Prayer Walking: A Way to Pray Specifically for Our Neighborhoods
We had only met the day before, but there we were—a Filipina and a Texan standing in a village on the outskirts of a strictly Muslim city. We had a singular purpose in common, though, when we each flew in to prayer walk the city along with a few other women. Together, we prayed for the Lord to make his name known among the people who lived in this city. What Is Prayer Walking? Prayer walking is exactly what the words imply: walking...
The Easter story compels us to sacrifice everything
It is the week leading up to Easter Sunday. Many of us wake up on that day in our warm and comfortable homes. We dress the whole family in our “Sunday best” so we can take a yearly family Easter photo. Then, we go to church with everyone on their best behavior (or at least pretending to be), making sure we present the image of the picture-perfect family. On the way into the church service, we exclaim, “He is risen!” and wait for the...
Disaster Relief in Neb. sees recovery, salvations
BELLEVUE, Neb.—After 250,000 people were displaced from their homes due to flooding in the Midwest, Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) responded. Life Springs Church, a Southern Baptist church in Bellevue, Neb., hosted DR groups. Oklahoma Baptists sent incident management, assessors, chaplains, feeding, shower, laundry and mudout teams to aid in flood recovery in residential areas, as well as at Life Springs. One home where trained...
Seeing death, speaking life: An Easter meditation
If Jesus stood above our city, as he once stood above Jerusalem, he likely would observe the crowds from the perch of the pedestrian overpass stretching toward the Golden Horde bazaar. He would see the one-legged beggar asking for money at the traffic light and the young prostitute going to work in a side building. He would notice the wrinkled woman sitting on a plastic crate beside a cut-up pumpkin she is selling in hopes of buying a...
‘Hungry’ & ‘confused’ migrants aided by N.M. Baptists
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BP) — At the request of municipal and federal agencies, faith-based organizations in Albuquerque, N.M., including the Baptist Convention of New Mexico, are helping to house and feed more than 400 asylum-seeking migrants from South and Central America. “This is a different kind of response for us,” said Ira Shelton, director of New Mexico Baptist Disaster Relief (NMBDR). Jesus’ teaching on...
ERLC, others defend religious liberty at U.N.
WASHINGTON (BP) — The Southern Baptist Convention’s religious freedom entity and other advocacy organizations have expressed concern to the United Nations regarding the Malaysian government’s continued refusal to protect the right of all citizens to practice their faith. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) joined Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International and the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA)...
