Texas Tidbits: Bike Out Hunger Ride

Bike Out Hunger ride planned. Texas Baptists have planned a 445-mile bicycle ride to raise money for the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger and to raise awareness about how Texans can be involved in fighting hunger and making the state food-secure by 2015. The April 19-24 Bike Out Hunger event begins at First Baptist Church in Ballinger and concludes at The Fellowship of San Antonio. Riders are welcome to participate for the entire trek or for just one leg of the journey. To find out more or to pledge a donation for a specific rider, visit http://texasbaptists.com/bikeout/.

Ethics lectures at HPU focus on professor’s legacy. Howard Payne University’s Currie-Strickland Distinguished Lectures in Christian Ethics will focus on the ethical teachings of the late Nat Tracy, a member of Howard Payne’s Bible faculty from 1950 to 1975. The event will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 14 on the HPU campus in Brownwood. Featured speakers are three of Tracy’s former students—Gary Manning, professor of religion at Wayland Baptist University; Robert Williams, founding director of the Encouragers ministry in Dallas; and Bill Fowler, assistant professor of Christian Studies at HPU. Manning will speak on “The Character of God as the Basis for Christian Ethics,” Williams will speak on “The Ethical Mission of Christ’s Church,” and Fowler will speak on “The Servant Church and the Whole Gospel.”

Hendrick named great workplace again. Hendrick Health System in Abilene was recognized as one of only six organizations worldwide to be honored with the 2010 Gallup Great Workplace Award for the fourth year in a row. The Gallup Great Workplace Award is based on results of Gallup’s survey of employees and a best-practices portfolio summarizing the steps the organization has taken to increase workforce engagement. To be eligible, organizations must have a sample size of at least 1,000 employees with at least 80 percent of employees responding to the survey. Applicants’ results are compared across a Gallup workplace research database comprised of millions of work teams in more than 120 countries. A panel of workplace experts assesses the applicants’ results to select the winners.

HSU expands rare Bible collection. Hardin-Simmons University alumni Doyle and Inez Kelley of Houston donated to the university a rare Coverdale Bible from 1537—the first English-language Bible small enough for personal use—and a dozen other historically important Bibles dating from 1538 to 1751. The Kelley collection arrived just one year after Charles and Roena Tandy of Dallas entrusted their rare Bible collection to Hardin-Simmons. 

Family endows scholarship at Wayland. The family of Joanne Clark Davis and her son, Mark, created the Davis Memorial Endowed Scholarship in their memory at Wayland Baptist University. The scholarship is to be given to a junior or senior major or minor in the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, with preference for a history major or minor, with at least a 3.2 grade point average. Graduate students in the school also are eligible.