A story in the Dec. 12, 1957, edition of the Western Recorder featured a story about a Southern Baptist missionary to Nigeria who trained at the Woman’s Missionary Union Training School in Louisville and was decorated by Queen Elizabeth II during the queen’s visit to the United States in 1957. Miss May Edgel Perry, born Aug. 12, 1890, in Tate, Ga., served as a missionary to Nigeria for 40 years from 1920 to 1960.

NASHVILLE (BP) – The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission board of trustees named Brent Leatherwood the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy entity in a unanimous vote Tuesday. “I am honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to serve this historic institution as its next president,” Leatherwood told Baptist Press.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – In Romans 10, Paul states that faith comes through hearing. And for many Christians who experience deafness, hearing comes through signing. To assist ministries that serve people who are deaf or hard of hearing, Lifeway Christian Resources has launched the “Explore the Bible Deaf Digital Library,” a collection of studies using text with simplified language to facilitate American Sign Language.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Executive Committee has approved a $32 million Cooperative Program budget, which includes $15.8 million for a wide variety of initiatives aimed at “pushing back lostness” in the state plus $12.8 million for national and international causes. “The generosity of Georgia Baptists is on full display here,” said Georgia Baptist Mission Board Executive Director Thomas Hammond.

CLARKSBURG, Md. (BP) — Gwen Arthur was saddened watching news broadcasts showing photos and videos of the devastation from recent flooding in Kentucky. So when she saw an opportunity to go, Arthur, a recently trained Disaster Relief yellow hat volunteer, knew she had to help.

DULUTH, Ga. – Numbers coming in for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s SPARK conference point to what could be the annual event’s largest attendance ever, the organizer said Monday. More than 1,600 Georgia Baptists attended SPARK conferences held at regional sites across the state and nearly 1,000 more logged on for the event’s digital premiere.

HATTIESBURG, Miss. (BP) – Addressing the shortage of nurses that has worsened in the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic is a mission and ministry of William Carey University (WCU), a Southern Baptist-supported school based in Mississippi.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (BP) – The early morning hours of the second Monday in September have been set aside for community outreach over the last decade at Forest Park Baptist Church in Bowling Green. The Iron Men, the church’s men’s ministry, roll out of bed long before the rooster crows to prepare a feast for local first responders as well as local men and women who are distributing Bibles to students at Western Kentucky University.

DUNCANSVILLE, Pa. (BP) — Doug Pilot remembers the crater. He remembers the blackened trees and hearing that there was nothing left bigger than a phone book. Pilot, pastor of New Hope Baptist …

DULUTH, Ga. – The Georgia Baptist Mission Board’s Mission Georgia team has scheduled a series of webinars in September to provide information about options available to churches that want to help some of the state’s most vulnerable residents. The webinars are being offered in conjunction with the September emphasis on the Mission Georgia offering, which allows congregations to support efforts to spread the gospel within the state in the same way that the Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon offerings are used to share Jesus in North America and around the world.

GLENROCK, Wyoming (BP) – There were months, years even, in the 40 years Jim Ritter has been pastor of First Southern Baptist Chapel in Glenrock, that paying the light bill and building note came before giving to missions. Nonetheless, except for the financially disastrous year of 2008, for 20 years the church has given 11 percent of its undesignated offerings to missions through the Cooperative Program, the way Southern Baptists work together to spread the gospel and do God’s work in state conventions, across North America and throughout the world.

MOUNT AIRY, Ga. – Hazel Creek Baptist Church in Mount Airy has celebrated Pastor Trent Smith’s 25th anniversary leading the northeast Georgia congregation.

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. – Residents of flood-ravaged northwest Georgia won’t have to worry about food or in the aftermath of last weekend’s severe storms.Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief …

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. – The death of Queen Elizabeth II, the global icon of calmness and fortitude through decades of political upheaval and social change, has touched hearts around the world, including here in Georgia. In Fayetteville, New Hope Baptist Church Pastor Rhys Stenner called her “arguably the greatest monarch of the last thousand years.”

NEW MADRID, Mo. (BP) – Heather Polk, a nurse practitioner who used her expertise on medical mission trips, died Wednesday in a two-car collision as she returned home from work. Polk’s …

SUMMERVILLE, Ga. – Residents of flood-ravaged northwest Georgia won’t have to worry about food or water in the aftermath of last weekend’s severe storms. Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have set up a mobile kitchen with the capacity to serve 3,000 meals a day and they're distributing truckloads of bottled water.

In October of 1980, my beloved and I raced to the state line and got married – against my mother’s wishes.  We were 18 and madly in love.  She thought we were crazy. Standing in a courthouse belfry, we repeated vows that sealed us in matrimony: “to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”  In truth, we had absolutely no clue what the words meant or what lay ahead.  We were 18.

LAREDO, Texas (BP) — A new ministry center will open in Laredo, Texas, as part of a partnership between Texas Baptists River Ministry and Send Relief. The center will serve Laredo and the wider Rio Grande Valley area by connecting churches to ministry opportunities on the U.S.-Mexico border.

NASHVILLE (BP) – This week’s Bible study is adapted from the Bible Studies For Life curriculum by Lifeway Christian Resources and focuses on James 2:1-13.

VALDOSTA, Ga. – People who know Jeanette Coody describe her as a charming and self-assured lady with an unflinching commitment when it comes to matters of faith. The Georgia woman who turns 100 on September 19 hasn’t missed Sunday school since she first started attending a class she organized at age 17. “I said, ‘God, if you will allow me to start this program, I will be faithful to it,’” she said. “And I have been.”

Hispanic Missions Sunday is a day to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of Hispanic International Mission Board missionaries and Hispanic churches as active partners with the International Mission Board in bringing the gospel to the nations. This year, the board is asking churches to observe Sept. 25 as Hispanic Mission Sunday.

BENGHAZI, Libya (BP) — Ronnie and Anita Smith had the blessing of Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas, when they embarked on a mission to spread agape love in Benghazi amid rising terrorism from Islamic extremists. As Ronnie jogged on a street not far from the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, the site of the 2012 terrorist attack by Ansar al-Sharia, gunmen approached in a black jeep and shot Ronnie dead. Anita extended forgiveness to the murderers just days later in interviews widely broadcast in Arabic in the country where the faith of most encourages retribution over forgiveness.

RICHMOND, Ky. (BP) – Something good is brewing at Purdy’s besides coffee. The Richmond coffee shop is home to the High School Seminary every Tuesday morning, a project of First Baptist Church Richmond youth pastor Steve Coleman that far surpasses the norm. Coleman teaches on subjects like defending one's faith, apologetics, becoming a disciple and making disciples.

Catastrophic flooding in Pakistan has submerged one-third of the nation under water. The heavy monsoon rains displaced 3.1 million people and destroyed more than half a million homes. Many of those who lost their homes are now in displacement camps. Others are seeking higher ground. The disaster has, so far, left more than 1,300 people dead. More than 450 of the casualties are children.

Greensboro, N.C. – “Listen, I have so many things to tell y’all. My mind is going bing, bing, bing!” said Priscilla Shirer as she looked out at a room of 2,500 women gathered …