Most nights, we slept on straw mats, Japanese style, laid out on hardwood floors. We took off our shoes and put on slippers when entering homes. We learned how to eat raw fish, raw shellfish, and raw whale meat with chopsticks. Japan, riveted by earthquakes and tsunami floods last March and then nuclear threats from damaged reactors, was a different world for our six-person team (four men, two women) from First Baptist Church of Brownsville.

From our landing in Japan onward, our companions included Gerald and Brenda Burch and Tony and Marsha Woods, two International Mission Board missionary couples who have served in Japan and Asia for decades. They knew the language, culture, and how to drive on the left side of the road.

We quickly became friends with the church members of the Tokyo, Yoshioka, and the Tatomei Baptist Churches. They were already doing their own disaster relief work, and we were able to join them on some projects and be in their church services that Sunday. Our missionaries and one member of our team who spoke Japanese translated for the rest of us.

For each family devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, the recovery work begins one shovel at a time, sifting through debris that once was a home. Many are trying to figure out how to rebuild without a job and without tsunami insurance. In their grief, we shoveled beside them. We handed them things they might desire to salvage—pictures, dishes, anything remaining of personal value to them. Without saying a word, we saw what still had value in their eyes. Then, in the homes that could be saved, we removed what was damaged and unusable, cleaned out and disinfected what was left, and began replacing floors and walls where possible. We wanted the people to know that they are not alone, that there is help and hope, and that Jesus cares about them.

In Japan, there are constant reminders that the people do not have Jesus as their savior.

Ancestor worship, Buddhism, and Shintoism dominate the Japanese religious culture. In sifting through rubble, we found most homes had their own “god shelves” filled with miniature replicas of the gods they worshiped. We were constantly praying God would overcome these false religious concepts and replace them with his truth. And, we also prayed that God could use the help we were able to give in the name of Jesus to begin that process.

Also, our team also helped clear out rubble from a landslide, cleaned out a nursing home submerged during the tsunami, assisted a Japanese Baptist Convention feeding unit by taking food to displaced persons, sang for a gathering of residents at an emergency housing area, and even toured a crematorium being used as an emergency shelter. We prayed with people who had lost everything—jobs, homes, and family members, and made positive contacts with people who, for the first time, were open to hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

One young lady who was open to hearing the gospel was named Emi, a young mother about 25 years old. As the tsunami approached, her husband and father-in-law raced to the waterfront to rescue some of their co-workers. The co-workers survived; the husband and father-in-law did not. With her home destroyed and husband and father-in-law dead, Emi made her way, with her young daughter, to a neighboring village where her mother lived on a hillside.

It was there that we met Emi. We were assigned to remove the rubble around her mother’s home. Emi wanted to know why we cared enough to come and help her. We told her, her mother, and her daughter about Jesus. A few days later, we heard that Emi had called Marsha Woods, the IMB missionary we were working with there, and had promised to continue reading the Bible Marsha had given her when we left.

One night, a town leader came to where we had been staying and said he wanted to learn from us everything we could teach him, because he was amazed that we would come so far to help. He heard the gospel that night.

Another women burst into tears when she heard us singing “Amazing Grace” at a temporary housing center. We were able to pray with her and share the gospel. She agreed to visit the local Japanese Baptist church, if for nothing else, to hear “Amazing Grace” again.

One homeowner, on whose home we were working, refused to pray with us when we invited him. Surprised and saddened, we wondered if our time there would have any spiritual results. Later that day, a pastor from the area shared with us that the homeowner was a friend of his, and though the man was not yet a Christian, he believed he soon would be because of the influence of God’s love shown him by Christians.

That is why we do disaster relief work—that through what people see us doing, they will want to know why we do it. And we will tell them about Jesus.

—Steve Dorman is pastor of First Baptist Church of Brownsville and author of this article.

SAN ANTONIO—Therion (Ted) Dexter Tedder, 82, a founding SBTC Executive Board member, died July 3 in San Antonio.

A Perry, Fla., native and Florida State University alumnus, he earned an MBA from the Air Force Institute of Technology during a 21-year Air Force career, retiring in 1969 as a lieutenant colonel. Tedder pioneered the building of the first mobile computer field operation used by the Air Force and employed in the Vietnam War.

An entrepreneur after retiring as vice president of computer services for USAA in 1979, he owned and operated numerous businesses.

Tedder was a member of Eisenhauer Road Baptist in San Antonio and later was instrumental in launching Thousand Oaks Baptist Church in San Antonio. Most recently he was a member of Castle Hills First Baptist Church.

In 1988, Tedder helped establish the layman’s group Baptists With a Mission, aiming to guide the Baptist General Convention of Texas back into harmony with the Southern Baptist Convention’s more conservative direction. Later, Tedder was involved with the Southern Baptists of Texas fellowship group that eventually led to a new convention.

Tedder was preceded in death by his parents, Edgar James Tedder and Sella Grubbs Tedder; sister Eleanor Tedder Bowman and husband David, and brother Oliver Thomas Tedder, who died only hours before Ted.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Billie; daughters, Terrie Butrum and her husband, Phil; Debbie Freeman and her husband, Ken; Marti Underwood and her husband, Ron, all of San Antonio. In addition, he is survived by six grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren, as well as several nieces and nephews. A funeral and burial with full military honors was held July 11 at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Donations may be made to New Life Baptist Seminary, 2141 Block Road, Gunter 75058. Please mark for the purpose of missions and church planting.

Probably 10-15 times per year I receive a critical call or e-mail regarding something a prominent Baptist has said or done. In nearly every case, not all, the query comes from someone who has an uninformed opinion. He’s simply not read the comments or an authoritative account of the action he disagrees with. More often, someone has e-mailed him or called to inform him of the perceived offense.

No complaint here. It’s a simple part of my work when I can respond to easy questions, but I always wonder how far down the call list I might have been. Does the caller go back down his list to share his more complete knowledge with everyone who heard his less informed opinion? I’m often further amazed at how easy it is, even while on the phone, to search the Internet for the original source of the information. I think all of us who like to tell others what we think (who doesn’t?) have a duty to know what we’re talking about, at least a little bit. I’ve fallen into this mistake and more than once, by the way. What makes it worse is that I do so in print before mailing it to 40,000 people. The embarrassment of such mistakes reminds me of how much I hate being wrong in loud and inexcusable ways. 

Let’s extend this duty to editors of news outlets then. Many of us have noted with amusement the hoax that someone played on the SBC last month. A homosexual advocacy group went to some trouble to trick various reporters into reporting that we’d changed our corporate mind (corporate mind is not a Baptist distinctive) about same-sex marriage. I’m surprised that most news outlets didn’t fall for it. Maybe they knew something about what we’re for or what we’re against, depending on whether you’re a glass half full or half empty person. Most passed the test and did not run with the story. One important newspaper did run with it on its “faith” page. The paper is embarrassed and apologetic, of course. Imagine though, a religion reporter who didn’t know much of anything about our enormous denomination. Imagine that news apparatus failing to even do a Google search on the SBC view of marriage. The search would have easily returned a hundred results that describe our views and a thousand more from those who despise our stand. The results would not leave room for the idea that we’re of two minds on the definition of marriage. They should have checked.

Most of the time it’s easy to find information but it’s really not so easy to sort it out from the innumerable factoids that assault us during the search. That doesn’t excuse carelessness but it is a downside to the information age. The danger is the delusion that understanding accompanies the skin-deep knowledge we have about nearly every inconsequential thing that happens in the world. We talk like experts at the drop of a hat. Perhaps we should talk less, especially about things we barely know. That’s a goal of mine.

And yet we have a privilege, along with an obligation, to know what we can know about what matters most. We can listen to the people in our lives, call them, sit across the table and let them talk. Although I confess to stalking my kids on Facebook (they live in other cities), this tool is at best a conversation starter for more personal contact. I should know how they’re doing, in their own words. We see brothers and sisters each day. If we’re to be priests to them we need to know how they fare, what they need. Committing to encourage one another often seems a completely separate matter from knowing enough to actually be of use. The challenge of knowing is part of the duty family members owe one another. Our fellowship is a bit insincere if our involvement with others is not active.

And aren’t we obligated by the opportunity we have to know God? Just about anyone you ask will admit that there are big questions he’d like to ask God. In nearly every instance, God has addressed those questions in some detail. We want to understand God, his nature, his actions, his purpose, and so on. There’s really no need or excuse to depend on hearsay regarding the Lord of us all. Few of us have scratched the surface of his revelation of himself—we haven’t pursued with much enthusiasm any base of knowledge that would allow us to understand. That’s laziness.

Truly, we can listen to the Bible in several decent versions on CD, tape, video, and probably 8-track if you’re that high tech. Reading plans, chronological or traditional, that will take you through the Bible in one year or less, that are targeted to your own niche or need—all these and more are available free to anyone who asks or seeks. Bible classes and study helps are everywhere you look. I have Bible dictionaries and handbooks at work, in five rooms of my house, on my phone and often in my car or briefcase. We can know more than we do. This is the starting point of the understanding we often desire.

God’s revelation of himself is a breathtaking gift and blessing; he gave it to us because we need it and because he expects us to use it. I think it’s the ultimate expression of our obligation to know.

Maybe knowledge is like most other things we must prioritize. We can’t know everything and shouldn’t, I think. Knowing people is more important than knowing the trivia we’re force fed on the Internet. And I think knowing the portion of the world nearest to us is most pertinent to what we’re called to do.

Nothing is nearer to us than God, or more readily accessible to those who seek him. So our first priorities here seem to be as small as our homes and as broad as the maker of everything. That’s a lifetime of exploration that might not leave room for waxing eloquent about things we’ve only overheard.

It is easy to find something to say about the California law that requires public schools to emphasize the accomplishments of homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people alongside those of various racial and ethnic groups. Let me focus for a minute on the mockery this makes of history.

One phrase in the bill forbids any instructional material that reflects adversely upon persons because of their “race or ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, nationality, and sexual orientation, or other characteristic listed as specified.” Of course, this is meant to circumvent the entire discussion of whether “sexual identity,” behavior actually, is a function of behavior or choice.

Clearly, we’d have to say that in a free society, identifying with a particular religion is a matter of will, not genetics. Millions in our nation have also demonstrated that nationality/citizenship can be changed by those who choose to do so. Sexual identification (male or female) is, in the minds of some, also a matter of choice reflected by how a person dresses or even surgically alters himself. A person’s race and ethnicity are conditions of birth, actually so is a person’s sex in the opinion of most of us. This is a mixed bag of traits—some behavioral, some not.

Neither are all the traits on this list morally neutral. Religion certainly is not. Those who hold firmly to a syncretic religion such as Buddhism or Christian liberalism definitely do not consider my John 14:6 Southern Baptist theology to be moral or tolerable. Neither do they approve of the orthodox versions of any other religion whose adherents believe themselves to know the truth. By the same token, I do not consider manmade religions, including Christian liberalism, to be moral or respectable belief systems. And you know that I cannot consider sexual behavior to have no moral aspect. The other items on the list are morally neutral. The inclusion of religion and sexual behavior on the list implies that religion does not matter and that sexual behavior is as morally neutral as race. Once again, liberals try to settle with legislation arguments they cannot win with facts.

But how would a teacher explain genocide or ethnic cleansing without “reflecting adversely” on an oppressor mostly identified by his ethnicity? A similar difficulty arises when one religion oppresses another. Can we talk about the Inquisition, Crusades, or the Salem Witch Trials? I’m sure we can, but it doesn’t appear so. Was the majority in America that upheld slavery for nearly a century of any particular race? If there is a victim defined by his race, ethnicity, religion or any other status, then there is a persecutor who can rightly be defined by his own status. I think that might reflect adversely on those who behave badly based on some twisted view of their specific status. That might be illegal in California.

Another difficulty may present itself to those who would comply with this bit of social engineering. Most history texts are already chock full of men, women, Englishmen, Africans, disabled people, Asians, and homosexuals. Unfortunately, many of these folks are identified by what they did rather than by their particular tags. Would it be easier to go through and sub-identify everyone already in the story (maybe color code their names) or sort them into discrete chapters, each containing only one subgrouping of historical figures? The latter approach seems most consonant with the thinking behind this bill. The story of great, significant events doesn’t matter so much as the affirmation of all the things people are and do. It seems a small thing that our citizens know the what or why of human events, at least compared with the weird fiction that we’re all both special and identical.

So, in California, we know who has won the culture war there, the ones who get to revise history. In Texas, the other behemoth in influencing textbook content, our State Board of Education went another way. Their more tempered approach to updating history and science books resulted in some of the most absurd rhetoric I’ve ever heard from those who prefer the worldview of California but the tax structure of Texas. 

This story from California sounds like a pretty good argument for the parents of school-age children to find I-10 and head east with all they hold dear.

GRAND PRAIRIE—Sometimes the mission field is closer than you think. Maybe it’s right next door. That’s what South Park Baptist Church in Grand Prairie realized when looking at South Grand Prairie High School, a stone’s toss away—literally.

“The pastor and I began talking,” said Henry Loftin, director of Glowing Heart Ministries. “I said, ‘We’ve got to reach this school.’ God has put us 20 feet from the property of a 4,000-student high school.”

As a result, South Park, in cooperation with Glowing Heart Ministries, has found a way to reach out to middle- and high-school students with an after-school tutoring program that serves as a springboard for the gospel.

For the past three years, the tutoring ministry has met three nights a week after school.

“The church provides the facility,” said Pastor Randy Capote. “Glowing Hearts provides leadership and tutors and some of our church members also work as tutors. It’s a little unusual, but I like unusual.”

The program is designed mainly for secondary school students and is also geared toward involving them in the life of the church. 

“It became a symbiotic relationship,” Loftin said. “We’re responsible for Wednesdays and daily program services, but count on the church to have Sunday structure for them.”

To kickoff this outreach, South Park sponsors a yearly teacher appreciation luncheon for the teachers at South Grand Prairie High School during teacher in-service before school starts in the fall. 

“We introduced what we were doing and that we are providing an atmosphere that is going to be wholesome and healthy and we also are providing tutoring in math, science, English and history,” Loftin said. The first teacher appreciation lunch drew about 60 teachers. A year later, the second luncheon saw 135 teachers attend.

Loftin said teachers have gotten on board with the program. “Some teachers next door are giving kids a 100 daily grade for coming over here—an extra incentive for getting tutoring.”

“We’ve exposed ourselves and gained trust with the teachers,” Capote said. “They encourage the kids to come over.”

Tutors for the program come from many different sources, Loftin said. Some are retired teachers while others come from Dallas Baptist University.

“We try to get college students because they connect so well with the students and see that you can be young, enjoy learning and be good at your subject.”

Loftin also believes the tutors’ willingness to share their faith is vital.  

“Testimony is important because after tutoring they can say ‘Can I pray with you and ask God to help you retain the things we talked about?’ It’s one step toward the kingdom that they’re not going to be doing next door.”

In addition to the tutoring, the program sponsors a Wednesday night youth worship service and cook-out that averages about 100 students each week. Students who come to tutoring are not required to attend the Wednesday activities, but the option is open to them. 

“We don’t require that kids stay,” Loftin said. “We want to begin to plant the truth in their hearts. About 90 percent of the kids who come over here are unchurched—in a lot of ways unfamiliar with Christian living.”

South Park is seeing a response to the tutoring and Wednesday night outreach programs. “We’ve seen 30 come to Christ this semester,” Loftin said. “We baptized three on Wednesday night during the youth service so that we could describe the purpose and meaning of baptism, showing a step of obedience that shows your allegiance to Christ.”

“We’ve added at least one really solid family as a result. The parents came to the Lord and are now plugged into the church,” Capote said.

Capote is excited about how the Lord is using the program to reach kids for Christ.

“This has been a good partnership between us, Glowing Hearts, and the school district.”

HOUSTON—Until he went to college, Johnny Teague hardly ever associated with African Americans.

But God has a way of changing circumstances to advance his kingdom.

Today, Teague, who is white, pastors Church at the Cross in Houston, where a wide majority of the congregation is African American. And under his leadership the church has exploded from 16 attendees to nearly 450 with 71 baptisms in the past year.

“I’ve never been in a happier church my whole life,” Teague told the TEXAN. “I mean, this church is happy. They love each other. They’re not perfect. I’m not perfect. We’re striving to be what God wants us to be. We’re being transformed in his image.”

But his experience at the church has not always been joyful. Before Teague was called as pastor five and a half years ago, the congregation had sold its property and moved into an eight-story building. Then it shrank to fewer than 20 in average attendance. It was also four months from bankruptcy and $5 million in debt when he arrived.

Teague led the church to sell its building with one month to spare before it would have gone bankrupt. Then the congregation voted to move to west Houston and purchased property there.

Just when things seemed to be improving though, a contractor ran off with the church’s money. Absorbing another blow, it had to meet in a movie theater. When the theater closed, the congregation moved to a middle school. Finally, in May 2010 it moved into its own building with about 60 in attendance.

Then, God started to work in amazing ways, Teague said.

In one year Church at the Cross saw its attendance jump to nearly 400, attracting an international array of people, including first-generation Americans from 12 countries.

“A lot of our African Americans have said, ‘Pastor, a lot of our friends question us, and they say, “How can you go to a church where you’ve got a white preacher?”’ And they say, ‘We don’t think of him as being white. He preaches God’s Word,’” Teague said.

Despite an upbringing in which he was largely separated from blacks, the pastor said he began to make African-American friends while playing college football and later semi-pro football with the Houston Express. Later, at a pastorate in Weimar, his predominately white congregation began to have an influx of black worshipers.

Those experiences prepared Teague for leading Church at the Cross, he said.

“We’ve not targeted anybody. We’ve preached God’s Word,” he said. “But it’s been an astounding element, for some reason, in my ministry that the Lord has blessed us with diversification that I could never fathom. And I can’t explain it.”

When asked the reason for his church’s growth, Teague points to expository preaching. He is preaching through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and averaging 16 Sundays per book. Currently the church is studying Proverbs.

“We preach hard things. When Scripture deals in Levitical law with how we present ourselves, we talk about people wearing these pants below their britches and below their hips, and we talk about how girls dress seductively and [how] these things aren’t right. We speak about illegitimacy rates. We speak about living together. We speak about homosexuality,” Teague said.

“When you go through God’s Word, there’s not one issue that we skip over. If God deals with it, we deal with it and we deal with it from a biblical perspective. And what has thrilled me is that our church doesn’t have itching ears. They’re willing to hear God’s truth.”

When Teague came to Leviticus in his preaching, people told him he should avoid the book because it seemed irrelevant to modern believers. But he preached it anyway, and six people were saved on the first Sunday in Leviticus, the pastor said.

In light of his experiences in racially diverse churches, Teague said having a ethnic mix in leadership is important at both the local church and denominational levels. He affirmed the SBC’s adoption of a report last month calling for intentional leadership inclusion of people from all racial groups in Baptist life.

Teague cited the importance of dispelling the myth that Southern Baptists are prejudiced.

“I have heard some African Americans who come to our church say, ‘I never thought I’d go to a Baptist church. I always had the feeling that Southern Baptists were somewhat prejudiced,’” he said. “I say, ‘Well that’s a misunderstanding. That’s a bad perception and it’s inaccurate.’”

In fact, at Church at the Cross ethnic diversity among the ministry staff is a key to reaching people for Christ, Teague emphasized.

“There can’t be apartheid in our church,” he said. “…We just wanted what’s on stage to reflect what’s in the audience and what’s in leadership to reflect what’s in the church. The Lord has given us good men and women who meet that criterion who happen to be diversified.”

ISHINOMAKI, Japan—Tears flowed as members of a Southern Baptists of Texas Convention disaster relief team and their Japanese Baptist co-laborers finished four days of mud-out work with a worship service in a home once submerged by the March 11 tsunami. They cried for God to pour out his spirit on Japan as the nation struggled with the enormous loss of life and property.

The service, held June 27 as the second of two SBTC teams prepared to go home, was part of the ongoing ministries by Tokyo Baptist Church and Baptist Global Response in the Tohoku region of Japan.

Christians make up only 1-2 percent of the Japanese population of 126.5 million people. Reaching Japan with the gospel has proven difficult since the once-isolated nation opened its ports and culture to the influence of foreigners in the mid-1850s.

But since the spring earthquake and subsequent tsunami, the population of new believers has grown, even if only by numbers counted on one hand. Those numbers are encouraging to the members of the Tokyo Baptist Church and its Northeast Japan Team who have worked in the Tohoku Region since the area was opened to volunteer service crews two weeks after the devastation hit.

The inclusion of two SBTC DR teams in June was an experiment of sorts by Tokyo Baptist in using international teams in the ministry work in the cities of Ishinomaki and Kamaishi. Joel Cuellar, the church’s pastor of evangelism and missions, said its first such deployment was a success.

It was the destruction and loss of life that brought the nine-member SBTC team to this island nation the third week of June, as they replaced a team from First Baptist Church of Brownsville. To date, just over 15,000 people are confirmed dead and another 8,000 still unaccounted for. Meanwhile, natural disasters closer to home—tornadoes in Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Missouri and flooding along the Mississippi River and in Iowa—have taken their toll in life and property and pushed Japan from the headlines.

Everyone on the second DR team was familiar with natural disasters. All combined, they had served 65 disaster locations, many times deploying to the same site but with different units. All came to Japan having been to Tuscaloosa, Ala., following the tornadoes that left 238 people dead.

The nine-member team include team leader Julian Moreno and Jean Ducharme of Del Rio-Uvalde Association; Dewey and Glenda Watson from First Baptist Church, Leonard; R.L. and Elaine Barnard of FBC Duncanville; Charles Grasty of Concord Baptist Church in Palestine; Sharon Grintz of Bois D’Arc Creek Cowboy Church; Nathan Pike of FBC Keller; and this reporter from Nassau Bay Baptist Church in the Houston area.

Upon arrival in Tokyo on June 20, the team received their deployment instructions. The Watsons and Barnards traveled to the Iwate Prefecture and served near the town of Kamaishi. Moreno, Ducharme, Pike, Grasty, and Grintz went just south of there, staying in Sendai and traveling each day to Ishinomaki, 20 miles east. The teams traveled with members of Tokyo Baptist Church’s Northeast Japan team.

Early response teams from Tokyo Baptist distributed necessary supplies, cooked meals, and contacted residents in order to facilitate future ministry efforts.

Aside from Moreno, this was the first international disaster relief deployment for each of the team members. There was slight apprehension about cultural differences and the language barrier but they all were eager to begin work.

Each team drove daily about an hour and a half, one way, in order to reach their ministry locations.

Upon their arrival the Tono City team, though exhausted by jet lag and the 10-hour drive from Tokyo, prayed as their Japanese-speaking teammates shared the gospel with a young woman who had been contacted during a prior visit. Ferdie Cadabay, a church member and team leader, said they met Sachie Nakazato in Kamaishi following a concert sponsored by the church. She was weeping for the loss of her sister and home. Tokyo Baptist member Hiromi Kakehashi prayed with her and got her e-mail address, beginning a long-distance relationship.

Prior to their latest deployment the church’s Northeast Japan Team gathered to pray for the trip and Kakehashi asked that they pray for the salvation of Nakazato. The Texans and Tokyo Baptist members had dinner with Nakazato upon their arrival. The SBTC team could only listen and pray as they fought back sleep. Finally, after 10 p.m., Cadaby said the group broke up and the Texans went to the van to leave for the community center where they would sleep. But the Japanese Baptists continued to speak with Nakazato, telling her it was no accident that they had met. Soon she prayed to accept Christ. Cadabay said the woman finally understood she was not alone in her struggles.

R.L. Barnard, of First Baptist Duncanville, said God taught him patience that night. Though they were all physically spent, he said he saw an endurance and perseverance in the Japanese brothers and sisters.

Cadabay added, “It’s amazing how God can put together different people from around the world to do this.”

“I haven’t met people who go through a tragedy who don’t want compassion,” said Pike, of First Baptist Keller.

Even in a region heavily influenced by Buddhist tradition, the Japanese questioned the benevolence of God. The emotional and spiritual impact of sudden and tragic loss knows no nationality, said Grasty, an evangelist and member of Concord Baptist in Palestine.

“Tragedy,” he repeatedly said, “is a great teacher.”

The destruction in Japan—physical and emotional—was no different then any they had seen in previous disaster zones. But the scope of its impact was staggering. The Ishinomaki team compared the destruction to that of tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Ala., but on a broader scale. Glenda Watson said what they saw looked like a combination of Hurricane Ike and the Haiti earthquake.

Though the SBTC team could not verbally communicate with the Japanese, they were told a smile would go a long way and that the Holy Spirit speaks volumes. Where words were needed, Tokyo Baptist members translated.

But Barnard said a translator was not needed as he communicated with Hiroyasu Hagan during two visits to the Kirikiri Refuge Center. At one point Barnard said Hagan took him to the top of a hill to show him where his house once stood.

A second, unscheduled, trip to the refuge center brought Barnard and Hagan together again for an impromptu exercise session. Following the session Hagan, who seemed influential among the evacuees, invited all those willing to listen to hear a message from the DR team.

Cadabay was caught off guard by the spontaneous invitation but shared the gospel with the small group that gathered, most of whom the team had met and encouraged the day before.

He recounted the event in an e-mail posting to church members: “They were attentive and we believe the gospel seed has been planted in their hearts. At the very end we asked them to close their eyes for prayers and when the invitation was given…the amazing thing happened – Hiroyasu Haga san raised his hand. We do not know if there were others who wanted to believe in Jesus but we went ahead and led him (and possibly others) to pray to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. Hallelujah!”

The work in Ishinomaki did not lend itself to as many one-on-one conversations but the work, in the long run, will aid evacuees living in crowded refugee centers.

The main practical task was refurbishing eight small family homes—a straightforward but dirty and laborious job for this team that cut its DR teeth on mud-out jobs in the wake of hurricanes Charlie, Katrina, and Rita. But the task was made easier because the previous crew had already removed the floors.

The houses in the neighborhood had been under 10-12 feet of water and silt dredged up from the sea bottom. Three months later the stench of rotting debris hung in the air.
The mud-out work on the row houses was made possible by the outreach of Tokyo Baptist. Cuellar, the Tokyo Baptist missions pastor, and Yoko Dorsey, the field coordinator, have established relationships with Ishinomaki residents. The owner of the row houses and other rental properties, a Mr. Nakazato (no relation to Sachie Nakazato), lost his wife, mother and grandson in the tsunami. He had planned to raze the homes but was convinced by the church to rehabilitate them and rent them to families with small children living in evacuation shelters. The SBTC team got five of the eight homes gutted so contractors could reconstruct the inside.

“This is light work and clean,” the SBTC’s Moreno said. Most of the heavier work was already done.

Many Japanese, whether residents of the neighborhood where mud-out work was ongoing or casual acquaintances in the hotel lobby, seemed impressed people would come from Texas to help.

Being able to do meaningful work and potentially share the gospel is the primary motivating factor, team members said. Providing a desperately needed service, with no pay expected, is rewarding in and of itself, said Ducharme of Del-Rio/Uvalde Association.

They also admit to a selfish motivation for being involved in DR work.

“I enjoy it too much. I just do,” Ducharme said. “I get a real thrill out of doing it.”

Moreno said he grew up working hard all his life, so physical work “is like therapy for me” despite the back pain he felt at the end of each day. And knowing he is helping someone in need is a blessing, he said.

“We’re not doing it to just rebuild homes or work a disaster,” said Grasty. The lives of those they seek to help are already a disaster without Christ, he added.

Grintz’s primary work stateside has been with the mobile kitchens, a behind-the-scenes job. She doesn’t usually get to meet the people she serves. But she is convinced they know there is a nameless, faceless person who cared enough to prepare a meal for them.

In Japan there was no simple way for the SBTC team to verbally share the gospel. Their new friends from Tokyo Baptist Church were not only co-laborers but interpreters, allowing the team members to get to know some of the people in the communities where they were serving. They learned of the loss of husbands and wives, children and neighbors. They prayed with them and offered smiles. They made balloon hats in restaurants and made children laugh.

About disaster relief work, Pike added, “Not everyone we meet wants to hear about Jesus, but we can plant the seed.”

Posted on Jul 13, 2011 | by Whitney Jones

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Richard Land and Jim Wallis discuss the national debt and possible solutions in a new online video tackling military spending, taxes, welfare programs and entitlements.

Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, and Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners, agreed in the video on Bloggingheads.tv that the national debt, which has reached more than $14 trillion, is a moral issue. But they differed on how to solve it.

Bloggingheads.tv is a website filled with split-screen video entries of two people from remote locations dialoguing about the issues of the day — also known as “diavlogs.”

Wallis, who is part of an effort called the Circle of Protection that aims to preserve government programs for the poor, called for cuts in military spending and higher taxes for the rich.

“Half the deficit is because of tax cuts for the wealthy and two wars financed off the books,” Wallis said.

Land said entitlements are one of the major reasons for the deficit, stating that $700 billion was spent in 2010 on welfare and aid programs. Absent fathers and single parenthood, he said, are the main cause of poverty. Getting rid of no-fault divorce laws, he said, “would help.”

“Single parenthood is the largest cause of poverty in the United States,” Land said. “Children who grow up with two parents have enormous advantages in our culture and unfortunately they are now a minority.”

Wallis interrupted to remind Land, “You and I are both for marriage.”

Land continued to speak on the importance of parenthood: “It’s a moral and an economic issue, Jim — $700 billion dollars a year in means-tested welfare services mainly to replace absent fathers and what they would provide for their families.”

Land said entitlements “are at an unsustainable level” and are another large part of the reason for the deficit.

“We have one-size fits all entitlements and we can no longer afford those,” Land said. “We’re going to have to find a way to — I don’t know whether you want to call it means test or whether you want to call it taxing the benefits of those who are wealthier — but people who have other retirement that they’ve gotten through their companies or through IRAs, people who have other retirement income are going to have to get less from Social Security.”

Both men agreed waste must be cut from spending. Wallis called out the Pentagon as “the biggest waste” when it comes to spending, while Land challenged all government departments to examine and reduce their budgets.

“There’s no budget that’s ever been conceived that can’t take a five percent across-the-board cut,” Land said. “I guarantee you there’s five percent waste in every program that the government is using, and we can start by a five percent cut … and I believe they could do so without any serious problem in delivery.”

Wallis agreed that entitlements needed to be addressed and proposed raising Social Security taxes on the wealthy. He also pointed to mortgage tax deductions for the wealthy as a potential source of revenue.

“$8.5 billion in low-income housing is on the cutting block,” Wallis said. “$8.4 billion — same amount of money — is being kept for mortgage deductions on second vacation homes for the wealthy. That’s a choice. What choice should we make there?”

Land said he “certainly would be against” mortgage tax deductions for second vacation homes.

While Congress continues to debate over how to solve the national debt crisis, Land and Wallis agree that something must be done soon to stop the government’s borrowing trend.

“We’re borrowing 42 cents of every dollar that our federal government spends,” Land said. “We’re stealing our children and our grandchildren’s future by that level of borrowing…. They’ll spend most of their productive lives paying off our debts unless we get this debt monster under control and get federal spending under control and do so quickly.”
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Whitney Jones is a student at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., and an intern with Baptist Press. The video of Richard Land and Jim Wallis can be found at http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/37169.

JUBA, South Sudan (BP)–After enduring two decades of warfare and the deaths of 2 million people, the Republic of South Sudan saw its day of independence on Saturday, July 9.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Juba, the new nation’s capital, as they heard their president, Salva Kiir, declare the southern region of Sudan free and independent of the north.

South Sudan’s official declaration of independence was read out at 1:25 p.m., followed by Kiir being sworn in as the new nation’s president.

“Never again shall South Sudanese be oppressed for their political beliefs,” Kiir said. “Never again shall our people be discriminated [against] on account of race or religion. Never again shall we roam the world as sojourners and refugees.”

The division between the north and the south is sharp. The north is arid, Arab and Muslim, while the south has many varieties of vegetation, is black African and is predominantly Christian and animistic.

“We have reclaimed our permanent home given to us by God as our birthright,” Kiir said. “As we bask in the glory of nationhood, I call upon all South Sudanese to put the long and sad history of war, hardship and loss behind them and open a new chapter of peace and reconciliation in our lives.”

With elaborate ceremony, the flag of Sudan was lowered and the new flag of South Sudan was raised. South Sudan is now the world’s newest nation, raising the global number to 196, and the African continent’s 54th nation-state.

Among the many dignitaries on hand Saturday were former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who played a key role in the 2005 peace agreement to end Sudan’s civil war, and Susan Rice, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations.

“Independence is not a gift that you were given,” Rice said. “Independence is a prize that you have won.”

The official ceremonies began with the singing of the country’s new national anthem. “Oh God, we praise and glorify you for your grace on South Sudan,” the opening lines say.

In preparation for South Sudan’s independence, government officials urged citizens to attend churches and other houses of worship to pray for peace and thank God for their newfound freedom. Many churches held special services Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Nuru Baptist Church, the only Baptist church in Juba, held community services on Saturday to celebrate independence day, taking opportunity to share the Gospel with visitors.

The congregation played drums, sang and danced in traditional African worship. Many waved flags as they danced and sang. A feeling of jubilation filled the air.

One community leader, specially invited to the event, not only thanked God for the country’s independence, guaranteeing religious freedom, but also for establishment of the church in the community. “Your presence here is a benefit and a blessing to our area,” he said.

“Let us praise God that He has given us our freedom,” said Sworo Elikana, a pastor of the church. “We must rejoice!”

The service focused on the theme “Heal the Brokenhearted and Set the Captives Free,” from Isaiah 61.

“The passage says we must bring good news to the poor,” Elikana said. “We have been poor.”

The U.N. Security Council continues working to stabilize several areas in Sudan and South Sudan; however, U.N. troops assigned to Sudan since 2005 are being removed by Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir, despite disapproval from the U.S. The troops are expected to remain in the Darfur region and to occupy South Sudan during the early years of independence.

Rice said in a speech Thursday the U.S. was “extremely concerned by the government’s decision to compel the departure of the U.N. mission in Sudan from Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states and elsewhere in the north.”

President Bashir, who spoke favorably of the new country’s efforts during the ceremonies, must now work with President Kiir to divide oil revenue, set borders, apportion responsibility for Sudan’s $38 billion foreign debt and decide which country the oil-rich border states belong to.

One controversial state is Abyei, located just north of the proposed border. Abyei has long been hotly disputed because of oil in the region, but recent media reports say oil reserves are low and conflicts have become ethnic.

In May northern troops violently annexed Abyei in overwhelming numbers, forcing nearly 100,000 southern Sudanese to flee; however, a recent deal was made to pull out northern troops and allow Ethiopian soldiers to serve as U.N. peacekeepers for six months in the region.

During the Saturday gathering, Simon Gatluaklim, another pastor at Nuru Baptist Church, asked for special prayers for Abyei, for believers there and for the state to be joined with the south.

Fighting also broke out in Kadugli, the capital of Southern Kordofan, a key oil state bordering South Sudan and Abyei that has a large population of southern sympathizers. Thousands have fled the state to escape killings and air strikes by the northern army.

Despite ongoing reports of conflict initiated from the north, President Bashir may soon realize the secession’s benefits for Sudan. U.S. President Barack Obama has offered to remove Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, enabling it to use the World Bank and restore diplomatic ties.
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Charles Braddix and Zoe Allen are members of the International Mission Board’s global communication team.
For a July 8 Baptist Press story on South Sudan independence, click here.

SENDAI, Japan—Akifumi Narita understands there is a reason God saved him from the ravages of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that decimated a large portion of his home town of Kamaishi and took the lives of his grandmother and uncle. The young believer is simply trying to figure out what that reason might be.

Narita traveled back to Kamaishi from Tokyo with a disaster relief team from the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to help with the ongoing recovery efforts coordinated by Tokyo Baptist Church. Two weeks earlier the 19-year-old had been sent by his parents to the home of his older sister in the capital city in order to get away from the physical and emotional stress of post-tsunami life.

The SBTC DR team came to Japan on the heels of another SBTC team from First Baptist Church of Brownsville that was just wrapping up work in the same region.

The latter team, made up of nine volunteers, arrived in Japan June 20 and deployed from Tokyo Baptist Church on June 21.

Part of the team was sent to Ishinomaki while the rest traveled farther northeast to the coastal city of Kamaishi where Narita continues to seek God’s will in helping with recovery.

Via translator Ruth Harimoto of Tokyo Baptist Church, Narita recounted the experiences of March 11 and how, in the aftermath, he realized that he had family beyond the city limits of Kamaishi.

Only a year earlier, Narita had come to know the Lord as his Savior through what he described as a somewhat deceptive act by his sister, Keiko. She was a Christian, much to her parents’ disapproval, and was attending Tokyo Baptist. In the summer of 2010 Keiko registered her brother to attend a camp in Taiwan. He agreed to go, believing the venture might be a good way to spend part of his summer. But there was a caveat—Keiko had conveniently failed to inform him that it was a Christian camp sponsored by her church. When he discovered her lack of full disclosure he was mad and “had a big fight” with her that evening.

A day later Narita was at the airport with a bunch of strangers, he recalled.

“I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I stayed in my own shell,” he said. But that did not keep the other students from reaching out to him. Their acts put a crack in his shell. The worship music broadened the fissure.

“I like songs and singing,” he said. “Through the songs I was able to open my heart.”

By the third or fourth day of camp Narita admitted he was having fun. But in a small group session he was confronted with a serious question.

“Why are you here?” he was asked.

He had no answer but someone else in the group did.

“You were called here by God.”

Narita said that was the point where life changed for him. Forced to confront the reality of God in his life, Narita was born again. He said he felt cleansed.

Before that time, he admitted, he had been “trouble” for his parents. But his “clean” life produced a change so significant that his parents could not disapprove of his conversion because of the positive influence it had on his life. And the Christian response to the tragedy of the earthquake and tsunami helped Narita realize his family was bigger than the bonds of flesh and blood.

When the ground shook March 11—seemingly forever—Narita and his mother were home watching TV. They tried to leave the home but the outside walls began to crumble so they stayed in between the door posts. Once the earth stopped moving the tsunami sirens began to wale.

The public address system warned Kamaishi residents to prepare for four-meter waves and to head for high ground. Narita said his family’s home is about two miles inland and at an elevation that would keep them safe from such waves. He said they could not see the shore from his house but they did see the river “rising and rising.”

What was coming ashore was higher than four meters.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake spawned a tsunami with a 10-meter wall of water (32.5 feet) that tore through communities on the northeast coast of Japan, ripping homes and lives from their very foundations.

Narita said it was two days before his family knew the extent of the damage and an entire week before he could go into the region to inspect his grandmother’s home. But there was no home to inspect.

They did not give up hope that she and Narita’s uncle who had been with her were somewhere among the living. They clung to unsubstantiated reports of sightings and searched all the refuge centers in the area. After a month of searching and hoping, the family reconciled themselves to the fact that their loved ones were gone, he said.

But for what purpose did God spare him?

Just like at camp, the young man had no immediate answer but one of his “family members” from Tokyo Baptist did. Narita is to help others beginning with those in his hometown who have lost everything. He shrugged at the suggestion.

For the present Narita said he wants people to understand one of the most significant lessons he had learned from the experience: no day is guaranteed. He asked that people watch the tsunami videos posted online and understand that life can be lost in a moment.