Readers of the Baptist Message are introduced to some remarkable
people throughout the year. Ranking them in order of importance would be impossible.
Still, some linger in the memory and stand as representatives of the witness
and work performed by so many Baptists. Below is a random listing of some of
the more memorable people from 2002.
Readers of the Baptist Message are introduced to some remarkable
people throughout the year. Ranking them in order of importance would be impossible.
Still, some linger in the memory and stand as representatives of the witness
and work performed by so many Baptists. Below is a random listing of some of
the more memorable people from 2002.
Alex Aust. During a traffic accident, 10-year-old Alex Aust
ministered effectively to victims – to the amazement of his parents and
others. “I dont want to take Gods glory,” he said later.
“I dont want to be a hero. I just want people to know that God can
work through kids like me. A 4-year-old can say I love you and turn
someones life around.”
Mabel Smith. Some go through life moving from city to city,
job to job. However, 85-year-old Mabel Smith calls herself a “stay-putter.”
She retired last year after serving 61 years as organist at First Baptist Church
of Tioga. “She is the most influential member of the church,” pastor
David Cranford says of the longtime member, who also directed the childrens
choir and taught various classes through the years. “(In addition to music),
she taught about life.”
Randy Travis. How does a country music star make the top people
list for a Louisiana Baptist newspaper? Easy – he relates his pilgrimage
to faith in Jesus Christ through a period of years. It took awhile, Travis acknowledges.
But since embracing the Christian faith, he says: “Knowing that even though
Im far from perfect – a work in progress and always will be –
theres a wonderful peace of mind, knowing that those things I have done
in the past, as bad as they were, they are forgotten and forgiven.”
Amy Johnson. Most people view those sentenced to Honduran prisons
as animals – persons to forget. However, Southern Baptist missionary Amy
Johnson refuses to do so. She visits prisons each week, leading in Bible studies
and sharing gospel love. “She makes us feel like we are not forgotten,”
one inmate says. “People treat us like animals. But not her. She listens
to us, and we respect her a lot.”
Connie Cooper. When Connie Cooper decided to cut her hair,
she did a little research – not related to stylists but to missions. Cooper
found Locks of Love, a Florida group that used donated hair to provide hairpieces
to children with long-term hair loss. All in all, Cooper donated 13 inches of
hair to the agency. She says her experiences in the Southern Baptist Acteens
program spurred her love for children.
Charles Marx. For years, Charles Marx has provided Bibilocipher
puzzles to several state Baptist newspapers, including the Louisiana Baptist
Message. The puzzles encode biblical verses that person must decipher. Last
year, Marx was diagnosed with brain cancer, forcing an end to his feature. However,
by years end, he had arranged to supply unpublished puzzles to newspapers
to continue his puzzles. “At one time, he told me it was something he could
do that the Lord gave him to do, …” his brother says. “He felt like
the bibliociphers would get people who like crossword puzzles to … read the
Bible more.”
Martin and Gracia Burnham. The Christian missionary couple
was held captive by Philippine rebels for more than a year, capturing international
attention. Gracia Burnham was rescued last year during a firefight, but Martin
Burnham was killed during the rescue effort. Gracia Burnham says now that her
husband had sensed his impending death. “Why did this happen this way?”
a college friend of the slain missionary asked at a memorial service for the
slain missionary. “I gotta tell you, I dont know. (But) God knows
what he is doing. All we can do is trust him.”
Debbie Morris. As a 16-year-old teenager, Debbie Morris of
Mandeville was abducted and brutally raped by Robert Lee Willie, whose life
became the subject of the acclaimed book and movie, “Dead Man Walking.”
Many years later, she spoke to a Southern Baptist gathering, explaining that
her ordeal as a teenager eventually brought her to a place of forgiveness. “I
realized that I was required to forgive, …” she explains. “God is
very clear. … We are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute
us.”
Scott and Wendy Erwin. After 11 years of marriage, Scott and
Wendy Erwin were on the verge of divorce. However, the Baptist couple made a
deliberate choice – not to separate but to fight for each other and what
they had begun years earlier. They made it, rebuilding a marriage through hard
work and commitment. “I know that neither one of us has anything left to
give, but I love you, and were going to make it,” Wendy Erwin told
her husband at one point. “The turning point, as I see it, was that we
realized that we had to find a way to stay together,” Scott Erwin says.
Kenneth Foy. It took just three days in prison for Kenneth Foy to accept Christ.
However, it took him 10 years to be released from his sentence. During that
time, he served as a pastor to other inmates and helped lead them to faith in
Jesus Christ. Finally, after his release, he enrolled in classes at New Orleans
Baptist Theological Seminary. He graduated last year, committed to continuing
a ministry he began during his studies. “That which was set up for my destruction
was my salvation,” Foy says of his prison term.