LONGVIEW, Texas (BP)–Ten minutes. That's all it took for God to thaw a 10-year freeze that left LeRoy Williamson with a stone-cold heart for the lost.

The 59-year-old Texas banker hadn't given a penny to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions — or any other missions endeavor — in nine years. It wasn't that he didn't have the money. Williamson's 5,000-square-foot home on Lake Cherokee in Longview, Texas, complete with a pool and a boathouse, made that excuse hard to sell.

But as Williamson slipped into his usual seat one Sunday morning last December at Longview's Macedonia Baptist Church, he had no idea the Holy Spirit was about to break open his heart — and his wallet. 

International Mission Board missionary Mick Greenbrier* had been invited to speak as part of the church's Lottie Moon emphasis. He and his family served for more than 15 years in West Africa, sharing the Gospel with the Songhai, a Muslim people group.

Before the pastor's sermon, Greenbrier spoke for just 10 minutes, contrasting the Songhais' desperate need for Christ with an offering shortfall. It was all Williamson needed to hear. 

During the invitation, Steve Cochran, Macedonia Baptist's pastor, was shocked to see Williamson come forward with tears streaming down his face.

“I couldn't speak; I just wept,” Williamson said. 

He finally managed to tell the pastor he had something to say to the church. Cochran didn't know exactly what was on Williamson's heart, but the man's brokenness was unmistakable. He took a risk and handed him the microphone.

“In a nutshell, I became burdened for the lost,” Williamson recounted. “The Holy Spirit immediately convicted me that my heart was cold, I was being willfully blind and willfully deaf, and that I hadn't done my part to carry out the Great Commission in Matthew 28.

“For the first time I was bothered … by how many people die every day,” Williamson said. “To know that there are many billions of [lost] people that I don't know at all — but God knows ….”

On the ride home from church, Williamson surprised his wife Dee by explaining exactly what he believed that meant: retroactive giving. In addition to a Lottie Moon gift for 2010, Williamson wanted to make up for each of the nine previous years he'd skipped. In all, he had in mind 10 years' worth of missions giving in one big check.

Dee did not share her husband's enthusiasm at first. Though they have a beautiful home, Williamson had been unemployed and was in the process of starting his own commercial insurance business, but it hadn't yet generated any income. What's more, Williamson said God placed a specific dollar amount on his heart, and the couple simply didn't have that much cash. But he wasn't deterred.

A few days later, an unexpected call came from a man who owed Williamson money. The debt had gone unpaid for years, and the man said he needed to make things right. When the check arrived, it was $46 more than the amount Williamson believed God was asking him to give. 

“Do I think I would have ever gotten that money [for the offering]? No,” he said. “I think God knew it was a big number for me, but He provided.”

But Dee still wasn't convinced, so Williamson offered her a deal. They'd split the money. He'd give his half to missions, and she could do whatever she wanted with hers. 

Within a month, both had given their portion to the Lottie Moon offering through the church.

“I think what happened for Dee more than anything was that she saw what God did in my life,” Williamson said. “She said it changed me as a person and as a husband…. And it was easy for her to say, 'I'm going to follow the leader of my home.'”

And that's just the beginning. Williamson believes God is calling him to become an advocate for international missions. He's actively seeking opportunities to engage other believers with the urgency of sharing the Gospel and the need to support those who carry it to the spiritually lost.

“Until one is convicted that the loss of a soul is the most horrible thing that can happen, you've not fully bought into the Great Commission,” Williamson said. 

Williamson's passion for missions is so contagious it's already infecting others, including his Sunday School class at Macedonia Baptist. After hearing about Williamson's Lottie Moon resolution, their teacher suggested they raise enough money to support an IMB missionary for a year. That's roughly $44,000 from a class of about 40 people. They decided that each would need to give $3.16 per day (a reference to John 3:16), about $1,150 annually to achieve that goal.

“Now [Dee and I] are giving a little money every week — $44.24,” Williamson said. “That's a little bit of sacrificial giving right now, but God's already shown me He's going to take care of me. So we're going to make it work.” 

But Williamson isn't content only to give. He's never been on a short-term mission trip, but he's making plans to go. 

And that 5,000-square-foot house? Williamson and his wife plan to sell it and use the equity to pay cash for a more modest home, freeing them from a mortgage and making more money available for God's work.

“If tomorrow I started writing insurance and made money hand over fist, I'd still sell this house,” Williamson said. “Yeah, God's got a hold of me pretty good…. It's taken me a lot of decades to get there, but I know [He's] the only thing that really matters.”
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*Name changed. Don Graham writes for the International Mission Board.

LINTHICUM HEIGHTS, Md. (BP)–Foes of pornography are losing, and an onslaught of sexual attacks likely will result, Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land believes.



“We're losing this war. We haven't lost it, but we're losing it,” Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said at a conference on porn and sex exploitation. “And if you don't think we're losing it, you spend time with college-age young people, and you'll find out we're losing.”



He described hardcore, online pornography as “the greatest danger this country faces.”



“[I]t is destroying our culture. It is destroying our families. It is destroying our children,” Land said.



Sexually graphic material online is destroying men's lives especially, he said. “Their ability to be the husbands and the fathers God intended them to be is being shriveled and shrunk and stifled and twisted and distorted by exposure to ever more hardcore, Internet pornography,” Land told conference participants.



The fall-out in the next decade from the problem could be devastating to women, he said



“I believe that we are looking at in the next 10 years truly an avalanche, a tsunami of sex crimes against women and girls, because we've got a generation of boys that have been exposed at an earlier and earlier age to hardcore pornography,” Land said. “And the mathematics are a certain number who view it will become addicted to it, a certain number who become addicted to it will eventually act out what they've seen on screen.”



Land gave his warning at the Convergence Summit, an April 13-14 meeting in suburban Baltimore focusing on the battle against sexual exploitation in a digital age. Government, business, education and religious leaders from across the United States gathered to address solutions to pornography via new technology such as mobile devices, as well as the related problems of prostitution and sex trafficking.



Christians and the Gospel ministry have not escaped the reach of porn, Land said.



“Internet pornography is in your church. If your church has got more than 50 members, it's in your church,” he told the audience. “I can tell you hardcore pornography is on the seminary campus. It's on the Christian college campus. It's in the pastorate. It's on the staff.”



Its prevalence among staff members has been disclosed when some churches have decided to begin daycare centers to reach out to their communities, Land said. In preparing to provide coverage for churches, insurance companies typically research what is being viewed online in the church's buildings.



“I can't tell you the number of broken-hearted pastors who have called me when they have discovered what some of their trusted church staff have been looking at on church computers,” he said.



His wife, Rebekah, and fellow psychologists focusing on marriage and family counseling say pornography is the leading cause of divorce in the United States, Land said: “They just routinely now ask the question, 'What have you been watching? What have you been looking at?' And the men are so surprised: 'How did you know?'”



Statistics support Land's concern:



— A 2008 study of undergraduate and graduate students ages 18-26 showed that 69 percent of the men and 10 percent of the women viewed pornography more than once a month. The study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Research.



— A Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project survey released in December 2009 showed that 15 percent of those ages 12-17 who own cell phones had received a “sext” message.



— In 2009, the fourth-most searched word on the Internet for kids ages 7 and under was “porn,” according to data by OnlineFamily.Norton.com. For all kids — those up to age 18 — sex was No. 4, porn No. 5.



— A Time magazine story about a 2003 meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers showed that, of the 350 attendees, 62 percent said the “Internet played a significant role in divorces in the past year, with excessive interest in online porn contributing to more than half of such cases.”



There is no debate about pornography's addictive nature, Land said.



“We know it's addictive,” he said. “We know how it's addictive. We know how it rewires the brain. It requires [viewers'] sexual response, so that they become focused on self-gratification as opposed to the gratification of their partner. It reduces their sexual partner to the level of an appliance.”



Churches need to address the issue, and a grass-roots effort must take hold to persuade the government to act effectively to address the problem, Land told the audience.



“Our pastors need to talk about it from the pulpit,” he said. “We need to talk about it in men's groups and in boys' groups. And we need to talk turkey.”



Resources on pornography and sexual exploitation recommended through the Convergence Summit website may be accessed at http://www.convergencesummit.net/pdf/Recommended_Resources.pdf.



The Religious Coalition Against Pornography and the Christian organization Pure Hope sponsored the summit.

–30–

Compiled by Tom Strode, Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press.

JOPLIN, Mo. (BP)–Pastor John Swadley was still huddled in the crawl space under his house when he began forming the plan for Forest Park Baptist Church's response to the tornado.



Swadley and his family carried a radio with them as they took cover the night of May 22. The local station soon began feeding live reports of the tornado's destruction. They were spared. Joplin was not. 



“I knew at that time we were dealing with a disaster of major proportions,” he said.



Forest Park is now at the heart of the national relief effort for Joplin. The church is coordinating food, volunteer assignments and donations in the aftermath of an EF-5 tornado (winds of more than 200 miles per hour) that killed at least 125 and injured 750, with 9 rescued and an unknown number of people still missing.



The National Weather Service reported it was the eighth deadliest tornado in U.S. history. President Barack Obama is planning on visiting Joplin Sunday.



“We are just helping people like Jesus would,” Swadley said. “We are being the church and offering help, hope and healing.”



Forest Park's main campus, which runs about 1,000 in Sunday worship, is just a few blocks north of the storm-damaged area in Joplin. The unharmed church building is perfectly situated to serve as a base of operations for relief efforts.



Response began just minutes after the storm as Swadley used his Facebook page to help family and church members find each other. Church leaders determined Monday morning the most urgent need was for food. Hot meals are being prepared in the church kitchen. Forest Park members are also loading sandwiches in the church van and delivering them to people in the city.



The church's “bus barn” storage facility has been designated the receiving and staging area for donated items and where supplies such as diapers, toothpaste and soap are distributed. Offers of help have been pouring in from throughout the country.



“I'm really proud of my Heavenly Father and how He is using us for His work,” Swadley said.



Forest Park is the flagship church for the Missouri Baptist Convention in the Joplin area, said John Marshall, convention president and pastor of Second Baptist Church in Springfield. 



“They will be in the thick of it until the end,” Marshall said. “They are very community minded. They have three campuses, so they are well-positioned all the way around.”



Forest Park members have also experienced great loss. Thirty-one members have uninhabitable homes. Nearly all of them have been taken into homes of fellow members. Many members share stories of how God protected them through the storm.



“When it says in the Bible to show hospitality, our people have stepped up and done that beautifully to help each other and their friends and Sunday School classes,” Swadley said.



One of the most urgent needs has been helping members get salvageable belongings collected and out of the rain. (Wednesday's forecast called for a 60 percent chance of rain and scattered thunderstorms.) In addition, grief counseling sessions have been set up at the church and more support groups will be forming. Swadley's message on Sunday will be titled, “Where do we go from here?”



“We're going to try to construct a worship service where everyone can experience God's presence in a way so that they leave stronger than they came,” he said.



Most debris clearing is on hold while the search and rescue operation is under way, but volunteers are expected in large numbers soon. Samaritan's Purse will use Forest Park as its base of operations, providing expertise and direction while the church supplies workers and resources for the relief effort.



“God sets the agenda for His church. When something like this happens, we have to set aside our plans and goals in the short term and adjust to what God would have us do,” Swadley said.



The recovery and Forest Park's efforts are not short term, Swadley said, but will take many months. 



“We're going to have dozens and dozens of people who will be unemployed because the place where they work no longer exists,” he said. “We want to be able to help provide financial support so they're not further hurt in their already wounded heart. We want to do our best to cushion the blow as much as we can.” 

–30–

Susan Mires is a contributing writer for The Pathway, the official newsjournal of the Missouri Baptist Convention. To donate and learn how to help with relief in Joplin, visit www.mobaptist.org/modr.

JACKSONVILLE—The Jacksonville College Board of Trustees unanimously elected Mike Smith  president of the two-year Baptist school during a meeting on May 23 in Jacksonville, according to the website of the Baptist Progress, newsjournal of the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas.

Smith serves as the director of minister/church relations for the SBTC. He served as director of missions for the Dogwood Trails Baptist Area in Jacksonville from 1995-2008. Smith is a graduate of Baylor University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., where he earned doctor of education and doctor of philosophy degrees.

Jacksonville College is owned by the Baptist Missionary Association and, as an affiliated ministry of the SBTC, receives budgeted funding. 

Smith will begin his work at the college on Aug. 1, spending the fall semester in transition as president-elect alongside the current president, Edwin Crank. Smith would assume the duties of president the day after the BMA of Texas Annual Meeting is adjourned in Waxahachie next November. Crank would assist Smith through Dec. 31, the Progress reported.

Smith said in a statement: “I was humbled and honored when the trustees of Jacksonville College extended to me a call a serve as their next president. I have always considered it a joy and privilege to serve as a staff member of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. I thank Dr. Jim Richards for this time of service and look forward to the continued relationship of Jacksonville College and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.” 

Smith is a Butler, Ala., native. He and his wife Susan have two grown children and five grandchildren. Their son, Lance Smith, is a Jacksonville College alumnus.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—Throughout the month of May, SBTC Disaster Relief volunteers joined Southern Baptists from around the country to assist victims of the F5 tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, Ala., on April 27. 

The mile-wide tornado tore through neighborhoods, damaging hundreds of homes and taking dozens of lives. As is typical of tornadoes, when DR teams arrived on May 1 they noted that some neighborhoods seemed untouched. Businesses were open and life went on much as usual. A block away, however, all that remained of some homes were foundation slabs.

Jim Howard, pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Atlanta, Texas, served as the “white cap” in charge of the SBTC teams working in Tuscaloosa. Howard and four other men had been attending a DR training when the call came to head to Alabama. The three-day climbing training perfectly prepared them for the work ahead. Trainees had learned to use climbing equipment safely to scale trees for chainsaw work. A large part of the recovery included chopping up uprooted trees and those that fell on homes or strewn across yards.

“We were able to go immediately to Alabama and start using those new skills,” Howard said. “It was incredible how that worked out.”

As the white cap, Howard was the first Texan on site to assess the damage and begin processing work orders. The first of the teams arrived and began work two days later. Volunteers were assembled into an operations team, a feeding team and two chainsaw teams. According to Howard, the teams were larger than usual due to the scope of the damage.

Trailer house frames wrapped themselves around buildings and trees. Mangled cars lay where the twister scattered them. Trees not entirely uprooted stood, stripped of their branches.

“The trees in that area are huge,” Howard said, “and dangerous. One tree had fallen on top of another in one backyard. We had to hold the tree up while we were cutting it. As we cut one section, a 14-foot limb came crashing down and we had to jump out of the way. So the work can be dangerous.”

Now, the nearly month-long DR marathon is coming to an end. For 20 grueling days an average of 60 volunteers were working. Volunteers rotated in and out of Tuscaloosa in five-day shifts trying to help as many people as possible without spreading themselves too thin. With approximately 80 work orders completed, Texas relief teams planned to finish their operations by May 20, leaving the few remaining work orders to be completed by Alabama teams. But, Howard acknowledged, for the people suffering through this tragedy, the recovery process will continue long after the DR teams go.

“It will take at least a year for them just to get back to a place where they’re on track again,” Howard said.

Recovery also includes emotional trauma. Volunteers recalled story after story of heartbreak and human loss. With no time to grieve, many of these were already back at work only days later, struggling to support the survivors.

Many of those the volunteer teams talk to were Christians; others were weighing what they believed.

“We had a conversation with one family wondering why this happened,” Howard recalls. “We were able to tell them that when sin entered the world, it not only affected man, but also the whole of creation. We told them that since that time all of creation groans and will groan until Christ’s return. I think we were able to help them understand that this was not caused by God, but it was caused by sin.”

The greatest contribution Howard hopes to make in the victims’ lives is that of hope. That is the real gift teams give as they cut up trees, haul off debris, and provide warm meals. 

“The bottom line is that we want everything we do to bring glory to God,” Howard said.

SBTC Disaster Relief director Jim Richardson said the Alabama tornado is proof even more DR volunteers are needed for large-scale disasters.

“We’ve had enough volunteers to deal with it all,” Richardson said, “but we’d like to double our number in the next couple years. We’d like churches to see the SBTC as an extension of their local ministry. We’re going to continue to recruit volunteers and push training.”

For more information on volunteering for DR ministry, contact Richardson by e-mail at jrichardson@sbtexas.com or by phone at 940-704-9346. You may donate to SBTC Disaster Relief online by credit card or writing a check to “Disaster Relief.” All funds go directly toward current or future disaster relief efforts. Checks should be mailed to the SBTC office at P.O. Box 1988, Grapevine 76099-1988.

DALLAS—Full-tuition scholarships are being offered by Criswell College to children of career missionaries employed by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, according to an announcement May 20 by Jerry A. Johnson, president of the Dallas-based school.

“We want to partner with our missionaries by continuing the training they have given their children, providing them with a solid college education that emphasizes Scripture, theology, missions, evangelism and the Christian worldview,” Johnson stated at the Richmond, Va., meeting where IMB trustees had gathered.

“We had been praying about a way that we might thank and encourage those who daily give so much to the Lord and his work,” Johnson said, adding that the “Great Commission initiative” will begin with the fall 2011 semester. Any children of career missionaries employed by the IMB will receive a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to enroll in an undergraduate degree program at Criswell College. “It is also our hope that we might demonstrate to those belonging to the SBC that we are committed to the Great Commission Resurgence and will do what we can to advance this vision,” Johnson emphasized.

In addition to applying and being accepted to Criswell College, any student who wishes to receive this scholarship must provide the Criswell College business office with a letter signifying their parents’ involvement with IMB. “They will then have free reign to benefit from all Criswell College has to offer,” said Joe Thomas, director of admissions.

IMB trustee chairman Jimmy Pritchard, who also chairs the Criswell College board and pastors First Baptist Church of Forney, Texas, said he expects the offer of a tuition-free education will benefit more than just the “missionary kids.”

“This is such a positive opportunity for everyone involved. It is positive for our missionaries in that it provides great financial relief in their kids’ education, and it is an education that is of the highest quality available anywhere. It is positive for Criswell College in that it is a service to our Lord and these MKs who come to Criswell will enhance and bless the school. I am excited about this development.”

IMB President Tom Elliff expressed gratitude for the new initiative, stating, “It is always such an encouragement when one of our excellent Baptist institutions affirms their love and support for missions in this manner. Thank God for this decision.”

AUSTIN—Gov. Rick Perry on May 19 signed a bill requiring most women seeking abortions in Texas to undergo a sonogram at least 24 hours prior to the procedure and to hear a description of the baby’s physical features. It passed both chambers of the Texas Legislature on May 5.

House Bill 15 gives a woman the option of seeing her unborn baby and requires the person performing a sonogram—a physician or certified sonographer—to describe the dimensions of the baby and the existence of the baby’s arms, legs, and internal organs, including a heartbeat. 

Women living in counties of fewer than 60,000 people or beyond 100 miles of an abortion facility and those in a life-threatening medical emergency are exempted from the 24-hour waiting period. Rural women would instead have to wait only two hours. Also, in cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormality, women could refuse hearing the verbal description from the sonogram.
  
In January, Perry placed the bill on emergency status at the start of the legislative session, which gave it priority consideration over other bills. It became effective upon signing.

Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, was chief sponsor of the House version, with state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, sponsoring the Senate version.

Patrick told the TEXAN in April that a few pro-life groups criticized the bill as not stringent enough, but it got support from Liberty Institute, Texas Right to Life and Eagle Forum. 

It was roundly opposed by abortion rights groups, who claim it violates doctor-patient privacy. The Texas Medical Association opposed the bill, arguing that it not only “sets a dangerous precedent of legislation prescribing the details of the practice of medicine, but it also clearly mandates that physicians practice in a manner inconsistent with medical ethics.”

But Miller told reporters: “House Bill 15 will protect human life, the lives of the unborn victims of abortion, as well as those facing life-changing decisions. … This legislation will save numerous unborn lives.”

After it passed the Senate, Perry said in a statement: “The Texas Senate has taken admirable action today by passing this significant sonogram legislation, and I want to thank Rep. Sid Miller and Sen. Dan Patrick for their work on this issue. Ensuring Texans have access to all the information when making such an important decision is a critical step in our efforts to protect life, and I look forward to this legislation reaching my desk very soon.”

A similar bill passed last year in Oklahoma is in limbo, awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, based in New York City.

Beginning in September 2012, Texas Southern Baptist churches offering Royal Ambassador (RA) and Challenger programs will no longer be able to order their missions materials through the North American Mission Board. 
Responsibility for the historic missions education program created for boys in grades 1-12 has been shifted to the Woman’s Missionary Union, the SBC auxiliary group credited with developing the program in 1908. 

According to an April press release, the WMU will “assume responsibility for resourcing for RA and Challengers with mission education” as part of NAMB’s organizational overhaul. Previous responsibility for RAs rested with the missions education area of NAMB’s communications group, which has developed the missions curriculum since 1997. Prior to that the former Brotherhood Commission had the task.

Former pastor Steve Heartsill has been tapped as managing editor for the resource as well as liaison between WMU and NAMB. Heartsill serves as WMU design editor of the missions leader resource team. 

In the April release, national WMU Executive Director Wanda S. Lee said she is excited about the coming changes and what they will mean for local churches. 

“With WMU producing these materials, it will be so much easier for churches to order all their missions education resources from just one place—WMU,” Lee said. 

In a written response to the TEXAN, Mike Ebert, vice president for communications at NAMB, said the entity looks forward to working with the national WMU to bring RAs to new churches while continuing to serve churches that have faithfully offered RA programs throughout the years. 

“National WMU has assured us that they will work with any church that wants to bring RAs to its congregation,” Ebert said. 

However, the re-organization might prove difficult for churches uniquely affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, one of two state conventions lacking a working relationship with the long-time women’s missions auxiliary. 

Because current WMU bylaws restrict the SBC auxiliary from having more than one relationship with conventions in any given state, it does not recognize the SBTC as a working partner in missions. Consequently, Texas WMU materials exclusively feature Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) missions. 

Housed in offices of the BGCT, Texas WMU promotes and hosts web content for BGCT mission projects and the BGCT’s state offering (Mary Hill Davis) on its new website. In-state training opportunities and mission camp opportunities typically focus on these same priorities.

Despite the lack of partnership between the SBTC and WMU, Tiffany Smith, SBTC missions mobilization associate, said that dually or uniquely aligned SBTC churches may still order missions education materials by contacting both SBTC and national WMU offices.

“Although the SBTC is not recognized by the WMU, this should not in any way hinder the church’s ability to have a WMU program,” Smith told the TEXAN after WMU released news of the re-organization. 

And although the reorganization of responsibility over RA material compounds the long-standing problem of no relationship between WMU and the SBTC, Jim Richards, SBTC executive director, said he would still like to see a relationship established.

“My goal for the WMU-SBTC relationship is for the WMU to recognize the SBTC as a state convention. In doing so, I would want the WMU to allow the women of the SBTC churches to elect a WMU president and have a place on their board,” Richards said. “In essence I simply want the SBTC to be afforded the rights and privileges that any other state convention has in their relationship with the WMU.”

After news of the shift of RA responsibility was released, the TEXAN contacted the national WMU for clarification regarding its position toward SBTC churches. In an e-mailed response to the TEXAN, Julie Walters, corporate communications team leader of the national WMU, maintained that WMU focuses on resourcing churches with missions materials. 

“While we resource the churches, we also partner with all Baptist state conventions equally for the purpose of resourcing churches with Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong offering materials,” Walters said. “As Wanda [Lee] has communicated in the past, we relate on a state level with state WMU organizations. To say that we don’t ‘recognize’ the SBTC sounds like we ‘recognize’ all conventions and are singling the SBTC out. That is not true. Again, we desire to resource any church—regardless of their affiliation—with missions education resources.”

The WMU has also withheld a relationship with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV). 

NAMB’s Ebert told the TEXAN he understood the shift in responsibility could intensify tensions arising from the lack of relationship between the WMU and dual-convention states. 

“We can’t anticipate every scenario, so we look forward to helping resolve any specific challenges a church might have as we enter this new partnership,” he said.

Yet despite no formal relationship between the WMU and the SBTC, Ebert said NAMB would like “to see more churches and more boys participating in RAs.”

“NAMB has a long history of working well in dual-convention states,” he said. “In Texas, we helped coordinate efforts last year with GPS: God’s Plan for Sharing, the evangelism emphasis in which both state conventions participated. The same was true in 2007 for Crossover San Antonio. And we work with both state conventions to help coordinate national disaster relief responses.”

The SBTC’s Smith emphasized that additional resources for missions education are available for churches that opt for other missions education programs. 

“We have vision trips throughout the year to mobilize churches in missions and we work with Paula Hemphill and ‘Kingdom Women’ at the IMB.” Smith said. “In addition, we have created materials and lessons to be dropped into ongoing missions curriculum or AWANA.”

For more information regarding SBTC missions education resources, call Tiffany Smith toll-free at 877-953-7282 (SBTC) or e-mail her at tsmith@sbtexas.com.