By Staff, Baptist Message

LORANGER, RUSTON – Tsunami: American Samoa; earthquake: Haiti, earthquake: Chile. These are the current international needs for disaster relief volunteers.

And over the course of the last year, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief engaged in more than 170 disaster responses – feeding, plus clean-up following floods, fires, storms, and other types of disasters.

By Karen Willoughby, Managing Editor

LORANGER – A caring heart, listening ear and willing spirit are about all that are needed by people wanting to be trained as disaster relief chaplain volunteers.

Everything else can be added during two days of training.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. – Now there are two needs Southern Baptists across the globe are responding to: Haiti and Chile.

Both were devastated by earthquakes. Haiti’s was more severe because the earthquake struck near the nation’s capital city, Port-au-Prince, with its crowded population and structures not designed to withstand earthquakes.

PINEVILLE – It was a weekend to remember for Louisiana College’s Lady Wildcat basketball squad.

By Al Quartemont, Special to the Message

PINEVILLE – LC football coach Dennis Dunn remembers well the first time he met Bill McCartney.

The encounter with the man who led Colorado to a National Championship in football in 1990 and would eventually start the Christian ministry, Promise Keepers, came in February 1992, when Dunn and his assistant coaching staff at Evangel High School of Shreveport made a trip to Boulder, Colo.

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor

BATON ROUGE – High school juniors and seniors from across Louisiana joined during Mardi Gras weekend with a Baptist Collegiate Ministries missions team from LSU.
Their destination: Mission Arlington, in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex.

It was designed as a Transitions missions trip, said Steve Masters, BCM director at LSU. “Transitions” is the term used with students in their last years of high school and first years of college.

By Staff, Louisiana Baptist Foundation

ALEXANDRIA – The January 2010 Board of Trustees meeting of the Louisiana Baptist Foundation opened with a word of encouragement from Brent Cating, chairman of the Investment Committee.

As he drove from his home in Lake Charles to Alexandria in the early morning hours, he noticed how the casinos had plenty of lighting to attract potential patrons. But he noted how this light was the “light of darkness,” drawing people in to the sins that the world offers.

He encouraged the other trustees, in their personal lives and in the oversight of the Foundation, to present the Light of the World, who is Jesus Christ our Saviour.

By Staff, Baptist Message

A crowd of 300 women gathered at First Baptist Pineville for the annual Kaleidoscope women s conference Feb. 6PINEVILLE – About 300 women gathered Feb. 6 for the annual Kaleidoscope women’s conference at First Baptist Church of Pineville.

Theme for the event was Transitions: A Journey into Oneness with Christ.

“I loved it; it was so informative,” said Violet Adams, member at the Pentecostals of Alexandria. “The speaker made it so funny; she was wonderful, and the singer was awesome.”

Adams was speaking of Leighann McCoy of Nashville, Tenn., and Kelly Garner of Franklin, Tenn.

ALEXANDRIA – An SBC Disaster Relief-trained team of a dozen medical professionals and chaplain from Louisiana, expects to be ministering this week in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 

Led by Jay Johnston, associate pastor at First Baptist Church of Covington, and DR_trained chaplain, this team was to leave from New Orleans, Friday, Feb. 19, for a week in the hurricane-ravaged capital city.

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor

John Ed Jelks with Jeff Woodrich at Jelks retirement celebration and Baptist Builders Appreciation DinnerLIVONIA – The John Ed Jelks Fund is to be established this year at the Louisiana Baptist Foundation as a Donor Advisor Fund to provide financial support for Mission Service Corps missionaries serving as construction project coordinators with the Louisiana Baptist Mission Builders.

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor

VBS Theme: Saddle Ridge RanchALEXANDRIA –  A horse ranch in northern Colorado was the location of the four videos taken for LifeWay’s 2010 Vacation Bible School curriculum: Saddle Ridge Ranch.

Participants at a recent preview of the curriculum, resources, songs (with motions) and games, which took place at the Baptist Building, said they were looking forward to an exciting VBS that was to include some Louisiana Lagniappe.

By Quinn Lavespere, Special to the Message

LC Professor and International Coordinator of Nursing David Sharp spoke on Approaching Spirituality in client care.The Louisiana College School of Nursing held a symposium on “Spirituality In Health Care” on Thursday, Jan. 21, in the Granberry Conference Center.

LC Professor of Nursing and Dean of School of Nursing and Allied Health, Kimberly Sharp, said that the main goal of the symposium was to teach nursing students and others working in health care about spirituality and how to address the spiritual needs of clients.Sharp said that a full digest of the symposium’s events will be made available through a weblink on the LC nursing website after the symposium is over.

Harry and Dorothy Trainer (center) meet with Jerry Love and Wayne Taylor to discuss the distribution of their assets.As a simple matter of fact, hurricanes can alter a life’s story.  Many stories are told of how the devastation of hurricanes in recent years has impacted thousands of lives across the Gulf Coast. 

This is a story of how a simple evacuation plan turned into life-changing circumstances for one couple.

Leighann McCoyPINEVILLE – A saying hand-written in many Bibles is, “If you’re far from God, guess who moved?”

Kaleidoscope 2010 addresses that question with its theme, taken from James 4:8 – Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

The two-session event, set for Saturday, Feb. 6, at First Baptist Church of Pineville, includes lunch in its $25 per-person cost. Pre-registration with payment is requested by Jan. 28, to assure correct number of materials and meals, said Janie Wise, director of women’s missions and ministry for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, which sponsors the Cooperative Program-funded event.

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor

Cindy BlanchardNEW IBERIA – Cindy Blanchard locked away, deep in her heart, the abortion of the one and only child she would ever bear.

It was just one in a series of events that included alcoholic parents, domestic abuse, suicide attempts, homosexuality, marriage that soon ended in divorce, and a one-night stand that left her pregnant.