Matthew House wraps its arms around frightened and displaced refugees, like Josie, forced to flee Africa with her young daughter. “After leaving our home in Africa, scared and alone, God has given us a new family in Canada.  The love shown to us at Matthew House has encouraged us to pick up our lives and start again.”

On this trip, we will:

• visit and pray with Matthew House refugees of all ages
• deliver furniture to a refugee family
• sort donations
• cook meals for refugee families,
• play games with newly arrived refugees
• work in the garden
• worship with refugee families

Visit Parliament Hill in Ottawa, see the beautiful Canadian countryside, stay at Niagara-on-the-Lake on Lake Ontario, with optional excursions to Niagara Falls and the theatre in Toronto.

For trip itinerary and cost, contact joyce.gilbreath@texasbaptists.org.

Before his death my father became convinced that I could never NOT be a minister: from the pulpit or the counseling room. Of course, in the broadest sense of the Christian’s mission, it’s all about ministering. Which convinces me that this topic, “Ministering to the Ministering,” is a two-way street.

The ministering counselor needs a minister, a pastor, a shepherd, a trustworthy Christian leader in his/her congregation and the community at large.  Providing therapy for the chronically depressed, the suicidal, those who live in fear and anxiety, those who seem hopelessly addicted, couples in conflict and broken families—this calling requires spiritual guidance and resources that a pastor can provide for the stressed-out counselor.  Those of us living within the confines of the therapy room hour after hour, day after day, year after year, are highly vulnerable to emotional, physical and spiritual fatigue—we call it “compassion fatigue.” We need a spiritual leader who encourages, supports and provides insight into our own needs as a Christian.  We also need this kind of leader serving as a spiritual resource to our clients, and a congregation who will love, encourage and empower those we send their way.

It was an interesting transition from the staff minister to church member, deacon and Bible study leader. What I enjoyed most as a church member were first, those professional opportunities when I had the privilege of introducing my pastor to my colleagues, and second, those serendipitous moments in the community when in a mall or supermarket I would proudly point to the guy in the crowd as “my pastor.”

The ministering “minister” needs a “counseling” minister, a friend, a professional, trusted colleague in the community, sometimes as therapist, sometimes a resource, spokesperson for the mental health community.  Show me a pastor who wanders into psychology from the pulpit without adequate research and I’ll show you a pastor who spends a lot of time apologizing and qualifying what he or she actually “meant” to say in that sermon.  And, how does one preach or teach to the human condition without adequate knowledge of human behavior?  The preacher doesn’t need to be an expert on everything.  The preacher doesn’t need to know the latest findings on clinical depression.  But he/she does need to know where to go for that information.  The counselor can be that resource and offer support and caution where it is needed.

Pastors, staff ministers, and church leaders need to know when to refer.  To do so he/she must be well aware of the strengths, specialties, and even the limitations of counselors in the community.  If the church is to prevent unnecessary emotional stress and psychological disorders, those ministering to and on behalf of the church must provide education through workshops, seminars, special events, on the challenges of our time:  marriage and family enrichment, living a healthy single lifestyle, building workplace relationships, leadership skills, stress management, sexual enrichment from a Christian perspective.  When crises strike a community the church ought to lead out with its resources, and often the first line of response will be those licensed and trained people of faith who have spent years of academic and clinical training, equipping them to understand how the mind responds to trauma and how to find balance in their lives once again.

Yes indeed, the challenge of ministering involves each of us ministering to each other.

Presented at CCT Pastoral Advisory Council: Pastoral Counseling Seminar, Christian Counselors of Texas Conference, February 17, 2011

From the perspective of Dan McGee, Ph.D.  For more information: www.drdanmcgee.com.

Is your church in one of these counties: Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Navarro, or Rockwall? These are the counties served by the North Texas Food Bank. If your church wants to discover new ways to help the needy in these  13 counties, go to this webpage on the BGCT website and view the needs:  http://texasbaptists.org/dailybread/NTFBagency/. Once at the website, click on Daily Bread – [your county]. Dallas County is divided into three areas: Dallas County N is north of I-30, Dallas County C is between I-30 and I-20, and Dallas County S is south of I-20. 

The Texas Baptist Advocacy/Care Center’s new ministry initiative called Daily Bread is busy contacting food pantries, collecting needs from the pantries, and posting them on the site so churches can have easy access to opportunities to minister to the hungry. More are added almost daily, so keep checking back. These food pantries are very excited about having this opportunity to join with our churches in ministry.

SAVE THE DATE

FOR THE NORTH TEXAS FOOD BANK’S FULL ON FAITH WEEK JULY  9- 14

The North Texas Food Bank has once again scheduled the highly successful and rewarding “Full on Faith” week July 9-14. Many BGCT churches participated last year. This is a time when a faith-based group (or an individual associated with such a group) can volunteer to serve for a three-hour shift helping with sorting and boxing/sacking food that will go to needy people in the 13-county area served by the North Texas Food Bank. Times are available Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m.-  noon or 1- 4 p.m. (These times, especially on Saturday, fill up fast.) The time can be donated as food allowance for your neighborhood NTFB-affiliated food pantry if you wish, so that when that food pantry next goes to the Food Bank to pick up food, it will have a credit to use toward the purchase of food.  What a great way to help! And a great way to fellowship with your Bible study class and with other faith-based groups . If that week doesn’t work out for your church, you can sign up any other week as well.  Just go to volunteer@ntfb.org.

NTFB PEANUT BUTTER DRIVE IN MARCH     

The North Texas Food Bank desperately needs more peanut butter!  NTFB is going to hold a special peanut butter drive during March to make this much-needed food item more available to food pantries. Stock up now, and then get the peanut butter to NTFB during March. The address is 4500 S Cockrell Hill Road, Dallas 75236.

VIRTUAL FOOD DRIVE OPPORTUNITY

Want to donate funds to help with hunger ministries in North Texas?  Individually or as a Bible Study class, consider the Virtual Food Drive.  If you think modern technology and the internet are fun (or even if you don’t), you’ll love this.  Just go to this North Texas Food Bank website:  http://vad.aidmatrix.org/vadxml.cfm?driveid=5329   and buy food.  The animation is fun, too!  Choose to be a male or female shopper, walk with your cart down the grocery aisle, and pick out what you want to purchase.  Then check out just like you would purchase any item on an internet website.  Normally each dollar you give provides 3 nutritious meals, but from now through March 31, each dollar will provide 6 nutritious meals!

 USE YOUR PHONE TO GIVE!

Another easy way to contribute $10 to the North Texas Food Bank:  On your mobile phone, just text feed@80888.

 DOUBLE YOUR GIFT (AND ITS IMPACT) BEFORE MARCH 31!

The North Texas Food Bank is thrilled to announce that the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee has issued the Food Bank’s largest-ever matching gift challenge: $1 million!

 Every dollar given to the North Texas Food Bank between now and March 31 will have a double impact thanks to this transformative gift. Normally one dollar provides 3 nutritious meals. This opportunity will double that to 6! Reaching the total goal will provide 6 million meals for those struggling with hunger in our community.

 Please make a gift today to help twice as many North Texans in need! Thank you in advance for helping start 2012 with the resources to provide nutritious food for our hungry families, children and seniors.

Your gifts to the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering today will help feed people both in Dallas and around the world. The map on this page shows the reach of this Texas-based offering.

Malaysia is one of the places where hunger aid reaches. Rainfall is plentiful and the soil is rich in northeast Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo. But the rice farmers there still have difficulty providing adequately for their families.

A local congregation, with the help of another Malaysian church hundreds of miles away and the Baptist World Alliance,
is trying to change the situation and help farmers move out of poverty. Texas Baptists are now coming alongside these groups to continue the effort through the hunger offering.

Word of Life Church is nestled in the lush hills of Tagaroh, a village near the South China Sea at the northern tip of East Malaysia, which is on the island of Borneo. It is a long way, in more ways than geography, from the cosmopolitan capital of the country, Kuala Lumpur, which is on the Malay Peninsula.

Three shining galvanized steel silos now stand behind the church’s building. A portion of the community’s next rice crop will be stored in the silos, allowing the farmers to retain enough rice for their own needs and thus avoid buying expensive rice from stores. It is a matter of organizing and planning for the community to meet its nutrition needs because the money saved will help the families raise their standard of living.

This convergence of economic and agricultural principles is rooted in faith commitments by those involved. Lim “Lloyd” Phang Hong, of Straits Baptist Church in Melaka, on the peninsula, is providing technical direction
for the project. “I always believe it’s hard to speak (about Jesus) to another person who is hungry,” he said. To help the people of Tagaroh feed themselves is an “exercise of my faith.”

Pastor Belunduk Lingungud, who started Word of Life Church and four other congregations in the area, said the people of Tagaroh did not understand the project at first. But Lim explained how the silos could help the farmers retain more of their harvest and save money in the process.

Peter Sugara is pastor of Word of Life Church today. It is a congregation of about 300 farming families, but Sugara sees the agriculture project more broadly. The silos are “not the personal property of the church but the property of the community.”

And it is a community in need. The rice farmers of Tagaroh are in a “very serious trap that will keep them in poverty,” said Lim, who is an agriculture consultant to businesses and universities. “If they do not have their own grain they are really impoverished.”

The trap is caused by three factors. First, traditional processes for drying and storing harvested rice resulted in a high percentage of waste and destruction of the crop. Second, the farmers are tempted to sell their crops for cash and thus avoid the loss. And third, the farmers then have to buy back the rice as they need it at three to four times the cost they received for it when it was grown.

By developing a more effective system of drying and storing harvested rice, the farmers will save the crop and eventually their money. That’s where the Baptist World Alliance comes in. Through its Baptist World Aid efforts, the
world body has supplied necessary funds—about $18,000 to date—to get the silo project started.

The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering involvement will help complete the project and expand it. The offering provides about $150,000 for BWAid projects each year, and the Tagaroh effort is one of the 2012 projects.

Word of Life Church has set up a committee to administer the project, and about 30 families are expected to
participate.

A family in Tagaroh typically has about two acres of rice, and that will produce about four tons of rice per harvest, Lim said. With the new silos, each family is expected to sell about half of its crop to generate the necessary cash for other necessities of life and to store the other half for periodic use until the next harvest.

But grain storage is not the only aspect of the plan. Most farmers do not own their own “tractors” or cultivation equipment. They either work the land by hand or pay someone to till the rice paddy for them. Mechanized approaches
increase yields, Lim said, but most farmers cannot afford it. The church hopes to eventually buy equipment for farmers
to use.

Christian love is showing itself in the village of Tagaroh, as Baptists from Malaysia to Texas and many points in between come together to help a people living in poverty to have the food they need.

“Love costs us in time and energy,” said Lloyd Lim. But it is a cost worth paying and one that produces great dividends.

Taken from Tapestry, Wilshire Baptist Church’s newsletter - http://images.acswebnetworks.com/1/1746/Tapestry020512.pdf

Working in partnership with Timberline Fellowship near Bastrop, the men’s ministry organization birthed a new ministry last fall when it borrowed a portable sawmill from East Texas Baptist Encampment. Instantly, the very trees that were burned by the wildfires were seen as fuel to help people begin their recovery.

Jim Long, a TBM volunteer and veteran sawyer, helped to put the ministry together. “It broke our hearts to see all the timber lost in disaster. I am glad we have found a way to capture some of it for kingdom use.”

Using the sawmill, TBM volunteers turned charred trees into usable lumber for the recovery process in Bastrop. Volunteers cut and sort the lumber into “packages” to be used to build specific sized storage buildings. Plans were produced by a draftsman and are given to homeowners to use to assemble the building they have chosen. Other homeowners that need a porch or steps or a ramp brought their needs list to be filled by the ministry. The church receives the requests for the lumber then prioritizes the list with the most urgent need at the top of the list.

The ministry worked so well, Timberline Fellowship bought its own portable sawmill to continue the ministry past January.

“Our folks need temporary structures as they rebuild their lives,” said Timberline Fellowship Pastor Gordon Friday. “This raw lumber affords them a fast remedy for porches, ramps and storage buildings that they need.”

Ernie Rice, the TBM volunteer who led the sawmill effort, said he is pleased God creatively used TBM volunteers to meet the needs of people in Bastrop, giving volunteers and Timberline Fellowship the opportunity to share about God’s love. Rice looks forward to seeing how God uses the sawmill and TBM in days ahead.

One couple who lived in the area brought a tree to the TBM volunteers to mill. The tree had been planted 47 years earlier by the woman’s grandfather on the day of her birth. As a result of the fires, the husband and wife had to cut it down. They wanted to use some of the lumber from it in their reconstruction. Most of it went to help others in the community. TBM volunteers visited with the couple for about 90 minutes and invited them to visit Timberline Fellowship.

“We are just trying to be obedient to God’s call.” said Ernie Rice, team leader of this happy band of sawdust makers.

Compiled from TBM reports.

Order from Ana-Lab Corporation, P.O. Box 9000, Kilgore, TX  75663, or phone 903-984-0551.

This year’s Christian Life Commission Conference will both remember Christ and inspire us for living. The conference theme will be “Christian Ethics: A Both/And Approach in an Either/Or World.” It will be March 8-9 at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, and all are welcome.

Featured speakers will be:

Allen Verhey, professor of Christian ethics at Duke Divinity and author of Remembering Jesus: Christian Community , Scripture, and the Moral Life.

Michael Evans, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Mansfield.

Bill Tillman, director of the Texas Baptist Theological Education office and past T.B. Maston Professor of Christian Ethics at Logsdon School of Theology, Hardin-Simmons University.

Workshop speakers will be the following:

Kyle Childress, pastor of Austin Heights Baptist Church in Nacogdoches.

Ken Hugghins, pastor of Elkins Lake Baptist Church in Huntsville.

Coleman Fannin, is a lecturer in the Great Texts Program at Baylor University.

Jeanie Miley, author of nine books and speaker on personal spiritual growth.

Gus Reyes, director of the Hispanic Education Initiative and Affinity Ministries for Texas Baptists.

Cost is $50 per person.

For more information click here, or send an email to marilyn.davis@texasbaptists.org.

Hardage was serving as director of development for George W. Truett Theological Seminary and interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Waxahachie. He previously has served as executive director of the Waco Regional Baptist Association. He also has been pastor of First Baptist Church in Sulphur Springs, First Baptist Church in Holliday and First Baptist Church in Blum. He also pastored First Baptist Church in Weatherford, Okla. and has served as interim pastor at churches such as Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco, First Baptist Church in Huntsville and First Baptist Church in Bryan.

Hardage said he is honored to be selected to serve Texas Baptists. He will begin as executive director Feb. 1.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to serve our Texas Baptist family as executive director,” Hardage said. “It is an honor, and I’m very humbled. I have great respect for those who have served in this position before me and appreciate so much those currently serving this convention. Texas Baptists are making a positive difference for the kingdom, and this is to be celebrated. However, there is so much still to be done. Together, as we work, pray and give we can touch this state and beyond, to an even greater degree.”

Hardage has served as the the chairman of the BGCT State Missions Commission, chairman of the BGCT Missions Funding Committee and as a trustee at East Texas Baptist University. He currently is a trustee at Latham Springs Camp and Retreat Center.

Hardage earned his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University, a master’s of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctorate from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City.

Blessed brothers and sisters in Christ, my name is Hector Amaya but I am better known as Brother Amaya.  I will share the following in regards to the Goddard Christian Care Center.

I have been going to the Care Center for some time now, and every time that I go my faith increases and my spirit rejoices. Why? Because I get to see my Christian brothers and sisters doing what they voluntarily do for the honor and glory of our Lord Jesus.

I see the patience they have with all of the people talking and moving around.  I see their patience with the noisy lovable children. their caring love for others and their dedication to what they do. I don’t think they would do all of that without the Love of God.

While I wait in line for the center to open, I have a chance to give glory to God by witnessing and sharing my testimony with others outside.  So I am thankful to God for the Care Center and the members of the Body of Christ that I have met there.

Here is a small part of the testimony that I am able to share:

In 1965-1966 I was transferred from the Texas State Prison to New Mexico to due to four Federal Counts for violation of the Federal Narcotic Law. This carried 80 years without parole if convicted.  During this period of my life my name came up on God’s agenda and I fell to my knees in prayer with tears rolling down my face. Why? I didn’t know then but I know now. I had made many promises to God in my past that I never kept. Maybe it was because they came from my lips but not from my heart.  In that moment I knew that what was coming out of me was coming from my heart because with tears in my eyes I said, “God, if I am going to keep living for the devil don’t wake me up in the morning. But if you can do something with my life then let me wake up.” With that I went to bed.

In Job 33:14-15 we are told that God does speak to us in dreams. That night I had a dream and I was lying dead in a coffin.  My mother, sister and wife were standing next to my coffin.  I got up from the coffin and stood next to my mother.

“Look mother, I am standing here nest to you and I am dead in the coffin.  There are two of me,” I said to her.

“Son, that,” she said pointing to the coffin, “is the old life that is going to be buried forever and this,” she said pointing to me standing next to her, “is the new life that God has granted you.” Then I woke up.

We know that God always keeps His word. In 1989, after many trials and tribulations, God kept His word to me and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  I have been serving Him ever since.  Thank you Lord Jesus.

In His Service,
Brother Amaya