Posted: 3/30/07

TAKING THE PLUNGE:
Beach Reach volunteers
immersed in missions service

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND—Rock music blared as thousands of college students gathered on the beach. The crowd cheered participants in a tug-of-war contest. Alcohol flowed as freely as the ocean rolling onto the sand.

A new Christian rejoices after she is baptized. Reza Zadeh of Fort Collins, Colo., baptized people in the Gulf of Mexico as part of Beach Reach, an outreach to Spring Breakers at South Padre Island. Beach Reach is largely a Texas Baptist effort, but volunteers come to serve from around the nation. (Photos by John Hall)

In the midst of it all, a young man who came looking to party found Christ, thanks in part to a Texas Baptist college student. They prayed together, wept and embraced each other in celebration of newfound faith.

The scene happened again and again during Beach Reach, a missions outreach that includes providing free rides and pancake breakfasts for students on spring break.

Beyond the late night partying, drinking and promiscuity, West Texas A&M University student Mollie Hagerman saw people searching to fill a void in their lives—a hole she knew only Christ could fill.

Hagerman—and the more than 400 other “Beach Reachers”—helped students on spring break find Christ by meeting them where they are. The Texas Baptist mission volunteers connected with students through conversation, encouragement and meeting practical needs such as helping an intoxicated student return to a hotel, urging a Christian to remain faithful or telling someone about the gospel.

“I go to college with people like this,” Hagerman said. “I love them. I want to be able to help. Jesus loves us so much. He died for us. I want them to know that too. I want them to be able to go to heaven with me, too. I want them to be my brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Watch video of students at South Padre Island. Students Minister at Spring Break • Beach Reach volunteers immersed in missions service • Baylor fraternity brothers serve God in the Ozarks • DBU students build homes in South Carolina & South Dakota • HBU students take local & global missions plunge • ETBU nursing students put training into practice in Mexico • Students find missions calling through BSM • More than a day at the beach

Many first-time Beach Reachers said they were amazed at how God worked through this ministry of service. Many times barriers between people were broken down instantly. People shared their pain. They talked about their dreams. And they discussed a desire for God. Most conversations ended in both parties praying together.

Beach Reachers hug to celebrate the baptizing of a friend.

“The Holy Spirit is at work here,” said Matthew Skinner, a member of First Baptist Church in Houston.

“God is here.”

That’s the reason Zach Lopez, a West Texas A&M student, participated in Beach Reach. He wants to minister where God is moving in people’s lives. God changed his life, and he believes God can change the lives of others as well.

“Jesus Christ has given me so much, and he died on the cross to save me from all my sins and save from the fires of hell,” he said. “I want to share that with other people, so they don’t have to experience eternal damnation.”

For University of Mary Hardin-Baylor senior Ify Anene, Beach Reach is an opportunity for her to do what Christ called her to do.

“I believe in the great commission,” she said.

“In the Bible, God calls us to disciple the nations. A lot of people seem to forget about our own backyard and go overseas and stuff, which is fine. But we have people right here who crave that relationship.”

Posted: 3/30/07

BGCT fills four strategist positions

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS—The Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board staff has filled four positions in its congregational strategists team, including the leaders of the congregational strategists and church starters.

Paul Atkinson, who was serving as interim team lead of the church starters, has been named leader of the church starting team. Tim Randolph, who has served as a congregational strategist in the Temple area, has been named leader of the congregational strategists. Randolph will continue serving as a congregational strategist as well.

Ben Hanna, who has served as a BGCT congregational strategist in the Houston area, has become a church starter in that region. Robert Cepeda, pastor of First Baptist Church in Los Fresnos, has become the convention’s church starter for the Rio Grande Valley. Before taking his new position, Cepeda resigned as a director of the BGCT Executive Board.

“God has blessed the Baptist General Convention of Texas with gifted leaders who are dedicated to serving churches,” said Andre Punch, who directs the BGCT congregational strategists, starters and affinity group leaders. “Together these men will strengthen congregations across the state, helping Baptists meet people at their points of need and sharing the good news of Christ with those who desperately need to hear it.”

Atkinson has worked for the BGCT as a congregational strategist in the Fort Worth area, team leader of the congregational strategists and in what was called the Bible Study/Discipleship Center. He also has worked for Golden Triangle Baptist Association and served as minister of education with three different churches.

Randolph has served as a BGCT congregational strategist in the Temple area and managed the redesign of the church-starting guidelines.

He is a former director of missions of the Tri-Rivers Baptist Area. He also has served as pastor of two churches, as well as a missionary in Argentina with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board.

Hanna has served as a congregational strategist in the Houston area after serving as a missionary in Eastern Europe.

Before serving at First Baptist Church in Los Fresnos, Cepeda was the pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista in San Benito. He also was music minister at Baptist Temple Church in San Benito and minister of youth and music at First Baptist Church in Overton. Prior to that, he was a marketing team associate at the Southern Baptist Sunday School Board.

David Tamez, who was a BGCT church starter in the Rio Grande Valley, has become a Mexico missions specialist with the convention’s border/Mexico missions effort.

The convention continues looking for a church starter to serve in the Fort Worth area and congregational strategists for the Houston and Fort Worth areas.

Posted: 3/30/07

Book Reviews

10 Things Every Minister Needs to Know by Ronnie Floyd (New Leaf Press)

Ronnie Floyd states there is nothing like it in the entire world. He is speaking of serving in vocational ministry. In this small, but very readable, book, Floyd recounts the life lessons he has learned in more than 30 years as a pastor.

He asserts the book is for ministers of all ages and in all seasons of life. Yet he is convinced these 10 lessons transcend vocational ministry and touch other worlds as well—life, business and influence.

I would recommend the book highly to any believer, not just ministers. Floyd gives practical advice to all believers in all walks of life. He discusses the importance of being over doing. He also discusses the importance of family-building rather than ministry-building, faith, relationships, decision-making and maintaining a proper balance in life. He concludes with wisdom on how to believe God for your future.

What are you reading that other Texas Baptists would find helpful? Send suggestions and reviews to books@baptiststandard.com.

Each chapter closes with a one-sentence reminder from Scripture that punctuates the topic ad-dressed.

This book shares the very best perspectives, encouragement and solutions, not just for ministers, but for us all. It is an enjoyable and practical book.

Greg Ammons, pastor

First Baptist Church

Garland

The Eleven Commandments by Preston Taylor (Xulon Press)

Even though we see them engraved on buildings and hear controversy regarding them in the news, the actual Ten Commandments are a mystery to most people. One would suspect that in a random survey, few Americans could name more than five of the commandments, even with some prompting.

Preston Taylor has made a bold attempt to place the truth of Scripture into an exciting, readable format with his compelling new work, The Eleven Commandments. In this short volume, he has packed the history, context and application most relevant to the original 10 and has updated them with the overarching comment of Jesus when he was asked about the commandments.

Readers will be drawn through the pages by Taylor’s easy-going style that allows one to leap from the concept on the page into life-changing understanding. Seldom has such power been packed into so few pages!

Jerry Barker, pastor

First Baptist Church

Falfurrias

A Mind for God by James Emery White (IVP Books)

In an extremely well-documented book, James Emery White addresses a key problem Christians face in confronting present-day problems and challenges.

Under the infleunce of secular media’s overwhelming bombardment of information, Christians are being led into a mode of thinking and decision-making that more reflects the world than God, he contends. Possessing modern minds infleunced by moral relativism, autonomous individualism, narcissistic hedonism and reductive naturalism, individuals are facing issues and making decisions without understanding the theological implications.

This form of thinking and decision-making is so prominent because many Christians demand to be “spoon-fed” by church leaders and teachers instead of doing self-study and learning for themselves, White observes. The result is shallow thinking among immature Christians who have few, if any, convictions.

White, president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, offers a solution: In order to have a mind for God, a Christian must develop the attitude of a learner and become involved in reading. To accomplish this, Christians must surround themselves with books and set aside time for reading. Books should include the great volumes that have most shaped history and culture, civilization and science, and politics and economics—books that motivate us to think about the great issues of life.

The greatest book for reading is the Bible, White insists, noting it calls for “complete and utter submission of life and thought.”

Along with tools such as study Bibles, a dictionary and a concordance, the Christian needs to apply the tools of cultural, biblical, historical and theological literacy, which are gained from additional reading.

Study and learning also require time for reflection, which provides insight into the world and its ways.

By seeing the world through the spiritual eyes developed from the study of God’s word, a Christian is able to see the real issues that impact society. Thus, a Christian’s response is now based on the convictions gained from the study of Scriptures—the mind of God—instead of the mind of the secular world.

However, one problem White fails to address is adult and youth illiteracy. With a large percentage of our population functionally illiterate, and many of these being Christians, reading will not help them acquire a mind for God.

Other learning methods are needed, and churches must begin to focus on this task, as well as implementing such methods for their people. (This could make for another good book.)

Randall Scott, pastor

Immanuel Baptist Church

Paris

Posted: 3/30/07

Baptist Briefs

Southwestern Seminary hires fundraiser. Robert Hawley of Prosper, former regional capital resource manager for LifeWay Christian Resources, has joined the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary staff as associate vice president for institutional advancement. Hawley began his fund-raising career as a pastor in California when he raised support for missions endeavors. He also has been vice president of sales training and operations for a communications company in Dallas, vice president of Stephen’s Children Foundation, chief administrator of the Christian Motorcyclists Association and president of Open Doors Ministry USA. Hawley holds a bachelor of arts degree from Mercer University in Macon, Ga., and a master of divinity degree from Talbot Theological Seminary in La Mirada, Calif.

Billy Graham’s grandson injured in Iraq. Capt. Edward Graham, Billy Graham’s grandson and evangelist Franklin Graham’s youngest son, sustained shrapnel wounds to his arms, legs and back in Iraq. Graham, a 27-year-old Army Ranger and West Point graduate, did not suffer life-threatening injuries and was recovering at an undisclosed hospital, according to news reports. He is one of four children of Franklin Graham and one of 19 grandchildren of evangelist Billy Graham.

Couple named human rights award winners. Joao and Nora Matwawana, an Angolan couple now living in Canada, have been named recipients of the 2007 Denton Lotz Human Rights Award, presented by the Baptist World Alliance. The Matwawanas have played a pivotal role in reconciliation and peace efforts in Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola since the 1970s. Their work included ministry among more than 1 million refugees who fled Rwanda to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1994; repeated visits to refugees living in camps in Zambia; visits to Burundi to discuss peace and nation building initiatives with governmental, church and nongovernmental organization leaders; meeting with a Burundi rebel leader in Holland and South Africa to successfully negotiate peace; and training Angolan refugees in conflict resolution, mediation, peace and reconciliation.

Missourian tapped for South Carolina executive’s post. After spending less than two years as associate execu-tive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention, Jim Austin is expected to become new executive director-treasurer of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. A South Carolina search committee announced Austin, 53, is its unanimous choice to replace Carlisle Driggers in the chief executive position. Driggers left last month to retire to Georgia after 15 years in the position. After being approved by the convention’s Executive Board, convention messengers will consider Austin for the position. Austin was born in Charlotte, N.C., and graduated from Jacksonville State University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. He has served as pastor of churches in Georgia and Virginia and was a vice president of the Georgia Baptist Convention. He also served two terms as a trustee of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. Overseas, Austin worked as a mission-team recruiter and a leader for short-term trips in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

Oklahoma pastor acquitted of sex charges. A former member of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has been cleared of criminal sex-solicitation charges. An Oklahoma judge acquitted Lonnie Latham of asking an undercover male police officer to have sex. The presiding judge found Latham not guilty of offering to engage in a lewd act but did not address a key issue—whether the law Latham was charged under is unconstitutional. Latham’s attorney had argued his client was charged under a lewdness statute that should be unconstitutional because the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003 legalized consensual, noncommercial sex between adult males. If convicted, Latham could have faced a year in jail, a $2,500 fine and 40 to 80 hours of community service. As a spokesman for Southern Baptists, Latham often had defended the convention’s opposition to same-sex relations. After his arrest, he resigned from the SBC Executive Committee, the board of directors of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and his church pastorate.

Posted: 3/30/07

Posted: 3/30/07

2nd Opinion:
Program changes Texas, life by life

I have just returned from the first presentation service for Truett Theological Seminary’s Certificate Ministry Program on the seminary campus in Waco.

Ten students—men and women, black, white, Hispanics and people from all walks of life—were involved. One of our graduates is a police officer. Another one taught school for 30 years. All gave testimony of the wonderful benefits of this two-year home-study program. One week is spent in class on the Truett campus studying preaching. The other work is done at their own pace at their own home.

Carol Raulston of Whitney was the first person to complete the course. She is a mother of five children who paid for the course through a weekly deduction from her checking account. She ministers to women in crisis.

Tom Echols is a 60-year-old truck driver and bivocational pastor of Eagle’s Wing Baptist Church in Crowley. With tears in his eyes, he said: “This is the first time I’ve ever walked across the stage for anything. I quit school 40-plus years ago to go in the Army, so I never graduated from high school. Only eternity will tell how much this certificate ministry is going to do.” Tom was unable to pay for the course. He received a scholarship from Truett and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Raul Hernandez pastors Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida, a Hispanic church in Zapata. He is a former helicopter pilot in Vietnam. He does not have access to a computer, so he submitted all his work in hand-written form.

Graduates brought their spouses, their children and their grandchildren to be a part of the ceremonies. And I saw more tears than you would see in an old-fashioned brush-arbor revival.

I was encouraged beyond words with their sincere appreciation.

We challenged the class to find someone else who needs to be in this certificate ministry and serve as their mentor in getting the work done. These are the kind of people who will do that.

My thanks to Larry Givens, Grear Howard and Paul Stripling for giving leadership to this program. And my eternal gratitude to the Piper Foundation, the Baptist General Convention of Texas and to the late John Baugh for their financial support.

Paul Powell is dean of George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University in Waco.

Posted: 3/30/07

DBU students build homes
in South Carolina & South Dakota

By Blake Killingsworth

Dallas Baptist University

DALLAS—Forty Dallas Baptist University students loaded into six vans before daylight on a recent Saturday to participate in the school’s annual Habitat for Humanity spring break mission trip.

One 21-member building crew headed east to Sumter, S.C., where the DBU team partnered for five days with students from the University of Wisconsin-Stout to work on a home for a young family with two children.

“Although most of the students had no experience in construction, each one poured their hearts into this build and were amazed to see the progress as the walls went up, the roof went on, and even some plants took root in the yard,” said Jay Harley, DBU dean of spiritual life and sponsor for the South Carolina trip.

“I learned a lot from this trip,” student Gilda Alvarenga said.

“I learned how to properly use a hammer, the details that go into houses, the hard work of Habitat, and even gardening. “Also, I learned so much from the people who surrounded me, especially the Wisconsin group and our DBU group who had heart of servants. I am looking forward to my next Habitat trip.”

The second group of DBU vans headed northwest to South Dakota.

Those 19 students journeyed to Eagle Butte to complete major interior work needed on a house on an Indian reservation.

“When we arrived at the house, it had graffiti all over the walls from local gangs, and it had remained vacant for a while before Habitat was allowed to start working on it. The house needed lots of work,” said trip coordinator Chris Crawford, DBU director of apartment life.

The crew patched sheet rock throughout the house; replaced both the front and back doors; sanded walls, ceilings, baseboards and windows; raised the front porch of the house; and cleaned the front yard.

Working on a reservation presented its own benefits for the DBU students, Hendricks noted.

“The Native American way of life was so rich and interesting, and the evenings together allowed us to be able to sit back and soak in their traditions,” he said.

Posted: 3/30/07

Too many trips to the wedding altar
may trip up presidential contenders

By Adelle Banks

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)—When Southern Baptist public policy spokesman Richard Land sizes up the Republican presidential pack and factors in whether a candidate has been divorced, he thinks of marriage mathematics, not just morals.

“The progression from two to three … wives is not an arithmetic progression for evangelicals; it’s exponential,” said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “Three is at least one too many.”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich—both potential candidates—each are twice divorced and thrice married. Sen. John McCain has been married twice. All three have had hints of extramarital affairs.

For Land and other conservative religious leaders, the checkered marital histories of GOP candidates could be an important factor. While divorce may not be a deal-breaker, it could be, depending on how many and for what reasons.

And for all their work to protect the “sanctity” of marriage, the high divorce rates of GOP front-runners puts many evangelicals—not to mention the candidates themselves—in an uncomfortable position.

Recent polls suggest voters take multiple marriages and extramarital affairs seriously. A USA Today/Gallup Poll found that less than half of weekly church attenders—48 percent—would be “completely comfortable” with a candidate who has married three times. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found 62 percent of Republicans, and 25 percent of Democrats, would be less likely to support a presidential candidate who had an extramarital affair in the past.

Giuliani—who announced his divorce to his second wife at a City Hall press conference, to which she responded with charges of marital infidelity—may have the most work to do to win over skeptical conservatives.

Gingrich recently confessed to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson that he was having an affair while leading the charge for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

Tom Minnery, senior vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family, said Gingrich “took a long step toward reconciliation with Christian voters” by speaking in an “amazingly transparent” way on the program.

Other evangelical leaders said “a strong family image” can be helpful to competing GOP candidates, such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, California Rep. Duncan Hunter, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, or former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.

Even the conservatives’ beloved icon, Ronald Reagan, was able to overcome his failed first marriage to actress Jane Wyman to become the first divorced president. But, cautioned Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., “That divorce was not a serial event.”

Posted: 3/30/07

DOWN HOME:
Pucker up for some really good news

Now, here’s some useful news:

Kissing is good for you.

And I’m not making this up.

Heart-Healthy Living magazine puts it out there in black and white in its spring issue. “Couples who kiss often are eight times less likely to feel stressed or depressed.” Ta-da!

OK, for those of you who are more peeved by bad syntax than excited by the prospect of kissing, the magazine didn’t say “eight times less likely” than what. We would assume “eight times less likely” than nonkissers and infrequent kissers. It also didn’t define “often,” but that’s a highly subjective word, anyway.

A smooching survey of 3,300 Americans conducted for the Chicago-based Berman Center documented the benefits of bussing.

Most women I know will be glad to learn the most stress-reducing, anti-depressing kind of kissing is “done for its own sake, not as a prelude to something else,” the magazine declared.

“And it’s not just a peck on the cheek we’re talking about. It’s more about spending some time canoodling,” reported Laura Berman, president and director of the center that bears her name. “If you’re doing it right, you’ll elicit squeals and groans from your kids.”

Maybe one reason kissing lowers stress and cures depression is because it improves relationships.

Author René Yasenek gets the idea, explaining, “Kissing is a means of getting two people so close together that they can’t see anything wrong with each other.”

Now, if you’re feeling depressed because you haven’t been puckering up much lately, or if you don’t have a clue what “canoodling” means, Berman offers a prescription for remedial lip-locking. Each time you or your spouse leaves the house, say goodbye with a 10-second kiss.

“If you’re like most couples, you’ll see that 10 seconds seems like a really long time at first,” Berman concedes. But maybe that’s like driving to a new place; the trip always seems longer the first time.

In a semi-related development, the Today show reported most guys actually like so-called chick flicks. These are the boy-meets-girl, boy-does-dumb-stunt-and-loses-girl, girl-helps-boy-see-the-error-of-his-ways, boy-gets-girl-again movies.

Most of them are sappy and unrealistic. And most of them include at least some kissing but no nekkidness.

When surveyed, a majority of men said chick flicks are at least “OK.” (Sorry; I don’t have statistics. I was shaving in a hotel room when Meredith Viera broke the happy news.)

Guys like these movies precisely because they make their chicks happy. Sorta like kissing “for its own sake.”

Of course, if you were to try to describe precisely why kissing is so good for you, you probably couldn’t do it. Not without singing, anyway.

But that’s just one of the mysteries of God’s wonderful creation.

—Marv Knox

Posted: 3/30/07

EDITORIAL:
Worse than crashing a $1.5M Ferrari

Did you hear the one about the actor and the sportscar?

No joke. Comedian Eddie Griffin was practicing for a charity car race to promote his upcoming movie, Redline, when he lost control of a rare Ferrari Enzo and crashed it. (See the wreck on YouTube here.) Griffin totalled the car. It cost $1.5 million.

Wrap your brain around that: A $1.5 million red sportscar, gone in a nanosecond. Can you even comprehend anything on four wheels costing $1.5 million?

The car’s owner took the wreck pretty well. Redline producer Daniel Sadek reflected: “I’m glad Eddie came out of the crash OK, but my dream car got destroyed. I went to my trailer for about 15 minutes, and I thought: ‘There’s people dying every day. A lot of worse things are happening in the world.’”

Good for him. At least Sadek realizes the injury-free crash of a car, even a $1.5 million Ferrari, is not a huge loss. Worse things happen to people in practically every city and village around the world every day, even if they don’t make YouTube.

Bad for him. He wasted $1.5 million on a sportscar. Even if Griffin hadn’t run it into a wall, Sadek would’ve wasted money on that car. No automobile—not even one that will go 225 miles an hour—is worth that money. Especially when “there’s people dying every day” and “a lot of worse things are happening in the world.”

When I read about Griffin’s wreck, I couldn’t help but think about Baptists, and budgets, and a world of need. Seems like only movie people, sports stars and a few tycoons live in such rarified air that they actually know what the leather seats in a Ferrari Enzo smell like. But wealth is relative. If you’re following this editorial, you’re among the minority of global citizens who not only can read, but also can read the dominant language for commerce on the planet. If you’re part of a Baptist church in Texas or elsewhere in the United States, then no matter what your income may be, you’re among the richest people in the world, particularly compared to multiplied millions who live on less than $1 per day. Still, the greatest practical limitation to ministry is a shortage of cash. (I know: The bigger issue is a shortage of faith and a lack of spiritual maturity. We’ll get to that later.)

Whether we’re focusing on your local church or on the far-flung institutions and ministries of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the fact is the same. We could do more ministry if we had more money. Sure, we need volunteers to do much of the work. But we need cash to make the work possible, whether it’s providing support for people in need or reaching people who never have heard an understandable presentation of the gospel. Seven of the 20 poorest counties in the country are in Texas. Our state wallows near the bottom of multiple indicators of human misery. Millions of people in Texas never step over a church threshhold, much less even pretend to have a relationship with Jesus. We could do much to help them if we had more money.

A fairly common response to my recent editorial on creating “a new kind of convention” touched on this theme: “These ideas may be fine, but we don’t have enough money.” Right. Since Uncle Sam would frown if we started printing money in the Baptist Building basement, we’ve got two options:

• Convince Texas Baptists to give more.

This challenge is part spiritual, part confidence and relationship. Our churches and all God’s work would be stronger if God’s people began with a tithe and presented offerings on top of that. We need more preaching and teaching about the spiritual dimensions of faithful giving. Beyond that, the convention must strengthen its relationship with Texas Baptists and demonstrate that their Cooperative Program and offering contributions are the best use of their money. As noted before, the convention exists on behalf of the churches. The ministries our cooperative giving supports transcend the tasks we could do alone. We don’t give to a bureaucracy; we give to endeavors that change lives—both now and for eternity. If our relationships grow stronger and confidence increases, funding will follow.

• Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize.

As stewards of God’s resources, we must evaluate how we allocate church and convention funding—not against a zero base or alongside activity, but in light of effectiveness. No matter how well Texas Baptists give, we’ll always face other needs. So, we must be willing to make hard decisions about budgets and ministries. That can be painful, but probably not as painful as watching a comedian drive your car into a wall.

Posted: 3/30/07

ETBU nursing students put
training into practice in Mexico

By Mike Midkiff

East Texas Baptist University

MARSHALL—East Texas Baptist University Department of Nursing students took time away from the books and put their training to use, conducting free medical assessment clinics during a weeklong mission trip to Mexico.

The eight nursing students accompanied 28 students involved with the Baptist Student Ministry, traveling to Monterrey, Mexico, during spring break.

Other ETBU students participated in a Habitat for Humanity project in Laredo.

BSM students helped International Mission Board journeyman Josh Walton with his duties as minister on the campus of Tech de Monterrey University.

Meanwhile, the nursing students conducted clinics in a nursing home, an orphanage located in a remote village and a church in Monterrey.

“At the clinics, we did a health history, head-to-toe physical assessment and blood glucose test on each patient,” said trip sponsor Carla Smith, ETBU assistant professor of nursing.

Freshman Brittney Robinson emphasized that in spite of the language barrier, people in Monterrey responded positively because they could see the students wanted to help them.

“I went on this mission trip to serve God and for the experience. I am discerning a call to medical missions and thought this experience would give me an affirmation of that calling,” said Robinson, whose home church is First Baptist in Mount Pleasant.

“I believe God taught me how he wants me to serve him for the rest of my life. This trip inspired me to work harder on becoming a nurse.”

The clinic held at a nursing home for indigent geriatrics became an emotional time for nursing student Eric Luesvanos of Richmond.

“The whole experience was more than I expected and has changed me in a way that is unexplainable,” Luesvanos said. “I do want to continue doing medical mission work.”

Smith observed her students serving as ministers.

“The students were gentle, kind and caring as they provided care to the Mexican citizens,” she said.

“The love the students displayed amazed me. It left me thinking that this was probably similar to how Jesus ministered to the sick and injured.”

“Jesus healed the sick, and then he preached. He even instructed his disciples to heal the sick first. Jesus knew that tending to the sick provided a unique opportunity to reach people at a deeper level than could be achieved simply by preaching to them.”

Posted: 3/30/07

Faith Digest

Survey says moral values weakened. Three-quarters of Americans believe moral values in America have weakened in the last 20 years, and almost half think they have significantly weakened, according to a survey released by the Media Research Center. The survey found 74 percent of American adults said they believe moral values in the United States are weaker than they were two decades ago, while 48 percent said moral values were “much weaker.” Sixty-eight percent of Americans surveyed said the media—both entertainment and news—have a detrimental effect on moral values. More specifically, 73 percent said entertainment media had a negative influence on moral values, and 54 percent said the news media do. Eighty-seven percent of Americans said they believe in God, while 36 percent agreed that people should always live by God’s principles and teachings. The study was conducted by the polling firm Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates and the center’s Culture and Media Institute. The results were based on 1,000 surveys of American adults ages 18 and older by telephone and 1,000 surveys completed online in December. It had an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Wipe out malaria, first lady urges. Laura Bush congratulated religious and community organizations involved in the fight against malaria and urged others to join in the campaign at a White House conference. She highlighted the President’s Malaria Initiative, called PMI, which was launched in 2005 and aims to spend $1.2 billion over five years to address malaria in 15 countries. The first lady cited several groups—from Catholic Relief Services to megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California—that are fighting the disease, which kills about 1 million people, many of them children, each year.

Canadian philosopher wins Templeton Prize. Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher whose work has touched on questions of spirituality, violence and culture, will receive the 2007 Templeton Prize. Taylor, 75, teaches law and philosophy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and is a professor emeritus at McGill University in Montreal. He is the first Canadian to be awarded what often is called the most prestigious prize in the world of religion. The award—valued at 800,000 pounds sterling, or about $1.5 million—has been given out annually since 1973 by the John Templeton Foundation. In its early years, the prize went to prominent religious figures such as Billy Graham and Mother Teresa. More recently, the prize has been given to scientists, theologians and ethicists whose work has focused on the burgeoning field of science and religion. Taylor, the author of more than a dozen books, will receive the honor at a May 2 ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London.

Supreme Court hears ‘Bong Hits 4 Jesus’ case. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, a free speech conflict that has caught the attention of religious litigators nationwide. Morse v. Frederick concerns an Alaska high school student who displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” as the Olympic torch passed through his town in 2002. After he was suspended, the student, Joseph Frederick, now 23, said his banner was a “free speech experiment” that had no religious or political message. Frederick sued his principal and has been backed by several national Christian law firms, including the Christian Legal Society, Alliance Defense Fund and the American Center for Law and Justice. Though they disdain the speech in question, the Christian lawyers are concerned schools may gain the power to censor certain views, from anti-abortion rallies to Bible clubs.