After his family’s house sold, Greg, a newly appointed missionary, spotted his children’s handprints in the concrete on their front porch. LIBERTY, Mo. (BP) – After his family’s house sold, Greg, a newly appointed missionary, spotted his children’s handprints in the concrete on their front porch. Greg and his wife were preparing to serve as missionaries among an unreached people group, but he began having second thoughts. “I asked, ‘God, how can I leave those handprints behind?’ “And then God said, ‘You’re leaving the handprints, but you’re taking those hands to make My mark on My world.’” Greg and his wife (last name not used for security reasons), along with 33 others, were appointed to the mission field May 9 at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in Liberty, Mo. Before a crowd of approximately 1,000 people, they will join nearly 5,200 International Mission Board missionaries around the globe. The 35 missionaries shared stories of how God led them to this point in their lives – all reflecting some previous overseas experience. For Larry Lewis, it was a mission trip to Rome that helped stir him and his wife to go to the Czech Republic. Lewis still remembers the emptiness of the “big, beautiful churches covered … [Read more...]

Mike Huckabee, Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas, has withdrawn from the New Baptist Covenant Celebration planned for next January in Atlanta to protest former president Jimmy Carter’s “unprecedented personal attack” on President George W. Bush and his administration’s foreign policy as “the worst in history.” JACKSONVILLE (FBW) – Mike Huckabee, Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas, has withdrawn from the New Baptist Covenant Celebration planned for next January in Atlanta to protest former president Jimmy Carter’s “unprecedented personal attack” on President George W. Bush and his administration’s foreign policy as “the worst in history.” Huckabee, who told the Florida Baptist Witness of his decision to drop out of the Baptist gathering in an exclusive telephone interview May 21, also said the roster of speakers “does seem to tilt left,” which gave him concern about participating. The New Baptist Covenant Celebration is being organized by Carter and Mercer University president Bill Underwood under the umbrella of the North American Baptist Fellowship – a division of the Baptist World Alliance – to bring Baptists together to work on social concerns and improve … [Read more...]

Two Southern Baptist Hispanic leaders see evidence of a spiritual hunger and high receptivity to the Gospel among Hispanics in a recent study by the Pew Research Center. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Two Southern Baptist Hispanic leaders see evidence of a spiritual hunger and high receptivity to the Gospel among Hispanics in a recent study by the Pew Research Center. Bob Sena, director of the field services team in the North American Mission Board’s church planting group, told Baptist Press the fact that 23 percent of the Hispanic population now identifies with either evangelical or Protestant churches “indicates that Hispanics are now more receptive to the Gospel message than ever before in the history of this country.” “The Hispanic field is white unto the harvest,” Sena said. “My prayer is that the Lord will give us a passion to lead untold numbers of Hispanics to Christ and to start churches in the hundreds of communities across North America where Hispanics now live.” Southern Baptists planted 1,592 Hispanic churches during the past five years, Sena reported, which averages 318 per year. Daniel Sanchez, professor of missions and director of the Scarborough Institute for Church Planting and Growth at Southwestern … [Read more...]

Near the bottom of the earth geographically, the town of Punta Arenas, Chile, would be at “the ends of the earth,” as Acts 1:8 would describe it. MIAMI (BP) – Near the bottom of the earth geographically, the town of Punta Arenas, Chile, would be at “the ends of the earth,” as Acts 1:8 would describe it. Diego Rivadeneira would agree. “Many people don’t go there because it is very extreme,” Rivadeneira said. “The churches are very small and the pastors are very humble. The spiritual needs are great and the pastors and churches need tools to assist their ministries. I go there because it helps them make disciples. I go there because Jesus commands it.” Rivadeneira embodies the Great Commission focus that guides LifeWay International, a department of LifeWay Christian Resources. Rivadeneira is one of dozens of LifeWay International consultants from Spanish-speaking countries who attended the department’s annual training event May 11-13 in Miami. Luis Aranguren, director of LifeWay International, told the consultants that today’s church is too often full of programs that lead to busyness, whereas, “The focus needs to be where Jesus placed emphasis in the Great Commission: making disciples. “Teaching them to obey goes … [Read more...]

No father should have to bury a son. IZHEVSK, Russia (BP) – No father should have to bury a son. But the world can be a sad place – particularly the piece of it called Udmurtia (ood-MER-ti-yah) in the foothills of Russia’s Ural Mountains. On a spring day there last year, Leonid touched his son Yevgeny’s cold, pale cheek for the last time and wept as Yevgeny was lowered into the silent ground. Yevgeny, 21, hanged himself after a drinking binge. It was the third suicide of the year in the tiny Udmurt (OOD-mert) village of 30 families. Why? Hopelessness. Aimlessness. Spiritual poverty. “Young people want everything and they want it now,” Leonid says, sitting at his kitchen table a few months later. “My son was that way. They watch TV and can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality. With no work, all they do is drink.” The gulf between soaring expectations and grim, jobless reality overwhelms some young Udmurts. They brood, drink, sniff glue, become depressed – sometimes suicidal. Leonid folds his burly arms and shakes his head. For a long moment, he looks out the window at the rolling hills that stretch to the forest. He pours more tea for his Christian guests. Normally good-natured and cheerful, the … [Read more...]