By Lisa Hartine, Special to the Message

MONROE – Today’s generation of young girls is experiencing pressure that their moms didn’t begin to know until high school.

Today’s society dictates tight skirts, skinny jeans, midriffs showing, or words printed on the seat of shorts or the front of tees that are often suggestive or otherwise inappropriate.

Secret Keeper Girl addresses issues of modesty and purity in a fun, age-appropriate mannerResearch shows that one in every five teens appears older than she actually is because of the way she dresses.  This could put a young girl in dangerous situations, including early sexual experimentation.

Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home & Family Ministries
Introducing Foster Care & Adoption Ministries to the Local Church
Regional Info Meetings – 7:00 PM
YOU’RE INVITED!

Come and discover how you and your church can make an eternal difference in the lives of over 5,000 children in Louisiana who need the love of Christ, a Christian home and a church family. For more info call 318-343-2244.

February 23: LBCH, Monroe 7200 DeSiard St., Monroe

March 15: FBC Houma 7382 Main St., Houma

March 16: Harbor Community Church 6100 Canal St., New Orleans

March 23: FBC Pineville 901 Main St. Pineville

April 6: Calvary Baptist Church 9333 Linwood Ave., Shreveport

April 19: Florida Blvd. Baptist Church 10915 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge

April 20: Bedico Baptist Church 28156 Hwy. 22 E. Ponchatoula

The United Nations estimates there are over 145 million orphans in the world. There are also 130,000 children in the U.S. foster care system waiting to be adopted. With more than 500,000 children and youth in out-of-home care in the U.S., it is hard to ignore the impact of child abuse and neglect on our nation’s next generations.

In Louisiana, there are more than 5,000 children in the state foster care system with only 2,200 foster care homes available for placement. These children desperately need a loving Christian home and supportive church family.

In June 2009, the Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution on adoption and orphan care. Here is a portion of what it proclaims:

WHEREAS, Upward of 150 million orphans now languish without families in orphanages, group homes, and placement systems in North America and around the world; and

WHEREAS, Our Father loves all of these children, and a great multitude of them will never otherwise hear the gospel of Jesus Christ; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, June 23-24, 2009, express our commitment to join our Father in seeking mercy for orphans; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we call on each Southern Baptist family to pray for guidance as to whether God is calling them to adopt or foster a child or children…

By Mickey Noah, Baptist Press

North American Mission Board missionaries Jim and Myrtle Ballard serve in Idaho assisting new churchesBLACKFOOT, Idaho – North American Mission Board missionary Jim Ballard – all 243 lbs. of him – lay sprawled in agonizing pain on a snow-covered dirt trail high in the mountains of the Salmon National Forest in eastern Idaho. 

Four of his ribs and a vertebra were fractured, and his sternum was cracked.  His lung punctured, Ballard was spitting up pink, foamy blood, which dotted his full salt-and-pepper beard.

In conjunction with HomePlace, the national Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) recently approved LBCH as a Christian Women’s Job Corps site. The Christian Women’s Job Corps of Monroe will serve as another strategic ministry of the Children’s Home and will be offered at no cost to qualified participants.

The philosophy behind CWJC is that every woman deserves
a chance to develop her God-given talents, to develop her skills for employment, to develop skills for successful living, and to reach her goals with God’s help.

By Russ Rankin, Baptist Press

Two Florida nurses keep medications moving through pharmacy area at field hospital in Port-au-PrincePORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (BP) – A team of medical volunteers from  Florida hasn’t stopped working since arriving in Haiti on Feb. 3. There is just too much to do.

It has been nearly one month since the massive earthquake shook this impoverished nation.

Some estimates have placed the death toll as high as 200,000. Following an initial assessment by Florida and Southern Baptist disaster relief representatives, Florida joined South Carolina, Kentucky and Mississippi in mobilizing emergency medical teams to help lead the Baptist response, following initial medical teams from Arkansas and North Carolina.

By Staff, Baptist Message

BUSH – The loading aboard ship of the 40-foot-long container bound for Haiti has been delayed until Feb. 27.

“There are a couple of reasons for this,” said Johnny Huffman, member of New Zion Baptist Church in Covington and an experienced shipper of items for Christian concerns. “One is that people are still collecting food items and infant formulas. The other reason is that I was informed, last night, that by waiting a little we may be able to offload the container directly into Haiti.”

PINEVILLE – Youth, adult and senior adult drama teams are invited to perform during the Friday evening session of the annual LBC Drama Festival, which is to take place Feb. 26-27 at Louisiana College.

Also at the Friday evening session: performances by workshop leaders.

“One of the best learning experiences are from each other as church groups are given the opportunity to perform,” said Patti Yeatts, who has developed the annual drama festival over the last nine years. “As director, I also seek skilled conference leaders who have experience and am doubly blessed that some have degrees in theater/drama.”

In 2005, Perry Hancock, LBCH President and CEO, and trustees began evaluating the need for additional ways to expand the effectiveness of the Children’s Home mission.

The evaluation resulted in the development of a strategic ministry plan called “Moving Forward with the Mission.” In 2007, PathFinders was begun, a ministry that assists 18-to-21-year-olds to transition from high school to adult life.

Then, in 2008, a group of needy children were identified that resulted in the development of My Friends’ House, an emergency care shelter serving an eleven-parish region.

By Staff, Baptist Press

A South Carolina Baptist medical team fashioned a clinic at a Haitian churchNASHVILLE, Tenn. – Volunteers are making a profound difference in the lives of Haitians who survived the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake – from medical professionals and disaster relief experts who are using specialized skills to relieve suffering, to the multitude of lay people who have been fervently praying and generously giving for the past three weeks.

While medical teams from Kentucky, Mississippi, Florida and South Carolina have been joined in Haiti by a leadership coordination team from the North American Mission Board, a Feb. 10-11 meeting in Atlanta charted the course for the long-term response and involvement of general service volunteers, said Jeff Palmer, executive director of Baptist Global Response.

By Marilyn Stewart, Regional Reporter

Greg Hand, pastor of Vieux Carre Baptist Church in the French Quarter has brief encounters with revelers to share the gospelNEW ORLEANS – Like “boots on the ground” on foreign soil, evangelism teams share the Gospel in New Orleans during Mardi Gras in a difficult and not-so-comfortable setting. The long hours of work bring but few to faith in Christ.

Greg Hand, pastor of Vieux Carre Baptist Church in the French Quarter, said brief encounters in tourist-swollen streets make it difficult to track conversions and the long-term results of their work.

So, why bother?

“We are called to be a light,” Hand said. “It’s an imperative. That’s why we do this.”

By Diana Chandler, Regional Reporter

Members of the Global Maritime cruise team participated in the ministries 2010 mission cruise in JanuaryNEW ORLEANS – Prayer walks can be challenging aboard cruise ships, with the bars, casinos, tattoo booths and other distractions.

But that didn’t keep Chaplains Ann and Steve Corbin and 14 others from the Lord’s work during Global Maritime Ministries’ 2010 mission cruise, a one-week Western Caribbean excursion aboard the Carnival Triumph Jan. 16-23.

“We all found that very, very difficult to do in that kind of setting because there is so much going on and your senses are all over the place,” Ann Corbin said. “But by the time we left, the whole ship was talking – in the positive. [Steve said] Jesus would go in places like that.”

By Daniel Clymer, Special to the Message

The moving of the waters is a beautiful thing, when it is caused by the new birth of a believer in Jesus Christ. All across New Mexico, baptistries are being filled and the water is being stirred by those who gave their lives to Jesus during last fall’s Native American evangelistic events.

“Jesus, Hope For All Nations!” revivals and evangelistic events have brought new hope to 89 Native people who made professions of faith and have brought more than 150 people to a closer relationship and commitment to God through rededications.

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor

KENTWOOD – Two leaders with Baptist Global Response and other speakers are to share their eMissionary Jim Wagoner and Pastor Gaspar are shown using agriculture as a tool for evangelism in Oaxaca, Mexico.xpertise during the 2010 annual meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Agricultural Missions Fellowship.

The gathering of people interested in agricultural missions is set to start at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, in the fellowship hall at First Baptist Church in Kentwood, about 35 miles north of Hammond on Interstate-55, and about 15 miles south of McComb, Miss. It is to conclude before 3 p.m.

“We will have a world-class group of speakers, including Jeffrey Palmer, Executive Director of Baptist Global Response, who is stationed in Singapore,” said W. Nelson Philpot, Ph.D., president of the Ag Missions Fellowship. “In addition, Dr. Jim Brown, Vice President-Director of BGR for the Americas, will also be on the program, plus several others who will both inform and inspire us.”

ROBERT – An annual Disaster Relief Training Roundtable is set for Jan. 22-23 at Camp Living Waters. Registration deadline is set for Jan. 8.

For those who miss the deadline, a similar event is to take place Feb. 19-20 at Temple Baptist in Ruston.

By Diana Chandler, Special to the Message

NEW ORLEANS – Thanksgiving gatherings at Cornelius Tilton’s childhood home swelled with extended family members and African and South American guests, developing in him a love of foreign languages and cultures.

After spending his junior year in France as a Dillard University business administration and French major, Tilton surmised he would work in middle management in a French-speaking African country.