Around the State: ETBU ministers in Southeast Texas, TBM continues disaster relief along Gulf Coast

East Texas Baptist University sent more than 40 students, faculty and staff to Southeast Texas to partner with First Baptist Church in Nederland, Texas Baptist Men and Baptist Men of North Carolina in providing disaster relief for survivors of Hurricane Harvey. Three volunteer teams served 11 families in the Golden Triangle region by removing sheetrock, flooring, interior wood and personal possessions from flood-damaged homes. Earlier, ETBU President Blair Blackburn and other ETBU leaders delivered nonperishable food and other supplies to the Houston area, and members of the ETBU bass fishing and men’s basketball teams worked on homes in Lumberton.

Texas Baptist Men volunteers continue to serve in nine sites along the Texas Gulf Coast, providing disaster relief and recovery in partnership with Baptist volunteers from multiple other states, as well as working on rebuilding efforts. Through Oct. 15, they contributed more than 256,000 volunteer hours and made about 20,000 personal contacts. They have prepared more than 1.5 million meals, provided access to 22,000 showers and washed more than 13,000 loads of laundry. Volunteers completed mold mitigation in more than 1,000 water-damaged homes, presented the gospel about 1,200 times, distributed more than 4,900 Bibles and recorded 215 professions of faith. At Volunteer Villages set up at churches in the region, TBM workers are coordinating churches groups that are helping with recovery and rebuilding after Hurricane Harvey. To contribute financially to TBM disaster relief, click here or send a check designated “disaster relief” to Texas Baptist Men, 5351 Catron, Dallas 75227.

As a part of the Global Sports Mission Initiative at Dallas Baptist University, the Patriot basketball and cheerleading teams traveled to Spain during fall break, using their athletic talents to build relationships and share the gospel with students at the Alfa & Omega School in Denia. The DBU students led basketball and cheer clinics for the Alfa & Omega students, and the Patriot basketball team competed against the semi-professional Club Baloncesto Benidorm and the Universidad of Valencia. Connor Smith is director of athletics at DBU.

Jesús Romero, director of the ISAAC— Immigration Service and Aid Center—Project, spoke at Howard Payne University as part of the university’s observance of National Hispanic Heritage Month. Romero addressed students from the departments of modern languages and Hispanic studies, criminal justice and social work and sociology. ISAAC is a project of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission and Baptist University of the Américas designed to help churches and organizations obtain immigration law training, start English-as-a-Second-Language and other citizenship and literacy courses, and provide education and information on immigration matters.

Grammy and Dove Award-winning Christian recording artist Sandi Patty and the vocal group Veritas presented a concert Oct. 12 in the Baugh Performance Hall of the new Sue & Frank Mayborn Performing Arts Center on the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor campus. Donors who made the facility possible attended the private event. At the event, UMHB President Randy O’Rear presented the John & Mary Hardin Visionary Leadership Award to Sue Mayborn. The award is named for John and Mary Hardin, whose $100,000 donation to UMHB in 1933 made it possible for the college to remain open amid the Great Depression. UMHB celebrated the dedication of the performing arts center in a public ceremony the next day. The Sue & Frank Mayborn Performing Arts Center is a 40,725-square-foot building that features a 525-seat performance hall.

The family of the late Howard E. Butt Jr. donated $1 million to support Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts in the hardest hit areas along the Gulf Coast. His widow, Barbara Dan Butt, and their three children—Howard Butt III, Stephen Butt and Deborah Dan Butt Rogers—contributed to the Coastal Bend Disaster Recovery Group Fund in honor of their husband and father, who died last year. The family’s donation will support some of the hardest hit areas along the Gulf Coast, including Aransas Pass, Bayside, Ingleside, Port Aransas, Refugio, Rockport and Woodsboro. While working in the family grocery business, Howard E. Butt Jr. built a lay ministry through his leadership of the H.E. Butt Family Foundation. Over five decades years, his ministry touched many lives of South Texans through Laity Lodge, authoring books on Christian leadership, and a series of radio spots, “The High Calling of Our Daily Work.”

Anniversaries

125^th for First Baptist Church in Silverton. G.J. Walton is pastor.

Ordination

Sandy Hoover to the gospel ministry at Athey Baptist Church in Harleton, where he is pastor.