Texans box up 75,000 gifts of
love for Operation Christmas Child
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___Christians across Texas boxed up and shipped almost 75,000 smiles this year as their contribution to Operation Christmas Child.
___Texans packed 74,386 shoeboxes with small toys and other items to send to underprivileged children around the world as Christmas presents. Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse, the international Christian relief and evangelism organization.
___Worldwide, the final tally is expected to be more than 3.2 million shoeboxes donated by six participating nations, surpassing the goal of 3 million.
___The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex led the state in giving, with 38,908 shoeboxes brought to Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano and First United Methodist Church in Bedford..
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Forum proposes 'reconciliation covenant'
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___A group seeking peace within the Baptist General Convention of Texas plans to offer a "reconciliation covenant" as a mechanism for drawing the convention together.
___The covenant should be available to Texas Baptists soon after the first of the year, reported Pete Freeman, pastor of First Baptist Church in The Woodlands and chairman of the committee drafting the statement.
___The covenant is the latest initiative from the Reconciliation Forum, a 70-minister multi-partisan group of the reconciliation movement within the BGCT.
___The reconciliation movement started last year, launched primarily by a group of Southeast Texas pastors concerned about what they perceive as BGCT polarization.
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Messianic Jews say they
won't back down on beliefs
___WASHINGTON (BP)--Two Messianic Jewish organizations criticized in a letter directed to the Southern Baptist Convention say they will not be pressured by criticism, threats or violence into shunning their Jewish heritage just because they believe Jesus is the Messiah.
___In a Dec. 3 letter to SBC President Paige Patterson, Gedale Horowitz, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council, charged that the SBC's "endorsement of the use in Christian worship and conversion of symbols and rituals sacred only to Judaism" by Messianic Jews is offensive to "the entire Jewish community" and should be halted.
Messianic Jews is offensive to "the entire Jewish community" and should be halted.
___The Horowitz letter was written to Patterson the day after seven young men identifying themselves as members of New Jewish Order, a Jewish extremist group, forcibly entered the Paris office of Jews for Jesus, beat a staff member, painted anti-Christian slogans on the walls and trashed the office's equipment..
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Gifts to the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger are aiding Bedouins, a people group who are shunned by their neighbors.Full Story.
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