell me that I’m dreaming.’ It was bad. It was really bad,” Oliva said.

‘Help is coming tomorrow’

Oliva’s husband Tomas works six days a week. So, after the flood he was only able to work on the house one day a week. Cleanup was happening slowly until a Texans on Mission flood recovery team showed up and finished the job in one day.

Oliva said her daughter learned about Texans on Mission from her school. She called and said, “Mom, there’s people here that say they can go over there and help you.”

Oliva said she instantly felt “blessed and relieved.” Still, she thought they would have to wait weeks for the team to show up but was surprised when they called within a week and said the team would be at her house the next day.

“I was really happy,” Oliva said. “I called my husband and said: ‘They’re going to come tomorrow. The help is coming tomorrow!’”

The Texans on Mission team spent all day at Oliva’s home, tearing out ruined sheetrock and insulation, cleaning to remove mold and moving furniture.

As the team worked on her home, they also were able to connect with Oliva and her family, encourage them and show them the love of Christ.

“I felt so blessed and relieved,” Oliva said. “I’m so thankful for you guys coming to help us. And everyone is safe. All this we can buy slowly. But life we can’t buy.”

MARSHALL—In spite of cold, rainy weather, more than 250 East Texas Baptist University students spent a recent Saturday serving churches, outreach centers and nonprofit organizations throughout Harrison County.

The ETBU Baptist Student Ministry sponsored the annual Serve Day event on April 5. Students served through various ministries and community service as part of the university’s mission to spread the love of Christ through acts of service.

After breakfast, fellowship and prayer at Ornelas Student Center, organizers assigned students to various groups based on service locations.

ETBU student athletes, Student Foundation, leaders and campus organizations served at local churches, the Mission Marshall food pantry, the First Baptist Church of Hallsville Outreach Center, Reunion Inn Assisted Living and other sites.

Projects included painting, cleaning, food pantry assistance, setting up Vacation Bible Schools and spending time with residents in an assisted living facility.

Some students wrote letters to local first responders and educators, showing the variety of service opportunities Serve Day offered.

“I learned that a lot of organizations need more help than what it seems,” junior psychology major Kaitlyn Huzy said. “We are called to serve in different ways, and I think Serve Day does a good job of covering that there are different ways to serve.”

A small group of ETBU students served alongside the baseball team at the Cypress Valley Bible Church, helping to clean up the children’s play place and various rooms inside the facility.

Staff expressed their gratitude to ETBU students for helping clean up the area.

“We have lots and lots of children that come to our church, and as you can imagine, it really dirties things up—not only the chairs they sit in, but the playground equipment,” said Russ Perry, head of adult ministry at Cypress Valley Bible Church.

“All of you guys here at ETBU have helped us really big to keep that not only looking nice, but safe also. It’s a really big deal that you guys came out to help us. We are really, really grateful.”

The Serve Day experience allowed students to support ministries that directly influence local communities, families and children.

Serve Day also allowed for strong fellowship among ETBU faculty and students and encouraged servant leadership opportunities that may not have been available otherwise.

‘I love serving’

Junior nursing major Chika Obi, who helped with VBS setup at Port Caddo Baptist Church, reflected on her experiences.

“I love serving. I feel like with my personal time, I don’t have enough free time to allocate to volunteering. … So, I feel like Serve Day is a nice way of bringing everyone together,” she said.

“It wasn’t just the student foundation … all of these different clubs, sports teams, everyone was brought together to serve, and I love that.”

In addition to service opportunities and fellowship, ETBU’s Serve Day allows students to strengthen their servant leadership skills and reflect on how their faith influences their desire to serve.

“I want to serve more. God has put it on my heart to serve where I am, to ‘grow where I’m planted.’ Serve Day helped me to live out that conviction,” senior biochemistry major Graham Parmelee said.

“We seek to lead our students to serve. It’s part of what we do at ETBU,” said David Griffin, dean of spiritual life.

“We encourage every student to serve. … It really is amazing to see so many students step up and … serve the community. It’s a beautiful thing. Hopefully, it’s nurturing a heart of service in them that is going to inspire them to serve for the rest of their lives, not just now.”

Faith Pratt, a student at East Texas Baptist University, is serving as an intern with the Baptist Standard this semester.

WACO—The prevalence and severity of hunger is a “litmus test” revealing the health or sickness of a society, said Jeremy Everett, founding executive director of the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty.

In spite of its vast resources, Texas has the second-highest rate of household food insecurity in the nation, Everett noted.

“That is an abomination,” he said.

So, Everett announced plans to launch the Hunger-Free Texas campaign during his keynote address to the Together at the Table Hunger and Poverty Summit on the Baylor University campus.

He told participants at the gathering he assumed they want to ensure children have access to food and adults have work to sustain their families.

He also said he assumed they recognize working together “is a better path forward than the mean-spiritedness and vitriol that we see from our politicians, our podcast preachers, our political commentators and endless amounts of social media posts.”

Hunger is too large and complex a problem for any individual or any sector of society to tackle alone, he noted. It requires the cooperation of broad-based coalitions.

‘America at its best’

Everett cited the Meals-to-You program as an example of the public and private sectors working together to fight hunger.

The Texas Hunger Initiative—predecessor to the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty—and the U.S. Department of Agriculture piloted the program in 2019 as a way to provide home-delivered food boxes to rural children who lacked access to Summer Meal sites.

With logistical help from McLane Global, the Baylor Collaborative and USDA delivered more than 32,000 boxes of food to children in selected rural counties that summer.

During the COVID-19 pandemic the next year, USDA asked the Baylor Collaborative to increase the scale of the program exponentially to meet the needs of children in rural areas nationwide.

Between March and August 2020, the program delivered 38.7 million meals to more than 270,000 rural children in 43 states and Puerto Rico.

The initiative involved the cooperation of UPS, McLane Global, PepsiCo and other private sector partners, working with the Baylor Collaborative, USDA and Congress as part of the federal government’s pandemic response.

The program received bipartisan support in Congress. Some delivery drivers voluntarily relocated to remote areas to ensure children received the food packages regularly, Everett noted.

“That’s America at its best,” he said.

‘No chance if we don’t work together’

In response to the needs in Texas, Everett challenged participants at the Together at the Table event to organize hunger-free community initiatives where they live; to promote USDA programs such as WIC, SNAP and Summer Meals so they are fully utilized; and to advocate for the full funding of those and other programs.

“Candidly, the need we are coming upon today is going to be so severe that we have no chance if we don’t work together,” Everett said.

The Baylor Collaborative plans to visit all of the 254 counties in Texas and work with all 1,200 of the state’s school districts in the next five years to help implement the Hunger-Free Texas campaign, he announced.

For followers of Jesus, responding to the needs of hungry people is not optional, Everett emphasized. It is visible measure of the depth of Christian faith.

Everett reminded participants at the gathering of the events recorded in Luke 4.

When Jesus read in the Nazareth synagogue the text from Isaiah about bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and letting the oppressed go free, he announced, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

After he finished, the people in the synagogue not only rejected Jesus’ “radically inclusive” message, but also drove him to the edge of the town, and some wanted to hurl him off a cliff.

“Jesus came announcing deliverance, but it wasn’t national deliverance. He wasn’t promoting an Israel first political agenda. It was instead God’s promise of liberation for all people—for all the oppressed, regardless of their nationality, gender or race,” Everett said.

“Jesus’ allegiance is not to a particular tribe, nation or religion. His allegiance is to the kingdom of God—to Jubilee for the poor, the hungry and the disinherited.”

When anyone excludes the poor and oppressed, they are excluding themselves from God’s blessing, he asserted.

“When we see the poor, hungry or migrant as ‘other,’ and when we choose to limit grace to those who meet our standards of being deserving, we find ourselves in solidarity with those who tried to push Jesus off a cliff and later placed him on the cross,” Everett said.

“How much more might God be able to do with us if we were ready to transcend the boundaries of our tribes, our political parties, our denominations and our limitations of love that we ourselves have constructed. … The kingdom of God is here, and there is room at the table for everyone, but only when we make space for all people who are in need.”

AUSTIN (BP)—The Texas House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill banning nondisclosure clauses in sexual abuse settlement agreements April 8.

Known as Trey’s Law, the bill outlaws the use of nondisclosure agreements in settlement agreements regarding sexual abuse, regardless of the age of the abused.

The use of NDAs to silence sexual abuse survivors makes such agreements controversial, said Jeff Dalrymple, director of abuse prevention and response for the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.

“In addition to legal considerations, ministry leaders should carefully consider both ethical and moral implications of NDA use. There may be situations in which an NDA could be an appropriate tool for a ministry to use, for instance, to protect the private information of ministry participants or in employment transitions,” Dalrymple said.

“However, they should never be used to prevent survivors of abuse from sharing their stories or to allow responsible parties to avoid responsibility for their actions.”

‘Institutional abuse on top of sexual abuse’

Trey’s Law is named in honor of Texas native Trey Carlock, who committed suicide when overcome by the trauma of a nondisclosure agreement related to sexual abuse at Kanakuk Kamps in Missouri, his sister Elizabeth Carlock Phillips said in committee testimony.

Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who coauthored the bill with Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston, among others, referenced remarks by Carlock Phillips in presenting the bill for a vote on the House floor.

“The use of NDAs in settlement agreements is essentially lawful hush money. It is institutional abuse on top of sexual abuse,” he said, quoting Carlock Phillips. “And I couldn’t agree with her more.

“For too long, this has been the policy of this state,” Leach said. “We have here in Texas allowed for sanctioned blood money, for hush money, in these awful cases of abuse. And today, with the passage of Trey’s Law, that practice comes to an end.”

Leach, according to his online bio, is a member of Cottonwood Creek Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Allen.

A step toward healing and ‘human flourishing’

Katie Frugé, director of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission, commended the passage of Trey’s Law.

“Human flourishing is one of the four public policy priorities for the Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission.

“Being allowed to own and share your story is a critical piece to the healing and ultimate flourishing of an individual who has been the victim of sexual abuse,” Frugé said.

“No one should have to choose between being allowed to share their story and restorative justice. Trey’s Law is a noble step towards returning agency and healing to survivors of sexual abuse.”

A companion bill, SB 1587, was referred to the State Affairs Committee March 10, according to Texas Legislature Online.

Several bills with NDA clauses related to sexual abuse are advancing in Missouri, according to that state’s legislative website, including Senate Bill 590, which includes a clause nullifying NDAs in childhood sexual abuse, which the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee passed April 2; House Bill 709, which has the sole purpose of nullifying NDAs, which the Standing Committee on Judiciary passed April 2, and other bills.

Tennessee passed a bill in 2018 nullifying NDAs in childhood sexual abuse and, according to the New York Times, is the only state to have done so to date.

“When Texas leads in areas like this—when we take some risk and we’re stepping out into uncharted legislative territory—other states will follow,” the New York Times quoted Leach in an April 8 story about Trey’s Law. “That’s my hope.”

Trey’s Law, according to an amendment Texas representatives approved moments before adopting the bill, could also nullify NDAs retroactively, Leach said in reading the amendment.

“It sets forth a very clear process by which any existing NDAs could ever be enforced to silence any victims in the future,” Leach said, “which hopefully after this bill passes would never happen.”

As amended, according to the text of the bill, NDAs entered into before Trey’s Law’s effectiveness could only be enforced with the permission of a declaratory judgment under Chapter 37 of the Civil Practices and Remedies Code.

But the bill maintains confidentiality of other terms of settlement agreements, including monetary amounts, and expands the scope of sexual abuse covered by the measure to include human trafficking, sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault.

Hispanic Texas Baptist churches and ministries that serve immigrants are feeling the effects of the suspension of Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole programs, along with the overarching threat of mass deportations.

Both Temporary Protected Status and humanitarian parole offer short-term refuge to vetted foreign nationals who face unsafe conditions in their homelands.

On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security to terminate categorical parole programs considered contrary to the policy of securing the nation’s borders.

On March 25, the Department of Homeland Security announced the termination of the parole program for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, along with their immediate family members, effective April 24.

Six days later, a federal judge in San Franciso issued an order to postpone the program’s termination, but the Department of Homeland Security promptly filed notice of its intention to appeal.

The program affects hundreds of thousands of people who entered the United States to flee danger and oppression, Jesse Rincones, executive director, Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas, noted.

“It is devastating that half a million people will be displaced, even though they obtained U.S. financial sponsors and were not a drain on the government’s resources,” said Rincones, who is both a pastor and an attorney.

“Many of those soon to be cast out include our Christian brothers and sisters and pastors. We pray for God’s great protection over their lives and uncertain futures.”

Afraid of an uncertain future

Fernando Rojas, lead pastor of Iglesia Bautista Azle Avenue in Fort Worth, said the suspension of humanitarian parole and Temporary Protected Status will not directly affect members of his congregation, but it impacts people the church serves through its ministry to immigrants, Vida Nueva Immigration Services.

“A lot of people from our community are being negatively impacted by these changes and are afraid of the uncertainty of their future,” Rojas said.

“Multiple people have contacted our office from Cuba and Venezuela regarding these changes, and, unfortunately, we are no longer able to help them.”

The director of another ministry to immigrants launched by a Texas Baptist church asked not to be identified, saying the ministry did “not want to be targeted.”

The ministry typically provides legal referrals and spiritual counsel to immigrants, he noted.

“We offer the comfort of Jesus,” he said. “It a ministry of accompaniment—coming alongside them, listening to their struggles, providing counsel and giving support.”

In the last two months, the number of immigrants coming to the ministry seeking assistance has dropped by more than half, he noted.

While the number of people in the immediate community directly affected by the suspension of Temporary Protected Status is small, he pointed to an overarching general fear of mass deportation among immigrants.

“People are scared to seek our services,” he said.

As a result, the ministry is exploring the possibility of opening remote sites near where the immigrants live.

Call for mercy, justice and humble service

Rolando Rodriguez, director of Texas Baptists en Español, believes Christians must respond with compassion to people living in desperate circumstances.

“I believe that, without a doubt, removing the protection that allows so many people to continue legally in this country, working and providing for their families, will have an effect on local congregations,” Rodriguez said.

“However, I would argue that the greater impact will be on families. We are talking about children, young people and entire families who will be affected. In many cases, it is likely that they have lost everything in their home country.”

Christians have a “responsibility to help and serve people, regardless of their legal status,” he continued.

He pointed specifically to Micah 6:8, which says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

God “wants Christians who are not just going through the motions of their faith,” Rodriguez said. The prophet’s use of the word “you” indicates “everyone is personally responsible for their actions,” he added.

God’s people are called to justice, mercy and humble service, he asserted.

“Justice means fairness, righteousness, and equity. It demands practice that honors the rights of others and strengthens social justice. To act justly is to speak for those without a voice, to advocate for those without agency, and to make sure that justice is done,” Rodriguez said.

“Mercy conveys a sense of loyal love, kindness, and compassion. This is not a simple action, but an attitude of the heart.

“Walking humbly is an attitude of submission and reliance on God. It recognizes human frailty and the need for heavenly direction.”

LONE STAR—Barbara Humphrey had one thing on her mind as she and her husband Terry watched members of the Texans on Mission Rolling Timbers disaster response team remove a gigantic oak tree from the couple’s yard and atop her nephew’s demolished travel trailer.

She could only think of gratitude in the aftermath of an April 4 Class EF2 tornado that hit Lone Star in East Texas.

“My nephew lived in that trailer,” she explained. “And he was coming to our house for supper that night. He got out 20 minutes before the tornado hit.

“It was devastating, and that trailer is just about flattened in most places. It’s totaled. It’s gone.”

While she is grateful her nephew survived, she just as readily pointed out her gratitude for the Texans on Mission team removing the tree, almost three feet wide at its base.

“Oh, you guys are a godsend to come and help us clean this up,” she said. “You don’t know what it means to me. It’s just so amazing and I thank you very much.”

Terry Humphrey echoed her thanks.

“It’s how blessed I feel having all the help we’ve had. We’ve got the best neighbors in the world, and then you guys come in here,” he said. “I don’t know how anybody could ask for more.

“And one thing about it, too. You all just don’t stand around. You got right in here and started to work.”

The tornado that ripped through the Humphreys’ neighborhood on the western shore of Ellison Creek Reservoir crossed the lake, destroying neighborhoods and parts of Lakeview Baptist Assembly on the eastern side.

According to KETK/Fox51 in Tyler, Lakeview had nearly 250 trees snapped, and 75 percent of the cars in their parking lot were totaled and thrown hundreds of yards away.

The television station also noted in an April 7 report: “People in Lone Star said great progress has been made with the help of volunteers like Texans on Mission.”

Set up command center at Lakeview Baptist Assembly

Texans on Mission teams set up its command center in Lakeview’s dining hall, which received minor damage. Volunteer Kathy McAlester took on the administrative role of coordinating teams and requests for help.

McAlester said the tornado “was just really strong and in a really dense area and hit the houses just down the block from this building and, of course, all around this building, too. They were just covered with trees.”

She pointed out a window to a dozen cars left in the camp’s parking lot, all of them smashed and undrivable.

“There were ladies in that worship center over there, more than a hundred ladies. They sheltered in a lower level, and all were fine,” she reported.

The Texans on Mission response was rapid, with assessors on the ground the following day, she noted. Teams including Rolling Timbers, Harmony-Pittsburg and Bluebonnet were providing chainsaw and heavy equipment relief by April 7.

Texans on Mission damage assessor Doug Clower of Paluxy Baptist Association’s team said many assessed homes had received major damage.

Clower said he assessed one home “that was chopped in half by two trees. They dropped on the brick (wall). If they hadn’t dropped on the brick, if they’d gone a little bit to the right and hit at a window, they would have just gone through the whole house. And they (the family) were in the hallway and would have been hit by those trees had that not happened.”

Bluebonnet team member Rick Crouch served as chaplain for the group. After talking to affected families, he said they’re feeling “just kind of distraught, figuring out what to do next, where to go, how to deal with insurance companies, caring for family members and how they’re going to get help.”

Crouch said the positive message he could give them is “we’re here to help. And a lot of them didn’t know about us. The first thing one family asked me was, ‘Well, how much are you going to charge?’

“And I looked up, and I said: ‘Hey, this is Jesus. We don’t charge anything.’”

FORT WORTH—Sports gambling feeds on greed and thrives on the exploitation of the vulnerable, Baptist minister and former college football coach RaShan Frost said.

“The problem with sports gambling is that it intensifies covetous and idolatrous desires within our hearts,” said Frost, director of research with the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and teaching pastor at Centerpoint Church in North Charleston, S.C.

“Covetousness is the vice that fuels the gambling industry,” he told the ERLC-sponsored Summit on Sports Gambling at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth on April 7.

While compulsive sports gambling begins as an individual issue, its “ripple effects” are felt throughout society, he said.

Research reveals sports gambling often leads to elevated use of alcohol and illicit drugs, as well as mental health problems and family violence, Frost said.

He noted research showing an upset loss in a sporting event leads to an 11 percent increase in domestic abuse by young men.

‘Thrives on oppression, exploitation and discontent’

“Sports gambling thrives on oppression, exploitation, greed and discontent,” he said.

It “both fosters and is nourished by vice,” and offers the false promise of “fast money without work” rather than trusting in God’s provision, Frost asserted.

 “The idolatrous love of money that permeates the gambling industry leads to a variety of personal, relational and societal problems that devalue legitimate human needs and perpetuate evil,” he said.

Sports gambling is antithetical to the biblical concept that all people are made in God’s image, because it “commodifies and dehumanizes athletes,” said Frost, a former football player at Auburn University.

In the eyes of the sports gambler, the value of athletes is based strictly on their performance—or lack of performance—in a game, he observed.

“They become dehumanized to the point that if an athlete has a poor performance, a team loses or does not cover the point spread and someone loses money, athletes draw the ire of fans—to the point of receiving death threats,” Frost said.

He encouraged Christian leaders to ask two questions in evaluating the morality of sports gambling: “Does it glorify God? Does it promote love of one’s neighbor?”

‘Like crack cocaine’

Echoing Frost’s call to consider the societal impact of gambling, Greg Davis, president of the Alabama Citizens Action Program, noted the suicide rate among compulsive gamblers is higher than in any other form of addiction.

He particularly emphasized the predatory nature of online sports gambling.

“Anybody with a cell phone and a credit card has a casino in their pocket,” Davis said.

Online sports betting involves far more than wagering on the final outcome of a sporting event, he explained. It offers compulsive gamblers opportunities to bet on multiple aspects of every play of every game, 24 hours a day.

“It’s like crack cocaine to them,” he said.

Davis urged Christian leaders to get acquainted with elected officials at the state and local levels and use their influence to resist the spread of gambling and promote public policy that is in line with biblical ethics.

“Politics matter because policy matters. Policy matters because people matter,” he said.

Davis joined Ben Bolin, pastor of Travis Avenue Baptist Church, and Matt Henslee, pastor of Plymouth Park Baptist Church in Irving, for a panel discussion about what pastors can do in response to the spread of sports gambling, along with other forms of gambling.

Bolin noted gambling is a complex problem that requires a multifaceted approach. A single sermon on the subject is insufficient, he observed. He pointed to the need to address it as a discipleship issue in small-group Bible studies and accountability groups.

Henslee said his community was thrust “into the spotlight” recently when Los Vegas Sands Corporation initially sought approval to build a mixed-use development including a resort casino on the site where Texas Stadium once stood.

After about 200 citizens spoke at an Irving City Council meeting in opposition to the proposal, Sands withdrew the plans for a casino from its request.

“I didn’t want it because of what comes with it—prostitution, sex trafficking and increased homelessness,” Henslee said.

DALLAS—Lead elements of Texans on Mission disaster relief departed Dallas on April 1 to coordinate flood relief in the Rio Grande Valley after about 20 inches of rain in the region.

The disaster relief ministry is seeking more volunteers, because many volunteers are deployed elsewhere, and Texans on Mission has set up an online signup for those who would like to serve.

“With teams already serving after tornadoes in Missouri and wildfires in Oklahoma, there is a significant need” for more volunteers, said David Wells, Texans on Mission director of disaster relief.

The region in the southernmost part of Texas “received the equivalent of half a year’s rainfall in 48 hours,” Wells said.

Incident management, assessor and shower/laundry teams “deployed Tuesday morning to set the stage for flood recovery work near Weslaco and Harlingen.”

Texans on Mission will be “forming teams on site,” and they will begin serving next week, he said.

“If you have flood recovery training, we need you on the field,” Wells said. But Texans on Mission also is welcoming those who “have never been trained in flood recovery.”

Texans on Mission will teach volunteers what they need to know, and experienced volunteers will “walk alongside” those who are new.

Wells also encouraged people to gather groups of friends or others at their churches to serve.

To serve, volunteers must register at TexansOnMission.org/serve.

Volunteers can complete disaster relief orientation online in about 15 minutes to help prepare. Register here: TexansOnMission.org/disaster-relief-orientation-registration.

HIDALGO (RNS)—Every Thursday, volunteers at Border Missions, a Christian ministry, serve 350 to 400 food-insecure community members who receive a free hot meal, worship together and take groceries home.

One of the men is 87-year-old Francisco “Panchito” Ramirez Guajardo, who discovered Border Missions on one of his daily visits to lay flowers at the grave of his wife of 47 years at the cemetery next door.

Like many who first come to Border Missions for a meal, Ramirez then began to volunteer, and he has brought his adult children and neighbors.

“I love them all as if they’re my family,” said Ramirez of the community who have supported him in his grief.

In Hidalgo County, where the 26.9 percent of people living in poverty is more than twice the national average of 11.1 percent, Christian faith binds communities together as they serve one another and advocate for better resources.

Quoting Jesus’ teaching that “it is more blessed to give than receive,” Mario Ramirez, the operations manager at Border Missions, who is no relation to Francisco, told RNS, “Being able to serve and help other people fills us with energy and makes our lives very joyful.”

Border Missions makes a significant impact in low-resource communities in Texas, but the vast majority of Thursday participants actually cross the border from Reynosa, Mexico, to join what the participants view as “their church.”

Founded nearly seven decades ago

Midwestern evangelicals Harold and Katherine Morgan decided to found Border Missions in 1956, after a successful tent revival in what is still a traditionally Catholic area.

“Mrs. Morgan never asked what kind of religion you are. She always believed in God, and that the God she has is the same one everyone has,” said Lydia Weaver, whose mother was among the first Reynosa residents to adopt Border Missions as her church. Lydia Weaver has been attending since she was 2 years old.

Weaver called it “a miracle” that nearly 70 years later. Morgan’s great-granddaughter, Megan Gonzalez, a Catholic convert, is extending that legacy as co-director with her husband.

Gonzalez said her faith has grown as she stepped into the role, trusting God to work out the details. On the days that the donated food that fills their warehouse gets low, she picks up the phone and starts calling companies, relying on God’s favor, she said, adding, “We’ve never not had enough.”

With all that is “freely given” to Border Missions, “we give with no requirements, no expectations,” Gonzalez said.

“This is God’s grace. He’s given us this to bless you and to know that he still cares about you and loves you,” she said.

80 ministries help feed people in the Valley

Gonzalez, pushing her son Jack in a stroller as she tours the facility, said, throughout the rest of the week, some 80 registered ministries also rely on Border Missions to feed their communities throughout the Rio Grande Valley.

One of them, the House of Love and Justice, is led by Caly Fernandez, a grandmother of four and a Presbyterian with a long career in public health. The daughter of a doctor, Fernandez is passionate about bridging health care disparities in the Rio Grande Valley.

Recently, she said, she has been grounding her work in the writing of B. Hunter Farrell, director of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary’s World Mission Initiative, on co-development, which rejects the idea that the powerful “givers” grant life-giving aid to needy “receivers.” Rather, Farrell wrote, “there are only human beings desperately in need of God’s grace in Christ.”

Fernandez explains: “I don’t want to go in and do things for you. I want us to work together, and I want us to collaborate and use our God-given gifts to help in the community.”

While she has worked on both sides of the border, as executive director of the House of Love and Justice, Fernandez focuses on Hidalgo County’s colonias, neighborhoods originally settled by low-income Latinos that often lacked basic services such as running water or sewers. Fernandez says the county contains 947 colonias, with 11 experiencing extreme poverty.

Twice a month, Fernandez takes produce to three of those 11, working together with community health workers from Texas A&M University’s Colonias Program.

As the produce is distributed, they talk with families about their other needs and coordinate services alongside other partners, which have included women’s hygiene supplies, classes in fertility awareness, water purification and garbage disposal and recycling, know-your-rights training for migrants, and advance planning for children if parents are deported, as well as material support and social services for one family that already has been separated.

In the coming months, Fernandez plans to provide mental health first aid, a space for women to gather for Bible study and fellowship, women’s leadership training, summer vacation Bible study and gardening classes for the youth.

She’s also advocating for a planned county public transportation pilot program to be implemented and joining groups trying to preserve SNAP nutritional assistance.

Because so many families with mixed immigration statuses inhabit the colonias, Fernandez worries families may begin to increasingly avoid medical care and is exploring how to meet that need, possibly through specialized medical missions.

Not all communities in need defined as colonias

Her dream is to build a community center in La Piñata, where well-built homes stand next to ramshackle trailers, and stray dogs roam mostly unlit streets. But with $80,000 needed just to buy the land for the site she has picked out, the dream feels out of reach.

La Piñata, founded in 1993, is not technically a colonia. The government narrowly defines colonias as communities within 150 miles of the border developed before 1990 that have poor-quality housing and infrastructure. Starting in 1990, Texas developers were required to install water and wastewater services in new subdivisions.

But Noah Durst, an associate professor of urban and regional planning at Michigan State University, said millions of subdivision lots on the urban fringe throughout the United States may not officially be colonias, like La Piñata, but have comparably poor conditions because of similar building practices.

In such places, a developer sells empty lots with minimal infrastructure, often financing the sale at high interest rates, with a contract or deed that allows prompt repossession of the property.

Fernandez thinks it would make a huge difference for the nearby city of Donna to annex La Piñata, which would give residents access to city services like animal control, police and street lights.

Empowering communities to change their circumstances

Eddie Anaya, a Catholic lawyer and lifelong resident of a colonia called Las Milpas, got involved as a young man with Valley Interfaith, an affiliate of the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation, because his Mexican immigrant mother, Carmen Anaya, was one of its co-founders. When he was growing up, Anaya said Las Milpas had no water, sewers, street paving or lighting or police force.

Anaya chauffeured his mother around the state and interpreted for her at meetings with other Texas IAF affiliates as they championed 1989 state legislation that provided funding for water and wastewater infrastructure, which Anaya said stimulated other improvements in the community.

In Las Milpas, where the Catholic Church is the center of community life, Anaya said, conversations after Mass shaped a political agenda for the whole community through Valley Interfaith and backed by the Diocese of Brownsville.

“ When you organize around Scripture and put it into action, that not only strengthens the community, but also makes people understand the gospel much better,” Anaya said.

They also learn that as a community they have the power to change their circumstances.

 “Really the main objective of the organization is to teach people to do for themselves—to educate them to fight for their issues,” Anaya said.

The story Anaya tells of Las Milpas is a prime example. Anaya’s mother and other allies wanted Las Milpas to be its own city, but in 1987 the nearby city of Pharr annexed Las Milpas.

It took decades of organizing for Las Milpas residents to transform Pharr’s political culture to get the kind of respect—and the infrastructure—that truly made them feel like part of the city.

In 2015, Valley Interfaith pushed the city further, adopting a six-point plan for Las Milpas, calling for a bridge to link the neighborhood to a park, funding for workforce development, building a library and recreation center, curtailing predatory lending, more bus service and paving more neighborhood streets.

With an election coming up, the group invited city commissioner candidates to an accountability session at St. Francis Xavier Cabrini Catholic Church to commit to work with them.

When two candidates didn’t show up, Anaya and other leaders launched an intense get-out-the-vote campaign, with a youth contingent registering more than 500 voters after Mass. Those two candidates ended up losing by fewer than 50 votes each. Less than a year after the accountability session, Pharr broke ground on a library in Las Milpas.

Pope Francis has met three times with leaders of Industrial Areas Foundation groups, including a delegation from Valley Interfaith in 2022. Anaya was there to witness the pope applaud the group for living the gospel by “walking with” suffering people.

The recognition has inspired them, but there is much work still to do.

Delfina Villarreal, a resident in a colonia south of McAllen, told RNS communities there are still struggling to secure drainage for flooding and sidewalks, but they hope faith-based organizing and getting out the vote will make all the difference.

“Here we are all working for each other,” Villarreal said.

Rolling onto South Padre Island for five days of evangelistic outreach, the passengers on Baylor University junior Chloe Mandeville’s van got vulnerable about their struggles and fears heading into the first week of Beach Reach.

“We just exposed it all at the very beginning, which I’ve never seen before,” said Mandeville, who was participating in Beach Reach for the third time.

“And I was so encouraged because by the time I shared mine, it was like nothing, because everyone before me and everyone after me had such similar stories. It was like [we were] truly handpicked by God to be in that van together.”

Every spring break, hundreds of college students from Baptist Student Ministries across the state head to South Padre Island to join Beach Reach, a mission effort to share the gospel while providing free late-night van rides and free pancake breakfasts each morning.

Sunday through Thursday nights, while many spring breakers are engaged in revelry, Island Baptist Church opens its facility to act as a “home base” for Beach Reach’s ministry. From 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., a hotline opens for spring breakers to call and ask for a ride.

Vans with a team of five BSM students and a driver—mostly BSM directors—are dispatched to pick up the riders they are assigned. Another team of students stays behind and prays over the ride.

The student acting as “navigator” on each ride tweets into the Beach Reach prayer wall using the #brspi25 hashtag, so those praying can pray for riders in real-time. Each BSM rotates between the two roles in three shifts throughout the night.

Meeting spring breakers with love and grace

On the other side of the island, at Louie’s Backyard, a popular bar and entertainment space, Texans on Missionvolunteers set up a tent and prepared to serve a “midnight pancake breakfast.” Here, BSM students can have spiritual conversations over pancakes with those coming to and from Louie’s.

When they finish their pancakes, spring breakers are walked to the pickup line, where several vans are available to take them home without having to call the hotline. Each night, a new group of 40 Beach Reachers and their vans rotate to be “on the ground” at Louie’s.

Annie Hartman, a first-time Beach Reacher from Dallas Baptist University, said she was surprised by people’s “curiosity and interest in our faith.” She said Louie’s is an important opportunity for Beach Reachers to “not be scared of sin,” but to meet spring breakers where they are “with so much love and grace.”

“I think [Louie’s is] probably a place that a lot of Christians would want to avoid. So, I think it’s really good to be hands-on and reach people that may be lost and meeting people where they’re at,” Hartman said.

Texans on Mission volunteer Phil Winget has served pancakes at Louie’s for 10 years. He said the most encouraging thing to see each year is people giving their lives to Jesus. By Wednesday night of the first week, 50 salvations already had been reported.

“Where else can you see 50 college students accept Jesus as their personal savior in a week? Last year, we had close to 80 baptisms out in the Gulf of Mexico,” Winget said.

“[That] is absolutely the most impactful thing. I’ve never been anywhere where there were 50 college students saved in a week.”

Seeing God’s faithfulness

One of the 80 baptized last year was Destiny, a college student who Mandeville and a few other Baylor students met at Louie’s.

Mandeville said she “saw someone dancing around with a sign, and she ended up giving her life to Christ” toward the end of the week after attending the evening worship services held for Beach Reachers at the South Padre Island Convention Center. Beach Reachers are encouraged to invite spring breakers to join them for worship to build stronger connections.

Mandeville lost contact with Destiny but continued to pray her faith would grow. Her prayers were not in vain, she would learn, shortly after reconnecting with Destiny’s cousins, who also were baptized last year.

During the day, a few BSMs host a morning pancake breakfast at Island Baptist Church, an opportunity to deepen relationships with connections they’ve made on the vans the night before.

The BSMs not attending the pancake breakfast can go “fishing”—driving around the island to pick up people walking to their destinations or going to the beach to invite spring breakers to call the hotline at night and have spiritual conversations.

“I went to the beach, and I actually saw the cousins, and I was like: ‘Oh my gosh, you guys, it’s been forever. How are you?” Mandeville recalled.

“We were in a bit of a rush, and I had to scurry off. But the next day [the Baylor BSM was] hanging out at the church, and I was waiting for my van … It was so perfectly ordained by God, because I was the only one out[side], and [Destiny] walked up with this guy. I didn’t recognize her.”

Destiny asked, “When do you guys do the worship service?”

As she drew nearer, Mandeville recognized the young woman as Destiny and invited her to the evening worship service at the convention center.

Destiny told Mandeville in the last year, God had freed her from addiction, she had found a home church and was being discipled.

“It’s such an encouragement, because you don’t really see people after the fact. You interact with them once or maybe twice and then never again. So, it’s so cool to see her a year later and see she’s still on the straight and narrow.”

Destiny came to worship that evening and was “the most influential part of the night” for Baylor students.

“I had to let them know that they are making a difference … [there] may not be a hundred thousand people, but that one lost sheep is still important,” said Destiny. “I wanted to tell them … to never doubt themselves because God chose them … to be here.”

“Here she is, turning the tables and encouraging us … the Lord so clearly spoke through her exactly what we needed to hear in those moments,” said Mandeville.

Nathan Mahand, BSM director at Houston Christian University, encouraged students before their hotline shifts began in the evening that “the gospel is always on the move” and “not (to) let the fact that it’s been a slow week discourage you from sharing” the gospel.

“You’re here this week because someone shared the story of Jesus with you, and you came to believe this story. You want other people to believe the story in the same way that you do. That only happens when you vulnerably go and share what God has done in your life,” Mahand said.

As Mandeville shared her and Destiny’s story on Tuesday night, the prayer room went up in a roar of celebration as tweets on the prayer wall read that new believers were joining the kingdom family.

God’s sovereignty in salvation

On Wednesday, a team from Midwestern State BSM went to the beach to evangelize. Participants Evanne Kleinert, a second-time Beach Reacher, and Abigail Simbaña, a third-time Beach Reacher, had something to celebrate.

“We just prayed to have one good conversation, and then I saw a girl picking up shells on the beach. And so we went over to talk to her—we were asking people if we could pray for them—and I saw that she had a cross necklace on, so we started … asking what that meant to her,” Kleinert said.

“After questions, she claimed that ‘God is her best friend,’ and I was like, ‘Have you heard about the gospel before?’ and she hadn’t. … I shared the gospel with her and explained … what having Jesus as Lord and Savior means and the cost of that,” Simbaña said.

“She was like, ‘Well, I’ve been wanting to get baptized for a long time now.’”

Simbaña explained salvation doesn’t come through baptism but by putting her faith in Jesus.

“She was very receptive, and she was like, ‘I want to make that decision … [and] commitment,’” said Simbaña. “[She] definitely [had] a heart ready to receive the gospel.”

Klienert said her Beach Reach experience reminded her how every person truly plays a unique part in leading somebody to Christ.

Hayden Womack, a sophomore and first-time Beach Reacher from Lamar University, said the same.

“I’ve been uplifted by seeing the church work together, for lack of a better term, like a Rube Goldberg machine,” he said. “I’m just a small piece in the wheel, you know? … God has an ornate and sovereign way of knitting everything together perfectly.”

At Wednesday evening worship, Joe Osteen, East Texas BSM regional coordinator and Beach Reach coordinator, referenced Isaiah 49:5-6 and challenged students to “walk in obedience” even as the end of the week was approaching. He reminded them that “God’s salvation is meant to advance to all the ends of the earth.”

“Jesus comes and does the work to make [salvation] a reality, by living and dying and rising from the dead and saving all who call on his name. And he enlists us, in his grace and goodwill towards us, to be a part of that redemptive work,” said Osteen.

He encouraged the students to consider what obedience looks like off the island.

“Perhaps it’s too small to only pour ourselves out like this here at South Padre. Perhaps there’s a bigger purpose—for us to take what we’ve learned and what we’ve experienced here, back to our campuses and be encouraged to continue sharing the gospel,” Osteen said.

“Perhaps God is calling you to lift your eyes a little bit and see beyond your campus to the area around you or to a mission opportunity or to a nation … who needs to know who Jesus is.”

Staying alert for gospel opportunities

During a daily afternoon break, Avery Marsh, junior and first-time Beach Reacher from the University of Houston, got to use a special skill to have a spiritual conversation in a coffee shop.

“I learned sign language during my high school years, and I don’t remember a lot of it,’ Marsh said.

“But I remember some words, and I was in this coffee shop. And one of my friends was like, ‘Avery, this person’s deaf.’ … I saw this sweet [older lady] with a tiny little dog, and I got to sit there and talk with her.”

The woman had been hearing for about 40 years and went deaf gradually. She was starting to learn sign language.

“She is able to read lips and speak and ended up just telling me about her life story and telling me things that I could be praying for,” Marsh said.

“It was so encouraging to me that God doesn’t let anything go to waste—that this skill that I learned in high school randomly because friends adopted deaf kids, I got to use in this way to get to know” the person she encouraged that day.

Over two weeks of Beach Reach, from March 9-20, participants gave 13,832 van rides; took part in 10,014 spiritual conversations; and prayed with 7,750 spring breakers. Additionally, 246 people accepted Christ, 86 recommitted their lives to Christ and 87 were baptized.