Posted: 12/17/04

San Antonio church provides BUA
scholarships for two students from India

By Craig Bird

Special to the Baptist Standard

SAN ANTONIO–The cross-cultural mix at Baptist University of the Americas will get even richer next month when two students from India begin studies at the BGCT-affiliated school.

Woodland Baptist Church, a San Antonio congregation heavily involved with the Banjara Gypsy Partnership for more than seven years, funded full scholarships for Mary Ramabathu and Karen Solomon.

The $25,000 donation was over and above the church's budgeted financial support of both BUA and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

In mid-December, the student visa was approved for Ramabathu, 35, a homeopathic medical doctor and the daughter of Narasingh Naik, director of Banjara Development Trust, a ministry of American Baptists in India.

The visa application is in the final stages for Solomon, 19, the daughter of VK Solomon, director of Gypsy Fellowship, a ministry of French Gypsy churches.

The visa applications hit several snags in recent months, which resulted in the process appearing regularly on the prayer lists of both BUA and Woodland Baptist Church.

"Both of these students will not only have a cross-cultural impact at BUA but will also return to India to ministry among their people group," said one of four CBF field personnel working with the Banjara.

"Banjaras live in 195 of India's 506 districts, and our goal is to see a Christian Banjara witness in every one of these districts so they too may bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord."

Ramabathu and Solomon are expected to play key roles, especially ministering to other Banjara women, he noted.

Gypsies, also called Romany, are believed to have originated in India before migrating to the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Russia and the United States. Today, more than 20 million remain in India, known as Banjara.

"BUA is thrilled at this opportunity to help prepare the two young women for ministry and excited about what they can teach us," said Javier Elizondo, academic dean at BUA.

"As a theological university focused on missions, we actively seek to be a part of what God is doing everywhere in the world. We anticipate a long and fruitful relationship between BUA and Banjara Christians."

The impetus for the scholarships started last spring when Woodland approved a recommendation from its missions committee designating $25,000 of budget surplus for the Banjara work.

The committee had studied a list of possible projects submitted by the CBF representative that included theological education for future leaders, purchasing a van for a mobile medical clinic, offering small business loans, paying for literature translation and production, and others.

Rather than making the choice, the church voted to make the contribution with no strings attached so the Banjara team could determine the best use. They chose to put the entire amount toward scholarships.

"We had other worthy students who were not selected, but they won't be abandoned," he added. "We are searching for other funds for them to either attend BUA or schools here in India."

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

Posted: 12/17/04

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM

For whom the bell tolls

Target's decision to place "no solicitation" restrictions on the Salvation Army lacks any legal or Christian justification. If nothing else, we who have discretionary funds need gentle reminders of our affluent good fortune during this abrasive period.

That Target prohibits a modest, peaceable effort to help the needy is morally inexcusable.

Since 1891, Salvation Army bell-ringers have sought funds. Standing on wet or icy pavement is no ego-inflating exercise. Rather, it is a humble reminder for us about the many unfortunates among us–our mentally and/or physically ill, addicted, veterans (one-third of our homeless are former military personnel), our inadequately educated, disabled, downsized, abandoned, our too elderly or too youthful.

Ask for whom the Salvation Army bell tolls. Given adverse circumstances, it one day may ring for you, me, our parents, our children.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy considers the Salvation Army “America's favorite and most trusted charity.” Peter Drucker states that it is “by far the most effective organization in the U.S.”

I have given this great thought: Since the Salvation Army is not sufficiently high-end for one square yard of public space outside of Target, my spendable twenties and fifties are no longer high-end enough to go inside, either. Not ever again.

Louise Shannon

Chico, Calif.

Crucified again

Are we aware of what's happening in our country this Christmas season? The Target department stores have ousted the Salvation Army from their storefronts, no Christian floats are allowed in the Denver Parade of Lights this year, and a famous department store's annual Christmas parade also will exclude them because “they're too exclusive.” They want the sales but not the substance.

But you don't have to go to Colorado or New York to view this Christmas tragedy. Just drive through the little towns of Texas and search for nativity scenes on their town squares. And it's no longer “Christmas Greetings.” It's “Seasons Greetings” and “Happy Holidays” now. And have you noticed how few Christmas cards you receive have “Merry Christmas” on them? It's hard to believe that our 80-percent-Christian country is caving in to godless secularism.

The presence of Jesus so enraged the people in his day that they crucified him. In like manner, many enraged Americans, uncomfortable by his presence, want him out. They know that as long as Christianity lives here, issues like gay marriage, abortion and Hollywood morality always will be hard to sell.

So, here we are again. Day by day, moment by moment, the standards that made us great are now being chipped away. Will America, the Lord's last bastion on earth, crucify him again?

If we do, the Lord won't die. We will.

Doug Fincher

San Augustine

Texas blessing

When we pause to count our blessings as Texas Baptists, high on the list are our hospitals, child care and educational institutions.

Many members of Baptist churches in Texas and around the nation have traveled to Marshall to the famous Wonderland of Lights. This year, the Regional Arts Council of Marshall asked the choirs and orchestra of East Texas Baptist University to co-sponsor with the council a two-hour program titled “Christmas in Marshall.”

The civic center was filled to the rafters, with church vans and tour buses from across Texas and adjoining states filling the parking lots. The ETBU choirs and orchestra presented both religious and secular selections with superb musicianship. The audience responded with numerous instances of applause and a standing ovation at the conclusion.

As Jane and I made our way out through the throng after the program, we noticed two motor coaches from a Baptist church in Wichita, Kan., loading at the front entrance. We are grateful for a wonderful musical program with the School of Fine Arts at ETBU, under the direction of Dean Thomas R. Webster.

Texas Baptists are blessed!

D.M. Edwards

Tyler

Greatest concern

I am more concerned about the breakdown of church-state separation as a danger to our nation than any other issue, including terrorism.

Our war in Iraq is caused, in great part, by the 50-year history of the Religious Right, as well as the Jewish community, in promoting the United States to establish, finance and even go to war for Israel, no matter how they treat the Palestinians. This support comes from Christians who believe it is the duty of the U.S. to do just that–establish, finance and support Israel, even if it means going to war. What a misinterpretation of the Bible; what a distortion of “love peace among men” that Jesus taught.

Even worse, these right-wing Christians have used the power of government for their religious aim. This demonstrates the corruption and abuse that comes when religion uses the state to obtain its goal. Yet Baptists, who throughout their existence have opposed using the government to accomplish religious aims, are generally supportive of this war.

Perhaps we should look again at why we are in this war. How much righteousness will we accomplish by using the political clout of the religious right to enact their version of what the Bible teaches–whether in the foreign policy of our nation or in the domestic affairs that touch our lives daily? Does political right make religious right? It never has in the past.

Sherman Hope

Brownfield

Separate solution

Mark Johnson's opening sentence about our voting for a president of the United States who we would not vote for as president of the Southern Baptist Convention (Dec. 6) brought a “Thank God” from me.

Then I amended my thoughts to, “Thank God and our founding fathers that our secular and religious leaders are not required to be of the same religion or denomination or even have the same beliefs and actions.”

The reasons Johnson listed should be proof enough to validate the need to keep our government and our religion separate from each other.

Charles McFatter

Semmes, Ala.

Shining light

Today, I mailed my subscription for two more years of the print edition of the Baptist Standard. I can't understand why some Baptists in Texas don't subscribe to the Standard. Of course, you often get criticism for being “negative.” Let's face it: The truth is often not pretty.

Forty-two years ago, I was in training to fly military helicopters. Like many of my fellow junior birdmen, I was more than a little concerned about the possibility of an engine failure at night. We had already experienced practice autorotations (simulated engine out) in the daytime with an instructor and were aware of the 2,500-feet-per-minute autorotative descent in the “Hiller Killer.” Our instructors had the answer: “When you think you are close to the ground, turn on your landing light. If you don't like what you see, turn off the light.”

A lot of our fellow Americans would rather “turn off the light” than know the truth. We are deceiving ourselves when we listen to politicians, in and out of the church, who have no regard for the truth and will do anything to further their cause.

Carl L. Hess

Ozark, Ala.

Costly cure

I have a question regarding Wilber Newton, Kevin Lyles and their families concerning their attempt to find a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease (Nov. 1): If the body parts used in their treatment were from Jewish children who were murdered by the Nazis, would that be OK? Would God give that OK?

After all, those children would have been killed anyway, regardless of the beliefs of those seeking treatment, same as the aborted children in China. Might as well not waste the body parts.

There is, however, a small complication. If people pay a high price for use of those body parts, there will inevitably be more abortions and more killing of innocent, helpless children.

How can it be that Southern Baptists are involved in this great hypocrisy? Abortion is the greatest moral issue of our age. Someday, abortion will be universally considered a moral abomination, just as the Holocaust is today. God will see to that.

Then what will we tell our grandchildren when they ask, “Grandpa, what did you do in the struggle to eliminate abortion in the bad old days?” Will we only be able to say, “I found a good use for the carcasses of aborted children so that they would not be wasted”?

Otis F. Graf Jr.

Houston

Worthy recipients

There are about 10,095 old retired ministers who are struggling to survive, and about 3,400 are believed to be living in poverty.

Back in the 1920s and '30s, there was not any retirement put back for them. They were struggling to get by and are still struggling today. If it had not been for these old ministers, you and I might not have heard about Jesus.

I am sure God wants you and me to help these old ministers and their wives. Would you share what you have with those who have less? May our Lord touch your heart.

The Southern Baptist Annuity Board has a helpful program called Adopt an Annuitant, where people can help retired ministers. Those who desire to help can contact: Annuity Board, P.O. Box 2190, Dallas 75221-2190; phone (800) 262-0511.

One hundred percent of a gift to an adopted annuitant is used for that purpose.

John Hatfield

Wylie

What do you think? Submit letters for Texas Baptist Forum via e-mail to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or regular mail at Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words. They may be edited to accommodate space.

Posted: 12/17/04

Suit asserts Lottery Commission,
attorney general broke state laws

By Ferrell Foster

Texas Baptist Communications

AUSTIN–A Texas taxpayer doesn't want state government to pay a bill to a Las Vegas lawfirm, and he's filed suit to stop it.

Russell Verney says the state has no business paying for expenses incurred through an allegedly illegal contract and verbal agreements that followed.

The suit affirms what the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Christian Life Commission staff discovered earlier this year. The contract was part of a concerted effort by the gambling industry and its political supporters to bring video slot machines to Texas, CLC staff said.

Verney asserts the state agreed to pay $100,000 to Lionel, Sawyer and Collins to–among other things–write legislation legalizing video gambling in Texas. Later, it was amended orally to more than $360,000, according to a summary of actions prepared by the CLC.

Lionel, Sawyer and Collins already has been paid $176,000, according to published reports.

Verney, director of the southwestern regional headquarters of Judicial Watch, filed suit Dec. 14 to stop further payment. The lawsuit is against Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Reagan Greer, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.

Strayhorn, however, twice voiced support for Verney's position during a Dec. 15 press conference, saying, “I do not want to pay that bill.”

She was named in the suit because her office is the one that pays the state's bills. The State Lottery Commission and the attorney general's office are the ones actually involved in the questioned contract.

Verney alleges the two state offices used a “convoluted two-stage contract” to do something Texas law prohibits a state agency from doing–“expending any money on lobbying.”

Also, he said, the Lottery Commission is prohibited by law from operating video gambling. By hiring the lawfirm to help bring video gambling to Texas, the commission was doing something state law prohibits it from doing, Verney said.

Verney brought the suit as a “resident taxpayer” of the state, but in his role at Judicial Watch he “oversees the monitoring of state governments for the appearance of corruption or abuse of power,” according to his biographical information.

Suzii Paynter, director of public policy for the Texas Baptist CLC, said the suit “puts the legislature and the executive branch on notice that the separation of powers is still important in this state and that checks and balances are still important.”

“This contract was an attempt to create a private piggy bank for a state agency and to pass slot machine legislation with the leadership of the governor and the administration,” she said. “There were so many special and unusual privileges that were going to be awarded to the Lottery Commission.”

The legislature rejected the proposal during the fourth special session in May despite strong backing from Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders. If approved, the legislation would have granted the Lottery Commission exemption from state bidding and procurement procedures, created a slush fund for unlimited administrative travel, and provided exemptions from judicial oversight and an annual audit, Paynter said.

When legislators voted on the proposal, they did not know it had been written by a Las Vegas lawfirm with ties to slot machine companies and gambling interests, she said.

The Christian Life Commission staff brought the issue to the surface.

“Last spring during the special session, we were aware the governor had completely reversed his position against gambling,” Paynter said.

New gambling data surfaced during the session. “It was clear this was not information used in the past,” Paynter said. “That took us into exploring where all this new information was coming from.”

What they initially found was an eight-page report on “eight-liner” gambling machines that had been paid for by Lionel, Sawyer and Collins. The report got the CLC's attention because it quoted only four sources, one being the Baptist Standard, news journal of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The Standard article quoted some Department of Public Safety figures.

The firm had paid $23,000 for the report, which was supposed to be confidential, Paynter said.

“We then began to collect information and began to ask for open records,” she said.

The CLC staff eventually learned of the contract between the lawfirm and the state, and they reported it to the House of Representatives Licensure and Administrative Procedures Committee, which oversees regulation of the Lottery Commission. A hearing was held June 1.

State Sen. Jane Nelson, vice chairperson of the Sunset Review Committee, called for an audit of the contract by the state auditor's office.

Comptroller Strayhorn, in a July 2 letter to the attorney general's office, questioned the “allowability and legality of using lottery account money for payment of the LSC contract,” according to the summary of actions released by Paynter.

“Many unanswered questions remain about the nature of the contract,” the summary says. The state auditor's report was “inconclusive on central questions of jurisdiction and payment and the appropriate and legal status of the Lottery to fund the contract. … The injunction filed by Judicial Watch continues the investigation of this matter.”

Paynter expects the video lottery issue to return in the upcoming session of the legislature, which begins Jan. 11. “I expect them to try to apply the money to property tax relief,” with some going to school finance, she said.

“There are more than 400 lobbyists paid to promote gambling expansion full time,” Paynter said. “We can't defeat this issue with money. We have to defeat this issue with people and the voice of constituents. A public interest lawsuit like this is another voice of the people.”

Posted: 12/17/04

Accrediting agency places Louisiana College
on one-year probation for violating standards

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

PINEVILLE, La. (ABP)–The South's major accrediting agency for schools has placed a Louisiana Baptist college on probation for a year for violating the agency's standards.

Louisiana College officials announced the Pineville, La., school was placed on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Members of the association's commission on colleges voted to make the change at their regularly scheduled December meeting in Atlanta.

Probation from the accrediting agency is a more serious sanction than a warning or “notation” on the school's record, but less severe than the full removal of accreditation.

The school will have 12 months to prove it is in compliance with the agency's standards.

Louisiana College has been roiled by controversy for several years, with much of it coming to a head in the past two years as a group of fundamentalists gained a majority on the institution's board of directors.

All board members are appointed by the Louisiana Baptist Convention.

In the past few months, the college's president, chief academic administrator and board chairman have resigned.

Last month–only a week after being introduced to the Louisiana Baptist Convention–the college's newly called president unexpectedly withdrew his application for the job, citing “governance issues.”

Earlier this year, a special committee from the accrediting agency visited the college's campus on a fact-finding mission. Committee members determined Louisiana College was not in compliance with several of the association's standards regarding academic freedom and proper board governance.

“The committee concluded, based upon extensive interviews with members of the board of trustees, senior staff and faculty, that a significant portion of the board of trustees of Louisiana College are influenced if not controlled by the agenda of the Louisiana Inerrancy Fellowship and the Louisiana Baptist Convention,” the SACS report read.

The study team said an agenda from the inerrancy group–established as a political movement within the Louisiana Baptist Convention–had unduly influenced the board's work.

Among the controversies on campus were two trustee-initiated policies many professors said violated academic freedom–a 2003 move to require prior approval of class texts and materials by administrators and more recent actions that made the board more closely involved in faculty hiring and that required new faculty hires to be in agreement with the Southern Baptist Convention's 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement.

According to a statement released by Louisiana College, Interim President John Traylor said the school will meet that goal.

“It is my opinion that SACS is calling on the institution to recognize the seriousness of the accrediting standards. Trustees, administration and faculty must take the steps necessary to move the college into full compliance, lest we lose membership in SACS,” the statement read.

“The entire college community–trustees, administration, faculty–have committed themselves to the actions necessary to bring Louisiana College into compliance with the standards of accreditation.”

Posted: 12/17/04

On the Move

B.B. Alvarez to Fairview Church in Grand Prairie as interim minister of music.

Luke Austin to Zephyr Church in Zephyr as minister of music.

Jeff Bankhead to Central Church in Italy as pastor.

Billy Barden to Berry Lane Church in Abilene as pastor.

Jason Bollinger has resigned as minister to students at First Church in Wimberley to start a new church in the San Marcos area.

Jack Bourland has resigned as pastor of First Church in Holiday Beach.

Linda Bradley to First Church in Rockport as interim minister of education.

Gene Cannon has resigned as pastor of Belvue Church in Kermit.

Kyle Carlson has resigned as minister of music at Midtown Church in Brownwood.

Bob Day to Miller Grove First Church in Emory as pastor from Calvary Church in Sulphur Springs.

Charles Dixon to First Church in Lancaster as senior pastor from Calvary Church in Harlingen.

Michael Eaton to Holiday Hills Church in Abilene as pastor.

Blake Edwards to First Church in Wimberley as interim student pastor.

Matt Ellis to Rocky Point Church in Stephenville as music minister.

Jimmy Flynn to First Church in Washburn as pastor, where he had been interim.

Gary Fore to First Church in Wimberley as pastor of outreach.

Jim Fox has resigned as pastor of Hillcrest Church in Amarillo.

Clark Frailey has resigned as pastor of First Church in Cresson.

Bob Gardner to First Church in Wimberley as pastor of adult education and singles.

Steve Griffin to Midway Church in Springtown as minister of worship and discipleship from Eureka Church in Weatherford, where he was pastor.

Wayne Griffin to Second Church in Amarillo as pastor.

Tim Gruver to Heights Church in Liberty as pastor.

Daniel Hancock to First Church in Grandview as minister of students from First Church in Sunnyvale.

Bob Hobbins to Memorial Church in El Campo as pastor from First Church in Three Rivers.

Stephen Holcomb to First Church in Richardson as interim minister of music.

Richard Jackson has completed an interim pastorate at First Church in Sulphur Springs.

Scott Johnson to Tyland Church in Tyler as pastor from Joy Church in Gladewater.

Tamara Kimmell to First Church in Godley as children's director.

Jeff Kluttz to First Church in Needville as pastor from First Church in Rosenberg, where he was minister of students.

Dick Mahler to Belmore Church in San Angelo as associate pastor.

Jon McWhorter to Mustang Church in Pilot Point as pastor, where he had been interim.

Chris Melton to First Church in Rockport as interim youth minister.

Scott Mills to First Church in Little Elm as church administrator.

Mike Minton has completed an interim pastorate at Walnut Street Church in Nocona.

Beverly Patman to First Church in Rio Vista as minister of youth.

Reed Redus to First Church in Amarillo as interim associate minister to students.

Tim Reed to First Church in Bloomburg as pastor from First Church in Redwater.

Josh Rombs to First United Methodist Church in Beeville as music director from First Church in Woodsboro.

Bob Schmeltekopf has completed an interim pastorate at Central Church in Italy.

Deena Schulze has resigned as children's pastor at First Church in Wimberley.

Teresa Seymour to First Church in Little Elm as preschool minister.

Glenn Shock to Valley Grove Church in Stephenville as pastor from First Church in Seymour.

David Tankersley to Harmony Church in Eastland as pastor.

James Teel to Oplin Church in Clyde as pastor.

Shari Walker has resigned as minister of children at Crestmont Church in Burleson.

Henry Walton to Elmwood Church in Abilene as music director.

Alan Wilson to First Church in White Deer as pastor from Temple Church in Amarillo, where he was minister of music and youth.

Posted: 12/17/04

Brother's unselfishness provides gift of life, inspires sister

By George Henson

Staff Writer

DALLAS–A boy's desire to give of himself has meant new life for seven other people and led to eternal life for his sister.

Brooke Webster, a Dallas Baptist University junior and Miss Dallas County 2005, fervently promotes organ donation, but she wasn't always such a believer.

A little more than six years ago, she was a 14-year-old without a care in the world enjoying an October night out with friends at a haunted house.

Her brother, 11-year-old Ryan, had elected to spend the evening at the roller skating rink.

“After awhile, he told his friends he was tired and for them to come and get him when the races started. He walked over and sat at one of the tables and put his head down. When they came to get him, he didn't move. He was unconscious,” she recalled.

She came home that night to a dark house, finding a tearful phone voicemail message from her mother to come to the hospital. A congenital aneurysm in Ryan's brain had burst.

Shortly after his sister arrived at the hospital, doctors said Ryan had died.

They asked if the family wanted to donate his organs.

His mother immediately said “yes,” but his sister wasn't as certain.

“I didn't really understand it. I thought that if they did that, I wouldn't get to see him,” she recalled.

Her mother explained, however, that Ryan had seen an “Oprah” episode two weeks before about how a 19-year-old man's organs had benefited others, and he had told his mother he wanted to do the same thing.

“Now Ryan is living on in seven other people who received his organs,” she said.

Ryan also had been involved in the youth program at Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco, and his mother and sister felt in his death a prompting to begin attending church as well.

“In December 1998, I became a Christian, largely as a result of my brother's witness,” Webster said.

She remains a member of the Waco church but attends First Baptist Church in Irving while at school.

She said her position as Miss Dallas County gives her a platform to educate others about organ donation and share her Christian witness at the same time.

The education program she developed, “For the Love of Ryan,” is aimed at children in sixth grade up through adults. Its focus is the importance of donating organs, along with separating facts from myths about the process.

“It's something I'm very passionate about,” she said.

She is the state director of Students for Organ Donation, a national organization. A chapter is beginning at DBU, making it the third in the state, along with Rice University and Southern Methodist University.

While the story of Ryan's death is closely related to her passion about organ donation, it also is the beginning point of her faith walk, so it also gives her an opportunity to share her Christian testimony, she said.

“It's what I'm passionate about, and it's a way to glorify God.”

Posted: 12/17/04

Abilene church helps members match
skills, interests to missions needs

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

ABILENE–At Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, any member who can sweep a floor has a skill that can be used to honor Christ. Church leaders emphasize Christians should live “missionally”–using their talents and abilities to glorify God and share Christ.

This means each person, whether a banker, construction worker, writer or businessperson, answers the same calling of expanding God's kingdom, said Randy Perkins, minister of missions and outreach.

Christians are called to examine the community and meet needs, Perkins said. Each person has a skill set that can help people. They must engage and intentionally serve Christ through it.

“If you see a need, let's meet that need,” Perkins said. “And while we're meeting that need, let's share Christ.”

Members have started ministries that match their skills and gifts, from roof repairs and church building ministries to volunteering in a crisis pregnancy center or a service that provides showers to the homeless. The congregation also has started two churches.

Perkins is quick to note these are not programs of the church in the traditional sense but congregationwide efforts to “empty” itself into neighborhoods.

Members use their skills and passions to serve where they want, rather than functioning through artificially designated areas of ministry.

“Meet people where they are,” he encourages Christians. “Get involved in life. Get involved in reality.”

A prime example of ministry growing out of missional living is House of Faith, a Pioneer Drive-sponsored work to poor children, Perkins said.

It began with a group of people seeing the need for ministry along streets they traveled regularly.

They began going up and down streets, inviting youth to events such as Bible clubs.

At first, parents were reluctant to let them in their yards. Now they welcome church members into their homes.

Denise Davidson, who leads this effort, said volunteers have ministered to about 300 children in three years and have seen 50 children make faith professions through weekly Bible clubs. A grandmother and mother also made the same declaration.

The clubs and volunteers provide some consistency for the children, many of whom come from unstable backgrounds, Davidson said. Workers show the children love and give them a place they feel they belong.

Davidson now is trying to replicate the ministry in several different points in Abilene. House of Faith is active in several West Texas cities.

“I love it when you start the club and you see kids walking down the street,” she said. “They come up and give you a big hug.”

This model of missions with people investing their lives in other people follows Jesus' example of meeting needs, Perkins noted.

Pioneer Drive staff encourage members to stop in their daily work to act as Christ did. "When you put yourself out there, the Lord will use you."

Posted: 12/17/04

Christmas Bible School teaches
true meaning of the season

By George Henson

Staff Writer

PRINCETON–No star above a stable guided them, but the story of the Christ-child still drew people to worship as a North Texas church reminded area families about the true meaning of Christmas.

Each year since 1998, Faith Baptist Church in Princeton has held Christmas Bible School. It began when some members of the church decided to set aside one Saturday in early December to celebrate and teach children about Christ. This year, the event fell on Dec. 4, with 69 children and 39 volunteers attending.

Beginning at 9 a.m. and ending at 2 p.m., Christmas Bible School has many elements of Vacation Bible School, a mainstay of summer children's ministries in Baptist churches. Like VBS, children at Christmas Bible School are divided into age-graded classrooms and led by volunteers in Bible study, crafts, music and recreation.

Teenagers help teach children a craft activity during a one-day Christmas Bible School at Faith Baptist Church in Princeton.

The last couple of years, the children's choir has performed its Christmas musical during the assembly time, Pastor Stan Fike said.

Everything, whether the games or the Bible story, is meant to illuminate the true meaning of Christmas, he explained.

Over the years, Faith has chosen a variety of memorable methods to teach the Christmas story. One year, a family set up a pen full of sheep and dressed as shepherds to tell the children about the night the angels shared the message of Jesus' birth.

This year, for recreation, they opted to use Collin Baptist Association's new ministry trailer. The trailer includes a bounce house, a cotton candy machine and other equipment to entertain and excite the children during their recreation and snack time.

While individual activities have changed to keep things fresh for children who return year after year, the day always concludes with a special birthday party for Jesus. The party includes the children singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus before enjoying cupcakes and games. The party reminds the children that behind the fun and games, Jesus is the focus of the day–and Christmas.

Three children made professions of faith in Jesus Christ through this year's event, and about 30 of the children who participated don't usually attend church at Faith Baptist, Fike said.

While everything is planned to share God's love with children, it also is an effective outreach to parents as well, he added.

“We have many unchurched families who take advantage of the opportunity for free babysitting while they go Christmas shopping,” he said. “We don't mind that at all, because it gives us the opportunity to tell their children about the true meaning of Christmas–the birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

And it doesn't stop with the children, Fike added.

“We have a couple of families whose first contact with our church came through Christmas Bible School,” he said. “The children had such a good time, they made their parents bring them to church the following Sunday, and they've been here ever since. I got to baptize three children and their mother and father as a result of the gospel being shared through Christmas Bible School.”

This year yielded similar results, with three families without a church home visiting the day after their children attended Christmas Bible School, he said.

Other churches are beginning to contact Faith Baptist Church after sharing their curriculum, all of which is designed by members.

The amount of preparation and time spent by volunteers is not lost on Fike.

“It's amazing to me how many of our members, youth and adults, will take a Saturday out of this busy holiday season to serve the Lord by ministering to children,” he said.

Many members who cannot participate on Saturday help by baking cupcakes, donating craft supplies and praying for the children and their families, he said.

“It ends up being a fantastic blessing for everyone involved, whether it's the kids and their families or our teachers and helpers,” Fike asserted.

“Not only has Christmas Bible School been a great opportunity for us as a church to reach the community with Christ's love, but it has been a special time to honor the real reason behind the holidays, the birth of Jesus Christ.”

For more information on Christmas Bible School, contact Faith Baptist Church at (972) 736-3733 or faithbaptistprinceton@juno.com.

Jennifer Fike, a junior at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, contributed to this article.

Posted: 12/17/04

After 54 years in Nigeria, 'Chief Doctor Mama' retires

By Mark Kelly

International Mission Board

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)–When King S.O. Abimola II bestowed an African chief's title on a 56-year-old woman from Texas, young people danced in procession to the palace and hundreds assembled for the ceremony.

The honoree, Southern Baptist missionary Alma Rohm, donned a traditional hand-woven Yoruba dress, coral jewelry and a headdress adorned with akoko leaves.

The king had planned to give her the title “Iya Nisin,” often used of Christian women to mean “mother of those who worship.” But one of the area's Muslim chiefs objected.

“No, we want her to be 'Iya Nisin Ilu'” or “mother in service of the whole community,” he said.

It was, in 1982, a fitting tribute to a woman who had poured out 32 years of her life for Christ among the people of Iwo, Nigeria.

But Alma Rohm was far from finished with her service in Iwo.

The Southern Baptist International Mission Board honored Rohm at her retirement this year with the title, “emeritus missionary.” She was one of 37 veteran missionaries receiving the honor, and her 54 years in Nigeria was the longest tenure in a group with 1,172 years of overseas service among them.

Only three missionaries have had longer tenures in the mission board's 159-year history–China missionary doctor Rosewell H. Graves, who served 57 years, and Brazil missionary legends William “Buck” and Anne Bagby of Texas, who served 56 years. Only three other missionaries have had tenures longer than 50 years.

A Waco native, Rohm was only 12 when she committed her life to missionary service in Africa. But it wasn't a child's decision lightly made.

“Not long after I was saved at age 9, the Holy Spirit told me I was to be a single woman missionary teacher in Africa,” Rohm said. “I objected vehemently. I wanted to get married, have a lovely home and four children.

“When I could not escape the voice of the Holy Spirit, I finally told God I would be a missionary if I could go to China or Japan and serve as a doctor or a nurse. But that was not the task God had for me. When he kept repeating the same call, I stubbornly told God I would not be a missionary.

“When I was 12 years old, our church choir sang an Easter cantata on the seven last words of Christ on the cross,” she said. “Between each anthem, the lights were dimmed except for a lighted cross in the baptistery, and the choir director read one of the seven last sayings of Jesus on the cross.

“As I heard those words, my heart was touched, and I said to myself, 'If Jesus could die for me, surely I should be able to live for him.'”

After graduation from Baylor University in Waco and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Rohm was among six new missionaries appointed May 4, 1950. She set sail for Nigeria July 5.

She arrived in Lagos in time to attend a celebration of the Nigeria Baptist Convention's 100th anniversary.

Rohm was sent to teach briefly in a girls' school in Yaba and then had three months of language study in Ire while serving as companion to a missionary nurse who was alone in the town. A year after arriving in Nigeria, she was transferred to a Baptist teacher-training college in Iwo, a Muslim town in southwestern Nigeria.

It was a time, according to Nigerian journalist Seyi Odewale, when most of Nigeria was “no more than thick jungles, lined by scanty footpaths, and the hinterland, dotted by hamlets of mud houses.”

At the Baptist college, Rohm taught English literature, education and organ classes, served as school librarian, played piano for the church, led the choir, directed Shakespearean plays and organized an annual nationwide Baptist music workshop.

When Nigeria gained its independence from Britain in 1960, her choir was called on to sing the country's new anthem as its flag was raised over the capital for the first time.

On Sundays, Rohm went out with students who preached on the town's streets.

“Iwo was one of the most solidly Muslim towns in Nigeria,” Rohm recalled.

“There was one Baptist church in the town and two small churches that had been started by student preachers, as well as a Baptist church at the college.

“In those early years, I saw two more Baptist churches established by our street preachers. One of those churches is now the largest in Iwo.”

Africans were responsive to the gospel message of God's love and salvation in Jesus Christ.

For 100 years, Nigeria was the only African country where Southern Baptist missionaries were serving. As Rohm arrived in the country, the very first Southern Baptist missionaries were just entering Ghana–then called the Gold Coast.

Whereas Southern Baptists had 131 missionaries in Nigeria in 1950, “now we have more than a thousand serving all over Africa,” said International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin.

In Nigeria, Baptist churches now number more than 7,000 and report more than 1 million members, a remarkable contrast to the 340 churches and 25,343 members counted in 1950, Rankin said.

Countrywide, Christians account for about 40 percent of Nigeria's 137 million people. In Iwo itself, some estimate the city of 300,000 is now as much as 60 percent Christian.

“Prayer meetings in the churches are crowded,” Rohm said, “not only by church members, but also by prominent Muslims.”

In a country where tensions between Christians and Muslims at times flare into violence, Rohm's tireless service and genuinely Christian spirit earned her the title “Chief Doctor Mama.”

She is chief by a king's decree. A doctor because the Baptist seminary in Ogbomosho wanted to honor her music work in churches all over the country. “Mama” is a title of respect bestowed affectionately on those the Yoruba love.

The church at the college named a new primary school in her honor. A few years later, the congregation changed its name to Alma Rohm Baptist Church. In 1992, the school erected a statue of the diminutive missionary in front of its library.

At the thanksgiving ceremony after receiving the chief's title, Rohm acknowledged she had found God faithful in her obedience.

“In the Bible, Jesus promised that 'everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold,'” Rohm said.

“I thought I was leaving all that, but here I am, living in the largest mission house in Nigeria. More than a thousand people call me 'Mama.' At least 28 I can name call me 'Grandma.' Ten call me 'Great Grandma.' And now you have given me the land.”

At her retirement service, her testimony was simple: “How blessed I have been! How undeserving I am!”

With additional reporting by Mary Jane Welch.

Posted: 12/17/04

Seaman's Center ministry makes global
impact, particularly around Christmas

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

FREEPORT–The Seaman's Center might be able to teach Santa a thing or two.

Children believe St. Nick travels the globe in one night, delivering presents to good boys and girls.

But the Gulf Coast Baptist Association-sponsored ministry never even has to leave the city limits to reach much of the planet.

The center provides gifts for nearly 1,500 sailors from more than 30 countries who come through the port between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Each seaman receives a canvas bag of presents that includes two Christian tracts and $20 in personal items such as socks, gum and handkerchiefs.

Those presents serve as launching points for conversations about sailors' families, jobs and spiritual lives.

Sailors “come out of the woodwork” when Christopher Dale, a missionary serving at the Seaman's Center, steps on board a ship with the gift bags, he said.

He normally makes six or seven contacts per ship during the year, but he meets to up 25 sailors per boat during the holiday season.

“Kindness is a very good way of talking with them and sharing Christ,” Dale said.

The gifts are meant to be a sign of compassion, Dale said. Not all sailors make a faith profession the day a gift is received, Dale noted. But they have tangible reminders that Christians are concerned about people.

The presents make lasting impressions on the men, he stressed.

“We hope it helps them out–shows them someone out there cares about them,” he said.

Posted: 12/17/04

'Star of wonder' still leaves
astronomers wondering about its origin

By Margie Wylie

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–In Matthew's Gospel, it's the apparition that heralds the birth of Jesus. Today, it features in Christmas trappings from tree toppers to carols to cards. No children's Nativity play is complete without its tinfoil likeness above the storied stable.

But what was the Star of Bethlehem?

Suggestions have included a comet, a supernova, meteors, bright-shining planets–even a UFO. The truth may be more subtle.

Using reconstruction software and the historical record, astronomers increasingly have come to believe the three wise men “following yonder star” may have been interpreting astrological omens so esoteric only the learned would have noticed anything unusual in the night skies.

While scientists disagree on the particulars, “one thing is absolutely certain,” said Mark Kidger, an astronomer with the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Spain's Canary Islands. “Whatever the Star of Bethlehem was, it was not an extraordinarily spectacular object.”

King Herod hadn't seen the sign that drew the Magi to Judea. Even the meticulous astronomical observations of the Chinese show nothing truly spectacular in the years around Jesus' probable birth date.

In fact, this “star” may not have been visible at all.

Michael Molnar proposes the heavenly sign was an eclipse of the planet Jupiter that took place in the constellation Aries, among other regal portents, on April 17 of the year 6 B.C.

That morning, just before dawn, Jupiter, a planet associated with kings, emerged from behind the sun to rise in the east, appearing as a morning star. Later that day, the moon moved in front of Jupiter.

While such events can be dramatic, this one was invisible, lost in the glare of the noonday sun. Even so, the Magi would have predicted it, argues Molnar, a retired Rutgers University astronomer who lives in Warren, N.J.

“It was something very subtle, only something an astrologer would have seen as important,” he said.

The event happened in Aries, which ancient astrologers thought ruled the fate of several Near East kingdoms–including Judea, which was struggling under the yoke of Roman rule. Hence, Molnar concludes, the wise men would have read the birth of a new Jewish ruler, perhaps even the long-prophesied Messiah, in this configuration of heavenly bodies.

Kidger, author of “The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer's View,” disagrees.

Events like the one Molnar described are not all that rare and so wouldn't have excited seasoned skywatchers, he said. He noted the moon moved in front of various planets almost 200 times between 20 B.C. and 1 B.C.

Kidger argues that what the Magi observed was a series of astrological portents, each of which has been individually suggested as the star.

Together, they led up to a not particularly brilliant, but long-lived nova–a distant, exploding star–recorded by the Chinese in 5 B.C.

Three times in a few months during 7 B.C., Jupiter and Saturn came close together, or were in conjunction, in Pisces. In 6 B.C., Kidger notes both a massing of planets in Leo and Molnar's observation about Jupiter's eclipse in Aries.

As sign followed sign, culminating in the appearance of a “new star,” they struck out for Jerusalem, site of Herod's court.

According to Chinese records, the 5 B.C. nova appeared low in the eastern sky in the constellation Aquila and lasted 70 days. If the Magi arrived in Jerusalem two months after they set out, Kidger said, the new position of the Earth would have made the nova appear to hover in the south over Bethlehem, where Herod directed them.

Molnar begs to differ. Tying a rational explanation of the star to pagan superstitions can make scientists uneasy, so they often start by searching for a unique astronomical event and then attempt to tie it into the astrology of the time–as Kidger has done, Molnar said.

But, he argues, Hellenistic astrology was the high science of its day and surely the lens through which the Magi would have viewed the world.

Astrologers' associations of Pisces or Leo with Judea date to the 15th century or even later–long after the time of Jesus, Molnar said.

Likewise, he sees no reason for ancient astrologers to associate a nova, even one lasting 70 days, with Jesus' birth, since new stars were ignored in Hellenistic astrology.

But in the case of the 6 B.C. eclipse of Jupiter, he argues, there were many impressive portents in play.

Not only was Jupiter eclipsed by the moon, which greatly increased its power and influence, but the planet had just emerged from behind the sun and was stationed in the east–two more factors pointing to a regal birth. In addition, the sun, moon, Jupiter and Saturn all were massed in Aries, characteristics of the horoscope of a "divine and immortal person," as one prominent Roman astrologer wrote.

Molnar's theory uses the astrology of the day to explain several aspects of the star story that have defied logic for years.

When they arrived in Jerusalem seeking a future Jewish king, the wise men said they had “seen his star in the east.”

Yet they were traveling westward to reach Judea, probably from Persia or Babylon.

And when they left Jerusalem, the star “went before them” on their southward journey, then “stood over” Bethlehem.

Molnar believes the wise men were using common Greek astrological jargon to describe Jupiter's movements.

In modern terms, what they noted “in the east” was Jupiter's re-emergence from behind the sun and its appearance as a morning star on April 17, the day it was eclipsed by the moon.

Then, on Aug. 23, the planet appeared to change its direction of movement across the sky because Earth overtook Jupiter as each traveled along its orbital path.

It's the same optical illusion a car or train rider experiences when an overtaken vehicle appears to stop, then move backward.

Astronomers call it retrograde motion today, but the Magi saw the planets “move before” the stars–travel in the same direction across the sky–as they made their way south to Bethlehem.

Finally, on Dec. 19, Jupiter seemed to stand still in the skies, or to “stand above,” for a number of days before it changed directions once again.

Called stationing, this is what planets appear to do just as the Earth overtakes them.

Posted: 12/17/04

Council told new approaches could resolve stem-cell dilemma

By Kathi Wolfe

Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS)–A Stanford University biology professor and two Columbia University physicians told a presidential advisory council new approaches could resolve the thorny ethical problems swirling around embryonic stem cell research.

Several members of the President's Council on Bioethics reacted with enthusiasm, but some conservative religious groups remain skeptical.

Stanford professor William Hurlbut, a member of the advisory council, made one of the proposals. He suggested an unproven scientific technique that would enable stem cell research to go forward without creating or destroying human embryos.

Hurlbut said he is convinced the scientific community must come up with such solutions to bridge the ethical divide holding up research that has the potential to cure diseases and save lives.

“A purely political solution,” he said, “will leave our country bitterly divided, eroding the social support and sense of noble purpose that is essential for the public funding of biomedical science.”

Donald Landry and Howard Zucker of Columbia University made a joint proposal to the council, a high-profile advisory board that doesn't make policy but influences the White House and Congress, which control federal funding of stem cell research.

Several members of the 18-member council–made up of scientists, lawyers, doctors, theologians and others–said the proposals show promise to bridge what has been a scientific, ethical and political divide.

President Bush's policy has been to forbid government funding of research on new embryonic stem cells. He has permitted funding of researchers using stem cell lines in existence before 2001.

Council Chairman Leon Kass, who emphasized he was speaking for himself and not the entire council, said both of the proposals were “extremely interesting and very creative” and “absolutely worth not only (the council's) consideration but much more public consideration.”

Hurlbut's theory has been a hot topic among bio-ethicists for weeks, since the Boston Globe published an article exploring it in detail. Among Hurlbut's supporters has been San Francisco Archbishop William Levada, an influential thinker in the Catholic Church, which has strongly opposed stem cell research on grounds that human lives, in the form of embryos, are sacrificed.

Levada said the proposal “offers hope that there may be a solution” to the controversy.

Other religious thinkers are less than enthusiastic.

Ted Peters of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, Calif., said this hardly ends the “moral warfare” in the stem cell debate. In fact, he said, it may open a Pandora's Box of new ethical problems.

Hurlbut wants to develop an entity that would produce cells that would act like embryonic stem cells, but which would not, he says, become a human embryo. Through a cloning technique called “altered nuclear transfer,” the genetic structure (the genome) of a human egg would be altered, so that it would not become a fully developed embryo, he explained.

This procedure would take out the gene that would allow a placenta to form. Without a placenta, this mass would not become an embryo, Hurlbut argued.

Hurlbut said he is making his proposal to “bridge the discord in the debate on stem cell research.” In the past, he noted, he personally has opposed embryonic stem cell research. Technology exists to test his theory, but many animal experiments should be conducted first.

In “The Journal of Clinical Investigation,” Landry and Zucker, Columbia medical professors, make a different argument.

They say “a reality of human embryonic life” is that many of the embryos die (become non-viable) within a few days of fertilization. Landry and Zucker argue these embryos are “organismically dead” and should be viewed in the same way as people considered to be “brain dead.”

Just as some organs, such as hearts, can be healthy (and used in organ transplants) after a person is considered to be “brain dead,” Landry and Zucker say, extracted stem cells from embryos should be viewed in the same ethical framework.

Some religious ethicists aren't buying the argument, including Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

“You can't say an embryo is dead just because its cells have stopped dividing,” he said.

Hurlbut's proposal raises questions about what it means to be a human being, said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior policy analyst for bioethics at Colorado-based Focus on the Family, a politically conservative religious organization.

“If you turn off a gene on human matter, are you experimenting on something that could be a human being?” she asked.

Everyone is eager for ways to move stem cell research toward therapies, said C. Ben Mitchell, professor of bioethics and contemporary culture at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill. The proposals may in some way do this, but it will take time for nuances to be explored, he said.