Texas Baptists Committed, formed as a political organization two decades ago to resist a “fundamentalist takeover” of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, soon will be seeking a new executive director and relocating its office.

David Currie, a San Angelo rancher who has led Texas Baptists Committed since its inception, will be named executive director emeritus, and the organization will move its office to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The organization’s board will appoint a committee to search for a new executive director and will seek a church in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to provide office space.

Currie announced the move in his “Rancher’s Rumblings” e-mail newsletter, also posted on the Texas Baptists Committed website at http://www.txbc.org .

“Much of (Texas Baptists Committed’s) work involves working with the Baptist General Convention of Texas—keeping folks informed about the work of BGCT institutions, agencies, and universities, and also acting as a watchdog in relation to BGCT policies and actions,” he wrote, announcing the organization would move its office to the Dallas-Fort Worth area where it would be more accessible to the BGCT Executive Board offices.

In announcing his plans to “step down as executive director,” Currie noted he will continue to write his column, travel and speak on behalf of Texas Baptists Committed.

“However, I will give up day-to-day oversight of the (Texas Baptists Committed) office and operations, and I am thrilled about this,” he wrote.

Texas Baptists Committed “continues to have a vital ministry in Baptist life, but … (the organization) needs to move forward on initiatives that meet the new challenges of 21st-century Baptist life, and much of that work is the type of work for which I don’t have the training or—to be honest—even the desire to do,” Currie said.

Currie said he would continue in the executive director’s position until a new leader is chosen and on the job. “At that point, I will move to emeritus status, and the new executive director will then hire his or her own support staff,” he said.

At its apex of influence, Texas Baptists Committed succeeded in mobilizing thousands of messengers from churches around the state to attend BGCT annual meetings to elect a series of candidates endorsed by the organization. Those candidates included the state convention’s first Hispanic, African-American and female presidents.

Last year, Texas Baptists Committed agreed to refrain from endorsing any candidates for BGCT office.

In recent years, as the organization has experienced financial hardship and endured questions as to its continued reason for being, the group has tried to shift from its previous role of political organizing to a new identity as promoter of BGCT ministries and institutions, as well as a voice for historic Baptist principles.

Currie served from 1988 to 1990 as field coordinator for Baptists Committed to the SBC, a national organization of Baptists moderates that developed into Texas Baptists Committed. Since 2000, he has worked as a consultant with the national Mainstream Baptist Network.

Prior to that, he worked as a special projects coordinator with the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission in Nashville, Tenn., as pastor of First Baptist Church in Mason and as a special assistant to the director of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

He has been a managing partner of a 2,700 sheep and cattle ranch in Concho County since 1968. Since 1995, he also has been president of Cornerstone Builders, a custom home building company in San Angelo.

Currie is a graduate of Howard Payne University, and he earned master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

PLAINVIEW—Haley Hill always wanted to be a teacher and coach, and her summer in Japan did not change that calling. But it did solidify in her mind that she is called to be “on mission” even in her chosen career by intentionally living out her faith.

Hill is a junior middle blocker and outside hitter for Wayland Baptist University’s Pioneer volleyball team, having transferred in spring 2009 from New Mexico Military Institute. A native of San Angelo, Hill said her trip to Japan definitely was orchestrated by God, encouraged by a few youth who issued a challenge.

“During the summer of 2008, I was working a Super Summer, and they announced a meeting about the trip to Japan, but I didn’t know if I was supposed to go,” she recalled. “Some of my camp kids challenged me and said, ‘You told us not to stay until you’re called to go but to go until you’re called to stay.’”

Hill agreed to pursue the opportunity, having visited Germany in 2007 with iWitness ministries, the same organizing group for the Japan trip. She quickly decided to apply and see what happened. While the organization requires an in-person interview for the trips, Hill was unable to attend since she was in a military school.

“I told God if he wanted me to be there, he’d make it happen. We did the interview on the phone, and I found out in November I was accepted,” she said. “It was definitely a God thing.”

Soon thereafter, Hill transferred to Wayland to play volleyball and began raising the money for her trip that spring. She noted that her coach, Jim Giacomazzi, was understanding of her desire to make another overseas trip and flexible about her return time if it interfered with pre-season workouts.

Haley Hill, a junior at Wayland Baptist University, holds up her flag after reaching the summit of Mount Fuji in Japan just a few hours before sunrise.

The mission work was part of the Free Greater Tokyo effort, specifically the Tokyo 5:9 project, based on Rev. 5:9, which states, “With your blood, you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”

Hill and the other summer missionaries had four primary activities during their time in Tokyo, mostly dealing with relational evangelism or direct efforts. Each day, the groups traveled from their apartments to train stations and offered five-minute English lessons outside the stations for two to three hours.

The Americans held signs reading “Five-minute English Lessons” in both English and Japanese—an attractive offering for Japanese business people who love the opportunity to hone their English-speaking skills.

“The lessons would mainly consist of us first telling them that we came to Japan to make friends and to share what we believe, then we’d ask them three questions—their favorite movie, their favorite music and their favorite book, to practice their conversational skills,” Hill said.

“That would lead us to mention our favorite book, the Bible, and we’d offer them a summary of the Bible. If they wanted to hear more, we would share more.”

That effort was the most successful of the summer since they were able to speak and share God’s love with the commuters, Hill noted.

Since they were in the same stations each day and week, commuters became familiar with seeing them, and the missionaries were able to build some relationships with people over time. Hill said they witnessed to about 100 people each week doing the five-minute lessons.

The group also did campus ministry on a nearby university campus, taking two days each week to prayerwalk the campus and seek out opportunities to speak to the students there. Once they began to build friendships, they invited students to join them for lunch and shared the purpose of their visit, opening up more about their faith.

“They were very open and friendly with us,” Hill noted. “It’s a big deal there to have American friends, so they wanted to be there with us.”

Afterward, they’d engage their peer students in other common activities such as karaoke or bowling or visiting the picture booths that are so popular in Japan. That deepening friendship gave them a chance to share their beliefs about God’s love and Christ’s death on the cross for their sins. Hill and another missionary even joined the basketball club at the campus in order to minister through a shared interest in sports.

Weekends provided opportunities to spend more time with friends, specifically in the city parks. Families often gather there for picnics, games, riding bikes, paddle boating in the lakes and other activities, Hill observed. The missionaries found it easy to find activities engage people, from soccer to face-painting for children. They also visited the many park vendors and built relationships with them, as well.

The missionaries also distributed tracts and gospel messages. On two days of the week, the group would hand out the Gospel of John in Japanese and a tract titled “Hope” in various locations. The tract offered a free New Testament and a DVD with the story of Christ for anyone interested.

The missionaries visited the same train stations and walked through the communities handing out their messages, also dropping them in mailboxes if residents weren’t home, prayerwalking as they went.

Over the course of the summer, Hill said the group handed out more than 500,000 Hope tracts and 100,000 Gospels of John. Short-term mission groups from various cities were part of that effort as they joined the team for evangelistic opportunities.

Evenings offered free time for the missionaries, although they were encouraged to hang out with their Japanese friends and contacts and continue building relationships that might lead to conversations of faith. That happened often, Hill said, and the group noticed increased curiosity from their friends. One girl, Diana, even invited some of the Americans to her home for dinner, an uncommon practice, Hill said, since many Japanese are very self-conscious around Americans regarding about their small homes.

Toward the end of the summer in Japan, Hill and her fellow interns enjoyed an outing to climb Mount Fuji. The group started at the base at 9:30 p.m. and reached the summit around 2:30 a.m., waiting on the mountain to enjoy the sunrise at 4:30 a.m.

While she did not walk away from her summer with plans to be a career missionary, Hill said she thinks she’d like to pursue the Journeyman program for her first few years after graduation.

She’s been invited back to Japan for summer 2010 to serve on the leadership team, and she is already excited about returning. She feels the coming summer will help her decide if Asia is her calling as a short-term missionary in the future.

“I went into the summer looking for what God wanted me to do. I’ve always felt that I’m supposed to serve him some way through the church but didn’t know how,” she said. “I definitely learned that it’s not a career thing for me, but I feel like as a coach and teacher, I can still be a missionary in my career. I feel like God’s given me an opportunity to reach the people that I’ll be working with.

Although that might be looking down the road a bit, Hill said, God shook her a little about her current lifestyle and that of her fellow missionaries.

“The summer was almost like a slap in the face for us, really. Why aren’t we telling people, especially our friends we see every day, about God? We don’t live boldly like we need to, so it was a huge thing for us,” she said.

“I was so excited to come back to Wayland and be able to make an impact on campus. I really want to do things here, and God has revealed to me the needs on our campus.”

PLAINVIEW—As part of its participation in Texas Hope 2010, Wayland Baptist University is encouraging all its staff members to work through a 30-day prayer guide that leads people to pray daily for the spiritually lost and physically hungry in Texas.

The prayer guides will help bolster the Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated school’s around-the-clock prayer ministry and—organizers hope—bring people closer to God, said Michael Summer, Wayland’s director of church services.

“In an effort to connect our faculty and staff with Texas Hope 2010, prayer guides have been provided for all faculty and staff to utilize this fall as we pray for Texas,” Summers said.

“We will also provide copies to students as they desire. The Texas prayer efforts correspond well with our 24/7 prayer emphasis at Wayland this year. Every hour of every day, someone is praying for Wayland and for Texas. There are prayers that God longs to answer if we will only start praying them.”

Texas Hope 2010 is a BGCT-initiated effort to encourage Christians to pray for people across the state, care for those around them and share the gospel with every Texan by Easter 2010. For more information, visit www.texashope2010.com.

LONGVIEW—At First Baptist Church in Longview, the goal is 110 by 2010—110 people who have come to Christ, been baptized and had their lives changed by the gospel—by Easter 2010.

The church, which baptized 32 people in 2007, baptized 33 people in the first three months of this year. Pastor Tim Watson said the church is focusing on sharing the gospel with its community, allowing God to use them to bring more people to himself.

The effort is part of the church’s participation in Texas Hope 2010, a Baptist General Convention of Texas initiative to share the gospel with every Texan by Easter 2010.

“We made a decision to put intentional evangelism back in a position of priority at First Baptist Church, and Texas Hope 2010 was a perfect vehicle to implement what was a big part of our vision,” Watson said. “We are doing many great ministry things, and we want evangelism to be one of them.”

As the church works toward its goal, it will conduct a series of events meant to share the gospel with every member of its community, including distributing a multimedia compact disc containing Scripture and dramatic gospel presentations. The events include a conference with Team Impact this month to reach students, Just Walk Across the Room relationship evangelism training in October and a four-day evangelistic event in January 2010.

The congregation also has put an emphasis on intentional relationship development with non-Christians, Watson said.

By cultivating relationships, Christians naturally can share with those who have not embraced the gospel, he said.

“We have taken BGCT resources and the Texas Hope 2010 vision and tailored it to our church and community,” Watson said. 

“It has already been a success, and more is coming.”

BAYTOWN—By sharing messages of hurting people at their concerts, the Texas-based band Leeland hopes to encourage Christians to engage actively with a world in need. 

“God’s really been opening our vision to all the hurting people, especially the poor around the world, and making it clear that we should help by being a part of spreading his kingdom,” lead singer Leeland Mooring said.

“If we’re not loving people, then we’re just making a bunch of noise.

“Worship, justice and action are not separate. They are united and work together. When you have an amazing encounter with God and you experience his love during worship, the fruit of that should be your life overflowing with action, love and justice to the world around you.”

His brother, keyboard player Jack Mooring, agreed. “During the past year, God has caused a total shift in our thinking and the way we approach our ministry. We don’t want to sing another song if we’re not taking care of the poor and those in need. If we’re not being the hands and feet of Jesus, we might as well just stop making records and go home.”

Leeland has received many accolades and achievements, including Gram-my and Dove Award nominations.

In 2006, Leeland Mooring co-wrote more than half of the songs on Michael W. Smith’s Stand album. In 2008, the band’s songs were featured in the movie Fireproof and the TV show Army Wives on Lifetime.

Also, last year, Leeland and Jack Mooring were the only musicians invited to the White House for its “Compassion in Action Roundtable.” This meeting targeted emerging leaders in developing the next generation of America’s social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders.

However, those prestigious honors haven’t changed the band. When Leeland’s not on the road, the band members live in Baytown and regularly serve at a food pantry that feeds hundreds of people in the Houston area each week. 

“Our No. 1 call is to minister to the hurting and lost; God never says to shove things down people’s throats,” Leeland Mooring said.

“For youth, we tell them that it’s all about showing your family and friends how you live your life as a Christian and how you deal with things, pray, praise God, and how your love for him just overflows into your everyday life.”

For the past three years, the band has maintained a busy schedule sharing their music and message at concerts around the country. In recent months, they performed at the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ Congreso and Youth Evangelism Conference.

Recently, Leeland released a new album, titled Love is on the Move. 

This fall, Leeland will team up with Brandon Heath to co-headline the “Follow You Tour.” This tour will give audiences the chance to respond to each night’s worship by sponsoring children through Food for the Hungry.

The tour will be at First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls Oct. 17, Fielder Road Baptist Church in Arlington Oct. 18 and First Baptist Church in Lubbock Oct. 25.

“At the end of each concert, I hope people leave knowing how much God loves them, and I pray they are inspired to go into their city and be the hands and feet of Christ to the world around them,” Leeland Mooring said.

BALLINGER—Lake Ivie Baptist Association purchased 10,000 multimedia gospel compact discs to help churches move forward with Texas Hope 2010 in a seven-county area.

The CDs are available for churches to purchase from the association, in turn, to use in individual city and county outreach efforts.

The CD, an evangelism tool promoted by the Texas Hope 2010 campaign to share the gospel with every Texan, includes gospel presentations and a link to download the New Testament in more than 300 languages.

“In our association, there are 17,139 households within seven counties,” said Barry Taylor, director of missions for Lake Ivie Baptist Association. “We have been going county-to-county having meetings with our pastors. We voted to at least have an initial purchase of 10,000 CDs to make available to the churches in our association.”

Taylor already delivered CDs to seven churches that purchased CDs from the association—First Baptist of Brady, First Baptist of Rochelle, Mercury Baptist in Mercury, First Baptist of Santa Anna, First Baptist of Mason and First Baptist of Menard. Their goal is to distribute the gospel to households in Coke, Coleman, Concho, Mason, McCullough, Menard and Runnels counties.

Gregg Fletcher, pastor of First Baptist Church in Brady, distributed CDs to some of his church members recently, telling the congregation to share them with their friends and neighbors.

The church is assembling packets that include the CD, a New Testament, a tract and information on their church. This month, the church plans to launch a door-to-door outreach so all the people in their county will receive a visit.

“There are a lot of churches working together to make sure that our county is covered with the gospel,” Fletcher said. “It's a joint effort. We had a countywide meeting Aug. 10 and had great feedback. It was great to hear that they were excited.”

Bobby Broyles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Ballinger, said his church voted to purchase 1,000 CDs to use in their Texas Hope 2010 efforts.

First Baptist is partnering with Hopewell Baptist Church and Seventh Street Baptist Church, both in Ballinger, to deliver a CD to every home in their area.

The three churches are discussing the best method of delivery and will begin distribution in coming months.

“We're hoping we'll get prospects for church and have evangelism opportunities,” Broyles said. “As we deliver, we’ll ask if they have prayer needs to find ministry opportunities in the area. Then we can help with that.”

Although these churches hope to complete their CD distribution by Easter Sunday 2010, Fletcher insists the delivery should not be rushed.

“It's important that we have a well-planned, meticulous effort so we have a positive influence for Christ,” he said. “It's important that we have clear communication of the gospel.

“If we get into this and realize that we can't get to every home by Easter Sunday, we will make this Texas Hope 2011 or Texas Hope 2012. We will continue on until we finish the task. I just keep telling the church that it is important that we do a good job and properly represent Christ as we go door-to-door and deliver these CDs.”

BROWNWOOD—The simple act of painting walls in a local home provided Howard Payne University students the opportunity to share the gospel.

“The homeowners were amazed that students would want to do something for them, asking for nothing in return,” junior Molly Gore said. “Their questions and eagerness to know what we were about opened doors for us to tell them about our Savior.”

The students were serving through Impact Weekend, organized by Howard Payne’s Baptist Student Ministry. The weekend event’s “Prayer, Care, Share” tied students’ efforts to Texas Hope 2010, BSM Director Katy Blackshear said. Texas Hope 2010 is an Baptist General Convention of Texas-initiative effort to share the gospel with every Texan by Easter 2010 and meet human needs.

More than 100 students participated in Impact weekend activities. Blackshear organized the weekend to include prayerwalking and community service. During an on-campus picnic that launched the weekend, local churches were invited for fellowship and to meet students.

Doug Newton, a student from Howard Payne University, helps a local resident with landscaping.

After the picnic, a student-led worship service emphasized missions. Sophomores Nick Kresge and Caitlin Woodard shared testimonies about their summer experiences through Go Now Missions, and senior LJ McCulloch spoke about living missionally.

On Saturday, students participated in mission projects around Brownwood ranging from painting and landscaping to door-to-door evangelism. The BSM partnered with a new local nonprofit agency, F5K, to find homes in the area where student could meet needs.

The weekend’s activities were concluded on Saturday night with a community street party. Students invited the homeowners they had met and served during the day to join them for a hot dog supper.  At the dinner, HPU student Richard Reed shared the gospel with those in attendance.

Students characterized the event as a great event “where we were able to share the gospel as we cared for people and met their needs,” Blackshear noted.

SAN ANTONIO—Grace House offers women out of prison a chance to break free from their past and transition into society and a relationship with God.

Billy and Jacqueline Thornton, members of First Baptist Church in Boerne, taught weekly Bible classes at Bexar County Jail about 17 years. But they wanted to do more.

“We began to pray that God would send people across our path,” Thornton said. “And he really did.”

Dana Hill, a former Grace House resident who now attends Southwestern Theological Seminary and works in youth camps through the Go Tell Ministries evangelistic organization, prays with a homeless person under a bridge. (PHOTOS/Courtesy of Grace House)

They saw women who had nowhere to go after leaving jail. Some women were released in the middle of the night. These women did not have a foundation to build on, Mrs. Thornton said.

She and her husband prayed about the need, and in 2002, they opened Grace House in San Antonio.

“If the Lord was in and wanted it, we would be his hand extended and opened,” she said.

Grace House offers women out of jail or prison a place to go where they can receive room, board, clothes and training to help with everyday life, including spiritual life.

The Thorntons, with volunteers including the Texas Baptist Men Builders, recently completed a $1 million home paid for through contributions. The new Grace House can hold 12 women, and nine women currently live there.

“We live like a family,” Mrs. Thornton said. “We don’t want to turn it into an institution. It’s an intimate setting.”

The women live there from six months to a year, but one woman felt called to stay.

Emily Williams, now 28 and on staff at Grace House, hit rock bottom when she was 23 years old.

She spent time in jail and struggled with a 10-year drug addiction. She also discovered she had a heart condition caused by her drug use.

“I had no hope, no joy, no reason to live,” Williams said.

She almost wanted to go to jail because she thought she would die if she stayed on the streets.

While in jail, a woman visited her and asked if she wanted to change her life.

“I was so sick and tired of that life,” Williams said. “She said a prayer for me, and I’ve never been the same since.”

Residents and recent graduates of Grace House enjoy a July 4 fellowship meal.

Williams read the Bible while in jail, and God refined her, she said. She went to live at Grace House when she was released.

“Before, I was not in Christ, and my life was nothing,” Williams said. “Now that I’m in Christ, my life is full, meaningful (and) purposeful.”

She has been on staff for two years at Grace House, and she works with women who remind her of her past lifestyle.

“I can say that, ‘Look, I know this is hard, but it can be done,’” Williams said. “I can relate to them.”

For the first six months the women stay in the house, the staff pours the word of God into their lives, Williams said.

“We try to get them to see that God’s way is the only way to make it,” she said. “He’s our number one priority in this life. If we don’t get that, we will stumble and fall.”

After six months, the women can look for employment, start a job and save money for an apartment or a car. Going from jail to the real world can be more difficult than most realize, she said.

“The world is very overwhelming and influential,” Williams said. “Grace House gives them the opportunity to transition out and not just be thrown out. … It’s a place for them to receive healing.”

Dana Hill, another former Grace House resident, now attends Southwest-ern Baptist Theological Seminary and works in youth camps through Go Tell Ministries, an evangelistic organization.

Hill travels around the United States and will go to the Dominican Republic later this year, Mrs. Thornton said.

“She felt a call in her life,” Mrs. Thornton said. “She found the Lord Jesus, and it transformed her life, like the Bible said it would. She became a new creation.”

The Thorntons want to help any woman with a problem. Grace House offers nutrition courses, classes on anger management, exercise classes and parenting classes, but all these activities have a focus on God.

“Everything we do is founded on the word of God,” Mrs. Thornton said. “That’s our purpose. That’s what changes lives.”

Out of the 60 women who have lived in the house, only two have gone back to prison.

Six women currently attend college after finishing Grace House’s program, and many receive scholarships through contributions and grants, Thornton said.

“I see them go from darkness to light,” he said.

For more information on Grace House, contact Jacqueline Thornton at (830) 537-4333 or Cathe Graves at (210) 493-7884.

GALVESTON—Pastor Ray Meador never would have wanted a hurricane to strike his church and community. One year after Hurricane Ike, he insists his church is better for it.

Before the hurricane struck Galveston Island, Meador characterized First Baptist Church in Galveston’s outreach to the community as “minimal.” The church had a ministry to students at the University of Texas Medical Branch, assisted in ministering to the homeless through Mission Galveston and conducted picnics in local parks with praise music.

“But that seems like 100 years ago. Since the hurricane, we haven’t done anything like that,” he said.

The hurricane took its toll on the church. The primary building the church uses now was two feet deep in water after the storm. One foot of water filled the sanctuary.

And the equipment room—where all the church’s electrical controls, air conditioning and boilers for heater were located—was five feet below the slab, so it was six feet deep in water. Because of the damage to the equipment in that room, the sanctuary still cannot be used for services, and Meador can’t put a timetable to when it will be available for worship. But it has been used for ministry.

“After the hurricane, people just started sending us things—clothes and a lot of other things,” he said. “For a while we thought, ‘What are we going to do with it all?’”

The church decided to give the supplies to the hurting people of the island. Volunteers placed plywood across the top of the pews, and clothing and other items were spread across them. People took what they needed, and the church’s GraceMart ministry was born.

Three churches and a community ministry occupy the flood-damaged facility of First Baptist Church in Galveston.

Volunteers—including workers from Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas and First Baptist Church in Nacogdoches—helped with the new GraceMart ministry.

In November, a church in Katy held a toy drive that collected more than 2,000 new toys and brought them to First Baptist Church in Galveston. Volunteers prayed with families who came in need of toys for their children, and then helped them shop for just the right things.

Others needed diapers and clothing, while still more who had started moving back into their homes needed dishes, pots and pans, and furniture—all of which had been donated by churches throughout the state.

The church met another pressing community need through Mercy Clinic.

“When you have something like this, all the doctors are displaced. UTMB was totally out of business for a while. People who came back to the island needed refills on their prescriptions and things like that,” Meador explained.

Doctors from the church helped run the church clinic during that critical time with help from medical students, as well as physicians from other Texas communities.

After people started returning to the island to work on their homes, one of their primary needs was a place to shower and wash clothes. Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas brought a shower and laundry trailer to the church parking lot and left it more than five months. During that time, the unit was able to provide 10,000 showers.

Meador recalled a family who had been living in their car, and the children hadn’t bathed in two weeks. Most of all he recalled the volunteers —professionals, teenagers, medical students, retirees and countless others folding clothes and doing whatever was needed to help.

While the church’s sanctuary is not usable, from the outside it looks fine. Many homes and businesses in Galveston are in similar circumstances.

Students from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston join physicians from First Baptist Church in Galveston in staffing Mercy Clinic.

“The rest of the community is coming back like we are,” Meador said. “Once the flood goes away and you wash away the high water mark, you don’t know if it’s been cleaned up, gutted, fixed up and renovated or if its just been walked away from. You can still find water in some places.

“The salt water is just insidious. After we replace everything the salt water touched, we find something else. About the time you think, ‘OK, we’ve taken this step,’ you find you have to back up and rethink.”

Meador’s wife, Sherry, said the church is looking forward to returning to the sanctuary and getting out of the fellowship hall. She particularly recalled the splendor of the building during the Christmas season.

“They would like to be back in it. It’s very beautiful and they miss the beauty of it. I miss the beauty of it,” she said.

First Baptist in Galveston had a great deal of wind insurance, but since the damage was due to flooding, the insurance only covered $239,000. Just the clean-up cost $314,000, so there is no money for replacing anything.

“But that’s where the blessing comes in,” Meador said.

Wilshire, Park Cities, First Baptist in Nacogdoches, First Baptist in Graham, Southside Baptist Church in Tyler, First Baptist Church in Bryan and other churches throughout the state have blessed the Galveston congregation over and over again, Meador said. They not only have given money, time, manpower and materials, but also have bathed everything in prayer.

He recalled a deacon from First Baptist in Nacogdoches asking about the air conditioning. He told him the estimate was for $91,000 and the church was still paying for the one damaged in the flood because it was only two years old. The technician felt he might be able to get the old one running for $25,000 to $30,000 but it would always be damaged goods.

“After thinking for a minute, he said, ‘Tell them they’re good for $30,000.’ And the next thing you know, somebody knocks on the door and says, ‘We’ve come to fix the sheetrock,’” Meador said.

The blessings First Baptist Galvest received have changed the way the congregation sees ministry, he said.

“I told every pastor I talked to, ‘Whatever you give, we’re going to be a different church, and we’re going to give it back in ministry,’” he said.

For the year since Hurricane Ike struck, Galveston Chinese Church has also has met at the First Baptist facility. Island Community Baptist Church also meets at First Baptist.

Mission Galveston uses the church to minister to the homeless every Monday.

A home school co-op meets at the church every Friday. Christian Women’s Job Corps will soon meet there.

The hurricane and the ministry of so many churches has changed the way First Baptist Church in Galveston views its community, Meador said.

“We see the need we never saw before,” he said.

Members of First Baptist “have learned how to receive and how to give without worrying if the money has been spent right,” Meador added. “They also learned that missions is more than putting a check in the envelope.”

For years, First Baptist was known as the church across from the library.

“After the hurricane, we were the church with the showers,” Meador said.

And, he would add, showers of blessings.

EL PASO—River Ministry volunteers from around the state and Mexico joined students from the University of Texas at El Paso Baptist Student Ministry to distribute more than 4,400 Texas Hope multimedia compact disks containing gospel presentations and access to the New Testament in more than 300 languages.

These efforts are part of Texas Hope 2010, an attempt to share the gospel with every Texan by Easter 2010 and place Scripture in all 8.8 million Texas homes. Daniel Rangel, director of River Ministry with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said the event grew out of the groups’ desire to be obedient and share the gospel.

“When you do something like this, you reflect who God is because God loves the whole world and wants everyone to know him,” Rangel said. “You are obedient to God’s word. When you seek God, you seek his will, and you reflect his attributes of love and mercy.”

In an attempt to share their faith and hand out the Texas Hope CDs, Chris Smith, director of the UTEP BSM, noted the university students used a school event as a platform to engage the community.

On Friday night before Labor Day, the BSM hosted a soccer kick at Minerpalooza, a pep rally with food, games and music attended by 22,000 El Paso residents and UTEP students to celebrate the start of school and the first Miner football game of the season.

A member of the Baptist Student Ministy at the University of Texas at El Paso hands out Texas Hope 2010 CDs at Minerpalooza, a city-wide pep rally hosted by the university. The group handed out more than 2,500 CDs at the event. (PHOTOS/Rand Jenkins/BGCT)

“As part of Minerpalooza, we have a booth to try to take opportunities to reach the campus and the community,” Smith said. “Our goal for the BSM is to share the gospel with the students here so that they can hear the truth of God’s word. We want them to be impacted eternally for what is going to happen in their lives.”

While Minerpalooza was taking place, a group of River Ministry volunteers arrived in El Paso and prepared for CD distribution the next morning. A few volunteers arrived early on Friday and began distribution that afternoon. Many volunteers came from various places around Texas and the Valley, but 17 came from the Matamoros area of Mexico as a result of River Ministry partnerships and a vision that began a year ago.

“Last year at our coordinators’ meeting, we were talking about coming to El Paso for Texas Hope 2010, and they all said they would like to come and bring a team from their area so we would have people from Brownsville, from the Weslaco area, from the Eagle Pass area and from Matamoros on the other side of the river,” Rangel said. “We decided on Labor Day because they would have an extra day to travel over here.”

John Roman, co-chair for the El Paso Texas Hope 2010 CD distribution, asked the group to partner with Southwest Cowboy Church, a congregation launched in January. The long-range goal is to deliver CDs to 10,060 homes by Easter 2010 in the predominately Spanish-speaking area of Socorro where the church is located.

During the Labor Day weekend emphasis, the group was able to deliver CDs to 1,900 homes, about 20 percent of the area. Under Roman’s direction, members of Southwest Cowboy Church will take the lead in delivering the remaining CDs over the next six months.

University of Texas at El Paso students look at a Texas Hope 2010 CD given to them by the BSM. The BSM handed out 2,500 CDs at Minerpalooza, a pep rally attended by 22,000 El Pasoans and UTEP students.

“We are participating in the project because we know that the people really need Jesus Christ,” said Gloria de la Pena, a volunteer who drove eight hours from Piedras Negras, Mexico, to help with the effort.

“We came because there is so much need. The people need hope. And we can share with them that we have Jesus in our lives and be able to help them.”

Osvaldo Lerma, pastor at Iglesia Bautista Filadelfia in Brownsville and a River Ministry coordinator, sees the CD distribution as a way to spread the gospel among El Paso area residents, as well as minister to believers who may have experienced repercussions from the violence that has occurred in Juarez, Mexico.

“We hope that the seeds get planted and that a lot of people will get to know Christ through the message on the CD and the visitation of the church who is hosting this group,” Lerma said.

“We came to do this here because we can see that in the churches here, some of the members may have families or relatives who have gone through violence and need some encouragement and support.”

A couple of weeks prior to the Labor Day distribution, Roman and some El Paso churches came together to mail 84,000 Texas Hope CDs to a few areas of El Paso.

“The CDs were mostly mailed in ZIP codes that we weren’t able to recruit a captain or to a ZIP code without a church or one where the residents are scattered,” Roman said.

All 250,000 Texas Hope CDs the BGCT sent to El Paso have been given to the ZIP code captains, Roman said. Now the captains are in the process of partnering with churches and individuals to deliver them to homes in their area.

GARLAND—Many groups use car washes as fund-raisers. But for members of Garland’s Ethiopian Evangelical Baptist Church, their car wash wasn’t about making money. They wanted to help people have clean cars and clean hearts.

Four consecutive Saturdays, the church hosted the car wash. Through the endeavor, 23 people chose to place their faith in Christ.

“We dedicated the month … to go out and share the gospel with people,” said Pastor Bedilu Yirga. “We did different things like having a car wash for everyone on the road. While their car was being washed, we shared the gospel with the owners.”

“Three years ago, we were praying that God would open the way for us to share the good news to the people around us,” said Mebratu Chefeq, head of evangelism at the church. “And he showed us this way.”

In addition to the car wash, outreach endeavors included handing out 300 Bible MP3 sticks and compact disks including gospel presentations and 1,000 English and Spanish tracts. The church also committed to 40 days of prayer and sharing the gospel wherever they could.

Even though the church ministers primarily in Amharic, an Ethiopian language, and English, the members hope to begin Spanish-speaking Bible studies since the majority of new believers from the car wash speak Spanish. Pastor Yirga currently is looking for Spanish speakers who will partner with the church in this effort.

“I want this church to impact the local community regardless of their language,” Yirga said. “I want this church to serve those who speak English and Spanish with holistic ministry—sharing the gospel, praying with them and assisting them with whatever their needs may be.”

To continue this evangelistic spirit, some members have dedicated the second and fourth Sundays of each month to go to shopping centers, apartments and other place near the church so they can engage people, share the gospel and meet needs.

Food Policy Roundtable slated. The Texas Hunger Initiative—a joint venture of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the Baylor Center for Family & Community Ministries—will sponsor a Food Policy Roundtable Nov. 19 at Baylor University. Participants will seek to develop and implement strategies to end hunger through policy, education and community development. Jeremy Everett, director of the Texas Hunger Initiative, expects about 250 representatives of advocacy groups; federal, state and local governments; nongovernmental organizations; congregations; and social service pro-viders. The first initiative of the roundtable will be to increase participation of Texas children in feeding programs in summer 2010, when many of the state’s 3 million children who participate in the free school lunch program otherwise would go without a meal. Texas has the highest food insecurity rate among children in the nation. For more information about the roundtable or the Texas Health Initiative, contact Jeremy_Everett@baylor.edu or call 254-710-3946.

BCFS awarded grant for abstinence education research. The Federal Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention awarded an $85,000 grant to Baptist Child & Family Services to measure the success of the agency’s Decisions for Life sexual abstinence education program for middle-school students and at-risk youth in San Antonio.

Men’s breakfast benefits Breckenridge. An antique car show, auction and men’s breakfast featuring guest speaker Gene Stallings netted more than $66,000—including a $10,000 gift from the Willingham Foundation—to benefit residents of Breckenridge Village of Tyler. Stallings—former head football coach for the University of Alabama and Texas A&M University, as well as the St. Louis and Phoenix Cardinals after serving as assistant to Dallas Cowboys Coach Tom Landry—told the crowd the greatest accomplishment of his life was being the father of his son, Johnny, who was born with Down Syndrome. Breckenridge Village, a ministry of Baptist Child & Family Services, is a residential community for mentally handicapped adults.

County residents see Baylor favorably. Nearly nine of 10 McLennan County residents view Baylor University favorably, a recently released study reveals. The survey of 1,137 residents of McLennan County—more than half with no connection to Baylor—was conducted by the university’s Center for Community Research and Development late last year. Survey results show a combined 89 percent of respondents rate the university favorably—43 percent say “very favorably” and 46 percent, “somewhat favorably.” Ninety-seven percent say it is important for the community to have opportunities for local students to attend a top-ranked university. Ninety-five percent think a world-class university is important to the community, and it is important to have access to university facilities and programs. University research that improves the local community is important to 94 percent. Opportunities to attend world-class music and cultural events and major collegiate athletic events are important to 92 percent of respondents.

Evangelist writes on Halloween. Evangelist Ken Lovelace of Garland has written a brochure explaining his faith-based opposition to observing Halloween. The six-page brochure traces the history of the holiday and draws on biblical references to warn of dangers associated with Halloween. Lovelace also provides suggestions for alternative celebrations and observances. Copies of the brochure are available from Lovelace by calling (214) 364-5010 or writing him at ken@kenlovelaceministries.com. The ministry’s website is www.KenLovelaceMinistries.com.