Around the State: TBM offers disaster relief; student missions marks 70 years

Texas Baptist Men disaster relief is monitoring the situation in Houston, where floodwaters swamped more than 1,000 homes and claimed at least seven lives, and TBM officials expect to mobilize volunteers when they receive requests from government officials and area churches. One crew started work in nearby Katy. Other TBM disaster relief workers continued to serve in Orange and Newton counties, where they have logged more than 1,300 volunteer days since mid-March and prepared about 10,000 meals, distributed more than 8,100 boxes residents used to collect scattered possessions, presented 125 Bibles, provided access to about 850 showers and washed about 1,300 loads of laundry. Mud-out crews in the two counties cleaned 84 homes, removed damaged drywall and flooring from 100 homes, pressure-washed 28 houses and completed more than 100 mold-remediation jobs.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas student missions program will mark its 70th anniversary in conjunction with the commissioning service for 2016 student missionaries at 2 p.m., May 22, in the Patty and Bo Pilgrim Chapel at Dallas Baptist University. Since the first four student missionaries went to Hawaii in 1946 to conduct revival services, more than 10,000 students have served around the globe. The BGCT is seeking former student missionaries who served with Baptist Student Ministries or Go Now Missions to complete an online questionnaire here.  Go Now Missions also is collecting photos of past summer missionaries to use in the celebration. Email photos to [email protected] or mail to Go Now Missions, P.O. Box 195439, Arlington, TX 76019. To honor student missions by making a financial contribution, click here. 

Stephen Cook Hardin-Simmons University named Stephen Cook dean of its Cynthia Ann Parker College of Liberal Arts after a national search. Most recently, Cook was director of the Texas Tech counseling psychology doctoral program, where he supervised several faculty members and directed a program with 30 to 40 doctoral students. Cook earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology from Texas A&M University and a master of arts degree and a doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Cook and his wife, Nancy, have been married more than 27 years and have two children—a son, Andrew, a student at the University of Texas, and a daughter, Laura, a student at Baylor University.

East Texas Baptist University First Lady Michelle Blackburn presented roses to this year’s Senior Girl Call-Out recipient, Gabrielle Besch of Bonham. (Photo / ETBU / Mike Midkiff)Gabrielle Besch of Bonham was named East Texas Baptist University’s Senior Girl Call-Out. Besch, an elementary education major and member of First Baptist Church in Bonham, is the 69th student chosen in the longstanding campus tradition. Each year, a senior is “called out” as a young woman who is courteous and kind, loves scholarship, appreciates beauty and shows evidence in her daily living of spiritual perception and reverence.

Retiring

Randy Holman as associate pastor for pastoral care and senior adults at First Baptist Church in Lubbock, effective March 31. He served 35 years on staff at the Lubbock church. He served previously at North Fort Worth Baptist Church and at First Baptist Church in Hurst.