TERRY, Miss. (BP) – A year before pastor Lee Faler’s firstborn son Rankin, 6, developed terminal brain cancer, First Baptist Church of Terry was focused on suffering and prayer.
WASHINGTON (BP) – Human traffickers took advantage of the conditions produced by the COVID-19 pandemic in the last year, but those working to combat the trade in human beings adapted their efforts to protect the vulnerable and aid victims, according to the U.S. State Department.
CHICAGO (BP) – Pastors are calling for prayer after the long July Fourth holiday weekend came to a violent end with at least 108 people shot in Chicago, 17 fatally.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is mostly responsible for a former serviceman killing more than two dozen people at a Texas church in 2017 because it failed to submit his criminal history into a database, which should have prevented him from purchasing firearms.
KADUNA, Nigeria (BP) – About 125 students kidnapped from a Baptist church school in northern Nigeria are especially in danger because of their Christianity and the unwillingness of local authorities to pay a ransom, a leading persecution watchdog group told Baptist Press.
In a small town near Madrid, Spain, a missionary couple, Walker and Becca Welch, walked around a university hoping to meet Chinese students and share the gospel. Usually, the town’s university hosts more than 300 Chinese exchange students every year. Unfortunately, due to COVID 19, the Welches have had few opportunities so far this year to get to know them.
WASHINGTON (BP) – The Southern Baptist Convention’s ethics entity has cheered the enactment of a new federal law nullifying a rule that had the effect of permitting predatory loans nationwide.
NASHVILLE (BP) – A search committee has been named to find a successor to Russell Moore as president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
NASHVILLE (BP) – After nine months of lagging behind the previous year’s totals due to the COVID-19 pnademic, giving through the National Cooperative Program Allocation Budget surpassed year-over-year numbers and climbed to more than $6 million above budget for the current fiscal year.
Today, a Christian couple sits in prison. Arrested for sharing the gospel, they wait for another trial date to face the authorities and angry family members. They’ve been to trial already but have not yet heard a final verdict or sentencing. Trials are often postponed and drawn out, while government leaders look for further evidence against Christians and hope that believers will renounce their faith in Christ.
