June/July 2012 Fellowship

fellowship!

CBF

June/July 2012

Cooperative baptist fellowship | www.thefellowship.info

Serving Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission

Clean water: A catalyst for change In Ethiopia, CBF field personnel David and Merrie Harding build water wells, start community groups and provide health education — all of which help change lives.

CBF Photo

Learn more about CBF ministries to provide clean water on pages 18-25.

Change is here to stay

By Patrick Anderson, CBF Interim Executive Coordinator Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow; Nought may endure but Mutability.

— From Mutability by Percy Bysshe Shelley When CBF emerged in 1990, tectonic shifts in Baptist life were marked. The Southern Baptist Convention swiftly bade us moderates good-bye, and those of us who met that year in Atlanta shared sadness for the past mixed with euphoria for the future.

Today those tectonic shifts in Baptist life, only 22 years ago, seem like ancient history, and I am called to remember that for some who claim CBF as home, it is ancient history.

The same year CBF emerged marked the Hubble Telescope’s launch into space and the release of Nelson Mandela.

The next year the Soviet Union collapsed, and the next was the end of the Cold War. Fox News was launched in 1996, the same year Daniel Vestal came to lead CBF. In the next three years we experienced Hong Kong being returned to China, India and Pakistan testing nuclear weapons and the Y2K bug non-event.

The next decade began with the terrorist attacks in the United States and was marked by two wars, economic turbulence and more change than can be expressed in this short column. It all seems so long ago.

Anyone unable to tolerate change is living in the wrong era. Baptists who long for shaped notes, Training Union and the days of “a million more in ’54” are out of luck. When CBF emerged Google did not exist and Facebook was 14 years in the future. In 1990, the idea of an African-American U.S. president was a far-off possibility. We have seen some changes. The only thing that does not change, as the poet Shelley famously expressed two centuries ago, is change itself.

Even when it is for the best, change means some discomfort, disequilibrium, consequence and sacrifice. Because of this, some people and institutions resist change — and fear it.

Like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, we seek to remain where it is safe and comfortable. “Rabbi, let’s build some tents and stay here forever,” he said.

Peter’s desire may be yours — but remember the response of Jesus. He said nothing — just as a wise parent sometimes ignores foolish entreaties of children. Jesus led Vol. 22, No. 3 them back down the mountain where everything began to change. executive Coordinator • Daniel Vestal We are at a point of change in CBF. Our executive coordinator is retiring and Coordinator, Fellowship the search is on for a new leader. A task force designed to create a new vision for Advancement • Ben McDade CBF is reporting the results of its work. Now, we must follow through with our best Editor • Lance Wallace efforts and vigor. As with all change, these will be difficult for some of us. Some managing Editor • Patricia Heys changes may be beyond our control. But how we conduct ourselves is not beyond Associate Editor • Carla Wynn Davis our control — how we conduct ourselves in times of change really matters.

Phone • (770) 220-1600 Let us remember that the future belongs to God. The future belongs to the Fax • (770) 220-1685 Christ who takes us up to the mountaintop and then leads us down into a future E-Mail • fellowship@thefellowship.info toward which he will surely lead. I for one am glad to be living in this era, to be a Web Site • www.thefellowship.info witness and a participant in that future. fellowship! is published 6 times a year in Feb./March, April/May, June/July, Aug./Sept., Oct./Nov., Dec./Jan. by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Inc., 2930 Flowers Road South Suite 133, Atlanta, GA 30341. Periodicals postage paid at Atlanta, GA. USPS #015-625. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to fellowship! Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 2930 Flowers Road South, Suite 133, Atlanta, GA 30341.

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On April 2, Pat Anderson was named interim executive coordinator by Fellowship officers and personnel committee. Anderson will assume the interim role as Daniel Vestal retires on June 30. Anderson has previously served as CBF moderator, CBF missions advocate and coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Florida.

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Contents

In Canada, CBF field personnel Kim and Marc Wyatt are ministering among the immigrants and refugees living in the country’s largest cities.

Serve: Medical Ministries

Partner Spotlight: The Upper Room

Five Tips for developing your church or ministry logo Ministering in Texas • KidsHeart partnership provides homes for people living in Texas colonias • Whisnand partners with literacy center to meet needs in Rio Grande Valley • Newells engage in ministry of building businesses • Green resources churches, individuals in the fight to end human trafficking • Ministry of hospitality becomes contagious in Fort Worth • Cross connects Hispanic leaders with opportunities to live out their call

17 18-24

Affect: June Missions Education Resource Clean water: A catalyst for change • Water wells, education and community groups help transform lives in Ethiopia • Harrells work to provide clean water, develop healthy children in Kenya • Wehmillers, partner churches build water filtration systems in Dominican Republic

25 26-27 28-29 31

Affect: July Missions Education Resource Daniel Vestal retires after 15 years as CBF Executive Coordinator

Report from the 2012 Task Force

CBF Photo

2012 CBF General Assembly — Fort Worth, Texas

Many communities in Ethiopia have access to only polluted water sources, but CBF field personnel are working to provide safe water through sustainable, low-tech pumps.

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When you give...

Waterbury Baptist Ministries serves children and youth through after-school programs and summer day camps

“CBF is not stuck in the same way

The ministry of the Aldapes in India is made possible by the generous gifts of Fellowship Baptists to the CBF Offering for Global Missions.

of doing the work — it’s not about putting a Baptist stamp on churches. We have the freedom to allow God to shape us and define who we are. Through members get to meet Christians from other places and see different perspectives. Through their labor and their donations, we are able to meet needs in our community.”

Maner Tyson, pastor of Waterbury Baptist Church, Waterbury, Conn.

O

ne day around Christmas, Maner Tyson was leaving an office supply store in Waterbury Conn., when he saw a homeless man he knew and called out his name to say hello.

The two men spoke for several minutes, and when they parted, the man said something Tyson will always remember.

“He said, ‘thank you for acknowledging me,’” Tyson said. “I thought about his words and how being acknowledged makes us feel human. For me, that’s what the true meaning of Christmas is all about — God acknowledging us.”

Located two hours from New York City and two and a half hours from Boston, Waterbury is a diverse city of more than 100,000 people.

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photo Courtesy of Waterbury Baptist

contact with other CBF churches, our church

“One of our mission workers once said, ‘Waterbury is a dangerous place to come because your life could change,’” Tyson said. “I came here in 1982 to do a two-year internship program and I felt called to go into the ministry.”

Waterbury Baptist Ministries began in a storefront which it soon outgrew. Focusing on the needs of its neighborhood, church members conduct a food pantry, distribute clothing and hold after-school programs to keep children off the streets and engaged in positive activities.

“We’re a small church that likes to do big things,” Tyson said. “We have a wide variety of members — African American, Hispanic, homeless people to near-homeless to suburban middle class. We’re big on empowering people to do ministry. When they first come

visit our church, they might be consumers, but we’re trying to empower them to become ministers once they have experienced Christ.”

Tyson is one of CBF’s self-funded field personnel, who raises money both for his ministry and his salary — half of which is paid by the church. There are many opportunities for Fellowship Baptists to partner and serve, including leading after-school programs and summer day camps.

“We have a purpose,” said Tyson. “When mission teams come in to do ministry, we hope that they have an experience with God and help to change lives. But we also hope that when they go home, they will do some of these same things in their community. Our people see that as their ministry.

They come to help us, and hopefully they wind up helping themselves.”

Your support of all the Fellowship’s mission and ministries makes possible countless stories of lives changed. To give, go online to www.thefellowship.info/givenow or use the envelope provided in this issue.

Serve Opportunities to

M

edical teams and

Use your medical skills to provide healthcare and education to women and children in Macedonia who have little access to medical services.

personnel are needed to serve around the world. Through using

your gifts and skills, you can be the presence of Christ among some of the world’s most neglected people.

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Armenia

CBF ministries Doctors, nurses and dentists are needed to train Armenian medical personnel and perform clinicals.

When: Ongoing Length: 1-2 weeks

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Belize

CBF field personnel Eric and Julie Maas — www.thefellowship.info/maas A nine-year-old boy suffering from cerebral palsy (speech delay, lack of coordination and abnormal movements) needs time and attention spent with him to help meet his physical and emotional needs. College interns welcome, too.

When: Anytime Length: Open

Kenya

CBF field personnel Lori and Tim Myrick — www.thefellowship.info/myrick Doctors and nurses are needed to travel to Kenya to perform surgeries, provide medical consultations and teach medical and nursing students. Five trips are planned for this year. A commitment to more than one trip is desirable.

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Macedonia

CBF field personnel Arville and Shelia Earl — www.thefellowship.info/earl Four remote villages are in need of medical assistance. Groups (up to 6 people)

serve

Sheila Earl photo

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will be working with two doctors (one Macedonian, one Albanian). The clinics will be for women and children and involve general checkups and health care issues.

When: August 2013 Length: 7-10 days

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Slovakia

Dianne and Shane McNary — www.thefellowship.info/mcnary Individuals and small teams (3-5

people) are needed to help provide access to health care and health education for isolated Roma communities. Partnerships with local churches, community centers and schools provide community entry points to reach out with the love of Christ to the Roma. Assignments will be planned around the specialties of team members.

When: Ongoing Length: 7-10 days

To learn more about specific opportunities, contact CBF staff member Chris Boltin at engage@thefellowship.info or visit www.thefellowship.info/serve. fellowship!

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prayerspeople of the

By Bo Prosser, CBF Coordinator of Missional Congregations

embrace and sobbed. In a few minutes, he composed himself, patted me on the shoulders, here is mystery and we went in to finish lunch. in silence. We Not a word was spoken but were on a prayer volumes were expressed. There is retreat observing intimacy in silence. a silent lunch.

There is power in silence. Turn My mashed potatoes were really off your background music; turn Bo Prosser loud. I made brief eye contact off your mp3 of Scripture being with my friend across the table and went read. Just be silent; feel God’s presence and back to my plate. He began to weep, left the power. Let the desires of your heart flow totable and went out on the deck. I followed, ward God. You don’t have to say a word; God held out my arms and he fell into my knows what you need. Your mind will race at

T

CBF Ministries Prayer Calendar

11 Joshua Hearne, Danville, VA (PLT)

CH = Chaplain FP = Field Personnel FPC = Child of Field Personnel GMP = Global Missions Partner PC = Pastoral Counselor PLT = Church Planter

14 Chaouki Boulos, Lebanon (FP); Tracey Lopez, Springfield, VA (CH)

12 Brady Lanoue, Schertz, TX (CH) 13 Richard Forest, Louisville, KY (CH)

15 Jack Brown, Dublin, GA (CH); Robbin B. Mundy, Fairview, NC (PLT); Melissa Whaley, Winston-Salem, NC (CH) 16 Kimberly Emery, Ovilla, TX (CH) 17 Linda Jones, Winston-Salem, NC (PLT)

June

18 Bill Hayes, Bogart, GA (CH)

1 Thong Lun, Houston, TX (CH)

19 Alicia Porterfield, Wilmington, NC (CH)

2 Susan Hunter, Troy, VA (PLT); Terry Jackson, Lorena, TX (CH); Gary Sparks, Tyler, TX (CH)

20 Tim Johns, Swansboro, NC (CH); Jeff Lancaster, Cartwright, OK (CH); Cherry Moore, Bryan, TX (CH); Lonnie Turner, South Africa (FP)

3 Susan Arnold, La Grange, KY (CH); Rachel Brunclikova, Czech Republic (FP) 5 Stacy Sergent, Mt. Pleasant, SC (CH); David Smelser, Lucedale, MS (CH); Kody Witt, Buies Creek, NC (CH)

21 Jim Cook, Salisbury, NC (CH); Susan Harthon, Indianapolis, IN (CH); Jeff Hoppe, Riverside, PA (CH); Ken Lake, Fort Mill, SC (CH); Adam Page, Kingsport, TN (CH)

6 Erskine Alvis, Black Mountain, NC (CH); Wayne Bruner, Augusta, GA (CH); Linda Cross, San Antonio, TX (FP); Todd DeLaney, San Diego, CA (CH); Greg McClain, Lillington, NC (CH); Norberto Prado, Oak Ridge, TN (PLT)

22 Kirk, Thailand (FP); Sharon Eldridge, Smithfield, NC (CH); Joanne Henley, WinstonSalem, NC (CH); Brenda Lisenby, China (FP); Jin Joo Park, daughter, Senegal (GMP); Jessica Prophitt, Winston-Salem, NC (CH)

7 Kiersten, 2006, Los Angeles, CA (FPC); Diana Place, Tucson, AZ (CH); Butch Stillwell, Candler, NC (CH); Diann Whisnand, McAllen, TX (FP)

23 Andrew, 1998, Thailand (FPC); Sarah Ballew, China (FP); David Lowe, Fort Worth, TX (CH); Helen McNeely, Emeritus (FP); Jin Park, 1999, daughter, Senegal (GMP)

8 Larry Lawhon, Front Royal, VA (CH); Janice Newell, Greece (FP); Randy Parks, Sparta, NJ (CH); Clay Porter, Stanton, TX (CH); Joseph Primeaux, Pensacola, FL (CH); Jeromy Wells, Great Falls, MT (CH); 9 Michelle Cayard, China (FP); Richard Poindexter, Indian Trail, NC (CH); Patricia Taylor, Tuscaloosa, AL (CH); Doug Wiggington, Pineville, LA (CH) 10 Rob Edwards, Norfolk, VA (CH); Cindy Goza, Little Rock, AR (CH); Michael Osment, Martin, TN (CH); Kim Wyatt, Canada (FP)

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24 Robert Fulkerson, Tulia, TX (CH) 25 Franklin Duncan, Atlanta, GA (CH) 26 __, North Africa (FP); Michael Ferguson, El Paso, TX (CH); Denise Jacks, Birmingham, AL (CH); Kamille Krahwinkel, China (FP); Otto Mazzoni, York, PA (CH); Tim Myrick, Kenya (FP) 27 Roger Dobbins, North Charleston, SC (CH); Alicia Lee, Macedonia (FP) 28 Michael Brainerd, Germany (CH); Mark Judd, Elizabethtown, KY (PLT); Roger Rich, Lexington, SC (CH); Scott Sterling, McDonough, GA (CH)

first, and you’ll have to center and re-center yourself. Keep practicing. Over the month, you’ll begin to lean into the silence; you’ll begin to embrace the silence. There is deep expression in silence.

As you embrace the silence and your quiet time draws to an end, simply verbalize the name of one from the prayer list. Pray for this person each day. Be silent for a while, and then say the one name. And pay attention to what God has been doing in your silent prayers, through mystery, intimacy, power and deep expression. Can you hear the whisper of God?

29 Kevin Adams, Louisville, KY (CH); Jeni Cook, Poquoson, VA (CH) 30 Stan Campbell, Nashville, TN (CH); Margaret Guenther, Richmond, VA (PC) July 1 Debra Walters, Lawrenceville, GA (CH) 2 Steven Smith, Houston, TX (CH) 3 Nathanael Ballew, 1994, China (FPC); Ken Cook, Pinson, AL (CH); Elizabeth Ellis, Crestwood, KY (PC); Brenda Lee, Williamsburg, VA (CH); Michael Maness, Woodville, TX (CH); Ascanio Peguero, Fort Worth, TX (CH)

17 Caleb, 1996, Thailand (FPC); Wayne Boyd, Gaithersburg, MD (CH); Cindy Meadows, Roanoke, VA (CH); June Pearse, St. Louis, MO (CH); Carolyn Sears, Shelby, NC (CH); Kimberly Sheehan, Nashville, TN (CH) 18 Timothy Hunter, Gatesville, TX (CH); Tom O’Neal, Charlotte, NC (PC) 19 Lyde Andrews, North Charleston, SC (CH); Steven Hill, Knoxville, TN (CH); Jason Pittman, Miami, FL (FP) 20 Errol Simmons, Hattiesburg, MS (CH)

5 Coy Callicott, Spartanburg, SC (CH); Jeff Fryer, Murfreesboro, TN (CH); Bob Potts, Emeritus (FP)

21 Peter Arges, Durham, NC (CH); __ 1995, Turkey (FPC); Susan Lanford, Wichita Falls, TX (CH); Twyla Nelson, Jackson Springs, NC (CH); Matthew Pogue, Atlanta, GA (CH); Keith Tekell, Beaumont, TX (CH); Walter White, Arlington, TX (CH);

6 Shelah Acker, Uganda (FP); Sam Harrell, Kenya (FP); Debbie Kubo, Arlington, TX (CH); William Womack, Columbia, MO (CH)

22 Steve Abbe, Waco, TX (PLT); Dorothy Potts, Emeritus (FP); Bonnie Reedy, Lumberton, NC (CH)

7 Barbara Dail, Greenville, NC (CH); Steven Flowers, Waynesboro, VA (PC); Paulo Orea, 2005, China (FPC); Julie Rowan, West Point, NY (CH)

23 Butch Green, Houston, TX (FP)

8 Sherman Buford, Montgomery, AL (CH); Renato Santos, Miami, FL (CH); Steve Sexton, Lenoir City, TN (CH); Robert Summers, Evansville, IN (CH) 9 Miriam Dakin, Marion, VA (CH)

26 Scott Jensen, Saint Joseph, MO (CH); Richard Min, Carrolton, TX (CH); Rick Sample, San Francisco, CA (FP); Erin Spengeman, Richmond, VA (PLT)

10 Whitney Edwards Russell, Whiteville, NC (CH); Tiffne Whitley, Spain (FP)

27 Diana Bridges, San Antonio, TX (FP); Peter Ott, Oak Harbor, WA (CH)

11 Allie McNary, 1995, Slovakia (FPC); Steven Shaw, Norfolk, VA (CH)

28 Emily, 2000, Thailand (FPC)

4 Rachel Coggins, Navarre, FL (CH)

12 __, North Africa (FP); Christopher Morris, Winston-Salem, NC (CH); Mark Podgaisky, 1999, Ukraine (FPC) 14 John Deal, Emeritus (FP); Denise Massey, Lilburn, GA (CH) 15 James Tippins, Fernandina Beach, FL (CH); Jean Randolph, Swannanoa, NC (CH) 16 Michelle Greer, Hot Springs National Park, AR (CH); Mark Hart, Fair Oaks Ranch, TX (CH)

24 Glynn Ford, Reston, VA (PC); Laurel Link, Winston-Salem, NC (PC); Ronald Oliver, Goshen, KY (CH)

29 Michal Patrik Brunclik, 2006, Czech Republic (FPC); Wayne Morris, Lawton, OK (CH); Karen Morrow, Aledo, TX (FP); Martha Crocker Strong, Olive Branch, MS (PLT) 30 Paul Byrd, Birmingham, AL (CH); James Francovich, Emeritus (FP); Garnett White, Midlothian, VA (PC) 31 James Tille, Lakewood, WA (PC); Cindy Thorpe, Greenwood, SC (CH); Amber Sloan, Inman, SC (CH)

People fellowship

n Teri Byrd “It’s a thing you don’t really want to be an expert in,” said Terri Byrd, associate coordinator of AlabamaCBF. Byrd fields the calls when natural disasters strike the state, and part of her job is organizing disaster aid by coordinating efforts among churches and organizations.

In 2011 and 2012 a series of tornadoes hit the state, and following the work of emergency responders, Fellowship partner churches helped provide food, water and necessities to those affected by the storms.

In the months following, Byrd, a member of Vestavia Hills Baptist

Church in Birmingham, Ala., guided AlabamaCBF work in cleanup and rebuilding, organizing volunteers and raising funds to make new homes possible in under-insured communities.

In the late April 2011 storms, Byrd stayed sheltered in her own basement.

“Right after the storm, in that silence you feel so Teri Byrd much despair,” said Byrd, “But when hammers and saws start work, as the noise starts to pick up of construction, debris removal — then the resiliency and hope of the people returns.”

n Dale Tadlock What gets Dale Tadlock out of bed every morning are his students.

“That’s where my heart and passion are,” said Tadlock, the associate minister to young adults and students at First Baptist Church of Waynesboro, Va., and leader of CBF’s Youth Ministry Network. “And in this day and age, youth culture is a very specialized subculture that requires knowledge of technology and social media.”

Tadlock was an early adopter of social media for ministry, including starting the first CBF group on Facebook. His church’s

website now attracts prayer requests from as far away as Serbia. Now, Tadlock is working to develop a smart phone app that will show his church’s sermons, dial the church phone number and allow people to give.

“I think technology is exciting. I think it’s scary for some people,” said Tadlock, “I think it will change how the church will relate to the world.”

Dale Tadlock

n Anita Thompson As the worship leader for the 2012 General Assembly (June 20-23 in Forth Worth, Texas), Anita Thompson hopes to send attendees home with the theme, “Infinitely More” resonating in their hearts and minds.

The theme is grounded in Ephesians 3:20: “Now all glory to God, who is able, through God’s mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more, than we might ask or think.”

“I hope when the Assembly is over, the theme will continue to resonate with them not only in regard to the future of CBF, but for

their own faith journey,” said Thompson, associate pastor for music and worship at First Baptist Church of Ahoskie, N.C. Recalling what God was able to accomplish through the lives of people like Abraham and Sarah, William Carey and Addie Davis, Thompson and other Assembly planners will weave those stories with biblical stories and the basic elements of worship.

Anita Thompson

n Buddy and Sheila Wagner Buddy and Sheila Wagner describe themselves as friends and encouragers of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel, but they are also vital partners and caregivers. The Wagners have traveled several times from their home state of Mississippi to the Middle East to listen to worries and sorrows, to celebrate and commiserate, and to provide support for CBF field personnel.

“We feel called by God,” said Buddy, a professional counselor. “It’s really a blessing to us to get to do it.”

The Wagners, members of Northside Baptist Church in Clinton,

Miss., are among dozens of individuals who volunteer their time as part of CBF’s Member Care Team. The team helps CBF field personnel maintain their physical, spiritual and emotional health and assist them when problems arise.

This network includes not only physicians and counselors, but legal and financial advisers as well.

Buddy and Sheila Wagner

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Partner spotlight

The Upper Room

The Upper Room is a global ministry that nurtures spiritual formation by encouraging people to spend daily time in prayer and Scripture to discover an ever-deepening relationship with God.

“I appreciate CBF’s enthusiastic support of our spiritual formation programs such as Companions in Christ and the Five-Day Academy for Spiritual Formation. The missions of The Upper Room and the CBF align well, and I look forward to our continued partnership in nurturing people’s relationship with God.”

Sarah E. Wilke, Publisher, The Upper Room

Partnership

Founded: 1935

2003 – Partnership between CBF and

Website: www.UpperRoom.org

The Upper Room is established. CBF

Publisher: Sarah E. Wilke Location: Nashville, Tenn.

The Upper Room supports the spiritual formation of Christians

“The Upper Room has been helping

around the world through programs

Christians of all denominations for a long time to

Upper Room daily devotional guide,

and publications such as The

participates in testing and leadership training of Companions in Christ, a series of small-group spiritual formation resources.

2005 – CBF hosts its first Five-Day Academy for Spiritual Formation.

2008 – Upper Room Books publishes Being

live in the love of God. I am deeply grateful for their

Companions in Christ, The Walk to

the Presence of Christ by Daniel Vestal.

caring and sensitive service to us in CBF. They not

Emmaus, Weavings magazine and

2012 – The Upper Room partners with

the Academy for Spiritual Formation.

CBF to bring author and pastor Trevor

Upper Room Books publishes many

Hudson to the United States from

books on prayer and spirituality,

South Africa to lead the pre-General

including Feeding on the Word and

Assembly prayer retreat and workshops

Spiritual Preparation for Christian

at General Assembly. Register online at

Leadership by Glenn Hinson.

www.thefellowship.info/assembly/retreat.

only provide excellent resources, but they offer their spiritual friendship, fervent prayer and practical guidance in what it means to follow Jesus Christ.”

Daniel Vestal, Executive Coordinator, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

Photo courtesy of The Upper Room

The Upper Room’s resources are read internationally, including in Singapore.

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Fivetips

for developing your church or ministry logo

By Mary Beth Rosentrater Byram, CBF Communications, mbbyram@thefellowship.info

Are you in need of a new logo for your ministry? Creating a new logo that fits your needs can be more of a challenge than we sometimes anticipate.

But, your logo is often the first visual impression you will make on a newcomer, whether online, on a brochure or emblazoned on a t-shirt. So, it is important to carefully consider the image you are projecting for your church or organization.

Take the time to make your logo an artistic expression that truly reflects the look and feel you are trying to communicate.

The following are guidelines for navigating the world of logo design.

1

Consult with a professional Consider hiring a graphic designer to help you. Your logo serves as a visual representation of your ministry and work, and you don’t want it to appear amateur.

Professional designers are seasoned in the visual world and can help turn your ideas into a high-quality image. Additionally, they will use the tools necessary for creating images that will work both online and in print.

2

Be authentic A wise man once said, “A new logo does not a new church make.” If your logo comes across as young and trendy, but your congregation consists mostly of retirees, this could be a bit perplexing for a newcomer. In the same way, if your building consists of white columns and red bricks, you’ll want your logo to have a solid, classic feel, as opposed to a modern typeface with neon colors.

3

Keep it simple Think about some of the most famous symbols that have made an impact on our society (for good or for bad): the Golden Arches, an Apple, the clean script of Coca-Cola. A simple logo can make an indelible impression on the viewer because it has clean lines or contains an easily identifiable image. Too many ideas and images in a logo can be off-putting and fail to make an impact.

4

Consider your timeframe If you’re creating a logo that will be for one-time use, such as a conference or retreat, this is an opportunity to be creative and even go for something trendy. It may look dated in a couple of years, but this is okay if it is for one-time use. If you’re renewing your church logo and want it to be around for at least 10 years, think about a more classic design that will stand the test of time.

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Think about color It is a good idea to keep your logo at 2-3 colors. If you’re printing professionally in color, the more colors you use, the greater your printing costs will be. It is also helpful for the colors to be high in contrast from one another; i.e., a dark color and a light color. This enables the logo to be easily transferred to black and white or grayscale. Lastly, be sure to get a white or light colored version of your logo for use on dark backgrounds or t-shirts.

Plan to give yourself and team enough time to make the project an enjoyable experience. A rushed job can stifle creativity, take the joy out of the work, and leave you with a product that you’re not 100 percent proud of. Bring your passion for your ministry to your work and enjoy the process of expressing your inspiration to your community. Have fun!

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Ministering in

hTexas

In Texas, CBF field personnel and partners are serving among the poor, refugees, victims of human trafficking and other neglected people. On the next few pages, you’ll read stories of lives being changed. As you read, know that the gifts you give to the CBF Offering for Global Missions enables these ministries.

Photos courtesy of The Crossing Baptist Church

Charlie Brown, left, pastor of The Crossing Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas, and CBF Texas moderator, presents a Bible to the Zarate family in Donna, Texas, while Jorge Zapata, director of National Missions for Buckner International translates. The Crossing built the home for the Zarates during KidsHeart spring break in 2011.

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If you are interested in serving through KidsHeart, contact CBF staff member Chris Boltin at engage@thefellowship.info or (800) 352-8741.

‘A very real and relevant need’

www.thefellowship.info/kidsheart

h

Mesquite, Texas

KidsHeart provides homes for people living in Texas colonias

W

hen Baptists built a new house last year to replace the dilapidated travel trailer in which the seven members of the Zarate family were living, the mother, Romana, just couldn’t wait to move in.

“They were finishing the kitchen and Romana was waiting outside with grocery bags,” said Charlie Brown, pastor of The Crossing Baptist Church of Mesquite, Texas, which built the 850-square-foot frame house near Donna, Texas, in a week. “She couldn’t wait. She was putting stuff in the cabinets before they were even hung.”

The Zarates are one of thousands of Hispanic families living in Texas’ 2,200 colonias, tiny makeshift settlements carved out of the Texas wilderness by families who can’t afford traditional housing. Residents buy or rent small tracts of land and set up temporary living quarters in an old trailer, shack or tent. Homes in the colonias usually lack running water, paved roads, sewers, often even electricity.

A colonia typically grows to 20 to 50 people, as family members and friends join the original residents. Gradually improvements are made to the houses as money becomes available.

“Families move just anything onto the

Jason Gillespie sets trusses on a home built as part of KidsHeart spring break missions work in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. Gillespie is a member of The Crossing Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas.

lot to call their home,” said Brown, whose church partners with KidsHeart, a multifaceted partnership founded by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Buckner International to help the poor in the Rio Grande Valley.

“Sometimes it’s a shack … a deteriorating shack at that. Usually it’s unfinished inside, with no drywall and no functioning doors.”

The Zarate family was living in a onebedroom travel trailer to which they had attached a small bedroom. The five children were sleeping on the floor. During the hot summer, the parents slept outside or in their van. In winter, they slept inside with no heat and no blankets or jackets.

The new three-bedroom home was built with materials and labor provided by The Crossing Church and cost the church approximately $43,000.

“The family is now doing much better,” said Jorge Zapata, director of national ministries for Buckner International, who helps identify families in need.

Rick McClatchy, field coordinator of CBF in Texas, recruits church missions groups. The groups, including about 25 a year from CBF partner churches, usually come during the summer or spring break, but they also come “anytime that [they] want to work,” he said.

The teams build or repair homes, conduct Vacation Bible Schools and teach English, parenting or sewing classes, among other projects, such as providing medical and dental care.

“About 800 individuals come from CBF partner congregations,” McClatchy said.

“The rest are from other Baptist [groups] or other denominations. There are even some Catholic teams. A lot of the people who are helping don’t realize the different organizations that are there or which person represents which organization.”

This spring The Crossing Church, a CBF

partner congregation, built its third KidsHeart home. Five team members skilled in construction started on a Thursday and were joined by another 55 individuals on Sunday.

When the teams left the following Saturday, the house was 95 percent complete.

“We feel we are meeting a very real and relevant need for people trapped in poverty,” said Brown, a former missionary and current moderator of CBF in Texas. “But one of the real benefits of being involved is what it does for our church. This is the best missions education tool we could possibly find.”

KidsHeart, which enlists approximately 2,500 missions workers a year, is part of Together for Hope, the CBF’s long-term rural poverty initiative targeting 20 of the poorest counties in the nation. Seven of these counties are in the Rio Grande Valley, with a total population of about 1 million.

In addition to CBF and Buckner, KidsHeart ministry partners include CBF of Texas, which now takes a lead role, and local school districts, community centers, local churches, county governments, Texas A&M University and Literacy Connexus, a Texasbased organization that provides resources to teach English to non-native speakers.

“We also attend to the spiritual side, and we connect people living in colonias with a local church,” said Buckner’s Zapata, who also is pastor of New Wine Baptist Church in Harlingen, Texas.

There aren’t many churches in the colonias, but that is changing as mission teams start Bible studies and worship gatherings.

One congregation was meeting under a carport, when a KidsHeart team from First Baptist Church of Plano, Texas, built the congregation a 20-by-60-foot building. Six months later, the church has already outgrown that building.

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Whisnand partners with literacy center to meet needs in

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oving from Seattle, Wash., to South Texas last year provided a stark contrast in climates and cultures for Diann Whisnand.

In cool and moist Seattle, Diann, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel, served among a migratory Hispanic population — in what she refers to as short-term “relief work.” In the hot and humid region of the Rio Grande Valley bordering Mexico, however, the work addresses entrenched, systemic poverty, requiring long-term development work.

Last June Diann, along with her husband, Philip, transferred to McAllen, Texas, to become CBF’s first field personnel along the U.S.-Mexico border. They now work with Spanish speakers from the colonias, the tiny hard-scrabble neighborhoods that usually spring up on undeveloped land along the Texas side of the

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Nora Caldera, left, is a student of Diann Whisnand, right, at the Pharr Literacy Project. Working in the snack bar gives students such as Nora a chance to practice their conversational English skills.

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www.thefellowship.info/whisnand

Rio Grande river. Hidalgo County, which includes McAllen, has the highest concentration of poverty of any U.S. county, with around 1,000 documented colonias.

With little or no education, a family can get caught in the poverty cycle for several generations.

“This is development ministry,” said Diann. “Nothing is going to happen quickly.”

When Diann, a former teacher, learned that there was only one comprehensive adult literacy program in Hidalgo County, she saw a way to use her skills in this specific ministry.

With the high rate of illiteracy in the area, the Pharr Literacy Project (PLP) provides an important ministry. The PLP, a faith-based nonprofit started by a local United Methodist church, has only two full-time employees but serves more than 800 adults a year.

Supported in part by the local government, volunteers teach five levels

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of English, GED classes in English and Spanish, job skills, sewing, computer, retail sales and English immersion opportunities, such as public speaking, singing and drama classes.

The PLP also facilitates weekly Bible studies in the most underserved colonias.

“They’ve got a good thing going, but the center is understaffed and undersupported,” Diann said.

So, since moving to the area, she has focused on helping the PLP by teaching classes, recruiting volunteers and partner churches and soliciting supplies.

“Thankfully, CBF has answered the call to address the heart-breaking poverty along the U.S.-Mexico border,” said Diann. “I’m honored to be able to continue working among the Mexican people, who are some of the most beautiful and warmest people anywhere.”

By contributing writer Greg Warner

Newells engage in ministry of

building businesses

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n rural south Texas lie the dusty colonias — impoverished rural settlements hardly touched by public roads, water or other services. They are just the kind of place that needs a hand up. And that’s where Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel Ben and Leonora Newell are working on “business as mission.”

“It’s what we call BAM,” said Ben. The Newells, based in San Antonio, Texas, are opening up a new front in Christian economic development in the Texas colonias. On the border, they are finding that unmet needs in the community are related to economic development, facilitating jobs and income.

Seeking to be the presence of Christ among those who live in poverty, the Newells believe that long-term transformation will occur with a combination of mercy and development.

They cite the story of Elijah and the widow as a biblical example of providing the resources to help someone create what they need.

The BAM principle is the same, providing business planning seminars, access to capital and accounting software training. The Newells help to start, grow and sustain businesses and equip Christian entrepreneurs to run productive businesses.

This type of ministry is not new for the Newells. In 2011, they moved to Texas from Phillips County, Ark., where BAM was part of their mission in one of the poorest counties in the country.

There, they started and facilitated a jewelry-making co-op called Delta Jewels.

They recruited North Carolina jewelry designer Wanda Kidd, who trained 10 teenage girls to make jewelry that is now sold online. The older girls mentor young

San Antonio, Texas

h ones, and they help pay bills at home. Delta Jewels put 10 percent of their income into a community chest and decide how they will spend it on other people and communities, a BAM biblical principle of giving back.

“It gives them a feeling of empowerment,” said Ben. “Even though they’re officially considered ‘poor’ they help in a positive way in somebody else’s life.”

The Newells’ base in San Antonio is convenient to reach colonias along the border. As they learn Spanish and work to make contacts in the colonias, local businesses and church communities, they are also hoping Fellowship Baptists will join them in their ministry.

“If BAM sounds interesting or if there is a little urge from the Holy Spirit to find out what it is, how you can participate, we’d love to have you partner with us,” said Ben. “A CPA might not be any good at building a house, but he could hold a Quickbooks bookkeeping seminar.”

The mission, said Leonora, “is about sharing skills, passion and resources to help God’s people achieve their dreams and goals in Christ.”

By contributing writer Maggie Lee

Carla Wynn Davis photo

Ben Newell, one of CBF’s field personnel, and his wife, Leonora, are facilitating business ventures built on biblical principles such as giving back, honesty and mentoring others.

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‘My heart broke for them’

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Green resources churches, individuals in the fight to end human trafficking

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Houston high schools, female students are trafficked by their boyfriends, who profit from a thriving teenage sex market.

“The face of human trafficking is right here in the United States,” Green said. “It’s your average teenager. It’s your typical day laborer. It’s the people you see every single day and assume their lives are just like yours. But they’re not.”

Green works primarily toward education, prevention and legal remedy in partnership with local and national organizations. Green also spends her days frequenting local human trafficking hubs and raising awareness among college students, who are eager to see the true face of trafficking and respond to injustice.

She feels an inescapable call to equip local churches, which, burdened with the injustice that surround them, began to request her help in mobilizing their congregations against human trafficking. As a result, Green developed “Getting Started in Addressing Human Trafficking,” a guide through which churches can: • Offer an “Introduction to Slavery” semi-

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fter working overseas for 25 years as one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel among unreached people groups, Nell Green confesses that her initial desire was to leave the issue of ending human trafficking to more able missions workers.

But when she landed in Houston, Texas, to start the next phase of her ministry, Green says her calling was unavoidable.

With an international port, interstate corridor, airport and political border, Houston is a prime location for human trafficking, in which individuals are illegally traded for the purpose of forced sex or manual labor.

One in four victims of sex trafficking passes through Houston at some point.

“I told God that I had seen enough hunger.

I had seen enough poverty. I had seen enough injustice and hate,” Green said. “But the bottom line is that we are supposed to be addressing the things that break God’s heart. And God’s heart is broken by what we do to people and by the fact that we as Christians let it happen. I don’t want to waste another day.”

According to the International Labour Organization’s global report, approximately 2.4 million people are victims of human trafficking worldwide — a $30 billion industry. Hundreds of thousands of these victims are in the United States.

This year at a popular Houston shopping mall, two teenage girls befriended a pair of young men and agreed to accompany them on a beach trip to the West Coast. Upon arriving in California, the girls were sold into the local sex trade and only rescued after law enforcement located their cell phones

by GPS. Across town at the base of an overpass, immigrant workers line the roads daily awaiting a ride from would-be employers, many of whom deny pay, leaving workers with only a growing debt and fear for their family’s safety. In a growing trend within

nar, learning from CBF field personnel about human trafficking and how the church can respond.

• Utilize prayer guides and initiatives as the congregation discerns God’s call.

• Educate youth, who are on the front lines of the battle against human trafficking due to potent purchasing power and proximity to potential victims.

• Educate the congregation with films, dramatizations or testimony from a trafficking victim.

• Get involved with organizations and legislation fighting to end human trafficking.

“I’ve been to Thailand and seen the girls.

I’ve been to North Africa and seen the factories. I’ve seen the little boys put on the street in Senegal. I’ve watched the six and seven-yearold girls tying knots for rugs. And it never occurred to me that I could do anything about it,” Green said. “But when I finally realized how much I could have done and how little I did, my heart broke for them all over again.”

By contributing writer Blake Tommey

Youth from Calder Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas, raised $600 to purchase jogging suits, underwear and flip flops, which were given to the Houston Police Department for distribution to women and girls who are possible victims of trafficking.

‘My house is your house’

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Fort Worth, Texas

Ministry of hospitality becomes contagious in Fort Worth

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hether it’s sharing a cup of tea or throwing a baby shower, embracing the gift of hospitality is an important avenue for Karen Morrow’s ministry among refugees in Fort Worth, Texas. Morrow, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s field personnel, builds relationships with refugee families and then watches those families reach out to neighbors in need.

When Morrow first met Samsa, an Iraqi woman who has been in the United States for 16 months, she spoke very little English.

They communicated primarily with hand signals and simple words. Morrow spent countless hours in Samsa’s home chatting over cups of tea, practicing English and answering questions about the United States.

After Morrow helped Samsa get car seats for her children through a community program, Samsa wanted to assist other mothers. When another refugee needed car seats, Samsa asked Morrow to make the required appointment. “No worry, I take

her to the appointment,” Samsa said.

“Hospitality is her gift,” Karen said. “One of my favorite lines from her is, ‘You’re always welcome in my house. My house is your house.’”

Introducing expectant Iraqi mothers to the concept of a baby shower provides a way for Morrow be the presence of Christ. Members of Lakeshore Drive Baptist Church in Hudson Oaks, near Fort Worth, have partnered with Morrow in this ministry, hosting three baby showers for Iraqi women and building relationships with families during this time of celebration and hope.

And when the American assistant manager of the housing complex where the Iraqi women live was expecting a baby, the refugees threw her a shower.

Approximately 8,200 refugees are projected to resettle in Texas this year. Resettlement agencies work with the refugees for four to six months, but Morrow says this timeframe is inadequate for them to be self-sufficient.

Morrow sees her ministry as continuing to walk alongside refugees on their journey.

Morrow says building meaningful relationships takes time and it can often be difficult to find partners willing to invest long-term in mentoring refugees.

But Lakeshore Drive members have embraced and expanded their ministry among refugees. The church partnered with Agape Baptist Church, a CBF partner church, to host a Christmas party for refugees from Burma. The congregation also works with a Bhutanese church plant and partnered with an Arabic church. Recently, church members helped serve refreshments at an international soccer tournament and sponsored a block party in a refugee community.

After Morrow began hosting baby showers for new mothers, she remembers one of the women turning to her and saying, “You grandma.” Laughing, Morrow told the woman she was too young to be a grandmother. Then, a translator explained that a grandma is the one who takes care of families. “What an honor,” Morrow said.

By contributing writer Lisa Jones

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Baby showers provide Karen Morrow with an opportunity to build relationships and friendships with refugees in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Cross connects Hispanic leaders with opportunities to

www.thefellowship.info/cross

live out their call

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even years ago, Hipatia Medina found herself in a situation she never expected — a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her husband.

“I think it happens more than the community admits,” she said. “I was amazed it happened to me.”

She cried out to God in desperation and believes God protected her. In gratitude, she has committed herself to learn about the Bible more deeply, and she wants to use the experience to help other victims.

In addition to her college studies at Baptist University of the Américas (BUA), she is also receiving training in anger management curriculum.

“I have a responsibility with God to give back,” she said.

Seeing the thirst for training among Spanish-speaking leaders like Medina, Linda Cross felt called to develop partnerships among Spanishspeaking churches in the United States and Latin America.

In 2011, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship commissioned Cross to serve as one of CBF’s field personnel based out of the BUA — a historically Hispanic school, which now offers most of its courses in English.

The university will serve as an anchor for a network among CBF partner churches, the seven seminaries of the Baptist World Alliance in Latin America and other Baptist institutions. The network is still in the planning 16

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stages, yet Cross sees tremendous potential to match resources with needs.

Cross is forming a partnership around the anger management curriculum in which Medina is training. Members of Trinity Baptist in San Antonio, Texas, a CBF partner church, lead faith-based anger management classes in the local jail.

Through another partnership, Cross will help facilitate a five-day preaching workshop for preachers in northern Mexico. She’ll work with Dinorah Mendez, who has more than 20 years of teaching experience.

Mendéz’s brother is a pastor in Mexico and like many of the other 15 Baptist pastors in his local association who are carpenters, salesmen or school teachers, he has no formal theological education.

Instead, he became a pastor out of necessity. A church was dying, and he agreed to lead it.

San Antonio, Texas

h Through the workshop, teachers and pastors from the United States will provide training to Mexican pastors. In return, the workshop leaders will gain insight from local pastors on how to do ministry more effectively back home.

The humility that stems from this model of mutual learning is central to Cross’ efforts.

Everyone learns from each other.

Whether it is through anger management classes, training in pastoral counseling or exchanges over other subjects, Cross sees a growing need for Spanish-speaking Christian leadership.

“There’s not just a terrible need,” she said, “but also an opportunity for faithful Christians of all sorts to serve Jesus Christ.”

By contributing writer John Foster Linda Cross’, right, ministry is based out of the Baptist University of the Américas, a CBF partner.

Opportunities to

Missions Education Resource How to use this page

June 2012

The suggestions below will be helpful for using the stories on pages 10-16 of this issue in the life of your church. Small Group interaction, Study Group or Reading Group options are given, as well as suggestions for other congregational or family settings. Go online to www.thefellowship.info/affectonline for more suggestions.

Ministries in Texas

In Small Groups:

The following is an outline for adult mission groups, Bible study classes or other small groups. Share copies of fellowship! with group members prior to the meeting and have some extra copies available. These suggestions are for a 45-minute time frame.

1. In this session you’ll focus on CBF ministries in Texas. Before the session, gather paper, pens (or art supplies such as pencils and felt-tipped markers in a variety of colors) and copies of fellowship! magazine for each person in your small group. Also, read through (and be able to summarize) the mission stories on Texas in fellowship! on pages 10-16.

2. Begin the meeting by asking participants (either individually or in small groups) to imagine a perfect neighborhood/community. They either list the characteristics (such as good schools, good neighbors, etc.); or if they’re feeling creative, they can represent their ideal community visually through a drawing.

3. After giving time to complete this activity, allow participants to share with the large group the characteristics they’ve named or drawn.

4. Then summarize for the group the articles on Texas stories from this issue of fellowship! (Or, before the meeting, assign the stories to group members and ask them to summarize the stories for the group.)

5. Mention that in these stories CBF field personnel and short-term workers are helping create communities where people can feel at home. Some are working with refugees by showing hospitality and meeting needs in their new homes; others are focusing on eliminating human trafficking, a crime that denies people freedom; and others are working in colonias in Texas, helping to create community in the midst of life-wrenching poverty.

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Cooperative baptiSt fellowShip | www.thefellowShip.info

June/July 2012

Serving Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission

Clean water: A catalyst for change in ethiopia, Cbf field personnel David and Merrie harding build water wells, start community groups and provide health education, which help change lives.

Learn more about CBF ministries to provide clean water on pages 18-25.

6. Return to the opening exercise and ask: How can imagination help us envision the kingdom of God here on earth? Or, how can imagination help us know how to do justice in the face of poverty, displacement and oppression?

7. Pray for these ministries and for CBF field personnel mentioned in the Prayer Calendar on page 7.

Around the Table: At Church 1. For this event, create a “poverty solidarity meal.” You can do this as a churchwide event or, better, work with your church staff to do this at a Wednesday night supper.

2. Plan a dinner that offers a simple, low-cost meal (such as rice and beans) rather than your normal Wednesday night dinner fare. Serve only the low-cost meal and water for dinner with no other options and no dessert.

3. While people are eating, have someone talk about CBF ministries in Texas that help people living in poverty, victims of child trafficking or coming to the United States as refugees. Using the stories on Texas ministries in this issue of fellowship!, talk also about the ways CBF ministries are working to alleviate poverty.

4. Remind participants that if they didn’t like the meal tonight, many will be able to stop at a restaurant on the way home or eat something else when they get home; but for people in poverty, this meal is often a luxury.

5. Provide copies of fellowship! magazine to participants by placing them at each table setting, along with an offering envelope to encourage individuals to give to the CBF Offering for Global Missions. Encourage participants to take home a copy of fellowship! and read about ministries in Texas that are creating community and improving the lives of people living in poverty.

6. OPTION: In addition to this, organize a collection of nonperishable foods for a local food pantry. Many food pantries are running short on supplies. Find out how a food pantry in your neighborhood is doing and ask how you can help.

Provide a list of needed foods and encourage church members to bring them one Wednesday night or throughout the month. Connect this to mission work being done by CBF field personnel, churches and partners in Texas.

In Reading Groups The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros This novel about a young Latina girl who longs to escape the cramped quarters of her impoverished neighborhood in Chicago explores the issue of forging identity while coming of age as a participant in two cultures. Visit www.thefellowship.info/affectonline, for a Reading Group discussion guide to this and other selections.

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A catalyst for change Water wells, education and community groups help transform lives in Ethiopia

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Members of a Sustainable Livelihood Group in Borena, Ethiopia, saved 30 cents a week from the sale of firewood.

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At age 50, Shewy had 10 children and to make ends meet worked odd jobs, such as washing clothes or making injera, a pancake-like bread used to scoop up stews.

When she heard about a Sustainable Livelihood Group of 19 other women in her village, Indal Kacho in Ethiopia, she joined — hoping that this opportunity would help change the fortune of her family.

“We like the fact that we are all women,” she said. “A woman is a mother, a sister, a daughter and we are all the same. I am always anxious for our group to meet so that we can talk and share our ideas and our dreams.”

Shewy said she hopes to save enough money to one day take out loans from the group to pay for education for both her children and herself.

“I came into the group so I could defeat my problems and live a better life,” Shewy said.

“Once I started, my age didn’t matter to me.”

The Sustainable Livelihood Group is a community project introduced in Africa to teach local citizens, mostly women, to save money and pool their resources to fund projects and Continue on page 20

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Drilling rig brings water to new places In Ethiopia, approximately 50 million people don’t have access to clean drinking water, a problem that has been exacerbated by a decades-long drought.

Last year, CBF pledged $90,000 to purchase a new water-drilling rig in Ethiopia, in partnership with other churches and aid organizations. The gift was part of CBF’s Water for Hope initiative, operating in

several countries to help bring clean water to places without it.

The rig was a critical investment. It can dig wells up to 180 meters (540 feet). The maximum depth to install hand pumps is 90 meters (270 feet).

“It’s a big challenge geologically,” Harding said. “They’re drilling through rock into the water table, and we have to train drillers to address the technical challenges.

The rig has been a tremendous help with the whole program.”

The rig is working in one of the worst drought regions in the south, along the Kenyan border. Hand-dug wells in this region have dried up and the depth of the rig-drilled wells provides a more permanent solution.

“It would be impossible to do without the rig,” Harding said. “We would not be able to serve these communities. By providing access to this water, we’re helping them survive the next drought.”

While bringing wells to water-starved communities is an important project, educating local citizens to become better stewards of the resource and their health is also a high priority.

“The water piece is critical, but in order for it to be successful, there has to be behavioral change among the people of the

villages we’re serving,” Harding said. “People must see the value of drinking clean water, of maintaining the pump, of using a latrine and washing their hands when they are done. It doesn’t happen overnight, but you have to add the sanitation part to be successful.”

An additional aspect of education and well installation is the formation of a water-use committee, consisting of seven people from a town or village, with four of the members being women. The committee helps determine the site of the well and helps with maintenance, such as fencing around the well, maintaining the pump and equipment, and charges for water use to help cover expenses and upkeep.

“The water-use committee is the first responsible group in a community,” Harding said. “Then we look for opportunities to fold other activities such as the Sustainable Livelihood Groups Photo courtesy of Kelly Taylor

start businesses. David and Merrie Harding are Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel working on the Ethiopian project. David, who is also CBF’s international disaster response coordinator, said the groups were introduced as a starting point for change in each community.

“The focus of the Sustainable Livelihood Groups is saving money,” Harding said. “There’s the discipline of saving regardless of how much money, even if it’s one penny a week. Everyone in the group saves a little, they form relationships with other members and they can make different choices as to how to spend the money.

This process builds responsibility, dignity and discipline. Dignity is the power to make meaningful choices, creating space for better behavior changes.”

Well drilling • The Ethiopian government controls water rights and usage, so team members work with the government to identify promising locations for well drilling.

• Wells are optimally between 50 to 90 meters deep, limited by how deep the hand pump effectively works.

• An assessment team works with communities ahead of time to set up water-use committees, who help determine location of a well and learn maintenance responsibilities.

• The installation team, composed of the drillers and the rig, drill the hole.

• The pump installation team installs a hand pump.

• Once a site is selected and installation begins, the water-use committee usually transforms into Sustainable Livelihood Groups, where training begins on use of pump, maintenance and hygiene.

• Start to finish, a new well process usually runs six months, but with backlogs, it can take as long as one to two years once an application is made.

• Cost per well is approximately $10,000.

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• The Hardings’ goal is to dig 70 wells in the region.

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• To set up about 300 Sustainable Livelihood Groups across the region over a three-year period costs about $150,000.

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Well drilling rigs can penetrate the ground up to 540 feet through rock to reach clean water. With access to clean water through hand pumps, women and girls no longer have to travel long distances to haul water, most of it contaminated, and girls are more likely to stay in school.

and the church into this. It’s an indirect approach, but we’re talking the biblical example of spiritual discipline and applying it to health and hygiene.”

The Sustainable Livelihood Group With two children and a 10th-grade education, Hebarat, 25, relied on her husband as the sole provider for their family, saying she never thought she’d be anything except a wife and mother.

“Before this, I didn’t do anything,” she said. “I used to wait for my husband to bring me money.”

More than four years ago, she joined the Yowwinsee Sustainable Livelihood Group, which she said changed her life.

Only able to save one Birr a week (equal to about 8 cents) in the beginning, she persistently saved her money.

Soon, Hebarat started her own business selling peppers. Through hard work and diligence she demonstrated leadership abilities and the group made

Give

her bookkeeper. Among the projects she has helped organize is contributing to the elderly or sick in the community who need financial assistance.

“My life has really changed,” she said.

“I encourage other women to do the same thing and become more independent.

I challenge them to start something themselves.”

Ben Taylor, facilitator for Water For Life, a CBF partner in Ethiopia, said it is inspiring to see the change in people.

“Where you see the transformation is in their attitudes,” Taylor said. “They go from helpless, hopeless and no confidence in themselves, to full of confidence. The spiritual and emotional changes affect the physical. Once they realize they can get themselves out of poverty, they start realizing they need to take care of their children with better hygiene and better education.”

It also leads to other changes, such as one group is buying and planting trees to reverse the effects of deforestation in the region.

Local churches often help facilitate the Sustainable Livelihood Groups, identifying potential members and often offering places for the groups to meet. Nuramo, who is a facilitator and respected elder of the Addis Katama Church, said the groups in his community have paid dividends.

“The self help approach is better than just preaching the gospel in word,” Nuramo said. “The people can’t believe the church is actually helping out in the community. People are voluntarily coming to Christ of their own wish.”

Because of the community’s change in perception, the church has started a school for kindergarten through fourth grades.

Members of the Sustainable Livelihood Groups and the community can send children there tuition free.

“Building the school is how we can be a light for our community,” Nuramo said. “It is an action we took as a church and it creates a strong bond with our community.”

By contributing writer Bob Perkins

Your gifts to the CBF Offering for Global Missions enable the life-changing ministry of the Hardings in Ethiopia.

To give, go online to www.thefellowship.info/give or use the envelope included in this issue. fellowship!

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A reason to rejoice Harrells work to provide clean water, develop healthy children in Kenya

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s Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel Melody and Sam Harrell engaged in communitydevelopment work in Kenya, they came to realize that the availability of clean water is not only a prerequisite for sustaining life, but crucial to allowing children to learn, grow and succeed at living.

“Our work with children is primarily targeted at those who are 6 years old or younger,” Sam Harrell said. “This is a vulnerable age where disease has a particularly devastating impact on normal development.”

He pointed to health statistics showing that the majority — approximately 60

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percent — of deaths of Kenyan children ages six and under can be attributed to diarrhea-inducing infections caused by drinking contaminated water. And children who aren’t killed by diseases such as typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery can often suffer long-term developmental consequences due to drinking contaminated water.

A significant part of the Harrells’ work involves establishing and running integrated child development centers in rural areas around Kenya through their Change for Children initiative. There are currently eight major and four minor centers — which include preschool and kindergarten education for children (the government sponsors free schooling for

all Kenyan children after they are six years old) — in operation.

“We ensure that children at each of our centers have access to clean water for washing of hands, drinking and that a daily meal provided at each center is cooked using clean water,” Harrell said. “Most of our centers have a community access point for clean water, which the parents can utilize so that they get clean water at home.”

Currently, only about 12 percent of Kenyan households have access to piped-in, treated water. Approximately 70 percent of the Kenyan population lives in rural areas and largely rely on seasonal rivers in the semi-arid nation or rainwater collection.

The rivers are often too far from villages, necessitating long walks to collect water

The Harrells facilitated the installation of a turbine pump in the community of Sisit. Access to clean water helps reduce the number of deaths and illness among children in Kenya.

and insufficient amounts of water to ensure proper washing of bodies, clothes and vessels and utensils for cooking and eating.

In many of the rural communities, groundwater is the best option for reliable, clean water — but it is hard to come by. The water table is on average 260 feet below the surface, which means hand-dug wells are not feasible. Digging deep boreholes with equipment costs between $15,000 to $35,000.

With the help of CBF partner churches and other supporters, the Harrells have provided wells to several communities — and other methods for water purification in places where wells are impractical.

One of the clearest examples of the importance of access to clean water came when the Harrells were establishing a preliminary child-development center in the community of Sisit, among the Pokot people of western Kenya. The town is two

Give

kilometers (more than a mile) and about 400 feet in elevation from its only water source, a nearby river.

“We did hear of a turbine system that showed promise — and which, furthermore, was powered by gravity rather than expensive fuel. After doing a thorough study of all the dynamics, we decided to go for it and try to install this pump and the requisite pipeline to enable water to be pumped closer to the community,” Harrell said.

It almost didn’t work. After members of the community and partners helped dig the mile-plus-long trench through the rocky soil for the pipes, the day came to start it.

“It took about 6 hours for the pump to push the water up through the pipes. We had some leakages and one precarious section where the pipe was suspended over a ravine.

The reality began to sink in that the whole thing might be a flop,” Harrell said.

“As I made my way up the mountain to deliver the bad news to the congregated community, I suddenly heard loud [cries] of joy from the women as the water began to trickle into the tank,” Harrell said. “There was dancing and hugging as a slow but sustained trickle slowly filled the huge storage tank that had been placed by the school for that purpose. What a day!”

Further modifications — including help from a group of Mercer University students — expanded the system’s reach and made it more efficient, and now the Sisit community has had a reliable source of clean water since 2009. The clean-water project gave the people of Sisit a reason to rejoice — and that’s why, to the Harrells, providing clean water is a key way of spreading the gospel in Kenya.

By contributing writer Rob Marus

Your gifts to the CBF Offering for Global Missions enable the Harrells to change lives in Kenya.

To give, use the envelope provided in this issue or go to www.thefellowship.info/give. fellowship!

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‘The work God intends for us to do’ Wehmillers, partner churches build water filtration systems

J

CBF photo

ose is a carpenter, brick mason and skilled construction worker who helps build water filtration systems that provide clean, drinkable water for the Dominican Republic’s bateys — communities ranging in size from 300 to 6,000 people in the midst of former sugar cane fields.

“He’s a very hard working gentleman,” said Tim Williamson, a deacon from First Baptist Church Mobile, Ala, who visited the Dominican Republic with a missions team last summer building water filtration systems.

“One day we ran out of lumber, and Jose spoke with some other men in the community who took us to a house full of scrap lumber. The men told us we could ‘rent’ what we needed, so for $5 or $10, Jose gathered enough wood to complete forms for pouring concrete. Most people in the Students from the Medical College of Georgia partnered with the ministry of Jack Wehmiller, center, to serve United States would consider this among the people of the Dominican Republic. wood scraps, but using a machete and hammer, he built the forms.”

Each system can provide drinkable aid. The Wehmillers are also working with Bringing fresh water to those living in water to between 6,000 and 8,000 people, Iglesia Evangelica Dominicana to build a Dominican Republic bateys is one of the and cost less than $10,000 — that includes new orphanage to house children living on main projects spearheaded by CBF field the system and holding tank, concrete pad the streets of Barahona. personnel C.J. and Jack Wehmiller. The bat- foundation and a building constructed of The children — both ones living in the eys are located around the towns of Baracinder blocks to house the system. bateys and homeless ones — made a lasting hona and LaRomana, on the southeast and “In one batey where we’ve installed a new impression on Williamson, and his family. southwest coastlines, respectively. water system and hosted several medical Also on the summer mission trip were his Following the massive earthquake centered volunteer teams, we’ve seen the general over- wife, Deborah, and two sons, Ashton, 17 near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010, the all health is markedly better than at other and John Wesley, 15.

Dominican Republic has been overrun with bateys,” Wehmiller said. “Water is an integral “The kids that greeted our bus every day Haitian immigrants seeking escape from the part. It’s not a cure all, but it’s improving the really tugged at our hearts,” Williamson said. devastation. At one point, the government general condition of these communities.”

“They met our bus and they showed warm halted immigration from its neighbors.

Church missions teams — like the and genuine affection towards us. For me Working this spring to compete the 11th one from FBC Mobile — travel to as a parent, it was good for my boys to have filtration system, the Wehmillers partner the Dominican Republic to help with gained this deeper, more profound underwith a local church, Iglesia Evangelica Doconstruction on the water filtration systems, standing of the needs of the world and expeminicana, and a hospital, El Buen Samaido other construction and host Vacation rience the work God intends for us to do.” tano, to help identify where need is greatest Bible Schools. Some groups bring doctors, for the next water system to be installed. nurses and dentists to provide medical By contributing writer Bob Perkins

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If you are interested in serving alongside the Wehmillers, contact CBF staff member Chris Boltin at engage@thefellowship.info to learn about specific opportunities.

Opportunities to

Missions Education Resource How to use this page

July 2012

The suggestions below will be helpful for using the stories on pages 18-24 of this issue in the life of your church. Small Group interaction, Study Group or Reading Group options are given, as well as suggestions for other congregational or family settings. Go online to www.thefellowship.info/affectonline for more suggestions.

Clean water: A catalyst for change

In Small Groups:

The following is an outline for adult mission groups, Bible study classes or other small groups. Share copies of fellowship! with group members prior to the meeting and have some extra copies available. These suggestions are for a 45-minute time frame.

1. One week before your meeting, e-mail or contact members of the small group and ask them to keep a log of all the water they use in one day. Tell them to write down (for example) how many minutes they were in the shower or how many people took a bath, whether they watered their lawns or gardens, how much water they drank, how much they used for cooking and cleaning and laundry. Ask them to estimate how many gallons of water they used that day.

(FYI: An average shower uses five gallons a minute.)

2. In preparation for the meeting, make sure you have copies of fellowship! magazine for each person in your small group. Also, be ready to summarize and share the stories on water in fellowship! on pages 18-24. Also, gather a few statistics on water usage and access to clean water to share with your group.

You can find these statistics at www.unwater.org/statistics.html.

is far away. Can you imagine carrying the amount of water you used to your home each day?

fellowship!

CBF

Cooperative baptiSt fellowShip | www.thefellowShip.info

Serving Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission

5. Summarize for participants each of the stories on water, showing the ways CBF is responding to help people around the world gain access to clean water.

6. Discuss the stories and think through ways each group member can be more aware of the water crisis and seek to respond by partnering with CBF ministries.

Clean water: A catalyst for change in ethiopia, Cbf field personnel David and Merrie harding build water wells, start community groups and provide health education, which help change lives.

Learn more about CBF ministries to provide clean water on pages 18-25.

3. As the meeting starts, ask each person to report on his or her water log.

7. Share relevant statistics on clean water that you gathered before the meeting began. Ask participants to reflect on how these statistics can make them more aware of the needs to which CBF field personnel are responding.

4. Say: In developing countries, many people do not have regular access to clean water and have to carry all the water they use from a stream or well, and sometimes this

8. Pray for the ministries that support access to clean water and for field personnel mentioned in the Prayer Calendar on page 7.

In Worship: Children’s Sermon 1. In preparation for the children’s sermon, read and be ready to summarize at least one story on water in fellowship! Bring a full water bottle with you to use as a visual aid for the children’s sermon.

2. Begin the children’s sermon by showing the children the bottle of water and asking them to name all the ways they use water (showers, drinking, etc.).

3. Ask the children where their water comes from (most will say the sink, faucet).

Remind them that some people in the world are not able to turn on a faucet and get water. Instead, they may have to walk many miles and carry home the water they need in buckets or basins.

4. Summarizing the fellowship! story in language children can understand, tell children about CBF ministries that help give people access to clean water.

5. Remind the children that your church gives money to CBF and prays for CBF

In Reading Groups Replenishing the Earth by Wangari Maathai Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmentalist Wangari Maathai combines spirituality and environmental justice to remind readers that when the environment is degraded, we are too. Maathai has dedicated her life to helping rural women plant trees in Kenya. Visit www.thefellowship.info/ affectonline for a Reading Group discussion guide to this and other selections.

ministries so people can have access to clean water.

6. End by praying for people who don’t have access to clean water and for the ministries that help them have access.

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The Vestal Legacy

Looking back on 15 years of leadership Daniel Vestal led the Fellowship to many firsts, including:

• Responding to Hurricane Katrina with an unprecedented partnership among ABCUSA, Progressive National Baptist Convention, District of Columbia Baptist Convention and the Alliance of Baptists (photo left).

• Encouraging approximately 500 churches to listen to the New Testament through the “You’ve Got the Time:

cbf Photos

A Journey of Biblical Faithfulness” program.

Books by Daniel Vestal It’s Time: An Urgent Call to Christian Mission Vestal calls Baptist Christians and churches to understand their purpose through the lens of God’s missional nature.

Being the Presence of Christ Vestal sets out a progressive approach to the study of scripture and prayer, which encourages personal spiritual transformation.

New this year and available at CBF General Assembly …

A Quest for Renewal “God is always making things new and always making new things,” says Daniel Vestal is his newest book, a collection of his most compelling reflections during his leadership of the Baptist renewal movement known as Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

www.thefellowship.info/thecbfstore

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• Joining the Baptist World Alliance (photo above, Vestal with Denton Lotz, General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance).

• Implementing a shared database among the national, state and regional CBF organizations.

• Participating in the 2008 New Baptist Covenant.

Daniel Vestal, CBF Executive Coordinator, 1996-2012 Last September, after 15 years as CBF’s Executive Coordinator, Daniel Vestal

as pastor of Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. He previously served as pastor

announced his decision to step down from his position on June 30.

of Dunwoody Baptist Church in Atlanta; First Baptist Church of Midland, Texas; Southcliff

The last moderate candidate to run for the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention, Vestal served as the first moderator in 1990-1991 of the group that became CBF. He followed Cecil Sherman to become CBF’s second coordinator in 1996 after serving

Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas; and Meadow Lane Baptist Church in Arlington.

In 2011, Vestal, 67, received the Whitsitt Society’s Courage Award for his lifetime of service.

• Conducting a historic joint meeting with American Baptist Churches USA at the 2007 General Assembly (photo above).

• Forming the ecumenical group Christian Churches Together, which is made up of Evangelical, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostals, historic Protestant, Racial • Establishing the Church Benefits Board as a separate, stand-alone provider of retirement, health and disability benefits to church staff members.

and Ethnic churches.

• Endorsing chaplains and pastoral counselors, now numbering more than 630.

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2 12

Ta sk Force R e c o mm e n d a ti o n s www.thefellowship.info/2012taskforce The first year of our work was devoted to listening to the Fellowship community

David W. Hull, Chair

in some 100 different listening sessions. We have focused on going to geographiCooperative Baptist Fellowship has a special opportunity during this year’s

cal areas where our state/regional organizations are located, listening closely

CBF General Assembly (June 21-22 in Fort Worth, Texas) to make important

to our partners in CBF ministry, and hearing experienced leaders who know our

decisions about our future together. The 2012 Task Force has been working for

past and young adults who have a special interest in our future. We have talked

almost two years, and we are excited about presenting these recommendations

with current and former CBF staff members as well as current and former elected

to you. We have understood that our task is to listen to the Fellowship community

leaders in CBF life. We have received feedback through our web page and through

and recommend ways to align our organizational structure with the vision,

countless individual conversations and correspondence. We have sought the help

mission and values of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Our hope and prayer is

of organizational experts from outside of the CBF community.

that the recommendations being presented will accomplish this task.

You can read the full version at www.thefellowship.info/2012taskforce, but

Preparing for the Decision Understanding the Process

June 2010 The 2012 Task Force was elected at the General Assembly in Charlotte, N.C.

October 2010 The Task Force met with the Coordinating Council as the first of about 100 listening sessions across the country.

June 2011 The Task Force gave an Interim Report to the General Assembly in Tampa and held listening sessions during the meeting.

October 2011 The Task Force shared some initial concepts with the Coordinating Council for their discussion.

February 2012 The Task Force brought recommendations to the Coordinating Council, state/regional coordinators, partner leaders, and former moderators. After discussion, the group agreed on areas of continued work by the Task Force.

May 2012 The Coordinating Council met to act on the revised recommendations.

May 2012 The final recommendations were made available to the Fellowship community at www.thefellowship.info/2012taskforce for review before the CBF General Assembly.

June 2012 The Task Force will present their recommendations on the morning of Thursday, June 21, during CBF’s General Assembly in Fort Worth, Texas. Discussion opportunities will be available on Thursday afternoon. The vote on the recommendations will occur occur on the morning of Friday, June 22, at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

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cbf Photo

David Hull, chair of the 2012 Task Force, presents the initial report to the CBF Coordinating Council in February.

here is a summary of our recommendations. We begin with a statement about

ministry collaboration and common giving plans between CBF national and

our identity as a Fellowship and outline ways that churches and individuals may

state/regional CBF bodies. These agreements establish a more seamless way

“embrace their identity as partners with the community.” We believe that this

of supporting the missions and ministries of the Fellowship.

statement will give clarity to our identity as a Fellowship.

What is the best way to be a community of Baptist Christians who cooperate

Our future lies in our ability to live into our name. We are Cooperative Baptists. We are “laborers together with God.” It is our hope that the

together to engage people in missions and equip people for ministry? We think

recommendations will help you to begin thinking about a paradigm shift.

that some structural changes in our organization will strengthen our work

Instead of some kind of united structure where churches and states look to

together. To that end, we propose the establishment of a Governing Board and

a large, national organization to serve them, let’s think about a seamless,

two Councils to replace the one Coordinating Council. The Governing Board is

cooperative community in which we all serve one another ... in which we

the body to provide governance for the organization and that works with the

celebrate the abundance that is within the entire community. God is doing

Executive Coordinator. The Missions Council works with the Global Missions

a new thing in our Fellowship and is calling us to dream new dreams of

staff to provide vision, strategy, education, and sustainability to CBF’s missions

cooperation and ministry together as we continue to seek to be the presence

enterprise. The Ministries Council is the largest body and empowers the

of Christ in the world.

entire Fellowship community to collaborate for the development and sharing of resources that are needed by congregations.

Finally, a plan related to giving calls for greater collaboration than ever before. Cooperative agreements will affirm shared mission and values,

These recommendations have been developed over two years of much thought, prayer and discussion. We encourage you to take time to prayerfully consider if you feel that the ideas outlined in our recommendations will lead to a positive future for CBF.

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Five Day Academy for Spiritual Formation™ October 14-19 — Ignatius House, Atlanta, Ga.

The Five Day Academy for Spiritual Formation™ is like the two-year Academy in a single five-day session. Daily activities include curriculum sessions, silent reflection, discussions with faculty, covenant group meetings, a nightly Eucharist Service and prayers. www.thefellowship.info/academy

CBF Council on Endorsement Deadline June 6

The Council on Endorsement meets three times a year to review applicants for CBF endorsement as chaplains and pastoral counselors.

Application materials for the July council meeting are due June 6. www.thefellowship.info/chaplaincy

c’est la vie SELAHvie PAUSE Life.

Aug. 6-9 — Talladega, Ala. The SelahVie conference helps college students begin their academic year by processing their ministry opportunities from the summer and planning for ministry on their campus and in their churches. www.passportcamps.org/selahvie

Face2face, the Fellowship’s speakers’ bureau, creates opportunities for people to share, listen and connect.

Call (800) 352-8741 or visit www.thefellowship.info/face2face to schedule a speaker.

Look for Face2face at the CBF General Assembly.

It’s easier than ever to order through The CBF Store. We now accept online credit card payment at www.thefellowship.info/thecbfstore or you can mail a check to our new address: The CBF Store, 2930 Flowers Road South, Suite 133, Atlanta, GA 30341 You can also purchase CBF Store resources onsite at the 2012 CBF General Assembly.

New this fall!

Beginning in September, CBF’s missional formation resources will include: more biblical teaching, greater variety of activities, more options for older and younger preschoolers or children, additional help for teachers, more activities with less prep time All of this will now arrive as a digital package with more videos, more pictures and easy-to-print files. www.thefellowship.info/missionseducation

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

General Assembly June 20-23 // Fort Worth, Texas Theme: Infinitely More (Ephesians 3:20-21) Make your plans to be part of General Assembly.

Step 1: Pre-Register It’s easy and free Set your Assembly plans in motion by pre-registering online at www.thefellowship.info/assembly. When you pre-register, you’ll receive updates about the Assembly, including special events and opportunities. Go ahead, sign up online now — it takes less than 5 minutes. Scan the code with your smartphone to pre-register online.

Step 2: Getting There Travel Options to Fort Worth If you’re coming by plane, the main airport is Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) though some airlines also fly into other regional airports. If you’re travelling by train, book your ticket to Amtrak’s Fort Worth station (FTW). Planning on driving? The Fort Worth Convention Center is at 1201 Houston Street in Fort Worth, just steps away from the hotels offering a CBF discount. And while you’re downtown, you can enjoy free transportation from place to place courtesy of Molly the Trolley.

More information is at www.thefellowship.info/Assembly/travel.

Step 3: Where to Stay Fort Worth hotels with CBF discount These hotels are offered as a special service to you, ensuring the most convenient and comfortable accommodations at below-market rates. Hotels are within walking distance of the Convention Center, so no need to worry about in-town cab fares, forgetting something in your room or where you’ll rest between events.

Your stay at a discounted hotel also results in significant savings for the Fellowship, ensuring the Assembly remains free to all attendees. More information is at www.thefellowship.info/Assembly/hotels.

Omni Fort Worth Hotel (Headquarter Hotel)

Sheraton Fort Worth Hotel & Spa

Hilton Fort Worth Hotel

1300 Houston Street

1701 Commerce Street

815 Main Street

$129 single/double

$129 single/double; $139 triple and $149 quad

$117 single/double/triple/quad

SOLD OUT

Step 4: Things to Do ‘City of Cowboys and Culture’ While in Fort Worth, there’s plenty to see and do. Interested in art? Check out the Cultural District with its five internationallyrecognized museums. Want to learn more about Western heritage? Stop by the Stockyards National Historic District. For the sports enthusiast, visit the Texas Motor Speedway, watch the Texas Rangers baseball team take on the Colorado Rockies or take a tour of Cowboys Stadium — home of the Dallas Cowboys football team. If you’re travelling with children, you may want to visit the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, the nationally-ranked Fort Worth Zoo, Six Flags theme park or the Fort Worth Stockyards for the twice-daily cattle drive or weekend rodeo.

Fort Worth Stockyards

Pre-register at www.thefellowship.info/assembly fellowship!

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Cooperative Baptist Fellowship 2930 Flowers Road South, Suite 133 Atlanta, GA 30341 www.thefellowship.info • (800) 352-8741

Now all glory to God, who is able...to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Ephesians 3:20

What is the future of CBF? Infinitely more than you can ask or imagine.

Come hope, ask, dream and imagine — together.

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship

General Assembly June 20-23 // Fort Worth, Texas

Pre-register online now for free and learn more at www.thefellowship.info/assembly.

A milestone event that will shape CBF’s future and help you ...

Why come to this year’s Assembly?

Witness Daniel Vestal’s final sermon as CBF’s executive coordinator.

Embrace your opportunity to shape CBF’s future as 2012 Task Force report is presented.

Love more. Grow in your love for God, God’s mission and

Enjoy music of singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer in a free concert.

God’s people — including the world’s most neglected.

Daniel Vestal

Learn more. Get ready to get equipped for God’s call.

Tired of fixin’ church? Ready to find a way to move forward in these challenging times? Leadership Institute is for you.

Ministry innovation and inspiration await.

Got questions about your faith journey? Pray and ask at The Questions God Asks prayer retreat.

Lead more. Take a step back, imagine the future and prepare

One word — fellowship. You can’t get that sitting at home.

Come network and mingle. You never know who you might meet.

for God to do infinitely more through your life and ministry.

Carrie Newcomer