By Brian Blackwell, Message Staff Writer ALEXANDRIA  – Louisiana Baptist camps throughout the state are experiencing spiritual and numerical growth and making major facility improvements. “We have new decisions every week during the summer, and we have so many churches calling that many times our rooms fill up to capacity,” Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center Director Josh Bumgardner told the Baptist Message. The spiritual growth is causing numerical growth which in turn is driving facility growth, he said. Bumgardner said renovations on his 123 acre Woodworth campus include: new signage throughout the property; repurposing a conference facility into a new dorm; giving a facelift to showers, floors and décor in one cabin; and, plans to repurpose at least one more building into a dorm while giving updates to other living spaces. “Growth is happening in every direction, not just at my camp but all across the state. It is exciting because churches are bringing their students to hear the Gospel,” he said. ACADIAN BAPTIST CENTER “ABC is hosting 11 weeks of camp this summer with more than 4,000 expected to be in attendance,” Director James Newsom said. “Campers and counselors are excited about seeing construction on … [Read more...]

By John Kyle, Louisiana Baptists communication director ALEXANDRIA --To say, “Checkerz Williams did not grow up in the church,” is at best an understatement. According to Williams, his father left when he was born and he was raised by his teenage mother. Growing up in Las Vegas he became addicted to alcohol and had a propensity to get in fights, which eventually led to him being evicted from his home at the age of 19. “I didn’t know what else to do so I reached out to my biological father, whom I’d only seen a few times in my life,” Williams shared. “By this time he had remarried, had two other children and was getting ready to move back to North Carolina. So I moved there and began to work in construction. “While working, my boss, who resembled the TV character Grizzly Adams, would share the Gospel with me,” he continued. “I rejected it at first, thinking ‘Where was God when I was going through all this pain in my life?’ But eventually the Lord softened my heart and I surrendered to my life to Him in November of 1992.” Prior to becoming a Christian, Williams enjoyed rap music. He first thought he might have to give up rap, but his boss encouraged him just to change the message of his music and, as examples, … [Read more...]