Articles by Guest Author

By Abby Hopkins

“Mommy, you did it.”

A woman who had been struggling to get her GED heard these words at graduation coming from her daughter. Now, she is taking college classes and will occasionally visit the ministry that helped her get there – Mineral Wells Center of Life.

Mineral Wells Center of Life, a Texas Baptist Hunger Offering partner ministry, began in 2011 to reach its community. Since opening, the ministry has been able to offer a variety of services from GED (high school equivalency) classes to food distribution to job training programs and more.

Executive Director Cindy Maness said the center’s ministries have recently expanded.

“You never know what the need is going to be,” Maness said.

“This trip changed my life. I met strangers who turned out to be [like] my family, and I learned so much more about myself,”

Another year of work began, and within the first month, God had already given us several reasons to thank the Lord.

Everyone called by God to Christian leadership will sooner or later be confronted with the reality of his or her own inadequacy.

Sunday, June 9 began TBM’s Disaster Relief efforts in the Dallas area after strong storms caused thousands of trees to fall on homes, property and across power lines disrupting electricity for hundreds of thousands of people.

While all Logsdon Seminary students take classes in preparation for ministry, many of them are already putting their knowledge into practice in ministry positions.

My experience at Go Now Missions Orientation was life-changing. I thought I knew how everything was going to go, but when I allowed myself to learn and grow I walked away with so many tools and knowledge that I didn’t even know was out there.

By Abby Hopkins

When a person comes to Christian Family Baptist Church for the monthly food distribution, they drive through to receive the food. However, this is changing as the ministry finalizes a weekly grocery store-type experience for the community.

Christian Family Baptist Church is a Texas Baptist Hunger Offering partner in San Antonio planning to open a new building this month. This opening is part of a larger shift in the food distribution process, where Pastor Rob Johnson said people can now have more dignified access to food.

“We will provide a more modern approach to fighting hunger and malnutrition,” Johnson said. “The plan is to continue to refine to meet new people and share Christ. We’re addressing spiritual needs and physical needs.”

I have learned that in His work, we can do what we can, and He takes care of that which is impossible for us.

By Girien Salazar

One of the top bipartisan legislative priorities, this session, has been improving the Texas public school system by increasing funding. As we approach the end of the session, Texas public schools are on track to receive a major financial investment. While both parties agree on the need to increase school funding, there are still many differences to work out between what the House and Senate want to see in the school finance bill.

Currently, HB 3 is in conference committee where select members will work together to hash out the differences between the House and Senate version of the bill. Texas voters still have the opportunity to encourage their elected officials to support an equitable school finance system.

More than 90 percent of Texas school children will attend Texas public schools. Increasing quality and funding for public schools is critical to having a highly skilled workforce and building a healthy Texas economy.

HB 3 would increase the basic per-pupil allotment for all school districts (from $5,140 to $5,880), which will inject $9 billion dollars into the school finance system. Texas needs a school finance system that propels students out of poverty and helps all students reach their full potential.