By Mark H. Hunter, Special to the Message   BATON ROUGE – More than 200 pastors and members of the Louisiana Family Forum got their spirits revved by evangelist James Robison and several other noted pastors at the Forum’s annual Pastor’s Briefing on April 27.   The briefing followed the 47th annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast, which took place at the Baton Rouge Crowne Palace Hotel, where several thousand pastors, elected officials and business-people prayed for the current legislative session and Gov. Bobby Jindal.   Gene Mills, executive director of the Family Forum, opened the Pastor’s Briefing by quoting Psalms 11:3: If the foundations be destroyed, what will the righteous do?   [img_assist|nid=7307|title=Governor's Prayer Breakfast|desc=Ray Wallace, retired Southern Baptist pastor, prays for elected officials at the 47th annual Governor’s Prayer Breakfast, which took place April 27 at the Crowne Plaza in Baton Rouge. Next to Wallace is event chair Stephen Wallace and Gov. Bobby Jindal. At his right, Dave Dravecky.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=60]“That begs the question; what were the righteous doing while the foundation was being destroyed?” Mills asked. America is … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor   MISSISSIPPI DELTA – Crews of able-bodied Southern Baptist volunteers at the request of First Baptist Vidalia the first two weeks of May are taking the prized possessions of the elderly and infirm among Vidalia residents across the Mississippi River to storage in Natchez, Miss.   Just in case.   “I see no problems with our levee system functioning as it’s supposed to,” said Reynold Minsky, president of the Fifth District Levee Board and a deacon at First Baptist Church of Lake Providence. “We’re going to have a three-foot clearance” between floodwater levels that haven’t been seen since the 1930s – or maybe ever – and the top of the levees.   [img_assist|nid=7309|title=Rising Mississippi|desc=The Mississippi River is edging ever closer to Vidalia’s Riverfront Center, which is between the river and the levee that rises in the lower right of this photo. The Riverfront Center will be flooded, city officials agree. Work continues on protecting each building as an island.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]Rumors of impending devastation were flowing faster the first week of May than were the river waters coursing down from where the Ohio River … [Read more...]

By Staff, Louisiana Baptist   WOODWORTH – Baptisms are up for the third year in a row. Cooperative Program giving is up more than 5 percent over last year. Close fellowship abounds across the state.   Members of the Louisiana Baptist Convention’s 91-member Executive Board heard these reports and others at their spring meeting, which took place May 3 at Tall Timbers Baptist Conference Center.   “We have found God’s favor,” said LBC Executive Director David Hankins. “We need to have grateful hearts.”   The spring meeting opened with a stirring message from the Old Testament book of Habakkuk by Steve Horn, Board president, followed by reports from Hankins, Board committees, and each of the LBC agencies – college, children’s home, foundation and newspaper.   Habakkuk raised two questions that people are asking today, said Horn, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lafayette: “God, how long?” and “Why are you silent?”   God’s answers, Horn preached: “I am doing more than you think,” and “I am keeping an account.”   Our response should be worship, the Board president continued from Habakkuk 2. The righteous shall live by faith. … The Lord is in his holy … [Read more...]

By Staff, Louisiana Baptist Message   MONROE/WEST MONROE –  At least 900 families, most in a lower income part of this two-city area, were affected by high winds and flooding April 26.   Mark Parrish, volunteer community transformation pastor at First Baptist Church in West Monroe, led in the response. He’s an auxiliary officer with the  West Monroe Police Department, and heads Operation Compassion, a community-wide group of churches that formed in 2008.   “We had seven inches of rain in two to three hours,” Parrish said. “Many people had no insurance, no family to help them, no resources of any kind, and they lost everything.   “We’ve done this in other smaller disasters, like a fire,” Parrish continued. “We hand the family off to a church or Sunday School class, and they case-manage that family, helping them with their needs.”   In the first 10 days after the storm that the following day hit Tuscaloosa, Ala. with deadly consequences, about 900 families called for help. One was a woman who had already killed two king snakes that came in with flood waters, and she had been seeing others.   “She was frantic,” Parrish said. “She had no one. We handed her off to a … [Read more...]

By Staff, Louisiana Baptist Message   PINEVILLE – Forty-three youngsters between the ages of 8 and 14 from South Korea are expected to arrive July 15 at Alexandria International Airport with eight chaperones, for the first leg of their three-week immersion into American culture.   [img_assist|nid=7313|title=Camp USA|desc=Camp USA participants last year traveled from the Inchon International Airport, near Seoul, South Korea, to Alexandria.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67] A total of 26 host homes is needed for July 15-24, said Susan Duke, Camp USA Coordinator, and a member of Tioga First Baptist Church.   “This is a tremendous opportunity for us to have foreign missions work right here in Central Louisiana,” Duke said. “I personally have hosted Camp USA children in my home. I love learning more about their culture and seeing the joy they have in learning ours.”   Host homes are needed that can provide beds for two students of the same sex, breakfast and dinner, transportation to daily activities and a caring Christian enviornonment.   “Over the last six years of Camp USA, more than 100  youngsters have come to know Jesus Christ as their savior,” Duke said. “Camp USA is … [Read more...]

By Staff, Louisiana Baptist Children's Home   [img_assist|nid=7315|title=Easter at LBCH|desc=The Kiwanis Club of Monroe helps provide a great Easter egg hunt for the children at the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]Tabytha was only twelve years old and caring for her three younger siblings when she came to the Children’s Home. You are giving Tabytha the opportunity to be a child herself and providing a safe, stable Christian environment in which her two sisters and brother can grow up.   After five years at LBCH, Claire boldly proclaims her faith in Christ and has the assurance that God loves her unconditionally. “I know He will never leave me nor forsake me,” she shares from her heart.   From a challenging home environment, sixteen-year-old Lucas has learned to play the guitar at LBCH and to share with others in need. He believes God is calling him to serve in youth and music ministry.   Nine-year-old Jade really likes her cottage parents, Tom and Reba O’Neal, and knows they love her. The O’Neals have been serving Christ and children at LBCH for twenty-seven years.   Calob, who is thirteen, expresses his gratitude for the love and … [Read more...]

By Staff, LBCH Dr. Perry Hancock, LBCH President & CEO, shares, “We have so many things to be thankful for at the Children’s Home, but the greatest is changed lives. This ministry to hurting children and families would not be possible without the financial investment made by Louisiana Baptists. Your prayers and support, especially during our Children’s Home Sunday Offering, are crucial to the continued work of providing love, care, and hope in Christ. How grateful we are for those who share their love and God’s love with His children at your Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home.” Residential Childcare Providing for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of hurting children ages 5-17. Residential Foster Care Providing Christian foster care for children ages 0-12. Residential Family Care Providing homeless children and their mothers a safe, stable, transitional home for 6-12 months at no cost to residents. Christian Women’s Job Corps of Monroe Providing women in need a Christian context in which they can be equipped for life and employment at no cost to them. Louisiana Baptist Foster Care and Adoption Network Connecting children in need with Christians and churches who care. Northeast Louisiana regional foster care … [Read more...]

By William H. Perkins, Jr., Mississippi Baptist Record JACKSON, Miss. (BP) – Jim Futral, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, has issued a call to prayer on Sunday, May 15, for the victims of the recent deadly tornadoes throughout the South. “I am going to ask for what many of you have already done ... and that is to have a special time of prayer for our storm-ravaged state and region. I am going to ask you to pray for families who are grieving and seeking to recover from the loss of a family member, maybe a child,” Futral wrote in a column for The Baptist Record. “For others it may be the loss of a mom or dad, and for some it may be a brother or a sister.” Futral asked Mississippi Baptists to pray for people who have lost homes, businesses, possessions and irreplaceable memories. “Pray for church families that day after day continue to try their best to carry others’ burdens. Pray for our responders, those who are first responders, and those who are continuing to respond because of the enormity of the need and the continuing storms that come,” he wrote. “Fatigue that is physical, mental and emotional sets in, and they need help and encouragement.” Mississippi Baptists are in the midst of the … [Read more...]

By Frank McCormack, NOBTS Communications   [img_assist|nid=7319|title=Leading Chapel|desc=At an April chapel at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Angola Prison inmate Daryl Waters shared a powerful testimony of how God is using him as a minister of the Gospel inside the prison.|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=72]NEW ORLEANS (BP) – Warden Burl Cain and several current and former members of the Louisiana State Penitentiary prison program led chapel at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary in April, giving the seminary community a firsthand glimpse into the spiritual impact of the program.   Chuck Kelley, the seminary’s president, said the Angola program can be traced to Cain’s vision and faith.   “It was about 16 years ago when a Baptist layman took his faith to work,” Kelley said. “His work happened to be serving as warden of Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, the largest maximum security prison in the United States, ... known as the bloodiest prison in America.”       Despite that reputation, Cain believed in the power of the Gospel to change lives, Kelley said.   “He had a deep-seated conviction in the power and possibility of moral … [Read more...]

By Karen L. Willoughby, Managing Editor [img_assist|nid=7322|title=Mighty Mississippi|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]KROTZ SPRINGS – James Irvine Jr., a member of Pine Ridge Baptist Church in Melder and trained in a variety of Disaster Relief situations, was among the first DR volunteers called out in Louisiana to respond to needs as a result of flooding from Lake Providence to the Gulf of Mexico. He took a shower/laundry unit to Krotz Springs May 7, to support the 160 National Guard personnel stationed there to keep watch on the levees for any weaknesses that could result in a breach. “The unit I got is highly efficient,” Irvine said on May 21. “I can run the whole unit on two 110-volt plugs – house current. That’s the air conditioner, washer, dryer and the water heater.” Irvine, also trained as a DR chaplain, sleeps on the floor in the Krotz Springs community center with the citizen soldiers. “I’m very adaptable,” Irvine said. “They wash their own clothes. I just kind of keep watch. … I’ve had some good experiences and results so far.” [img_assist|nid=7323|title=Mighty Mississippi|desc=The swollen Mississippi River runs under the twin bridges that separate Natchez, Miss., and Vidalia. The river has flooded … [Read more...]