T.W. Hunt, 85, died Dec. 11 in Spring. Hunt was widely known as an authority on prayer and was the author of such books as The Mind of Christ and Disciple’s Prayer Life. He also was a professor of music and missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1963 to 1987. T.W. HuntWhile he made a profession of faith in Christ at age 10, it was not until 1959 that he committed his life to Christ after reading a copy of the Martin Luther German translation of the Bible. The Bible was a gift from a music student who knew Hunt spoke the language. Four years later, Hunt followed God’s leading to teach at Southwestern Seminary. He soon developed a course offering students techniques for using music to communicate the message of the gospel by focusing on the indigenous music of the people. In 1987, the SBC Sunday School Board asked him to become the board’s first prayer consultant. He retired from LifeWay Christian Resources in 1994. Hunt was preceded in death by his wife, Laverne, in 2009.

Robin Feistel, 66, died Dec. 10 in Houston. Her passion and calling was ministering to others through English as a Second Language. Her first experience with teaching English to non-English speakers was as a journeyman missionary to Taiwan in 1971. While a member at First Baptist Church in Richardson, she became a volunteer ESL teacher, and soon became director. Robin FeistelUnder her leadership, the program grew from less than 20 students in 1981 to more than 250 when she left in 1989. When she moved to Nacogdoches, she developed the ESL program there. While she enjoyed teaching students, she began to realize she could have a bigger impact by developing curriculum and training materials for other ESL teachers. In 2006, she wrote TEX—Teaching English with Excellence—in conjunction with Literacy Connexus. She received the Marie Mathis Award for Lay Ministry presented by the Baptist Standard and Baylor University. She is survived by her husband, Robert; daughter, Helen; son, Andrew; brothers, Harry, Walter and Randy Creighton; sister, Sherry Creighton; and two grandsons. A memorial service will be held Jan. 17 at 11 a.m. at Sugar Land Baptist Church in Sugar Land. A second memorial service will be held Jan. 24 at 11 a.m. at First Baptist Church in Nacogdoches.

Students in Baylor University’s inaugural “Philanthropy and the Public Good” class directed $100,000 to Waco nonprofit organizations. After a semester-long evaluation process, the class presented grants to the executive directors and boards of eight nonprofit organizations—Waco Habitat for Humanity, Family Health Center, Shepherd’s Heart, Communities in Schools for the Heart of Texas, Talitha Koum Institute, Animal Birth Control Clinic, Compassion Ministries and Act Locally Waco. Throughout the fall, the students operated as a foundation board of directors, deciding in “board meetings” how and where to give funds; as foundation program officers, cultivating relationships with nonprofits, assessing their needs and effectiveness and in some cases advocating on their behalf to the larger board of directors; and as employees of a nonprofit organization, writing grant applications that were considered by the larger board. Baylor worked in partnership with the Fort Worth-based Once Upon a Time Foundation, which began the Philanthropy Lab program in 2011. Since its founding, the Philanthropy Lab has given more than $3 million to build philanthropy education at select universities.

CLC reallocates hunger funds to respond to Ebola crisis. Commissioners on Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission unanimously voted to reallocate $6,000 of Texas Baptist Hunger Offering funds from one project to another in Sierra Leone because of the Ebola crisis. Originally intended to defray school fees and provide meals for students, the funds instead will help rehabilitate a school that has been closed for nearly half a year due to the Ebola epidemic. The Baptist Convention of Sierra Leone requested the reallocation, believing it will to open job opportunities for residents in a nation where nearly 50 percent of people lost their jobs.

Dallas couple endows Baylor chair in religious freedom. Jerry and Susie Wilson of Dallas gave Baylor University $2 million to establish an endowed chair in religious freedom. The Jerry and Susie Wilson Chair in Religious Freedom will help Baylor University and its Institute for Studies of Religion address issues of freedom of conscience and worship, as well as Christianity’s role in promoting human freedom, Baylor President Ken Starr said. The future holder of the endowed chair will lead Baylor’s efforts to strengthen and affirm congressional support for the preservation, protection and defense of religious freedom on Capitol Hill. In addition, the chair will collaborate on critical projects involving international religious freedom through diplomatic engagement and integrating religious freedom into broader foreign policy.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Americans view racial diversity positively, and they believe relations in the United States are better than they used to be, but there’s still a long way to go, according to two new surveys from Nashville-based LifeWay Research.

Researchers asked 1,000 American lay people and 1,000 Protestant pastors about their views on race relations. They found many Americans have mixed feelings about the state of racial diversity in the United States.

Scott McConnell, vice president of LifeWay Research, believes Americans still are adapting to the nation’s demographic shifts. In 1960, 89 percent of Americans were white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Today, America is much more diverse. Fewer than two-thirds of Americans—and just over half of schoolchildren—are Non-Hispanic whites. By 2050, no one group will be a majority.

That’s a big change, McConnell said, and Americans still are trying to sort through what it means. The fallout from the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York increased tension about racial relations.

“Recent high-profile cases highlight the lack of understanding, respect and trust that remain between races,” McConnell said.

Research showed eight in 10 Americans (82 percent) say racial diversity is good for the country. One in seven (14 percent) disagree.

Three-quarters of Americans (74 percent) agree with the statement, “We have come so far on racial relations.” About a quarter disagree (23 percent). Agreement cut across ethnic and racial lines. Three-fourths of whites (74 percent), African-Americans (74 percent) and Hispanic-Americans (73 percent) all agree.

However, some take issue with that statement. One in six (17 percent) African-Americans strongly disagree, compared to 11 percent of whites and 5 percent of Hispanics. 

Few are satisfied with the state of race relations. Eight in 10 (81 percent) agree with the statement, “We’ve got so far to go on racial relations.” One in six (16 percent) disagree.

Fifty-seven percent of African-Americans strongly agree. That drops to 39 percent of whites and 42 percent of Hispanics.

“On the surface, most Americans agree that racial reconciliation matters,” said Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research. “But we’re divided about how important this issue is. For many white Americans, progress on issues of race is a good thing but not urgent. For many African-Americans, it’s front and center.”

Younger Americans—age 18 to 24—are the most optimistic about race relations. Almost nine in 10 (88 percent) see diversity as good for the country. And an overwhelming majority (84 percent) agree with the statement, “We’ve come so far on racial relations.”

Older Americans are a bit more skeptical. About three-quarters (76 percent) of those over age 65 say diversity is good for the country. Seven out of 10 (71 percent) of those 45 to 54 say the nation has come far on racial relations.

Whites (85 percent) are more likely to agree diversity is good for the country than African-Americans (75 percent) or Hispanic-Americans (74 percent). Christians (80 percent) are somewhat less likely than the Nones (89 percent) to see diversity as a good thing.

Few see Obama as a factor

LifeWay Research found few Americans believe race relations have improved since the election of President Barack Obama. About half (49 percent) say race relations have stayed the same. Three in 10 (29 percent) believe relations are more strained. About one of seven (15 percent) say things have improved.

About a quarter of African-Americans (23 percent) say relations have improved since Obama’s election. That drops to one in seven (14 percent) for whites.

Christian pastors and other religious leaders took a leading role during the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, and many Americans believe those leaders still fill an important role today.

“Christian leaders have the opportunity to influence millions of Americans to value each and every person, no matter their race,” McConnell said.

Two-thirds (65 percent) of U.S. adults say religious leaders play a positive role in race relations in the United States. About three in 10 (30 percent) disagree, while 5 percent are not sure.

Evangelicals (74 percent) and Christians (71 percent) are most likely to say religious leaders have a positive role in race relations. Those of other faiths (56 percent) and the Nones (46 percent) are more skeptical.

Hispanic-Americans (57 percent) are less likely to agree than whites (67 percent) or African-Americans (72 percent).

For their part, Protestant senior pastors see a close connection between diversity and the central message of Christianity.

Nine of out 10 pastors  (90 percent) agree with the statement: “Racial reconciliation is mandated by the gospel.” Only 6 percent disagree.

Most evangelical (90 percent) and mainline (93 percent) pastors agree. Pastors of smaller churches (83 percent) and those from larger congregations (95 percent) also agree. About three out of four (76 percent) African-American pastors and nine in 10 (91 percent) white pastors say the gospel mandates racial reconciliation.

Many pastors have hands-on experience working on diversity. About three out of four (72 percent) say their church is “personally involved at the local level in addressing racial reconciliation.” A quarter disagree (23 percent). Four percent are not sure.

Pastors of larger congregations—those with more than 250 worshippers—are more likely to agree (79 percent) than pastors whose churches have fewer than 50 in attendance (66 percent).

African-American pastors (93 percent) are more likely to agree their church is involved in racial reconciliation than white pastors (71 percent).

Few pastors have diverse flocks

Previous LifeWay Research studies found most pastors say their congregations should reflect the racial makeup of their community. But few have diverse flocks. 

More than eight in 10 (86 percent) say their congregation is made up of one predominant racial or ethnic group, according to a LifeWay Research study released in January 2014. The latest wave of the National Congregations Study found similar results.

“If pastors want to lead a movement of racial reconciliation, they need to make sure their members are following,” McConnell said. “If church members are not inviting and welcoming people of other ethnic groups, their reconciliation efforts are not taking root.”

Researchers conducted the phone survey of Americans Sept. 19-28 using Random Digit Dialing. Sixty percent of completes were among landlines and 40 percent among cell phones. Researchers used maximum quotas and slight weights for gender, region, age, ethnicity and education to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.4 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

Those labeled evangelicals consider themselves “a born again, evangelical or fundamentalist Christian.” Those labeled Christian include those whose religious preference is Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox or nondenominational Christian. Nones are those whose religious preference is atheist, agnostic or no preference.

Survey methodology

Researchers conducted the phone survey of Protestant pastors Sept. 11-18. The calling list was a stratified random sample drawn from a list of all Protestant churches. Each interview was conducted with the senior pastor, minister or priest of the church called. Researchers weighted responses by region to reflect the population more accurately. The completed sample is 1,000 surveys. The sample provides 95 percent confidence the sampling error does not exceed plus or minus 3.1 percent. Margins of error are higher in sub-groups.

WASHINGTON—Pastors from several Texas Baptist churches delivered a simple but forceful message to members of Congress during a recent trip to Washington, D.C.: “Stop the payday loan debt trap.”

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship sponsored the advocacy event to urge key elected officials to support forthcoming regulations on payday loans by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and to pass legislation in the next Congress to cap interest rates on these short-term, small-dollar loans at 36 percent.

Stephen ReevesStephen Reeves, associate coordinator of partnerships and advocacy with CBF, and advocacy specialist Graham Younger led a small group from Texas Dec. 1-2 to discuss payday loan reform with members of the Texas congressional delegation. The group also met with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staff and consumer advocate leaders, strategizing how to advocate for state and national reform of the payday loan industry.

In the coming months, the bureau is expected to issue new regulations for small-dollar loans. Many faith leaders, including Reeves and the Texas pastors, wish to see the bureau establish strong restrictions on debt-trap lending.

“Over the past few decades, a systematic and deliberate dismantling of traditional usury laws has taken place across the country,” Reeves said. “The result is a multi-billion-dollar industry built not on expensive loans given to risky borrowers, but on the creation of previously illegal loan products designed to act as debt traps for working Americans desperately trying to make ends meet.”

Reeves stressed the need for a fair marketplace that recognizes a lender’s responsibility to offer products where the borrower has a “fair shot to get out debt without the need to re-borrow.”

Government action ‘essential’

While many churches are assisting people caught in the payday debt trap, he noted, government action remains essential.

“What churches cannot do on their own is ensure a fair marketplace; only government can do that. And while churches will continue their efforts to offer direct aid to individuals, we must also seize the opportunity to raise our voice as advocates and call for change from those who represent us,” he said.

Reeves and other Baptist leaders are asking the bureau to adopt a “strong rule” that mandates lenders assess a borrower’s ability to repay, prohibits the lender from direct access to a borrower’s bank account as a condition for the loan and limits how long a borrower can stay in debt in any 12-month period.

Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist Church in Houston, condemned the usurious practices of payday lenders and emphasized the need for a comprehensive solution to this national problem.

“Payday lenders are evil, well-financed and unprincipled. That combination has allowed them to proliferate by changing their legal charters as cities and states have tried to regulate them,” said Wells, a key voice in persuading the Houston City Council to adopt an ordinance in December 2013 to regulate the payday loan industry.

‘Best hope’ to curb payday lending

“What we need is a single, national comprehensive set of regulations,” Wells said. “The good news is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has the authority to regulate their practice, though not interest rates themselves. The best hope we have today to curb predatory payday lending is regulation from the CFPB.”

George Mason, senior pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, another outspoken opponent of predatory lending in Texas, emphasized the church’s responsibility to protect the vulnerable.

“The usurious practices of payday lenders are a scourge upon the land,” Mason said. “Exploiting the poor while pretending to serve them is a greedy and sinful business. If the church cannot speak clearly about this moral matter, it has lost its voice altogether. We are calling on lawmakers to remember that when virtue fails, laws are made to restrain evil and protect the vulnerable. Even those who believe strongly in limited government know the value of promoting fairness and honesty in the marketplace. All Christians have a duty to seek the well-being of ‘the least of these,’ as Jesus clearly said.”

‘Unprecedented opportunity’

Reeves emphasized the unprecedented opportunity to address the problem of payday lending.

“Pastors and churches across the country have witnessed first-hand the exploitative practices of predatory lending, trapping borrowers in a cycle of debt. CBF now has the opportunity to be a leading voice for reform nationwide,” he said. “I believe this is exactly the kind of witness for which we should be known, and so far, the response has been tremendous.”

SAN ANGELO—Several Concho Valley Baptist Association churches, along with one from Lubbock, united to share the love of Christ and Christmas with families in need in Del Rio and Eagle Pass.

For their “Taking Christmas to the Border” mission trip, the team partnered with La Esperanza Community Church in Del Rio, where Jim Wilson is pastor, and First Baptist Church in Eagle Pass, where Jeff Oliver is pastor. In Del Rio, the group lodged in dorms First Baptist Church furnished.

Volunteers from Concho Valley Baptist Association churches prepare meat from wild game bound for families in need in Del Rio and Eagle Pass.The 62-member mission team distributed food—about 1,800 canned goods, 1,000 pounds of flour and 800 pounds of sugar and miscellaneous items—donated by Concho Valley supporters.

In addition, the group delivered about 800 pounds of ground venison and 200 pounds of ground zebra. Jim Roche, one of the leaders of the mission group from Glen Meadows Baptist Church in San Angelo, is a hunting guide, and trophy hunters donated the meat.

Many of those hunters from around the country not only donated venison, but also provided money to pay the way of people who wanted to go on the mission trip but could not afford it.

Director of missions Jeff Box ground some of the meat.

“I already had made plans for the weekend that I couldn’t change, but I wanted to be involved,” he said. “It’s exciting to see them doing things like this. It’s exciting to see different churches coming together and participating. Our goal for the association is all of us coming together and joining hands where we can to build the kingdom. That’s the attitude of the churches in Concho Valley—they are willing to work with anyone to build God’s kingdom.”

Perry Rollins, a member of Glen Meadows who has his own ministry providing venison for a number of Mexican orphanages, recalled giving a package of meat to a man last year.

“A little man was at the church, and he was barely getting around with his cane,” he recalled. “I handed him a package of meat out of the freezer, and he took his cane and hooked it over his arm, took the meat in both hands and lifted the meat up in the air and said, ‘Thank you, Jesus.’

“I don’t care how much effort you have to put in it, it makes it all worth it to see the gratitude and the need of the people you are helping.”

Trophy hunters from around the country donated meat for the project.The team also held a concert, cookout and a gospel crusade twice Saturday in Del Rio—at the city amphitheater in the afternoon and at La Esperanza that evening—and again Sunday at a block party in Eagle Pass.

Organizers wanted to provide families food for Christmas Day, “and at the same time, give them the gospel, give them some hope. Let them know that people care and that there is a church where they live that wants to help them,” said Adam Rodriguez, youth minister at Oasis Baptist Church in San Angelo.

All remaining food was donated to Loaves and Fishes Food Bank directed by Gisela Lenz, which feeds more than 1,500 families a month.

The Texas Baptist Men disaster relief food-service unit in San Angelo provided all the paper goods for the cookouts, as well as the use of their trailer and a case of chili for hot dogs.

Randy Balderaz led a group of university students from Alliance Baptist Church in Lubbock, who provided the contemporary music concert. Youth team members also painted faces, incorporating a gospel witness to their artwork.

The group delivered 1,000 Bibles—400 of them in Spanish.

And since it is Christmas, they brought toys for the children.

“But our purpose is to share the true meaning of Christmas,” Roche said. Every event included invitations for people to give their lives to Christ.

About 800 pounds of ground venison and 200 pounds of ground zebra were handed out to families in Del Rio and Eagle Pass.Scheduling the events at the churches was intentional, he added. Organizers wanted local residents to meet the pastors, enjoy spending time with lay people and become comfortable at the churches.

“Hopefully, it will also give the churches a little bump,” Roche said.

Organizers also expected the trip to make an impact on those who ministered, he added.

“We’re so blessed that we don’t know what it is to be hungry,” Roche said. “You go down there, and you will see the face of hunger. You will see the faces of children who are scared because they don’t know where their next meal is going to come from.

“The people who go with us—especially those who this is their first time on mission—you will see their hearts being massaged by God, softening them. It absolutely changes their walk with the Lord. It becomes one of doing and not just sitting and talking—action-oriented. They are living out their faith, sharing their faith and loving others. You can’t go on mission and remain the same.

“We’re just going down to support what God is already doing down there, but we’re the ones who get such a blessing from it. We are blessing those people, but we get so much more ourselves.”

Scott Weddell, a deacon at Water Valley Baptist Church in Water Valley, agrees. His great-niece recently was baptized, and he saw transformation begin when she served in the ministry last year. The first year they went to the border, only three volunteers from his church—he, his wife and great-niece—participated. This year, eight from the congregation of about 30 planned to go.

David Deanda, pastor of Oasis Baptist Church, said his challenge to his church has been straightforward: “When we come back, what are we going to use the four weeks of training we went through to learn share our testimonies to impact our mission field, the Concho Valley?”

ARLINGTON—Although far removed from B.H. Carroll Theological Institute’s Arlington offices, students who recently graduated from satellite campuses in Cuba and Russia exemplify the institute’s emphasis on theological education in conjunction with local churches, said Gene WFour recent master of arts in theology graduates from the B.H. Carroll Institute’s satellite in Russia (left to right) Igor Zhuravlev, Vladislov Pak, Natalya Chernova and Oleg Shalamov pose with Sam Carmack, resident fellow at Carroll Institute and member of the board of governorsilkes, the school’s president.

After returning to Cuba several years as a missions volunteer, Buddy Rees, a layman at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas, saw the need for theological training there. He approached Bruce Corley, president of the institute at the time, insisting, “We need to get down there and do something.”

Seven years ago, about 80 Cuban students began the journey of securing a theological education. Three-fourths maintained participation in the program, and in October, the institute presented master of arts in theology degrees to its first 22 graduates in Cuba. One student has progressed to doctoral studies.

“They have full transcripts, we have all 22 of their thesis projects on file, and that degree is transferrable to wherever they would go. This is a fully accredited degree,” Wilkes said.

The B. H. Carroll Theological Institute is fully accredited by the Association of Biblical Higher Education. It has achieved associate membership in the Association of Theological School and is pursuing full accreditation by that body.

Gene Wilkes, president of the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, presents a plaque during the dedication of the Buddy Rees School of Ministry to Abel Gonzales Gámez, pastor of the Baptist Church in Camagüey where the courses are held.In addition, 176 students earned certificates of advanced ministry training through ongoing studies at Primera Iglesia Bautista in Camaguey, where classes are held.

“Our goal is not to build a school—anywhere—but to build up the church,” Wilkes explained. Already, four of the graduates are teaching at the Baptist seminaries on the island.

“Our hope is to have four or five Ph.Ds on the island, then they can begin to teach and perpetuate, and we could just have a supportive role.”

The Carroll Institute developed the curriculum, “so we have now a complete master of arts in theology program in Spanish, which is transferrable to wherever Spanish would be,” Wilkes noted.

Since most of the Cuban pastors serve bivocationally, the institute’s schedule is a bit different from a traditional seminary. Instructors periodically arrive with a syllabus, teach intensively for a week, and leave their students to do their work over the next weeks or months until the instructor returns.

“That’s why it has taken seven years for them to get a typical two-year degree,” Wilkes explained.

Graduate Lourdes Maria Amador Varona, who leads the women’s ministry at First Baptist Church in Camagüey, hugs Bruce Corley, senior fellow at the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute. Corley has traveled to Cuba for seven years teaching courses and supervising the theses of graduate students. In the background is Adlin Cotto, fellow of Carroll Institute and director of the master’s degree program in Cuba.The students sacrifice much to prepare to be better ministers, he added. One student, Humberto, lives on a smaller island off the west end of Cuba. To get to classes, he rides a donkey, then a ferry, and finally a bus across Cuba to Camaguey.

“So, a lot of the time, when we say this is the week, they just can’t get there, so they have to piece their coursework together,” Wilkes said.

However, the school maintains the integrity of the degree, he stressed. “They are treated just like any other student.”

“Our strategy is to return theological education back to the local church. So we have a hub of administrative offices in Arlington, but our classrooms are online and in local churches,” he pointed out.

Gene Wilkes, president of the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute, poses with graduate Nelson Donet Jimenez from the Baptist Church in Céspedes.In St. Petersburg, Russia, four students received master of arts in theology degrees. The students already had been working with St. Petersburg Evangelical Theological Academy and the Temple of God church there.

Sergei Nikolaev, both president of the academy and pastor of the church, invited the Americans to participate in training the pastors.

The institute looked at what they already had been studying and crafted the necessary pieces to be able to award accredited degrees. All four graduates are prominent pastors in Russia.

In addition to Russia and Cuba, global students also attend class in teaching churches in Vietnam and China.

It is important for students to study in their home countries, because research shows more than two-thirds of international students who come to the United States don’t return home. Even those who go back often have difficulty, because they have become acculturated to an American way of life, Wilkes explained.

“We want to deliver the degree where they are—so they know the language, the culture and they have the relationships. We provide the tools in their heart language with as many of their teachers as we can,” he said.

Graduate Igor Zhuravlev receives his hood from Sam Carmack, resident fellow at Carroll Institute, and Sergei Nikolaev, president of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and pastor of Temple of the Gospel.The Carroll Institute already had global graduates in South Korea, South Africa and Kenya, but their studies had been solitary distance-learning ventures. The Cuban and Russian graduates marked the first global graduates who did so through classes taught in local churches.

“Our namesake, B.H. Carroll, was pastor of First Baptist Church in Waco for 27 years. For many, their only reference to him was as founder of Southwestern Seminary and as its first president. But it was really those 27 years in that local church, where he began to have pastors over to his study and his home,” Wilkes explained.

“What we embrace is that local pastor who is training in the local-church context, and with the tools we have at our fingertips through the Internet and travel, we want the local church to be the center of that.”

Global students who attend in Cuba, Russia, China and Vietnam benefit from the generosity of partnering churches. Park Cities Baptist Church contributes to the work in Cuba, First Baptist Church in Midland supports the work in Vietnam, and South Main Baptist Church in Houston helps with the work in China. Individual donors also help underwrite the work.

“We really don’t have plans to extend the network, but we’re just keeping our hearts minds and ears open. We have had several others who have come to us, but we need to shore these up particularly,” he said.

At the same time, if a local church has an ongoing relationship with a church in another country, recognizes a need for ongoing theological training, and is willing to invest financially, “we’d be willing to listen,” Wilkes added.

“That’s the deal—church to church. We don’t want to build a building; we don’t want to build a campus. We want the church to be the locus for the training there.

“I’m pretty fired up about the model. The world is the limit. Anywhere there is a church leader, training them is a possibility.”

PLAINVIEW—Joshua Mora remembers his mother’s stories—how she and his father came to the United States from Mexico, living in rundown shacks and working in the fields to make ends meet.

Mora tells that story of hard work and reliance on faith and family to his students as he teaches Spanish at Wayland Baptist University.

Joshua Mora hopes his story can be an inspiration to others, particularly young Hispanic students. (PHOTO / Wayland Baptist University)The walls of his family’s home didn’t meet, Mora recalled, and during the winter months, icicles formed at the end of exposed nails when moisture seeped into the building.

“They had a room that they couldn’t sleep in. (Mother) would make Jell-O in there. That’s how cold it was,” Mora said.

As migrant workers, his parents often labored through the night and rode in the backs of trucks to get from one field to another. His mother took on odd jobs like ironing clothes for the landowner to help put beans on the table.

“They went through such incredibly hard times,” Mora said. “The life of a migrant worker was horrible—really, really horrible.”

Mora grew up in the fields, working alongside his father and his brothers from the time he was 8 years old. They picked crops, hauling baskets full of berries and cucumbers, eating little more than beans and tortillas—except at Christmas time, when his parents might find enough money for his mother to make tamales.

A migrant family with 13 children

Mora was born in Idalou, the youngest of 13 children. Migrant farm work took the family to California, Oregon and Wyoming, following the crops. The children left school in Lubbock each year in early May, before the end of the term, to work during harvest. Several of his brothers and sisters dropped out of school during their elementary years to focus on work.

Workdays started early, since laborers had to be in the fields by 5 a.m. In Oregon, Mora and his family picked strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cherries and cucumbers. The berries had to be picked in the morning, because they melted if picked in the heat of the afternoon sun.

“It was really hard being out there,” he said. “You had to carry the pallets and boxes. Cucumbers you picked in five-gallon cans. My dad was a hard man. If you were going to be out there, you had to work hard. If you were going to pick crops, you had to go fast, because the more you pick, the more money you make.”

Through those tough times, Mora said, his family never lost sight of God.

“Both of my parents were very spiritual and very faithful,” he said. “They taught us and ingrained in us faith in God and faith to believe in God and trust God for everything.”

Relying on faith on his journey

Faith saw them through hardships, and Mora relied on his faith as he started his own journey, moving out of the fields and into the classroom.

He was a good student in elementary school, working hard to learn. However, that desire to learn didn’t carry over into his high school years.

“When I was at Estacado (High School in Lubbock), I was just like everybody else—not as motivated, hanging out with the wrong crowd,” he said. “Honestly, leaving every summer made it really hard. I just felt misplaced.

“I had horrible grades in high school. We didn’t study. We didn’t care.”

Fortunately, Texas Tech University had an open admissions policy at the time. Mora benefited from an education program in Lubbock called Learn Educational Talent Search and its representative who helped low-income students navigate the college registration process.

“She got us admitted, and I was there at Tech in the fall of ’77, right after I graduated,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know how to study or take a course. I had no idea what was going on.”

Mora recorded only a 1.5 to 1.75 grade-point average in his classes his first semester. He still has the transcript and occasionally pulls it out to show his students, reminding them if he can succeed in spite of a difficult beginning, they can too.

His second semester, he managed to raise his GPA to 2.5. But it wasn’t until that summer after his freshman year he decided to pursue education as a way to make a better life for himself.

On a hot summer day, he was hoeing weeds in a cotton field alongside some of his peers from high school.

‘I can do better’

“They didn’t have any motivation for anything. I remember listening to them, and I just had this epiphany: ‘Wow! I can do better,’” he recalled. “I was a college kid. I had already been exposed to that life, and I liked it. And I saw where I came from. I realized that I had two choices: I can sit here and work at jobs that pay minimum wage the rest of my life, or I have a chance to go to college.”

At first, his father opposed his desire to get an education. Mora was expected to get married, have children and get a job. Some of his friends ridiculed him for “trying to be white.”

Mora soldiered on, and once his father saw how serious he was about getting an education, he supported him completely. When he graduated with a bachelor’s degree, the whole family celebrated his accomplishment.

Mora enrolled in graduate school and set his sights on a doctorate. At times, the pressures of studying and making good grades became difficult to bear. But he remembered the lessons his parents taught him about faith, and he trusted God to give him the strength to carry on.

God’s guiding hand

Looking back, Mora can see God’s hand guiding his journey, often through the influence of friends, family and professors who served as mentors.

During summer 2000, he saw a job posting for a Spanish teacher at Wayland. He applied and was hired. Don Cook, then chair of the division of languages and literature, worked out a schedule that allowed Mora to teach morning classes and return to Lubbock early each afternoon to cook and care for his ill mother until she died in 2002.

Today, Mora considers Wayland his home. Mementos of his family and reminders of his faith decorate his second-story office. And while life is good for Mora, he hasn’t forgotten years spent in the fields alongside his family.

“I’m Hispanic, and I know … how difficult it is” for migrant workers, he said. “I have a special place in my heart for them.”

Mora hopes his story can be an inspiration to others, particularly young Hispanic students who lack self-confidence, particularly if they are the first from their families to attend college. But they draw motivation from his experience.

“It gives them confidence. If other people can make it, they can make it,” he said.

For many, this Christmas will be the first without a special loved one.

The loss of a family member or a friend brings obvious grief. And for those who have the opportunity to interact with a bereaved person, often there are questions: What do I do? What do I say?

Helen HarrisGrief expert Helen Harris, assistant professor in Baylor University’s School of Social Work, points out ways that are more helpful and ways that are less helpful to approach a grieving person.

“There are so many things that folks say that are not helpful, mostly when we tell people what to do, what to believe and how not to feel,” Harris said. “Examples are: ‘God needed another angel’ or ‘At least you had him for X-amount of years’ or ‘You shouldn’t feel sad. He isn’t suffering anymore.’

More helpful ways to interact with a grieving person include:

• Listen more than talk.

“It is OK to say, ‘I don’t know what to say, but I want you to know that I care,’” Harris said. “It is a better choice than saying nothing, or saying things that judge and marginalize.”

• Acknowledge the loss and express your caring.

“Be available; be present to say a word about the special life that is gone,” Harris suggested. “Ask if there is a holiday-related task you can help with. Will they be alone for … Christmas? Invite them over or take a meal to their home if they are not ready to get out and be around others. Offer to help with Christmas shopping or wrapping.”

• Find a way to “include” the lost loved one in the holidays.

“I recommend families find a way to include the lost loved one in the holidays: to light a candle on the mantel to burn through the day as a symbol of his continued presence, to make an ornament with her name and place it on the tree, to talk about their roles and be intentional about who will assume those roles now of carving the turkey, etc., to use at least one of their favorite recipes for a holiday dish,” Harris said.

• Take time to tell stories and look through old photos. But don’t push it.

“If folks find it too painful, there should be no pressure to do it,” Harris said. “There will be other holidays, other times and other gatherings.”

• Ask what helps and be open to what doesn’t.

“I ask the bereaved person to tell me what the experience is like for them, and I ask what helps or doesn’t help them.”

• Avoid “helpful” actions that actually are hurtful.

“When you stay away, pretend it didn’t happen or walk the other way in a store so you don’t have to say anything—those things hurt,” Harris said.

• Understand there’s no set time frame for someone who suffers a loss to be “over it” or “move on.”

Adjustment to loss is a long process and tends to get worse before it gets better, Harris said. Those not closely connected to the loss will move on with their busy lives while the person who has lost a spouse or child or parent will experience fresh loss over and over again for the first year while facing the first Thanksgiving, birthday, anniversary, Christmas, vacation, etc. without the person with whom they always had shared those moments.

“There is a time when we manage our grief more than it manages us, and a time when the healing becomes strength, like a healed broken bone is stronger at the point of healing than the bone around it. But we are always changed, different because of both the life and the death of the person we loved and lost,” Harris said.

“Continuing to miss our loved ones, and more importantly, being aware at times of how much we wish they were present, is, I believe, a life-long experience—and does not mean we have failed to move on.”

For many Americans, ’tis the season to snuggle by the fireplace with family and friends, sing Christmas carols and enjoy Grandma’s cooking.

Refugees from Syria living in Lebanon are facing a bleak winter.But for Syrian refugees who sought safety in Lebanon, it’s time to fight brutal winter temperatures in houses made of plywood or tarps and struggle to find food each day.

’Tis the season to survive. And Texas Baptists are helping refugees achieve that goal.

A representative from Tearfund, a poverty-fighting charitable organization, recently described the plight of refugees in his blog: “We visited one extended family of 14, squashed into a temporary shelter with two rooms—no more than a large tent in reality— pitched with a few others on the side of muddy, flooded field. …The only other thing I could see in the tent was a pile of thin mattresses, providing some limited insulation from the fridge-like damp ground. … In a few weeks, their tent will be blanketed in snow—a thoroughly unwelcome white Christmas.”

About 1.1 million refugees from Syria’s civil war have settled in Lebanon.Experts characterize the Syrian conflict as the biggest humanitarian disaster the world has faced since the Rwandan genocide in 1994, the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development reported. Since fighting began in March 2011, 9 million refugees have fled their homes, as recorded by syrianrefugees.eu. Of those, about 1.1 million have settled in Lebanon, scattering across the country and making their home wherever they can find an open piece of land.

About 80 percent are women and children, and refugees make up more than a quarter of Lebanon’s population. Many who have resided there since 2011 have run out of savings, and with the arrival of winter, they face freezing temperatures, said Lucas Shindeldecker, community development director for the Lebanese Society for Educational Development.

The United Nations recently announced humanitarian aid has been cut short, creating concern among Lebanese Christians about how they can get food to all the refugees. And a storm in Lebanon in late November already took the lives of two Syrian infants, sparking fear for what the winter months hold.

A little can go a long way, Shindeldecker said. Lebanese Christians are calling fellow believers around the world to contribute whatever they can to help make a physical and spiritual difference in the lives of the refugees.

Texas Baptist Partnerships is working with the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development to bring warmth to many refugees through its winterization project.

The project will provide blankets, stoves, heaters, food and other necessities in Zahle, Lebanon, where 9,000 Syrian refugees are housed. Recipients also receive Bibles in their own language.

By meeting the physical needs of the refugees, Lebanese Christians have an open door to address spiritual needs, as well. Syrian refugees visit churches not solely for help, but for connections and relationships, Shindeldecker reported. As the Lebanese Christians seek to witness to the refugees, they know they cannot meet all the physical needs alone.

Through the winterization project, Texas Baptists already have contributed more than $5,000. With the full onset of winter and the harsh living conditions anticipated by the Syrian refugees, needs will increase. To contribute, visit Winterization Project.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The Senate confirmed David Saperstein—named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek magazine in 2009—as the State Department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, making him the first non-Christian to hold the job.

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, preaches at a Washington, D.C., service in 2002. (RNS Photo)Saperstein, led the Reform Jewish movement’s Washington office 40 years, focusing on social justice and religious freedom issues. President Obama nominated him in July, and the Senate confirmed his nomination, 62-35, Dec. 12.

“Religious freedom faces daunting and alarming challenges worldwide,” Saperstein said at his confirmation hearing in September. “If confirmed, I will do everything within my abilities and influence to engage every sector of the State Department and the rest of the U.S. government to integrate religious freedom into our nation’s statecraft and foreign policies.”

Saperstein will head the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom. He will be tasked with monitoring religious freedom abuses around the world.

The Washington-based Interfaith Alliance applauded Saperstein’s confirmation.

“When David steps into this position, he not only achieves a remarkable capstone to what has been a long and successful career, he brings to our nation’s foreign policy a wealth of knowledge and a fierce dedication to religious freedom and the rights of religious minorities,” said Interfaith Alliance President Welton Gaddy.

“David’s work has always been guided by the Jewish commandment to repair the world—he has now been given an incredible platform to do just that.”

Saperstein was the first chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, created as a watchdog group in the same act of Congress that created the ambassador-at-large position. In 2009, Obama appointed him to the first White House Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Saperstein, 67, is the fourth person to hold the job, which was created by Congress in 1998. He succeeds Suzan Johnson Cook—a Baptist and the first African-American and woman to serve in the position—who resigned in October 2013, saying she needed to earn more to support her family.

SAN ANTONIO—Last year, Pastor Rob Johnson asked two senior adults at Christian Family Baptist Church to pray with him about starting a community action team. Their answered prayers can be seen in 1,485 needy families in northwest San Antonio who received 110,000 pounds of food this year.

Personnel from Lackland Air Force Base join church volunteers in unloading groceries from the San Antonio Food Bank and bagging them for families to receive at a drive-through food distribution event on the grounds of Christian Family Baptist Church in San Antonio. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Rob Johnson)Working in cooperation with the San Antonio Food Bank, Christian Family Baptist Church served as the host site for a drive-through food distribution 11 times in 2014. An average of 60 volunteers—about two-thirds from Lackland Air Force Base—sorted, bagged and distributed about 10,000 pounds of groceries on each occasion.

“We believe God wants us to feed his children,” Johnson said. “Our ultimate goal is to become a food distribution center that is open five or six days a week. The hunger in this part of San Antonio is not as obvious as in some places, but it’s real.”

The church held a benefit concert in January to raise money for its first food distribution effort. The concert netted within $10 of the total amount needed.

“We took that as evidence God wanted us to do this,” Johnson said.

Military personnel joined in

Johnson, retired from the U.S. Air Force, contacted officials at Lackland, inviting military personnel to participate as volunteers on distribution days.

San Antonio Baptist Association provided funding for one food distribution event this year. Individuals in the church and the community—including one family on a fixed income who saved several months—supplied the money needed for others.

“This is a community effort hosted by our church,” Johnson said.

Last year, Pastor Rob Johnson asked two senior adults at Christian Family Baptist Church to pray with him about starting a community action team. Their answered prayers can be seen in 1,485 needy families in northwest San Antonio who received 110,000 pounds of food this year. 

The multicultural church began 10 years ago as a Bible study in Johnson’s home. It later became a mission of Crossroads Baptist Church in San Antonio, meeting first in a fire station and later in an RV park. With the help of the Baptist Church Loan Corporation and the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the church eventually moved to its current location on seven acres not far from Sea World.

Christian Family Baptist Church wants to satisfy both the physical and spiritual hunger of people in its community, church leaders said.

As families wait in line to receive groceries at food distribution events, a pair of volunteers—a 70-year-old retired pastor and a young minister to students—stop at every car to ask if the families have other needs and to offer to pray with them.

Johnson intentionally paired the youth minister with the seasoned pastor for mentoring. His church takes seriously its commitment to discipleship—to teach, train and encourage parents and grandparents to disciple their families and neighbors, helping them develop healthy spiritual relationships.

Discipling the community

“Ultimately, we want to disciple this community,” he said.

Christian Family Baptist Church operates a barbecue trailer it sets up at community events and as an outreach at a busy intersection. Proceeds from the sale of barbecued brisket, sausage, pork and chicken go toward the church’s long-range plans for community ministry, including a sports field for young people, a walking track for senior adults, a Christian school, and ministries focused on sexual integrity and divorce recovery.

“Our overall strategy is to build healthy relationships with the community where we want to minister,” Johnson said.

Outreach and an opportunity to serve

The church intends to reach non-Christians with the gospel and give Christians opportunities to grow as they serve. Some Christian families in the area drive 30 or 40 minutes across town to attend worship services, but the distance keeps them from being involved in ministries, he noted.

“We want to build relationships and offer opportunities to serve,” Johnson said. “It gives a sense of ownership in joining us in ministry to their community.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Employers have a duty to accommodate the religion of employees—within reason—and avoid discrimination against prospective employees, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and others argued in a brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Samantha ElaufThe Baptist Joint Committee joined the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and more than 10 other groups—including the National Association of Evangelicals, American Civil Liberties Union, Christian Legal Society and American Islamic Congress—in a friend-of-the-court brief defending a person’s right to wear a religiously mandated headscarf while at work.

The case involves Samantha Elauf, who was denied a retail job because of her headscarf, called a “hijab.” Elauf insisted she believes her Muslim faith requires her to wear a hijab, a practice she has followed since age 13. The brief makes clear the case involves more than just an individual’s desire to wear religious garb, saying, “Protection of religiously motivated conduct in the employment setting is highly important to believers of virtually all stripes and to the religious bodies to which they belong.”

“In many employment contexts, an individual’s religious needs can be met more easily than an employer first assumes,” said Holly Hollman, general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee. “This case is about making sure prospective employees are not categorically disqualified from work opportunities based upon religion.”

In her job interview for the Abercrombie Kids store, run by Abercrombie & Fitch, Elauf wore her usual hijab. The interviewer did not inquire about it or suggest wearing one would be prohibited, and she rated Elauf as someone who should be hired.

Abercrombie & Fitch Fifth Avenue store in New York. (Photo: Rob Young/Wikimedia/Flickr)However, a higher-ranking employee said the headscarf would violate Abercrombie’s “Look Policy” that prohibits “caps”—a term not defined. Elauf was not offered a job, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Abercrombie on Elauf’s behalf.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating against job applicants or employees based on religion. The brief signed by the BJC notes federal law banning religious discrimination in employment requires employers to “reasonably accommodate” all aspects of an employee’s religious practice if it can do so without causing an “undue hardship” on the business.

Conflicts between work and religion are common, but they often can be resolved through conversation between employer and employee, the brief says. The issue at the heart of this case is “how to ensure that employers as well as employees have adequate incentives to initiate and participate in such problem-solving dialogue,” it notes.  

The brief says Title VII’s prohibition on religious discrimination is necessary to protect religious belief and conduct. “Outward displays of one’s faith are usually evident during job interviews, and compromise can often be found” when there is incentive to do so.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. in the spring.