
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-03/06/2007

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Dred Scott case offers hope for opponents <br>of Roe v. Wade, Scott's descendant says
by Allen Palmeri
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

ST. LOUIS (BP)--The great-great granddaughter of Dred Scott is using her heritage to proclaim the rights of unborn babies to be counted as full individuals, with some pro-life advocates hopeful that just as the Dred Scott decision was overturned, Roe v. Wade may eventually face a similar fate.

On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the landmark Dred Scott decision, ruling that the drafters of the Constitution had viewed all blacks as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

Scott, a black man, fought for his freedom after his master’s death, arguing that since he had lived with his master in a free territory he had become legally free and could not revert to the status of a slave. After much legal wrangling, the court ruled in Dred Scott v. Sanford that as a person of African descent, Scott could never be a U.S. citizen and thereby lacked the capacity to file a lawsuit.

The decision, which helped spur the Civil War, was overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution as blacks won the right to be counted as citizens and to benefit from the American judicial system. 

Some opponents of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on abortion have referred to the Dred Scott decision in their hopes of gaining full rights for unborn children and having Roe overturned. Both decisions counted an entire class of people as property and popular opinion supported both decisions.

Scott’s descendant, Lynne Jackson, is among those who believe Roe v. Wade was wrong.

“I know children, when they just hear that little babies are being killed before they’re born, who say, ‘That’s not right. Did you want to kill me?’” Jackson, a member of the St. Louis-area Cross Keys Baptist Church in Florissant, Mo., said in an interview with The Pathway, newsjournal of the Missouri Baptist Convention. “The sensibilities and just the pure innocence of children alone know that this is wrong.

“Have you ever seen a baby aborted in the womb? Well, I have,” she added, describing what she viewed: “You see this beautiful form of a darling baby just floating around, doing well, and then you see the introduction of these pincers that go in and the baby starts to flinch and move back and forth, as if to get away from this thing that’s poking and prodding at them. Then it becomes pretty violent.

“After that, you begin to see the baby’s form become less specific. It begins to degrade,” Jackson continued. “Eventually, you really can’t see the arms and legs anymore, of course, because it’s being pulled apart in that particular procedure. So now you’re just looking at stuff floating, where a minute ago you were looking at a baby. And it is a baby, and life does begin at conception.”

As Jackson marks the 150th anniversary of the Dred Scott decision, she hopes that what her great-great grandfather helped accomplish for the African American race pro-life leaders can help secure for unborn babies -- the right to be counted as full and valuable human beings.

Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, noted in a statement to Baptist Press, “On this 150th anniversary of the Dred Scott decision, the pro-life forces in America would do well to remember and draw inspiration from the fact that at the time the decision was handed down, it appeared that the pro-slavery forces in America were impregnable. With a clear majority of the Supreme Court on their side, the pro-slavery forces were poised to force every state in the union to accept slavery, as Lincoln so aptly pointed out in his Cooper Union speech in New York City, the speech that did much to elect him president of the United States.

Yet, Land noted, “&#91;T&#93;he pro-freedom forces were utterly triumphant less than a decade later. This should remind us, as does the story of William Wilberforce and his triumphant struggle against the powerful planter class to end the slave trade in the British Empire in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, that with God on your side, all things are possible. Pro-lifers, take heart. When God is on your side, you are always more powerful than you appear, and your opponents, who are not on God’s side, are always less powerful than they appear.”

Jackson and her husband, Brian, are president and vice president of a ministry called the Prophecy and Apologetics Research and Resource Center, which they use to declare Christianity “as the most theologically sound, philosophically justified, scientifically verified and most easily perceived, accepted and understood of all beliefs.”

Also, Jackson has recently established the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation with a goal of commissioning a life-sized statue of her great-great grandfather to promote racial reconciliation.

“The human race is of one blood,” she said. “You can’t pick off a couple of races here and there and decide that they’re not.”
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Enterprise begins funerals for 8 high school students
by Staff
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

ENTERPRISE, Ala. (BP)--At least four of the eight students killed by a tornado at Enterprise High School had ties to Southern Baptist churches, and those churches hosted funerals packed with mourners March 5 and 6 as disaster relief volunteers continued to minister in the storm-ravaged southeast Alabama community.

On Monday, Lance Hogan, pastor of First Baptist Church in Enterprise, led the funeral for 16-year-old Michelle Wilson. He quoted teachers who described her as an eager and appreciative student, the Associated Press reported, and he recalled her joyful smile.

“Everybody’s pretty much at that point of shock right now,” Hogan told The Alabama Baptist newsjournal. “We are embracing those who are grieving with a lot of the love of Christ. The community is leaning on each other. Our arms are linked together holding each other up.”

Mourners gathered at Open Door Baptist Church in Enterprise Tuesday morning to remember Mike Tompkins, 17, who had a heart for missions.

“He had been a real association-minded person, somebody who wanted to be involved in mission trips and other things,” John Granger, director of missions for the Coffee Baptist Association, said. “I probably was more familiar with him than any other &#91;student who died&#93; just because he had been on mission trips with us.”

Tompkins had participated in some Mobile-area trips the past couple of summers as Baptist volunteers led Bible clubs and sports camps.

“He was somebody who respected other people,” Granger said of Tompkins. “He was a very friendly person and everybody knew he was reaching out. Our mission trips sometimes have a little fun attached to them but also are things where we just go and share our faith and do ministry kinds of stuff. He wanted to do that and was very much involved.”

Tompkins’ father, Bill, was preparing to enter Iraq with the military when he learned his son had died. He left Kuwait immediately and returned home to be with his family. Five of the eight students have ties to Fort Rucker, a U.S. Army post which borders Enterprise.

Also on Tuesday, a joint funeral was held at Hillcrest Baptist Church for A.J. Jackson, 16, and his best friend, Ryan Mohler, 17. Jackson was the grandson of Joel Jackson, former director of missions for the Coffee Baptist Association.

Jackson reportedly saved a classmate’s life by holding up a concrete slab so that it wouldn’t fall on her and she could escape. He was found dead beneath that slab.

A funeral for Katie Strunk was held Monday at College Avenue Church of Christ in Enterprise, where her associate youth minister recounted a story from a recent winter retreat. The youth were scheduled to get up for team-building exercises at 8 a.m., Brendan Chaney said, but Katie got up at 4:30 to get a head start.

“She just got to heaven a little early also,” Chaney said at the funeral.

With more than 1,000 people packing the church for Strunk’s funeral, pastor Keith Ellis said the gathering was a testimony of her life’s purpose.

“How can a 16-year-old affect so many lives?” Ellis said, according to AP. “I believe it was her mission given by God.”

A crowd of 750 friends and family remembered Michael Bowen at a chapel at Fort Rucker on Monday, hearing that he attempted to save Strunk and was found with his arms around her beneath the rubble in the hallway of the school. 

“Michael was a big guy with an even bigger heart,” Francisco Paulino, a student who survived the hallway destruction, told AP. “Even to the end he stuck to his values.”

Bowen, whose stepfather is based at Fort Rucker, attended Our Lady of Loretto Parish on base, AP said.

Funeral services for two other students, Peter Dunn and Jamie Vidensek, were pending.

Tommy Puckett, Alabama’s disaster relief coordinator, told The Alabama Baptist March 6 that a feeding unit and childcare unit have been activated for Enterprise starting Wednesday, and crews there are transitioning from cleanup and chainsaw work to repairing and rebuilding.

“The Enterprise area demonstrated community in helping one another just as good or better as anyone I’ve ever seen,” Puckett said. “They’re going to need some repairs on people’s houses. The key is going to be the availability of materials and who’s going to pay for them.”

A meeting of Baptist officials in nearby New Brockton was scheduled for Tuesday night in order to assess needs and develop disaster relief plans, Puckett said. Volunteers were setting up a headquarters at Westview Baptist Church in Enterprise.
--30--
Compiled by Erin Roach with reporting by Grace Thornton of The Alabama Baptist.


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Chinese by birth, Thai by culture; Laotians are his passion
by Mickey Noah
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

<i>EDITORS’ NOTE: March 4-11 marks the 2007 Week of Prayer for North American missions. This is the second of eight stories in Baptist Press featuring North American Mission Board missionaries and their ministries supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.</i>


KANSAS CITY, Mo. (BP)--”The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering makes the thing that is impossible among us ... possible.”

North American missionary Thira Siengsukon (pronounced See-eng-su-kone) -– Chinese by birth, Thai by culture and for whom English is a second language -– concisely voices just 14 words that reflect what the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering is all about.

The 57-year-old Siengsukon, director of the Lao School of Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., also is an Asian missionary strategist and church planter for the North American Mission Board and the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists.

Siengsukon and his wife Montira are among the 5,300-plus missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. He’s one of eight Southern Baptist missionaries highlighted as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 4-11. The 2007 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $57 million, 100 percent of which is used for missionaries like the Siengsukons.

Born in Bangkok as the son of non-Christian Chinese parents, Siengsukon was raised in the Thai culture, educated in Thai schools and taught the Buddhist religion of his ancestors.

“When I joined an American missionary’s youth program at a chapel near my house, I heard about Jesus and the Gospel for the first time,” Siengsukon recounted. “I compared Christian beliefs to the Buddhist beliefs taught to me as a child at my school and home. After three years, I surrendered to Christ, admitted I was a sinner and Christ gave me a brand new life in Him,” a spiritual milestone that took place at Bangkok’s Sacred Light Baptist Church on Oct. 29, 1967.

After graduating from Trinity College and Thailand Baptist Theological Seminary in Bangkok, the Siengsukons came to the United States so Thira could continue his seminary studies.

The couple soon developed a passion for planting churches and winning to Christ the estimated 169,000 Lao immigrants in America. Siengsukon has served five years as the church planter and pastor of New Life Baptist Church, a Lao congregation in Olathe, Kan. –- one of only 80 Lao churches in the entire Southern Baptist Convention.

Siengsukon intended to return to Thailand -- but God had other ideas.

“I couldn’t return to Thailand because I couldn’t find a Lao pastor to replace me. In the meantime, the Lord helped me see the struggles of most Lao congregations in the United States and the desperate need for biblical training for Lao pastors and church leaders,” Sienguson recounted.

“The Lord spoke to my heart, asking me, ‘Why can’t you train them?’”

In partnership with the North American Mission Board, the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Siengsukon founded the Lao School of Ministry in Kansas City, Mo., in 1988.

“My ministry equips Lao-culture pastors and church leaders, who are God-called, with a strong biblical education and practical training to serve the Lord and proclaim the Gospel to Laotian and other people in the U.S.,” Siengsukon said. “Our students are first-generation Christians who need basic biblical knowledge and background.”

It is difficult to reach Laotians in the United States, Siengsukon said, because although they can become Christians, they often have trouble letting go of their long-ingrained Buddhist-influenced culture and beliefs.

“This is a difficult challenge in ethnic ministries,” Siengsukon said. “Our pastors and leaders need to help their members put away their old ways and plant the church with deep roots in Christ and His Kingdom.”

Although Siengsukon’s school is headquartered at Midwestern Seminary, it’s difficult for most Laotian pastors to leave their congregations across the United States and travel to Missouri for training. Most of the pastors cannot afford the expense, and their congregations cannot afford to do without them for the period of time required for their studies.

So, instead of making the pastors and church leaders travel to them at the Kansas City seminary, Siengsukon takes the training to Lao pastors. Twelve satellite training centers have been established -– usually in existing churches -- in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Vancouver, Canada. A 13th center will serve four congregations in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio.

Currently, some 100 students are participating in the 30-credit-hour curriculum at one of the local centers. While Siengsukon makes the rounds to each site several weekends during the year, much of the coursework is done by correspondence and with local, qualified instructors who speak Lao. Students who complete the curriculum earn a diploma in Christian ministry.

Childhood sweethearts who’ve been married 31 years with two sons, Thira and Montira Siengsukon learned English early on. Thira recently earned his doctorate at Midwestern Seminary and Montira has a master’s degree in education, and they both teach as instructors at the Lao School of Ministry. 

They also write all of the school’s textbooks and course materials in Lao because English is a difficult second language to master for Laotian pastors, church leaders and members, Siengsukon said.

“I feel that God led me here and prepared me for this because of the educational background I have,” Siengsukon said, noting that he and Montira have worked with Laotians for 24 years. When he’s not traveling to teach, he’s counseling Lao pastors and grading their correspondence work. On Sundays, he’s usually preaching at one of the Lao churches.

Siengsukon’s greatest joy in his ministry is “seeing the Lao pastors and leaders, my students, succeed in their ministries and produce healthy, fruitful churches that, in turn, plant other healthy, fruitful Lao churches so that many Lao-American souls can come to faith in Christ and live for Him.

“There are many cultural differences between us and the Lao people, especially since Montira and I are Chinese by birth. However, we enjoy unity with the Lao people because of our oneness in Christ,” Siengsukon said.

He believes the impact of the Lao School of Ministry even crosses the borders of the United States and is felt all the way back to Laos itself, a country of 5.9 million people surrounded by Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, China and Myanmar (Burma).

“Every year, Lao-Americans go back to Laos to visit their parents, their people,” Siengsukon said. “Their relatives ask why they don’t practice their cultural traditions anymore. Then the testimonies start. They tell their people in Laos that they have become Christians because they now believe in Christ, and that Christ is changing their lives back in America. And they tell their relatives that ‘Christ can change your life over here, too.’”

In Laos, a communist country, preaching and teaching the Bible are not allowed in public, Siengsukon said. “But they can’t keep us from answering questions.”
--30--


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Trip to N. Orleans introduces Conn. students to faith in action
by Marilyn Stewart
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

NEW ORLEANS (BP)--Unconventional mission trips to New Orleans have helped a number of U.S. Coast Guard cadets and college students from Connecticut see that many of the folks helping with hurricane recovery work on the Gulf Coast are Christians as opposed to secularists.

“Our mission team was our mission trip,” said Randy Bond, director of the New London Collegiate Ministry in Connecticut who has taken four teams of Coast Guard cadets and students -– including non-Christians -- to his home state of Louisiana for volunteer work.

Social awareness is in vogue at Connecticut College and Mitchell College, Bond said. But after Hurricane Katrina struck, New London Collegiate Ministry was the only group making tangible plans to help Louisiana and Mississippi residents.

In Connecticut, apathy and even open hostility to Christianity is common on the campuses where Bond ministers, and just 1 percent -- 35,000 people -- of Connecticut’s population holds an evangelical faith.

“This is a Gospel-hardened place, and leading someone to Christ is a long, long process,” Bond said. “But taking these teams has been a catapult forward in that process. One team member made a commitment to Christ and several others are very close.”

For many of the students, seeing the response of Christian groups and individuals to the disaster was the first time they had witnessed believers living out their faith, Bond said.

“Where are the secular humanists?” one team member, a self-professed humanist, asked. Bond said the young man was bothered that a large percentage of volunteers in New Orleans were Christians rather than secularists.

The students have a small view of Christianity and perceive it to be inconsequential, Bond said, but the tremendous response of Christians to the disaster has shown them how large the Kingdom of God really is. At the end of the week, the humanist told Bond he was going to reconsider his worldview.

Austin Evers, a USC-2 missionary appointed by the North American Mission Board to work with New London Collegiate Ministry, said that as word of the mission trips has spread, the ministry has built a new rapport among those they’re trying to reach in Connecticut. Taking non-Christians as team members, Evers said, has built relationships and opened doors of opportunity for witnessing.

“This has changed their perception of Jesus and His followers,” Evers, of Harleton, Texas, said. “They no longer see us as isolationists trying to keep out the world.”

The teams worked with Edgewater Baptist Church, which was Bond’s home church during his student years at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Operation NOAH Rebuild, a two-year initiative of the North American Mission Board to rebuild homes in New Orleans, helped arrange accommodations for the groups’ trips.

Like bookends to their mission, the teams gutted the Edgewater facility in December 2005, and in December 2006 they gutted the last of the neighborhood homes the church had pledged to help. They also worshiped with the congregation in the renovated educational wing of the church.

“The students were impressed that a church that had lost so much was helping its neighbors,” Evers said. “They wanted to know why.”

At first, students were bothered by the magnitude of the destruction and asked why the hurricane happened. Bond said it became an opportunity to examine Scripture with them and talk about the effects of sin on mankind and on creation.

The question of why the hurricane happened became less an issue as students saw the outpouring of God’s love through Christian volunteers and the unwavering faith of the small remnant of members at Edgewater Baptist Church.

“Christians who had been through it all still testified that God is good,” Bond said. “It made an impression.”

Nearly 75 students participated in the four teams that traveled to New Orleans. The cadets, particularly, made a personal connection with New Orleans and with the men and women of the Coast Guard stationed there, Bond said.

Driven by a strong sense of compassion and duty, the cadets worked non-stop from sunrise to sunset, Bond said, often working until he forced them to stop.

“The cadets have a sobering understanding that they may one day have to lay their lives on the line for someone else,” Bond said. “They give it all to everything they do.”

Of the three campuses, the cadets have been the most responsive to New London Collegiate Ministry. But Bond and his staff have found the trips have earned them a new respect on the affluent and politically correct Connecticut College campus.

As many as 75 students meet in the Bond family home for worship services on Saturday nights, a sign of a growing work among an unreached people group in New England.
--30--
Marilyn Stewart is a correspondent for the communications team of the Louisiana Baptist Convention.


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Couple finds international missions at Louisiana port
by Marilyn Stewart
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

RESERVE, La. (BP)--Steve and Ann Corbin believe they have the gift of hospitality, which proves handy for entertaining strangers, especially when the strangers do not speak English.

As Mission Service Corps missionaries with Global Maritime Ministries at the port of Reserve, La., the Corbins open their doors weekly to seafarers who come from around the world, bringing the challenge of international missions to the couple’s doorstep.

“We didn’t really know anything about working with seamen,” Ann said, “but we knew God was leading us here.”

Global Maritime Ministries operates a center in New Orleans and one in Reserve. The centers are havens for the 300,000-plus individuals who come through the ports annually and who spend weeks to months at sea, away from family and beyond the reach of a traditional church ministry.

Churches, associations, individuals, the Louisiana Baptist Convention and the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention all partner to make a Gospel impact through the centers.

The window of opportunity for sharing the Gospel with the seamen in port may be only a day or so, but the Corbins have found that’s enough time for God to begin to work in a seafarer’s life.

The Corbins had just met a new crew in port when a Hindu known as Pat told them he was so unhappy and wanted to know the purpose of his life. Steve shared with him a copy of the booklet synopsis of Rick Warren’s “The Purpose-Driven Life,” which the Corbins’ home church, East Pickens Baptist Church in Pickens, S.C., had sent to them the week before.

Pat did not make a commitment to Christ that day, but Steve and Ann were encouraged to learn that one of Pat’s fellow crewmen, Thomas, was a former Hindu who first rejected Christianity but came to faith in Christ after reading a copy of Billy Graham’s “Steps to Peace with God” given to him by a California port chaplain.

Knowing that part of their mission is to plant seeds that other Christians will nurture, the Corbins now pray that God will use Thomas’ witness and the material they gave Pat to lead him to faith.

Taking on a fulltime volunteer position was not a decision the Corbins took lightly. Having surrendered to the ministry years before, Steve didn’t feel that the role of pastor was the right fit for him.

Their volunteer work with various church-sponsored community ministries through the years helped them find their niche in ministry, but their attention turned toward the Mission Service Corps when one day Ann asked Steve what he would do if money were no object.

“We changed the way we looked at things,” Steve said. “And we learned that you don’t get your money together first and then do what God calls you to do. When He calls, He provides.”

After completing a bivocational assignment with Mission Service Corps in Gunnison, Colo., the Corbins returned home to South Carolina. In March 2005, Steve trained for the South Carolina disaster relief team, just one month before a tornado touched down in Pickens and five months before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

Steve soon was called to New Orleans with the disaster relief team. Although Ann had not been trained in disaster relief, she was allowed to accompany a team with five trained members, leaving her with no more excuses for staying home.

At the time, the Corbins believed God was preparing them for a move, but the uncomfortable conditions following Katrina were not what Ann had in mind. They dreamed of having a coffeehouse ministry where their knack for helping others feel comfortable could be used to share the Gospel.

“Surely you don’t mean Louisiana, God,” Ann prayed. “I don’t do sweat and I don’t do bugs.”

The Mission Service Corps coordinator in New Orleans showed the Corbins different ministry opportunities in the area, but none seemed to fit. The final stop was the port center at Reserve.

“As soon as we walked in, we knew,” Ann said. “The former VFW hall had a big bar. Steve said, ‘Ann, this is our coffee bar.’”

When the Corbins joined port chaplains Philip Vandercook and Jared Walley in the work of Global Maritime Ministries in March 2006, they were concerned about language barriers and dealing with different people groups simultaneously. But they discovered that love transcends all barriers.

“Words can be misunderstood,” Steve said. “But what comes from the heart communicates what words never can.”

Their dog Kettle became an unexpected ambassador of sorts by helping the Corbins bridge the cultural gap. Their concern for how the seafarers would react to a dog proved unwarranted as Kettle turned out to be “a missionary who helps the men open up and feel at home.”

While many seafarers never return to the port at Reserve, others have regular shipping routes that bring them back. Steve and Ann’s friendly rapport with the crewmen prompted one Filipino cabin steward to call them “Aunt and Uncle.” And in times of crisis, the seamen turn to the port chaplain.

A young crewman who had been at sea and out of contact with home for more than a month arrived in Reserve to learn that his family was facing a serious legal crisis. With only a short time in port, the seaman appreciated Steve’s counsel and his long distance phone call to pray with the frightened wife.

The Corbins believe they arrived at a place of fulltime, faith-based service only by following God’s leading one step at a time.

“You can only take the step He gives you, and it always calls for trusting Him,” Steve said. “But when you can’t see the solution on paper, that’s when you see God work.”
--30--
Marilyn Stewart is a correspondent for the communications team of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. John L. Yeats, team leader, contributed to this report. To learn more about Global Maritime Ministries, go to www.PortMinistry.com; call 504-895-2028; or write to P.O. Box 750787, New Orleans, LA 70175.


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INTERNATIONAL DIGEST: Tortured Eritrean Christian dies in prison; Chavez orders four oil projects seized; ...
by Mark Kelly
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A 30-year-old Christian died in an Eritrean jail Feb. 15 after refusing to repudiate his faith in Jesus. Magos Solomon Semere was imprisoned in July 2002 when police raided a Protestant worship service in the country, which borders Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa.

Semere died “due to physical torture and persistent pneumonia, for which he was forbidden proper medical treatment,” a source told the Compass Direct news service. When he became ill, he reportedly was told he would receive medical treatment only if he signed a statement renouncing his faith. He refused, although three other inmates were released after signing similar statements. “Magos was determined to obey the Lord rather than men,” said one man who had been imprisoned with Semere.

Semere is the third Christian known to have died for his faith in Eritrea since last October. More than 2,000 Eritreans are imprisoned for practicing their faith. Semere was held at the Adi-Nefase Military Confinement facility just outside Assab.

CHAVEZ ORDERS FOUR OIL PROJECTS SEIZED -- Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has ordered state confiscation of four projects run by foreign oil companies in the country's Orinoco River region. Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, will assume at least a 60 percent stake in the projects.

On Feb. 26, Chavez announced during his weekday radio show, “Hello, President,” that the seizure will be completed by May 1, according to the Associated Press. He did not explain how the government would pay for its increased share of the $17 billion the foreign companies have invested in the projects.

The Orinoco projects, which are run by British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA, were the only oil operations in Venezuela still under private control. Private oil companies working in other areas of Venezuela submitted to state control in 2006. Though forced to accept minority stakes in their enterprises, the companies still want to maintain operations in Venezuela, which has the largest oil deposits outside the Middle East.

In recent days, Chavez also has nationalized Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and its electricity company.

WORLDWIDE ANGLICANS REFUSE GAY MARRIAGE, BISHOPS -- Leaders of 38 “provinces” of the Anglican Church voted Feb. 19 to require that the Episcopal Church in the United States ban marriage ceremonies for homosexual couples and not consecrate any more homosexual bishops.

A statement released at the end of a six-day meeting in Tanzania said ECUSA promises of a moratorium on homosexual unions and consecrations were too vague to repair “broken relationships” in the 77 million-member Anglican Church, according to a report in Christian Today, a London-based news organization.

Relationships among Anglicans worldwide began to deteriorate in 2003 when the ECUSA consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson. Matters worsened in 2006, when the ECUSA installed a new presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, who immediately gave her support to homosexual unions and clergy.

Traditionalists, led by African Archbishop Peter Akinola, have accepted leadership over conservative parishes in the United States that want to affiliate with church leaders who affirm the biblical teaching that homosexuality is a sin.

FOUR POLICEMEN MURDERED IN PRISON -- Four policemen were murdered Feb. 25 in a Guatemalan prison where they were being held in connection with the killings a week earlier of three representatives to the Central American Parliament in Guatemala City.

The four officers included Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the organized crime unit for Guatemala’s national police, and three of his officers, according to the Associated Press. They were expected to testify who ordered the murders of the parliamentarians.

The killers got through eight locked doors to reach the cell where they murdered the officers. Nearly two dozen prison guards were detained for questioning, and reports circulated that the killers may have been wearing guard uniforms. The killings raised questions about corruption and drug ties in Guatemala, which serves as a conduit for an estimated 75 percent of the cocaine that makes its way into America.

‘PEACE’ DELEGATES MEET IRAN’S PRESIDENT -- A delegation of American Christians met Iran’s hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Feb. 26 in Tehran, ostensibly in hopes of improving relations between the United States and Iran.

A Mennonite delegation met Ahmadinejad this past September when he was at the United Nations, according to the Associated Press. The group was led by Quakers and Mennonites and included Episcopal, Roman Catholic and United Methodist delegates, as well as representatives from the National Council of Churches, Pax Christi and Sojourners/Call to Renewal. 

The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying, “The Iranian nation does not hate or oppose the American people.” The comments came one day before a U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss the Dec. 23 resolution imposing economic sanctions on Iran for not halting uranium enrichment.

EGYPTIAN BLOGGER SENTENCED FOR ‘INSULT’ -- A former law student in Cairo has been sentenced to four years in prison for using his website to “insult” Islam and Egypt's president. Lawyers for Abdel Kareem Nabil said the sentence was being appealed.

Nabil, 22, who describes himself as a secular Muslim, was given three years in prison for insulting Islam and inciting sectarian strife and a fourth year for insulting President Hosni Mubarak, according to the Associated Press. He used his weblog to advocate secularism and criticize conservative Muslims, calling Al-Azhar University, Egypt's leading Islamic institute, “the university of terrorism.”

The conviction was condemned by human rights groups, but the Egyptian government defended the decision. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was quoted as saying, “No one, no matter who he might be, has the right to interfere with Egyptian legal matters or comment on Egypt's decisions.”

MERCY SHIP ANASTASIS CALLED 'VESSEL OF GOD' -- A hospital ship that provided free medical procedures and other ministries to thousands of Ghana’s citizens was praised Feb. 22 as a “vessel of God” by the country’s president, John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor. “I am convinced you are a vessel of God,” Kufuor said. “I’m praying that you will continue to do this work. Ghana is grateful for the work you have done.”

The Mercy Ship Anastasis provided surgeries, eye care and dental treatments during its ninth-month port of call, according to mercyships.org. The Anastasia’s crew also added a maternity ward to a clinic, built a youth health center in a slum and provided additional classroom space for a school. Teams also drilled water wells, trained public health instructors and helped poor women start small businesses.

Mercy Ships was founded in 1978 with the mission of bringing world-class medical and community services to developing nations. The ships’ crews are made up of volunteers who have performed more than 1.5 million free services with a value of $600 million.
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Hawkins envisions further GuideStone accomplishments
by Staff
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

DALLAS (BP)--Drawing from Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:21, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” GuideStone Financial Resources President O.S. Hawkins reviewed past achievements by the Southern Baptist entity during Feb. 26-27 trustee sessions in Dallas.

Beyond GuideStone’s successes, he noted, “We must constantly look for opportunities to advance our work in ways that enhance the financial security of our participants.”

GuideStone’s role is that of a servant, Hawkins said, noting that it was the good and faithful servant who received the master’s commendation.

“The good servant is one who does well, who serves with excellence,” Hawkins said. “The faithful servant is one who does right, who serves with integrity.

“Ten years ago we could have rested on our accomplishments, which were many,” Hawkins continued. “Instead, we sponsored the registration of GuideStone Funds, expanded our fund options, changed our name, offered institutional and personal investing choices and expanded our markets.

“We have been willing to take advantage of opportunities, follow our sense of calling and walk through the door of opportunity that God has provided.”

Citing examples of advancement that will enhance the financial security of GuideStone’s participants, Hawkins said, “We are increasing the income guidelines for our Adopt An Annuitant applicants to allow more retired ministers or their widows to qualify for financial assistance. We are also planning to double the benefits for those who have the greatest financial need.”

GuideStone also announced at the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee’s mid-February meeting that it was releasing the Cooperative Program allocation it has been receiving to be used in other Southern Baptist ministries.

“We are grateful for the assistance the Cooperative Program has provided in the past. Every cent of Cooperative Program money has been used to provide assistance to retired ministers or their widows,” Hawkins recounted to trustees. “The earnings on our endowment funds, along with the gifts of faithful churches and individuals, have made it possible for us to release our Cooperative Program allocation.”

Information concerning the Adopt An Annuitant ministry may be requested by calling GuideStone at 1-888-98-GUIDE (1-888-984-8433) or by e-mailing the Financial Assistance Department at adopt@GuideStone.org.

Hawkins also announced changes in GuideStone’s Mission Church Assistance Fund ministry that will allow more churches to qualify and increase the monthly contribution for pastors under the program that encourages new or small churches to work with GuideStone to make retirement contributions for their pastor.

Under current guidelines for the Mission Church Assistance Fund, the church’s budget cannot exceed $40,000 per year. The new guidelines will allow churches that have up to a $75,000 budget to qualify for assistance. GuideStone’s contribution for pastors will increase from $25 per month to $50 per month for a period of five years. The expectation is that at the end of the five years the church will be able to continue to fund the pastor’s retirement contribution from its budget.

Under this program, participants also receive, at no cost to the church or the participants, GuideStone’s Church Retirement Plan protection benefits, which include up to a $100,000 survivor benefit and a $500 per month disability benefit.

John R. Jones, GuideStone’s chief operating officer, updated trustees on GuideStone’s program areas (retirement, investments, insurance and financial assistance) and also the progress of long-range planning strategies.

“We have completed a year that added value to our participants’ accounts and provided discounts to many of our Personal Plan participants in life and health products,” Jones said.

“Retirement contributions and rollovers into our retirement plans grew by over 9 percent last year. Additionally, over 1,650 participants joined the 1 percent Club in 2006, committing to increase their retirement plan contributions by 1 percent per year,” Jones said.

Noting the success of GuideStone’s retirement investment funds, Jones reported that for the five years ending Dec. 31, 2006, nine of the 13 GuideStone Funds mutual funds (GS4 class) exceeded the median of their peer universe according to Lipper Inc., a Reuters Company that is nationally recognized for comparing the total return performance of mutual funds within a universe of funds having similar investment objectives.

Turning to GuideStone’s medical plans, Jones said many Personal Plan participants experienced the third year in a row of no medical inflation rate increase in their medical premiums.

“While medical inflation is running at about 8-10 percent per year, over 40 percent of our personal medical plan participants received a rate decrease in 2005, over 57 percent received a rate decrease in 2006 and over 40 percent received a rate decrease in January of this year &#91;for the same coverage&#93;,” Jones said. Overall insurance enrollment increased by 9.5 percent for the year.

Jones also reported on progress toward GuideStone 100, the strategic plan for guiding the organization’s work through its centennial year in 2018. In response to a motion made by Gary Smith of Arlington, Texas, at the 2006 Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Greensboro, N.C., GuideStone has begun studying the feasibility of making insurance and financial products available to members of Southern Baptist churches. Additional reports will be made to trustees during the ongoing study.

Another initiative under study as a part of GuideStone 100 is a feasibility study to offer property and casualty insurance.

“We believe we can offer a competitive property and casualty program that provides risk management programs for churches and ultimately reclaim dollars for ministry that have been lost to for-profit insurers,” Jones said. Additional information related to this study will be presented to trustees during their summer meeting.

The trustees’ relief committee approved applications for 13 two-year monthly grants and one for a one-time emergency grant. Twenty-three individuals were added to the financial assistance roll or upgraded in their benefit amount.

Trustees accepted the recommendation of their general officers nominating committee and elected Robert L. Sorrell of Tennessee as chairman for a one-year term and Timothy E. Head of South Carolina as vice chairman.

At the Monday evening dinner meeting, three trustees were honored for their years of service to the board: J. Lievers of Indiana; William T. Patterson of Mississippi; and Nathan H. Pillow of Arizona.
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GuideStone enhances Adopt An Annuitant ministry
by Staff
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

DALLAS (BP)--GuideStone Financial Resources has adopted new guidelines to allow more retirees to qualify for financial assistance through its Adopt An Annuitant ministry.

Effective immediately, single applicants with incomes up to $1,500 and married applicants with incomes up to $2,000 can be eligible for Adopt An Annuitant benefits, according to new guidelines approved by trustees.

In addition to enhancing the Adopt An Annuitant program, GuideStone also is releasing its Cooperative Program allocation to be used for other Southern Baptist ministries.

“We are excited to be able to amend the guidelines so that more individuals will qualify for assistance and that those who have served so faithfully will be eligible for increased benefits in the future,” GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said in his report to trustees during their during Feb. 26-27 meeting in Dallas.

In addition to the increased income guidelines, trustees also approved increased amounts for ministers or their widows who have extremely low incomes and more than 30 years of service. These benefits will begin Jan. 1, 2008.

“We are so grateful to be able to double the amount of assistance to these dear people who have long years of Southern Baptist service and income amounts below the national poverty levels,” Hawkins said. Currently, the Adopt An Annuitant ministry provides $200 in assistance to single annuitants and $265 to married recipients.

As part of its ministry assignment from the Southern Baptist Convention, GuideStone Financial Resources provides a channel through which individuals, churches and organizations can provide assistance to ministers and other church employees who, for whatever reasons, were not able to save for retirement.

“The Adopt An Annuitant program is the very heart of our ministry,” Hawkins said. “From the establishment of our organization in 1918, we have always remembered to care for these dear soldiers of the cross.”

Over the past 10 years, individuals, churches and organizations have given more than $50 million expressly for GuideStone’s Adopt An Annuitant ministry.

The Adopt An Annuitant ministry formally began in 1981. In the early years, recipients received $25 per month in financial assistance. The monthly assistance was raised to $50 in 1984 and then to $75 in 1998. In 2002 the relief program and the Adopt An Annuitant ministry were merged and the guidelines were amended to raise the monthly assistance to $200 for single recipients and $265 for married recipients.

Current guidelines require that financial assistance recipients must have at least 10 years of Southern Baptist service and have assets of less than $30,000 and income of less than $1,250 for a single recipient and less than $1,665 for a married recipient. Qualifying widows must have been married for 10 years to an individual who meets the guidelines.

GuideStone also announced at the mid-February meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee that it was releasing the Cooperative Program allocation it has been receiving to be used in other Southern Baptist ministries.

In his report to the Cooperative Program subcommittee, Hawkins said GuideStone has deeply appreciated the Cooperative Program allocation it has received through the years. Every cent of this allocation has been used to fund financial assistance for needy retired ministers, other denominational workers or their widows.

With earnings on endowment reserves and continued gifts from individuals and churches, GuideStone is able to release its Cooperative Program allocation of 0.76 percent, effective Sept. 30, 2007, to be used by the convention for other Southern Baptist ministries.

“We are pleased that our financial situation allows us to release these funds for other SBC ministries while at the same time we are able to enhance the benefits for our financial assistance recipients.” Hawkins said.
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FIRST-PERSON: Making evangelism good news again
by John Avant
Date: March 06, 2007 - Tuesday

ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)--I am in the process of reading one of the most exciting books I have read in a long time. The author does a fine job of describing the incredible impact that movements of God have had on our country. She shows her readers how the entire culture of a nation can be changed through a great spiritual awakening. And then she takes a look at what is happening in America right now –- particularly among young people who are beginning to reject the hopelessness of relativism and secularism. She boldly predicts that we are now on the edge of the next Great Awakening that will radically change every part of the life and culture of our country. 

Now that is all wonderful and hopeful, but isn't that just wishful thinking? Well it might shock you to know that the author, Lauren Sandler, is a committed atheist. In her book, “Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement,” Sandler describes the coming awakening with great passion but her goal is to stop it. She believes that this is the most critical challenge that atheists and secularists face today -- to defeat the growing movement among young people before it is too late.

Does it not strike you as incredible that atheists seem to be more interested in revival that Southern Baptists? And while many of us seem to have little hope that God might move in power again, atheists have faith! They believe it is coming and are organizing to stop it. All this is pretty weird but it is encouraging –- I think.

What are you willing to do to help prepare the way for a great movement of God in your community and country? Does it really matter to you what kind of place your children and grandchildren will grow up in? Do you still believe that God loves us desperately and wants to send revival? I believe that He does, but I do not believe He will send it to a people who simply will internalize it, take it into their comfortable sanctuaries, stroke it and embrace it like it belongs to them, and leave church happy that God moved so that they all feel better. That is not revival.

Revival causes us to follow Jesus, and Jesus is on a rescue mission to seek and save the lost. If you want to help prepare the way for the next great revival, simply begin to share your faith. If every Southern Baptist made one friend this year and led that friend to Christ and saw the person baptized, we would see the greatest evangelistic harvest in our history -– and that would happen even though we had a 97.5 percent failure rate. If 2.5 percent of Southern Baptists reach one person this year, we will change the state of this land –- for us and for our children and grandchildren. What about it? Do you believe God as much as an atheist?

God is on the move in the lives of His people, and I am starting to see real hope. He is raising up men like Woody Johnson, a great friend of mine, and Ted Sprague, another of God's best. Ted played golf recently with a man and shared the Gospel with him. The man didn't accept Christ, but Ted left him a tract. Then Woody and Ted played together shortly after that with a couple and shared Christ with them. As they finished they ran into the first man that Ted had witnessed to and he excitedly told them that he had read the tract and accepted Jesus. That got the other couple pretty intrigued, and Woody and Ted left them reading a tract with great interest. 

Don't you want to get in on a life like that? These stories are happening all the time, all over the place. They can happen to you, too. It is your heritage as a child of God. It is who you are meant to be as a follower of Christ. And when you choose to live this life, waking up every day on a mission trip, you will have more fulfillment, passion and just plain fun than you have ever imagined having. 

Thanks, Woody and Ted. You are great examples of how a golf game or any other activity of life can become an eternally significant event (no matter what you score).

Let's follow that example Southern Baptists, and make evangelism good news again. We might just help an atheist's prophecy come to pass.
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John Avant is vice president for evangelization at the Southern Baptist North
American Mission Board.



