Baptist Press Stories for Aug. 7 2012 --------------------------------------- U.S. gold medalist Gabby Douglas: 'glory goes' to God http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38440 Olympian Brittany Viola 'diving for the Lord' http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38441 Cultural Gospel: more than language http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38442 2 more Obama ads blast Romney pro-life views http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38443 Report: 19 Christians killed at Nigerian church http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38444 Clinton: Religious liberty 'sliding backwards' http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38445 Online academy to benefit churches, homeschoolers http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38446 FIRST-PERSON: Choose your Tweets (& words) carefully http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38447 FIRST-PERSON: God's providence after a robbery http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38448 FROM THE STATES: Ala., S.C., Okla. evangelism/missions news http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38449 --------------------------------------- U.S. gold medalist Gabby Douglas: 'glory goes' to God By Tim Ellsworth & Diana Chandler Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38440 EDITOR'S NOTE: Tim Ellsworth, editor of BP Sports and director of news and media relations at Union University, is in London to cover the 2012 Olympics in tandem with Baptist Press' London bureau. Baptist Press will publish features about Christian athletes in the Olympics, recap results of their competition and cover Baptist initiatives to share the Gospel during the Summer Games and in London's rich cultural milieu. LONDON (BP) -- Gabby Douglas will soon have more money than she ever dreamed. With a vibrant smile and two gold medals to her credit at the Olympics, the 16-year-old gymnast undoubtedly will cash in with endorsement and marketing deals worth millions of dollars. At the top of her wish list? An Acura NSX. "I want the one like Iron Man's off 'The Avengers,'" Douglas said. "That was a nice car." The fame and fortune that Douglas instantly captured may make some things easier, but they won't remove the difficulties from her life. When she faces such struggles, she turns to Scripture. "God has given me this awesome talent to represent Him. Glory goes up to Him, and the blessings fall down on us," Douglas said Aug. 5 in a press conference at the North Greenwich Arena. When she's learning something new that may seem intimidating, she tells herself, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of peace, love and a sound mind," she said. When she's having trouble perfecting a skill, she quotes, "All things are possible through Him." "You just mentally quote that, and it builds your faith up so much," Douglas said. "God will never fail you. He's always on your side." Her first Tweet after winning the individual all-around read simply, "Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me." Before Douglas left for London, Quintin Stieff, pastor of the Valley Church where she attends in West Des Moines, Iowa, likened her to a light that should shine to draw attention to God. Douglas shared her testimony with the congregation. "The glory goes all to Him. He's waking me up every morning and He's keeping me in the gym every day. That's very important," she said, asking her church family to pray for her to "bring home the gold." Douglas made history, winning two golds in the first week of the Olympics -- one in the women's individual all-around and one in the women's team competition. She's the first African American woman to win gold in the Olympic individual all-around, and the first American woman to win gold in both the individual all-around and team competitions at the same Olympic Games. While she couldn't replicate that success in the second week, finishing eighth in the uneven bars and seventh in the beam, her performances will be remembered as one of the London Olympics' biggest stories. Her face is already on a Kellogg's Corn Flakes box. At age 14, Douglas left her family home in Virginia Beach, Va., to stay with a host family, Travis and Missy Parton, in West Des Moines, Iowa, allowing her to train with coach Liang Chow. Douglas' mother Natalie Hawkins sends Douglas Scripture passages twice daily to keep her on track to victory, Douglas said. "When it was time for me to go to bed I would just put my earphones in and just fall asleep listening to the Bible," she told the congregation. "It's been a daily thing. I love reading about the Word. We have to put on the full armor of God, so when Satan tries to come against us, we are ready and prepared." --30-- Tim Ellsworth, in London covering the Olympics for Baptist Press, is editor of BP Sports and director of news and media relations for Union University in Jackson, Tenn. With reporting by Baptist Press staff writer Diana Chandler. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress [/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp] baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]). -- End of story -- Olympian Brittany Viola 'diving for the Lord' By Tim Ellsworth Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38441 EDITOR'S NOTE: Tim Ellsworth, editor of BP Sports and director of news and media relations at Union University, is in London to cover the 2012 Olympics in tandem with Baptist Press' London bureau. Baptist Press will publish features about Christian athletes in the Olympics, recap results of their competition and cover Baptist initiatives to share the Gospel during the Summer Games and in London's rich cultural milieu. LONDON (BP) -- At 15, American Brittany Viola thought she wasn't good enough to be one of the top divers in the world because she didn't look the part. The young diver had been given an opportunity to train with Laura Wilkinson, the best diver in Viola's event at the time (and a former Olympic gold medalist). "As we trained together, I was also surrounded by some of the best divers in the world," Viola, now 25, recalled. "I was only two years into the sport, so I wanted to know how I could become the best. One of the things that I saw was that these girls were in really good shape, and I had a little bit of a different body image than they did." Viola committed herself to losing weight and modeling what the other divers looked like. That commitment led to an eating disorder that plagued her for years until she became a Christian in college, and God's grace helped her overcome it. "I've moved a very long way," said Viola, who will compete Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 8-9) in the 10-meter platform diving competition in London. "It's not something that's completely invisible from my life. It definitely still remains. It's just not even close to the extremes of what it used to be. It's something that the Lord keeps pulling me out of with His truth, and I'm able to move further and further away from it with Him." As the teenaged Viola began noticing the physiques of her fellow divers, she began looking up different diets online. One of the big fads at the time was to cut out all carbohydrates, so Viola tried it. It worked for a while, but then she started craving what her body was lacking. She couldn't control herself when she actually ate bread. So instead of one piece, she ate three. Instead of one bowl of cereal, she ate four. The binging had started, and the purging was close behind. "It escalated into something that took over my life," Viola said. "It was something that got worse and worse, all in a pursuit to reach a picture, an image in my mind, that I thought would make me the best diver in the world." In 2006, at age 19, Viola entered Remuda Ranch, a Christian-based eating disorder facility. Viola had grown up going to a Catholic church, but not regularly. She only remembers wanting to go to sleep or not wanting to go to church at all, because she didn't see the point in it. At Remuda Ranch, a worker asked Viola if she wanted to get rid of her bulimia. "Of course," Viola replied. "I'm all for it." The woman shared the Gospel with Viola, who made a quick profession of faith. But she didn't fully understand what kind of decision she had supposedly made, and a few weeks later returned home -- right back into the struggles she had faced previously. During her sophomore year at the University of Miami, a teammate of Viola's invited her to church and started meeting with her weekly. The two studied the Gospel of John together. "That was when I really started learning who God was and the truth that could really set me free from the struggles that I was having," Viola said. "It's been an awesome adventure since then." The issues surrounding her eating disorder didn't disappear overnight. But through knowing God more closely and understanding the Bible more clearly, Viola said she learned her value as a creation of God that He knitted together. "I'm His workmanship," she said. "To know those things, that God has designed me the way that I am, helped me accept who I am and all the characteristics He's given me." Viola's faith now drives her worldview -- including the purpose of diving. "Everything is His," she said. "He's designed the sport. He's designed me for it. The best diving is going to come out of me when I hand it over to Him." A member of University Baptist Church in Coral Gables, Fla., Viola added, "I know that the Lord is in me and He'll dive through me if I just give that up to Him." Competing in her first Olympics, Viola said she's only diving for one person. "When I go to competitions, there are many divers that are diving for their family, or their coaches, or for themselves, for spectators and for others. I'm honestly only diving for the Lord," she said. "No matter the results, I know that I'm greatly loved." In the past, if she didn't dive well, she felt like she had disappointed everyone. "It doesn't matter anymore if anyone's disappointed," she said. "Whatever I do, just walking forward on the platform, is what God wants me to do. When I jump off, I'm right where He wants me to be." --30-- Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress [/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp] baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]). -- End of story -- Cultural Gospel: more than language By Ava Thomas Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38442 EDITOR'S NOTE: Baptist Press' London bureau, in tandem with Tim Ellsworth, editor of BP Sports and director of news and media relations at Union University, will be providing coverage of London Olympics. Baptist Press will publish features about Christian athletes in the Olympics, recap results of their competition and cover initiatives to share the Gospel during the Summer Games and within the U.K.'s cultural milieu. LONDON (BP) -- Her job isn't normal. She frequently heads into the African Bush armed with a sketchpad, pencils and paintbrushes. But Michelle Michaels* isn't there to play around. "Art is often overlooked when it comes to missions," Michaels said. "A lot of people go straight to humanitarian aid or church planting. Art is seen as more of a luxury than a necessity." Michaels promotes learning how art is integrated into a people's culture as a gateway to learning how to reach them with the Gospel. Crafts and paintings, she said, can contextualize Scripture using an art form people are accustomed to. "Art is everywhere, and it's important," Michaels said. "It really helps get the message across." Michaels once developed a henna design for a South Asian bride on her wedding day. In the dyed design was a Bible story pointing to the Gospel. "Henna is important to South Asian culture, and they get really excited when they learn that a design stands for something meaningful," Michaels said. Before she and other Christians employed henna, the bride's family and friends had been hesitant to talk, Michaels said. "All of a sudden, when we started doing the henna stories, it seemed like there were lots of opportunities to have conversations," she said. "It has been so great to see how it can have eternal purposes." Michaels' experience is one of many. In Guatemala, missionaries had trouble conveying the Gospel message to an illiterate people. After attempting to teach the Bible with no success, they decided to portray the stories through dance. "The people were able to understand, and many people came to Christ as a result of that," Michaels said. Music is also effective, said Ethan Leyton*, a musician in South Asia. Leyton helps local musicians create their own worship music rather than importing music from the West. "Music has a way of speaking deeply to people, so infusing the Good News in the music of a culture offers a powerful way to communicate the Gospel," he said. A few years back, he and indigenous musicians produced a CD and widely distributed it in several cities. "One day, a friend was in a taxi in one of those cities, and the driver put on a CD. It was the one that I'd helped to put together," Leyton said. "When people put on music that they're comfortable with and that communicates the Gospel, it gives them a chance to ponder the sometimes uncomfortable yet ultimately freeing and rewarding message Jesus brings." --30-- *Names changed. Ava Thomas is an International Mission Board writer and editor based in Europe. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress [/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp] baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]). -- End of story -- 2 more Obama ads blast Romney pro-life views By Erin Roach Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38443 WASHINGTON (BP) -- President Obama's re-election team is emphasizing Mitt Romney's pro-life position by rolling out two more ads attacking the Republican's views on abortion and the abortion/contraceptive mandate. Similar to an ad released in July, the latest two 30-second TV spots feature women expressing concern about a Romney presidency. "I've never felt this way before, but it's a scary time to be a woman. Mitt Romney is just so out of touch," a woman named Jenni says in the ad dubbed "Women's Choices."
A narrator says, "Mitt Romney opposes requiring insurance coverage for contraception, and Romney supports overturning Roe v. Wade. Romney backed a bill that outlaws all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest." Jenni concludes, "There's so much we need to do. We need to attack our problems, not a woman's choice." A second ad, called "Important," opens with a woman named Dawn saying, "I think Mitt Romney's really out of touch with the average woman's health issues." She later adds, "I don't remember anyone as extreme as Romney." Another woman, named Alex, says, "This is not the 1950s. Contraception is so important to women. It's about a woman being able to make decisions." Later, she says, "I don't think Mitt Romney can even understand the mindset of someone who has to go to Planned Parenthood." Footage of Romney in the ad includes him saying, "I'll cut off funding to Planned Parenthood," and "Planned Parenthood, we're going to get rid of that." Planned Parenthood is the nation's top abortion provider and in 2010 performed 329,445 abortions -- more than one-fourth of the lethal procedures in the United States for that year.
The ad, which will run in battleground states Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada, concludes with Dawn saying, "I think Romney would definitely drag us back." Romney's campaign responded to the ad by pointing to economic setbacks that plague women under the Obama administration. "Days after the unemployment rate increased and we reached 42 consecutive months with a jobless rate greater than 8 percent, it is not surprising that the Obama campaign would release a false ad in an attempt to distract from the effects of the president's failed policies," Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said Aug. 6, according to CNN.com. Romney is pro-life and supports overturning Roe v. Wade, but his campaign told The Washington Post that he does not favor outlawing abortion in cases of rape and incest -- a position identical to the one held by President George W. Bush. Romney's website says he "believes that life begins at conception" and wants to see Roe overturned. "Americans have a moral duty to uphold the sanctity of life and protect the weakest, most vulnerable and most innocent among us," the Romney campaign website says. "As president, Mitt will ensure that American laws reflect America's values of preserving life at home and abroad." Romney does oppose requiring companies to offer contraceptives, a stance partially based on his belief that it violates religious liberty. Some of the contraceptives that are required to be covered under the new health care law can cause chemical abortions. In the first of three Obama TV ads attacking Romney's position on abortion, a female narrator says, "Every woman who believes decisions about our bodies and our health care should be our own is troubled Mitt Romney supports overturning Roe v. Wade. Romney backed a law that outlaws all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest." That ad, which aired in eight battleground states starting in July, also criticized Romney for wanting to defund Planned Parenthood. --30-- Erin Roach is assistant editor of Baptist Press. With reporting by Michael Foust. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress [/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp] baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]). -- End of story -- Report: 19 Christians killed at Nigerian church By Staff/Open Doors USA Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38444 SANTA ANA, Calif. (BP) -- Gunmen armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles surrounded a church in central Nigeria Monday (Aug. 6) and opened fire during a worship service, killing more than a dozen. According to the Associated Press, the attackers killed 19 of the worshippers at Deeper Life Bible Church in the town of Otite in Kogi state, located 155 miles southwest of Nigeria's capital, Abuja. Another report from Africa put the death total at 16 and the number of seriously wounded at nine. The church's pastor was among those killed. No arrests had been made as of Tuesday morning, AP reported. No group has claimed responsibility for the massacre. However, the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram has attacked numerous churches and has vowed to make Nigeria an all-Islamic country while driving out all Christians. An Associated Press count put the number killed by Boko Haram at 660 this year. That number includes many Christians as well as moderate Muslims and police. "The increasingly intentional activity of Boko Haram has taken on the characteristics of a real war," said Open Doors USA President Carl Moeller. "These are not random attacks as they're often characterized in the media. They are intentional, and they're designed with one purpose in mind: the elimination of Christianity. I call it 'religicide' or the intentional and systemic effort to eliminate a religious belief and its followers from a country or region. "Our prayers go out to the families of the victims and members of the Deeper Life Church. May they experience the peace which only our Lord can give." Open Doors USA is among a group of religious leaders and human rights advocates who 10 days ago sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton expressing their deep concern regarding the continuing religiously motivated violence in Nigeria. Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land also signed it. The letter calls on the State Department to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist organization as well as to work with the Nigerian government to provide improved security for religious minorities. Nigeria is ranked No. 13 on the 2012 Open Doors World Watch List of 50 countries which are the worst persecutors of Christians. --30-- Reported by Open Doors News (www.compassdirect.org), a news service based in Santa Ana, Calif., focusing on Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Used by permission. -- End of story -- Clinton: Religious liberty 'sliding backwards' By Tom Strode Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38445 WASHINGTON (BP) -- Religious freedom around the globe is "sliding backwards," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said upon the release of her department's annual report on the issue. Speaking July 30, Clinton said of the current state of international religious liberty, "More than a billion people live under governments that systematically suppress religious freedom. New technologies have given repressive governments additional tools for cracking down on religious expression. Members of faith communities that have long been under pressure report that the pressure is rising. Even some countries that are making progress on expanding political freedom are frozen in place when it comes to religious freedom." Clinton offered her remarks on the same day the State Department released its latest religious freedom report, which covered 199 countries and territories for the calendar year 2011. In response to the report and Clinton's speech, expressions of both commendation and criticism came from religious liberty advocates. Speaking in Washington, the secretary of State affirmed religious freedom for the United States as "a cherished constitutional value, a strategic national interest and a foreign policy priority." In seeking to influence other countries, Clinton said, America "will continue to try to push and prod and persuade and then, if necessary, look at ways to use consequences that can send a very clear message that we believe that you will not be successful, you will not be stable, you will not be secure, and you will certainly not have a sustainable democracy [without protecting religious freedom]." During her speech, she addressed the challenges facing various governments on the issue of religious liberty. In Egypt, Clinton said she "heard from Christians who want to know that they will be accorded the same rights and respect as all Egyptians in a new government led by an Islamist party. They wonder, understandably, will a government looking explicitly to greater reliance on Islamic principles stand up for non-Muslims and Muslims equally?" "If you're in Iraq, you need to be protecting every community, not just one or maybe two at the most," Clinton said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "If you're in Lebanon, you need to be standing up for the rights of everyone in the community, every confession. And similarly in Egypt or Pakistan or Indonesia or China or India or anywhere, leaders need to be out front saying that, and then acting on it." Thomas Farr, the first director of the State Department's office of international religious freedom (1999-2003), commended the report as "the world's gold standard for a comprehensive catalogue of repression, discrimination, and persecution on the basis of religion." He also described Clinton's address as "her strongest speech to date on why religious liberty is important." There are problems, however, with the State Department's approach to the issue, said Farr, the current director of the Project on Religious Freedom at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. He said in a blog post at National Review Online: -- Suzan Johnson Cook, the ambassador at large for international religious freedom, "has little authority, few resources, and a bureaucracy that is -- notwithstanding the secretary's fine words -- largely indifferent to the advancement of international religious freedom." -- A brief review of the report's policy sections "will tell you that we have little in the way of coordinated [international religious freedom] strategy for these countries." Farr said, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this issue is not a priority for this administration, except perhaps for the speechwriters (who are doing an outstanding job)." One of Congress' leading advocates for global religious liberty, Rep. Chris Smith, R.-N.J., chided the Obama administration for its failures on the issue. "The real question is, what will the administration do differently than simply dialogue with abusers? Under [federal law], it can and should move quickly to designate Countries of Particular Concern and attach appropriate sanctions," Smith said in a written statement. "Unfortunately, despite Secretary Clinton's words today, this administration has for almost four years shown very little commitment to promoting religious freedom." The administration should apply new sanctions in response to religious liberty violations rather than redesignate ones already in existence, Smith said. It also should tie foreign aid to a country's religious freedom status, he said. Congress attached such conditions to $1.3 billion in aid to Egypt, but Clinton waived them this year, he said. Katrina Lantos Swett, chair of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, commended the report, adding, "The next step, and real challenge, is convincing policymakers that prioritizing religious freedom through our bilateral and multilateral relationships is both a moral imperative and serves our national interests. The other challenge is convincing foreign governments to make needed improvements." Swett echoed Smith's request for the State Department to designate "countries of particular concern (CPCs)" quickly. For now, the State Department continued with the same CPC list announced in September of last year. The eight on the list are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan. CPC designation is reserved for the world's worst violators of religious liberty. In the report's executive summary, the State Department included the following observations regarding religious freedom in 2011: -- Governments such as those of Bahrain, Iraq, Nigeria and Russia reacted to conflict by failing to "distinguish between peaceful religious practice and criminal or terrorist activities" and thereby limited religious liberty. -- Authorities in such countries as Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia "increasingly used blasphemy, apostasy, and defamation of religion laws" to restrict the rights of religious minorities. -- A "rising tide" of anti-Semitism afflicted such countries as Egypt, France, Hungary and Venezuela. President Obama and other administration officials urged governments to protect religious freedom –- and sought to assist them -- in countries such as Burma and Egypt that underwent political change last year, according to the report. --30-- Tom Strode is Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress [/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp] baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]). -- End of story -- Online academy to benefit churches, homeschoolers By Erin Roach Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38446 WINDERMERE, Fla. (BP) -- Churches, homeschoolers and Christian schools have a new opportunity for biblically sound online courses at a discounted rate through a Virtual Academy launched by the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools. "Today's economic and cultural environment represents a sifting process for Christian schools," said Ed Gamble, SBACS executive director of SBACS. "Schools that refocus their mission, think creatively, embrace innovation and employ new technologies to create new markets for their services will survive and thrive." About 750 schools are affiliated with Southern Baptist churches in the United States, and about 100 of them are members of the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools. Of those, 10 are elementary schools, 11 are kindergarten through eighth grade and 61 are kindergarten through 12th grade. This does not include start-ups and preschools. In partnership with Sevenstar Academy, the SBACS Virtual Academy is offering core courses as well as foreign languages, Bible classes and other electives online. The academy also offers Advanced Placement courses and dual credit opportunities, also online. "SBACS' partnership with Sevenstar Academy opens a door for schools, regardless of size or location, to access the incredible power of the Internet to expand offerings to current students and reach new student populations with top-notch academic content integrated with biblical truth," Gamble said. SBACS, which was organized in 1979 and was officially incorporated in 1994, is offering classes on a course-by-course basis. Jenna Roebke, director of Virtual Academy, said this is a benefit to schools and churches that partner with SBACS because they don't have to pay Sevenstar partnership fees. "They can go directly to us, and they can take it one course at a time," Roebke told Baptist Press. "If they need one student to take a course, they can come to us and do that." For students interested in full-time online classes, package discounts also are available through SBACS, and if a SBACS member school prefers to form its own partnership with Sevenstar, they are eligible for discounts. Sevenstar offers more than 90 courses for grades 6-12 as well as more than 130 dual credit courses from Christian colleges and universities. Dual credit courses are for students in high school who want to earn college credit, and credit rescue courses are available when students either don't pass a course or don't earn as good a grade as they wanted. Through Virtual Academy, they can take that course again. Virtual Academy classes are available to Christian schools, homeschools and churches that want to offer Bible classes. All courses come through an accredited organization and allow students to earn credit toward a high school diploma. "It's something that we're really excited about because it's one more thing that we can offer our members," Roebke said. "We feel that online is the direction schools are going. They need to be at least in that realm because by the time students get to college it's important for them to have those skills with Internet tools and capabilities." Virtual Academy allows Christian schools also to stay on top of current trends in technology, she said. Virtual Academy course offerings would be an asset to homeschool groups, meanwhile, as a way to fill in gaps in curriculum or to offer additional electives, Roebke said. "Homeschool parents could sign up their students for a class -- math, history, Bible, science, etc. -- directly through us ... to enhance their current homeschool curriculum," Roebke said. Virtual Academy could be useful to churches, she added, because adult Sunday School classes, small groups or youth groups could enroll in courses. "It may be something where they could either do it individually online and meet back together in their Sunday School class or small group and discuss it, or they could offer it in-house where the church actually has computers and they can come together and work on the course," Roebke said. "It's something the church could offer new members, new Christians or people who are starving for more information about the Bible and understanding it. They can offer this as something to help people learn more." For more information, visit [URL=http://sbacs.org]sbacs.org[/URL]. --30-- Erin Roach is assistant editor of Baptist Press. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress [/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp] baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]). -- End of story -- FIRST-PERSON: Choose your Tweets (& words) carefully By Todd Brady Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38447 JACKSON, Tenn. (BP) -- The London games are proving that words are often more powerful than the strongest and most athletic of human beings. Long days of training, months of repetitive practice, and years of relentless discipline are simply not enough to outperform the sometimes devastating consequences of careless words spoken in the heat of thoughtless moments. Today, Shakespeare might ask "To tweet, or not to tweet?" This seems like a timely question for days like ours. Recent Twitter-related scandals coming out of Britain surely have some in the Twittersphere experiencing what might be called Twitter's remorse. United States Olympian Hope Solo was quickly chastised by her coach when she used social media to publicly question the knowledge of a soccer analyst. Police arrested a teenager and are investigating "malicious communication" tweeted about Britain's synchronized diver, Tom Daley. Heartless comments about Daley's Olympic performance and deceased father are just unspeakable. The Swiss Olympic team expelled a sportsman who tweeted racist and threatening comments about an opposing team after losing a soccer match. Imagine how many years this athlete had worked, trained, practiced, hoped and anticipated playing before the world at the 2012 Olympics -- only to see it all vanish with the quick movements of a few hasty thumb strokes. A Greek triple jumper was dropped from her team after making snide remarks about mosquitoes and African immigrants in her country. Techniques of the triple jump aside, unsportsmanlike conduct by any other name is unsportsmanlike conduct. Children are often fond of saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." The cute little saying simply is not true. It's not true on the school playground, and it's not true at the Olympic village. The Bible teaches and life affirms that words often do hurt. Words hurt us, and words hurt others -- often more than we want to admit. Will Rogers once quipped, "Never miss a good chance to shut up." Such home-spun advice is especially hard in today's world where social media allows anyone to instantly and indiscriminately publish anything and everything. As people quietly type on their personal handheld devices, tools like Twitter and Facebook offer a seeming anonymity which often deceives one into thinking that words are somehow inconsequential. The reality of consequences, however, should cause us to reflect on Rogers's aphoristic wisdom and remember the Bible's irreversible rule that "whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Galatians 6:7). Indeed, "death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21). The technological advances of our 21st century society where communication is both instant and global allow for the opportunity to give life or death more quickly and more broadly than ever before. Now more than ever, we should strive to "Let [our] speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that [we] may know how [we] are to answer each person" (Colossians 4:6). Proverbs 25:11 says "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." Let us go for gold with every word we speak ... or for that matter, tweet. --30-- Todd E. Brady is vice president for church relations at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress [/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp] baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]). -- End of story -- FIRST-PERSON: God's providence after a robbery By Mark Coppenger Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38448 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Sharon and I just got back from Europe, where I was visiting churches and museums in connection with our Southern Seminary program in Christianity and the Arts -- from Bayeux to Barcelona, from Lourdes to Lisbon. Along the way, we met three "Good Samaritans" and one really bad one. The bad one surfaced in Barcelona, on the fourth day of our trip. We'd visited the exotic Sagrada Familia Cathedral and the Museum of Contemporary Art, and we were making our way out of town toward Madrid. But then came the dreaded hum of a flat tire. Right away, one of the many (seemingly insane) motorcyclists on the road pulled up beside us to tell us the bad news, and he gestured for us to turn right onto a less crowded road. We did so, and then he rode off with a wave. Though I was rusty, I was able to wrestle the jack and "donut" out of the trunk and change the tire. About two-thirds of the way through the process, a man walked up and gave us repeated instructions in Spanish about how to access a mechanic down the way. We thanked him and finished up, only to discover that while he had us looking one way, he and (we assume) another scoundrel had grabbed billfold and purse from our open car, making off with cash, iPad, jewelry, credit cards and passports. And later we learned that the motorcyclist was the one who gave us the flat, stabbing the sidewall at a red light. (We've traveled to all sorts of challenging places, from Khartoum to the Amazon basin to the far reaches of Indonesia, but never encountered the likes of the notorious and quite skillful thieves of Barcelona.) We managed to find our way to a police station, contact the consulate (where we met other Americans with their own victim stories), coordinate with the credit card companies, and solicit "wired" cash from family. It all worked out, but at considerable wear and tear. What began as a tourist experience became an adventure, with both breakthroughs and frustrations, especially in finding places to retrieve sent cash. We'd moved from touring to surviving. As shocking as the Barcelona heist was, we were just as astonished at acts of peculiar kindness by Good Samaritans. Of course, there were many helpful people along our path, some just doing their job, others showing unpaid courtesy. But three were standouts. First, before we lost the cards, we had a very long day of driving, from the medieval cathedral in Chartres, up to Omaha Beach, over to Mont St. Michel, and down to Nantes. By the time we got there, it was past midnight, and it's a lot harder than we remembered to find a hotel after hours in France. Wandering and inquiring, we arrived very late at one of those automated hotels, where you check in by swiping your card at the door, getting a code, and then letting yourself in to both hotel and room. But our American credit cards didn't work, and we were fast approaching wits' end. Then a French couple with their daughter walked up. They were probably as tired as we were, but they jumped in immediately to help us explore all the options -- various cards, stripe left, stripe right, swipe fast, swipe slow, push this button first, push this button later ... but nothing. Then I asked if we might use their card and then reimburse them with cash -- a suggestion they accepted immediately. Though it was 3:00 a.m., we were total strangers, and I was relying on my high school French, they rescued us. Second, after the robbery, we were explaining our plight to the police, and an American family who lived in Istanbul overheard us. The wife came over and offered us the cash in her purse, about 35 Euros, to help us get started again. We assured her we'd pay her back as soon as we got home, but she said it was no problem if we didn't. She may have been Muslim. We didn't ask. All we knew was that she was a merciful stranger whose act of kindness was salve to our troubled souls. Third, at the end of the trip, after a very long day of "planes, trains, and automobiles," we hit Paris's north station at rush hour, and there was no attendant on duty to help us sort out the ticket we needed to make it out to the airport. Lugging bags and dodging harried commuters, we faced an array of entry gates, all requiring a ticket. And then, quick as a wink, a nicely dressed man stepped up and presented us with two fresh tickets and gestured for us to go through the gate. When, on the other side, I offered him money for the tickets, he declined with a smile and vanished in the crowd. I'm still trying to do the math, but I don't think he had time to assess our situation, walk over to the ticket machine, make the selection, and get back to us. So I'm thinking he may have been a supernatural messenger of God, an angel, who intervened to deliver us in a moment of great weariness and disorientation. In sum, we thought we were going on a culture trip, and, to a great extent, we were -- from the Prado in Madrid to the Alhambra in Granada. But we mainly had a faith trip, a marriage enrichment retreat (with teamship as the theme), a fresh take on both the gravity and depth of human wickedness and the beauty of compassion -- and, over all, the wonderful providence of God in all our trials. Back in New York for a couple of days, I saw a number of billboards featuring Jay Z for Duracell, with the comment, "Never Be Powerless." My experience was just the opposite, for in our time of great vulnerability, we saw the providence of God and the beauty of kindness in clearest relief. --30-- Mark Coppenger is director of the Nashville, Tenn., extension center for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and professor of Christian apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Get Baptist Press headlines and breaking news on Twitter ([URL=http://www.Twitter.com/BaptistPress]@BaptistPress[/URL]), Facebook ([URL=http://Facebook.com/BaptistPress]Facebook.com/BaptistPress [/URL]) and in your email ([URL=http://baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp] baptistpress.com/SubscribeBP.asp[/URL]). -- End of story -- FROM THE STATES: Ala., S.C., Okla. evangelism/missions news By Staff Aug. 7 2012 http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=38449 EDITOR'S NOTE: From the States, published weekly 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 are included in From the States, along with reports about church, associational and state convention initiatives in conjunction with the North American Mission Board's call to Southern Baptist churches to broaden their efforts in starting new churches and satellite campuses. The items appear in Baptist Press as originally published. Today's From the States features items from: The Alabama Baptist -- two stories The Baptist Courier (South Carolina) The Baptist Messenger (Oklahoma) FBC Montgomery adopts Ejamat people in Senegal, Africa By Debby Faught MONTGOMERY, Ala. (The Alabama Baptist) -- Clapping and cheering erupt from the crowd gathered as an elderly woman with gray hair emerges from the muddy waters of the Casamance River, displaying to the Ejamat people her new identity as a believer in Jesus Christ. "I am old, but I too will follow Jesus," she said. First Baptist Church, Montgomery, has "embraced the Ejamat people in Senegal, Africa, and are committed to be the missionaries to them," said Brian Gay, the church's minister of missions. A total of "19 precious people turned their backs on centuries of dark animism to boldly proclaim their faith in Christ," said Senior Pastor Jay Wolf. "When [they] stood publicly and unashamedly to declare they were following the 'Jesus Way,' our hearts flooded with joy and heaven must have erupted with fireworks. Each new Christ-follower shared their testimony. It was electrifying to see Christ's Kingdom expanding and the darkness shattering by God's liberating love and light." Members of First, Montgomery, have taken two trips since their initial prayer meeting in February 2011. "We felt God leading us to embrace the Ejamat people group," remarked Gay, noting First, Montgomery, partners with Southern Baptist representatives in the Senegal area and has embraced the Ejamat group through the International Mission Board's Unengaged, Unreached People Groups emphasis. "We plan to send teams as often as we can, every six to eight weeks. [With God's help, we want to] multiply churches where they can continue to grow through oral chronological Bible stories, and slowly but surely we can aid them in reaching out into their community as we move on to more unreached, unengaged people groups." However, members of First, Montgomery, were not the first to start praying for the Ejamat people. Karfar became a believer in a neighboring village prior to the arrival of the First, Montgomery, teams; he then moved back home and prayed fervently for 15 years for his people group. Gay described him as a modern-day Andrew. "He is a main leader among the Ejamats and opens up his home for Bible studies." When asked how Alabama Baptist churches could pray for this mission Gay simply responded, "Pray for the Ejamat people." He also encouraged all churches to engage an unengaged people group. According to Operation World, there are 57 people groups in Senegal and 47 percent of them remain unreached. "Prayer is our strategy. [If you] cannot go, pray," Gay said. Out of about 3,000 Ejamat people, 35 have received Christ and 21 have been baptized. --30-- This article originally appeared in The Alabama Baptist (thealabamabaptist.org) newsjournal of the Alabama Baptist Convention State Board of Missions. Debby Faught is a correspondent for The Alabama Baptist. ********** FBC Cullman adopts Northern Conchucos Quechua people in Peru By Maggie Walsh CULLMAN, Ala. (The Alabama Baptist) -- When International Mission Board (IMB) President Tom Elliff challenged churches to adopt an unreached and unengaged people group at the 2011 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, First Baptist Church, Cullman, took the message to heart. Since that time, Pastor Edwin Hayes has been urging the First, Cullman, congregation to pray about which of the 3,500 people groups to adopt. Its decision to adopt the Northern Conchucos Quechua people in the Yanama Valley of Ancash, Peru, is a direct result of that prayer. Members of First, Cullman, voted unanimously to adopt this group in a church conference June 24. The church also reached out to First Baptist Church, Athens, and Crosshaven Baptist Church, Hanceville, to partner in this ministry. Crosshaven Baptist's congregation has approved the adoption and partnership. First, Athens, will bring the pending partnership before its congregation in August. Edwin Jenkins, pastor of First, Athens, said the church is "definitely planning on lending a hand and giving support," but that it was too early to determine the depth of its involvement. "It's just thrilling," said Jim O'Dillon, minister of education and outreach at First, Cullman, on adopting the Northern Conchucos Quechua people group. "God has opened our eyes. Our people have seen the need." On its own, First, Cullman, could not adopt a people group, O'Dillon said. By partnering together, the West Cullman Baptist Association churches will be able to make this ministry to one of the poorest areas in Peru tangible. Crosshaven Baptist Pastor Jason Murphree said the partnership was a "natural fit" since he and his brother, Josh, have connections to both churches. First, Cullman, is the men's home church and Josh Murphree was a staff intern at First, Athens, before becoming a Southern Baptist representative in Peru. Jason Murphree said Crosshaven's decision to adopt a people group was simultaneous with Elliff's challenge. The church, which was formed in 2004, determined it was time to stop focusing inward and start reaching outward. Crosshaven has sent many teams to Peru in past years because of its change in focus. In addition to adopting this people group, O'Dillon said First, Cullman, will have one of its own, Taylor Novara, serving in the Yanama Valley as a journeyman with IMB in this area for two years after he completes eight months of training and language school. Novara was a member of the vision team sent to Peru on April 27 to May 6 to "get a sense of God's purpose" for the ministry, said Phillip McAfee, deacon and chairman of the missions committee at First, Cullman. McAfee, Brian Witcher and Lee Underwood, all of First, Cullman, were also members of the vision team. Witcher is the minister of music and Underwood is a deacon. The trip was educational, McAfee said, but he noted it was also difficult because of Yanama Valley's altitude of 13,000 feet. Despite the rough conditions, the team was able to travel across the valley and see the natives' needs. "We felt an immediate connection with the people in that area," McAfee said. "I felt a great desire to minister to them and lead them to the Lord." Less than 2 percent of the Yanama Valley population — estimated to be about 60,000 to 100,000 people — are Christians. McAfee said the team was well received despite their status as outsiders. "We found everyone to be friendly and hospitable," he said. "It's hard not to fall in love with them." The network of churches plans to send a team to Peru every six to eight weeks once the paperwork and training have been completed, O'Dillon said. When asked about funding this ministry, O'Dillon recited the old hymn "Trust and Obey." "God will provide the funding," he said. "I don't need to worry -- He's taking care of it." --30-- This article originally appeared in The Alabama Baptist (thealabamabaptist.org) newsjournal of the Alabama Baptist Convention State Board of Missions. Maggie Walsh in an intern at The Alabama Baptist. ********** Church will seek to 'Awaken' Charleston By Butch Blume CHARLESON, S.C. (The Baptist Courier) -- In 2000, while a student at the College of Charleston, Brandon Bowers experienced Christ for the first time and committed himself to serving wherever God might use him. Church planters Brandon and Ashley Bowers (with Brailey, 6, Brinkley, 2, and Bryson, 4) hope to reach young adult couples in the growing West Ashley area of Charleston. "My story in Christ starts in Charleston," said Bowers, and his story will soon continue in Charleston. Drawn back to "the very place where God changed [his] life forever," Bowers, on Aug. 1, will leave behind a thriving ministry at an established church in Spartanburg to plant a new church in Charleston's West Ashley area. Along with his wife, Ashley, and their three young children, plus nine young adults from Spartanburg's First Baptist Church, Bowers will lay the groundwork this fall for the launch of Awaken Church early next year. Bowers, 33, said the need is "immense" for a stronger evangelical presence in Charleston. There are 650,000 people in the metropolitan area, yet 84 percent of them claim no church affiliation, he said. Also, in a five-mile circle surrounding Roper St. Francis Hospital in West Ashley, there are upwards of 140,000 residents, only 3,000-4,000 of whom are in a Southern Baptist church on any given Sunday, he said. "It is an area that is incredibly lost and disconnected from most of the spiritual activity that happens in our state," he said. However, the "vast need" of Charleston is about more than cold statistics for Bowers, who grew up in nearby Summerville, as did his wife. For the couple, it is personal. Charleston is "a place we've been burdened about," he said. "It is the city I was lost in [but] where God used a ministry there to find me. I really want to plant a church that does the same thing [for others] in that city. I'm in it for the long haul." Bowers will not be going at it alone. Nine young adults from Spartanburg First Baptist Church — where Bowers has served since 2008 as minister to college students and young adults — will be joining him and his family. They include a physical therapist, an elementary school teacher, a computer science major with a calling to student ministry, and a married couple finishing up course work at New Orleans Seminary, among others. "It's an interesting dynamic," said Bowers. "I asked the Lord to send me a Caleb — someone else who believes in what he is calling me to do. It's exciting to be able to go and start a church with some of our closest friends." Bowers envisions Awaken Church reaching young families in a section of Charleston that is experiencing an economic rebound in the midst of a national recession. Many young adults in the area work in medicine, engineering and education, and jobs are plentiful at the Boeing airliner assembly plant in North Charleston. The population in the West Ashley area is expected to double in the next five years, Bowers said. "We're targeting 30-to-35-year-old married couples with one or two kids, middle class, with jobs, but in debt," he said. "They grew up in church, but they've been out of church for a few years." Awaken Church will start with a "core team," meeting in homes during the fall, to "build the DNA of discipleship into our church," Bowers said. Sunday night meetings will begin in January 2013, with Sunday morning services scheduled to launch in March. "We're praying God gives us a facility," he said. Spartanburg First Baptist Church will commission Bowers on July 22 and has agreed to be a sponsoring church for the Charleston plant. Awaken Church is the first of 10 churches that Spartanburg First Baptist will help plant over the next decade as part of its "10 by 10" initiative. "We are committed to staying in this with Brandon until his church is up and running and replicating," said Steve Wise, Spartanburg First's minister of missions. "We want to be with them as they plant their first church." Under the "10 by 10" plan, Wise said, Spartanburg First Baptist will plant 10 new churches in 10 years, sending out at least 10 families with each new plant; partner with 10 other churches in each plant (with each church committing at least $10,000 in support for three years); call out 10 church planters from within the congregation; and begin 10 mission "outposts" in Spartanburg, targeting areas of "great physical need and spiritual darkness." Wise said Spartanburg First will plant churches in Spartanburg and in other areas of South Carolina, as well as in North America, Africa and Asia. Bowers is grateful for the support from Spartanburg First Baptist, but recognizes he will be stepping out on faith -- and without a salary. "It's scary to step away from that and start from scratch," he said. "It's got to be a call from the Lord." "We're trusting the Lord's provision in this," he said, adding that he will get an outside job to "bridge the income as needed" until Awaken Church is established. He hopes Spartanburg's "10 by 10" church-starting model will help "bring understanding as to how strong, traditional Southern Baptist churches can support church plants." "How do churches get behind the call to plant churches like we see in the New Testament?" Bowers asked. "What will our state look like 20 years from now if we don't? We want to be a conduit to help some of that communication happen." For more information about Awaken Church, visit AwakenCharleston.com. --30-- This article originally appeared in The Baptist Courier (baptistcourier.com), newsjournal of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Butch Blume is managing editor of The Baptist Courier. ********** Partnership missions: Spreading the Gospel in Antigua By Jennifer Hill OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (The Baptist Messenger) -- I always try to save enough vacation time at work so I can go on a mission trip each summer. Last fall, I began looking at opportunities available through International Commission (IC) to go tell people about the love of God. There was a trip to Madagascar, and another one to South Korea planned for summer, but both of those would take a lot of vacation days. I continued to pray about it, and a shorter trip to Antigua came to my attention. Ultimately, this is the place God clearly directed me to go. When people heard where I was going, they gave me a hard time about going "on mission" to a place where many people vacation at resorts. Had they gone on the trip, they would have seen that for most of the island, it is anything but a vacation. Staying in a place without air-conditioning and only cold showers with a view of humble homes on a dirt road was not what the people back home had in mind! There are a lot of hard-working people in Antigua who don't have much income. There are a lot of lost people, rich and poor alike, who need to hear how much God loves them, and I was ready to go tell them. Our team of nine Americans, ranging in age from 15 to 72, worked with four local pastors and church members from five churches. Evangelism, telling as many people as we could about what Christ did for them and giving them an opportunity to begin that relationship, was our sole purpose in going. We used Evangecubes, cubes that unfold to show the gospel story in pictures, as a tool. We also had our personal testimonies printed along with some Scripture verses and questions to hand out. As we went out, we trusted God to lead us, and the results were up to Him. Some visits were scheduled with church members who had participated in Operation Andrew, meaning they had been praying for 10 of their lost friends, and then we went with them to visit those individuals and share the Gospel. Some visits seemed random, but were always God-directed. We went door to door in several areas. Sadly, the rich area saw no harvest between the three teams we divided into one evening. They had a comfortable life and did not see their need for God. Walking along the dirt roads filled with potholes and through "dog alley" to talk to the average and lower income locals, however, we experienced many divine appointments. This was an area where the people did recognize their need for God and Someone to love them no matter what. On one of these streets, after sharing the Gospel with Charlene, she asked us to come into her home. We sat in her very small, humble living room and listened to some of her story. She told us about the hard things she was going through and that she knew she needed to make some changes. She said, "There is no way the enemy brought you here. God brought you here." She found the Truth; she accepted Christ! Several kids I talked to in the street who did accept Christ said they were excited and would go to school the next day and tell their friends that God loves them. That would be many more seeds planted than we could reach. One morning, our team went to the market. I ended up walking through an area with vendors lined up one after another, selling their goods to tourists. Talk about easy ground! They saw this white, American girl and said, "Hey, lady, come here!" So I went and shared the Good News and then barely turned around when another said, "Hey, lady, come here!" I talked to one vendor who had a lot of attitude and did not believe in Heaven or Hell. I could tell she wasn't going to listen to anything, so I left her with a copy of my testimony. I found out from one of the other vendors that this lady was a Rastafarian. This is a group of people who worship an earlier Emperor of Ethiopia as God incarnate and is seen more as a philosophy than a religion. There are many Rastas in Antigua, and though they are hard to talk to, they are not impossible for God to reach. Several seeds were planted among them, and we pray they will see the Truth. On the last afternoon, two of us went with a church member to share the Gospel with her hairdresser at her salon. God had cleared the customers out, so she could listen uninterrupted. This was not the first time she had heard the Gospel. She was willing to listen, but it was clearly evident that the enemy was working. After 15 minutes of discussion, her final answer was "Not now." My heart breaks for her, and I pray she will soon change her mind. Afterward, we decided to go back to the market and talk to more people. We were to meet our ride at a certain time on a street corner that just so happened to have an ice cream shop we had already been to twice that week. Since it was so hot, we of course had to have an ice cream cone while we waited. After ordering the cones, I started to turn and walk out, but conviction hit. I had been in there three times now, and I was going to leave and not let the man behind the counter know what Christ did for him. I turned back and asked if he knew how much God loved him. "No," he replied. I asked if I could share with him, and he smiled in agreement. Ice cream cone in one hand and ecube in the other, I began to share with him what Christ did for him on the cross. My ice cream started melting halfway through, but I continued with the story and then asked if he would like to pray. He smiled and gave an enthusiastic "Yes!" then added, "But not now." I quickly explained that now was definitely the best time, and we should go ahead and pray. He agreed! The smile on his face when he was done said enough . . . and I was off to eat my partially melted treat, now in a cup with a spoon, but it was the best ice cream cone I had ever had! At times our group went to schools when they were letting out and talked to as many kids as we could on the street corners. My favorite was when one of the uniformed school girls prayed and then immediately said, "I feel different!" A few times we were invited to speak to all the kids at schools during assembly times and share the Gospel with hundreds at a time. For a week that started out with a choppy, half-filled schedule, God certainly opened doors and filled it up. At the end of the week, 1,924 people indicated they prayed and accepted Christ as Savior; 1,650 of those were students. Many of these people gave us their contact information so we could connect them with a local church. The churches were trained to do follow-up and were given resources to help with the process. In handing out testimonies and talking to people who did not want to pray, there were at least 1,052 other seeds sown. I am not an "evangelist." Evangelism is not one of my spiritual gifts. Going on these trips with IC to share Christ is always hard, because it is so uncomfortable, and I am so inadequate. The gift of eternal life is much too great a gift to keep to ourselves, though. Printed on a small box of raisins I had taken as snacks, there was the phrase, "Don't let someone else ask your question." God reminded me of that throughout the week. I can't wait for someone else to ask the people in my path if they know how much God loves them, because it may not happen. As a Christian, it is my responsibility to open my mouth and share His love. Christ has commissioned all of His followers to go and tell. I've learned it's OK to be uncomfortable, because it greatly increases my dependency on Him. It's not OK to be disobedient. Will you go and tell? Christ wants you to! --30-- This article originally appeared in The Baptist Messenger (baptistmessenger.com), newsjournal of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Jennifer Hill is a church planting ministry assistant for the convention. -- End of story -- Copyright (c) 2013 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press 901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203 Tel: 615.244.2355 Fax: 615.782.8736 email: bpress@sbc.net