Wednesday, October 31, 2018

• Venezuelans, fleeing tumult, to find aid on a mountain

  by Grace Thornton, posted Wednesday, October 31, 2018 (3 years ago)

  

  Submitted photo

  CÚCUTA, Colombia (BP) -- When Nelson Martínez' father died this summer, Martínez inherited a piece of property half a day up the mountain from his hometown of Cúcuta, Colombia. The property sits at 10,000 feet at the top of a cold, often rainy mountain pass. Every day several hundred ill-prepared Venezuelans walk over it on their way to try to find food, work and medicine in a new land.

  Some have died of hypothermia. All are desperate.

  Martínez, who has been serving as a pastor in Houston, Texas, feels like he inherited the property at just the right time to aid the masses fleeing Venezuela's economic collapse. Read More

• An exodus from Venezuela & new ministry in Chile

  by IMB Staff, posted Wednesday, October 31, 2018 (3 years ago)

  

  IMB photo

  VENEZUELA (BP) -- Insecure and unstable describe life in Venezuela. The country is running out of food. It has recorded more murders -- 28,000 in 2017 -- than countries at war. Venezuela's population of 30 million people is decreasing, with more than 4 million emigrations in the past 10 years.

  This is one family -- parents and two daughters -- who never intended to leave, yet theirs is a story of a God-ordained exodus from their home country.

  Maria* and her older sister Elisabeth* were both in medical school in Venezuela. Maria and a friend were robbed while waiting for the bus to take them to classes. Later, she witnessed a mobbing. Then, a friend was killed during a peaceful march.

  All of this happened within a week. Maria knew she needed to leave. So, she moved to Chile. Read More

• Evangelicals for Life 2019 to spotlight 'vulnerable'

  by Tom Strode, posted Wednesday, October 31, 2018 (3 years ago)

  

  Screen capture from Facebook (2017)

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- The fourth annual Evangelicals for Life conference will convene January 17-18 to "prioritize the vulnerable," said Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore.

  The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) will once again host the event -- this time at a new location. Evangelicals for Life (EFL) will be held for the first time at McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., instead of one of the downtown hotels in the capital that served as its site the initial three years.

  EFL 2019 -- which will coincide with the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court opinion that legalized abortion throughout the country -- will consist of afternoon and evening sessions Jan. 17. A morning session Jan. 18 will close the conference. Participants will be able to attend the annual March for Life and rally, which will begin at noon Jan. 18 on the National Mall. Read More

• Asia Bibi freed, conviction overturned

  by Diana Chandler, posted Wednesday, October 31, 2018 (3 years ago)

  

  Screen capture from AFP TV

  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (BP) -- Christian mother Asia Bibi was released from Pakistan's death row today (Oct. 31) after the nation's Supreme Court reversed her 2010 conviction of blasphemy.

  Religious liberty advocates globally expressed jubilation and pleas that Pakistan's military protect Bibi. Meanwhile, Muslim extremists reportedly began burning tires in the streets. Pakistan issued a heightened security alert hours in advance of the announcement, said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice.

  "There are security precautions I'm sure being taken in Pakistan," Sekulow said in a Facebook video before daybreak. "It's a complete victory. She's been in jail for almost nine years. But she now will be returned to her family." Read More

• Greear: God 'stirring' SBC through transitions

  by David Roach, posted Wednesday, October 31, 2018 (3 years ago)

  

  Screen capture from Facebook

  DURHAM, N.C. (BP) -- State conventions, Southern Baptist Convention entity presidential openings and a Sexual Abuse Advisory Study were the central topics of discussion during an Oct. 31 Facebook Live broadcast with SBC President J.D. Greear.

  Greear, pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., said he is "more convinced than ever" God "is not done" with the SBC and "is extending us an invitation to trust Him."

  The 13-minute broadcast, cohosted by Summit associate pastor Todd Unzicker, included a discussion of Greear's "Gospel above all" emphasis at Baptist state convention annual meetings this fall. Among the meetings he has attended or is scheduled to attend are the Colorado Baptist General Convention, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and the West Virginia Convention of Southern Baptists. Read More

• New stance on assisted suicide 'far from neutral'

  by Tom Strode, posted Wednesday, October 31, 2018 (3 years ago)

  

  iStock

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- A doctor association's new "engaged neutrality" on physician-assisted suicide is a misnomer and threatening to people with Alzheimer's disease, a Southern Baptist ethicist and a specialist on elder care say.

  Delegates to the annual meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) voted Oct. 9 to embrace a stance of "engaged neutrality" regarding assisted suicide. The new resolution puts the AAFP at odds with the American Medical Association (AMA), which opposes physician-assisted suicide in its Code of Medical Ethics. Read More

• FIRST-PERSON: Life of a pastor

  by Paul Kim, posted Wednesday, October 31, 2018 (3 years ago)

  God's call to a pastor, Paul Kim writes, entails "a lifetime of taking up your cross and many times getting on your knees in desperate prayer." Even so, he writes, it is "a great honor and privilege" to be a servant and a shepherd for God's people. Read More