
The original issue can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/issue-10/13/2005

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Despite voter approval, judge rules San Diego cross transfer unconstitutional; appeal coming
by Erin Curry
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

SAN DIEGO (BP)--A Superior Court judge has ruled that the transfer of a landmark war memorial to the federal government would be unconstitutional -- even after San Diego voters easily approved a proposition facilitating the transfer. Supporters of the monument, which incorporates a cross as its most prominent element, have vowed to continue the fight.

Judge Patricia Yim Cowett ruled that Proposition A, which passed with 76 percent of the vote in July, would be an unconstitutional aid to religion, repeating what city officials were first told by a federal judge in 1991, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Cowett, in her ruling Oct. 7, barred the transfer and said Proposition A and the ordinance the city council passed to place it on the ballot are invalid and unenforceable because of the constitutional violation, The Union-Tribune said.

The 29-foot-tall cross atop Mt. Soledad came under fire from a San Diego atheist and his ACLU-funded lawyer more than a decade ago. In 1989, atheist Philip Paulson filed suit against the city of San Diego, claiming that the presence of the cross on city property violated the California constitution’s provision on separation of church and state. The cross was erected in 1954.

The proposition, which would have made the monument a national war memorial, needed a two-thirds majority to pass and was a significant victory for cross supporters. It took federal action to make the July 26 vote possible.

In December President Bush signed into law a bill that allows the federal government to assume ownership of the property should San Diego choose to donate it. But in March the city council voted not to transfer the property to the government, and supporters of the cross -- both Christian and non-Christian -- stepped in with a petition drive. They gathered 73,000 valid signatures, more than twice what was required, requesting that the city council place the matter before voters.

The transfer is seen as a way to preserve the memorial after a judge ruled in 1991 that the cross on public land violated the California constitution. Two attempts by the city to sell the land to the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association were overturned in court.

Chris Clark, pastor of East Clairemont Baptist Church and a member of the group San Diegans for the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial, told Baptist Press that Charles LiMandri, an attorney with the Thomas More Law Center who has been involved in the case, is in the process of appealing Cowett’s decision.

“What he’s filing right now is a motion to vacate, which is a motion asking the judge to set aside her ruling because it is causing injury to particular parties,” Clark said Oct. 12. “He’s filing it on behalf of the San Diegans for the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial.

“So in all likelihood, she will deny that motion to vacate, at which point LiMandri will be able to appeal that denial of the motion to vacate to the 4th District Court of Appeals,” Clark said. “That’s a relatively conservative court, so we stand a good chance there.”

At the same time, Clark said, attorney James McElroy, who represented Paulson in the original and subsequent cases, is set to file a motion with the judge who made the 1991 ruling, asking him to enforce the decision.

“He’s trying to push it forward and get the cross taken down,” Clark said, adding that the judge is a federal judge, so if he presents an opinion, the case will most likely be appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

“And then ultimately it’s very likely, if we can get the appeals, this very well could wind up looking at the Supreme Court,” Clark said.

With the addition of John Roberts to the court as chief justice and the possible addition of the evangelical Harriet Miers in place of Sandra Day O’Conner, cross supporters stand a better chance of winning, observers say.

“We haven’t quit yet. We haven’t laid down our arms,” Clark said. “We haven’t given up. We’re going to continue to battle because there are just some things that are worth digging in and standing your ground.”
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American Girl bracelet sales benefiting pro-choice group
by Michael Foust
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--The popular American Girl doll and book series has entertained millions of young girls through the years, but could one of its products actually be benefiting an organization supportive of abortion rights and homosexual causes?

The budding controversy surrounds sales of the American Girl "I Can" bracelet, which was launched in September as a way of encouraging girls to "follow their dreams." But for each $1 bracelet sold, 70 cents benefits Girls Inc., an organization which is innocent on the surface but whose advocacy statement supports abortion rights, contraceptive access and assistance for girls exploring their "sexual orientation."

In addition to the proceeds netted from bracelet sales, American Girl Inc. -- a subsidiary of Mattel -- has pledged to donate $50,000 to Girls Inc.

The "I Can" bracelet features the famous American Girl red-colored star and also can be used as a ponytail holder, zipper pull and backpack charm, according to an American Girl press release.

Girls Inc. is a "nonprofit youth organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold," its website says. The "I Can" bracelets can be purchased online as well as at all Bath & Body Works stores and at the American Girl Place stores in Chicago and New York.

"Parents need to know that this effort to promote self-esteem among girls is not as innocent as it seems," Ann Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, said in a statement. "While Girls Inc. has some good programs, they also support abortion, oppose abstinence-only education for girls, and condone lesbianism."

The conservative American Family Association also has criticized the partnership.

A request seeking comment from American Girl Inc. was not returned.

The "I Can" bracelet comes with an "I Can promise," which states, "I can be myself, follow my dreams, and always do my best. I can reach for the stars, lend a hand to others, and be a good friend. I can make a difference! I promise to try." 

Girls Inc.'s website includes a "Bill of Rights" which states girls have the right "to accept and appreciate their bodies." According to Girls Inc., that right also includes abortion.

"We recognize the right of all women to choose whether, when, and under what circumstances to bear children," an advocacy statement on the Girls Inc. website states. "Reproductive freedom and responsibility are essential to other rights and opportunities, including pursuit of education, employment, financial security and a stable and fulfilling family life. Restrictions of reproductive choice are especially burdensome for young women and poor women. Girls Incorporated supports a woman’s freedom of choice, a constitutional right established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 in Roe vs. Wade."

The Girls Inc. advocacy statement, adopted in 2000, also vows to fight "homophobia."

"We recognize that any sizable group of girls includes those who face issues related to their sexual orientation or that of a family member and who face discrimination based on this sexual orientation," the statement reads. "Girls have a right to positive, supportive environments and linkages to community resources for dealing with issues of sexual orientation."

The statement says that abstinence should be the "first choice" but that girls should have "convenient access to safe, effective methods of contraception."

To Scheidler, however, "Parents associate American Girl dolls with wholesome American family values, yet Girls Inc. contradicts parents' most basic moral beliefs."

The partnership between American Girl and Girls Inc. was announced in August and launched Sept. 19.

“At American Girl, we want every girl to recognize that she is talented, unique, and full of amazing possibilities,” Ellen L. Brothers, president of American Girl Inc., said in a release “Through ‘I Can’, we hope girls will see that when they like themselves for who they are, there is no limit to what they can accomplish. And, because the program will benefit Girls Inc., we can reinforce that helping others achieve is also an important part of life.”

Said Joyce Roche, president and CEO of Girls Inc.: “We’re excited about the opportunity to align ourselves with American Girl. Our Girls Inc. Girls’ Bill of Rights states that girls ‘have the right to express themselves with originality and enthusiasm,’ and the ‘I Can’ program complements this right by encouraging girls to dream big, achieve their goals, and make a difference in the world.”

Conservative groups are urging concerned parents to contact Brothers, the American Girl president, by calling 1-800-845-0005, e-mailing ellen.brothers@americangirl.com or writing to Ellen L. Brothers, president, American Girl, 8400 Fairway Place, Middleton, Wis., 53562
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Volunteer’s query to Muslim family yields positive response
by Tammi Ledbetter
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

KENNER, La. (BP)--Charmaine Fenstermacher had just three Gospel tracts left to share with families lined up to receive food from Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers in Kenner, La.

“As a car pulled up, we’d say, ‘Hi, how are you? Do you want some lunch?’” Fenstermacher, of Southlake, Texas, recounted. When asked, “How are you doing?” some of the displaced Louisianans told how Hurricane Katrina had left them destitute and hungry.

“I had three tracts left and I was using them sparingly,” Fenstermacher said, as many of the evacuees had already heard the Gospel at some point in the post-Katrina disaster relief efforts. “Some of them wanted to talk and it was so nice to hear what they had to say,” though many of their stories began running together as they told of coping with the disaster.

When a black sedan rolled to the front of the line, Fenstermacher recognized the family to be of Middle Eastern descent. “The mother was wearing a beautiful, silk gown with gold threads. It was covering her arms as she reached out for food. She told me they had lost everything in the hurricane.”

Fenstermacher, a 53-year-old homemaker, is still amazed at the encounter God gave to her.

“I reached in and handed them lunch and we talked a little since there was a long line ahead of me. It surprised me the things I asked because I’m not normally so bold. ‘Do you know Jesus?’” she asked the man, his wife and their teenage son, uncertain of the response she would get.

“The husband spoke for the family and said, ‘We have been Muslim.’ I thought that was an odd way to put it -- it was not ‘we are Muslim.’” Recounting the man’s gratitude for the food and resources freely given to him and his neighbors in the days following the hurricane, she quoted him as saying, “‘Our own people did not help us.’”

As Fenstermacher offered a tract and a brief Gospel testimony, she heard the man respond: “You know, we have heard that from other people. Who is this Jesus?”

“I thought, ‘Is this really happening to me? I hope I can explain this,’” Fenstermacher recalled. “It was not me at all. The Holy Spirit took over and I just basically explained what salvation is -- that you speak out and repent and are sorry for your sins. I told them God loved us so much that He gave us His Son who died for each and every one of us and that the neatest thing is the resurrection.”

To Fenstermacher the conversation seemed to last forever, but she realized it was only a minute or two that she spent with the family. “He didn’t say anything for awhile and so I asked, ‘Would you like to say a prayer of salvation?’”

The mother shook her head positively and the husband answered, “Yes,” as did the son. Fenstermacher reached into the car to hold their hands as she led them in prayer.

“Then the husband said, ‘We want to do that!’ and I said, ‘You just did.’” Even though her disaster relief training advised against close physical contact with victims coming out of the ravaged area, Fenstermacher said only her legs were left hanging out of the car as she reached in to hug her new friends.

“I’ve always planted seeds, but I had never been there beside a person who made a decision to follow Christ. It finally happened to me,” she said, appreciative of the many Christians who had gone before her in sharing God’s love with this family. “It was awesome that I was the one witnessing this and God did His work through me.”
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Tammi Ledbetter writes for the Southern Baptist TEXAN, newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.


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Pioneering path for others, church sends nucleus to C. Asia
by Erich Bridges
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

CENTRAL ASIA (BP)--The darkness that lay beneath the smiling surface of life in her adopted city almost overwhelmed Elizabeth* last year.

At the halfway point of her two-year assignment in largely Muslim Central Asia, the Southern Baptist worker was confronted by the lostness of the small city where she lives. She witnessed the brutal beating of a female friend by the friend’s brother -- a common occurrence in this part of the world. She experienced terrifying nightmares. She listened as a deranged neighbor in her building raged night after night, beating his fists against an iron hallway door steps away from her apartment.

“My eyes finally opened to the real spiritual darkness you can sense in those situations,” Elizabeth says. “I’ve struggled a lot with fear, and without the team’s support, there’s no way I could have worked through that.”

Who is this team? Her church family, 4,000-member First Baptist Woodway in Waco, Texas. And the team is not only the faithful folks back in Waco who prayed for her, but also the five other International Mission Board missionaries from Woodway who came with her in 2003 to live out their faith among the people of this Central Asian city

In both Texas and her adopted home, Elizabeth says, “I have people who say, ‘We’re going to pray through this, and you’re going to get through it.’”

Elizabeth tearfully shared her struggle when the missionary team met for worship one evening at the home of Raoul* and Maria*, a married couple on the team. Joined by three other single team members, Silas*, Jake* and Sarah*, they encouraged Elizabeth, lifted her in prayer -- and related their own hardships and victories.

Raoul asked for prayer as he built relationships with a powerful local lawyer, who is sick and lonely, and with a group of younger men who had welcomed Raoul into their circle. Jake reported striking up a religious dialogue with a group of serious young Islamic students who want to place Islam’s holy book, the Koran, in every home in the country. He sought wisdom on how best to build on his contact with them.

Sarah told about a Muslim friend who had asked about the hardest part of her life. How could she find the right way to tell her friend “the hardest part of being here is the darkness and the fact that people don’t have Christ”? Everyone on the team related similar dilemmas.

They talked and sang, prayed and worshiped, confessed sins to each other, listened to teaching, studied God’s Word. They are a church -- one of only two such small fellowships in the city of 80,000 people.  

But that will change soon, they hope. That’s why they came.

SPIRITUAL CELL EXTRACTION

Teams are the big trend in missions these days -- regional teams, people-group teams, skill-based teams. The International Mission Board now builds much of its strategy around teams. But a missionary team mobilized by a single church and assigned to a single location by a mission board remains a rarity. If First Baptist Woodway’s experience so far in Central Asia is a guide, it may become a model for many other churches.

Paul*, the IMB strategy coordinator for the region where the Woodway team works, is sold on the idea. He coordinates other workers who come as individuals or couples to join teams formed on the field. Some thrive; others stumble over relational issues.

“We began to talk about how to build stronger, healthier teams,” he says. “Then we asked ourselves, what if teams came here healthy, instead of us bringing them here from different places and backgrounds, throwing them together and saying, ‘You’re family now, so get along’?”

Unity in the spiritual family may seem pretty basic, but ask any pastor what divides churches. Ask any missionary what causes more problems on overseas fields than tight budgets or local opposition.

Mission leaders at Woodway committed the church in the 1990s to make an impact in Central Asia and North Africa. The church had been sending short-term volunteers to Paul’s area for several years. It eagerly joined in the conversation about church-based mission teams.

Paul dreamed of expanding church-planting efforts beyond the large city where he is based to numerous small- and medium-sized cities in the region -- most without churches of any kind, and few Christian believers.

In cooperation with Paul -- and after much prayer and multiple visits -- Woodway leaders selected the city where their first long-term team would settle. It’s a college town, similar in size and character to Waco (home to Baylor University), where foreigners could live and work in education- and travel-related fields without attracting undue attention. 

The eventual team members emerged from a home group at Woodway dedicated to praying for Central Asia and spreading the Gospel there. They made a concerted commitment to the task. They met for worship and trained for more than a year, participated in multiple volunteer trips to the area and worked through personality issues. All this came before going through the application and orientation process for the IMB International Service Corps program and moving overseas.

They spent the first year in their adopted city learning the language, dealing with culture shock, making friends and living as a Christian community. They lived in a place that hasn’t seen a church of any kind in a century, among people who get their impressions of Christianity from Hollywood, occasional glimpses of robed and bearded Orthodox priests on television —- and misinformation from social leaders hostile to the Gospel.

“Basically, the idea was to transplant the fellowship we enjoyed in Waco to this place, like a cell extraction with people we already know and love and trust,” Raoul says. “What we’ve done is live out our normal Christian lives in a context where the Christian life is completely abnormal. It’s forcing the people here to figure out what to do with us.” 

A few people have begun to seek what it is that makes these newcomers so radically different.

This year the team began contacting spiritual seekers and a few Christian believers in the area who have identified themselves by signing up for Bible correspondence courses advertised in national newspapers. The team’s goal: to gather believers into at least one core group -- the nucleus of an indigenous church that will multiply in turn.

Throughout the assignment, the team members have involved folks back at Woodway -- from preschoolers to senior adults -- in learning about the city, praying for its people and visiting the area.

A second long-term team from Woodway arrived in the country last fall to study language and culture before moving to the small city and another city in the region. Members of the original team have returned home to share their experiences and help mobilize still more teams.

“It’s made a huge impact on our church,” says Marie Burke*, Woodway’s former global mission coordinator. “In sending teams overseas, we feel like we’re honoring who God created us to be.”
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* Names changed for security reasons. For more information about the missionary team approach pioneered by First Baptist Woodway in Central Asia, e-mail your questions to sendteams@pobox.com.


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Strategy-coordinator churches: new wave in global outreach
by Staff
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--First Baptist Woodway in Waco, Texas, typifies an exciting new phenomenon in international missions: the strategy-coordinator church.

What is a strategy-coordinator church?

“It’s a church that is owning the task of taking the Gospel to an unengaged people group,” says Ken Winter of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s church services team. “It is making a commitment that says, ‘We, under God’s leadership, are going to do whatever it takes to see this people coming to Christ, being discipled and churches being planted that will lead to other churches being planted’” -- and, ultimately, to a church-planting movement that sweeps through a population.

Winter counts about 40 Southern Baptist churches now actively committed to reaching specific people groups and cities around the world that aren’t being touched by any missionary or evangelical group. Many more churches are asking how they can get involved in reaching unengaged peoples.

Strategy-coordinator churches vary in size and type, from large congregations with multiple mission commitments to much smaller bodies focused on a single task.

“It definitely is not limited to mega-churches,” Winter says. “I have a seen a church that averages 180 a week in worship take on this responsibility in the Amazon Basin.”

Some strategy-coordinator churches, such as Woodway, relate to missionaries already on the field, cooperating to reach a specific city or population within a larger people group. Others commit to reaching whole peoples not being engaged in any way by a missionary or missions team. Either way, the church takes primary responsibility for reaching its particular population or location -- strategizing, guiding the work and mobilizing others to get involved.

What they all share is a vision for the world -- and a need for training, mentoring and encouragement. Leaders from 23 strategy coordinator churches met earlier this year with IMB strategists to trade ideas and sharpen ministry models.

“I think it’s the wave of the future,” says IMB church services director Elvin McCann, himself a former missionary strategy coordinator. “There is no way we’re going to fulfill our overall strategy to get to all the peoples and all the cities apart from it. It’s a combination, where our missionaries reach out to their targets and churches come alongside to help fulfill the Great Commission.”
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Could your church become part of the wave? To find out more, call IMB Church Services at 1-800-999-3113, ext. 7826.


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His new faith among fruits of disaster relief, Cooperative Program
by Norm Miller
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

KIRBYVILLE, Texas (BP)--Clyde and Rose Lummus huddled in their small house as Hurricane Rita stormed up the tree-whiskered hill country of east Texas. The only noises louder than the howling gale were the monstrous oak crashing through their roof and the stately pine crushing a pickup truck in their front yard.

Both trees were about three feet in diameter. “It took us a day and a half to clean up that mess,” said Scottie Stice, director of missions for the Del Rio-Uvalde Baptist Association in southwest Texas, who spent two weeks leading a Southern Baptist Disaster Relief chainsaw crew.

“We spent a lot of time working with believers,” Stice said. “And at that point, doing disaster relief becomes a pastoral or healing role.” But for Stice, it became more than that.

Stice was told by Charles Burchett, pastor of First Baptist Church in Kirbyville, that the Lummuses were church members. Rose became a Christian in the church and was baptized there as a young girl.

Clyde stayed inside almost the entire time the chain saw crew was at work and, to Stice, seemed to be “an old cowboy, self-made, self-sufficient.” But when the chainsaw crew finished the job, Clyde did come out and tearfully thank the men for their work, Stice said.

But on Friday, Sept. 30, Stice saw Clyde crying again.

SBC President Bobby Welch was touring east Texas that day and concluded his travels by preaching an evangelistic sermon in a vacant lot across the street from First Baptist.

Welch led the crowd in a prayer of repentance from their sins and commitment of their lives to Christ. When Welch asked those who’d prayed the prayer to raise a hand, Clyde’s went up, but he remained at his seat and didn’t walk down to the front of the crowd with others when Welch asked.

Stice approached Clyde immediately after the meeting.

“He was already crying when I got to him after the final prayer,” Stice said. “I put my hand on his shoulder and asked, ‘Did you pray to receive Christ?’ And he said, ‘I sure did.’”

Clyde also said, “‘I’m not sure if I had done this in the past, but I’m sure I’ve done it now,’” Stice recounted.

Stice describes disaster relief work as “a tool the Lord can use to reach people for evangelism. In the midst of suffering we have a chance to minister the Gospel and a ray of hope with someone by giving them a hot meal or by mudding out their hose or by getting a tree off their roof.

“And sometimes we get to pray with believers and encourage them in troubling times,” Stice said. “I can’t count the times we heard Christians say, ‘We lost everything, but the Lord had been good to us.’ They’d been without electricity for two weeks and without water for one, but they were grateful to have their lives, their families and their churches.”

Stice expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve, and also for the Cooperative Program, noting that CP funds from churches allow the work of the Southern Baptist Convention to go on while Baptist volunteers from all walks of life can drop what they’re doing and answer disaster relief’s call.

Stice noted that his chainsaw crew had gathered in San Antonio to go to Baton Rouge to aid Hurricane Katrina victims, but Hurricane Rita changed those plans.

“That’s where I got another illustration of how the Cooperative Program works,” he said.

“We were at our rally point in San Antonio when our deployment was changed. We had local church members composing our disaster relief teams from our own association and two others, the Frio River and Hill Country associations.

“Our guys were on the phone with the guys at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, and they were talking to people at the North American Mission Board.

“And then it struck me: This is one huge cooperative effort: local churches working through the local associations, and associations working through the state convention, and the state convention working with the national entity. It thought it was a perfect illustration of how the Cooperative Program should work,” Stice said.

Stice told Baptist Press Southern Baptists are "blessed to have such a system in place because it led to meaningful ministry, and it led Clyde Lummus to Jesus Christ.”
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Volunteers’ lives transformed as God uses them in disaster relief
by Stephanie Heading & Tammi Ledbetter
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

GRAPEVINE, Texas (BP)--When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, destroying towns, homes and possessions, victims’ lives were changed in an instant. However, as evacuation sites opened to bring aid and comfort in the devastated region, many volunteers got their first taste of disaster relief work and found that Hurricane Katrina changed their lives as well.

A seminary student, a homemaker, a nurse and two legal professionals were among the newcomers to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief who rushed to meet the basic needs of Katrina’s victims, sharing the love of Christ and being blessed by the effort.

After enrolling at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, Phil Warlick was still looking for a part-time job. “I made the decision to go &#91;as a volunteer&#93; based on the need and the fact that ... I didn’t have any work commitments holding me back,” he said, adding that he accepted one of two job offers while away volunteering.

“Missing a class and the time away from my family was a small price to pay compared to the suffering of the folks in Louisiana. God put that opportunity in my path, and I couldn’t just turn my back.” 

Joining a Southern Baptists of Texas Convention disaster relief unit working through a Salvation Army kitchen in Kenner, La., Warlick learned nearly all facets of the operation. “I helped with preparing and cleaning the food containers, cooking the food, working inventory and supplies and feeding people from the canteens,” Warlick said. “I was also given the opportunity to spend one night in New Orleans to help feed the citizens, law enforcement and media there.” While there he also visited with several residents around the French Quarter.

Charmaine Fenstermacher, a homemaker from Southlake, Texas, made a similar split-second decision to join a team leaving the day after she completed disaster relief training at the SBTC’s offices in Grapevine in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Fenstermacher first learned of the opportunity as prayer requests were being shared in a Bible study at Memorial Baptist Church in Grapevine.

Each member of the mostly middle-aged Bible study group eventually found a way to be available in the aftermath of the storm. One woman with years of experience photographing students for identification cards learned of the need to streamline the processing of disaster relief volunteers and obtained a machine that created the I.D. cards with far less labor. Others hopped in their cars to transport evacuees lodged at a nearby Hilton to apartment housing. Many of the women became involved through Southern Baptist churches that had adopted families of evacuees to provide clothing, furniture, food and ongoing support.

“When I went to the training I knew I was going to do something, even if it was just a mile from my home,” Fenstermacher told the Southern Baptist TEXAN. She heard SBTC missions division assistant Cindy Davenport describe the need for people to leave the next day and knew that her friends from Bible study had children at home or other responsibilities that prevented them from leaving so soon. With her own daughter and son in college, Fenstermacher knew she had the freedom to go and began making the list of items to purchase.

“They mentioned buying a Therma-rest bed roll and I’d never even been camping in my life. I’d never even slept on an air mattress. Things like bug spray -- just weird stuff like that,” she said. After obtaining her provisions, she packed and drove out on Sunday afternoon, arriving at a cabin near Baton Rouge at 1:30 a.m. on Monday where women on the disaster relief team were gathering.

“It was just like camp -- there were wall-to-wall women.” Inadvertently awakening several of the women, she heard one say they had to get up at 3 a.m.

“It was dark and we didn’t know what we were going to be doing, but there was a sense of excitement and we actually felt rested,” she recounted, strange as it seemed to say after so little sleep.

“I’ve never really experienced organized chaos,” Fenstermacher said of the disaster relief food operation as it moved into full swing. “The concept was organized, but everything was very chaotic. Everyone had a purpose and ours was to serve in any way, shape or form to get food and beverages out.”

She recalled SBTC disaster relief director Bill Davenport’s comparison to hiring people off the street. “You don’t know anyone’s qualifications. There are different personalities and lots of Type A people used to being leaders. Everyone just volunteered -- some cleaned out bathrooms, others cooked. You didn’t care what you were doing. I didn’t know anyone as I was meeting strangers, but we all had the same purpose. We bonded so quickly because we had the same goal.”

Billy and Tammy Wolfe and Dacia Newton, all from Lubbock, Texas, answered the call to help after seeing Katrina’s destruction. Wolfe is an attorney and senior partner with Wolfe and Associates and his wife is a paralegal. Dacia Newton is a student at Texas Tech University majoring in human development and family studies.

“Neither &#91;she nor her husband&#93; had ever volunteered before and really weren’t sure what to expect,” Tammy Wolfe said. “I will tell you that God would not have allowed us not to help! He poked and prodded at our hearts all week until we absolutely knew He wanted us out there.” 

The Wolfes and Newton helped register evacuees who arrived at the Red Cross shelter in Lubbock. “These were people that had literally been rescued by helicopter earlier that same day,” Wolfe said. “Most had been stranded in their apartments without electricity, water and food. They were still in their dirty clothes. Some had shoes. Others did not.”

The evacuees shared horrific accounts of their days trapped in New Orleans homes. “They told us stories of how dark it was at night,” Wolfe said. “There was no moon during the five days they were stranded. They were forced to leave their doors open because inside it was about 110 degrees. All night they worried about the bugs, snakes and other animals that might come in with them, and then they worried about the gangs and other individuals that would hurt them in the darkness. They could hear screams and gunfire at night. Some talked about the alligators that were in a frenzy eating the dead bodies around their building.”

Arriving in Lubbock was the beginning of healing for many of the evacuees, Wolfe added. “Most of the people we met were still in shock and were just incredibly grateful to be alive and to be here. Most had never heard of Lubbock before they arrived here but within hours had started to feel like part of our community. From the minute these people walked off their buses that night they were hugged and loved on by everyone that saw them. It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed: to see God open the hearts of His people in such a mighty way -– right in front of my eyes.”

Newton’s experience with evacuees was just as profound. “As the families sat down in front of me, they hadn’t even been able to take showers,” she recounted. “As they told me their stories, they had tears running down their faces as well as tears down my cheeks. I heard everything from families who had been on their roofs for three days and nights without food and water and fathers having to lay on top of their children to keep the winds from carrying them off into the water.”

The open hearts of the volunteers led to opportunities to share the love of Christ with the evacuees. “I prayed with every family that sat down with me,” Newton said. “I built a relationship with a lot of people out there. One lady told me that she didn’t even feel this loved at her own home and she never wanted to go back. They ask why we are doing so much for them. That is my favorite question. I get to answer because Jesus Christ’s love inside me flows over so I can share that same love.”

Wolfe believes many evacuees not only will start a new life in Lubbock but will also find new life in Christ as a result of their ordeal. “We were able to have three families with us at church and members are now helping them with setting up house,” she said. “A lot of these families want to stay in Lubbock and we believe it will be a great opportunity to start over for most of them. Most of these people don’t know Jesus, so God has put them in our area so that we can tell them about Him.”

As hurricane victims begin to rebuild their lives, volunteers find their own lives altered in ways they could have never imagined. “Every night when I left, my heart was so heavy, but light at the same time,” Newton said. “Each one of them has touched my life in a way I will never forget, and I pray I am able to do the same by just showing Jesus Christ in love.”

A great sense of appreciation for the blessings in his own life remains with Warlick as he looks back at his experience as a volunteer. “There are so many things we take for granted. As a new seminary student, it was very refreshing to see Christians working together so well. It was a tough environment and days were long, but despite frustrations everyone kept a positive attitude because they knew they were serving God’s purpose. This trip reminded me that God is so much bigger than any of our problems -- even a disaster like Hurricane Katrina.”

“I will always want to volunteer after this experience,” Tammy Wolfe said. “I realized again how incredibly blessed I am and was reminded that God expects more from those He has given more. That’s us. God reminded us that we are all His children no matter what color we are, no matter our social status or place in society -- we are all His. What my husband and I received from these people is more than we could have ever given to them. God truly does send the weak to lead the strong.”

Fenstermacher remembers how bad she felt that they had nothing but donated egg rolls to share with a nursing home where dozens of residents had been abandoned by the staff. “I expected a lynching, but they raised their hands and cheered, praising God for the egg rolls. They kept saying, ‘Thank you, Texas. We love Texas!”

Like many of the new class of volunteers, Fenstermacher noticed the difference in working in a faith-based ministry. “No one had a fear of speaking about God. Everybody was saying, ‘God bless you,’ or wanted to tell their stories of how God helped.” She listened as a strong fireman fell apart crying because he was missing nine family members. “‘Do you know Jesus?’” she asked, hearing him tell of his own faith and conviction that he’d be reunited with family on earth or in heaven.

Fenstermacher remembers one woman who took both of her hands, looked in her eyes and said, “Thank you, friend,” after receiving the provision of food and caring words relaying the love of God.

Upon returning to Texas, the phrase kept coming to her mind and Fenstermacher got out her dictionary to review the definition of friendship. “It is one showing affection towards another. That’s what Jesus did. It’s so simple. That’s what I need to do more of -- being there for people, being a friend.”
--30--
Stephanie Heading & Tammi Ledbetter write for the Southern Baptist TEXAN, newsjournal of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.


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WORLDVIEW: Owning the task: church-based missionary teams
by Erich Bridges
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

<i>Editor's note: Names in this column have been changed for security reasons.</i>


RICHMOND, Va. (BP)--E=mc², Albert Einstein’s famous equation, explains the relation of energy to mass.

It’s been borrowed by First Baptist Woodway of Waco, Texas (see related BP story, "Pioneering a path for others, church sends nucleus to Central Asia") to describe the power of church-based mission teams. 

Woodway’s version of E=mc² goes like this: Energy within a church fellowship equals the mass of people involved in God’s global purposes, multiplied by the power of His Spirit. 

The church is testing the equation in a strongly Muslim nation in Central Asia. Woodway has prayed for the nation and has sent short-term volunteers to work with Southern Baptist representatives there since the late 1990s. Several years ago, the church entered into a new level of commitment: a partnership with “Paul,” an International Mission Board strategy coordinator in the region, to base residential missionary teams from Woodway in unreached cities.  

Paul hopes these teams are the first of many that will come from multiple churches. 

In fact, he’s building much of his mission mobilization strategy around the idea of small, church-based missionary teams. The ideal size, he believes, is about five -- perhaps a career missionary couple to serve as a “stack pole” and two or three shorter-term workers. 

“Don’t just come,” Paul now tells prospective Christian workers interested in serving in his region. “Wait -- and build a team to bring with you.” 

Mission leaders such as Paul -- and the fields they are trying to reach -- can benefit from the approach by gaining: 

1. Healthier missionary teams that arrive on the field as cohesive communities of faith. 

They’ll still experience problems, challenges -- and interpersonal conflicts -- but team members will have more built-in tools to help each other overcome them. 

2. More effective, biblically sound teams.

“If we do our jobs well, who cares if we don’t get along?” asks “Raoul,” a member of Woodway’s Central Asia team. His answer: God cares, because He reveals Himself to a lost world through His children. “Jesus says, ‘A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.... By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.’” (John 13:34-35).

“The teaming thing says we’re not just here individually to reach local people,” Raoul explains. “We’re here corporately to reveal God to this community.” The team also exists to model authentic church life for local believers who will, in turn, start their own churches. 

3. A new generation of missionaries. 

The 20-somethings who grew up watching “Friends” on television want to do things together. When they are called and mobilized to go into the world, they not only ask, “What am I going to do?” but also “Who am I going to do it with?”  

Local churches that send missionary teams have much to gain, too, including: 

-- More vital and lasting ties to missions.

-- Highly personalized missions education for all age groups. 

-- Strategic destinations to send short-term volunteers. 

-- An effective method for partnering with the International Mission Board and its missionaries.

It’s the kind of connection the church at Antioch gained when it set apart Paul and Barnabas, perhaps the first church-based missionary team, and sent them out.  

“We’re very comfortable to send missionaries through an agency” such as the International Mission Board, says “Marie Burke,” Woodway’s former global missions coordinator. “But we feel that it’s a biblical model to say the local church owns the task. We need to call out our members to the task and help them become a part of God’s purpose to reach the nations.” 

For more information and a step-by-step guide to the church-based mission team approach pioneered by First Baptist Woodway in Central Asia, e-mail sendteams@pobox.com.
--30-- 
Erich Bridges is senior writer with the Southern Baptist International Mission Board whose column appears twice each month in Baptist Press.



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FIRST-PERSON: Coach quits when school bans pre-game prayer
by Tim Ellsworth
Date: October 13, 2005 - Thursday

JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)--A high school football coach in New Jersey had two words for school officials who told him he had to stop leading his team in a pre-game prayer.

I quit.

That’s what Marcus Borden of East Brunswick High School did in response to his school’s orders. Borden had been coaching the team for 23 years and leading a pre-game prayer the entire time.

But apparently some parents expressed their displeasure with the practice, and Superintendent Jo Ann Magistro told him the practice would have to stop.

Trish LaDuca, a spokesperson for the school district, defended the district’s action.

“Certainly students have a constitutional right to engage in prayer on school property, at a school event and even during the course of the school day,” LaDuca told the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick. “But it has to be student initiated. Truly student initiated.”

Borden didn’t think the prayers violated anyone’s rights, and he resigned in protest.

“I believe that I made the right decision,” Borden, a Catholic, said in an Associated Press story. “I believe I made a decision based on principle. I believe that’s who I am.”

The resignation leaves the district without a popular coach and the players without a role model they respected. In addition to his work on the football field, Borden founded an event called the Snapple Bowl, a charity endeavor that has raised more than $150,000 for disabled children.

As an arm of the government, public schools should be able to provide an atmosphere where no student is discriminated against or mistreated because of his or her religion. I fully agree with that. School is not church, and as a former teacher myself I never would have dreamed of opening my classes in prayer.

But if prayer is such a rights-violating practice, then why does Congress begin its sessions that way? If any public display of religion is tantamount to “establishing a religion,” then why does our money still bear the motto, “In God we trust”?

A little consistency would be nice. Either prayer in government is wrong or it’s not. If it’s wrong for a football coach to lead his team in a prayer before a game -- and Borden was most likely simply asking God to protect his players -- then it’s wrong for Congress to open in prayer. If it’s OK for Congress to open in prayer, then a simple prayer ritual before a football game should be OK as well.

This is also another instance of the wishes of the minority tyrannizing those in the majority. The pre-game prayer has gone on for years, so obviously it didn’t upset very many. But of course, there are always a few malcontents who have to make a federal case out of something minor. Too many people think “freedom from being uncomfortable” is constitutional, thinking they have a right to go through life without ever being offended by anything.

Even if you weren’t a big fan of the pre-game prayer, wouldn’t it have been better to remain quiet, so as not to be responsible for what has now happened? Because one or two people were “uncomfortable” with the practice, they’ve now driven off a coach who was a positive influence on the school and the community.

Was Borden right to resign? Some will suggest he should have kept coaching and stayed in a place where he could be a role model to his players.

But by standing up for his principles and his beliefs, Borden’s resignation may have a greater impact on his players than if he had stayed. He’s taught the team about football for years. Now he’s teaching them something about life.
--30--
Tim Ellsworth writes this column from his home in Jackson, Tenn. Write to him at timellsworth@gmail.com, or visit his weblog at www.timellsworth.com for additional commentary on sports, religion, culture and politics.



