KANSAS CITY, Mo—Midwestern Seminary and the North American Mission Board’s Send Network launched their newly established partnership by hosting nine residential master’s students during a Send Network gathering of church planters. During their week in Fort Worth, students heard from Send Network leaders in main sessions, participated in special events with Send Network Vice President of Mobilization Matt Carter reserved for Midwestern Seminary students, and connected with church planters throughout the region.

MOUNT VERNON, Ga. —  Brewton-Parker College dedicated a newly constructed dormitory in honor of Timothy E. Redding Sr. earlier this month. BPC faculty, staff, and trustees, along with members from the community, joined the Redding family for the dedication ceremony following chapel.

TEL AVIV, Israel – As Israel continues air strikes against Hamas in Gaza in the wake of the terrorist organization’s brutal Oct. 7 surprise attack, an estimated 60,000 Israelis and 1 million Palestinians have been displaced as war ravages the 141 square-mile region. “Following the Hamas attack on Israel, everybody knew it was bad, worse than anything they had seen,” said one Baptist representative who served in and around Israel for more than a decade.

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — Michael Boatfield, pastor of Macland Baptist Church in Powder Springs, continues to be invited to speak to athletes in high schools and colleges across the Southeastern states. In the past four years and six months he has seen over 1300 of these athletes invite Jesus into their hearts. Since April 2022 there have been 600 students respond to his appeal to receive Christ as the Savior and Lord of their lives.

JACKSON, Miss. — Nearly 1,400 people heeded evangelist Rick Gage’s appeal to commit their lives to Christ in a Mississippi crusade attended by some 17,000 people over four days. The evangelistic crusade concluded Wednesday night with an estimated 10,000 people packed shoulder to shoulder in an open-air amphitheater.

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. — Peter Abungu and his ministry helpers in Nairobi, Kenya, have seen nearly 20,000 people surrender their lives to Christ in the past 10 years. That’s an average of 2,000 people a year, and the number is growing daily. That level of effectiveness convinced Burnt Hickory Baptist Church in Powder Springs to help Abungu and the Swahiba Networks Ministries he founded to spread the gospel in one of the poorest places on earth.

Five-year-old Ryleigh and her older sister, Maddie, came to the office last week to have their teeth cleaned.  When it was their turn, we called their names, and they skipped back in festive Halloween attire.  Ryleigh was decked out in a purple and black dress with bats on the skirt.  Her ankle boots set off the outfit perfectly.  Maddie wore other fun Halloween colors:  yellow, orange, and green. 

SUWANEE, Ga. — A significant number of pastors feel ill equipped to minister to people in their elder years. The Barna Group, a research organization that monitors cultural and religious trends in America, highlighted that finding in an article Wednesday. Thirty-five percent of pastors told Barna researchers that ministering to people 75 and older is an area where they feel the least equipped.

NEW ORLEANS — “Servant Leadership in Uncertain Times,” the theme of the first annual Prepare Here Conference hosted by the Jim Henry Leadership Institute of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, drew in 250 pastors, church ministry leaders, and spouses from across 10 states. 

Just so you know, when you have four granddaughters ages 7 through 14 who live with you, there is never a dull moment. Every morning you are awakened to snuggles, hugs, tickles, sometimes screams, but always entertainment. 

Margaret Elizabeth Hooks Underwood of North Georgia Assisted Living in Dawsonville, wife of the late Rev. Mack Underwood, died Tuesday, Oct. 10. She was 105. A funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, October 28 at Tim Stewart Funeral Home of Monroe with Rev. James Daniel Frost officiating.

IRONTON, Mo. — When John Sanders and his wife moved into The Baptist Homes’ Arcadia Valley campus here last April, he figured his hunting days were over for good. Sanders spent much of his life hunting, even taking trips to Western states like Wyoming to hunt elk and pronghorn. But when he and his wife moved into independent care housing on the Arcadia Valley campus in 2022, he was struggling with his health, and he sold or gave away much of his hunting gear.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Most women who attend worship services regularly say their churches value them. A new Lifeway Research survey of 1,001 women found that 96% of them feel that way. About 90% of women surveyed said their church invests in and equips women, And 84% of women have somewhere they enjoy serving in their church, with 59% who strongly agree.

SNELLVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Baptist messengers who want to submit resolutions for consideration at the upcoming annual meeting are being urged to do so Nov. 7. That gives the Georgia Baptist Convention’s Resolutions Committee time to review them before the annual meeting, which is set for Nov. 12-14 at the Church on Main in Snellville.

SUWANEE, Ga. — More than 4,500 locations will open to collect Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts for the Samaritan’s Purse project during national collection week Nov. 13-20. Operation Christmas Child has been collecting and delivering shoebox gifts — filled with school supplies, personal care items and fun toys — to children worldwide since 1993.

CLAYTON, Ga. — In recent months, volunteers at the Pinnacle Retreat Center have built a new home for the administrator who oversees the property. They have also served in a variety of roles at summer camps to make sure children and teens were well fed and cared for. Karen Pace, a Georgia Baptist Women’s consultant, said their total volunteer time reached 7,400 hours with a dollar value of nearly $250,000 based on the local pay scale.

SNELLVILLE, Ga. — Georgia Baptists will hear sermons from an array of pastors during this year's annual meeting set for Nov. 12-14 at the Church on Main in Snellville. Johnson Ferry Baptist Church Pastor Clay Smith will be first up at the three-day meeting of the Georgia Baptist Convention, the state’s largest religious organization with some 1.4 million people.

MARIETTA, Ga. — More than 140 Spanish-speaking Georgia Baptists from 24 churches gathered Saturday for the 2023 Hispanic Church Strengthening Conference organized by the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Participants heard a keynote talk on leadership from Esteban Vazquez, associate pastor at  Champion Forest Baptist Chiurch in Houston, Texas.

HOMERVILLE, Ga. — State Sen. Russ Goodman and his mother, Donna Kane, are safely back in southeast Georgia after having their Holy Land pilgrimage cut short by the gruesome Hamas attack on Israel last weekend. “It was quite an ordeal,” said Goodman, who returned to Homerville on Friday, six days after Hamas militants staged a surprise attack that killed more than 1,300 Israelis, most of them civilians.

TEL AVIV, Israel — War has come to the Holy Land. Following a brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on Saturday, Oct. 7, that killed and injured thousands of people, Israeli officially declared war against the militant group. With the conflict expected to rage for some time to come, Send Relief is working with partners in Israel and the region to quickly respond to needs of people reeling from the effects of war and displacement.

MARIETTA, Ga. — John Hull, pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta has a rich and distinguished biography. He is the son of a Baptist pastor, grew up in Georgia, graduated from the University of Georgia, where he met Sharon Brown, who became his wife after he received his master’s degree from Liberty University. John and Sharon began their married life at First Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the Hamas terrorists’ attack on the people of Israel with these words:  “Babies slaughtered, bodies desecrated, young people burned alive, women raped, and (people killed in front of their children or parents).  How are we to understand this?”  Evil is real. Undeniably real.

NEW ORLEANS — As far as she can tell, Kathy Steele, former IMB missionary, licensed professional counselor, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary counseling professor, started the first Moms in Prayer International group in Cuba nearly 20 years ago.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — Kids, student, Next Gen and family ministry leaders gathered at Brentwood Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee, this week for Lifeway Christian Resource’s annual Next Gen Ministry Conference—ETCH. The ETCH (Equipping the Church and Home) Conference focuses on pouring into and investing in ministry leaders, according to organizers.

DALTON, Ga. — Families at Salem Baptist Church have seen firsthand the positive impacts that fostercare and adoption have had on the lives of vulnerable children. “It changes lives not just in eternity but in the here and now,” said Pastor Darey Kittle, whose congregation includes a dozen families who have opened their homes to hurting children.