By Baptist Message staff BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – Louisiana will remain in Phase 2 to stem the spread of COVID for at least three more weeks, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said on Tuesday, Aug. 4. Phase 2 was set to expire Friday, Aug. 7, but will now be extended beginning that day for another 21 days. All restrictions issued under the current restriction will remain in place. This includes: –a 50 percent capacity restriction for businesses and churches –a statewide mask mandate for anyone eight years or older or with a major health condition –limitations of bars to curbside food service only - and a reduction of indoor social gatherings to 50 people. Edwards, in a news conference, noted the state has seen a recent decline in new COVID-19 related cases and hospitalizations. He asked Louisianans to continue wearing masks and observing proper social distancing measures so the state can move toward Phase 3. “There is a bit of good news,” Edwards said. “The data shows that over the past several days we are beginning to move in the right direction. That gives me hope and encouragement, and it should to everyone. “But I do want to caution everybody that it’s still too early to say that we have changed … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer PONCHATOULA, La. (LBM) – French Corner Baptist Church in Ponchatoula faced numerous novel coronavirus pandemic-related challenges for its recent Vacation Bible School, but the week ended on a high note with their largest VBS missions’ project donation ever. By the conclusion of the summertime evangelistic event, July 20-24, 43 children and 26 adult volunteers brought in 2,883 canned goods and other non-perishable items that were packed by members of the church and delivered to Our Daily Bread food bank in Hammond the following week. Some of the items also were placed into gift boxes for delivery to homebound individuals in the community. “This was a tremendous week of giving hearts,” Pastor Eric Hattaway told the Baptist Message. “I told the kids they were showing Jesus’ love by bringing these cans. They were able to see first-hand a great example of how a Christian is to live out his or her life in their community.” Like many other Louisiana Baptist churches, French Corner Baptist did not know if VBS would be possible with the future uncertain. Still, they decided to go ahead and plan and make preparations for the yearly event. With social distancing guidelines in … [Read more...]

The Louisiana Baptist Convention has released its 2020 mid-year Cooperative Program report, which can be found by clicking here. The Cooperative Program is the Southern Baptist Convention’s method of supporting missions and ministries of state conventions and the SBC. … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer METAIRIE, La. (LBM) - Mateo Alvarez experienced plenty of fun and games at the 2019 CentriKid summer camp, but in the end also came away with something much greater – the gift of salvation. During an evening worship session at Timber Creek Camp in Polanski, Mississippi, Alvarez, who was 10 at the time, realized the need to confess his sins and stepped forward to publicly declare Jesus as Lord. “The decision just made sense,” Alvarez told the Baptist Message. “That evening was something I never will forget because that was the day that I shared with everyone there that I am someone who is a new creation in Christ.” Alvarez had completed the church's foundational course on discipleship and subsequently set a date to be baptized in the spring. But COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings interrupted his plan. Finally, on July 5, Alvarez was able to step down into the baptistery -- with the double blessing to have his mom, Mary, by his side. She had accepted Christ 20 years ago, but was baptized then under another denomination's doctrinal beliefs about baptism. She wanted to follow through in believer's baptism -- an act of obedience symbolizing her faith in a … [Read more...]

By Brian Blackwell, Baptist Message staff writer PELICAN POINT, Bahamas (LBM) – An unexpected announcement July 20 that the Bahamian government was closing its border to most travelers from the United States on July 22 forced a Louisiana Baptist Disaster Relief team to cut short their mission two days earlier than planned. The 11-man team had arrived at Pelican Point, Bahamas, July 13, to help with rebuilding the 128-year old St. Matthew Baptist Church destroyed by Hurricane Dorian Sept. 2, 2019. The team had planned to mount trusses through Friday for the church’s new worship center. However, out of precaution for any potential travel issues that might arise because of the border closure, the team boarded a ferry to Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Wednesday and returned to Louisiana Thursday evening. “When it came to our attention the borders were closing, we began to pray and asked others to pray for options that would allow us to complete our work and still get out of the country,” Louisiana Baptists Disaster Relief Strategist Gibbie McMillan told the Baptist Message. “Our prayers were answered. And it is comforting to know we have prayer partners that we can call upon in our Baptist family.” The order closed the … [Read more...]