Just for fun, my husband recently asked me some pre-marriage questions from a book, “Getting to ‘Really Know’ Your Life-Mate-to Be, by Bobb and Cheryl Biehl. Just for fun, my husband recently asked me some pre-marriage questions from a book, “Getting to ‘Really Know’ Your Life-Mate-to Be,by Bobb and Cheryl Biehl.   Examples were:   -- “Who do you think is responsible to do the following work around the home: Car repairs? Cooking? Fixing things? House cleaning?”   -- “Who will balance the monthly bank statement?”   -- “How do you feel about birth control?”   Some questions weren’t so easy, though. One asked, “How would you improve on either one of our social lives?”   The exercise got me thinking about how satisfying a good marriage is.   In response to one of my columns titled “Going Beyond Same Sex Marriage,” I was e-mailed some thoughtful questions from a homosexual reader. One question challenged my contention that bringing homosexual couples into the marriage equation would result in the “deconstruction” of marriage and would remove something good and positive from the society.   My critic argued that those of us in the battle to retain … [Read more...]

In my law practice, I have spent decades representing elderly men and women who have endured unspeakable nursing home abuse and neglect. In recent weeks, NBC’s Nightly News has begun a series of reports entitled “Trading Places: Caring for your Parents.” The series began with the personal stories of NBC reporters like Brian Williams, Tim Russert, and Ann Curry, each of whom is dealing with an increasingly common question: what should I do with my aging parents?   The plight of elderly Americans is a top concern for the Center for a Just Society because this population is at significant risk of abuse and neglect.   In my law practice, I have spent decades representing elderly men and women who have endured unspeakable nursing home abuse and neglect. Short staffing characterizes the operation of too many nursing homes and many corporate predators operating facilities put profits over people and revenue over residents.   The care of the institutionalized elderly is becoming a national disgrace. If these conditions prevailed at Abu Ghraib or in our nation’s daycare centers, members of both parties would be foaming at the mouth, calling for reform. However, because the abused and neglected victims … [Read more...]

Director of Missions for the Webster-Claiborne Association, Randy Hales has had at least one run-in with the law during his 35 years in the ministry. MINDEN – Director of Missions for the Webster-Claiborne Association, Randy Hales has had at least one run-in with the law during his 35 years in the ministry. As a volunteer driver for the LSU Baptist Collegiate Ministry, Hales once found himself lost in downtown Allende, Mexico, pulling a trailer, driving 15 college students to a mission trip and getting increasingly lost. Driving the wrong way downtown, Hales passed the police station, which led to being pulled over by police. A bit of quick thinking went a long way for Hales. Grabbing a bowl of cookies his wife had made for the college students, Hales, along with his interpreter, exited the vehicle. “Look, I’m just a crazy American,” he told the police. “But I come bearing cookies.” As he began doling out chocolate chip cookies to the officers, they called for back-up. By this time, of course, the officers knew he was harmless, he said. They just wanted his wife’s cookies. “I went through the whole bucket in ten minutes,” he continued, explaining how his wife had made enough cookies for each student to have … [Read more...]

The parishes of Webster and Claiborne in the northwestern part of the state form the boundaries for this Baptist association, which serves 42 mission-minded churches. Randy Hales is director of missions. WEBSTER-CLAIBORNE ASSOCIATION – The parishes of Webster and Claiborne in the northwestern part of the state form the boundaries for this Baptist association, which serves 42 mission-minded churches. Randy Hales is director of missions.   Webster Parish provides visitors and residents alike the best of both worlds:  a rural setting that offers a variety of outdoor pursuits right next door to a metropolitan area – Shreveport – that offers a plethora of urban activities. The parish, set in Northwest Louisiana’s rolling red clay hills, boasts tall pine forests and hardwood bottoms watered by twin bayous – Dorcheat and Bodcaw – as well as LakeBistineau.   Claiborne Parish, east of Webster and named for the first American governor of Louisiana, William Charles Cole Claiborne, also is set in the scenic hill country of forests, fields, and streams, with two lakes – Corney and Lake Claiborne – bejeweling the landscape.   Webster-Claiborne Association ministers to a combined population of more than 59,000 … [Read more...]

“If there is anything being done in the world today, to change the world, it is planting churches.” So says Leroy Fountain, church planter associate for the North American Mission Board and the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. IRVING, TEXAS – “If there is anything being done in the world today, to change the world, it is planting churches.”  So says Leroy Fountain, church planter associate for the North American Mission Board and the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention.   Fountain’s mission field is as big and vast as the State of Texas – literally.  It includes African-American, coffeehouse, language, suburban, storefront and college churches in Austin, Dallas and Houston, and western heritage cowboy churches from east to west Texas, over 770 miles apart.   How do Fountain and wife Carolyn serve and support such a variety of Texas churches, with different memberships, dynamics, histories and cultures?   “Well, they are all different but there are, at the heart of every church, things that are the same,” Fountain said.  “We want them to be churches that concentrate on the basics of the development of a group of people who know Jesus Christ is Lord, and who are following Him as … [Read more...]

Most North American Mission Board missions personnel are jointly funded with state Baptist conventions, associations and churches, and receive support from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO). • Most North American Mission Board missions personnel are jointly funded with state Baptist conventions, associations and churches, and receive support from the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (AAEO). The 2007 goal is $57 million – 100 percent of which will directly support missionaries and their ministries.   • Since its inception, more than $1 billion has been given through the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.   • NAMB’s budget for 2007 is $124 million; 44 percent of the budget comes from AAEO and 36 percent from the Cooperative Program.   • NAMB’s primary responsibility is to assist Southern Baptist churches reach the United States, Canada and their territories with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.   The agency provides assistance to churches, associations and state conventions in church planting and evangelism, including soul-winning training, interfaith witness and church and community ministries. Three priority emphases of NAMB are sharing Christ, starting churches and sending people.   • … [Read more...]

Garnering support from church leaders is a key first step in the process of beginning a child care program said Cliff Estes, pastor of Waller Baptist Church in Bossier City and husband to Becky Estes, who, with her husband’s support, has begun three such programs in her lifetime. BOSSIER CITY – Garnering support from church leaders is a key first step in the process of beginning a child care program said Cliff Estes, pastor of WallerBaptistChurch in Bossier City and husband to Becky Estes, who, with her husband’s support, has begun three such programs in her lifetime.   “I would sit down with the leadership and share the vision,” Pastor Estes explained. “If there was interest in proceeding, establish a committee to pursue it. If there are resources or people within your church, that would be someone you could start with. Those are the ones I would use,” he said, explaining that using someone from within the body of the church to fulfill the duties of the director would be the best route.   One of the first things the committee should try to establish is a working budget, Becky explained.   “We had to have a commitment of money through donations or the church budget to buy the equipment … [Read more...]

Louisiana’s Department of Social Services (DSS) is instituting a five-star ranking system for child care centers in the state, which took effect in January, with an exact implementation process to be finalized this summer, according to the DSS website on the new rating system. STATEWIDE – Louisiana’s Department of Social Services (DSS) is instituting a five-star ranking system for child care centers in the state, which took effect in January, with an exact implementation process to be finalized this summer, according to the DSS website on the new rating system.   About 78 percent of children under five in the state regularly attend some form of non-parental child care, according to Agenda for Children, a statewide child advocacy organization.   “This rating system will provide a benchmark for child-care program improvement and an accountability measure for future funding,” said Sherry Guarisco, director of child care and early childhood education with DSS. “And the Foundations Up training series is our launching pad for this system.”   The Quality Rating Systems (QRS) are designed to serve as a guide for parents to differentiate among centers that meet the mere basics for licensing and those that provide … [Read more...]

n      www.qrslouisiana.org/Portals/QRSLA/portal.aspx?tabid=1. Provides more information on the new rating system, including frequently asked questions, training dates, a description of the proposed QRS model and more.   n      www.dss.state.la.us/departments/os/Licensing_.html. State requirements for operating either a Class A or Class B child care center.   n      www.dss.state.la.us/departments/ofs/Child_Care_            Assistance_Program.html#WhatIsChildCareAssistance. Financial aid for parents whose children are enrolled in Class A centers. Knowledge of this aid can widen a center’s scope for possible clients. Some centers help parents file the appropriate paper work to secure these funds.   n      www.dss.state.la.us/departments/ofs/CCAP_Other_         Serices_Provided.HTML [Note: Missing ‘v’ is missing in website.]Financial aid available for Class A centers, including training and technical assistance, incentives, licensing and monitoring, and repair and improvement grants.   n      www.dss.state.la.us/Documents/OFS/Attachment_3_2_1. pdf. A market survey which provides pricing averages for day care centers in both urban and rural settings in the state.   n      … [Read more...]

Greg Ziecker isn’t your run of the mill 16-year-old. ALEXANDRIA – Greg Ziecker isn’t your run of the mill 16-year-old. Yes, he maintains a presence on Myspace.com. Yes, he goes to school. But what most 16-year-olds – indeed, most adults – don’t do is to start and sustain their own ministry complete with a prayer group, daily devotions, and weekly Bible studies he writes himself.   7:14 Circle, Ziecker’s prayer group which meets every Friday and Monday morning at 7:14 on the Alexandria Senior High patio, is just one of many ministries Ziecker has on his to-do list.   Orange Ministries, so named because orange rhymes with nothing, in the same way that nothing compares to Jesus, is Ziecker’s online ministry. The website is in the works; there he plans to continue the daily devotions, weekly Bible study, prayer hotline and other gospel-sharing activities.   “Pick-up ministries” is one of those gospel-sharing activities.   “You never know when that one encounter or one chance at bringing someone to salvation will come,” Ziecker wrote on his myspace website, explaining the concept.   “Similar to a pick-up basketball or football game, we encourage [small groups of two or three] … [Read more...]