Lord Remember Me

By David Vernon (Xulon Press Elite)

Author David Vernon considers Samson’s prayer as a reminder for us of God’s grace, forgiveness and power.

Samson’s prayer for the Lord to “remember me” is highlighted with the author’s commentary on Samson’s legacy, his appearance in the hall of faith, and the struggles of everyday life.

His book is best read as you review Judges 13 through 16, a study that Vernon did while traveling with the Singing Men of South Texas in Ukraine and studying the life of Samson.

Vernon offers a unique take on the story of Samson, looking at him as more than just a Nazarite with long hair, his lust for women and his dealings with Delilah and the Philistines.

Rather than seeing his prayer in Judges 16 as a “pitiful end to a sad and tragic life,” the author examines Samson’s life as he compares his faults to those who struggle to follow the Lord and his commands in the present day.

Vernon covers topics like the importance of a strong and vibrant prayer life, much like the one similar to Samson’s parents.

Other topics include the work of the Holy Spirit, the sanctity of life, honesty in relationships, love, and seeking what God desires in our lives.

Believers can take from this study that a devotion to God and a desire to live a holy life are the solutions to avoiding the pitfalls encountered by Samson.

Lord Remember Me serves as a unique reminder that the Lord can use anyone and anything for his glory and purpose. The book also serves as a reminder that everyone has a choice in living for the Lord rather than for self.

Kendall Lyons, news reporter

Baptist Standard

Over the past five decades, the Singing Men of Texas have participated in numerous mission trips, but the upcoming Baltic Sea tour marks a first for the musical group—presenting eight concerts in six countries.

More than 100 Texas Baptist church musicians will participate in the Sept. 15-26 mission trip in partnership with evangelist Michael Gott.

The North Central chapter of the Singing Men of Texas will present concerts in Stockholm, Sweden; Tampere and Turku, Finland; Tallinn, Estonia; Riga and Liepaja, Latvia; Klaipeda, Lithuania; and Gdansk, Poland.

Most of the countries the group will visit have “a long history of good choral music” but a small evangelical Christian presence, said Rief Kessler, president of the North Central chapter of the Singing Men of Texas.

First exposure to Singing Men of Texas

The group presented concerts in Ukraine several times and performed in Poland last year at the invitation of churches ministering to Ukrainian refugees. However, the upcoming tour will be the first opportunity for audiences in several of the Baltic countries to hear the Singing Men of Texas.

“We don’t know what their expectation of us may be,” said Kessler, minister of music at First Baptist Church in Temple. “We don’t want our message to be buffered by what they think of us. We pray the message of Jesus as our hope—the only hope for salvation—will be received.”

The group will travel from one port to another on the MS Nordstjernen, a Norwegian Artic exploration vessel built in 1956.

“It’s not a cruise ship. It’s a working vessel,” Kessler said. “We’ll be crossing the open sea, and some of our group—including me—are a bit anxious about seasickness, because it won’t be equipped with the stabilizers that modern passenger ships have.”

The living accommodations may lack luxury and the schedule will be demanding, but Kessler said the Singing Men of Texas are looking forward to singing about Christ in six nations.

The group is encouraging Texas Baptists to pray for their Baltic tour—particularly for “open hearts, smooth logistics and God’s presence in each city.”

A daily prayer guide can be downloaded here.

DALLAS—Pastor Strong Cohorts experienced “soul care” and community at a recent retreat in Buena Vista, Colo.

The Aug. 3-7 retreat marked the conclusion of a ministerial health and spiritual development process for the 47 Texas Baptist church leaders that began in April.

 “We end with the retreat on purpose after four or five months together in the trenches of learning and growing and being shaped and formed and gaining clarity of who we are, as Christ followers and as leaders, and then we come together at this moment of respite and rest and just soul care,” said Kevin Abbott, Texas Baptists Area 5 representative and director of Pastoral Health Networks. “It’s a beautiful way to end.”

The Pastor Strong Cohorts, made up of “pastors who are serving in kingdom work and the local church,” met once a month to focus on “elements of mental, spiritual, emotional or physical health” in ministry, he explained.

Spiritual formation in a ‘safe community’

Abbott said cohorts intentionally are designed to “introduce [pastors] to those areas of health that are so important.”

“The spiritual formation of us as leaders and pastors is crucial,” Abbott said. “We believe with the [Pastor Strong] Cohorts, it’s important to get information, but you need to take that and process it in a safe community together, and then you need to be coached through it, and have accountability and that leads to transformation.”

San Antonio Cohort Participant Calvin Copeland said being a part of the Pastor Strong Cohorts “has been nothing but rewarding the entire time.”

He said he loved his cohort’s meetings and how participants engaged in genuine discussion about their ministry.

‘Something I’ve always longed for in ministry’

“[We were] sharing our hearts,” Copeland said. “We weren’t talking about congregation sizes, and we weren’t talking about how much money we were raising, but we were talking about what it meant to us to impact the lives of others.

“For the first time, there was none of the performance things that I have seen over the last 40 years of being in ministry, but there was a real connection.

“Quite frankly, it’s something that I have always longed for in ministry. … There was a time that I was done with ministry, and so Pastor Strong really did re-energize me in believing that we really can make a difference.”

The cohorts made an impact because “they deal with soul care” and help pastors “understand why we’re doing what we do and how to manage our bitterness and our wounded places and our hurt places,” Copeland said.

‘Be authentic with God’

Scripture teaches that Christ loved the church by washing believers with the water of the word to remove every wrinkle, stain and blemish, “so he can present us back to himself without any of those wrinkles and stains and blemishes again,” Copeland said.

“I just love the fact that this is a group that gets that we’re on a constant journey for healing. People call it transformation, but I don’t think you can be transformed without getting healed. Clearly, this cohort, Pastor Strong, gets that.”

Copeland encourages other pastors to get involved with Pastor Strong because it will “help you to identify how to be more authentic because they’ll model it.”

“It’ll be an initial shock to your system to be in a room full of pastors who are authentic and genuine, but you stay there long enough and you will be able to do the same thing, and there is nothing more transformative for us to be authentic with God because that’s when we get to see his authentic self,” he said.

“Many of us don’t know what we’re struggling with until we’re confronted, or until we find a friend who wants to sit with you and just let you share, and that’s what Pastor Strong does for you.”

‘We could be ourselves’

Jose Perez, church planter from Cleveland in Southeast Texas, said the Pastor Strong Cohorts encourage and teach pastors that “you’re not alone.”

“Pastor Strong? I guess in one word, you could say it’s a community,” Perez said. “Being a pastor personally, I know that a lot of times we feel isolated.”

Pastors deal with “a lot of stuff” in their congregations, and many feel they have nobody they can talk to, he said.

“Pastor Strong is a community where we could talk to each other. … We could be ourselves with them, and they could totally understand.”

Perez participated in one of the pilot programs for Resilient Cohorts—now Pastor Strong—Abbott developed when he was on staff at the Union Baptist Association. When Perez first learned about the program, he “fell in love with it,” he said.

“I know it transformed my life, and I would like to see other lives be transformed as ours was, as well,” said Perez.

‘It encourages our spirit to keep on’

By walking through the cohorts, Pastor Strong creates a sense of unity for pastors and reminds them of the call God has put on their lives, Perez said.

“No matter if we’re Hispanic, Anglo, African-American, we’re all called by God to do his service for his people,” Perez said.

“I love it because we find out that there’s other people going through the same thing, and we just all share our stories, and it encourages our spirit to keep on and keep on loving our congregation, but above all, to obey what God has for our lives. [Pastor Strong is] uniting the body of Christ to continue to encourage them and get stronger, and also to replicate churches with the same DNA that they are now teaching us.”

Pastor Strong is “just life-transforming,” he said, but “not only for the pastors, but also for our congregations” because they receive “a refreshed pastor” and are encouraged to begin serving in the church.

‘Time and space to hear from the Lord’

Troy Allen, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in College Station, said the retreat was valuable because it gave him some “time and space to hear from the Lord” and be encouraged to “stay in the fight.”

“I think that’s something that’s really great about this retreat is just having time to be away and to just spend time with God, and giving him that space that a lot of us don’t necessarily have, to really intentionally listen to the Lord and what he has to say to us,” Allen said.

The cohorts “remind us that he has us where he has us for a reason, to encourage us and to encourage one another to continue to stay in the fight and continue running the race that he’s laid out before us,” he added.

Concluding the cohorts with a retreat that’s “strictly devoted to rest and recharging and rejuvenation is incredibly important” to leading well in ministry, Allen said.

“When pastors are mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually healthy, they’re better leaders, they’re better pastors and are able to care for people better because they’ve cared for themselves,” he said.

“I imagine that the guys that are here are going to be able to go back and serve their churches a lot more effectively because they’ve just had some downtime where they haven’t had to answer a bunch of questions and solve a lot of problems … but just have time to worship together, time to pray and reflect.”

‘Go back and replicate what we’ve experienced’

David Smith, executive director of Austin Baptist Association, said he is “always looking for ways to provide value and serve the pastors of our association,” and Pastor Strong “met an immediate need” in that regard.

When Smith learned Abbott had joined Texas Baptists’ staff and brought Pastor Strong with him, he said, “Whatever you’re doing, I’d like to be a part of.”

When he found out Pastor Strong Cohorts were starting in San Antonio, Houston, College Station and Dallas, he asked if he could bring a group from Austin to participate.

“And very graciously, they said, ‘Absolutely, this would be great,’” Smith said. “It works out well. Most of the days, [sessions are] about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. We’ll get up, leave Austin about 6:30 in the morning, grab coffee, visit on the way there, go through the training with some extraordinary leaders, and then head home and debrief.”

Smith said his hope for his pastors is that “we can take [what we learned] back to Austin and begin other groups and really have an opportunity to impact pastors across the association.”

“We talked about this last night at dinner: ‘What does it look like for us to go back home and to replicate what we’ve experienced here?’” Smith said. “There’s a lot of excitement around the table.”

‘My people are noticing a difference’

Abbott said the cohorts have made a “powerful impact” in the lives of participating pastors.

“We’ve seen many [pastors] come back after four or five months of this and say, ‘Kevin, I’m leading differently,’ or ‘I see leadership through a different lens,’ ‘My people are noticing a difference when I teach and preach and when I lead meetings and how I do discipleship,’” he said.

Abbott hopes the cohorts create community and lower the number of pastors leaving ministry.

“We’ve had several pastors come in and out of the cohort, and they’ve been very honest and raw moments throughout it saying, ‘Kevin, I wasn’t going to be a part of this cohort, but I’m glad I did because I was thinking about leaving ministry altogether, and this band of brothers, this cohort, this process, kept me in the game,’” Abbott said.

“The best thing about Pastor Strong is you learn this: You’re not alone.”

(RNS)—Could artificial intelligence or short TV episodes help young adults engage more with the Bible?

The American Bible Society has issued first-time grants to four Christian higher education institutions to encourage innovation in getting young adults more interested in Scripture.

At Los Angeles Pacific University, the recipient of a $15,000 grant, scholars will research the effects of a “Bible Engagement Assistant” that builds on “Spark,” an AI course assistant the online university already uses in its classes. The new technological tool will be used by students in the Bible courses of the university.

“It’s to just increase that frequency interacting with biblical text, prompting them with really good questions to reflect on Scripture and how it influences their life,” said Belén McDaniel, grant manager at the nondenominational university with about 2,800 students.

All four of the winners, chosen from a pool of 16 applicants, are affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, a consortium of evangelical schools.

Introducing biblical concepts

Three faculty members at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kan., won a $10,000 grant for their proposed TV show, “Beyond the Bible.”

“Overall readership of the Bible has gone down, but at the same time, knowledge about biblical concepts has actually gone up through shows like ‘The Chosen’ being one of the most popular shows on the planet,” said Aaron Bohn, a filmmaker and associate professor of digital communication at the Church of the Nazarene-affiliated school with about 1,500 students.

He said the grant covers the first three episodes of the short-form show, which will be available on YouTube. Aiming to be both educational and entertaining, the show will feature students introducing biblical concepts and acting them out in sketches with puppets and other characters.

“I can see how these scripts could easily help this age group, the ‘Movable Middle,’ to kind of contextualize the Bible within their lives,” said Addison Lucchi, a MidAmerica Nazarene English professor.

Engaging the ‘Movable Middle’

The Movable Middle is a term the American Bible Society uses to describe those who fit neither their “scripture engaged” category nor their “Bible disengaged” category.

The society’s “State of the Bible USA” 2025 report showed Generation Z ranked lowest among today’s generations in terms of Bible usage. Just 36 percent of Gen Z adults were Bible users this year, compared with 41 percent of the total population.

But its findings also showed a slight increase in Scripture engagement among this youngest group of adults—from 11 percent in 2024 to 15 percent in 2025.

The research, completed in collaboration with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, defined Bible users as “individuals who interact with the Bible on their own at least three times a year.”

The American Bible Society considers engagement to be “far more robust,” including frequency of reading the Bible, as well as other measures of the Bible’s influence on the lives of individuals.

Interacting with Scripture

The other two schools that received grants are Dallas Theological Seminary, which plans to study best practices for young adults in different church networks, and Houghton University, which intends to use Lectio Divina, a Scripture-focused prayer practice, to help foster deeper interactions with the Bible.

A team of faculty at Houghton, in western New York, received a grant of $7,335 after they proposed focusing on Lectio Divina. The ancient practice involves reading, meditation and contemplation of the application of Scripture and will be used primarily by volunteers among first-year students taking a required biblical literature course.

Lectio Divina will provide a structured form of scriptural study for students who may have been churchgoers but are unfamiliar with Bible stories and Scripture passages, said Amanda Zambrano, grant writer and director of advancement communications at Houghton, which also includes students of no faith.

“For many of our students, this is going to be their first experience in interacting with Scripture on their own, in their own context,” she said of the school that is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church and has about 900 residential undergraduates.

The American Bible Society and the grantees hope the grant-funded work will serve as models for other schools and ministries.

“We believe this investment will uncover innovative and replicable ways to connect a generation searching for hope and meaning with the answers waiting for them in the life-changing word of God,” said Jennifer Holloran, president and CEO of American Bible Society.

Final reports are expected to be presented at a symposium next May or June, “where completed innovation project teams will report their results and will consult with teams working on new projects,” said John Plake, chief innovation officer at American Bible Society.

Henry Stovall, longtime Baptist pastor, died June 11 in Bryan. He was 77. He was born Nov. 10, 1947, in Ennis to Burrow “Bill” and Evelyn Downey Stovall. After graduating from Ennis High School, he earned his undergraduate degree from Baylor University and his master’s degree in religious education from Baptist Missionary Association Theological Seminary in Jacksonville. Through the years, he served churches in Tenaha, Greenville, Anson, Palmer, Snook and Leona. He was pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Bryan for 24 and a half years.  When he retired in 2018, Trinity Baptist named him pastor emeritus. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Stephanie Stovall Hejl; a brother, Carl William Stovall; and sisters, Catherine Anne Stovall and Sally Stovall Rizzo. Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Karen Stovall; daughters Cari Stovall and Krista Weller; four grandchildren; one great-grandson; and a twin sister, Mary Stovall Maldonado.

NEW ORLEANS (BP)—The church doors would remain open, Pastor David Crosby decided after the levees failed New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina.

Someone from the Midwest sent a huge generator to First Baptist Church of New Orleans, Crosby’s pastorate at the time, enabling the church to reopen as soon as the law allowed.

Near constant news coverage flashed scenes of bodies floating atop floodwaters, hungry babies crying, families handling the dead bodies of their loved ones with whatever dignity the chaos allowed.

Water still lingered in whole neighborhoods as First Baptist began helping with relief efforts in October 2005, aided by the generator and thousands of volunteers who rushed to help.

“All the churches had to turn outward, toward the community, during the recovery,” Crosby told Baptist Press 20 years after the storm.

“Katrina washed us out of our pews and into our communities. Nobody locked any doors for four months in all of the flood zone. What was the point?”

More diverse, more united

As Southern Baptist churches in Metro New Orleans commemorate Katrina, they’ll do so with a New Orleans Baptist Association of churches that is more diverse and more united than it was when the waters dirtied the city, leaders told Baptist Press.

Churches outside the levee protection system were washed away and never reopened, but other churches were planted in areas where population returned, and several churches that were not Southern Baptist have joined the fellowship, said Jack Hunter, executive director of New Orleans Baptist Association.

“The aftermath of Katrina had a way of reshaping the association, not just in terms of its composition, though that’s true,” said Hunter, a member of First Baptist Church of New Orleans who began leading the local assocation five years after the storm.

“Our association is more African American now than it was pre-Katrina. It’s more Hispanic now than it was pre-Katrina. And it’s that way because our embrace has widened and our community has become richer.

“And I think in many ways, we look more like the church. And there’s a high appreciation for that among our churches. We’re a diverse association. But we feel a great unity in our diversity.”

Working across denominational lines

Southern Baptists embraced multidenominational cooperation in recovery, Dennis Watson, senior pastor of Celebration Church said.

“Two months after Katrina, I called together the pastors of our city. A lot of pastors still had not returned because their homes have been destroyed, campuses have been destroyed.” Watson said.

“But we had 120 pastors return, and we formed the Greater New Orleans Pastors Coalition and we began to work together across denomination lines, racial lines, community lines. … For those first five years after Katrina, we had sometimes close to 300 pastors and churches working together to serve the people in the communities around us in some capacity.”

During recovery in 2005, Watson distributed loads of goods to those in need, spending the millions of dollars he received in donations on relief efforts because he thought he wouldn’t be able to rebuild Celebration. The $1.5 million the church had in flood insurance wouldn’t cover the $16.5 million repair bill.

“And so we really just started giving away the monies that were coming in,” Watson said. “We were feeding about 5,000 people a day hot meals. And a thousand people a day were coming to receive food, water, medical supplies, baby supplies. … Whatever people sent us from the nation, we gave out and distributed.”

A smaller, second Metairie location the church acquired only weeks before the storm—the former Crescent City Baptist Church—had less flooding, accommodating worship for the quarter of Celebration’s members who were able to return in the months following Katrina.

Shepherding a scattered flock

Franklin Avenue Baptist Church sat under 9 feet of water before Pastor Fred Luter was able to survey the damage. The campus was damaged beyond occupation.

Luter called his friend Crosby for a meeting venue to accommodate worship for Franklin Avenue members who began returning to the city in October. Luter held worship at First Baptist for nearly three years after the storm, while also shepherding members who scattered across the U.S. for safety under the mandatory evacuation.

Remembering Katrina is always difficult for Luter. Days before this year’s anniversary, he was praying with a local business owner who had an entire wall of photos of his business destroyed under Katrina’s waters.

“When you see things like that, your mind just goes back and reflects on how bad that really was. So, you always think about all the things that you went through, how you had to evacuate and lost so many people, so many people who relocated to other cities and they’re now there and not ever coming back,” Luter said. “They come back to visit, but that’s about it.”

But Luter appreciates the city’s resilience.

“To be able to build back—what we’ve done, that’s been a blessing,” he said.

Marking the 20th anniversary

The three pastors—Luter, Crosby and Watson—planned to gather with the greater Southern Baptist family in a Hurricane Katrina 20th anniversary service Aug. 29 at First Baptist New Orleans, hosted by Senior Pastor Chad Gilbert.

Crosby retired from the church in 2018. In retirement, he serves First Baptist Church of Goldthwaite as pastor on a part-time basis.

Hunter and other New Orleans Baptist pastors will attend the service, including many pastors of the 18 Hispanic churches and 41 African American churches that are now among the local association’s approximately 130 congregations.

By the numbers, the association has just as many congregations as it had before Katrina, according to then-Director of Missions Joe McKeever, who tallied 135 churches and missions, or 140 including the Plaquemines Baptist Association that merged with New Orleans Baptist Association after the storm.

Just two years after Katrina, New Orleans Baptist congregations had dropped to 82 churches and missions, McKeever wrote in the association’s 2005-2007 annual directory.

“The fellowship between our ministers has been forever changed,” McKeever wrote in the annual.

“Pre-Katrina, we had a Spanish fellowship of pastors, the African American pastors pretty much did their own thing, the Anglos tried unsuccessfully to involve everyone, and the Asian pastors were fairly well isolated.

“No more,” McKeever wrote. “These days, our weekly ministers’ meetings welcome everyone. … Pastors have learned each other’s names and lasting bonds of friendship have been formed.”

Embraced the Honduran community

Those relationships have endured and grown, said Hunter, who gives much credit to Luter, Crosby and Watson for helping rebuild the church community after the storm.

He credits in part Luter’s graciousness for the association’s success in drawing African American pastors, and notes the association embraced the Honduran community that swelled in helping Metro New Orleans rebuild after the storm. Of the 18 Hispanic churches in the association, 15 are majority Honduran.

Metro New Orleans became a hub for Hondurans after the storm. As recently as 2023, Hondurans comprised 29 percent of Hispanics in Metro New Orleans, the U.S. Census Bureau reported, compared to 2 percent of Hispanics nationwide, the Data Research Center reported, based on U.S. Census numbers.

Churches in the New Orleans Baptist Association shared the gospel with the new population.

“We want to be strategic, planting the churches where the need is,” said Geovany Gomez, pastor of Iglesia Bautista La Viña in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, the association’s church health strategist, who is of Honduran descent.

When Katrina struck, Gomez’s pastorate was one of two dozen language mission congregations in the association embracing not only Spanish but Asian Indian, Haitian, Indian, Korean, Middle Eastern, Filipino and Deaf groups.

Many of the language missions were discontinued after Katrina but others are now churches, including Gomez’s pastorate that has since planted two majority-Honduran churches of its own, namely Iglesia Bautista Bethel in Kenner and Iglesia Bautista La Viña in Westwego.

Going where the people are

New Orleans Baptist churches have followed the population, Hunter said, serving people where redevelopment has given them opportunity to live. Many former home lots are now green spaces, and much of the Lower Ninth Ward remains undeveloped, leaving no need for churches in parts of the city. Dozens of churches no longer exist.

“There are a few churches we have that were maybe stronger pre-Katrina than they are now, but we have a lot of churches that are stronger now than they were pre-Katrina,” he said. “But there are 50 congregations that we have, by my count, that we did not have pre-Katrina.”

Some of the 50 new congregations are church plants, but Hunter estimates most are pre-existing churches that joined the local assocation, or churches that began after the storm.

Celebration Church, for instance, not only rebuilt at its Airline Drive location, but has seven additional locations that are thriving. In the past two months, the Celebration network has baptized about 300 people, Watson said.

“We actually gave away the first several million dollars that came to us, because we didn’t think we could rebuild our Airline campus. So, we just invested it in helping the people of communities around us,” Watson said.

“But the more we gave away, the more the Lord blessed us with. And so at five years after Katrina, we were able to rebuild our campus on Airline Drive and to continue launching campuses.”

‘Discovered the joy and value of helping each other’

First Baptist continues as a majority Anglo yet ethnically diverse congregation, enriched by the relationships forged during the time Franklin Avenue worshiped there, Crosby told Baptist Press.

“When you have a flood, you have a fire that affects the community and people work together. They set aside their differences, prejudices and preconceptions about others and they work together,” Crosby said. “And that happened in our community.

“The world seemed chaotic, unmanageable, in the aftermath of the storm. Thousands of people left in great waves of depopulation, many of them simply unable to see a way forward,” Crosby said. “We were forced into awareness of one another. We rediscovered the value and joy of helping each other. We experienced the loss of all things, so to speak, and found true joy and riches in our relationships with one another and with God.”

Crosby nominated Luter for SBC president in 2012, a position Luter held two terms. He remains the only African American to have held the post.

Major changes for Franklin Avenue

Luter’s church renovated its campus at 2515 Franklin Ave. before rebuilding and relocating to New Orleans East in December 2018.

A location launched in Baton Rouge to serve more than 600 Franklin Avenue members who moved there after Katrina continues as United Believers Baptist Church, averaging 122 in Sunday worship, according to the 2024 Annual Church Profile.

Houston’s Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, launched to serve members who relocated to Houston, also continues, Luter said. The congregation averaged 425 members in Sunday morning worship when it last completed an ACP in 2017.

The original Franklin Avenue location now houses Rock of Ages Baptist Church, a non-Southern Baptist congregation acquiring the property on a lease-to-buy agreement. So many churches lost members, Luter said, the property sat vacant for years, with no one able to purchase it.

Luter helped plan a month of activities commemorating Katrina as a member of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s K20 Advisory Commission. On the calendar are various interfaith events among others embracing the New Orleans community.

“One of the things I’ve learned is that we no longer can be complacent if a hurricane is in the Gulf coming towards New Orleans, or Mississippi or Alabama,” Luter said. “We did it for years, just knowing that the hurricane would pass and we might be without electricity or lights for a while. But we’d never flooded like it did with Katrina.”

The National Weather Service attributed 1,833 deaths to Katrina, as well as $108 billion in damage, amounting to $200 billion when adjusted for inflation.

“So one of the lessons we’ve learned, and I’ve learned, is don’t take hurricanes lightly,” Luter said. “If it comes near us, if it gets up to a Category 3, then you do need to seriously consider evacuating—because so many people lost their lives.”

R. Keith Parks, international missions leader of both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, died Aug. 26. He was 97.

Parks spent 45 years in international missions, serving as ninth president of the SBC Foreign Mission Board—now International Mission Board—from 1980 to 1992.

He and his wife, Helen Jean, were missionaries to Indonesia for 14 years before he joined the Foreign Mission Board home office staff, where he served in several administrative roles.

He went on to become the first coordinator of CBF Global Missions, serving in that role from 1993 to 1999.

When asked by the Baptist Standard in 2018 his favorite aspect of ministry, Parks responded: “Relating to and working with missionaries and local Christians all around the world. ‘Missionary’ is still my dominant DNA.”

Remembering the legacy of Keith Parks

IMB President Paul Chitwood expressed his gratitude for Parks’ legacy.

“We celebrate that Keith Parks and his wife gave decades of their lives to serving Southern Baptists in our cooperative mission work to get the gospel to the nations,” Chitwood said.

“While Keith served as president during a complicated time in Southern Baptist life, his intentional focus on taking the gospel to the unengaged is a lasting legacy that still marks IMB strategy to this day. I am grateful for that legacy.”

Todd Lafferty, IMB executive vice president and chief operating officer, also served on the mission field in Indonesia, in addition to other countries, before joining the U.S. staff. Lafferty said: “Keith Parks’ visionary and strategic leadership led us from familiar mission stations to unmarked roads in the missionary task to reach the least reached. His legacy lives on as we continue to seek to reach the remaining unengaged, unreached peoples in the world today.”

CBF Executive Director Paul Baxley similarly reflected on Parks’ legacy and contributions to the CBF Global Missions.

“Dr. Keith Parks was deeply committed to the global mission of Jesus Christ throughout his life,” Baxley said. “He provided visionary and transformational leadership in the establishment of CBF Global Missions. His experience, missiology and strategic clarity laid a strong foundation for our Fellowship’s participation in Global Missions.”

“Dr. Parks was deeply respected not only by our Fellowship at large, but also by our first generation of field personnel who were touched by his leadership, integrity and vision

“Our Cooperative Baptist Fellowship family joins me in offering prayers of gratitude for his life, leadership and personal participation in inviting people to faith in Jesus Christ and his mission of transforming love in the world.”

Field personnel recall Parks’ personal care

Jim Smith, retired field personnel and CBF Global Missions staff leader, remembered Parks as “sharp, friendly and unafraid to operate from the edges.”

“His vision for reaching the most unreached and most neglected around the globe made a difference in global missions. He visited works in a multitude of circumstances where he spoke very little and listened a lot,” he said.

Smith also fondly recalled Parks’ ministry at a person level.

“He called my mother just before she was operated on for spinal surgery. They actually waited to take her into the operation so he could pray for her. He never stopped learning and loving others,” Smith said.

Nell Green, retired CBF field personnel, likewise appreciated Parks’ care for the families of missions personnel.

“Dr. Keith Parks was our mentor, an inspiring leader, but simply ‘Uncle Keith’ to our children. He said once, ‘God does not call without a knowledge of your children.’ That helped us through some difficult times as we raised children overseas,” Green said.

 Both Keith and Helen Jean Parks considered field personnel as family, she added.

“Keith was always ready to think through a problem with you. Helen Jean would drop everything and take time to pray with you,” Green said. “They were caring, thoughtful leaders ready to invest themselves personally in the lives of those sent out.”

‘Passionate about reaching the unreached’

Karen Morrow, retired CBF field personnel, called Parks “one of my heroes of the faith, who embodied the Christian mission to reach the nations with the gospel message.”

“He was passionate about reaching the unreached and those with limited access to the gospel and established CBF Global Missions to that end,” she said.

Keith and Helen Jane Parks’ participation in a prayerwalk she led in Turkey was “one of the highlights of my ministry,” Morrow said. She recalled Parks overlooking the city of Antioch “with tears in his eyes,” reflecting on how Christians there sent out Paul and Barnabas as the first gospel missionaries and praying “with gratitude for all God had done.”

“Because of Keith’s life, service and leadership, countless people around the globe have come to have a personal relationship with Christ,” Morrow said.

Parks, a native of Memphis in the Texas Panhandle, got his first taste of international missions as a student summer missionary to Colombia’s San Andrés Island.

Thirty years later, when Toby Druin of the Baptist Standard asked the newly named president of the Foreign Mission Board to describe himself, Parks responded, “I am a missionary.” That remained his identity until the end.

An era of new dangers and opportunities

“Parks’ leadership thrust the IMB into an unprecedented era of effectiveness toward fulfilling the Great Commission,” said Jerry Rankin, who succeeded Parks as the mission board president.

“Missionary deployment around the world exploded under Parks’ predecessor, Dr. Baker James Cauthen,” Rankin said. “But Parks looked beyond successful growth to see that part of the world still unreached and closed to missionary presence.”

Parks’ time as Foreign Mission Board president coincided with world-changing events that brought new dangers—and opportunities—for Christian missionaries: the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, growing numbers of terrorist attacks and assassinations, the end of apartheid in South Africa, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Tiananmen Square protests, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the proliferation of new technologies and birth of the internet.

Parks’ leadership was a match for the times. Southern Baptists in 1976 had adopted a goal of preaching the gospel to everyone in the world by the end of the century. It fell to Parks to determine what it would take to reach that goal.

The goal has yet to be reached, but research into what it would take yielded “crushing statistical evidence that without an enlarged vision of the world, Southern Baptists would never contribute their full share to global evangelization,” wrote Leland Webb, editor of the FMB’s The Commission magazine at Parks’ retirement.

What the research revealed was more than 6,000 unreached peoples, ethnolinguistic groups who lived with few, if any, Christians among them, had little or no access to Scripture and did not welcome missionaries. The 1.9 billion people in those groups likely never would hear the name of Jesus.

‘New strategies to reach the unreached’

“Keith Parks was a missiologist par excellence,” Clyde Meador—who worked with four mission board presidents—once said of Parks. “He would do what he saw as right whether it was popular or not.”

Meador filled several key roles, including executive vice president, at the IMB before his death in 2024.

What Parks did was urge missionaries to develop daring new strategies to reach the unreached. This gave birth in 1985 to Cooperative Services International, which assigned teachers, doctors, businessmen and humanitarian workers to countries closed to traditional missionaries.

Later, the nonresidential missionary program was born for missionaries to develop creative ways to reach unreached people they could not live among.

“Parks’ vision positioned Southern Baptists to respond to the fall of the Soviet Union and laid the groundwork for changes that followed his tenure to focus on people groups instead of countries and engaging the unreached,” Rankin said.

Parks also challenged Southern Baptists to consider countries where missionaries had long worked as partners in reaching the world. On his last overseas trip as FMB president, to participate in a meeting of Baptist leaders from across the Americas, Parks challenged participants to begin sending their own missionaries as partners in God’s mission.

“Too many Christians in this world are convinced their responsibility is only to the people of their culture and language,” Parks said.

“We’ll never reach the world for Christ if we restrict ourselves to our own language and culture. Local interest always wins when culture dominates Christianity. Global interest wins when Christianity dominates culture.”

Native Texan and faithful missionary

After serving as pastor of Red Springs Baptist Church in Seymour, and as an instructor in Bible at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Parks and his wife, the former Helen Jean Bond, were appointed in 1954 as career missionaries to Indonesia, where they served until 1968.

There he served at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Indonesia in Semarang, Java. He also did evangelistic work in Semarang, was mission treasurer in Jakarta and spent a furlough as an associate secretary in the missionary personnel department at the FMB’s home office in Richmond, Va.

Parks joined the home office staff in 1968, leading work in Southeast Asia from 1968 to 1975; directing the mission support division from 1975 to 1979; serving as executive director-elect, September through December 1979; and executive director (title changed to president in May 1980) from Jan. 1, 1980, to Oct. 31, 1992.

Parks earned the Bachelor of Arts degree from North Texas State College (now University of North Texas) in Denton, and the Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

The Parks joined First Baptist Church in Richardson in 2000, where they taught the International Bible Class.

His wife of 69 years, Helen Jean, and their daughter, Eloise, both died in 2021.

He survived by: son Randall and his wife Nancy; son Kent and his wife Erika; son Stanley and his wife Kay; grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Parks was the author of Crosscurrents (Convention Press, 1966), World in View, A.D. 2000 Series (New Hope Press, 1987) and numerous articles and columns. He is the subject of Keith Parks: Breaking Barriers & Opening Frontiers, a biography by Gary Baldridge.

Compiled by Managing Editor Ken Camp from information provided by Mary Jane Welch of the International Mission Board and Aaron Weaver of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. 

At Ukraine’s National Independence Day celebration in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky conferred Order of Honor medals on two global Baptist leaders to recognize Baptist contributions toward providing hope and aid to the people of Ukraine.

During a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of when Ukraine regained its independence, Zelensky awarded Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise medal. He presented an Order of Merit medal to Alan Donaldson, general secretary of the European Baptist Federation.

“It was a humbling experience to attend the ceremony and receive this honor on behalf of the Baptist World Alliance. This recognition is a reflection of the tireless dedication and courageous service of Ukrainian Baptists on the front lines, as well as the unwavering support of the entire global Baptist family,” Brown said.

“To receive such an honor in the midst of war is also a poignant reminder that much remains to be done. May we all continue to work together for lasting and just peace in Ukraine and around the world.”

Brown was the first leader of a worldwide Christian fellowship to visit Ukraine in the immediate aftermath of the full-scale Russian invasion of the nation on Feb. 24, 2022.

He met with leaders of the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Baptist Churches—the country’s largest Protestant group, with more than 2,000 congregations.

Baptists instrumental in humanitarian aid

As soon as the escalated invasion began, Baptists in Ukraine mobilized churches along evacuation routes to provide food, rest and respite care for internally displaced people journeying from east to west.

Ukrainian Baptists also established “centers of hope” at churches in the nation’s western regions to shelter displaced individuals and families.

With BWA support, the European Baptist Federation coordinated humanitarian relief. The first truckload of humanitarian supplies left Hungary on the day the full-scale invasion began.

BWA reported “the global Baptist family has collectively helped more than 2 million people,” including with temporary shelter, food, medical care, psychosocial support, summer camps for children and mobile serving people near the front lines. Direct BWAid investment totaled more than $4.8 million.

In addition, BWA provided 10,000 Bibles and pastoral support, as well as advocating for strengthened religious freedom protection and support for persecuted people of faith.

Emphasis on prayer for a just peace

The ceremony in Sophia Square took place on the day Ukrainian Baptists and other religious groups urged people of faith internationally to pray for their nation.

“In this time of trials, we need not only political and humanitarian support, but also spiritual solidarity—through prayers, compassion and fraternal participation.” Valerii Antoniuk, president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine and chair of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, wrote in an online letter.

Independence Day ceremonies continued at the Ukrainian National Prayer Breakfast at the Mystetski Arsenal in Kyiv. Brown and Donaldson were among 350 foreign guests from 50 nations who attended.

Donaldson described Ukraine as “a nation of beauty and brokenness—a nation that is fighting for many freedoms.”

“Among its diminishing population are many people of Christian faith who are seeking understanding of their circumstances and direction for how to live, speak and share hope,” Donaldson said.

“Many are grieving the loss of loved ones through displacement, abduction or the loss of life. We meet victims of torture who testify to the destruction of places of worship and the systemic violence experienced by believers in the occupied territories.”

He described the Ukrainian National Prayer Breakfast as “a moment in history where these stories were acknowledged, recorded and grieved—where prayer was offered by people of all ages and a variety of nations who seek to stand in solidarity with Ukraine’s desire to live in freedom.”

With information provided by Merritt Johnston of BWA.

RALEIGH, N.C.—Health care missions provide access to millions of people who’ve never heard of the Great Physician, and health care professionals play a crucial role in prescribing treatment for both physical and spiritual needs.

These were some of the messages attendees of MedAdvance heard. The conference was designed to inform, mobilize and connect health care professionals and students with International Mission Board missionaries serving in medical missions roles.

Held yearly since 2007, MedAdvance 2025 met in Raleigh, N.C., from Aug. 21-23 at Providence Church.

More than 300 people, including 47 health care students, attended. Participants included an endodontist, nurses, physician assistants, an OBGYN, general practitioners, nurses who are members of a chapter of the Filipino Woman’s Missionary Union and a church volunteer coordinator.

Some MedAdvance participants, like a physician assistant and her family who are preparing to move to West Africa and a nurse who is pursuing work among the Deaf, are currently in the process of serving with the IMB. Others, like the group of Filipino nurses, were exploring ways to serve. Others were looking to get involved through prayer and giving.

Tom Hicks, IMB director of global health strategies, said he’s seeing a movement of greater understanding among Southern Baptists of how the IMB is involved in health care missions.

Hicks’ prayer was that attendees would see how they can participate in healthcare missions, whether that’s praying more effectively, giving specifically and strategically or going. The many commitment cards placed on two maps of the world at the end of MedAdvance were evidence this prayer was answered.

IMB President Paul Chitwood told participants via video that 12 percent of the IMB’s missionary workforce have a medical background. IMB missionaries are touching the lives of 50,000 people through healthcare ministries every year.

MedAdvance attendees participated in an affinity marathon, where they heard about the health care ministries of missionaries from the IMB’s eight regions of service, including global Deaf ministry.

Health care ministries included art therapy for trauma survivors in Europe, training national medical workers in Sub-Saharan Africa, disease prevention in the Americas and pre- and post-natal care in the Asia-Pacific Rim.

The affinity marathon allowed conference attendees to learn about short- and long-term opportunities to serve.

Health care professionals attended breakout sessions on topics such as how to be a health care volunteer, engaging Hinduism and Islam, fitness and wellness strategies and how to address human needs in your community.

Veteran missionary doctor discusses strategies

In two packed sessions, Dr. Rebekah Naylor spoke on the core missionary task as it relates to health care missions. Naylor served 50 years with the IMB at Bangalore Baptist Hospital in India as a surgeon, chief of medical staff, administrator and medical superintendent.

Naylor walked MedAdvance participants through the ABCs (and DEs) of health care strategies: access, behind closed doors, caring for needs, disciple-making and empowering the church. Each of these connects with components of the core missionary task: entry, evangelism, disciple-making, leadership development, church formation and exit to partnership.

MedAdvance participants also learned about the Dr. Naylor Preach and Heal fund, which provides money for the health care ministries of IMB missionaries. Donations provide resources and services like ultrasound machines in the Asia-Pacific Rim, repairs for a gym in Thailand where IMB missionaries started a church and trauma-informed coloring books for refugee children.

Victor Hou, IMB associate vice president of global advance, reported from 2000 to 2100, the global population is projected to exceed the number of people who lived in the previous 600 years. An estimated 24.9 billion people will live, breathe and die in 100 years.

“Much of the credit goes to those of you who are health care professionals,” Hou said. “Because of your skills, because of the advances of medical technologies, because of the training and what you’re able to bring, we’ve seen lives extended. We’ve seen longevity in lifespan, and we are better at treating diseases and keeping people healthier.”

However, there is no earthly cure for the diagnosis every human receives at birth.

“Why has God placed us in this generation, in this era, in this time when we see the greatest number of people on earth and unprecedented human growth?” Hou asked.

“God has given all of us and the church this opportunity to steward his gospel to the greatest number of people who have ever walked the face of the earth.”

‘We are going to make disciples’

April Bunn, the IMB’s prayer office director, led participants through three prayer sessions. She reported 166,338 people die daily having never heard the name of Jesus.

Dr. Joel Vaughan spoke during two sessions. Vaughan is an internal medicine and pediatrics physician and served for 10 years with the IMB. He now practices medicine for a Duke Health primary care clinic in Raleigh.

“When we go, we’re not going principally to treat diabetes or rehab a bad contracture or remove a gallbladder. We’re going to make disciples,” Vaughan said.

Vaughan’s journey to the mission field began at Providence, just a few feet from where he stood.

As a 22-year-old, he sat in the sanctuary and petitioned the Lord to show him what he should do after graduating. After pleading for weeks, God answered through someone who read John 14:6, “I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”

Vaughan suggested that some in the room were in a similar situation this weekend.

“Jesus shows the way as we walk with him, as we follow him, as we’re willing to do whatever he asks us to do,” Vaughan said. “He’s going to use who you are, what you have and your skills.”

Todd Lafferty, the IMB’s executive vice president, was the key speaker during the evening sessions.

“Some of you might be sensing [God] wants you to go full time,” Lafferty said. “Now is the time to use your health care skills and combine that with the need on the field to reach people that wouldn’t otherwise be reached.

“You have a unique opportunity in the mission in our day to get to the places where most people can’t because of the skills that you have.”

Dr. Nora Chiu, an OBGYN from Houston, attended MedAdvance last year and felt the Lord leading her to use her medical skills on the mission field. She began the application process with the IMB and came to this year’s MedAdvance to confirm her calling.

“I would have never imagined using medicine to do missions,” Chiu said. “There are so many needs I didn’t realize.”

Attending this year’s MedAdvance helped confirm her call.

During the closing session, attendees were encouraged to make a commitment to partner by marking a commitment card. According to early reports, 70 committed to pray, 49 were interested in short-term trips, 12 indicated interest in mobilizing for health care missions and 35 committed to pursuing mid- or long-term service.

The Russian Supreme Court in Moscow is scheduled Aug. 28 to hear the appeal of an unregistered Baptist church in Kurganinsk whose building was sealed by government officials in May.

In response to a court order issued last October, bailiffs sealed the building on May 16 and denied members access to the Council of Churches Baptist “house of prayer” unless the church submitted to state registration.

However, three months after authorities sealed the building, Baptists continue to meet outside their facility to pray and worship, an Oslo-based news service focused on international human rights and religious freedom reported.

Forum 18 quoted a Baptist in Kurganinsk who “witnessed church members young and old praying on their knees, right on the pavement” outside the building.

Judge Vitaly Yakonov asserted religious activities by the Council of Churches Baptist community in Kurganinsk created “a threat to the security of public interests, national security [and] public order, as well as the rights and interests of an undefined circle of persons involved in the activities of the group through illegal missionary activity,” Forum 18 reported.

Pastor Aleksandr Chmykh unsuccessfully appealed the October judicial ruling both in regional court in November and at the 4th Cessational Court in Krasnodar in May.

Baptists in Kurganinsk continued to meet for worship services and other gatherings, prompting bailiffs to fine the pastor 50,000 rubles for failing to fulfill the court’s demands.

Courts impose prohibitions on religious activity

Russian courts have imposed similar prohibitions on several other Council of Churches Baptist communities, and prosecutors are seeking to bar religious gatherings by at least three other congregations, according to Forum 18.

In the last 20 months, five unregistered Baptist churches in Russia—mostly in the Krasnodar region—have faced lawsuits or had their activities prohibited by authorities, the news service reported.

Council of Churches Baptists formed in the 1960s in opposition to Soviet religious restrictions, such as government regulation of sermon content, pastoral appointments and religious instruction of children.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Council of Churches Baptist—numbering about 2,500 congregations—have asserted the Russian Constitution, the 1997 Religion Law and international human rights law provide them the right to meet for worship without government involvement and state registration.

Council of Churches Baptist congregations often meet in private homes—or houses of prayer—on private land.

Alleged ‘illegal missionary activities’

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom cited the government’s closing of the Baptist house of prayer in Kurganinsk for alleged “illegal missionary activities” in its July report, “Russia’s Persecution of Religious Groups and FoRB Actors.”

Russian authorities continue to perpetrate “particularly severe violations of religious freedom against a range of religious groups and freedom of religion or belief actors,” the commission report said. Violations cited include closing houses of worship, as well as assaulting, arresting and even torturing religious leaders.

Russian courts in 2024 considered 431 cases of religion law violations—many related to alleged “illegal missionary activities”—resulting in fines totaling more than 4.7 million rubles (more than $58,000), the report said.

Since 2017, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has recommended Russia be named a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in “systematic, ongoing and egregious” religious freedom violations. The U.S. Department of State designated Russia as a Country of Particular Concern in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

In its latest annual report, the commission not only urged the State Department to continue to designate Russia as a Country of Particular Concern, but also impose targeted sanctions on Russian government agencies and officials responsible for religious freedom violations.

NASHVILLE (BP)—Americans don’t see much wrong with using birth control or getting a divorce, but few support extramarital affairs or human cloning.

The latest poll results from Gallup spell out what activities U.S. adults view as morally acceptable and which ones are seen as immoral.

Most Americans believe birth control (90 percent), divorce (75 percent), sex between an unmarried man and woman (68 percent), having a baby outside of marriage (67 percent), gay or lesbian relations (64 percent), gambling (63 percent), human embryonic stem cell research (63 percent), buying or wearing animal fur clothing (61 percent), the death penalty (56 percent), and doctor-assisted suicide (53 percent) are morally acceptable.

U.S. adults are more divided on abortion (49 percent morally acceptable versus 40 percent morally wrong) and medical testing on animals (47 percent morally acceptable versus 47 percent morally wrong).

Fewer Americans say sex between teenagers (41 percent), changing one’s gender (40 percent), pornography (35 percent), cloning animals (34 percent), polygamy (21 percent), suicide (21 percent), cloning humans (8 percent), and married men and women having an affair (8 percent) are morally acceptable choices.

Generally more permissive

The moral views of Americans are not static, however. Many have shifted over the more than 20 years Gallup has conducted this poll. Mostly, Americans have grown more permissive.

Only medical testing on animals has seen a sustained, significant decline in the percentage of adults who view it as morally acceptable. In 2001, 65 percent of Americans said it was morally acceptable. Now, just 47 percent support it.

The percentage of those who view the death penalty as morally acceptable also has dropped, but the dip has been smaller and less sustained over the past three decades—63 percent in 2001 to 56 percent in 2025.

Support for changing one’s gender also fell this year, but it only has been asked in the past four years. In 2021, 46 percent believed it was morally acceptable. In 2025, 40 percent still agree. A 2016 Lifeway Research study of Americans found only 35 percent believed it was morally wrong for an individual to identify with a gender different than the sex they were born.

A 2021 Lifeway Research study of U.S. Protestant pastors found 72 percent say it’s morally wrong to identify with a gender different from your birth sex, and 77 percent say it’s morally wrong to change the gender you were born with through surgery or taking hormones.

On the other hand, Gallup found numerous activities have become more socially acceptable in America since 2001, including divorce (59 percent to 75 percent), sex between an unmarried man and woman (53 percent to 68 percent), gay or lesbian relations (40 percent to 64 percent), and suicide (13 percent to 21 percent).

Other activities were first asked about more recently, but they have also seen growth. Since 2002, support for both having a baby outside of marriage (45 percent in 2002 to 67 percent in 2025) and medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos (52 percent in 2002 to 63 percent in 2005) has increased.

The percentage of Americans who believe polygamy is morally acceptable has tripled since 2003—from 7 percent to 21 percent. More people are also accepting of sex between teenagers (32 percent in 2013 to 41 percent in 2025).

Some approval ratings remain stable

Other activities have had more stable levels of approval since Gallup first asked. Since 2012, birth control has only wavered plus or minus two points from 90 percent.

Buying and wearing clothing made from animal fur has stayed near 60 percent. Gambling has stayed mostly in the 60s. Support for the death penalty has been around 60 percent.

Approval of doctor-assisted suicide has stayed around 50 percent. Those who approve of pornography have hovered somewhere around 30 percent to 40 percent.

The percentage who support cloning animals has stayed mostly in the 30s, while cloning humans and married men and women having an affair have hovered around 10 percent.

Abortion has been more volatile than the other issues. Those who find it morally acceptable have stayed mostly in the 40s, but it has fluctuated from anywhere between 36 percent and 54 percent over the past two decades.

Generational differences noted

Younger adults, ages 18-34, are often more permissive than their elders. Around 3 in 10 (31 percent) say polygamy is acceptable, compared to 10 percent of those 55 and older.

Most (55 percent) are OK with changing one’s gender, while just 35 percent of older Americans support the practice.

Americans under 35 also are more supportive of gay or lesbian relations, abortion, sex between an unmarried man and woman, sex between teenagers, pornography, buying or wearing animal fur clothing, cloning animals, cloning humans, having a baby outside of marriage, divorce, suicide, gambling, doctor-assisted suicide and the death penalty.

Meanwhile, they are less in favor than those 55 and older of human embryonic stem cell research, birth control, married men and women having an affair, and medical testing on animals.

Texans on Mission is not only bringing fresh water and good hygiene practices to people in the Andes Mountains of Peru, but also bringing the gospel, with 46 professions of faith recorded during an August mission trip.

“We have moved our efforts in Peru from the Amazon River basin to the mountains because of various logistical challenges that surfaced along the river,” said Mitch Chapman, director of Texans on Mission Water Impact. “Now we are seeing God really move through our work.”

Texans on Mission drilling efforts in Peru have produced one successful well in the Andes, and the August team began work on a second well for another community with residents scattered throughout the mountainside.

The dry season lasts six to eight months in the Andes. Springs dry up, and pond water becomes “nasty,” said Julio Campos of Gateway Church in Justin, one of the Texas leaders in the work in Peru.

“The pond water is all they have to drink unless they walk or get to other water sources, in some cases two to four hours down the mountain and back during the dry season.”

Water Impact identified increasing opportunities in the area and began working in the region in January, but the mountains create challenges.

The mountain faces are, in places, “sheer straight up and very close to each other,” requiring multiple roadway “switchbacks all the way up the mountains,” Campos said.

Still, the first Texans on Mission well struck water at 80 meters in Capulipampa.

The August mission team divided into two groups—one to drill a new well in Llimbe and the other heading to Capulipampa to do evangelistic work.

Women receptive to the gospel

The evangelism team had planned to work with children—telling Bible stories, distributing Gold-to-Gold gospel bracelets, playing games and singing. It turned out the women of the community were open to learning through Bible study, which diverted some of the team’s efforts.

Team member Delia Lozuk of Alice “ministers like no one I’ve ever seen,” Campos said. “Ministry to women is her forte.”

On the first day, 10 to 15 mothers brought their children to be part of the activities, Campos said. By the end of the day, Lozuk “got a Bible study going on” with even more women.

Team member Rhonda Dodson said about 40 women ended up participating in the two days of Bible study led by Lozuk, and 30 of them eventually made professions of faith in Christ.

She and her husband Paul are former missionaries to Venezuela, and both speak Spanish.

“My wife Delia has an extraordinary anointing with women,” and especially with “these people that are descendants of the Inca,” Paul Lozuk said.

He explained people living in the Andes are a distinctive group.

“They are short of stature and extremely strong,” walking long distances at high altitude, he said. They also dress in traditional clothing, and “the women don’t talk too much to the men, especially foreigners,” he added.

The cultural preference for women to communicate with other women opened the door for ministry in the Andes.

Making Bibles available

“One thing I understand,” Delia Lozuk said. “There is no doubt that these people from Peru really do need Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and most do not have a Bible.”

Local pastor Alex Miranda had boxes of New Testaments, so the team handed them out. “He had enough for every single person, every woman,” she said, and copies of the complete Bible were ordered for distribution.

“The people were very hungry for the word” of God, said Dodson, a Texans on Mission Water Impact employee who was on her first mission trip. “When we were in Capulipampa, the ladies’ request was for Bibles. So, of course, we’re going to get them Bibles.”

The Bible studies took on the form of a conversation, Delia Lozuk said. The women living in the Andes were “hungry for something, and I asked them, in the middle of just having small conversations, about the Bible, about the word of God. I was trying to put everything I could in there so they could get a little bit of a taste of what I was trying to say.”

A ‘God-appointed time’

She saw the trip to Peru as being a “God-appointed time for me. … I didn’t know I was going to minister to women.” She went only as an interpreter, but “something happened the first day” as more and more women gathered.

“Women are very hungry, but we don’t know, because they don’t speak with the men for some reason,” she said. “They’ve heard about a Savior, but they don’t know the Bible.

“I’m thinking, ‘What the heck are you doing, Delia?’ But it’s not my show; it’s God’s show.” So she did another unexpected thing; she gave the women homework—Scripture to read so they can discuss it together sometime in the future.

With an expectation of a return trip, Lozuk promised to “literally give them a little nugget about every single book in the Bible” to whet their appetite for additional Bible study.

Six of the women attending the meetings stood up with excitement when asked if anyone had given their lives to Christ. By the end of the two days, all of the others had professed faith in Christ.

‘God just took control’

“It was my impression that God set all this up,” and the team “just walked into it,” Delia Lozuk said. “God just took control, and that’s really what happened. … God did this through us.”

The drilling of the second well and the evangelistic outreach did not occur in a vacuum of ease. Campos said he asked in his daily devotionals with the team for “God to show up.”

When luggage and a passport were lost, the group prayed. No matter the difficulty, Campos said the theme of the trip became, “just ask”—ask God for help. And each time, the prayers were answered.

With the success of the well drilling and the women’s ministry, Campos said the mission trip “went fantastic.”

Chapman said: “The well we drilled in Capulipampa laid the foundation for all that happened evangelistically on the trip. And now, with the second well in Llimbe, we are continuing to pursue our vision of bringing clean, sustainable water to as many people as possible while sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ to people in need of both.”