Interim Charges

When not in session, the work of the Texas Legislature continues. Though they convene at the capitol in Austin to pass laws for only five months in odd numbered years, interim charges help committees to continue their work. Each committee in both the House and Senate are assigned a set of questions to study prior to the next session. The questions are assigned by the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor and are often read as a good indication of what issues they feel are most important and should be addressed the following session. The committees convene, often outside of Austin, hear testimony from experts and the public, then publish reports of their findings.

The current interim charges for the House were released by Speaker Straus.  Several charges address issues of interest for the CLC, a few of which are set out below. The CLC staff will use this opportunity to interact with lawmakers and their staff and educate them about our policy positions. The entire list of charges can be found here.(PDF)

Hunger and Food-Related Poilcy

House Committee on Agriculture and Livestock & House Committee on Urban Affairs

• Evaluate the role of community gardens and urban farming efforts that increase access to healthy foods and examine the possible impact that state and local policies have on the success of programs of this type. Determine the feasibility of policies to support these efforts, especially in high-population areas.

House Committee on Human Services & House Committee on Public Health

• Identify policies to alleviate food insecurity, increase access to healthy foods, and incent good nutrition within existing food assistance programs. Consider initiatives in Texas and other states to eliminate food deserts and grocery gaps, encourage urban agriculture and farmers’ markets, and increase participation in the Summer Food Program. Evaluate the desirability and feasibility of incorporating nutritional standards in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Monitor congressional activity on the 2012 Farm Bill and consider its impact on Texas.

Predatory Lending

House Committee on Pensions, Investments and Financial Services

• Monitor the implementation of HB 2592 (82R) and HB 2594 (82R), regarding pay day lending.

Education and Literacy

House Committee on Appropriations & House Committee on Higher Education

• Evaluate the funding, performance, and administration of the state’s adult basic education programs.

Though Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst has not released the Senate charges in full, a select interim charge on human trafficking has been issued, which includes the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, along with a separate joint committee study. Watch upcoming newsletters for a link to the full Senate charges when they are released.

Human Trafficking

Joint Interim Committee

• Study the services available for victims of human trafficking provided by federal, state, and local agencies and non-governmental organizations, including the long-range need for safe houses and shelters and the best practices for public/private partnerships providing services to victims.  Review procedures and services available for youth that have been identified as sex trafficking victims, including analysis of the appropriate criminal penalties associated with prostitution.

Senate Criminal Justice Committee

• Monitor the implementation of legislation relating to human trafficking in coordination with the Joint Interim Committee to Study Human Trafficking.

Two Recent Reports on Domestic Human Trafficking Policy

Houston Rescue and Restore published its Report on Domestic Minor Trafficking in Houston

The report focuses on the three main pillars of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) prevention, protection and prosecution in Harris and Galveston County.  Researchers conducted field assessments in these two counties to have a better understanding on the scope of domestic minor child trafficking in the area.  According to the assessment, misidentification of victims continues to be a barrier to providing appropriate services to this population of victims.  The report provides a basic foundation for the formation of a comprehensive strategy in both counties in order to better serve the youth at risk of becoming trafficking victims.

A recent report published by Shared Hope International titled, The Protected Innocence Challenge: State Report Cards on the Legal Framework of Protection for the Nation’s Children (PDF), scores each state’s policy efforts to address the issue of domestic minor sex trafficking.  Based on their assessment, each state was assigned a letter grade in correspondence with its earned points.  The points were given in 6 categories for addressing:

1. Criminalization of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking,
2. Criminal Provisions Addressing Demand,
3. Criminal Provisions for Traffickers,
4. Criminal Provisions for Facilitators,
5. Protective Provisions for Child Victims,
6. Tools for Investigation and Prosecution.

Because of the legislature’s commitment to the fight against human trafficking during the 82^nd legislative session, Texas is now the leader in its anti-trafficking policy efforts for domestic minors.

Knock, Knock.  Supreme Court.  Right outside the door

Church State law, especially cases that make it to the US Supreme Court, can seem distant and esoteric. But this month the US Supreme Court is waiting for you right outside your office door in its unanimous decision affirming “ministerial exception” in a broad way.

Who can the church  hire and fire according to ministerial exception?:
Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, et al.
In this case the Supreme Court, for the first time, recognized an explicit “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws at any level.  It did so, with considerable enthusiasm.  The Court returned a unanimous decision that churches have tremendous latitude over employment decisions if the person involved is in almost any way considered ministerially responsible.

“The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the court. “But so too is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission.

The case was asking the government to punish a church school for a firing decision related to a religion teacher. The Court said that “requiring a church to accept or retain an unwanted minister, or punishing a church for failing to do so, intrudes upon more than a mere employment decision.  Such action interferes with the internal governance of the church, depriving the church of control over the selection of those who will personify its beliefs.”  Such interference, it concluded, violates both the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, and that Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The fact that the Court asserts violation of both tenets of the First Amendment is significant and outlines a strong line of demarcation.

The Supreme Court has long recognized a First Amendment right for religious organizations to control their own internal affairs, including the selection of their religious leaders — a history in which the Court has had a role since 1872 and in which the Founding generation was involved at least as early as 1806. But this case provides protection of the religious organization to make authoritative employment decisions even when the ministerial employee is someone who may not be serving in what would be considered a traditional role of clergy, like a pastor, but can extend to employees who are religiously trained and called to service, in this case a functioning teacher in an elementary classroom.

This decision has been lauded for its clear support of church autonomy.  This sounds affirming and great. But with great freedom comes great responsibility.

The decision is for near unfettered freedom for employment decisions, but the case is framed within charges of discrimination. The church is given the freedom to discriminate. Without the external requirements of standard discrimination protection to guide the church in hiring and firing decisions, what standards will churches, religious schools and religious institutions use?  All too often churches and religious organizations have been lax in clarifying employment processes and have been shoddy when it comes to establishing grievance procedures or clarifying pathways of resolution for difficult employment situations.

It’s “take stock” time for churches. Without the threat of government employment law, the church should be more fair, more judicious, more compassionate, more thorough than the secular world. Too many congregations and religious organizations are lax or, even worse, dismissive when it comes to processes for discerning call, hiring staff, managing employees and mapping the course for personnel transitions.

The call to servanthood is the high calling of Christ’s ministers, paid or unpaid, vocational or volunteer.  In Matthew and parallel passages in Mark and Luke, Jesus said we should not “lord it over” one another and that the greatest of God’s people must be servants rather than tyrants (Matt. 20:20-28). Christian leaders lead by serving.  Power in the conventional sense is, in effect, turned on its head, so that the greatness of leadership is not determined by how many lives we control, but by how faithfully we serve each life with whom God has entrusted us.

A Covenant Approach

Ministerial Ethics, a Covenant of Trust is a resource for you and your church to guide dialogue between ministers and congregational leaders. It provides guidelines to build a framework for basic ethical obligations for ministry, it helps to de?ne the ministerial profession as it is expressed in each congregation, and it serves as a support to protect the individual minister.  There are topical pages designed to promote reflection on the shared responsibility from both the congregation and the minister to consider how a congregation will interpret: the Call to Ministry, the Minister’s Relationship, Stewardship of Time, the Minister’s Health, Economic Responsibilities, Sexual Conduct, the Minister and the Community. This is not an employment document, but it is the beginning of a prompt for dialogue about the covenant of trust between a congregation  and it’s minster(s). A covenant that is too often unspoken and unaddressed until an employment crisis emerges.

Here are some of the basic considerations for churches and the minister:

For the church:

• We will honor and respect the call of God in the lives of our ministers and count their service among us as a gift from God.
• We will commit ourselves to forming relationships, time structures, and ministry activities so that our ministers can build wholesome family relationships.
• We will respect our ministers’ families and honor them as vital parts of our ministry team.
• We will commit to develop and nurture strong relationships within the congregation and show we are Christians by our love.
• We will recognize our ministers’ need for rest and time to be away from work.  We will protect their time to have a day off and their family time.
• We will recognize our own and our ministers’ needs for spiritual formation and physical well being.
• We understand that workers are “worthy of their hire” and will compensate ministers with fairness and generosity.
• We will commit ourselves to exhibiting faithful and wholesome sexual relationships among ourselves, within our families, and beyond the church family.
• We shall endeavor to know and be known in the communities that we serve as witnesses to the love of Christ, who meets physical, emotional, and spiritual needs and to the world.

For the minister:

• I will re?ect the integrity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my ministry by leading the congregation to follow Jesus, so becoming the salt of the earth and the light of the world, loving our enemies, becoming agents of reconciliation, doing justice for “the least of these,” speaking the truth in love, loving God as we love one another, and serving God as we serve one another.
• I will respond to the call of Christ with faithful obedience and count it a joyful privilege to be asked to serve in ministry.
• I will be intentional in nurturing relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and members of the congregation.  I recognize the importance of building healthy relationships which are both open and honest and free from coercion, deception, manipulation, and the abuse of the power of my position.
• I will be committed to the faithful stewardship of time.  I will be disciplined in my use of time, which includes not wasting time or working at all times.  I will take time for spiritual formation, study, prayer, family, and rest.
• I will develop a healthy lifestyle which includes my spiritual, physical, and emotional health.
• I will be ?nancially responsible, which responsibility includes paying my bills, avoiding ?nancial favors, living within my salary, contributing to the ?nancial support of my church and other ministries, and adopting a lifestyle consistent with biblical teachings concerning possessions and money.
• I will clearly demonstrate a life of sexual  ?delity and integrity in all of my relationships and a commitment to the biblical standard of faithfulness in marriage and celibacy in singleness.
• I will participate in the larger community as the context of my ministry.  I will be committed to the issues of justice, compassion, reconciliation, and to the marginalized as I value all of God’s children.
• I will be directed in all that I do by Jesus’ vision in the model prayer: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  I will be dedicated to God’s sovereign role and reign in every area of my life and be faithful in announcing that God’s Kingdom has come in Jesus Christ.

The occasion of this Supreme Court decision gives the church a prime opportunity to tune and fine tune the processes within our congregations to maintain ethical and productive relationships.

Includes information from: Lyle Denniston, Opinion recap: A solid “ministerial exception”, SCOTUSblog (Jan. 11, 2012, 11:33 AM), http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/01/opinion-recap-a-solid-ministerial-exception/

YOU’RE INVITED TO ATTEND ISAAC’S 2012 TRAINING SEMINARS AND SUMMER INSTITUTE

The Immigration Service and Aid Center is proud to announce its 2012 schedule of events.  If you and your church are sensing a call to minister to our immigrant population in Texas by offering legal services, the Spring and Fall seminars and our Summer Basic Immigration Law Institute are designed to provide all necessary training toward accreditation and recognition by the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Our cadre of speakers for all events will consist of immigration lawyers and BIA-accredited staff from federally recognized ministries from all across Texas.  Although ISAAC’s training events do not result in automatic accreditation and recognition, all interested individuals seeking both must have at least 40 hours of training in immigration law knowledge and procedure.

The kind of training that offers basic immigration law training this thorough and taught by a highly qualified faculty and at an affordable price is not offered very often either at the state or national level. ISAAC’s training will be all that and more: our seminars and Summer Institute include hands-on components so that all participants can gain valuable experience in filling out forms and preparing a BIA accreditation/recognition portfolio.

• The Spring Training Seminar will take place at North Dallas Family Church, located at Royal Haven Baptist Church in Dallas on April 27-28.
• Iglesia Bautista Houston, located in downtown Houston, will host the Fall Training Seminar on September 21-22.
• Our Basic Immigration Law Institute will by hosted by Baptist University of the Américas in San Antonio on June 4-8.

You may register for all three events and save up to $100 if you pre-register.

View more information on our 2012 events.

Or contact:

Jesús Romero (210) 633-6257 or

Alicia Enríquez (214) 828-5192

A Special Letter of Thanks to Texas Baptists

Dear Texas Baptists (yes, that’s you!),

As I look forward to another wonderful year working with Good News Goods, I think it only appropriate to reflect back upon 2011 and remember what an inspiring year it truly was for the team, as well as for the men and women around the globe who were supported by your fair trade purchases.

Because of your desire to shop with a heart for missions in 2011, 4,334 hours of dignified employment were created through missional businesses for women, men and children living in extreme poverty all over the world.

And, thanks to your dedication to live out Micah 6:8 and “do justice” in this world through Good News Goods this year, $2,167.21 to the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering by our partner, Trade as One!

Think of the impact each of you made: by buying coffee you fought for peace in Uganda. You helped a young Pakistani woman pay for her medical bills simply by purchasing a soccer ball. You gave a former sex slave a new lease on life, when she thought she had none. And you did it all by giving a hand up, not a hand out.

If you’d like to learn more about the impact your purchases have on our brothers and sisters around the world, please visit the Good News Goods website. And as always, if you’d like to get involved, please contact me at anne.olson@texasbaptists.org.

I look forward to working with you all again this year. Let’s make 2012 the most special yet!

Peace in Christ,

Anne Olson

It’s a New Year and most of us have set up some new years resolution.  Hopefully these new goals are still securely in place.  The folks at parents.com say that kids ages 7 to 12 are at the right age to learn to make resolutions and set goals for a new semester.

To get started, parents are encouraged to take the lead to set goals for the family and when appropriate share with your children the things you are working on and set the example by following through on your priorities.  It’s important to not set the goal for the child but let them personalize what they would like to achieve in such important areas as school, friends, church family etc.  A parent can help guide the child to decide on goals that are a balance of reachable and challenging.  Set some goals so that the child can feel like a winner in making changes and achieving goals.  Making resolutions can be a great way to bring families together to work as a team and create some new traditions.

So what are the 10 most common new years resolutions for kids: Reported by about.com.

1. Get healthy
2. Be happier
3. Be a Better person
4. Date someone
5. Show more love to the family
6. Do better in school
7. Learn something new
8. Be a better friend
9. Be a role model
10. Make some money

Prevention Resources and Bible Studies are available for churches at the CLC website.

Check out the Addiction Ministry Education Network page on Facebook.  Become a fan and you will receive updates about events and links to important news articles.

CLC Substance Abuse Ministry Podcasts

Pathways to Prevention:  A Substance Abuse Resource

Hazelden

• Opinion: Can anything new be said about abortion?
• Reversal of sonogram law not likely in Sparks’ court, he says
• Court clears immediate enforcement of abortion law
• Court clears way for immediate enforcement of Texas’ sonogram law
• Federal court panel allows sonogram law to proceed
• Judges: Texas Can Enforce Sonogram Law Now
• Sonogram Law Must Be Enforced Immediately, Court Says
• Texas can enforce sonogram law, appeals court says
• Texas sonogram lawsuit returns to federal court

ALCOHOL | ADDICTION

• Dartmouth president leading campaign against binge drinking
• Parents held responsible for underage drinking

BUDGET

• Combs: State Revenues Higher Than Expected
• State comptroller gives mixed forecast on economy

CHILDREN

• Report: Texas 38th, up from last, in homeless kids
• In Travis County, Aging Foster Children Find Aid (AUDIO)
• Higher Tax On Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Could Prevent Obesity And Diabetes Cases, Study Says
• Rachael Ray Supports No Kid Hungry Campaign
• No Child Left Behind Turns 10 Facing Mixed Results And Uncertain Future
• Public Pre-Kindergarten Programs Slowed, Even Reversed, By Recession
• Salvaging disposable children

CHURCH/STATE

• BJC lauds High Court decision protecting religious entities’ right to hire ministerial personnel | In unanimous decision, justices rule ‘ministerial exception’ grounded in First Amendment
• ‘Ministerial exception’ to employment discrimination laws upheld
• Religious Groups Given ‘Exception’ to Work Bias Law
• Power(less)-brokers
• Nativity scene dispute puts focus on Texas town

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

• Texas juries choosing life without parole
• Capital punishment ‘on the defensive’
• Texas executions reach new low
• Texas executions, death sentences continue to decline
• Three Decades of Capital Punishment in Texas
• Executions, Death Sentences Drop in Texas, Nation
• On the Records: Texas Exonerations
• Salvaging disposable children
• Thanks to less crowding, overflow inmates staying in Harris
• Inmates a receptive audience to Apostle Paul’s epistles

EDUCATION

• Legislature continues its pattern of crisis management over public schools | Editorial Board
• Largest school finance lawsuit in Texas takes shape
• Navigating the Texas School Finance Lawsuits
• Houston, Cy-Fair among latest school districts to sue state
• MALDEF sues Texas over school finance
• Public Pre-Kindergarten Programs Slowed, Even Reversed, By Recession
• No Child Left Behind Turns 10 Facing Mixed Results And Uncertain Future
• State higher education commissioner addresses financial aid, in-state tuition and more
• Higher-Ed Czar: Balance Academics, Job Training
• UT System Launches Online Route to Degree Completion

ENERGY

• Editorial: Energy rate hikes would go too far
• Austin Energy unveils final rate-increase proposal
• Electric rate increase proposal blasted at hearing
• Mayor, 2 council members pan proposed electric rate increase
• Price Caps at Center of Texas Energy Debate (Audio)
• Is Austin Energy trying too hard to be green?
• Fayette plant at center of debate over coal
• Household electricity bills skyrocket
• San Antonio takes key solar step; will Austin follow suit?

ENVIRONMENT

• EDITORIAL: Separating facts from fiction in fracking
• Opinion: Let’s get fracking right (it’s important)
• Texas Fracking Disclosures to Include Water Totals
• Fracking Report Reverberates in Texas
• Texas Could Feel Effects of Wyoming Fracking Study (Audio)
• Greenhouse Gas Wars to Restart in Texas
• Sierra Club files suit over coal plants’ emission permits
• Is Austin Energy trying too hard to be green?
• Evangelical group links climate change and poverty
• NAE releases paper on climate, poverty

GAMBLING

• CLC honored for anti-gambling efforts
• Part I: Critics call video sweepstakes a bad bet
• Part II: Questions raised about charity linked to North Texas video sweepstakes company
• Numbers for lottery were up last year
• Texas Lottery proved popular last year
• Obama, the TX lottery, and the racetrack industry
• Border states’ casinos draw Texans during the holidays | Gambling Texans visit after Christmas Day, officials report
• Tribe moves ahead with casino amid protests
• Proposed Broken Arrow casino draws opposition
• Oklahoma tribe defends proposal for new
• Okla. tribe defends proposal for new casino
• Indian casinos struggle to get out from under debt
• APNewsBreak: NJ senator pushes online bet bill
• Online gambling fight now about when, who – not if
• Online gambling fight now about when, who – not if
• Collapsed deal poses new threat to NJ horse racing

HEALTH

• Texas Health Care 2011: What Has Happened and the Work that Remains
• Health overhaul lags in many states, including Texas
• Was Federal Ruling Good for Family Planning Providers?
• Feds Approve One Texas Health Waiver, Reject Another
• State Releases Reduced List of Women’s Health Clinics
• State Settles Largest-Ever Medicaid Fraud Suit
• Lawmakers Revisit Texas Medicaid Waiver
• Texas’ Move to Managed Care Comes With Strings Attached (Audio)
• US obesity epidemic shows no hint of shrinking
• Higher Tax On Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Could Prevent Obesity And Diabetes Cases, Study Says

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

• WMU leads in advocating for children victimized by trafficking
• Human trafficking: 21st century slavery
• Analysis: Mexican poverty creates climate for exploitation and trafficking
• Analysis: Churches, ministries provide refuge to victims of human trafficking
• Google donating $11.5M to fight modern slavery

HUNGER & POVERTY

• Interactive: The Demographics of Poverty in Texas
• Rachael Ray Supports No Kid Hungry Campaign
• Evangelical group links climate change and poverty
• NAE releases paper on climate, poverty

IMMIGRATION

• Opinion: Engaging the stranger
• Immigration Centers Spark Fears of Family Detentions (AUDIO)
• Bill could help, hurt immigrants waiting for green cards
• Immigration courtrooms silent during ICE review
• Drug Seizures Increase as Immigrant Apprehensions Drop

PAYDAY LENDING

• Texas Payday Lenders Face New Rules, Scrutiny
• Texas is ringing in the New Year with some new laws
• Laws coralling short term lenders are a warning shot
• Payday loan: The gift that keeps taking
• Payday loan defenders try intimidating churches

REDISTRICTING

• Updated: Courts Moving Too Slow for April Primary Elections
• Texas primary may be delayed by high court ruling (UPDATED)
• High court’s redistricting maps ruling mixed victory for Texas
• Supreme Court Nixes Judge-Drawn Redistricting Maps
• U.S. Supreme Court Says Federal District Court Erred in their Drawing of Interim Redistricting Plans for Texas
• Supreme Courts rejects Texas’ interim district maps
• Judges to offer guidance to party leaders after Supreme Court blocks
• Redistricting maps take spotlight in Supreme Court
• Supreme Court Hears Texas Redistricting Case
• Supreme Court hears thorny Texas redistricting case
• Supreme Court to hear Texas redistricting case | Court expected to rule on which map to use, discuss Voting Rights Act.
• Court says redistrict plans may be discriminatory
• If the Courts Take More Time, So Will Texas Primaries
• Long day in court, no resolution in redistricting case
• Texas Primaries Await U.S. Supreme Court Ruling
• Texas redistricting case goes before fed court
• Updated: Political Parties Agree to April 3 Primaries

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

• BJC lauds High Court decision protecting religious entities’ right to hire ministerial personnel | In unanimous decision, justices rule ‘ministerial exception’ grounded in First Amendment
• ‘Ministerial exception’ to employment discrimination laws upheld
• Religious Groups Given ‘Exception’ to Work Bias Law
• Supreme Court upholds ‘ministerial exception’ to employment discrimination laws
• President proclaims Religious Freedom Day

VOTER ID

• Texas Files Suit Seeking Swift Enforcement Of Its Voter Identification Law
• Texas Voter ID law still languishing at the U.S. Justice Department
• Voter ID Still Languishing at the Department of Justice
• New laws Jan. 1 won’t include voter ID
• AG Eric Holder: We Must Uphold Voting Rights Act
• Supreme Court to hear Texas redistricting case | Court expected to rule on which map to use, discuss Voting Rights Act.
• Updated: Political Parties Agree to April 3 Primaries
• Updated: Courts Moving Too Slow for April Primary Elections

Anica’s story, and how you can be involved in Beginning of Life, Moldova.

My name is Anica.  At age 33, married and mother of two, our family’s financial situation became critical. Desperate for money to pay outstanding loans, I left Moldova and went to Moscow where I found a job selling fruit in a market.  After several months, the market owner encouraged me and several other women to move to southern Russia to work on plantations harvesting our own fruit and making more money in the sale to markets.

We agreed.  We were taken from Moscow on a bus that stopped multiple times along the way for more women to join us.  Two days into the journey we started to travel only at night.  At one stop, we were drugged and woke up later in Chechnya, a city in the fundamentalist Muslim region of Russia where war was raging.

We lived in a brothel in the mountains, forced into prostitution to serve the terrorists in the region.  Older women served as cooks and house cleaners, younger women were prostitutes, and young boys and girls had to work hard on the farm.  It was like a small colony from the Middle Ages.

I spent three years as a sex slave.  I got pregnant twice.  They sold my youngest daughter but she found a way to escape and called the authorities.  When the police came, we were sent back to our home countries.

After being so delighted to be free, my husband kicked me out of the house with all four of my children because he did not want to live with a prostitute.  We were given one small room in my parents’ home, but I could not find a job.  My alcoholic mother would beat the children and call them degenerates.

I was blessed to find Beginning of Life.  Women like me desperately need the kind of help that the center offers, restoring lives from slavery, psychological trauma and rejection.   After coming to Beginning of Life center, our lives have been forever changed.

Join Global Women on a trip to Beginning of Life, in Chisinau, Moldova

August 8-18…estimated cost: $2,500…application deadline: June 15

Members of this team will work alongside Yulia Ubeivolc and her Christian social ministry team from Beginning of Life to conduct a five-day camp outside the city of Chisinau for women who have been trafficked, prostituted and/or abused. Our team will assist with Bible study, games, crafts, and music, while sharing love and encouragement to the women and their children attending camp.

For more information/application, contact Cindy Dawson, Executive Director, Global Women, cdawson@globalwomengo.org, or phone 205-663-0505.

Skilled ESL teachers also needed. Same contact information.

Texas Baptist Hunger Offering helps rescue young women from slavery

Moldova is the poorest country in Europe.  In the last ten years, more than 100,000 people have been victims of human trafficking, and more than 30,000 girls and women have disappeared without a trace. Lack of a future has brought a “new national idea” among youth – to leave the country at any price.

Because of this horrific fact, Beginning of Life (BoL), a Christ-centered residential rehabilitation ministry in Chisinau, Moldova, began raising awareness about the problem through press conferences and TV programs.  BoL Safe House was born to provide housing, food, medical/psychological assistance, education and society re-integration for young women who are victims of violence and trafficking.

The Texas Baptist Hunger Offering, in partnership with Global Women, an ecumenical missions movement to empower women to fulfill her unique purpose, is providing funds in 2012 for food, clothing, shelter, education, counseling and supervision for young women at the Safe House.  The ultimate goal is to transition these women (and their children) from sexual slavery, abuse and/or neglect and abandonment to self-sufficiency, through intellectual, emotional, physical, spiritual and social support from trained social workers and assistants at Beginning of Life.

During their time at the center, the ladies are assessed for job skills and connected with trade schools for training. After they are trained, the center helps with their job search, allowing them to live at the center at least one month after beginning employment.  Re-integration into society is an important priority, along with long-term follow-up.

At the center, there are opportunities for the young women to attend Bible classes and worship in various churches, most of which choosing Evangelical ones.  The women have seen the love of Christ shown to them and openly speak about how hopeless their future would be without Beginning of Life.

CHRISTIAN ETHICS:

A Both/And Approach in an Either/Or World

Dare to be Different with Good News Goods

This time of year, I grow weary of the deafening advertisements and discounts! discounts! discounts!      I am saddened by the dilution of the true meaning of Christmas in the hustle and bustle– the joy of the coming of Christ. I’ve come to find that alternative giving is one way to celebrate the holiday season in a meaningful way. There are dozens of fair trade and donation-based organizations to choose from, including two extremely special ones within Texas Baptists: Good News Goods and the Texas Baptist Hunger Offering.

Take a look at Good News Goods’ website, and find something special for your loved one this year. Ten percent of each purchase you make is donated back into the World Hunger Offering, and you can be assured that your purchase is giving a hand up, not a hand out, to an artist in a developing country. Check out their stories, and let the power of each one, not the low price and percentage discount, move you to give as a gift this year,.

So let’s do dare to be different this Christmas season, and give the gift of Christ’s love by supporting our brothers and sisters around the world.

Merry Christmas!