ARLINGTON (ABP)—An African-American Southern Baptist preacher believes the election of President Obama may have been foretold in Scripture.

Dwight McKissic, pastor of the 3,000-member Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, wrote in a blog celebrating the Martin Luther King holiday he believes the prominence of African-American leaders like Obama, King, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Fred Luter, the first black president of the Southern Baptist Convention, are no accident.

Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington.“My thesis is: A study of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament regarding Noah’s sons and their descendants will indicate that the children of Ham would experience political and spiritual empowerment and renewal before the coming of the Lord within a Judeo-Christian context,” wrote McKissic, a former trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“Are we in the midst of witnessing, ‘Princes coming out of Egypt, and the Ethiopian stretching out their hand to God?’” he asked, quoting Psalm 68:31. “Could President Obama, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Pastor Fred Luter, Justice Clarence Thomas, Ms. Condoleezza Rice, Lecrae and Kofi Annan be partially fulfilling this verse (to name just a few)?”

McKissic recalled receiving an email from a white Southern Baptist pastor after the election of Barack Obama suggesting that if white Southerners had known what was coming they would “have picked their own … cotton.”

Picking presidents instead of cotton

“Africans were brought to the United States to pick cotton, not to pick presidents, and certainly not to be elected president,” McKissic said. “If the slave masters realized that Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Richard Allen, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King and many of the men and women who voted for Sen. Obama were in those slave ships, the ships would not have been allowed to leave the docks of West Africa.”

McKissic noted he agrees with the late radio Bible preacher J. Vernon McGee’s reading of Genesis 10’s genealogies of Noah’s three sons as foretelling the development of the races of mankind in history.

McGee believed the world’s first great civilization, coming out of Africa, represented descendants of Noah’s son Ham. That lasted until the time of Abraham, introduced in Genesis 11 in the lineage of Shem, followed by the ascendancy of Western civilization under way during Jesus’ lifetime.

“Apparently, we are currently in the period in which the white man has come to the front,” McKissic quoted from McGee’s Thru the Bible commentary on Genesis, published by Thomas Nelson in 1981.

Incapable of ruling this world

“It seems to me that all three are demonstrating that regardless of whether they are a son of Ham or a son of Shem or a son of Japheth, they are incapable of ruling this world.”

McKissic insisted he began reflecting on McGee’s theory when it appeared possible that then-Sen. Obama could be elected president in 2008.

“Understanding that the sons of Ham ruled 2,000 years, the sons of Shem ruled 2,000 years and for the past 2,000 years the sons of Japheth were ruling, it triggered the question in my mind, what would happen at the end of 2,000 years of European/Japhetic Rule?” McKissic wrote. “I thought of only two possibilities: (1) The return of Jesus; or (2) The return of a son of Ham to political leadership.”

President Obama “is undeniably a son of Ham, or Africa” McKissic said. He recalled one gathering of an African-American Baptist convention years ago where the keynote speaker opened his address with the words, “The sons of Ham have gathered.”

Obama’s election ‘astounding’ to many

Many find the idea of a direct African descendant being elected president of the United States “staggering and astounding to many,” McKissic noted.

“Many of us disagree vehemently with his abortion and same-sex marriage policies, but we must admit he was God’s sovereign choice for this position,” he said. “He certainly provides poetic justice for America’s racist past.”

“Many Americans of all colors and political persuasions thought that they would never live to see the day that the son or daughter of Africa would become president of the United States of America,” McKissic said. “I was no different.”

However, he added, he kept in mind Psalm 68:31.

“In this obscure verse, God was showing David something,” McKissic said. “I’m not saying this with certainty, but it appears that David was saying that descendants of Africa would have a political impact beyond Africa. David said Princes shall ‘come out of’ Egypt or Africa. Africa would be their roots, but their ‘shoots’ would be elsewhere.”

“Perhaps this is the reason that Barack Obama’s dad is not from Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas or Tennessee,” McKissic speculated. “Who would have ever thought that America would have a president named with a Hebrew and African name: Barack Obama?”

MLK prediction

“President Obama’s name and his dad are directly out of Kenya,” he said. “Kenya is just below Egypt, and at one time Egypt engulfed that whole area. Princes, political leaders, kings, nobles and dignitaries will emanate from, or come directly out of Africa. They will have a political impact according to the psalmist.”

McKissic noted Martin Luther King said in an interview in 1960 that he believed America could have a black president in 40 years.

“He missed it by eight years,” McKissic said. “If Dr. King could see it, I believe the Hebrew writer of Psalms could also see it.”

WACO—Texas Baptist Men volunteers have a longstanding reputation for building churches, encampments and missions facilities—not for demolition.

Texas Baptist Men volunteers (left to right) Mike Bradshaw from First Baptist Church in Waxahachie, Butch Moore from Second Baptist Church in Gonzales, Bill Blackwell from First Baptist Church in Canyon Lake and Jim Lawton from First Baptist Church in Waxahachie helped demolish the underinsured burned-out home of (seated) Donna and Brian Dill. (TBM PHOTO)However, after a fertilizer plant explosion in West last year, TBM responded to a request from First Baptist Church in West for volunteers who could operate heavy machinery to tear down more than 50 damaged homes, saving homeowners demolition and debris-removal costs not covered by insurance.

In mid-October, a fire destroyed the home of a couple in Waco—Donna Dill, a paraplegic with muscular dystrophy, and her husband, Brian, who is a quadriplegic. Like many residents of nearby West, the Dills had insurance to rebuild their home but not to cover demolition costs.

One of Donna Dill’s coworkers at a local bank knew about TBM’s involvement at West, and she contacted the missions organization to ask for help.

Bill Hyden, age 80, a Texas Baptist Men volunteer from Meadowbrook Baptist Church in Robinson, operates a jackhammer to demolish the foundation of a burned-out home in Waco. (TBM PHOTO)After assessing the situation, Jim Lawton from First Baptist Church in Waxahachie told the Dills TBM could provide free labor if they could pay $4,000 for dumpster rental and city permits, which they readily agreed to do.

With other scheduled projects—plus unexpected involvement in cleanup after an ice storm hit North Texas—the TBM crew had a window of less than one week in mid-December to demolish the Dills’ home and remove the debris.

“There was a 100 percent chance of rain in the forecast for one of those days, but we were able to work all day long with just a light drizzle most of the time,” Lawton said. “God has a way of providing when we quit worrying and get out of his way.

“God puts the right people in the right place at the right time when we make ourselves available for his use.”

Volunteers operated a backhoe, a skid-steer and a jackhammer to demolish the burned-out house. Meadowbrook Baptist Church in Robinson provided housing for the TBM crew, and the bank where Donna Dill works supplied their meals.

Since the Dills did not have to pay for demolition, they will be able to rebuild a home better equipped for their limited mobility, Lawton noted.

“It gave them the ability to go from a used home that had ramps built to try to make it more accessible to one built specifically for handicapped accessibility,” he said.

AUSTIN—A ministry that began with a handful of men from the Church at Bee Cave working in a neighbor’s yard developed into a growing nonprofit organization in Austin.

Partners in Hope seeks to Partners in Hope volunteers Chad Pierce and Sam Cooper help load a trailer. (PHOTOS / Courtesy of Partners in Hope)mobilize the people and resources of Austin’s Lake Travis community by serving one family at a time. Volunteer groups serve a different family each month, offering manual labor such as landscaping and home repairs for residents in the area served by the Lake Travis Independent School District.

Partners in Hope began in 2008 when Matt Peacock, missions pastor at Church at Canyon Creek, a Texas Baptist congregation in north Austin, started a church in west Austin. Early on, members of newly formed Church at Bee Cave began serving their neighbors in practical ways.

“The more we got into it, the more we realized how broad the need was in our community,” said Peacock, now executive director of Partners in Hope. “It began to graduate from doing smaller things to now taking on some home repairs and getting some trade people involved, like plumbers, electricians and carpenters.”

The number of projects and the scope of the ministry grew, and by fall 2011, Partners in Hope achieved nonprofit status. Last year, Partners in Hope assisted a family each month and served one family twice.

Partners in Hope volunteers help with repair work for their neighbors in the Lake Travis community. (PHOTOS / Courtesy of Partners in Hope)In 2014, the organization is expanding even more. Along with serving one family each month, typically on the third Saturday of the month, volunteers will serve four additional families this year. Volunteers will serve a new family on the final weekend each month in 2014 that has five weekends—March, May, August and November.

Every December, Partners in Hope sponsors a Christmas gathering, where all the families the organization helped throughout the year are reunited with the volunteers. They come together for fellowship and a full meal. Each family receives a Christmas basket full of food items, gift cards to local stores and one requested gift.

Beyond improving the physical needs of neighbors’ dwellings, Partners in Hope also builds relationships with the families it serves—relationships that continue after the project is completed.

“It blows the doors wide open to do ministry with their family,” Peacock said.

Partners in Hope connects families with the faith community for spiritual support. Where applicable, it also connects them to other physical resources, such as counseling, healthcare or employment. Volunteers have returned to the homes where they worked to help children in the family with their homework, Peacock said.

Additionally, Partners in Hope seeks to identify ways families can contribute to the community and continue their involvement with the organization. Many of the families who have been served become volunteers and extend the same grace shown to them to other families in need.

Volunteers with Partners in Hope work on a Lake Travis home site clearing brush. (PHOTOS / Courtesy of Partners in Hope)One woman regularly brings food to volunteers, three years after Partners in Hope worked on her home.

Often, neighbors serve neighbors, Peacock said.

“We’ve tried to go by the general approach to this as serving families in the community with resources from the community by volunteers in the community,” he said.

Partners in Hope averages 25 to 30 volunteers each month, and more than 200 volunteers served in 2013, many for the first time.

Individual donors provide more than half of the organization’s funding, and the rest comes from churches and organizations such as the Baptist General Convention of Texas, through gifts to the Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions. Partners in Hope uses the funds to buy materials for families, tools and equipment to serve the families, as well as insurance and administrative costs.

Last year, Church at Canyon Creek made Partners in Hope an official church partner, providing ongoing funds for the nonprofit organization.

“The heart behind it is tremendous,” said Keith Tooley, the church’s missions pastor. “A lot of the people they serve don’t go to church and are not involved in Christian community. We can get behind that.”

DALLAS—Gus Reyes, director of affinity ministries and the Hispanic Education Initiative of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, was named director of the BGCT Christian Life Commission, effective Jan. 16. 

Gus ReyesThe CLC is the public policy and moral concerns agency of the BGCT, which speaks to—not for—Texas Baptists on ethical issues.

“Dr. Reyes’ work with education and immigration reform on a state and federal government level has proven his passion and ability to give a voice to those who have no voice,” said David Hardage, executive director of the BGCT Executive Board.

“After receiving applications and conducting interviews from a national search, we discovered the person God has placed before us for this position was already with us.”

Reyes has served with the BGCT since 2002, working as ethnic evangelism consultant, director of congregational relationships and most recently, director of affinity ministries and the Hispanic Education Initiative.

Prior to joining the BGCT, he worked with LifeWay Christian Resources and Sprint Telecommunications and served in the U.S. Marine Corps. He earned his bachelor of business administration and marketing degree from the University of Texas, a master of business administration degree at Angelo State University, and master of religious education and doctor of philosophy in foundations of education degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

He and his wife, Leticia, are members of Iglesia Bautista High Pointe in Cedar Hill.

Positioned to help educate churches

“Reyes brings a unique blend of Baptist life, dedication to making a difference and experience in working with those who shape our laws. Furthermore, having served in adjunct faculty positions, he is positioned to help educate and train Texas Baptist churches on how to impact their community through caring for those around us,” Hardage said.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Executive Coordinator Suzii Paynter lauded the selection of Reyes as her successor as CLC director. 
She praised 
Reyes as a great leader, saying his strengths are an excellent fit for such a vital role in Baptist life. 

“I count it a blessing to call Gus Reyes a friend and co-laborer in creating partnerships of individuals, churches and organizations to improve lives,” said Paynter, who served as CLC director and director of the BGCT Advocacy Care Center from 2001 to 2012. “Gus’ record of success is impressive, and his commitment to Texas Baptists is unmatched.”

Reyes noted he was eager but humbled by the opportunity to lead the CLC.

“The CLC has built a wonderful foundation and legacy with lawmakers and churches on the Christian perspective of issues facing our culture today,” Reyes said. “As Paul wrote to Timothy, we need to fan the flames. There’s a great history with people like (Foy) Valentine, (Phil) Strickland and (Suzii) Paynter, who have created an avenue for the marginalized to be heard and individuals to be helped. We will continue this and build upon their success.”

Wide variety of issues

Reyes plans for the CLC to continue to address a wide variety of issues.

“All through the Gospel, we see Jesus preaching good news and also reaching out to those who are hurting, hungry, in prison, thirsty and oppressed. We will continue with Jesus’ agenda and take the steps necessary to further provide for and protect those who need it,” Reyes said. “We learned early in CLC’s history that culture needs to change, because culture can be blind to the needs of the marginalized.”

In recent years, Reyes has focused on issues related to education and immigration reform, testifying in Austin and Washington, D.C., on these efforts and working with bipartisan groups to improve the systems and create fair and appropriate responses.

Reyes wants to continue to build on the CLC’s heritage of informing and encouraging churches to make their voices heard.

“I want the CLC to help pastors understand what freedoms they have to speak to the legislative agenda. It’s a freedom, a right and a responsibility,” Reyes noted.

“The next step is clear—continue God’s direction. I welcome and covet your prayers for me and the CLC as we move forward impacting our world for Christ.”

Editor’s Note: The article was edited  after it originally was posted to add the quotes from Suzii Paynter in the 9th and 10th paragraphs.

(Top llustration by He Qi, Nanjing , China http://heqigallery.com/) 

Wayland nursing program recognized for affordability. The SR Education Group, based in Kirkland, Wash., ranked Wayland Baptist University No. 1 in affordability for its bachelor of nursing program. Wayland also ranked No. 12 among education programs for its master of education degree. The bachelor of science in nursing degree is one of three undergraduate programs Wayland offers online, along with a bachelor of applied science and a bachelor of Christian ministry. Wayland has about 2,800 students enrolled in online programs. Online tuition for undergraduate programs is $338 per hour, and graduate tuition is $395 per hour.

DBU receives $1 million gift. Harold and Annette Simmons of Dallas gave $1 million to Dallas Baptist University for construction of Jim and Sally Nation Hall, which will house the Gary Cook School of Leadership. The 20,000-square-foot multi-purpose facility in the center of campus will provide space for classrooms, meeting rooms, student reading areas and specialty academic libraries, as well as faculty and staff offices. Simmons, a billionaire banker, businessman and philanthropist, died Dec. 28 at age 82. He was a member of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas.

DBU online course draws global audience. Dallas Baptist University’s first massive open online course—“The Book of Matthew: 30 Life-Changing Principles,” taught by Jim Denison, founder and president of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture—attracted 1,966 students from 65 countries and 47 states. Twenty-two percent of those enrolled—438 students—successfully completed the noncredit course, nearly double the national average of completion for massive open online courses. DBU will offer the same course in the spring semester, and a for-credit option will be offered.

DALLAS—When a devastating ice storm hit North Texas in December, Baptist disaster relief volunteers from Mississippi and New Mexico joined Texas Baptist Men chainsaw crews in clearing broken limbs from rooftops—and clearing the way for several people to come to faith in Christ.

Wayne Turner from Hatch, N.M., led four people to faith in Jesus during cleanup efforts after a devastating ice storm hit North Texas in December.Volunteers completed about 200 jobs across several counties, said Ralph Rogers, TBM chainsaw project coordinator from Paramount Baptist Church in Amarillo.

“That’s not counting some of the local guys who got their pole saws and started helping their neighbors even before we mobilized,” Rogers said.

The oldest volunteers included an 83-year-old couple from New Mexico, he noted.

“They weren’t climbing,” he said. “But it just goes to show there’s not any upper age limit for volunteers.”

One out-of-state chainsaw volunteer, Wayne Turner from Hatch, N.M., led four people to faith in Jesus.

“The first thing Wayne will do after he says ‘hello’ is witness to you,” Rogers observed.

Turner presented the Christian plan of salvation to two women while serving on a limb-cutting project in Garland. While he was working in an alley behind one resident’s house, a woman asked how much he would charge to cut down a tree in her yard across the street.

Heavy ice that coated branches was too much for many trees.“I told her we don’t do it for money. We do it because people need help,” he said.

As he talked to the woman, Esther, he learned she was divorced, and her daughter and granddaughter lived with her. She wept as she talked about her family’s troubled situation.

He sought to comfort her, and then he asked Esther if she knew where she would spend eternity. When she told him she did not have any confidence about her eternal destiny, she shared the New Testament plan of salvation with her, and she professed faith in Christ. He also gave her a Bible.

The next day, when a crew worked to cut down a dead tree in Esther’s backyard, a limb fell and damaged a trampoline. Although she insisted it did not matter, Turner and other volunteers spent an extra hour and half repairing it.

Relief crews in Denton trim branches damaged by the ice storm.While the volunteers worked on the trampoline, Esther’s daughter returned home.

“Mama sure was different last night,” she told Turner.

When she asked what Turner told her mother to make such as difference, he presented the gospel to the young woman, and she also professed faith in Christ.

At the Dixon Missions Equipping Center in east Dallas, where out-of-town chainsaw crews bunked at night, Turner also led another mother and daughter to faith in Jesus.

Turner saw two women who worked for a janitorial service cleaning restrooms at the TBM building. When he approached them, he learned the older woman did not speak English, but her daughter did.

After inquiring about her family, he asked the younger woman if he could ask her an important question—where she would spend eternity. After presenting the gospel to her, the young woman also helped him explain the plan of salvation to her mother.

Both women accepted Christ as Savior, and Turner gave them Spanish-language Bibles. They, in turn, asked where they could find a Spanish-language church to attend.

“It’s wonderful what God can do,” Turner said. “That’s why I’m involved in disaster relief. I want to go tell people about Jesus. And in the meantime, if we can do a little chainsaw or mud-out work, that’s fine, too.”

PLAINVIEW—Few economics and finance majors find their calling in music, but Dusty Ledbetter defies stereotypes.

Ledbetter, a 25-year-old Wayland Baptist University senior, serves as youth pastor at First Baptist Church in New Home, and he and his wife, Nina, are raising their 9-month old son, Eli. While his education, ministry and family keep him busy, Ledbetter also maintains a passion for spreading the gospel through music as front man for the band Climbing Blind.

Climbing Blind’s first single, “You Alone,” is climbing its way up the Christian music charts. Ledbetter and his band mates, Zach Simmons and Tristan Holaday, recently finished recording their second single that will be released early this year. The band’s first single, “You Alone,” is climbing its way up the Christian music charts.

Ledbetter sees the second single as a chance for the band to legitimize its status as an up-and-coming group and put together a production team that will allow them to tour.

Ledbetter grew up in Midland, living with his mother and grandparents. His teenage years grew difficult when he surrendered to bad influences.

“I was involved in a lot of crazy things in school,” he said.

But each summer, he spent time with his father in Lubbock, where he attended youth camps and church functions.

‘God really got hold of me’

“The summer after my junior year, God really got hold of me,” Ledbetter said. “Instead of going back and fight living the good life in a bad situation, I just decided to move with my dad and try to start new with new friends and everything.”

Ledbetter’s youth pastor at New Horizon Baptist Church in Lubbock, Jeremy Walker, encouraged him to enroll at Wayland Baptist University. After one semester, however, Ledbetter dropped out of school due to a lack of scholarship funds. Then family issues kept him from enrolling for the next term.

After three years away from school, another tug from God led him to consider continuing his education.

“I understood that God wanted me to do something with ministry, but I didn’t necessarily have to have a religion degree to get it done,” he said. “A lot of pastors are bivocational anyway.”

His return to school started a three-year journey that finds him on the brink of a music career.

Ledbetter noted his father’s side of the family always has been musical, and he “messed around with band” a few years, playing every instrument he could get his hands on.

Climbing Blind performs at the Rock the Desert music festival in West Texas.When his mother brought him a guitar, he taught himself to play.

His love of music continued to grow as he played in the praise team at New Horizon Baptist Church during his senior year in high school. It continued into his college years when he played music with other students and led Disciple Now events.

At one youth event, Ledbetter met a fellow musician who also lived in Lubbock, and they began playing together. When the pair began to perform, they decided they needed a stage name. Both liked the story of Zaccheaus, but they couldn’t think of a band name that referenced the story. Ledbetter’s mother suggested Climbing Blind.

“We settled on that,” Ledbetter said, but the group in its original form didn’t last long, since his friend found other avenues to occupy his time.

“Not too long after that, he got his first girlfriend, who he is now married to, and he fell off the face of the earth,” Ledbetter explained.

One Sunday, Ledbetter visited Oakwood Baptist Church, where he made an immediate connection with some college students. During lunch, the students talked about their musical inclinations, then they returned to church for an afternoon jam session in the youth department. Ledbetter told his new friends about a festival he and his former Climbing Blind band mate had been booked to play.

Formation of the current band

“I asked them if they wanted to play,” he said. “They said yes. We played that, and there was no intention of doing anything other than that.”

But their appearance at the festival led to invitations to play at other events.

“After about a year, we all really started to understand that God was doing something bigger than us just playing around,” Ledbetter said. “He really wanted us to do this more often.”

The group met a producer in Tennessee who began working with them to fine-tune their musical product. Last May, Climbing Blind recorded “You Alone,” a song written by Ledbetter. He also wrote the new song the group recorded in November.

Climbing Blind spent the first two weeks in December on the road with a group of artists, touring Texas and sharing their faith—the ultimate goal for Ledbetter and his friends.

“We are not going to be big and flashy,” he said. “We are going to proclaim the gospel. We are just praying that we get to continue to do that.”

When Calvary Baptist Church  in Waco commissioned Chris Pillsbury to serve in Kenya a year and a half ago, he expected to help women market fair-trade handcrafts, work with a humanitarian medical program and maybe start a children’s choir.

Chris Pillsbury (3rd from left), a graduate of the Baylor School of Music and Truett Theological Seminary, traveled to Kenya to serve with two medical doctors, John Ott (2nd from right) and Stephen Sokol. He never suspected he and Sokol would become involved in gathering evidence for a prolonged investigation that would lead to Ott’s conviction for child sex abuse.He never anticipated collecting evidence and victims’ statements that would help convict a former American medical doctor now serving 20 years in prison for engaging in sexual conduct with 14 Kenyan minors.

“One thing I’ve learned is that God cares about the least of these,” Pillsbury said. “There is a lot of tragedy going on all over the world, but God cared enough about 14 young men in Kenya to send me over there.”

As a graduate student at Baylor University and Truett Theological Seminary, he attended a spiritual retreat where he met John Ott, a physician from the Pacific Northwest who worked in medical missions in Kenya.

Pillsbury shared Ott’s interest in Kenya, having traveled there on choir tours. Later, he founded Kenya Vision Handcrafts, a fair-trade company to empower women, and the Baylor Men’s Choir sold bracelets made by the Kenyan women as a fund-raiser.

When Pillsbury graduated in December 2011 with a dual degree from Baylor School of Music and Truett Seminary, he did not immediately find a full-time church ministry position.

“Because of generous scholarships from Baylor and my parents’ contribution to my living expenses, I had no stateside obligations upon graduation. So, I contacted Dr. Ott to explore the possibility of spending some time volunteering with his organization in Kenya,” he said.

An offer of sponsorship

To his surprise, Ott responded promptly, telling him if he could get to Kenya, his organization would take care of the rest. After praying about the invitation and receiving the blessing of Calvary Baptist, Pillsbury sold most of his belongings in a garage sale, bought a plane ticket to Kenya and went to work with the Madaktari I Kenya nongovernmental organization in Kendu Bay, a small town on the shore of Lake Victoria.

“I was supposed to work as a community outreach volunteer with the NGO and administer funds of the organization that supported young men who were on scholarship at various high schools and universities,” he recalled. “I also had a dream of starting a children’s choir.”

All his dreams came crashing down about three weeks after his arrival, when Stephen Sokol, a medical doctor from Maine who worked with Ott, said, “Chris, I need to talk to you.”

A disturbing discovery

Sokol told him a young man had confided that Ott had been abusing boys, giving them school supplies and scholarships in exchange for sexual favors. When Sokol and Pillsbury when to Ott’s office to confront him, Pillsbury discretely recorded their conversation on his smartphone.

“Dr. Ott was evasive and noncommittal in his answers and soon became sarcastic, defensive and uncooperative,” he recalled.

Chris Pillsbury soon after he arrived in Kenya.Subsequently, Pillsbury and Sokol went to Ott’s home, where several young men lived with him. The young men described long-term sexual abuse by Ott, and Pillsbury recorded their stories.

After a sleepless night, Sokol and Pillsbury awoke the next morning to find Ott had fled. When they reported what they knew to an elected Kenyan official who had been supportive of the NGO previously, they received no cooperation.

“Similarly, hospital administrators and others who knew of the abuse wanted to avoid the shame of being identified with such a socially unacceptable incident,” Pillsbury said.

Interviewed by the FBI

So, he and Sokol visited the U.S. consulate and the American embassy in Nairobi, where they met two FBI agents who interviewed them for four hours and listened to all the recorded evidence they had collected. Since Ott was an American citizen, the case was transferred to the FBI field office in Washington, D.C.

“For the next month, I functioned as an intermediary between the FBI and the young men who had been victims of Dr. Ott’s abuse in Kenya,” Pillsbury said.

Authorities suspected Ott had crossed the border into Tanzania—a suspicion confirmed when Ott began to send “creepy” text messages to his victims inviting them to join him at a small rural hospital where he was practicing medicine, Pillsbury said.

The FBI and its criminal division’s office of international affairs worked closely with personnel at the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection National Targeting Center and local authorities in Tanzania and Kenya to apprehend Ott.

Abuser apprehended by authorities

By Dec. 11, 2012, he was on a plane headed for Washington, D.C. Evidence presented in court subsequently showed Ott engaged in illicit sexual conduct with at least 14 minors in Muhuru Bay, Sori and Kendu Bay, Kenya, between January 2004 and September 2012. His victims ranged in age from 9 to 17 years old when the sexual contact started.

In May 2013, Ott pleaded guilty to one count of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place. On Dec. 4, 2013, he was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to serve 20 years in prison. His license to practice medicine also was revoked. Upon completion of his prison term, he will be required to register as a sex offender and placed on supervised release for the rest of his life.

The U.S. Department of Justice pursued the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. 

‘Cesspool’ of details

Pillsbury acknowledged he struggled with the burden of knowing the details of abuse Ott’s victims described.

“During this investigation and the subsequent months, I had many difficult moments as I learned additional details of the abuse Dr. Ott inflicted on so many innocent young Kenyan men. Such anecdotes haunted me for days after I heard them,” he said. “Once I thought I had heard all the stories, I’d hear another story that proved the cesspool of Dr. Ott’s actions knew no depth.”

Through it all, he drew strength from the knowledge friends at Calvary Baptist were praying for him, he noted. Last August, he began service as minister of music at First Baptist Church in Clifton.

Sokol and his family worked through the NGO he had helped start in Kenya to assist the victimized young men complete their education and obtain medical care. “Chris was most helpful in helping me organize this,” he noted.

Pillsbury admitted his academic training had prepared him for ministry, missions and music—not what he confronted in Kenya. “It definitely falls into the category of ‘things they didn’t teach you in seminary,’” he noted.

Training served him well

Even so, looking back, he believes principles he learned at Truett Seminary served him well even when he was working in areas far outside his expertise where he felt uncomfortable.

“The foundation I received at Truett Seminary in leadership, ethics and social justice gave me tools to process information and take action,” he said. “I felt like God empowered the steps I was taking.”

Pillsbury wonders if he “stumbled into an Esther situation,” a reference to the Old Testament story of the Hebrew woman whose access to the king allowed her to intercede for her people and who was told she entered the kingdom “for such a time as this.”

“It wasn’t what I had in mind for my time in Kenya,” Pillsbury said. “But I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of what God wanted done.”

DALLAS (ABP)— A new book by Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, asserts President Obama’s policies are paving the way for the Antichrist—a future world dictator prophesied in Scripture.

Robert JeffressJeffress, who made news in the last presidential election for saying candidate Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion is a cult, writes in Perfect Ending, due for release by Worthy Publishing Jan. 21, the Bible “is able to foretell with laser-like accuracy events that will occur hundreds and even thousands of years after it was written.”

That includes a coming Antichrist—a word that appears only in the epistles of John but with parallels in other books like Daniel and Revelation—connected with the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world.

While past attempts to predict the specific date for Christ’s return were misguided, Jeffress writes, Christians can recognize prophetic events that might be taking place in the world and America’s government today.

“For the first time in history, a president of our country has openly proposed altering one of society’s (not to mention God’s) most fundamental laws: that marriage should be between a man and a woman,” Jeffress writes.

“While I am not suggesting that President Obama is the Antichrist, the fact that he was able to propose such a sweeping change in God’s law and still win re-election by a comfortable margin illustrates how a future world leader will be able to oppose God’s laws without any repercussions.”

In the book, Jeffress sets out both to help Christians in their daily lives with the comfort of knowing how the story ends and to challenge them to speak out on changing the course of events in America while there still is time.

“It is significant that the Antichrist will be able to persecute God’s people, seek to change God’s laws, and usurp people’s freedom of worship and commerce without any recorded opposition,” he writes.

“How could that happen? The only explanation is that prior to the appearance of the Antichrist, people will have already become so numb to immorality, apathetic and even sympathetic to the persecution of religious ‘extremists’ (which will be the new term for committed Christians), and conditioned to the government’s usurpation of personal freedom, that the Antichrist’s rise to power will go unchallenged.”

Jeffress delivered a similar message in a sermon at First Baptist Church just prior to the November 2012 election.

AUSTIN—Trailblazing African-American pastor Marvin Griffin, a former first vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, died Christmas Day at age 90.

Marvin GriffinGriffin served 42 years as pastor of the landmark Ebenezer Baptist Church in Austin, and he led the church to create the East Austin Economic Development Corporation to provide affordable housing, care for senior adults, a child-development center and other services in its neighborhood.

Griffin was the first African-American graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also was the first African-American president of the Austin school board, where he worked to integrate the city’s schools and ensure a quality education for children of all races.

Gov. John Connally appointed Griffin to the Texas Southern University board of regents. He also served as a delegate to the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Marvin Griffin with former Texas Baptist Executive Directors William M. Pinson and Charles Wade..In addition to his election as BGCT first vice president in 1996, Griffin also served as historian of the National Baptist Convention of America Inc., corresponding secretary of the Missionary Baptist General Convention of Texas, and director of the Christian education enrichment program at the National Baptist Fellowship of Churches.

He was dean of the National Congress of Christian Workers and served as director and lecturer of the teacher-training department of the National Baptist Sunday School and Baptist Training Union Congress.

He served as a trustee of Hardin-Simmons University from 1991 to 1999.

Born Feb. 20, 1923, in Wichita, Kan., Griffin graduated from Bishop College in Dallas. He also earned master’s degrees at Oberlin Graduate School of Theology and Southwestern Seminary and a doctorate from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

He was pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Waco 18 years before he went to Ebenezer Baptist in 1969.

He was preceded in death by his wife, Lois King Griffin, and a daughter, Gaynelle Griffin Jones, whom President Bill Clinton appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas. Jones was the first African-American woman to hold that post and the first black woman to serve on the First Court of Appeals in Texas. Griffin is survived by two daughters, Ria Griffin and Marva Lois Carter.

Editor’s Note: The article was revised after originally posted to correct a date in the first paragraph.

SEAGOVILLE—When a food-service provider cancelled a holiday party for about 200 military personnel and their families at the last minute, event organizers saw a disaster in the making. So, they contacted Texas Baptist Men disaster relief.

Lt. Col. Ann Hall with the 341st Multifunctional Medical Battalion from Seagoville thanks George Felkner with Texas Baptist Men for providing a meal at a holiday gathering for soldiers and their families.George Felkner, a member of Mimosa Lane Baptist Church in Mesquite who works with TBM disaster relief, received a call from a representative of the U.S. Army 341st Multifunctional Medical Battalion in Seagoville.

Felkner learned about the caterer’s last-minute cancellation for a family event honoring the 354th Medical Company from Seagoville, many of whom were set for deployment to Afghanistan.

So, he and seven other TBM volunteers—including four U.S. Navy veterans from the Vietnam conflict—loaded the disaster relief unit and headed to the “party ranch” in Mesquite where the event was scheduled.

“Being veterans and dealing with all the stuff we did when we returned from Vietnam, we didn’t want anybody else in the military to feel unappreciated,” Felkner said.

Nobody—volunteers, soldiers or family members—felt any lack of appreciation at the event.

“We walked in, and everybody started applauding,” Felkner recalled.

Even after some good-natured teasing about Navy’s 34-7 gridiron victory over Army, the Army personnel continued to show their gratitude to the TBM volunteers, and that opened the door to some meaningful conversations about spiritual matters, he noted.

At one point, the TBM crew circled a first sergeant who requested prayer prior to a final deployment before retirement after 25 years of military service.

“We enjoyed your gracious service to the U.S. military, great meal and your fellowship,” Capt. Michael Okikawa, commander of the 354th Medical Company, wrote to Felkner in a Christmas Eve email. “Please tell all that volunteered how much we appreciate their support and their time to make our holiday event extra special.” 

RICHARDSON—Matt Allen saw a chance to get better acquainted with his yet-unborn son, Daniel, and jumped at it.

Matt Allen and his wife Michelle use Alpha Ministry’s microphones to read to their unborn child. Although he and his wife, Michelle, are members of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Richardson, they are enthusiastic proponents of First Baptist Church in Richardson’s Alpha Ministry.

The ministry allows young couples to bond with one another and their child while the baby still is in the womb through a band equipped with microphones and speakers wrapped around the mother’s stomach.

“Honestly, this was something I had never heard of before,” Allen said. “But I thought it was a great idea, and I was really anxious to try it.

“One of the things that got to me was that I got to bond with my son, and he got to know my voice even before he was born. My wife had a connection with him all through the pregnancy, and this allowed me to start that bond as well.”

Daniel now is 10 months old, and his parents have continued reading Scripture, singing and praying with him—all central components of Alpha Ministry.

Allen acknowledged he did not think that would be the case if his family had not established the habit before Daniel’s birth.

“We may have read poetry—that is something that had been done in family before. But I don’t think we would be reading Scripture and singing like we do,” he confessed.

“I would recommend this to anyone, and I know we want to do this when we have our next one.”

The Alpha Ministry is a part of the senior adult ministry of First Baptist Church. The ministry connects senior adults to young families as the seniors teach expectant parents how to use the Alpha equipment.

“I think this is a very unique way to reach families,” said Gerald Ware, minister to senior adults. “It’s a unique way to bring Christ into a family.”

See the January issue of CommonCall magazine to read about Alpha Ministry at First Baptist Church in Richardson. To subscribe, click here.