Around the State: Baylor chaplains swim to raise funds for cancer research

Alan Wright, chaplain at the Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center, and Mike Mullender, director of pastoral care at Baylor University Medical Center, were among about 350 participants in a Swim Across America fund-raising event Sept. 14 at Lake Ray Hubbard in Rockwall. Wright and Mullender joined other members of the “Baylor Salmons” team in a half-mile event. Other swimmers participated in one-mile and two-mile events. The event raised about $250,000 for the Innovative Clinical Trials Center at Baylor’s Sammons Cancer Center.

Baptist Temple in San Antonio is now home to the satellite campus of San Antonio Clubhouse, a program where adults with mental health conditions can volunteer, learn and grow. San Antonio Clubhouse promotes life skills, job skills, employment, wellness, recreation, connections to resources and healthy meals. The Baptist Temple site is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Multiple congregations and nonprofit organizations share the Baptist Temple campus to meet the community’s spiritual, physical, emotional and educational needs. Earlier this year, Baptist Temple announced its plans to build an inclusive playground to serve children of different ability levels on the city’s Southside. Jorge Zayasbazan is pastor.

Hundreds gathered at East Texas Baptist University for the 9th annual Great East Texas Hymn Sing on Sept. 13 in the Baker Chapel of the Rogers Spiritual Life Center for the time of worship and fellowship. Along with the university community, church groups from Texas and neighboring states attended the event in Baker Chapel of the Rogers Spiritual Life Center. During the service, Charles and Jo Ann Whiteside of Kilgore, longtime supporters of ETBU, were inducted into the Founder’s Society.

Stacey Martin, dean of students at Hardin-Simmons University, was named vice president of student life at the university after serving in that post five months as interim. Martin earned her bachelor’s degree in behavioral sciences from HSU in 1996 and her master’s degree in 2001. She anticipates completing her doctorate of education in leadership next May. Martin has served in a variety of positions at Hardin-Simmons. She is a member of Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene. She and her husband Cody have two sons, Caden and Creed.

Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary and the Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching, in partnership with Texas Baptists’ African American Ministries, will host the National African American Preaching Conference on Sept. 24-26. “The conference will especially note the 400th anniversary of slavery and the power of black pulpit speaking against slavery’s evil agenda,” said Joel Gregory, professor of preaching at Truett and director of the Kyle Lake Center. Conference speakers include senior pastors William H. Curtis of Mt. Ararat Baptist Church in Pittsburgh, Penn.; Charlie Dates of Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago, Ill.; Phillip Pointer of Saint Mark Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark.; and Ralph Douglas West of The Church Without Walls in Houston, TX. Bishop Vashti McKenzie of the African Methodist Episcopal Church also is featured at this year’s conference. Registration cost is $99, which includes a Legacy Banquet. For more information or to register, click here.

Hardin-Simmons University dedicated its newly constructed Tommy Hale Short Game Facility on Sept. 12. Named after Tommy Hale, who played on HSU’s golf team from 1952 to 1955 and is the only individual national champion golfer from the school, the facility includes a putting green, chipping green, fairway and two sand bunkers. Joe and Susan Black provided the funds for the facility. Black was Hale’s teammate at HSU.

Anniversary

30^th for George Mason as pastor at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.