When my team and I first arrived at the airport in our destination city for training, our supervisors gave us an envelope, told us to follow the instructions if we wanted to have somewhere to sleep that night, and good luck.

In the envelope was a piece of paper with printed instructions and a little bit of money. We had to find a cab, give the driver directions and find our hotel. It was madness. But it turned out to be just a little taste of what training was going to be like.

‘Hands-on’ training

Everything we did was hands-on and “figure it out as you go.” We were given phones, assigned tasks to complete daily and sent us out in teams into the city. And none of us knew the area or the language. At first, it was incredibly frustrating and a bit unnerving, but now, I am so thankful they trained us the way they did. It taught me a lot about relying on the Lord, discernment and how to be observant. Not to mention, I now know that I can function independently in a foreign country without too much difficulty. 

Thanks to all the hands-on training, my team and I were able to share the Good News with several women we met during our metro rides. Please pray for those relationships to continue to grow via email and that, God willing, we will be able to meet up with three specific college-age girls when we go back to that city at the end of our trip.

Powerful praying

I really cannot explain just how important and powerful praying is. It is literally the foundation of everything we do here. We wake up and pray. We pray together before we even walk out our front door. We pray before we prayer-walk. And we prayer-walk everyday. Praying is a huge part of doing missions here. Without it, I don’t think mission work here would even be possible. 

All in all, training week was wonderful and incredibly necessary. Our supervisors taught us so much, and God really used that time to focus my heart on the task he has given me here. 

Madison, a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, is serving in South Asia with Go Now Missions. Her last name is withheld for security reasons.

On June 1, I became the new director of missions for the Tri-Rivers Baptist Area, serving out of Gatesville.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve the churches and their ministers in the Tri-Rivers Area. Serving as pastor of small Texas Baptist churches for the past 16 years has equipped me and encouraged me to serve in the Bivocational/Small Church Association. I understand what it is to serve in a small church and the challenges that arise from such a calling. I often leaned upon my fellow small church pastors in guiding me through those challenges.

Richard RayI always looked forward to the annual Bivocational/Small Church Conference, where I would be encouraged, equipped and educated in how to do ministry in the small-church setting. I gained valuable information, but more importantly, I gained valuable friendships that have sustained me through the years.

I encourage you to attend the Bivocational/Small Church Association annual conference scheduled for July 11-12 on the campus of the Baptist University of the Americas in San Antonio. This conference is design to minister to small-church ministers and their families, who have taken on the call of God to serve in the small-church mission field.

During this conference, you will gain information that will help you serve your church; however, the friendships you will make will enable you to be encouraged and an encourager to those serving as ministers and to their families.

Families are so important to the life of the small-church minister. I have been married for more than 29 years, and I have five children. The annual Bivocational/Small Church Conference always has provided an avenue for my wife to build friendships with others who would listen to her and would pray for her. My children always found new friendships at the conference with others ministers’ children. Those friendships have lasted for years.

At the annual conference, we have developed a time where ministers’ children/youth can come together to fellowship and create friendships that will help them survive being a child of a minister. At this year’s conference, we will take the youth to the River Walk in San Antonio. The children also will receive care, and the women will enjoy a spa and time to relax and visit.

I hope you will be able to attend this year’s conference to be better equipped in ministry and to create new friendships so that you will be better equipped in the challenges of being in the ministry.

If you need additional information or you would like to register for this year’s conference please go to our website at www.bivocational.com. Remember, God has called you to serve, but God has not called you to serve alone. Let us be your advocate, your resource, and your prayer partner as you fulfill your calling. Until next time, please visit our website www.bivocational.com.

Richard Ray is president of the Bivocational/Small Church Association and director of missions for the Tri-Rivers Baptist Area. You can reach him at brother_ray@juno.com.

I recently purchased some lip balm, because my wife said I constantly was licking my lips, and it was annoying her. Now, I wake up every day with the need for a lip-balm fix. Yes, it started with just one mint-flavored tube.

Jeff JohnsonPerhaps your addiction is more conventional—nicotine, drugs, food, sex, videos, gambling. Maybe you’re a confessed chocoholic. Shopping anyone? Or your relationships with your spouse, your employer, your friends have broken down because your addictive personality has driven you into all manner of cyber-deviancy. In an addiction-afflicted society, there is no shortage of possibilities.

My youngest daughter and I recently watched what she labeled “an old show” called Real World. (She was right. I looked it up, and it is now in its 29th season. How did I miss this?) In this episode, a girl falls down drunk in a dive, throws up half-naked in the shower, and has her stomach pumped in an ambulance. Other scenes showed her drinking at home, then at a club and later being carried by a bouncer. The “intervention” saw her lashing out at her friends and relatives who urged her to check into rehab. No way you’re going to confuse this with a rerun of Leave it to Beaver.

Addiction. It’s a crippling affliction. The addiction in her case clearly was destructive. When she was asked how she felt about going into rehab, she said: “I did it for one reason and one reason only—to find out from the ‘experts’ if I was an alcoholic or not. After laying it all down on the table and all is said and done, they said I had a ‘potential’ to be one, but they also said, ‘most college students have a potential.’ I don’t crave alcohol. I enjoy it.”

And that’s precisely the danger of addictions. They’re so enjoyable. It’s a struggle to be rid of them.

As a church leader, I see a host of people each week with major challenges, many with addictions. As a pastor, I have learned, in the words of a famous TV detective, “to live within my limitations.” I know the word “referral.”

Allow me to introduce you to Katie Swafford, the director of our Texas Baptist Counseling Services. Katie is a licensed counselor. She and her team are an extremely relevant and timely resource for Texas Baptists. They offer confidential assessments, counseling and referral services for ministers and their families, counseling resources for all Texas Baptists, as well as educational presentations on mental health topics to promote overall well-being and healthy living.

Perhaps you’re addiction-free. You don’t struggle as a Christian with the hard-core addictions. For me, I must confess my obsession for lip balm is probably not an addiction. I just like the wintergreen mint taste (I think).

However, there are addictions less visible but just as insidious. I have found pride, ambition and work can be home-wreckers and life-destroyers, too. Maybe you just need someone to listen and help you focus again or a referral. Contact our Texas Baptist Counseling Services at (800) 388-2005 or counselingservices@texasbaptists.org .

Jeff Johnson is president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and pastor of First Baptist Church in Commerce.

In a day when information is available at the touch of a screen, church leaders need to become more competent in understanding mental illness, diagnosing for the purpose of referring—not treating—and simply being more compassionate when mental illness may be a factor in the anguish a family faces.

It could begin as simply as learning some of the symptoms of the two most treated and treatable mental illness in America—depression and anxiety. From there, church leaders could attempt to become familiar with the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. From there, they could move on to information regarding psychotic disorders, and from there, the mental illnesses associated with mood.

Psychological/psychiatric disorders are not that difficult to recognize or understand in general ways. Since church leaders often are the first person a member turns to or a family turns to in a crisis, it helps to know something about the landscape of mental illness.

It also is wise to develop a referral list of competent therapists that one’s church could use when needed.

Michael Chancellor

Livingston

‘Stigma’ is bullying

Your headline—“Churches must remove stigma of mental illness”— concerns me: It establishes a “stigma.”

I am equally concerned about this statement, “Churches could benefit from the de-stigmatizing that comes with exposure.”

It is both unprofessional and unethical for a counselor to declare a “stigma.” It is a term of bullying; it has no other use.

How should churches approach the illnesses we call mental? As illnesses. Yes, it is that simple. Language directed at any illnesses should be respectful, and, no, no myths, they simply offer more negatives.

The article states: “Those who lack education on mental illness(es) may lack understanding of how to communicate with those about their illness or how to communicate with them in general—fear of ‘triggering’ them; fear of hearing their troubles then not knowing how to respond; discomfort with how to set boundaries.”

“People lacking education” ought be carefully examined. Who is supposed to provide that education, and why are they not?

We are not a monolith. We are a broad and diverse demographic. We earn to the millions, hold every university degree, and every professional, white, and blue-collar job (and none of the above).  That is one message you ought convey.

We are not a “them.” Us and them is offensive rhetoric.

Harold A. Maio

Fort Myers, Fla.

Atheists see positive impact of religious people

I enjoyed “My (fantasy) dinner with Bill Maher.” 

I am an atheist who has a similar discomfort with Maher’s religion tirades, except I’m concerned religious people will see Maher as exemplary of the general atheist mentality. Indeed, a certain portion of atheists are aggressively anti-religion and offer no conciliatory asides or exceptions, but most are not so dogmatic, and most see the positive impact of religious people in their lives.

Whenever I visit my family in Ohio I see the weight my uncle, a Methodist minister, takes on every day. He devotes himself to the lives of others as very few do. When my dad was in a prolonged hospital stay, my Mormon neighbors took turns bringing dinner to my sister and me to help lighten the load for my mom, who was needed at the hospital. We weren’t members of their church. We weren’t asking for help. They just saw neighbors in pain and felt compelled to try to ease that pain however they could.

Life is too complicated to begrudge someone for having a different spiritual outlook than you. Most of us believe as long as someone is essentially decent, the rest doesn’t matter. And by the way, I believe Maher’s long-time friendships with people like Jack Kingston, Andrew Sullivan and Cornell West prove he actually feels the same way too. Hopefully, you get that dinner with Maher some day so you can further solidify that for him.

Michael Webster

Salt Lake City

Pulpits must yield to the practical Christ

Regarding “SBC leaders lament declines in baptisms and attendance,”  Southern Baptist churches: 

• Disallow critical analysis of biblical writings. 

• Reject reason, logic, and common sense. 

• Discourage personal initiative and secular success. 

• Ridicule human capacity; legitimize self-doubt. 

• Promote an imbalanced, church-centered life. 

• Employ fear as a motivator. 

• Project an arrogant, our-way-and-no-other-way provincialism.  

• Prevent Christians from following Christ. 

The first seven pervade Southern Baptist sermons. The last requires explication. Christ had no “plan of salvation”; his command was “follow me.” That meant something different for each one so invited. Some followed, some did not, but to each was opened a personal path.

Those paths are closed, detoured by leaders who demand a communal “follow us” to grand destinations that enhance resumes. Followers are appeased with the appellation of “servant.”   

Servants improve the lives of those they serve. A modern list: Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Jeffrey Bezos, Steve Jobs and the Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Imagine life today without their contributions. Their wealth is irrelevant; they have improved lives.

What if these six men had been members of a Southern Baptist church? Today’s world, the technology of which Southern Baptist churches use each week, would not exist.

Thinking people refuse to subordinate their intelligence and ambition to Baptist constraints. Many who are in are leaving, and many who are out remain out. The trend will continue until pulpits are yielded to the practical Christ.

John V. Rutledge

Colorado Springs, Colo.

The Lord began my summer of service with an amazing week in Kodiak, Alaska, at Crab Fest.

Recently, my Go Now Missions team and I served alongside missionaries from Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina and Missouri. Every year, the city of Kodiak holds Crab Fest, an event that brings families together to have tons of fun. We partnered with Frontier Baptist Church and Kodiak Island Outreach to staff a booth where we gave away hot chocolate, New Testaments and small toys for kids. What seemed like a simple booth turned into a life-changing experience for both the people of Kodiak and myself.

Dangerous work

More often than not, the men in this town are fisherman who work long months at sea, catching salmon or crab. With unsafe sea conditions and the risk of death, this occupation is a large stressor for families of Kodiak. This is where the beauty of Crab Fest fits in perfectly. Crab Fest is a time when families are together, where fathers are safe, and everyone can focus on having a good time. 

Throughout the first two days, we handed out our free drinks and invited people to the Burger Bash we were having on Saturday night at the church. This opened the door for many conversations at Crab Fest about Christianity and even more at the Burger Bash.

I had the opportunity to speak with a young man named Justin on Thursday at Crab Fest. He said we would hate him for saying he disliked Christianity, but we continued talking with him and invited him to our Burger Bash. After not seeing him all day Friday and Saturday, we looked up from our burgers Saturday night surprised to see him ride up on his bike. This led to a conversation that significantly changed my life.

Questions about Christianity

I talked with Justin that night for more than an hour, answering every question he had regarding Christianity. At times, Justin wanted to debate me, but the Lord guided me to speak only words coming directly from his Holy Spirit.

I explained to Justin through my testimony how the Lord wiped me clean of sin, an act of grace we all need desperately. After talking with me, I directed Justin to Pastor Gary Elmore and Scott Belmore of Alaska Missions who continued the conversation about Christianity.

Justin left that night, not showing any advances towards Christ. On his way out however, Justin said: “Thank you. You have given me a lot to think about.” I praise God for this statement because it is evidence of a seed planted for him to potentially give his life to Christ.

God can use us

The biggest thing I took away from this experience is how God worked through me. Because I grew up in a Christian home, I often do not think I have the ability to say something that will impact a life. This taught me that if I am ready to respond, God will use me as a vessel for his words to make an impact on lives. In times of doubt and weakness, I will remember that the Lord will use me in ways indescribable by relying on his truth.

Allison Dufour, a student at Stephen F. Austin State University, is serving in Alaska with Go Now Missions.

Some young adults say they find “high church” liturgy quite attractive. Why do they feel that way? And if we try to satisfy these people, will we turn our backs on important Baptist distinctives?

Young adults ages 18 to 35 comprise what is being called the Millennial generation. Much research has been conducted in order to better understand this large and influential group of our population.

High value on authenticity

A few characteristics of the generation as a whole are that they place a high value on authenticity and desire to be a part of something larger than themselves.

One result of these characteristics includes “over-sharing” in places like social media so young adults can feel they are being completely “real” or authentic. Another effect is Millennials are drawn toward social action and justice causes to feel a part of something bigger.

Many Millennials were reared in church but choose to leave in their young adulthood. With a high need for authenticity, many of these young adults may find seeker-style, consumer-motivated, contemporary-style worship services inauthentic. They feel as though churches are trying too hard to be relevant instead of being real. They also may find consumer-driven models of church to be focused on the maintenance of one individual church rather than being concerned with the larger movement of Christianity.

Rooted in the past

For these disenfranchised Millennials, liturgical worship can provide a sense of being part of a religious expression that has existed thousands of years. Associating with worship from the past allows the sensation of connection to a grand movement of people in the flow of Christianity across numerous generations.

Liturgical worship also has an authenticity about it, since “trying too hard” is difficult when participating in worship activities that have been established for hundreds or thousands of years.

In our free-church tradition as Baptists, some may be leery of liturgical worship. For example, Baptists often value conversational rather than scripted prayers and are more attentive to the Spirit’s leading in worship rather than following liturgical formulaic expressions of worship.

However, understanding God to be mysterious, there is no need for us to limit worship of the transcendent God. God can be communicated with through a prayer that has been reflected upon and written ahead of its voicing, just as God can hear us in spontaneous conversation. God can be experienced by performing a routine prayer or action in worship, just as God’s presence can be felt through a worship action that is completely unique.

God is bigger than our worship-boxes

We always must be mindful God is bigger than our worship-boxes. Our Baptist distinctive of the priesthood of all believers can imply people experience God, faith and worship in many different ways.

The future of Baptists depends upon the involvement of the next generation. In our desire to continue the Baptist tradition in a fresh and vibrant manner, we may find returning to the liturgies of the past could be the impetus that moves us into a meaningful future.

Meredith Stone, women-in-ministry specialist

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Abilene

If you have a comment about this column or wish to ask a question for a future column, contact Bill Tillman, consulting ethicist for “Right or Wrong?” at btillman150@gmail.com.

“Mary!” the woman called out from the food-truck window.

“You know, I get that all the time,” I said, smiling as I walked up to claim my sandwich. “My name’s Marv, which can look a lot like Mary. But I think you’re holding my order.”

“Mary!” she called out even louder, looking over my shoulder and scanning the sparse crowd along the sidewalk beside her truck. She must’ve been searching for a woman who looked like Mary.

Really, I get that all the time. Since I share a name with my dad, Marvin, I’ve always gone by Marv. Except when people call me Mary and, less frequently, Mark. And then there was the time, at a high-school track meet, when an apparently near-sighted announcer called me Maru.

When you’ve got a weird name…

When you’ve got a weird name, you just get used to being called even weirder names, I guess.

“Mary!” the food-truck woman hollered. I wondered what she wrote on my ticket 10 minutes earlier, when I gave my order, and she asked my name, and I said: “Marv. M-A-R-V,” and she said, “OK, Marv.”

But by now, I could tell she was getting annoyed at some slacker named Mary, who must’ve wondered off and would come back and want her sandwich re-heated.

Still apparently invisible to the woman holding my dinner, I turned to the only other person who had ordered food from the truck since the time I walked up. I studied the waiting patron quickly but carefully, and I felt even more certain the sandwich in the food-truck window was mine. She looked to be about 16 or 17, and I don’t know many teenagers named Mary.

“Excuse me,” I said, getting the girl’s attention. “Is your name Mary?” Watching out of the corner of my eye, I could tell the food-truck woman heard me ask that vital question.

“Uh, no,” the girl replied.

‘My name’s Marv’

Turning back to the window, I started over, almost from the beginning: “My name’s Marv. I know it sometimes looks like Mary. But I’m pretty sure that’s my sandwich. It’s a Cuban, with extra-hot mustard, and if you like I can … .”

Suddenly, I realized what I was about to say wasn’t true. I paid cash, and the food-truck woman didn’t mess around, so I definitely did not possess a receipt to validate my order.

But I must’ve said the magic word, which would be “Cuban.” She studied the carbon-copy of my order and abruptly shoved the sandwich across the window with a curt, “Here.”

I stepped quickly and lunged a bit, catching my hot sandwich before it fell to the ground. Looking up, I started to say, “Thank you.” (Mother and Daddy gave me an unusual name, but they taught me manners.) But before I could push the words across my lips, she turned on her cook: “Whatchu say that sandwich was for ‘Mary’?”

One of the blessings of possessing a strange name is a lifelong appreciation for names, as well as a desire to get names right.

Of course, if you tilt toward obsessive-compulsive behavior, that can be a problem, too. I fear calling people by the wrong name. Drives me a little bit nuts. Sometimes, I hold off on speaking someone’s name, even when I know it, and I know I know it. Then, about the time I get over my phobia, I’ll call someone by the wrong name, and I’m like a name-shamed turtle. Back in my shell.

A Christian virtue

Still, calling people by name is a Christian virtue, as well as an act of blessing.

The God who created us knows us by name. Better yet, God knows our identity—a level of knowing and loving that transcends even the most familiar word that always turns our head when someone speaks it.

When we make an effort to learn others’ names and call them by name, we affirm their value. We reflect divine love that cares enough to notice and to know. We validate worth as we elevate identity.

If you don’t believe it, just ask Mary. She must be hanging around that food truck somewhere.

As I prepared myself for a recent family trip to the Holy Land, I made sure to do all the things that, as a missions minister, I preach to others preparing for any short-term experience: Study the culture and the history, both ancient and modern; learn a few short phrases or words; but most importantly, make way for the Spirit of God to move.

Heather Mustain“The Spirit of God will be moving, and you will be surrounded with opportunities to be transformed. But will you stop and recognize these moments as they are happening?” These words leave my lips every time I embark with a mission team, because I know without proper and adequate reflection, Spirit-filled moments can be lost as fast as they come.

I’d love to say that my Spirit-filled moment happened on Day 1, when I sat on Mount Carmel and reflected on the boldness of Elijah. Or on Day 2, while journeying the same route Jesus and his disciples once walked. Or while sitting on the mountain where Jesus challenged the status quo by saying something like, “Blessed are those ….” Or out on the sea, where men were called to a life much bigger, deeper and richer than even they could have imagined. Or on the streets of Capernaum, where Jesus breathed new life into those once dead.

Life from darkness and death

But more times than not, my Spirit-filled moments pop up like flowers entangled in barbed wire. New life almost always comes from darkness and death. Is that not the story of the resurrection anyway?

It’s Day 3, our last night in Tiberias, and here I sit on a balcony of the Leonardo Hotel overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Listening to families prepare and enjoy the shabbat, watching other pilgrims journey out onto the same waters Jesus walked on and calmed, the same waters from which Peter, James and John were called to become fishers of men. Yet my eyes are swollen from the tears that fell as I sat on top of a hill today.

Messy, broken, troubling history

This hill happened to be our last stop of the day, the Golan Heights. Our tour guide wanted to share a bit more deeply with us the modern history of Israel, so it was here where we were oriented toward Israel’s shared history with its northern neighbors, Syria and Lebanon. Their history with one another is complex, messy, broken, shocking and deeply troubling. Nations at war, religions killing in the name of their God.

And then, in front of our eyes, we watched missiles hit a Syrian “rebel” city, and rockets blowing up God knows what—but more importantly to me, God knows who. I could not believe what I saw. My heart crushed beneath a conversation that followed about who was right and who was wrong. Instead, my spirit yearned to cry for God’s mercy, compassion and peace to prevail on earth.

“Infidels,” “terrorists,” “rebels” they are called, demonstrating to me our human tendency to assign categories to people that only really help us disconnect from the biblical idea of the imago dei—a Latin phrase originating from creation, claiming all people are made in the image of God. As Christians, we believe no one is beyond God’s grasp of redemption, not even the one lost sheep, coin or son.

Blessed are the peacemakers

Two and a half million Syrian refugees, 2.5 million men, women and children without a home, without a land, without basic necessities, without what most of us take for granted, our daily personal safety. Today as I looked toward Syria and watched a missile hit a “rebel” town, my heart understood more deeply Jesus’ words on the mount claiming, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will inherit the earth.”

My writing today flows not out of blaming our tour guide or those who see things differently, but to challenge us all toward remembering to pray even for those who persecute us. It’s easy to forget the daily suffering of millions of people around the globe, because we no longer believe we are, in fact, our brother’s keeper. But the truth is we are—whether our “brother” is a murderer or a prophet. Right or wrong, a life is a life, and taking one for another is something I will always have a hard time understanding.

Heather Mustain is minister of missions at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. She is a recent graduate of Baylor University’s School of Social Work and Truett Theological Seminary. ABPnews/Herald distributed her column.

Is capitalism idolatrous?

That’s the message from one of Pope Francis’ top advisers. Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras called the current free market system “a new idol.”

Editor Marv KnoxMaradiaga leads the group of eight cardinals Francis asked to help him reform the Roman Catholic Church shortly after his election last year. A longtime friend of the pope’s, Maradiaga delivered the keynote address at a Catholic economic conference in Washington, reported by Religion News Service.

Maradiaga particularly focused on libertarian policies popular among many American conservatives. Most notably, libertarian advocates include Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., chair of the House Budget Committee, a Catholic and a devotee of libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a possible 2016 presidential candidate.

The free market system increases inequality and excludes the poor from economic opportunity, Maradiaga said, contending, “This economy kills.”

Francis “has a profound knowledge of the life of the poor,” he said. “The elimination of the structural causes for poverty is a matter of urgency that can no longer be postponed,” he added, citing the pope. “The hungry or sick child of the poor cannot wait.”

Dealing with ‘structural causes’

Moreover, charity alone cannot overcome the mammoth challenges faced by the poor around the globe, Maradiaga said. “Solidarity is more than a few sporadic acts of generosity,” he insisted, noting it demands “dealing with the structural causes of poverty and injustice.”

This does not mean the Catholic Church “despises the rich,” and Francis “is also not against the efforts of business to increase the goods of the earth,” he said.

But the world’s resources should serve the common good, he insisted.

Few Baptists would go so far as Maradiaga’s critique of capitalism. Most of us would note free enterprise fuels the world’s leading economies and generally raises the standard of living for all people who participate in free-market systems.

However, Catholics’ admirable moral teaching should be taken seriously. It seeks to apply scriptural teachings to human situations with intellectual rigor and honesty.

For example, whether you agree with them or not, Catholics diligently strive to apply a consistent ethic to sanctity-of-life issues. For the same reasons, Catholics oppose abortion; advocate for the care of the poor, the ill and the aged; promote education for all people; champion human rights; support health care for all people; oppose most war; and resist capital punishment.

We may not come to the same conclusions they reach on all issues. But we should take their positions—and their rationale for reaching them—seriously.

Evaluate our views

Consequently, Baptists and others should evaluate how we view not only capitalism, the free-enterprise system, but also our laws, regulations, policies and international relations that shape and protect it.

The gap between the rich and the poor—both here in the United States and abroad—is obvious and growing. In addition to noble acts of charity, we should vigorously examine the theological implications, philosophical repercussions and practical realities of the laws and systems that facilitate that gap.

Surely we can agree to educational programs, business practices and governmental policies that eliminate poverty. Every household in which healthy adults are willing to work, every retiree and every chronically ill person should live above the poverty level.

In the words of another thoughtful Catholic, Stephen Colbert: “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

My mother-in-law, Leta Thorp Howell, was an early proponent of Vacation Bible Schools in Texas. In fact, she may hold the record for the most Vacation Bible Schools conducted in the state.

After graduating from Wayland Baptist College, she married Clarence Howell in July 1932 in Lamesa. He graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1940, and they moved to Kress, where both taught in the public schools.

At Kress, Leta began organizing summer Bible schools for children. In spite of a meager income, she purchased supplies for Vacation Bible School, such as paste, crayons, Bible pictures, paper, scissors and gelatin.

During the summer months they drove to neighboring communities, car trunk loaded with the supplies, and set up in a church, school, private home or simply under a good shade tree in a front yard. Leta enlisted volunteers from among the neighbors or church members. She served as the principal of the school, and Clarence taught the Bible lesson.

In 1947, the Howells moved to Hemphill, when Clarence accepted the pastorate at First Baptist Church. Leta continued conducting Bible schools in East Texas as she had done in West Texas. By this time, her two daughters were old enough to lend a hand with the music and teach the younger children.

Homemade ‘copy machine’

Leta was creative in arts and crafts and even developed her own “copy machine.” She created a mixture of gelatin and other secret ingredients and then poured it into a shallow cookie sheet to jell. Then she drew pictures on paper with a purple indelible pen and pressed the drawing on the surface of the gelatin, which absorbed the ink and produced a master copy. She then pressed blank sheets of paper on the gelatin master and produced copies.

She usually was successful in getting support from community fire departments to lead a parade with a fire truck to the steps of the church, attracting more children along the parade route. Decorated bicycles always were a popular part of the parade. On Friday night, the commencement program was held so the parents could see all the things their children had learned to make in Bible school.

100th Vacation Bible School

In 1979, the Baptist General Convention of Texas honored Leta for her 100th Vacation Bible School. Bob Fuston represented the BGCT during a ceremony at First Baptist Church in Pineland, where she was recognized for her faithful work. She conducted eight more schools after that ceremony. Thousands of children learned about Jesus and his saving grace during her 74 years on earth.

After her death in 1984, her daughters found her large “Bible School purse” still crammed with supplies she had readied for the next Vacation Bible School in the Yellowpine community—pencils, rubber bands, paste, paper clips and other necessities.

It’s hard to say with certainty 108 Vacation Bible Schools is a state record for an individual, but it definitely is a pretty impressive achievement. I feel confident Jesus greeted her with “Well done, good and faithful servant,” the words we all want to hear someday.

Neal Murphy is a life-long Southern Baptist deacon from San Augustine who has directed church choirs and taught Sunday school classes many years. He is an independent writer with columns appearing in several newspapers and online magazines, and he has written four books.

Most of us move through our lives in total freedom. We drive or walk many miles to our school or place of employment and never feel fear. We don’t have to look over our shoulder as we go. We come home to a nice house in a quiet, suburban neighborhood, lock our doors and go on with our evenings.

Alyssa DeanAt DaySpring Villa, security precautions are a constant factor in daily life. Locked doors, security cameras and intruder alerts are present everywhere. Only staff members carry sets of keys and know the access codes. Every person who enters the shelter to volunteer must complete training and sign confidentiality forms. The whereabouts of guests are known at all times—whether present in the shelter or out working or apartment hunting.

These security measures exist not out of paranoia, but because of the real need to provide a safe place for our guests. For most of these women, danger is reality. They are here because someone—an abuser or trafficker—wants to find them. Someone wants to hurt them again. These women need a safe place to stay while they recover from trauma and work towards their next steps in life, such as finding employment, learning child management skills or getting a divorce.

Many of these women go out every day to a job or to work towards their goals. As soon as they leave DaySpring, they feel fear. They feel unsafe. They know all too well that there is someone out there who has hurt them previously and will do so again given the chance. They go through their day afraid of what could happen to them or their children.

But when they are at DaySpring, they can feel safe. Here they can actually sleep through the night. They know their children are safe, they will receive three meals every day, and they have a bed to call their own.

The reality of living life with this potential danger didn’t make sense to me until I came to DaySpring. Here confidentiality and safety have been thoroughly impressed upon all of us. Do not take pictures of guests. Do not share the names or situations of the guests. Do not open the door unless you can identify the person.

It is so important that these women feel safe here at DaySpring. If they do not, we have to find them another home. So, we uphold the procedures and make safety a priority, even if it takes time—leaving someone on the doorstep while we determine who they are—or inconveniences us. Their safety is what we are here for.

I think that many of us completely fail to grasp how very real the threat of harm, violence and even death is to some people. But here, danger is a reality, so we must make safety an equal reality for these women. In providing a bed to sleep in, food to eat and ears to hear, we not only help these women towards recovery, but we show the love of Christ and in doing so, can point them toward the only One who can truly save.

Alyssa Dean, a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, serves with Go Now Missions at a domestic violence shelter for women and children near Tulsa, Okla.

It finally feels like spring, and you have no idea how happy that makes me. I know, spring started like a month ago, but not here. Finally, the flowers are blooming in New York City. Everything is bright, warm and happy.

Leilani EstradaThe arrival of warmer weather also means our summer interns will arrive soon. In less than two weeks, we will start our Multiply NYC internship program. I can’t believe that one year ago, I was getting ready to serve as an intern, and now I am one of those will lead the interns. A lot has happened in the past year.  

This summer, we have 15 interns serving in 13 Metropolitan New York City ministries. Our interns come from various states, such as Georgia, Arizona, Oregon and, of course, Texas! All six of the Texas interns are from Go Now Missions, and I’m so excited that four of those come from my Baptist Student Ministry and one of those four comes from my church. I’m finally going to have a little piece of South Texas in New York City.

I am looking forward to what God will do this summer through our interns.

One of the Go Now interns will serve at Iglesia Bautista La Palabra, and he will be working with the youth group and music ministry, as well. Please pray for our interns. Pray that God can prepare their hearts and minds. Also, pray for the Metropolitian New York Baptist Association staff, so we can also be prepared for the summer. And pray for me, that I keep motivated and focused.  

Leilani Estrada, a graduate of the University of Texas Pan-Am, serves in New York as a Go Now missionary with Metropolitan New York Baptist Association.