IN FOCUS: Will hope overcome fear?

Everett

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The fear of violence that has left Juarez with the bloodiest month since the Mexican revolution in 1911 is beginning to spill over into El Paso.

Will the hope of Christ that El Paso churches are sharing through Texas Hope 2010 spill over into Juarez?

Two hundred forty-four people were killed in Juarez last month, bringing the total to 2,800 who have been killed since the government began its attempt to seize control from the drug cartels. Some of the Christian leaders have described the situation as darkness covering the city of 2 million.

Randel Everett

A recent article in the Dallas Morning News reported, “The best-selling CD (in Juarez) is a rap song called ‘Delinquent,’ followed by a folk song, glorifying the hit men for the Juarez cartel.”

El Paso Baptist Association has another message to share. Last week, the first 250,000 CDs that have been prepared to share the hope of Christ throughout Texas arrived in El Paso. The El Paso director of missions, Joseph Christopherson, said all of the CDs have been picked up from the distribution center by the ZIP-code captains and are ready for distribution by the churches.

El Paso is the first region in Texas using the new bilingual (English and Spanish) Texas Hope 2010 CD. Churches will place one of these in every household in the county, either by going door-to-door or by mail. The multimedia CD is the result of a partnership between the BGCT and Faith Comes by Hearing.

This tool will help us share the hope of Christ with everyone in Texas in their own heart language. A copy of the Texas Hope 2010 multimedia CD will be mailed to every BGCT pastor. Even the packaging for the CD invites people to find hope in Christ. A number is listed for seekers to call 1-888-NEEDHIM and speak with a person trained to share how they can give their hearts to Christ.

The CD includes six testimonies about real people from our Texas Baptist churches whose lives were hopeless until they found hope in Christ. It also includes a dramatic reading of the Gospel of John and a website where the entire New Testament can be downloaded for free in any of 377 languages.

Another aspect of the CD is a website, www.WhatsMissingTexas.com, or for the Spanish version, www.QueteFaltaTexas.com. This site houses all the videos on the CD, plus a sample of an ad created to run in movie theaters. This site was established to help people share Christ’s message of hope online.


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The Juarez Baptist churches want to use these CDs to share this good news of Christ in their city. Other evangelical churches there and some of our ministry partners have expressed an interest in helping our neighbors receive this message of hope.

All Texas Baptist churches should be praying for this evangelistic effort in El Paso.

We also should be praying about a way to get these CDs into every home in our communities.

 


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