July 24, 2013 • ISSUE 13
More than 150 students find new life in Christ over three weeks of SBTC student camps this summer.
Judge grants stay for Hobby Lobby
Eagle Pass relief wrapping up after month deployment
Gary Ledbetter
Common sense and having kids
T
hink back to being 10 years old. Perhaps your family had to scrimp to make ends meet, as mine did, so imagine overhearing Dad and Mom discussing finances thusly: “I don’t know how we’re going to do it. It costs thousands of dollars a year to raise these kids … we could have saved a lot of money with a contraceptive or an abortion.” Monstrous I know; it wouldn’t have happened in any home I know of. But that’s just the conversation our society is having. Our cultural attitude about children is much different than in past generations. In the discussion of a Pain-Capable Unborn Child Act, similar to the one Gov. Perry just signed into law for Texas, the Congressional Budget Office was quoted as estimating that passing the law would up federal spending for Medicaid by $225 million over 10 years. This was given as an argument for late-term abortion! We’re used to that kind of thinking. Radical environmentalist groups speak of preventing “unwanted births,” the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute gushes about “improvements in social and economic conditions … greater freedom in career decisions” for women brought about by the ability to avoid children. And it’s hard to escape the fact that we have started to think regularly in economic terms as we plan our families. More educated women postpone childbearing—often until the number of children they have is dictated by age—and women across demographics have fewer kids during times of perceived economic decline. Preliminary reports say fertility rates in the U.S. for 2011 will be the lowest since 1920. Considering the financial hard times that followed 1920, Americans today clearly have a different attitude toward parenthood than did their grandparents. There is another way to look at it. The Western European countries (plus Japan) referred to fondly by radicals as having lower fertility rates than the U.S. are in a crisis. They, and we, are headed toward a worker shortage and certainly an unsustainable disparity between workers
and retirees. It’s nuts to envy countries with worse fertility rates than our own. The attitude I read from some quarters seems to be that children are an unmixed liability. Will no progress come from future generations? Have “unwanted” or “mistimed” children ever been a benefit to our country or the world? Clearly they have been a benefit, and of course some of you were unwanted or mistimed. That term “mistimed” actually sounds like an invention of our generation, a product of the sexual revolution. The implication is that birth control is acceptable at any point prior to … well, birth, for even so petty a notion as optimal timing. Anyway, back to my subject. Author Jonathan Last, writing about a recent University of Southern California population study, also warns us that “There are no cases of peace and prosperity in the face of declining populations.” For you and me, there is also the spiritual significance of actual human children, called a blessing by the God who made us as well as by millions of parents every year. My opening imaginary situation was offensive to all of us because we cannot imagine real people saying such things. But we can now imagine real U.S. congressmen suggesting that the dollars argue for late-term abortion and we can imagine a Texas state senator receiving a million dollars in campaign donations because she filibustered for late-term abortion. We can imagine a generation that postpones reproduction. And we can imagine a generation of churches baptizing fewer children partly because their members have fewer children. Don’t have children merely because you feel an obligation to the future of Western civilization. But do have children, more than one or two, if the Lord allows it. Have children sufficient to make restaurant hostesses roll their eyes or fill a family pew each Sunday if you can. Children are a blessing from the Lord for so many reasons, not least of which is your own sanctification. You only academically understand God as father until you are one yourself. You’re only somewhat invested in the messy and inconvenient lives of others until someone depends on you totally. It grows you up and prepares you for eternity. Raising children also gives you a chance to disciple the next generation. I have never influenced lives so certainly as I have my three children. They do and will do God-honoring things for all the years he gives them, and I am at least a little part of that. They are trophies and weapons against the impending darkness of our culture. It is worth every dime and every minute. Those investments of God’s resources in only three good people will immeasurably benefit our increasingly blind and ungrateful world.
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Fla. Baptist leader: ‘take high road’ in Martin-Zimmerman case “We just have to take the high road and be prayerful and continue to move on,” said Eugene McCormick of the Florida Baptist Convention’s African American church ministries team, following the George Zimmerman verdict.
Bill’s signing undaunted by protests Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed House Bill 2 into law on July 18, banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks and requiring abortion providers to upgrade their facilities and standards of practice.
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Judge grants stay for Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby has won further relief from a massive penalty as it challenges the Obama administration’s abortion/ contraception mandate.
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Student camps see 152, including one Muslim teen, profess Christ
Eagle Pass relief wrapping up after month deployment SBTC Disaster Relief efforts to aid victims of flooding from the June 14-15 storms that dropped 17 inches of rain upon Eagle Pass and Maverick County in 36 hours are wrapping up.
For students, summer may seem like the time between semesters when productivity takes a backseat to leisure. But this summer, busloads of Texas teenagers “redeemed the time.”
TEXAN Digital is e-published twice monthly by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, 4500 State Highway 360, Grapevine, TX 76099-1988. Jim Richards, Executive Director
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Former Texans plant church in Massachussetts For Steve and Merri Brown, answering the call meant leaving Texas for Boston with the intent of planting a church in a suburban setting 10 miles from downtown.
Gary Ledbetter, Editor Jerry Pierce, Managing Editor Russell Lightner, Design & Layout Stephanie Barksdale, Subscriptions Contributing Writers Bonnie Pritchett, Stephanie Heading, Jane Rodgers, Sharayah Colter, Merri Brown To contact the TEXAN office, visit texanonline.net/contact or call toll free 877.953.7282 (SBTC)
Briefly ///////////////////////////////////////////////// NORTH AMERICA
Network’s leader: ‘take the high road’ on Martin-Zimmerman case Dismissing race as a motive in the Trayvon Martin shooting, a Southern Baptist leader in Florida said he believes because an African American was involved, “there was a racial tone” that has resulted in unavoidable controversy over the not-guilty verdict in the seconddegree murder trial of George Zimmerman. Eugene McCormick, president of the Southern Baptist Black Denominational Servant’s Network, cautioned those who might be tempted to “carry things to the extreme” while encouraging prayer for both the families of Martin, 17 when he was killed, and Zimmerman. “We just have to take the high road and be prayerful and continue to move on,” said McCormick, team strategist for the Florida Baptist Convention’s African American church development ministries team. McCormick, in hoping that any rallies or protests won’t become “violent or negative,” said he heard nothing that convinced him the act was racially motivated. “I believe it could have been a white person, an Asian person, or a Hispanic person, and the same thing could have happened,” McCormick said. Pointing to Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, McCormick said people should follow their early example in decrying any sort of violence and acknowledging that God is in control. Within hours following the verdict, Sybrina Fulton tweeted, “Lord during my darkest hour I lean on you. 2 TEXANONLINE.NET juLY 24, 2013
You are all that I have. At the end of the day, GOD is still in control....” McCormick said he believes the entire situation was “unfortunate” but is resting in the “fact that God knows what happened.” “This is not the first time this has happened and we’ve had a controversial court decision in U.S. history,” he said. “I don’t harbor any anger or malice toward the situation because it’s life and things don’t always turn out or come out in terms of what you feel like is right or wrong. But we have a God who will right every wrong—not just in this case, but in life in general.” McCormick said the nation is “definitely not the same” in regard to race relations as when he was growing up, and that it is “generally better.” Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore said blacks look at the trial “macroscopically,” while whites view it “microscopically.” “African Americans tend to speak about the case in broad social and political terms,” Moore said in Newsweek’s July 17 cover story, “but we rarely get to hear their own quiet, personal stories.” “[M]any white Americans deal in particulars, without realizing it’s larger than that,” Moore said. “It’s not just about this individual case; it’s about the fabric of American history. We have to recognize that African Americans see Trayvon Martin’s face alongside Medgar Evers, Emmett Till and others that most people will never know. We have to acknowledge that in our conversations.”
Gunman fires shots in worship service A man is in custody after witnesses say he opened fire during a July 21 worship service at First Baptist Church in Norwood, Mo. Worshippers tackled him before anyone was shot. One man injured his shoulder in the scuffle, but no other injuries were reported. Pastor Stephen Fugitt was about halfway through his morning sermon when a man carrying a “high-caliber” revolver entered the church and fired two or three shots, Fugitt told The Pathway, the newsjournal of the Missouri Baptist Convention. The suspect shot at least once into the floor between himself and Fugitt while walking toward the platform, Fugitt said. “He pulled his gun up and before he could fire, one of the guys grabbed his arm (just before he pulled the trigger) and it (the bullet) went up into the ceiling,” the pastor said. Several more men piled onto the suspect and wrestled the gun away from him until the Wright County Sheriff’s Department could arrive. “He’s a pretty big guy,” Fugitt said. “They weren’t going to let him up.” Deputies later discovered a shotgun in the back seat of the suspect’s car. Fugitt praised God that no one was seriously injured, and thanked the men who acted quickly to subdue the suspect at the church that draws about 60 worshippers Sunday mornings. “They saved lives I’m sure,” he said. The church has had previous contact with the suspect. “It wasn’t totally random,” Fugitt said. “We actually have a plan, but it happened so fast, not much else could have been done except what happened,” Fugitt said. The alleged gunman’s name has not been released, but he was in custody July 22 with charges pending. About 600 people live in Norwood, 30 miles east of Springfield.
—Briefly section was compiled from staff reports and Baptist Press
Judge grants stay for Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby has won further relief from a massive penalty as it challenges the Obama administration’s abortioncontraception mandate. A federal judge in Oklahoma City granted a preliminary injunction to Hobby Lobby on July 19, sparing the popular arts and crafts chain from a penalty that could have reached $1.3 million a day. The order bars enforcement while the case proceeds challenging a controversial rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), that requires employers to pay for coverage of contraceptives, including ones that can cause abortions. Religious freedom advocates applauded the order. “There’s a long way to go, but this is good news for freedom of conscience,” said Russell D. Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC). “The HHS mandate is an egregious burden on the free exercise of religious convictions, and a vast coalition of us stands against it, and for liberty.” Kyle Duncan, general counsel with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said, “The tide has turned against the HHS mandate.” The Becket Fund is representing Hobby Lobby in the case. Hobby Lobby, which has more than 550 stores in the United States, and Mardel, a sister Christian bookstore chain, filed suit last year against the rule implementing the 2010 health care reform law. Members of the Green family—evangelical Christians who own Hobby Lobby and Mardel—do not oppose all contraceptive methods, only those that have abortion-causing qualities. They have said they will not obey the mandate. The federally approved drugs in question include Plan B and other “morning-after” pills with a secondary, post-fertilization mechanism that can cause an abortion by preventing implantation of embryos. The mandate also covers “ella,” which in a fashion similar to
the abortion drug RU 486, can act even after implantation to end the life of the child. After federal judge Joe Heaton granted the injunction July 19, Hobby Lobby President Steve Green explained his company’s position. “This case is about life; our deeply held conviction is that life begins with conception. To offer prescriptions that take life is just not an option,” he said, according to The Daily Oklahoman. In his opinion Heaton said, according to the Becket Fund, “There is a substantial public interest in ensuring that no individual or corporation has their legs cut out from under them while these difficult issues are resolved.” He disagreed, however, with an opinion by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that religious freedom protections extend to for-profit corporations, describing it as an “exotic definition of personhood,” The Oklahoman reported. Heaton originally refused to grant a preliminary injunction, but the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals June 27 reversed his decision and instructed him to reconsider. The appeals court said Hobby Lobby and Mardel had demonstrated they probably would prevail in showing that the mandate infringes on their religious freedom. The next day, Heaton issued a temporary restraining order preventing the mandate from going into effect July 1 and sparing the retail chains from the penalty. The Obama administration’s final rule on the abortion/contraception mandate does not provide a religious liberty accommodation to for-profit companies such as Hobby Lobby and Mardel. Religious liberty advocates said it also fails to remedy the conscience problems for non-profit organizations that object. More than 60 federal lawsuits have been filed against the abortion/ contraception mandate. Courts have granted injunctions to 23 for-profit corporations and refused to issue injunctions or restraining orders for seven companies, according to the Becket Fund. No action has been taken in four lawsuits by for-profit companies. The ERLC and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops lead a coalition of diverse religious organizations that have urged the Obama administration to protect freedom of conscience under the mandate. Hobby Lobby seeks to honor God “by operating the company in a manner consistent with Biblical principles,” according to its statement of purpose. Its stores are closed on Sundays. The Oklahoma City-based chain contributes to Christian organizations selected by the Green family that seek “to share the Good News of Jesus Christ to all the world,” according to its website. The case is Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius. JULY 24, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 3
UN: Syria refugee crisis worst since Rwanda
SWBTS prof urges caution in proclaiming David’s palace found
The civil war between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel fighters has sparked a refugee crisis that the United Nations says is the worst in nearly two decades. “We have not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago,” Antonio Guterres, the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said at a UN Security Council briefing, according to ABC News. The UN reported that more than 1.7 million Syrians are refugees in neighboring countries, while another 4.5 million are internally displaced. “As the Syrian civil war enters its third year, the human cost of the conflict is growing exponentially,” according to a factsheet prepared by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a government advisory body that monitors freedom of conscience, thought and religious belief. The factsheet, “Syria’s Refugee Crisis and its Implications,” was produced after USCIRF conducted a fact-finding mission as part of a UN-led delegation that visited Egypt and Jordan. USCIRF interviewed refugees, government and UN officials and representatives from aid organizations. Among the factsheet’s major findings: 4More than 90 percent of refugees registered with UNHCR identify themselves as Sunni Muslims. 4Christians and Alawites are not registering with UNHCR because they fear reprisals from Sunni refugees who might suspect them of being government allies. Minorities also fear that if the current Syrian regime stays in power and they have to return, the government will view them as disloyal for having fled. 4Refugees must register with UNHCR to receive material assistance such as food, cash, education and health care. Since many religious minorities in rural areas cannot or do not register, they are left out. 4The massive flow of refugees is straining the already limited resources of neighboring countries. Iraq, Turkey and Jordan either have closed their borders or limited the daily intake of refugees.
Archaeologists say they have uncovered the remains of King David’s palace on the site of the biblical battle between David and Goliath, providing key evidence for understanding the origins of the kingdom of Judah. Southern Baptist archaeology professors In the foreground are the ancient walls of cautioned against Khirbet Qeiyafa, in the distance, just right of center, is a low, brown mound identified as concluding the remains the biblical city of Socoh. Located just above are David’s actual palace, the Elah Valley, is the site of current excavanoting that the discovery tions which shed light on early Israel under in the least is a significant King David. Near this location, the armies of Israelites and Philistines witnessed the depart of the Old Testament feat of Goliath by David. Photo by Gary D. Myers figure’s kingdom. While one main structure was identified as the palace, a corresponding structure is believed to have been a large storage facility for collecting taxes in the form of agricultural products. “This is the only site in which organic material was found— including olive seeds—that can be carbon-14 dated” to David’s era, the Israeli Antiquities Authority, which excavated the site with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told the Times of Israel newspaper. Yossi Garfinkel and Saar Ganor, the leading researchers involved in the dig, said, “This is indisputable proof of the existence of a central authority in Judah during the time of King David.” Until this discovery, no palaces were clearly attributable to the early 10th century B.C., The Jerusalem Post reported July 18. The site, known in modern day as Khirbet Qeiyafa, likely was destroyed in battle against the Philistines in 980 B.C. Evidence that the city came to an end in a sudden destruction, The Post said, includes hundreds of pottery vessels, stone utensils and metal objects left on the floors of houses. Steven Ortiz, associate professor of archeology and biblical backgrounds and director of the Charles D. Tandy Institute for Archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, attended a celebration ceremony at the unveiling of the supposed palace site. “It is an important site for the history of the Israelite monarchy,” Ortiz told Baptist Press. “I think Dr. Garfinkel might be overstating the large building. It is indeed a very large building sitting on the acropolis, perfect for a public building. “The site dates to the time of the Davidic monarchy. It is a bit of a stretch to say that it is David’s palace,” Ortiz said. “If David built a palace it would be in Jerusalem, as the biblical text implies, not in an outlying fortress city. It is best to state that Khirbet Qeiyafa was perhaps a city under the hegemony of the developing Davidic monarchy.” The site, known in the Bible as Shaarayim, is located about 18 miles southwest of Jerusalem, on the summit of a hill that borders the Elah Valley on the north, The Post said.
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Abortion bill’s signing undaunted by protests, legal threats By Bonnie Pritchett AUSTIN
After weeks of loud and sometimes
disruptive protests and counter protests, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed House Bill 2 into law on July 18, banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks and requiring abortion providers to upgrade their facilities and standards of practice. In a ceremony that included pro-life legislators and advocates, Perry called the bill “appropriate” and said it set a “reasonable standard” of care for women while sparing the lives and suffering of unborn babies. As the governor signed the bill, abortion-rights activists continued their month-long protests with demonstrations in the Capitol rotunda. Some chanted or held signs declaring “shame on you” while others lay on the marble floor dressed in black and feigning death. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and daughter of a former Texas governor, the late Ann Richards, said in a tweet, “We believe parts of this bill are unconstitutional & are working to stop it.” Undaunted, pro-life legislators gathered around Perry as he signed HB 2 into law. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presided over the final Senate vote July 12, called it a victory for Texas women despite characterizations to the contrary by the bill’s opponents. Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, who attempted to defeat similar legislation in the first special session with a filibuster, claimed the bill would severely limit Texas women’s access to medical care. “By signing #HB2 today, @GovernorPerry proved he doesn’t care about Texas families. Let’s show him we do,” Davis tweeted. A link following the post took the reader to a campaign ad promoting Davis’ run for the Texas Senate. “Don’t let anyone tell you anything different. We care about women’s health,” Dewhurst said. Throughout the debate, pro-choice activists charged the legislation would force the closure of all but a handful of the state’s 42 abortion clinics. Under HB 2, abortion facilities must meet the same standards as
At left, Attorney General Greg Abbott addressed a July 8 pro-life rally at the Capitol while SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards (right) reminded the crowd of the SBTC’s pro-life stance and closed the rally in prayer. PHOTOS BY JERRY PIERCE
ambulatory clinics and abortion doctors must acquire admitting privileges to hospitals within a 30-mile radius of the abortion clinic. Dewhurst emphasized failure to meet those standards would not force the closure of health care centers, only abortion facilities. The clinics have until Sept. 1, 2014, to meet ambulatory standards. The rest of the legislation goes into effect 91 days after the close of the session, about mid-October. The 20-week ban on abortions was championed in the regular session as the “Pre-born Pain Bill.” Research indicating a pre-born at five months might feel the pain of an abortion motivated the drafting of JULY 24, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 5
the legislation. Perry, in his remarks July 18, said neonatal care saves the lives of babies born “not far past that point.” “That should give pause to all of us as we argue the definition of ‘viability’ and consider the human impact of abortion,” he told the audience of pro-life leaders. Authors of the omnibus bills in the House and Senate, Rep. Jodi Laubenberg, R-Murphy, and Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, said they needed and appreciated the prayers and visible support of prolife activists in the days leading up the bill’s passage. Laubenberg called them “the new blue” for the colored-coded delineation of the demonstrators—pro-life wore blue; pro-choice wore orange. She thanked them for showing up to “counter the chaos that was going on,” referring to the well-organized and sustained demonstrations against the bill. “It really was the hand of God that held us up,” she said. Hegar concurred. “The power of prayer that day was immense,” he said. The entire process weighed heavy on his heart, mind and soul. For several hours he stood on the Senate floor July 12 defending HB 2 against questions from Democrat lawmakers opposed to the measure. Hegar authored Senate Bill 1, the identical companion bill to HB 2. The bill passed the Senate on party lines, 19-11, with one pro-life Democrat, Eddie Lucio of Brownsville, voting for it. Perry called a second special legislative session to deal with the matter after opponents successfully stalled it as time expired in the first special session 6 TEXANONLINE.NET juLY 24, 2013
on June 25. The legislation is a compilation of bills proposed in the regular session of the 83rd Legislature that ended in May. The 20-week ban is based on an approximate “postfertilization” age. HB 2 will also require abortion doctors to be present when any abortion-inducing drug, including RU-486, is administered. Texas is the latest state to enact strict abortion regulations, despite efforts by abortion-rights activists to shut down or slow the legislative process. Their large and loud demonstrations at the State Capitol in recent weeks punctuated the debate but their efforts were countered by an influx of pro-life supporters days before the final vote. “I am proud of our lawmakers and citizens who tirelessly defended our smallest and most vulnerable,” Perry said following the Senate passage. Pro-choice senators proposed 20 amendments without success and stated their strong disagreement with the bill in closing arguments. During debate, occasional outbursts from pro-choice activists in the Senate gallery could be heard, but the rules of decorum were strictly enforced and violators were quickly escorted from the chamber. Lucio, a Roman Catholic and the lone Democrat senator to vote for HB 2, called the legislation a victory for the fight against “the war on children.” He admonished his peers on both sides of the aisle for not giving their support to legislation that champions life at all stages. Both sides invoked God as a source for their guiding principles during debate. Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, said she was pro-life and
supported Planned Parenthood for the health care services it provides. She said she supported the 20-week ban on abortion but not the other requirements. The other provisions, she and other Democrats argued, restrict access to health care for poor women. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, rebuked Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, for implying that anyone opposed to HB 2 lacked faith in God. Whitmire noted the day in 1956 when he was baptized after proclaiming “Jesus as my Lord and savior” at a Baptist Church in Pasadena. He then went on to recount how he helped pay for a co-worker’s trip to New York for an abortion in 1972 when they were still illegal in Texas. But Lucio called out his peers. “If you are a person of faith there is no way to justify abortion by pointing to God,” he said. Other pro-life senators said science supports their arguments for the 20-week ban and their faith compelled them to treat all life with dignity. Pro-life and conservative organizations, whose absence from the Capitol had grown increasingly conspicuous in contrast to the prochoice demonstrations, rallied to the Capitol on July 8 in a show of support for the legislation. Many stayed through the final passage on July 12. According to the bill, the ban will not apply to abortions deemed “necessary to avert the death or substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman or abortions that are performed on unborn children with severe fetal abnormalities.” —Additional reporting by TEXAN editor Jerry Pierce
Austin church’s musicians played on amid sea of orange protestors By Bonnie Pritchett AUSTIN
The wide spiritual and ideological chasm dividing
those on opposing sides of the Texas abortion debate was uncomfortably evident at the close of a pro-life rally on July 8 that drew an estimated 2,000 pro-lifers and, by one media account, about 1,000 pro-choice activists. The sprawling pro-life crowd, mostly dressed in blue to signify their pro-life stance, was packed in tightly towards the south steps of the Capitol, where former Arkansas governor and 2008 GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee headlined a group of pro-life activists, politicians and pastors. The rally went an hour and a half, ending around 8:30 p.m. After the closing prayer, led by Jim Richards, executive director of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, many in the crowd headed for nearby buses while others spread out around the Capitol grounds to fellowship or just take in the moment. A smaller group gathered closer to the Capitol steps to hear the praise band from Bannockburn Baptist Church in Austin. Some bystanders raised hands in praise or dropped their heads in worship. But what they didn’t see moving toward them from behind they soon heard and saw around them: An orange sea of pro-choice activists who had pressed forward to the front of the crowd after the blue shirts had spread out, only stopping at the barrier made up of Department of Public Safety troopers.
WORLDVIEW CLASH: (Above) Based on the climate at A pro-life rally held at the the Capitol in recent weeks state Capitol on July 8 drew over abortion legislation an estimated crowd of 2,000 pro-lifers and, by one media that finally passed through account, about 1,000 prothe Legislature on July 12, choice activists. Joseph Bolin thought this might happen. He had even planned for it. The abortion-rights protestors’ chants and signs— some with vulgar slogans—defied the affirmations of the pro-life messages that evening. But the band played on according to plan. “Everyone needs compassion, love that’s never failing; let mercy fall on me …” The blue clad pro-life activists, many of them with signs citing Scripture and mentions of God, tried not to bat an eye as the orange army—by now quite numerous in the vicinity near the band—rallied for attention. The pro-lifers sang louder, hands raised in worship.
“I was proud of our people. There was a lot of hatred that seemed to be spewing from the pro-choice group. [The worshipers] did not engage in the heckling.” —JOSEPH BOLIN JULY 24, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 7
EXHIBITS A & B: Twin girls born at 25 weeks were visible to the pro-life rally crowd as they stood near a Capitol window on July 8. PHOTOS BY BONNIE PRITCHETT
In turn, the pro-choicers shouted in vain to drown out the Bannockburn band. Still, Bolin and his band played, fighting through the tense moments with a redeeming message. “Everyone needs forgiveness, the kindness of a Savior; the Hope of nations …” As the blue shirts continued singing, abortion activists took it up a notch. Out of the orange sea a cart appeared, wired with a range of colored lights and its own reverberating speakers and thumping bass. The sideshow was on. For a few moments, the flashing cart became the grand marshal for an impromptu parade of pro-choice demonstrators who were forming behind it. What was emanating from the speakers was indistinguishable over the sound of the praise band and worshipers’ singing. But the sign atop the structure—raised on a standard above everyone’s heads—was clearly visible. “This machine kills fascists!” was the handwritten message in black on a white background. Several weeks before, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst had told the National Right Life Convention meeting in Dallas: “We’re not exactly in a polite conversation with our opponents who don’t believe in the sanctity of life. Instead, we’re in the midst of an epic struggle for the very future of this state, this nation and our civilization.” The moments following the rally lent validity to Dewhurst’s statement. “It was a salient moment of spiritual warfare,” said Bolin, Bannockburn Baptist’s worship pastor. “It was very illustrative of the cultural divide in our nation and the spiritual divide as well.” As Bolin watched two worlds collide he noted the demeanor of both. “I was proud of our people,” he said. “There was a lot of hatred that seemed to be spewing from the pro8 TEXANONLINE.NET juLY 24, 2013
choice group. [The worshipers] did not engage in the heckling.” Throughout the evening speakers, including Huckabee, repeatedly addressed the inherent value of all humanity, explicitly noting the worth of abortion-rights advocates who were skirting the edges of the rally. Dewhurst spoke directly to the pro-choice activists who were shouting out occasional taunts. “We love you,” he said to cheers of approval from the pro-life crowd. “As Christians we love you as much as we love that unborn baby.” But in the end, the messages seemed lost on those whose passion for abortion rights spilled over into contempt for pro-life activists and the God they represented. Their attempts to drown out the singing with shouts and chants failed. “Not the church. Not the state. Women must decide our fate!” shouted the angry faction. The signs also declared their defiance. “My body. My choice,” read some. Others were obviously meant to shock the crowd, including many that were sexually explicit or otherwise obscene. The pro-choicers continued to push into the rally crowd; their chants of “We won’t go back” became a counter melody to the band’s worship music. The DPS troopers, whose presence at the Capitol was multiplied during the second special legislative session, urged the praise team to leave as quickly as possible. Bolin said he intentionally chose songs such as “Mighty to Save” that speak of God’s love, power and ability to change situations, knowing the clash of blue and orange was probable. “Our goal was to send that message to whomever was listening,” he said. “God’s Word does not return void.”
Student camps see 152, including one Muslim teen, profess Christ
Shane Pruitt, pastor of C3 Church in Rowlett, speaks during a camp worship service. Throughout two weeks of M3 Camp and Youth Week at Palacios, 152 students made professions of faith and dozens more made other significant spiritual decisions.
Students from The Church on Rush Creek in Arlington celebrate during a recreational time during M3 Camp.
By Sharayah Colter
presents the gospel to unconverted students and challenges those who have already trusted Christ to live lives of gospel mission and ministry. Some credited an ongoing prayer effort during both weeks of M3 with the results that followed. Students and adults took turns offering continuous prayer for all those at the camp, including the camp staff, by name. Wagoner said students who struggled with issues such as suicidal thoughts and depression sought intercessory prayer in the tent as well. During week one and week two, students also read the entire New Testament aloud, ending in what Wagoner described as a moving moment as students read the final verses in Revelation. Jeremy McNair, youth pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Fort Worth, agreed that the prayer room played an important role for the 30 students from Cornerstone. He said through the week, his students had been praying for one student in their group who had been raised in Africa as a Muslim. He had recently come to the United States to live with family but had not shown interest in knowing or following Christ. “When he came to our church, he was very respectful of our beliefs but firm in the fact that he wasn’t necessarily interested in receiving Christ,” McNair said.
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or students, summer may seem like simply the time between semesters when productivity takes a backseat to leisure. But this summer busloads of Texas teenagers “redeemed the time.” During the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention’s three student camps, 152 teenagers registered professions of faith, 81 accepted calls to the ministry and 67 made other life-defining decisions. Nearly 1,500 students attended one of the three weeks offered during two weeks of M3 Camp and one week at Palacios. M3 Camps—the three M’s represent moment, mission and ministry—are organized by the SBTC’s student evangelism area, with one week at Highland Lakes Camp in Spicewood and one week at Camp Zephyr in Sandia. Youth Week at Palacios, a camp organized by the language ministries department, aims to provide a quality camp experience to Hispanic churches, though it draws a few non-Hispanic church groups as well.
M3 Camps The larger of the two camps, M3 saw 127 salvation decisions. Garrett Wagoner, student collegiate associate with the SBTC, said M3 intentionally and clearly
Photos courtesy of The Church on Rush CREEK
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Cameron Muilenburg performs a BMX exhibition for students during Youth Week at Palacios.
But during one of the camp worship services, the young man got up and ran out from the gathering. McNair quickly caught up with him and listened to what he had to say. “He said, ‘I know that Jesus is real.’ I said, ‘He is real.’ He said, ‘I know that Jesus is here.’ I said, ‘Absolutely,’” McNair recounted. When the student still had reservations about abandoning his Muslim beliefs, McNair explained that Jesus said he is the “only way” to salvation and told him that one cannot serve both Christ and Allah. “He renounced Allah and gave up his Muslim background in favor of serving Christ,” McNair said. “It was amazing to see the youth group who had been praying for him and modeling the Christian lifestyle rally around him. It was a fantastic end to the camp.” Wagoner said on the last night of the second week of camp, camp pastor Ryan Fontenot challenged the students to go share the gospel with students who had not yet come to faith. “I saw 13-year-olds who were broken over their friends who did not know Jesus, which is only something the Spirit of God can 10 TEXANONLINE.NET juLY 24, 2013
do,” Wagoner said. “Seventeen students gave their lives to Christ [that night].” “What makes these camps different is it’s not just fun and games where we stick a message in there,” Wagoner added, explaining that the focus of the camp is challenging students in their walk with Christ. M3, which drew groups from 25 churches this year, has grown in popularity among Texas student ministries, and organizers already plan to add a third camp week for next summer.
Youth Week at Palacios More than 300 students attended Youth Week, held at the Palacios by the Sea Baptist Encampment in Palacios. The new location—a change from the camp’s home of six years at Alto Frio Baptist Encampment in Leakey—allowed for many Houston-area churches to attend and helped double the camp’s attendance from last year. During Youth Week, students heard a clear gospel message and the call to live a life that honors the Lord, said Jesse Contreras, SBTC language
ministries associate. Contreras said many of the students who came to this year’s camp struggled with weighty burdens and strongholds and found a respite in being at the camp, away from their everyday environments. “Some of the students came to our camp struggling with suicidal tendencies, broken homes, violence, divorce, pornography, peer pressure and lack of purpose,” Contreras said. “Some of these students were able to receive prayer, encouragement and face-to-face time, but, overall, instruction from God’s Word concerning the issues they were struggling with.” This year 25 students accepted Christ as savior, 15 rededicated their lives to Christ, one accepted a call to ministry, seven spoke with counselors about assurance of salvation and five made other decisions. Contreras said Youth Week plays a vital role in the spiritual lives of the teenagers who attend, providing them a distraction-free environment in which they can seriously contemplate what it looks like to follow Christ wholly. “I think that camps are a milestone to many of our students’ lives,” Contreras said. “Decisions to follow Christ for the rest of their lives are made at these camps, and many have sensed a calling of God on their lives to serve him in various ministries. We hope that the students will realize that they are not invincible but that they are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator.” To find more information about attending an M3 camp or Youth Week camp in 2014, contact Wagoner or Contreras at the SBTC office, 817-552-2500, or watch for camp registration announcements at sbtexas.com later this year.
Done properly, student camps can be ‘fertile soil’ for Spirit’s work, experts say
W
By Sharayah Colter
hile some student summer camps have succumbed to the same crowddrawing antics and concert-esque worship “shows” that have seeped into an unfortunate number of student ministries, others have reoriented toward a more spiritually serious, though not stale and not without fun, approach. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention has two camps that offer a missions and Richard Ross evangelism-centered structure at an affordable cost in its M3 and Youth Week camps. Through camps such as these, the aim is for students to leave for home more primed in their devotion to follow Christ and their duty to share him with others than when they arrived. Richard Ross, professor of student ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS), former youth pastor and co-founder of True Love Waits, says the church camp model offers opportunities for evangelism and discipleship that may not come as easily at home. “Teenage believers are not perfect at camp but they do reflect a very different way of being in the world than what most lost teenagers live in daily,” Ross said. “Immersing lost teenagers in a uniquely Christian environment is pre-evangelism. Doing life with people who have joy and purpose opens the eyes of teenagers to something missing in their lives. This is fertile soil for the gospel. “Camp is valuable for believers as well. Living in a broken culture gets their compasses out of whack. Biblically sound preaching, relaxed Bible studies, passionate worship and fellowship with the redeemed all serve to help them find True North again.” Ross also urged that amid a trend of funny and emotional story-sermons, ministers should be careful to find a camp for their students that will focus on the truth in the Bible, not on eliciting a laugh or tear. Only
truth from God’s Word will change lives, he explained. Guy Cagle, worship pastor at Park Place Baptist Church in Houston, said that his students while at camp are in a completely different environment from what they have at home. For some students, Cagle said, camp might be the first place they’ve had three meals in one day in a long time. Once the distractions and struggles of the often-difficult home life can be put to the back of a student’s mind, they are far more receptive to hearing the gospel message, he said. “It takes my kids a good 32 to Johnny Derouen 36 hours just to decompress from their environment to where the Word of God can actually soak in,” Cagle said. “I tell my leaders, ‘You’ve got 24 hours for the next five days that you’re totally with these kids.’ It gives us a time to do one-on-one ministry with our kids.” “The biggest importance of the camps is it’s a safe place for our teenagers to come and get away from the everydayness of their lives and to find security in knowing that Christ would love them and does love them more than any person or anything that they have ever experienced or will ever experience.” Ross agreed and said it seems retreating away from a hectic world is often the very thing needed to allow students to quiet their spirits enough to hear from the Lord. “Increasingly, camp means a condo on the beach or a premier resort in the mountains,” Ross said. “The upscale environment may help a bit with motivating certain teenagers to go, but I wonder if we are losing the opportunity for a teenager to retreat from the world for a season. Cable channels on the condo TV and the Budweiser concert series down on the beach may not be the very best place for a teenager to catch that nudge from the Spirit to move in new directions.” Still, camp generally does not equate to a surge in spiritual growth, said Johnny Derouen, camp speaker and associate professor of student ministry at SWBTS. While camp can serve as a catalyst for growth, the growth itself JULY 24, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 11
comes when decisions made at camp remain a priority to both students and their pastors at home. “I don’t think that there’s real spiritual growth that occurs at these camps, because the camps are just too short,” Derouen said of the student camp genre that dates back to about the 1930s. “The major spiritual dynamic to me is this: At camp, God usually leads students to make major decisions. “The crucial part of camp is that after camp it’s vital for pastors to follow up on those decisions. Camps open the door for spiritual growth if we are wise enough to have a plan of action for how they can seek God on their own.” Derouen recalled a 1997 camp at Alto Frio where God allowed what began at camp to continue at home. He said one day a group of seniors
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came to his cabin and asked for the names of everyone at the camp, though they did not tell him why they needed them. At the end of the camp, he found out 40 seniors had taken the names and prayed for each one of the 471 people for three hours each afternoon. During one of the evening services, as Shane and Shane led worship before the sermon, students began to leave their chairs and file down the aisles saying they wanted to receive Christ. Speaker Gregg Matte, now pastor of Houston’s First Baptist Church, saw what the Lord was doing, Derouen recalled, and told the camp, ‘I don’t know what’s happening, but God is moving.” Derouen said students began calling home to reconcile with parents, seeking out friends to mend relationships and becoming broken
over sin. When the seniors saw how the Lord moved after their concerted prayer efforts, they began to wonder what would happen if they prayed with the same intensity for their churches, Sunday school classes and communities at home. That, Derouen said, is how the Lord takes something from camp and uses it for long term growth in students’ lives. In appraising the value of camp to the local church body, Ross said he would encourage pastors to make camp week a tool for spiritual growth and maturation in their students. “Senior pastors who go to camp with their students experience far deeper relationships with them the rest of the year,” Ross said. “I know of nothing that creates as deep a bond.”
sbtexas.com/am13
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Eagle Pass relief wrapping up after month deployment By Jane Rodgers EAGLE PASS
SBTC Disaster Relief efforts to aid victims of flooding from the June 14-15 storms that dropped 17 inches of rain upon Eagle Pass and Maverick County in 36 hours are wrapping up. SBTC DR volunteers were deployed to the area immediately following the disaster and have been working cooperatively with other relief groups, including the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. SBTC personnel have served alongside volunteers from the Texas Baptist Men and Baptist teams from Arkansas and Mississippi, said Scottie Stice, the SBTC’s initial DR coordinator or “white hat” in Eagle Pass. At first, SBTC volunteers teamed with the Red Cross and Salvation Army to feed the community, serving 3,000 meals a day, Stice said. By late July, volunteers had helped prepare and serve more than 17,000 meals, said Jim Richardson, SBTC Disaster Relief director. Other DR efforts involved what are termed “mudout” operations as volunteers cleaned out sodden homes, removing furniture and sheetrock and treating affected areas with a chemical to prevent the growth of black mold, bacteria and viruses. The workload has been heavy, Stice said, with more than 300 homeowners requesting help. Nearly 250 of these were completed by July 15. SBTC DR workers have been housed in Eagle Pass at Primera Iglesia Bautista, Iglesia Bautista Peniel and First Baptist Church, and at First Baptist Church of Quemado, Stice said. Four white hats in addition to Stice were used during the month-long deployment. Relief efforts into Mexico have been ongoing as well, Stice said. The city of Piedras Negras also suffered severe flooding. Baptist DR workers from Mexico have deployed feeding and clean-up units from the relatively new Brigada Esperanza. “This is the first real chance they [Mexican Baptist groups affiliated with regional conventions or convenciones regionales] have had to deploy the 14 TEXANONLINE.NET juLY 24, 2013
The young man in the center of the photo has just accepted Christ. He is pictured holding a Bible given to him by SBTC DR volunteers. His grandmother (second from left) and translators who accompanied DR volunteers, are also pictured along with Ann Barber (yellow shirt). SBTC DR chaplain Wayne Barber (sitting) with wife Ann, shares Scripture with young men in Eagle Pass.
Brigada Esperanza,” said Stice, who noted that the Brigada served some 1,500 meals per day. A grant from Baptist Global Response enabled the Mexican feeding unit to continue operations after the first week, Stice said. Some 180 professions of faith have been reported among Mexican flood victims, noted Stice, who commented that the new believers were being incorporated into church plants in Mexico. Spiritual activity has been apparent north of the border as well, with 65 professions of faith from flood ministry, Richardson said.
Satan in the backyard, Jesus in the front Disaster relief chaplain sees God move in Eagle Pass By Jane Rodgers EAGLE PASS
Wayne Barber, who spent two weeks serving in the Eagle Pass area as a disaster relief chaplain following flooding from 17 inches of rain June 14-15, said spiritual conversations come with the work. “We would assess damaged homes and ask the residents, ‘If the Lord had called you home, where would you have spent eternity?’” Sometimes the answers were surprising, such as that of an elderly woman who responded, “In hell.” “Why do you want to spend eternity in hell?” asked Barber through an interpreter. “Because I am mean and hateful and I don’t read the Bible,” replied the woman, who went on to recount a life of tragedy, poverty, strained relationships and bitterness. Within two hours, the woman had trusted Christ as her savior and vowed to call both her son and another relative from whom she had been estranged to tell them she loved them. “We returned the next morning and here she came. Boy, she was smiling. She gave us a big old hug,” said Barber, a member of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Jasper. The woman had phoned her relatives and shared her love for them. They had responded to her outreach as she had responded to the good news of Jesus. A middle-aged mother of two embraced the gospel after Barber witnessed to her teenage children, who also trusted Christ. “I was saved when I was a little bitty girl, but I have done a lot of bad stuff,” he recounted the mother saying. “We shared Scripture with her,” Barber said. “We asked, ‘Do you believe the Bible? Do you believe God’s Word?’ She realized she had never been saved. She prayed with us and accepted Jesus.” In fact, during that first week, Barber said he saw 62 people come to faith in Christ. The second week, after Ann Barber joined her husband in Eagle Pass, the
couple saw several more trust Christ. Barber credits two volunteer Spanish language interpreters, Eagle Pass natives Luisa Trevino and Mary Ann Glammeyer, with making the work of evangelism possible. “These two young ladies were on fire for the Lord; they knew every street and even knew most of the people we encountered,” said Barber of the interpreters. “We wouldn’t have been any good at all without them.” Even apparent misdirections proved to be divine appointments. One morning Luisa Trevino directed Barber to turn into a subdivision by mistake. Trevino immediately apologized for bringing Barber to the “wrong place.” “God sent us here for a reason,” Barber replied. Barber and Trevino had been to the street earlier in the week. They used the opportunity to follow up with residents of a home they had previously visited. Twelve relatives were helping the owner clean up. “We talked to them awhile and I asked the same questions,” Barber recalled. “Nine of the 12 prayed to accept Christ. Three were already saved.” There was no “wrong place.” Another morning Barber and an interpreter drove down a gravel road to assess damage to a doublewide trailer. The trailer had an addition on the back that was leaking, but when Barber walked back to the addition he got an unpleasant surprise. “I ran right up on a rattlesnake,” Barber said. “It was swallowing a bird, so he could not bite me. I took some pictures and chopped its head off.” Meanwhile, in the front yard, the woman who owned the home and her sister who was visiting prayed to receive Christ. “I now know why I’ve come to spend the night here,” said the sister. “So I could get Jesus in my heart.” “As I told everybody, we found Satan [the serpent] in the backyard and Jesus in the front yard!” said Barber of that memorable day. “God just blessed in such an awesome way. It is beyond human comprehension what he did down there,” Barber said. JULY 24, 2013 TEXANONLINE.NET 15
Former Texans plant church in Mass. laying foundation through Bible study and outreach
By Stephanie Heading STONEHAM, Mass.
“Over the past year I have observed that many people here have never met someone that genuinely follows Jesus. People need to see what it looks like to love Jesus while at work, raising children and navigating life’s challenges,” said Steve Brown, a church planter in Stoneham, Mass. Since July 2012, Steve Brown and his wife Merri have been quietly laboring to plant Wellspring Church and share the gospel in the town 10 miles north of downtown Boston. The work is challenging as the Browns face the prevailing culture of New England. “It is standing for the truth among the very religious and the very liberal and sharing the truth in a loving way and not getting discouraged when people disagree.” The culture shifted slightly following the Boston Marathon bombing in April, opening new opportunities to engage people. “When a tragedy like this occurs it causes everyone to ask those hard questions about good and evil in our world,” Brown said. “This has resulted in many people being open to talk and discuss their viewpoints. It has provided us a great opportunity to share a Christian worldview and what it looks like to have hope in Jesus.” But even though the bombings have opened some doors to witness, it has also stirred up an intense focus on human strength, unity and perseverance instead of a reliance on God. “You have likely heard the phrase, ‘Boston Strong.’ Our prayer is for people to realize that true healing and strength can only be found in Jesus.” Sharing the hope of Jesus motivated the Browns to uproot their lives, leaving Grand Prairie to plant Wellspring Church. Through NAMB and the Baptist 16 TEXANONLINE.NET juLY 24, 2013
VIEW FROM ABOVE: Church Convention of New planter Steve Brown and his England, Brown serves son Nathan stand on a hillside as a bi-vocational church overlooking the Boston skyline planter in the traditionally with their dog, Gracie. Transplanted from Texas, the Brown Catholic area. He works family is making new conneca 30-hour job each week tions through Bible studies and and then spends the community outreach. remainder of his time making connections in the community and developing evangelistic outreach efforts as he works to build a foundation for the church with the hope of beginning services in the spring of 2014. The foundation is being laid with two Bible studies. One Bible study meets in Brown’s home. “These are the people immediately around us,” Brown said. “One couple lives on the third floor of our building; another my wife met at the library’s kids’ craft day and another was a contact from one of our first community outreach events.” A second Bible study includes Brown’s co-workers and meets at a coffee shop down the street from his place of employment. “As I got to know people at work, I asked God to help me guide our conversations into spiritual matters. After four to five months, I began asking if anyone was interested in meeting for Bible study,” Brown recalled. “The first time we made arrangements to meet, nobody came. In praying about it, I felt the burden to persevere and the second time, two guys showed up.” In addition to Bible studies, the Browns are busy looking for outreach opportunities in the community. “God blessed us with an opportunity through a relationship with a local pizza shop owner. I met him on one of my trips to Stoneham about four months before we moved. Our family became regulars at his
“As I got to know people at work, I asked God to help me guide our conversations into spiritual matters. After four to five months, I began asking if anyone was interested in meeting for Bible study. The first time we made arrangements to meet, nobody came. In praying about it, I felt the burden to persevere and the second time, two guys showed up.”
shop and got to know him fairly well.” The Browns shared their calling with the shop owner and he offered his business for anything related to the ministry. Out of this, a periodic “Family Night” outreach was born. “All of the families in our home Bible study have participated in at least one of our Family Night events.” As the foundation building for Wellspring church continues, the Browns welcome help from churches and individuals to further their ministry. As part of the NAMB Send North America initiative, the Browns benefit from giving through the Cooperative Program. “The CP funds a portion of our family budget, covered ministry expenses for our first Family Night, provides evangelism resources and sponsors family support fellowships within the church planting network,” Brown explained. Another way to be involved in Brown’s ministry is to sign up to follow his blog at john414journey.com. “The blog is a great tool to make our ministry a part of your Sunday School, small group or family prayer time.” Volunteers can also move to Stoneham and join the work, Brown said. “I’m not talking about leading a church plant but moving to live, work and worship in a community as part of a church plant. Consider this, if you have attended a Bible-teaching church and have been committed to a Sunday School class or small group for several years, you have been exposed to more discipleship than most people in areas where church planting is taking place,” Brown said. Although the work is hard, Brown seems focused and confident. “It is having the faith to know that out of this culture that is so far removed from God, he will raise up his church. He alone has the power to take people from it, transform their lives and equip them to carry out the work of his kingdom.”
Catch the Vision Tour Church leaders interested in possibly partnering with church plants in Boston may be part of a “Catch the Vision Tour” of the Boston area. The tour will be Sept. 17-18. Over those two days, church leaders will meet with church planters and learn about the ministry opportunities available in the Boston area. If you are interested in the next “Catch the Vision Tour,” contact Curtis Cook at ccook@namb.net or Barry Calhoun, SBTC Missional Ministries team leader, at bcalhoun@sbtexas.com. ...
Contact information for Boston church plants If you are interested in ministry in the Boston area, here is direct contact information: 4Curtis Cook, pastor of Hope Fellowship Church and Send coordinator: ccook@namb.net 4Barry Calhoun, SBTC, Missional Ministries team leader: bcalhoun@sbtexas.com 4TrueVine Church in Revere, Mass.: truevinechurch.org 4Wellspring Church in Stoneham, Mass.: wellspringstoneham.com 4Redemption Fellowship in Fall River, Mass.: redemptionfallriver.com
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Book chronicles courtship, tragedy and perseverance for Moses family Missionary couple met at Southwestern, raised family in Philippines and experienced cancer together before she succumbed to it. After a furlough, he’s headed back to the field. By Merri Brown GRAND PRAIRIE
ntrigued by the curly-haired girl who couldn’t stop smiling and jumping around like Tigger in “Winnie the Pooh,” Mark Moses recalled the first time he met his future wife Jan and heard her share about her call to missions at a Sunday School class fellowship through his home church, Birchman Baptist in Fort Worth. Both were attending Southwestern Seminary in the spring of 1983. Moses, a Texas native with a degree from Texas Christian University, and Jan, a Virginia native and a graduate of the University of Virginia, shared a common desire to serve the Lord through missions. At age 11 Mark’s elementary school paper revealed how early his thoughts turned toward missions as he wrote of his desire to be a missionary when he grew up. He spent a year as a missionary volunteer on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao after his first year of seminary, which only confirmed his calling. God gave Jan a vision for overseas ministry while working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in central Georgia following graduation from college as she gave tours to the visiting public, many of whom were internationals. With missions the topic of conversation and the godly character they observed in each other, Mark and Jan began to sense God’s ability to use them together to more effectively serve him. On Jan’s birthday, Dec. 31, 1983, the two were married and 18 TEXANONLINE.NET juLY 24, 2013
Mark Moses will return to the Philippines in the fall as his children continue working or pursuing studies in the U.S. Pictured (left to right) are David, Hannah, Jonathan, Sara and Martha. PHOTO by Charlene Ensley
then appointed the following May as Southern Baptist missionaries, moving with 8-month-old son David to the Philippines. “Jan and I didn’t answer God’s call to missions reluctantly. We didn’t feel forced into it. We never felt it was a sacrifice. We became missionaries for the joy set before us—the joy of being on the front line of missions and partnering with God himself in redeeming a lost world,” Mark wrote. During their first four terms the couple served in Roxas City and Iloilo on the Philippine island of Panay, and Sara, Hannah, Martha and Jonathan were added to their family. Despite the heat and humidity, the noisy and crowded streets and the inconvenience of losing electricity, the Moses family was excited to serve where God was at work. An understanding of God’s sovereignty gave them peace raising their family in the Philippines and facing the uncertainties that life brings. In March 2004 life for the Moses family changed abruptly with the news that a suspicious looking mole removed from Jan’s arm was malignant melanoma. Jan knew this was no surprise to God, Mark recalled, and God’s Word gave her a sense of calm as she clung to verses like Psalm 31:15: “My times are in your hands.”
While Jan traveled to Houston where she underwent tests, scans and surgery, the challenges faced by the Moses family intensified. A CT scan revealed a large tumor on Mark’s left kidney and he, too, was diagnosed with cancer. Because the tumor would need to be surgically removed in the States the rest of the Moses family in one week’s time had to pack, say goodbye to friends and leave their ministry in the Philippines not knowing when or if they would return. As Mark and Jan recovered from surgery, each faced the reality that their cancer could return. In late October, after Mark and Jan’s scans revealed no evidence of cancer, the family was excited to receive the news that they were cleared to return to the Philippines. By December of 2004 the family was together again settling into their ministry in Iloilo. Mark continued work on a project he began in December 2001 developing simple and reproducible discipleship and evangelism training materials in the local Ilonggo dialect. The day after this project was completed in May 2005, Mark and Jan received the news from a recent CT scan that Jan’s cancer had returned. Over the next 18 months, upon their return to the U.S., Jan’s health reflected moments of improvement and decline until she died on Feb. 8, 2007. In the eulogy Mark gave at Jan’s memorial service, he said, “It didn’t take me long to realize that she could’ve been almost anything … but she chose to answer God’s call to be a missionary.”
In the years that followed, Mark returned as a church planter in the Philippines from March 2008 to August 2012 with Hannah, Martha and Jonathan while the other two children completed college. Currently on furlough in Grand Prairie, Mark is surrounded by all five children. David works as a computer programmer at Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth. Sara designs Niemen Marcus catalogs. In the fall, Hannah will begin a master’s program in public history at James Madison University in Virginia after working in the operations department at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. Martha begins her third year of nursing school at Liberty University with a plan to pursue medical missions upon graduation. Jonathan, also with an interest in computers, will begin his first semester at Dallas County Community College. And in September, Mark will return to the Philippines in a new capacity as an empty nester. Mark Moses thoughtfully shares the story of his family’s journey of facing cancer as they entrusted their lives to God in his book “An Uncommon Faith.” Jan’s heart is revealed in the book through her journal entries, prayer updates and even the words she wrote to each child talking through the stages of the grieving process from a biblical perspective. Not only does Moses’ book serve as a loving tribute to the life of Jan Moses but it also serves as encouragement to those facing cancer or the loss of a loved one and those desiring to serve God in missions, and also an inspiration for mothers who wish to raise children who love the Lord.
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