Everyone knows it takes courage to adopt a child. It takes twice as much courage if you are a single woman adopting a child in a foreign land. Seven years ago, Brenda Lee, an ordained chaplain in Williamsburg, embarked upon…
Grandparents claim bragging rights for adopted children from overseas
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — Wade and Nellie Paris of Harrisonville, Mo., know the blessings of adopting children of a different culture. Now they are grandparents to international adoptees. In 1971, they adopted 7-month-old Susan from Korea. Then in 1975, they adopted…
Multicultural adoptive families ask: How to celebrate child’s heritage?
Couples who adopt children of another race — either internationally or domestically — determine what aspects of the child’s culture to incorporate into the family’s life. Studies show that children who learn about their heritage have higher self-esteem and a…
One big happy family! Multicultural adoption increasing among Americans
Transracial adoption has become chic. Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt adopted children from Ethiopia, Cambodia and Vietnam. Pop singer Madonna adopted children from Malawi. And that has brought increased attention, pro and con, to transracial adoption — both…
Muddy Creek Baptist Church celebrates 235 years
POWHATAN — Long before Facebook and the internet, electricity and televisions, and tractors and cars stood a small country church in Powhatan County. Founded before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Muddy Creek Baptist Church is known as one…
At first homecoming, BTSR welcomes alumni back for campus gathering
Students mingle in Virginia Hall during homecoming activities at BTSR. RICHMOND — Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond celebrated its first homecoming on Oct. 16-17. Alumni from the classes of 1994 through 2009, current students, faculty and staff gathered to renew…
Additional charges filed against Baptist camp director
HERTFORD, N.C. (ABP) — A North Carolina Baptist camp director arrested in July and charged with two counts of sex offenses against a child now faces additional felony charges. Steve Carter A grand jury in Perquimans County, N.C., handed down…
Religious freedom requires Baptists to hold in tension certain principles
DALLAS (ABP) — Baptists must hold in tension three sets of paradoxical ideas if they are to remain faithful to their heritage and champion freedom, Brent Walker told participants at the T.B. Maston Christian Ethics Award Dinner Oct. 30 in…
Mural enriches children’s ministry
SAN ANTONIO (ABP) — On a hot South Texas summer morning, parents and children stream into the Children’s Center at San Antonio’s Trinity Baptist Church for Sunday School. Visitors are greeted warmly, and children are directed to their classrooms: downstairs…
Mural enriches children’s ministry, helps heal wounds for Texas church
(Eric Gay/courtesy of Trinity Baptist Church) SAN ANTONIO (ABP) — On a hot South Texas summer morning, parents and children stream into the Children’s Center at San Antonio’s Trinity Baptist Church for Sunday school. Visitors are greeted warmly, and children…
ABP offers new, revamped e-mail products and social-networking feeds
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (ABP) — Associated Baptist Press, the nation’s first and only independent news service created by and for Baptists, is set to offer content through several new formats, its leaders announced Nov. 5. The organization — based in Jacksonville,…
FAITH DIGEST
Lutherans ask Anabaptists’ forgiveness. Lutheran World Federation leaders plan to apologize for their ancestors’ 16th-century persecution of Anabaptists, religious reformers whose direct successors include Mennonites and the Amish and who influenced Baptists. The apology unanimously adopted by the federation council…