BATON ROUGE, La. (ABP) — The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Louisiana has named a scholarship fund for women in ministry after a member of a Shreveport youth group who died this summer following a church-bus accident.
The Louisiana CBF launched the Maggie Lee Henson Scholarship for Women in Ministry Sept. 26 at the sixth annual Stagg-Tolbert Forum for Biblical Studies at Broadmoor Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.
Reid Doster, coordinator of the state CBF group, said the scholarship will be for young women pursuing theological education and vocational Christian ministry. While details of criteria and selection haven't been worked out, Doster said he would like to see money made available to some deserving female theology student as early as the beginning of 2010.
Maggie Lee's father, John Henson, an associate pastor at First Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., spoke to the group after they collected an offering for the scholarship fund and showed a brief video of his daughter.
Also present was Kyle Kelley, associate coordinator of Louisiana CBF, who was bed-ridden for six weeks with injuries he received in the July 12 accident, which injured 17 youth and six adult sponsors traveling to a summer camp. Two of the injuries proved fatal. Brandon Ugarte, 14, died en route to a hospital. Maggie Lee Henson, 12, battled severe head injuries for three weeks in a Jackson, Miss., hospital before being declared brain dead Aug. 2.
Doster said his group plans to collect an offering in Maggie Lee's memory each year, but donations to the fund can also be made online or by mail.
The Stagg-Tolbert Forum for Biblical Studies is an annual event designed to make biblical scholarship accessible to lay people. It is named after two renowned Louisiana Baptist New Testament scholars — Frank Stagg, a longtime professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Malcolm Tolbert, who taught at both New Orleans and Southeastern Baptist seminaries.
-30-
Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.