Baptist Press Archive

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

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  • Feeding unit begins long-term Baptist relief on East Coast
    by Joe Conway/North American Mission Board, posted Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (11 years ago)

    SALISBURY, Md. (BP) -- Before Hurricane Sandy ever made landfall, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers were beginning the long effort to aid the East Coast by preparing meals for evacuees in Salisbury, Md.

    A feeding unit of the Baptist Convention of Maryland-Delaware was active Monday (Oct. 29) at James Bennett High School there.

    Maryland-Delaware DR director Ellen Udovich said the unit responded to the request from the American Red Cross to provide assistance to evacuees in advance of the storm. The SBDR volunteers already had served 300 meals on their first day of operation. And they were back at work Tuesday morning serving breakfast after the storm passed.

    Another Maryland-Delaware feeding unit was activated and preparing to serve meals at Middle River Baptist Church near Baltimore. They will join units activating from a dozen states deploying across the hard-hit Northeast.

    North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell told Baptist Press, "In addition to the devastation this storm is causing, the sheer size of it is going to make it very expensive in terms of relief and cleanup."

    Ezell voiced gratitude "for all of the Southern Baptist volunteers who make our disaster relief efforts possible. This is a time for every Southern Baptist to be praying and to also consider donating to our disaster relief fund."

    SBDR established an area command center for the response on Monday at the Pennsylvania-South Jersey Baptist convention mission house in Harrisburg, Pa. On site less than 30 minutes, area commander for the response, Mark Gauthier, reminded SBDR volunteers why they serve.

    "Our purpose is to meet the spiritual and physical needs of those impacted by disaster," said Gauthier, DR director for the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia state convention.

    SBDR area command is implementing the deployment of mobile field kitchens to northern and southern New Jersey, Gauthier reported. The current plan is for the kitchens to be operational by Thursday. Assessments are still being made for responses to other affected areas, Gauthier said. Read More

  • N.Y. pastors begin checking on families
    by Staff, posted Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (11 years ago)

    "New York is an amazing opportunity to share the Gospel with others in this time of need."

    -- Freeman Field

    NEW YORK CITY (BP) -- Hurricane Sandy caused 39 U.S. deaths, record flooding, massive power outages and extensive devastation as it roared ashore Monday night near New York City. Read More

  • Cuban Baptists rally to aid Sandy's victims
    by Emily Pearson, posted Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (11 years ago)

    SANTIAGO, Cuba (BP) -- Hurricane Sandy's torrential rains and 105 mph winds slammed eastern Cuba Oct. 25, killing 11 people, among them a couple from First Baptist Church in the hard-hit coastal city of Santiago. Read More

  • Dying woman's faith grips health worker
    by Laura Fielding, posted Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (11 years ago)

    RICHMOND, Va. (BP) -- "Why have you come to see me?" family nurse practitioner Jenny Byrd* gently asks a woman named May*.

          Without a word, the thin, frail woman lets her wrap fall to her waist. Tears roll down Byrd's cheeks as she stares at the rotting flesh on the woman's chest ... Read More

  • Int'l commissioners: Guard dignity & freedom
    by Staff, posted Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (11 years ago)

    WASHINGTON (BP) -- Three members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom have set forth guiding principles "to move forward" in the wake of an anti-Islam video that resulted in both violence and various calls for speech restrictions in the Muslim world.

    The USCIRF commissioners -- chairman Katrina Lantos Swett and vice chairman Mary Ann Glendon, as well as Robert George -- underscored the need for defending human dignity and promoting freedom of expression in an opinion pi... Read More

  • 5,000 World Series packets given to fans
    by Tim Ellsworth, posted Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (11 years ago)

    DETROIT (BP) -- Volunteers from Michigan Baptist churches distributed some 5,000 packets with evangelistic materials prior to a World Series game at the Detroit Tigers' Comerica Park Oct. 27.

    "We just thought it was a great opportunity to get the Gospel in people's hands," said Larry Allen, pastor of Warren Woods Baptist Church in Warren. "Every time there are large numbers of people gathered, there's an opportunity for us to sow some seed."

    The Oct. 27 game was the third game in the W... Read More

  • Tufts Christian group fighting bias claims
    by Leigh Jones, posted Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (11 years ago)

    MEDFORD, Mass. (BP) -- Another campus Christian group is fighting claims of discrimination over its requirement that leaders share a common profession of faith.

    The student-led judiciary at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., voted last week to revoke official recognition for Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF), the largest evangelical group on campus. Complaints from a group formed to challenge TCF's presence on campus prompted the judiciary's decision. Members of the Tufts Coalition Against... Read More

  • FROM THE STATES: Ill., Ky., Fla. evangelism/missions news
    by Staff, posted Tuesday, October 30, 2012 (11 years ago)

    EDITOR'S NOTE: From the States, published each Tuesday by Baptist Press, relays news and feature stories from state Baptist papers and other publications on initiatives by Baptist churches, associations and state conventions in evangelism, church planting and Great Commission outreach, including partnership missions. Reports about churches, associations and state conventions responding to the International Mission Board's call to embrace the world's 3,800 unengaged, unreached people groups also ... Read More