Around the State: Churches introduce themselves to ETBU students

Representatives from more than 30 Marshall-area churches participated in the annual Church Day at East Texas Baptist University on Aug. 16. The event takes place the first week of class each fall to introduce students to area churches. This year, local churches set up booths and tables in the university’s Quad to offer free t-shirts, snacks and promotional items, and share information about the heart of their ministries. Prior to the event, Bobby Contreras, chair of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board, addressed students in the morning chapel service. Contreras, pastor of Alamo Heights Baptist Church in San Antonio, told students: “One of the most important decisions that you will make during your time here at ETBU is the community of people that you connect yourself to, knowing that you cannot and should not do life on your own. Something happens when we get together in crowds for Jesus’ name.”

As a part of Student Welcome and Transition (SWAT) week at Dallas Baptist University, 520 students spread throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area for a day of service. One group packed 580 boxes and wrote encouraging messages to support mothers with unexpected pregnancies. Another group of student volunteers painted houses with 6 Stones, an organization committed to constructing and refurbishing residences for underserved families. Other student groups served at Mission Arlington, Cornerstone Baptist Church in Dallas and Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas, along with more than a dozen other ministries and community service organizations.

Wayland Baptist University President Bobby Hall addressed the university’s annual convocation chapel service, encouraging students to recognize the treasure God has stored in them. Basing his message on 2 Corinthians 4:7-10, Hall called on students to recognize the potential God has placed in them. “Within us—within these clay jars—resides a divine treasure, making us capable, not merely of ordinary deeds, but of extraordinary deeds if we have the courage and conviction to harness this all-surpassing power,” he said. “Scripture clearly implies that we are made for more.”

The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty named Abigail Villagrana, a Master of Divinity degree student at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary, to the BJC Fellows 2023 class. BJC Fellows completed an intensive training seminar over five days in Colonial Williamsburg, Va., to equip them for advocacy to protect religious freedom. BJC staff and other legal and theological experts, plus Colonial Williamsburg’s own historic interpreters, provided instruction in the historical, legal and theological underpinnings of religious liberty during the seminar. Villagrana is a graduate of Dallas Baptist University. She is a resident chaplain in a Baylor residence hall and a volunteer chaplain for asylum seekers at the Naomi House, operated by DaySpring Baptist Church in Waco.

Texas Baptist Men disaster relief volunteers served meals to about 340 students during a back-to-school event on the Dallas Baptist University campus. Volunteers with the Dallas-based Dixon Unit set up the TBM food truck on the perimeter of the DBU Quad, serving hot pulled-pork sandwiches and treats to students. Gaylan Mathis of Forney was on-site coordinator of the 14-member TBM team.

Wayland Baptist University marked the dedication and grand opening of the Ben and Bertha Mieth School of Nursing on Aug. 21. Wayland named the school for Ben and Bertha Mieth in recognition of their $2.5 million gift, which made possible the school’s relocation from New Braunfels to its Live Oak location in suburban San Antonio.

As a part of the celebration, Wayland Baptist University President Bobby Hall announced Wayland posthumously was conferring an honorary Bachelor of Nursing degree on Irene Wilson George, Bertha Mieth’s mother. Hall noted she left school “one class short” of completing her degree, and the university “would like to help her complete that journey.” The Mieth’s gift also established the Irene Wilson George Endowed Scholarship in Nursing at Wayland. Patricia Hough was named as the first recipient of the scholarship. Hough said she had to defer her acceptance to another nursing school in 2003 when she found out she was pregnant. “Twenty years and three kids later, I decided it was finally time to fulfill my lifelong dream,” she said.