Buckner partners with national Christian radio network. K-LOVE, a Christian radio network with an estimated 14 million weekly audience in 47 states, is working in a fund-raising partnership with Buckner International’s Shoes for Orphan Souls ministry. Throughout April, K-LOVE listeners who make a new pledge of support to the network with a $40 monthly EZ gift also will help provide a new pair of shoes to a child in need through Shoes for Orphan Souls. K-LOVE also will encourage listener involvement by hosting and participating in local shoe drives to help Buckner meet its goal of distributing more than 170,000 pairs of new shoes to children in need this year.

BCFS ministry benefits from foundation grant. The Rapier Foundation granted $50,000 to Guadalupe Street Coffee is a community development project of Baptist Child & Family Services in San Antonio.Guadalupe Street Coffee, a community development project of Baptist Child & Family Services on San Antonio’s West Side in a neighborhood where more than half of the residents live below the poverty line. The coffee shop provides a safe environment that fosters continued learning and educational opportunities for local students. Guadalupe Street Coffee provides job training to teens and leads educational activities that promote healthy, affordable nutrition and daily living for families. In six years, the project has served 10,000 school-age children and provided close to 9,000 hours of free services to at-risk youth, such as homework and financial aid assistance, job training, and lessons on nutritional eating and healthy living.

UMHB doctoral degree adds nursing track. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor is adding a leadership in nursing education track to its doctor of education degree program, beginning in June. Currently, the degree program offers two tracks for students pursuing the doctoral degree—one for educators focused on Pre-K through grade 12 education and one for higher education professionals. The addition of a third track will open up the degree program to nursing educators who wish to earn a terminal degree in their field of study. For more information about the degree program and the application process, click here or call the UMHB director of graduate admissions at (254) 295-4020 or (800) 727-8642.

EL PASO—Israel, the last patient of the day, walked into an El Paso clinic run by the Baptist Student Ministry of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas requesting a diabetes check-up.

A student from the Baptist Study Ministry at the University of Texas at Arlington paints a child’s face during a spring break mission trip to Galveston.As students visited with Israel, they discovered he’d stopped taking insulin to treat his condition. It was just one way he’d given up on life. Following the death of his mother, he began abusing drugs. He’d struggled with suicidal thoughts—failing in an attempt but always carrying a suicide note in case he wanted to try again.

Only recently had Israel begun to sense some hope.

“He then revealed to us that he had been feeling like maybe there was something more to life, and we were able to share with him his infinite worth as he was created in the image of God, and the love that God has shown us by the life and death of his son, Jesus Christ,” wrote Ian Jester, a student on the trip who was moved to tears by Israel’s story. “Then we were able to pray over Israel.”

The students discussed Israel’s case with a doctor who prescribed medication, and they connected Israel to a local pastor and congregation who could continue to show him the love of Christ.

East Texas Baptist University students join others on the beach at South Padre Island for a worship service as part of Beach Reach. (PHOTO: ETBU/Amanda Gill)“Finally, after everyone else had left, Israel pulled a folded-up paper out of his wallet, looked the other student and me in the eyes, and ripped up his suicide note as he said he no longer needed it,” Jester wrote.

“Israel met his Savior on this day. This is the great joy we have, not only as medical students and future physicians, but as servants of Christ—that we get to share the greatest love story ever told, the love that God has for his people. Christ came so that the sick may be healed, so that he could call sinners unto himself.”

Dallas Baptist University students served with Habitat for Humanity in Des Moines, Iowa, working on several home-building and repair projects.Spring break ministries varied from facilitating medical clinics to providing clean drinking water, to offering free rides, to working in disaster-affected areas. But the common denominator remained: Texas Baptist students found unique and God-guided opportunities to share the gospel through service during spring break.

Coordinated by Baptist Student Ministries, college church groups, Texas Baptist Disaster Recovery and Texas Baptists’ Go Now Missions student missions program, the trips reflected God’s heart for people and students’ desire to share the gospel.

“Spring Break mission trips give students the chance to get out of their comfort zone and share the love of Jesus,” said Brenda Sanders, who leads Go Now Missions. “That might be through meeting a physical need or verbally sharing the gospel. But the great result we see back on their campuses after spring break is that they realize they can do the same thing back home.” 

A student from the UT Southwestern Medical Center Baptist Student Ministry allows a well-behaved young patient at an El Paso clinic to select a sticker.Houston Baptist University BSM students dug a well in a Nicaraguan village outside Granada that will provide free clean drinking water for families who are accustomed to having to pay $300 a month for it.

Through the effort, students connected with members of the community, and they saw how a water well can have a significant impact on the physical and spiritual life of an area.

“Many of the people of the community did not belong to a church, and yet they will have God’s love demonstrated to them each time they come to get water,” wrote Kasandra Roaten, a senior at HBU. “At the dedication of the well, the local pastor was able to contact many new people in the community and share the love of Christ with them.”

Disaster Recovery

Texas Baptist Disaster Recovery promoted two spring break opportunities—one in Long Island, N.Y., and one in LaPlace, La. In each location, groups served people who were affected by hurricanes. Through acts of service, volunteers discovered ways to hear the stories of the people they served and allow God to work within those new relationships.

“Initially, I thought I was going to be simply doing community service, but God used my act of volunteering to show me that my life is not about myself,” wrote Tiffany Ross, a student at Prairie View A&M University. “This trip showed me the importance of serving others just as Jesus did.”

East Texas Baptist University student Kendall Collins straightens and cleans shelves at the Thrift Store sponsored by the Of One Accord Ministry located in Rogersville, Tenn. (PHOTO: ETBU/Glenn Scott )The largest Texas evangelism effort was the annual Beach Reach initiative in South Padre Island where students minister to partiers from across the country. Texas Baptist college students offer free rides, pick up trash along the beach and seek to share the gospel.

“I personally wanted to go to South Padre Island, because I felt a specific call to go and serve others who were spiritually in need,” said Candice Hamilton, an East Texas Baptist University junior. “I went on Beach Reach last year and was amazed by the amount of ‘spring breakers’ that were in need of the love of Christ without even knowing it.”

Sharing the Gospel

Several opportunities to share the gospel occurred when ETBU students were approached on Coca Cola Beach asking if they wanted a “shot” of liquor or if they wanted to come to the club with them to party. When Beach Reach volunteers responded that they didn’t drink so they could drive vans and pick people up from clubs, conversations began.

“We didn’t try to preach to the people that we talked to or condemn them. It was very important that our main focus was to show God’s love without judgment,” said Macy Yglecias, an ETBU sophomore.

In the midst of the partying, God’s message was proclaimed. Forty-two people professed Jesus Christ as Lord. Twenty-seven people were baptized. Countless seeds were planted.

“I was talking to a guy on the beach, and we were just having a normal conversation. I didn’t even mention anything spiritual to him, and as the conversation came to a close, he looked at me and asked me to pray for him,” said Jermaca Brown, an ETBU freshman. “God’s love conquers all and takes away all nervousness. He gives you the words to speak when you think you have nothing to offer.”

–This story was compiled from reports by students and Texas Baptist institutions.

IRVING—Instead of spending their spring break hitting the beach or other vacation spots, volunteers from four Irving churches hit the streets of Irving on a mission for Jesus.

Alicia Frick, a member of First Baptist Church in Irving, reads a Bible story to children at an apartment complex during spring break.  (PHOTO/Courtesy of First Baptist Church in Irving)Anthony Ball, missions director at First Baptist Church in Irving, encouraged and engaged other congregations, including Calvary Baptist Church, Oak View Baptist Church and La Ciudad Mission, in a weeklong “Acts in Motion” missions emphasis.

“I gathered a leadership team together to discuss ways that we could reach out to our community,” Ball said. “We decided on an intentional, purposeful weeklong trip that encompassed us going into apartments and areas with lots of people to meet them, pray for them, share Christ with them and meet any needs they had.”

Through service projects and casual conversations, team members built relationships and found ways to share Christ’s love throughout their community.

Anthony Ball, missions director of First Baptist Church in Irving and coordinator of Acts in Motion, enjoyed playing sports with children at local apartment complexes during spring break and found many ways to connect them with the life-changing love of Christ. (PHOTO/Courtesy of First Baptist Church in Irving)“The Bible tells us to go and make disciples, so that’s what we did,” Ball said. “We divided up our large team into four smaller teams and then sent them to different apartment complexes around Irving, in geographic connection to local churches with whom we were partnering. From there, each team had the freedom, creativity and responsibility to decide what activities, outreach and ministries they would do to best meet the needs of the people in their area, and to share Christ with them.

“My favorite part of the week, besides getting to see new brothers and sisters giving their lives to Christ, was the first day when one of the teams had only been there for about three hours. Later that night, the team returned and children ran down and hugged everyone. That showed how our team had made that much of an impact on their lives in just a few short hours.”

Students on spring break insisted they didn’t regret trading sleep for service. 

A soccer game was part of the sports activities offered to children at local apartment complexes.“At first, I had other plans for this week, but my mom encouraged me to serve,” ninth-grader Mat Eastham said. “It turned out that I really enjoyed helping with this. We’ve been meeting kids, playing with them and telling them about Jesus. It’s been neat meeting people and helping provide for their needs. We brought food to some families, and they were so appreciative.”

Seventh-grader Carson Frick agreed. “I felt the Lord calling me to help with this week, and I’m so thankful for this opportunity to serve. It was so much fun playing with the kids at the park and telling them about Jesus.”

As team members met needs and established relationships, they discovered additional avenues of outreach.

“We went door-to-door at the apartment complexes, finding out what needs we could meet,” said Julie Durrwachter, a student at Dallas Baptist University. “When we talked with families who said they were without food and then returned with bags of food, it was the neatest thing to see their change in demeanor. 

Volunteers organized nonperishable food items collected at First Baptist Church in Irving to help meet physical needs of families during Acts in Motion. (PHOTO/Courtesy of First Baptist Church in Irving)“We found that a lot of these kids typically don’t have anyone to hang out with during the day, so the Lord provided a perfect opportunity for us to spend time with them during spring break. We played games with them, made crafts and told Bible stories. It was amazing to tell them about the love of Christ and also to show his love through our actions. I’m really excited about the connections we made this week and that we get to continue those relationships and help increase the kingdom.”

Throughout the week, volunteers communicated the gospel message, and many saw God touch hearts and change lives.

“Two young men in particular come to mind,” Ball said. “We found out one day that they were splitting a can of vegetables because they didn’t have money for lunch, and rarely ever did they have the resources to provide lunch for themselves. We continued to bring them food each day for lunch, and through this ministry and the testimonies of a few of our team members, one of these men came to know Christ. 

“Many of our apartment ministries also put on games, activities and story times for kids—to share with them the good news of Jesus Christ, pray for them and use this as an entryway to get to know their families.” 

Touched by needs

Many volunteers were touched deeply by the tremendous physical and spiritual needs they encountered in their own community. 

“These kids just want to know someone cares about them,” Elizabeth Benson said. “They just need some love, and the Lord has sent us this week to show them his love. You can see that there are needs everywhere—whether they are emotional, physical, financial or spiritual. People are hurting and need to see that someone cares. The Lord has called us to be his hands and feet, and when we do that, you can see the change in people. Our desire is that residents in Irving would be drawn to churches and to Jesus. Our prayer is that it would be nothing of our own efforts, but all about what Christ is doing.”

Keep the connections

Madison Hoover, a student at Dallas Baptist University, agreed. “I hope that God puts a desire on our hearts to keep up with the connections we’ve made here. Going back to visit with these families, bringing them dinner and continuing to share the love of Christ—that’s how we will continue to impact our community and lead them to the Lord.”

The experience not only provided beneficial services and met needs throughout the community, but it also reminded the team about the importance of looking for opportunities to share their faith on a regular basis.

“What drew me to this week was the idea that advancing God’s kingdom through service and evangelism is something that can be done right here at home and any day of the week,” said Alex Dennis, student minister at Oak View Baptist Church. “I wanted the students to catch the realization that people all around us are in need spiritually and physically, and it’s our responsibility to help meet those needs.

“My favorite part of the week was seeing the eyes of the students opened, when they realized how much a little game of kickball meant to the children we were reaching out to. So often, we get caught up in having to accomplish big things for the gospel to be made known, when it is the little things that open the door.

“My prayer is that our students would catch the vision that the type of ministry that was done during Acts in Motion is something that can transfer seamlessly into our daily lives and that sharing the gift of eternal life through Jesus is not confined to one week of spring break.”

Reminded of mission field

As a result of this experience, team members were reminded of the tremendous need to view their schools, workplace and community as their mission field.

“We sincerely hope that not only do we see people come to faith in Christ from this week, but we also want to see a long-term effort to continue to engage our communities—loving people, meeting their needs, building those long-term relationships, and ultimately, making disciples of Jesus Christ throughout Irving using this week as a launching pad,” Ball said.

“We want the name of Jesus to be lifted high in Irving and for people to know him. If the people we encountered this week come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and walk with him daily in a local congregation of believers, then we will have accomplished exactly what we set out to do.”

MESQUITE—Leaders from cowboy churches across the state gathered at the Mesquite Rodeo Arena for inspiration, information and fellowship meant to spur them to share the gospel when they returned home.

Some of them didn’t wait that long.

Fiddler Paul Schlessinger from Milam County Cowboy Church of Rockdale performs at the Fan the Flame Evangelism Conference for western-heritage churches. (PHOTO/John Hall/BGCT)While the Baptist General Convention of Texas-sponsored Fan the Flame Evangelism Conference for Texas cowboy churches still was going on, some participants already were sharing their faith with arena concession workers. Later in the conference, an altar call led to some people entering a relationship with Jesus.

That’s precisely what Charles Higgs, BGCT director of western-heritage ministries, hoped to see as a result of the gathering—more people coming to faith in Christ.

“I just really think that every church that comes here will go back with their batteries charged, they’ll be renewed for evangelism, and God will do something unusual in their church,” Higgs said.

About 500 people attended the event, which featured cowboy church pastors sharing their thoughts on evangelism, cowboy church bands leading worship, a pastors’ luncheon and a time for pastors’ wives, as well as preaching by O.S. Hawkins, president of GuideStone Financial Services.

Cowboy churches play a key role in reaching Texas with the gospel, Higgs said. Conference organizers particularly focused on the need to start more cowboy congregations, as well as holding more arena events.

“Where there’s hoof prints, there’s baptisms,” he said. “We want all our churches to reach out.”

The western-heritage culture continues to gain popularity throughout the state, and that means more churches and more intentional outreach to cowboys are needed to spread the gospel as quickly as possible, he said.

The conference is made possible by a partnership between Texas Baptists’ western-heritage ministries, the BGCT evangelism team and Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas. It is supported financially by gifts to missions through the Texas Baptist Cooperative Program and by funds from the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions.

“It’s really important, because we talk about people groups all over the world, and yet the cowboy western-heritage culture is a people group, and so many in this people group are not reached with the gospel,” said Carolyn Porterfield, multicultural consultant with Texas WMU. “It’s hard to believe that here in Texas people could live here all their lives and never darken the door of a church.”

Kathy Hillman, a leader in several spheres of Texas Baptist life, will be nominated for first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas during the BGCT annual meeting this summer.

Hillman, the convention’s current second vice president, was president of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas from 2000 to 2004 and served on numerous convention committees.

She has served in a variety of faculty and staff positions at BGCT-affiliated Baylor University since 1976, including associate professor and director of special collections for the central university libraries since 2008. She also is director of the library and archives for the Keston Center for Religion, Politics & Society at Baylor.

Dennis W. Young, pastor of Missouri City Baptist Church in Missouri City, announced he will nominate Hillman for first vice president when the convention meets in San Antonio, July 14-17.

Hillman possesses four traits—adaptability, missions-mindedness, love for BGCT institutions and leadership skills—that qualify her to take a step up on Texas Baptists’ leadership ladder, Young said.

“One of the things that is outstanding about Kathy is her ability to adapt to any size or type of congregation,” he noted. For example, she grew up in First Baptist Church of Eldorado, a West Texas congregation that averaged about 125 people in Sunday school, but she’s now an active member of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco, a Central Texas congregation with about 1,000 attenders each week.

“I’m looking at her adaptation skills—something that’s very necessary,” he said.

Hillman also possesses a lifelong commitment to missions, Young added.

“She’s been a very good missionary,” he said, citing her service as a collegiate summer missionary, her involvement in mission trips and her extensive travels and engagement in missions as a leader of Texas WMU.

A vignette from Hillman’s childhood illustrates her depth of concern for missions, Young said. At First Baptist in Eldorado, she was the only member of Girls Auxiliary, the Baptist missions organization for girls. So, she attended the GA program at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church, an African-American congregation.

“She didn’t look at color, but she looked at missions and doing the Lord’s work,” Young noted. “That’s major.”

Hillman’s alignment with Texas Baptist institutions is a theme of her life, he added.

She completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Baylor. Her great-grandmother, both grandfathers, both parents and two of her children all attended Baylor, and another grandmother and a child attended Howard Payne University, also a Texas Baptist school, he reported.

Noting he has served on several BGCT committees with Hillman, Young said: “I’ve always been moved by her passion and her commitment and her leadership skills. Each time I was involved with her, she brought so much to the table. Administratively, she has a very good skill set.

“She’s a servant leader. She loves the Lord. She loves people. And she’s always had that drive to win souls for God’s kingdom.”

Because the 2013 BGCT annual meeting will be held in mid-summer, less than nine months after the 2012 annual meeting, Hillman felt her term as second vice president was too short to accomplish all that she wanted to achieve.

“I feel there are a lot of other things I can do—more people I would like to meet, more churches I would like to go visit,” she said.

In particular, Hillman said, she hopes to encourage increased lay involvement in Texas Baptist denominational life, as well as greater involvement by the rising generation of young pastors and by ministers’ spouses.

Hillman also voiced the desire to support BGCT Executive Director David Hardage.

“Missions and evangelism seem married in his vision. While some have treated them separately, I’ve always seen them as very closely related,” she said.

She also wants to help reinforce and communicate what she sees as a key message Hardage emphasizes: “The BGCT exists to serve churches, not the other way around.”

Hillman expressed her appreciation for “the breadth and depth of who Texas Baptists are.”

She has served on the executive council and executive board of Waco Regional Baptist Association, and she was elected the association’s first female vice moderator in 2008-2009 and its first female moderator in 2009-2011.

Hillman has chaired the BGCT Committee to Nominate Executive Board Members and its Committee on Order of Business. She also served on the BGCT Executive Board.

She and her husband, John, have three adult children and two grandsons.

DALLAS—The Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas named Jesse Rincones of Lubbock as its first executive director.

The convention’s executive board unanimously appointed Rincones, the organization’s president since 2010. The directorship is a volunteer position, and leaders believe it will remain that way for the foreseeable future.

The action was made to empower longer-term planning and initiatives that stretch across presidential terms, convention leaders indicated. Such efforts include a three-year project to revitalize the state’s 42 regional Spanish compañerismos and creation of a Hispanic leadership development program.

“It’s a historic step the convention is taking,” Rincones said. “I recognize the responsibility and the opportunity to help churches fulfill the responsibility they are feeling.”

The Hispanic convention is the third-largest Hispanic Baptist body in the world, Rincones noted. God is calling Texas Hispanic Baptists to expand his kingdom through a variety of outreach efforts, and to accomplish those tasks, the Hispanic Baptist Convention will continue to encourage its congregations to partner with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

The Hispanic convention will not duplicate efforts made by the BGCT but seek to meet specific needs of Hispanic churches that are not being met, he emphasized.

“As we become a stronger convention of churches, we become a stronger part of the BGCT,” he said.

Rincones, the lead pastor of Alliance Church in Lubbock, has served the Hispanic convention in numerous roles.

He earned his law degree from Texas Tech University, where he also earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.

As a result of Rincones becoming executive director, Daniel “Tiny” Dominguez, pastor of Community Heights Baptist Church in Lubbock and first vice president of the Hispanic Baptist Convention, has become president of the group.

Clarence Griffith has a theory: “If you stop working for the Lord, you get old.”

That explains the 100-year-old’s secret to remaining seemingly young.

Griffith, a member of Gaston Oaks Baptist Church in Dallas, has served on mission trips around the world and works regularly as a volunteer at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

Clarence Griffith with a cabinet full of momentos from mission trips around the world. (George Henson Photo)Griffith was born in Granbury—the third of six boys—but his family moved to Ellis County when he was 10 years old. He made his profession of faith in Christ when he was 13 during a two-week revival at First Baptist Church in Midlothian.

“My dad and mother were very religious. They always took us to church—for many years in a wagon or a buggy, then we got money enough to buy an old Ford,” Griffith recalled.

During his high school years, his family moved to Dallas.

“I had me a job in the summertime as an electrician’s helper. I worked 60 hours a week. I made the whole sum of $9 for those 60 hours—15 cents an hour. It was a good job,” he said.

In 1939, he and his wife, Ruth, joined Gaston Avenue Baptist Church in Dallas, and in 1950, he was ordained as a deacon.

He continued to work as an electrician until 1980 when he sold his business.

Had to keep busy

“I thought I’d just enjoy life, but about 90 days after I sold my business, I would have paid double to buy it back,” he recalled. “I was restless. I’d go to the church and volunteer, and I’d go to other places and help out. I just had to keep busy.”

In 1982, his brother called to tell him about a mission trip East Grand Baptist Church was taking to Barbados to renovate a seminary.

“He said, ‘We need an electrician.’ I said, ‘I’ll go.’ He said, ‘Let me tell you what we have to do.’ But I told him: ‘I don’t care what we have to do. I’ll do it,’” Griffith recalled.

After returning from that trip, he started receiving calls from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Foreign Mission Board requesting he accompany other teams as an electrician. Soon, area churches also began to ask for his help.

Church builder

In all, Griffith has taken 48 trips outside the continental United States—most to build churches. He has been to Brazil 15 times and Romania six. His most recent trip was to Alaska last September. He paid his own way on every trip, and his late wife often was by his side.

“She loved missions, and I love missions,” he said.

At age 95, Griffith began volunteering at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas in the cardiovascular waiting room.

“People come in there for surgery, and I take care of their families. I talk to them, make them coffee—whatever they need, I get it for them. I make a lot of friends,” he said.

Griffith, who recently renewed his driver’s license, provides others at the assisted living center where he lives a ride to church with him each Sunday. If anyone thinks he’s too old to drive, Griffith points out his last ticket cost him $3. He turned the wrong way on a one-way street shortly after World War II when he failed to notice a sign.

At a recent dinner to commemorate his 100th birthday, more than 150 people attended who had served with Griffith on at least one mission trip.

Homecoming

“Talk about a homecoming. Some of them I had been on mission trips with me as many as 30 times,” he said.

Some people ask why he doesn’t just stop and rest.

“Why rest? I tell everybody, if you quit work, you get old. As long as you’re working for the Lord, you’re not going to get old, or at least that’s my theory,” he said with a grin.

Service and devotion to God have been a constant in his life, and that’s not changing.

“The first thing I do every morning is have my devotional before I go to breakfast. The Lord is very important to me,” he said. “I can’t get by a day without talking to the Lord.”

Network of intentional interim ministers launched. The Baptist General Convention of Texas has launched a network of trained ministers who can help congregations when they are between pastors. Called the Intentional Interim Ministry Network of Texas Baptists, the group expands the possibilities for ministers trained as intentional interims. Certified members of the group must go through at least 80 hours of training and be evaluated after serving a congregation so leaders know they can serve churches in a variety of situations. Services provided by ministers in the network range from pulpit supply to staff supervision to a full-scale congregational re-visioning process. For more information about the network, click here or call (888) 244-9400. 

Memorials Committee seeks names. Each year at the Baptist General Convention of Texas annual meeting, a memorial service honors Texas Baptists who died during the preceding year. The BGCT Memorials Committee requests names of people who died in the last year and whose lives strengthened their churches. Submissions should be received no later than June 14. Call (214) 828-5348 or e-mail debbiemoody@texasbaptists.org.

DALLAS—Ceramic water filters Texas Baptist Men volunteers use to purify water not only protect against bacteria, but also against viruses, according to a Food & Drug Administration-registered laboratory.

Dallas-based Ceutical Labs confirmed the filters produced by Just Water, a partner with TBM’s water purification ministry, remove viruses from water.

Texas Baptist Men volunteers distributed water filters to Sao Paulo, Brazil.The Internet includes advertisements for water filtration products that claim to remove viruses. However, Just Water is the first emergency water system that can back up its claim with findings from an FDA-registered laboratory, said Ron Mathis of McKinney, the company’s founder.

“It’s a milestone, particularly since everything we produce is made right here in Texas,” he said.

Mathis developed Just Water to provide nonprofit organizations an easy, cost-efficient way to offer clean water to impoverished countries and areas hit by natural disasters.

Just Water and TBM have worked together more than eight years, and TBM operates a water purification ministry in more than 70 countries worldwide.

On World Water Day March 22, UNICEF reported about 1,800 children a day under age 5 die from unsafe water and poor sanitation and hygiene, and close to 90 percent of child deaths from diarrheal diseases are linked directly to contaminated water and inadequate sanitation.

PLAINVIEW (ABP)—With most eyes in women’s college basketball trained on Baylor’s 6-8 shot-blocking, slam-dunking phenom Brittney Griner, the current Texas Monthly carries a feature about a lesser-known Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated powerhouse that is the winningest women’s basketball program in history.

The April 2013 magazine profiles the Wayland Baptist University Flying Queens with a teaser title on the cover “The Greatest College Basketball Team You’ve Never Heard Of.” Between 1953 and 1958, Wayland won 131 straight games and four consecutive national championships, the longest streak in sports history.

Teammates attending reunion at Wayland last year included (back, from left) pilot Mike Hutcherson, Judy Bugher, Carla Lowry, Mona Poff, Alice Barron, Rita Alexander, Oma Gean Capps, Georgia Bryant; (front) Wilda and Harley Redin.The feat was recognized at a timeout during a Baylor-Kentucky game in November, aired on ESPN2 and with a display at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., titled “Trailblazers of the Game.”

As Connecticut closed in on UCLA’s major college record of 88 consecutive wins in 2010, the New York Times noted: “Long before Connecticut became a dominant power in women’s basketball, the Flying Queens of Wayland Baptist thrived on innovation, talent and glamour, playing on athletic scholarships, traveling by private planes, warming up with ostentatious drills learned from the Harlem Globetrotters and winning every game for nearly five seasons.”

Named for Hutcherson Air Service, the team sponsor owned by a Wayland graduate that provided transportation for games across the South and Midwest, the Flying Queens remained a national powerhouse through the 1960s.

After President Nixon signed Title IX in 1972 banning universities from discriminating based on gender, Wayland no longer could compete with major universities with large budgets and national recruiting programs.

Still setting records

This season the Queens became the first women’s basketball program to reach 1,500 victories before finishing 15-16 in the Sooner Athletic Conference in NAIA Division I.

With just 600 students at the time, Wayland Baptist College seemed an unlikely pioneer in women’s athletics. But in 1947, a former Baptist youth pastor president liked the idea of a team of Christian coeds bearing witness in the Amateur Athletic Union.

During the 1940s, at least a hundred women’s basketball teams throughout the United States belonged to the AAU, the governing body for amateur sports, the Texas Monthly article reports. Few colleges during the era offered intercollegiate women’s sports, and the games had a big following. National championship tournaments sold out to crowds of as many as 4,000 spectators. Today the average attendance for NCAA Division I women’s basketball games is 1,634.

Thirty players were on the five teams responsible for the 131-game win streak. Half of the 30 were named AAU All-Americans, 12 played on USA national teams and three have been inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. Twenty-three are living.

Coach Harley Redin

Coach Harley Redin, 93, was on hand when the team was honored during top-ranked and defending national-champion Baylor’s 85-51 win over sixth-ranked Kentucky Nov. 13.

Redin compiled a 431-66 (.867 winning percentage) record in 18 years he coached for Wayland’s women’s team. Before that, he coached the men’s team, and for two seasons coached both. He is a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and is being considered for the Naismith National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.

Started in 1908, Wayland today claims more than 1,000 students on the main campus in Plainview, plus 5,800 students on campuses in Amarillo, Lubbock, San Antonio and Wichita Falls, five other states and one in Kenya.

This week, Baylor’s Lady Bears beat Florida State 85-47 to advance to the NCAA round of 16 for the fourth year in a row. In her final home game at Baylor, senior Brittney Griner scored 33 points and had a career-high 22 rebounds, setting off a partisan crowd at Waco’s Ferrell Center by dunking the basketball three times.

Mark Osler will leave First Baptist Church in Austin Thursday evening spiritually drained. Seeking the death penalty for Jesus Christ, he said, always does that to him. “It is very dark,” said Osler, a former federal prosecutor and Baylor law professor known for his trial-of-Jesus book and mock court proceedings. “I end feeling exhausted and morally conflicted.”

Alan BeanThat the Austin event comes during Holy Week gives it even more gravity, he said. And others note that staging a mock death penalty hearing in Texas may touch nerves in a state where capital punishment has undergone intense scrutiny in recent months.

But touching nerves is what the program has been about since its beginning 12 years in Waco, where Osler first staged it over several weeks at Seventh & James Baptist Church, his home congregation at the time. The idea had come to him after reading a newspaper article about a condemned killer’s last meal, and then realizing communion had been Christ’s last meal.

After Osler’s presentation, audiences must vote for or against death for Jesus using their own states’ laws on capital punishment. Osler said that often leads to a conflict between deeply held religious beliefs and support for capital punishment.

“I do think there is a Christian imperative to engage with this issue,” said Osler, who now teaches law at the University of St. Thomas law school in Minnesota. “It matters that one of the primary roles of Jesus was that of a capital defendant.”

Leading the pack

Bringing the presentation to Texas may bring some added tension, said Alan Bean, executive director of Friends of Justice, an Arlington-based nonprofit group that promotes due-process rights. Osler serves on the group’s board. “Coming to Austin to do this is particularly interesting, because Texas has been the state that leads the pack … in the number of people executed,” Bean said. “When people think of the death penalty, they think of Texas.”

A string of recent cases have a growing number of Texans questioning the morality and need for capital punishment, Bean said. Fueling that has been “a whole string” of DNA exonerations, mostly in rape cases, which cast doubt on the reliability of evidence used in death sentences. The execution of Cameron Todd Willingham has jolted Texans since his 1992 arson conviction was determined to be on questionable evidence, Bean said.

“The upshot is, did we execute an innocent man?”

Throw in reports about the execution of mentally unstable prisoners, “and I think that’s what’s eating at people.”

Bean said Osler’s presentation at First Baptist, Austin, is timely and appropriate, because it exposes the tension between belief in capital punishment and belief in Jesus Christ. “Mark’s presentation is very good along those lines, and because of who he is – a law professor and a former prosecutor – he has a lot of credibility” in Texas, Bean said.

Impulse for revenge

Bill UnderwoodThe realistic way Osler conducts the mock death penalty phases also lends credibility to the process, said Mercer University President Bill Underwood. Underwood was a Baylor law colleague and fellow Seventh & James member tapped by Osler to play defense attorney in the initial trial 12 years ago. Underwood was ideal for the role, because he had represented a death row inmate during his law career.

“It was an opportunity to encourage people in our church to think about the death penalty from a different perspective than they had before, and that is why I was willing to do it,” Underwood said.

Underwood said he, too, had never thought about his faith being grounded in the execution of an innocent person. Participants also struggled with the realization that, like modern juries, those who condemned Jesus may also have believed he was guilty.

The trial also exposes a conflict in many people between the teachings of Christ and fervent support for capital punishment, Underwood said. “Part of what Jesus is teaching is setting aside this impulse for revenge and retribution, and it is something very difficult for very good people to do.”

Part of the attraction for First Baptist, Austin, was the opportunity for spiritual growth, said Senior Pastor Roger Paynter.

Roger Paynter“We lead the country in executions in Texas,” Paynter said. “Jesus was executed as a common criminal, and I thought Holy Week would be a good time to have this experience.”

Paynter emphasized that the church isn’t taking a position on capital punishment by hosting Osler and Jeanne Bishop, a Chicago-based public defender who argues for life in prison during the mock hearing. Instead, it is meant to push participants to ask themselves if they could vote for death for Christ or anyone else, and how that squares with their core Christian beliefs.

“It helps us anticipate what Good Friday is with a whole new depth,” Paynter said.

They will also get an in-depth education on Texas death penalty law, said Osler said, the author of Jesus on Death Row: The Trial of Jesus and American Capital Punishment. To recommend execution, Texas requires juries to determine that the prisoner poses a continuing threat to society.

Osler said he will try to prove Christ could have undermined the social order. “The way he challenged fundamental principles, there is a good argument that maybe yes, he will present a continuing threat.”

Bishop, who will argue for life in prison, has her own understanding of the death penalty: 20 years ago her sister and brother-in-law, and their unborn child, were murdered.

So far, Osler said, he has never succeeded in getting Christ condemned to death. There are at least two reasons: Bishop always makes a convincing case, and “part of it is trying a case in front of the defendant’s followers.”

PLANO, TEXAS — FaithVillage.com, Baptist Standard Publishing’s social network for faith experiences launched last year, is opening a new online bookstore this week. The store will serve FaithVillage’s growing community of readers with a faith-friendly, nonprofit shopping experience that helps support its free services to site members and participating causes, churches and ministries.

FaithVillage Books opens with an offering of more than 200,000 Christian titles. Book and music categories will expand as the store matures.

“While the retail book industry has been undergoing massive changes, we have increasingly heard from Christian readers, authors and publishers who want more alternatives to the existing channels for finding new authors and purchasing books online,” said Brad Russell, senior editor.

The Christian Leadership Alliance (CLA), already has adopted FaithVillage Books as its official online bookstore to support its rapidly expanding continuing education program for Christian leaders.

Tami Heim, CLA’s president and CEO and a former executive with Borders Books and Thomas Nelson Publishing, praised the partnership.

“As the premier provider of lifelong learning resources for Christian leaders, CLA is thrilled to be partnering with FaithVillage as our exclusive online bookstore,” Heim said. “We share with them a deep passion for providing transformational content which leads to higher thinking for greater Kingdom gain.”

Commercialization-free zone

“People can be put off by the aggressive commercialization, controversial products and monopolistic strategies of some online retailers,” Russell said. “We just think there should be a place where you don’t have to worry about these things when you’re trying to do some good in the world, a place where your purchase supports your life work and not merely stockholders.”

The unique integration of content, community and commerce in the FaithVillage.com website also creates an unprecedented benefit for readers and authors alike by providing a seamless continuum from discovering new authors, to engaging them, shopping and sharing, Russell noted.

Authors can become independent content contributors to the site or be represented through content partnerships with a publisher or publicist. Readers can discover new authors and books through the many articles, book reviews, videos and podcasts found in more than 20 thematic buildings, or channels, on the site. When a reader is interested in a book, a click on a “Buy Now” button locates the item in FaithVillage Books, where the book can be reviewed, purchased and shared to social media channels.

Engagement and feedback

The growing number of established and emerging authors active in the site’s social community also provide readers with opportunities for engaging them through their blogs, member profile pages or groups they might form, such as book clubs.

“Easy to navigate, bright and inviting, the FaithVillage bookstore is a boon to both authors and readers,” reported Mary DeMuth, an author and early contributor to the site.

“FaithVillage is dedicated to nurturing emerging writers,” Russell said. “As a community of young leaders, thought-shapers and artists, FaithVillage gives these writers an online space that validates their faith experience and gets their voices heard. That’s why we dedicate space in the bookstore to featuring the authors and contributors who live in this community.”

New channels for discovery

Dave Schroeder, a Nashville-area marketing publishing strategist, affimed FaithVillage’s concept and execution. “As a consumer, I value the process of discovery in finding the best books that will help me, my family, my church and my business make a difference, “ he explained. “I am thankful for the innovative FaithVillage bookstore. It has the benefit of new channels for author discovery and engagement, a faith-friendly online space for book clubs and the value of a nonprofit shopping venue that supports Christian causes and churches.”

Proceeds from FaithVillage Books will help sustain the broad range of free services that are offered to individual site members and churches. They include: access to all content; hosting services for blogs, videos and podcasts; use of the social platform to form public or private groups and church profile pages, with added features, such as file sharing, group messaging and customizable landing pages.

FaithVillage.com is a service of Baptist Standard Publishing, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. For more information or to arrange interviews with Brad Russell about FaithVillage.com or FaithVillage Books, contact Amber@FaithVillage.com or call 214.630.4571 x1024.