LifeWay retiree Don Davis prays for an Acholi woman and her sick children while a deacon from Gulu Baptist Church serves as translator. Davis was one of 12 LifeWay mission volunteers who traveled June 28-July 12, 2008, to villages outside the northern Ugandan city of Gulu to do door-to-door evangelism. Don and wife, Ann, have been on more than 70 volunteer mission trips, retiring at age 55 to participate in missions opportunities. (Photo by Kent Harville)

Generally when a reporter shows up to cover an event, he/she comes with some preconceived ideas about the event and the people that will be in attendance. For instance, I’m at Glorieta Conference Center this week to cover Centrifuge camp. Coming into this coverage, I knew I’d meet a bunch of 7^th-12^th graders, some really enthusiastic chaperones and youth leaders, members of a worship band, some Fuge staff and the camp pastor. Obviously I didn’t have an exact idea of what the pastor would talk about, nor did I know exactly how the kids would react, but I at least had a vague outline of what to expect. I also had my own mindset well in place to approach the whole experience with an objective, unbiased, reporter’s eye.

How does the saying go? Something about how even the best laid plans … yeah, things weren’t quite what I expected, but as it turns out, that’s a really good thing.

First of all, we (that would be me and Jennifer Tramel who took this photo) arrived in the midst of the hardest and longest-lasting storm I have ever seen at Glorieta. We’re talking thunder, lightning, and surprise streams in the parking lot. But we survived (without an ark, though I had a moment or two of doubt).

So while the storms were unexpected, they were at least something I could adjust to and then guard myself against. It was Night 2 that caught me completely off-guard and without any sort of protection.

It was Night 2 that campers responded to an invitation as Trae Castles sang. It was Night 2 when I realized, much to this “objective, unbiased” reporter’s surprise, that I had tears in my own eyes and joy in my own heart for the students responding to whatever God was doing in their lives. I suppose it was Night 2 when I admitted that reporters are still human. Granted, we have a unique career that requires us to suspend our own opinions and perceptions in order to write about “just the facts” of whatever event we are covering. There is almost always something that we see or feel that never makes it into our articles … at least not blatantly.

That’s what this LifeWay News blog is for, I suppose. It’s our opportunity to feel, rather than simply observe, our way through some of the life-changing events and experiences that take place during our coverage of LifeWay’s ministries. I’m not sure how we made it this long without it.

This was Jennifer Tramel's first trip as a reporter and she has some thoughts of her own. Keep reading to find out some of her impressions and experiences during this week.

Read the rest of this entry »

LifeWay employees, retirees and families take approximately 10 mission trips annually. Check out a related news story here. Chris Turner, media relations manager in the communications office, and Kent Harville, communications photographer, are currently in Uganda with a LifeWay missions team. Chris sent back some reflections from his first few days:

I slipped up to the terrace to read a bit and catch a glimpse of Lake Victoria placidly stretching from the coastline of Uganda to the horizon and blending with the haze in the distance. A heavily accented voice asked me if I’d like something to drink. I turned to find Godfrey, the hotel waiter, standing next to me. It was in that moment he caught a glimpse of my book and his eyes lit up.

Lying on the table in front of me was a biography of Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch theologian who died in the early part of the 20^th century. Godfrey says, “Abraham! My father’s name is Abraham!” I thought, “Well I guess his dad’s name is Abraham.”

He them says, “Please, to see your Bible.” I hand him the Scriptures and he immediately turns to Genesis 22 and begins to read. He begins talking about faith. I think this is a good time to link this to substitutionary atonement, faith in Christ – you know, the missionary stuff we are here to communicate. He is very interested and I think we are headed down the road to salvation.

We were not. Godfrey is a believer, a strong believer of two years. We talk more about the Bible. I show him my favorite passage (Romans 3:21-26) and he enthusiastically says, “Amiina!” (Amen!). He begins to take me through his favorite passages. First we go to Mark 4:35-41 (Jesus calming the storm). He reads from his Luganda language Bible while I read along in my English Bible. I asked him why he likes that passage. “Because it shows the power of Jesus,” he says with a huge smile. “He is Lord over it all. The others in the boat were cowards. This shows me I don’t have to be afraid of anything. I don’t have to be afraid of even death. Jesus is Lord over everything, even death, and this Jesus is mine! Amiina!”

It is obvious this Ugandan brother, though young in the faith, knows his Bible from cover to cover. We talk about gardening and using the proper tools to cultivate a garden and talk about how Scripture is the tool God uses to cultivate our lives. It is more than a tool, we conclude. It is the sustenance of life itself. This excites him and Godfrey turns to one of his other favorite passages; Revelation 22:20-22: “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen, come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all of you.

He says, “Jesus is coming soon and this gives me great hope. He is for all and that makes us brothers!”

I show him Revelation 5:9 and 7:9, two other favorite passages of mine, and we talk about how we are brothers together in a larger body of believers representing some from his tribe and mine along with millions of others who will stand together around the throne of this Jesus one day worshiping Him.

Godfrey’s response: “Amiina! Amiina!”

When is morning coffee more than just morning coffee? When it’s coffee with a man I’ve admired for many years. I’m working this week at LifeWay’s Discipleship Week at Ridgecrest Conference Center and I'm having a terrific experience. One thing I like about this particular week is the variety of conferences offered and the people who attend. This morning, as I was eating breakfast in the cafeteria with my husband, Sam, and our new friend, Patti, a pastor’s wife from Wichita, Kan., I looked over and saw T.W. Hunt at a nearby table. I’m not too easily “star struck,” but I hold Hunt in such high regard I couldn’t help but stare, then concoct some reason to go over and talk to him for a minute. Thousands of people have studied books he has written – The Mind of Christ, Disciple’s Prayer Life, From Heaven’s View, and others – so I couldn’t see using that as my approach. Too common. I’m sure he hears how much people have enjoyed and benefited from those all the time. I needed a different tactic. (OK, now I’m sounding like a stalker!) Then I remembered … he is originally from Lepanto, a tiny town in northeast Arkansas near the rural community where I grew up (West Ridge, for any of you who are interested). That would be a unique one for him. After Sam left for his conference, I walked over to Hunt's table, where he was eating with Don McCutcheon, mission growth evangelism director from North Carolina. I’d met Don and his wife, Kathy, a couple of nights before (terrific folks, by the way), so I didn’t feel too bad about intruding. But I digress ... I sat down at the table (you do that here at Ridgecrest, just join in at empty spots) and introduced myself. I told him how much I loved his work, and then said, “I believe you know where I grew up … West Ridge, Arkansas.” And he grinned and said that yes, he knew exactly where West Ridge was. I told him then that my family used his family’s dry cleaners for years when I was a kid. We talked about that little area of the state for a couple of minutes while he finished his grits and I finished my coffee and Don just sat there looking amused at both of us. You know, that’s what I love about the South! Coffee, grits and good conversation with a godly man!

On my first night at Ridgecrest Conference Center, I wandered into the Nibble Nook around 9 p.m. For those of you that don’t know, the Nibble Nook is the ice cream parlor on Ridgecrest’s campus, and I highly recommend it.

Anyway, my brother, the photographer extraordinaire, wasn’t here yet so I was just taking the evening to get my bearings and plan my coverage for CentriKid. The sheer number of children I saw scurrying around campus when I pulled up to check into Mountain Laurel Inn did catch me a bit off-guard. There were thousands of them!

Okay, so it turned out there are only about 450 campers here, but that’s a lot of elementary-aged kids at one hillside conference center and have you ever tried to ask a third-grader how camp is going so far? The conversation goes something like this:

Me: Hi, I’m Brooklyn and I’m writing a news article about CentriKid. Can you tell me what your favorite part of camp has been so far?

Third-grader: I like the music … Oooo and Bobby got carsick on the way here and threw up on the back of the bus. It was AWESOME!

Surely you see my dilemma.

As I was saying, I wandered into the Nibble Nook on Night One expecting a moment of quiet planning before the kids made their ice cream run after group time. What I found was a visual representation of what I’d gotten myself into by volunteering to cover this camp.

While the brightly lit shop was void of children, there was a veritable army of mostly senior adult volunteers chatting behind the counter and other places around the room. I’m not exaggerating; there had to have been at least 20 volunteers in that room. Now, I’ve never seen an ice cream parlor with 20 employees working at one time … have you? Clearly, something big (in form of excited, ice-cream-craving young ones) was about to occur.

I vacated the premises.

But Saturday was another day, and I’m proud to report that I braved the Nibble Nook that night with the kids. I expected free time to be the best time to interview the campers, and I was right. I talked to some great kids that already had stories to tell after just their first full day of camp. I also found, however, that bloodstreams coursing with ice cream-flavored sugar and a full day of camp excitement could lead to some less than quotable conversations. An example:

Me: Hey, I’m Brooklyn and I’m writing an article for Fact & Trends magazine. How is camp going so far?

Interviewee: WOOOOOOO!!!! CAMP IS AMAZING!!!! RIDGECREST ROCKS!!!!

*sigh … this is going so well.

I was shooting pictures on a very dark night at the Iglesia Bautista Jesus La Verdad y La Vida. The church, located in the rural countryside several miles out from Guanare, Venezuela, was a small open wood-framed structure with a corrugated tin roof. Three bare light bulbs hung down at regular intervals from an electrical cord, strung through the open rafters overhead, the only source of light for the open-air building. The preacher and his interpreter stood at one end of the concrete-slab floor. To their left was a small sound system on a table, into which was plugged a couple of speakers, a microphone and an electric keyboard. The preceding music and worship had been led by a couple of young men and woman.

The music had been loud, but lively and invigorating. All around the perimeter of the slab were brightly colored plastic chairs with children sitting in them, two or three adults interspersed among them. The children, though young, were well behaved and quiet as the preacher spoke, only a few of the youngest squirming in their seats. A few older youth stood in the shadows outside of the framed structure, quietly visiting amongst themselves, apparently too old or too cool to be sitting inside with the children. Every now and then, though, they too would stop to listen to the message, particularly interested when the speaker brought out a baseball to use in his illustration.

I noticed one old gentleman sitting in a folding chair, just off to the side of the building, still in the shadows, but at the very edge of the light emanating from it. He was listening intently to the words of the speaker. His wrinkled and veined hands were placed together as if in prayer, up against his face, his outstretched thumbs cradling his chin. I pulled my camera to my eye and zoomed my lens in on the man’s face, which, like his hands, was that of an old man, all wrinkled and leathery. His eyes, however, were bright and alert, and maybe even a little moist as he listened to the preacher’s words. I could tell the man was touched by the words he was hearing.

I was unsure of whether or not I would be able to get a photograph of the man. The light on him was very dim. I braced my camera against a 6X6 roof support and gently squeezed the shutter button for a long one-sixth second exposure. I was able to capture an image of the old gentleman. The interpreter told me that his name was Silvano, and that he lived in the small house next to the church. She was not sure of Silvano’s age, but said that he lived alone and was sometimes found taking care of some of the goats in this area. I wished that I had taken the opportunity to talk with Silvano. I know that I would have been blessed by this old saint.

Johnny Hunt was elected on first ballot. He received 52.99 percent of the vote (3,100 votes).
Frank Cox received 21 percent (1,286).
Avery Willis: 16.43 percent (962).
Bill Wagner: 4.35 percent (255).
Les Puryear: 3.21 percent (188).
Wiley Drake received .77 percent of the vote; 45 votes were cast.
Johnny Hunt has made his way to the newsroom for a press conference.
Thus ends live blogging for Monday.

In about 5 minutes, David Dockery will be wrapping up a challenge, and Dr. Rainer will begin the report.

Dr. Rainer begins by telling a story about when he was elected. He tells about learning about the passion that LW employees have for their work and ministry. He mentions the translation projects, evangelism through the LW christian Stores

"this is the heart of LW," he says, mentioning HBOI and B+H Academic, and the Community Fund.

He has just introduced Katie Mitchell, founder of Katie's Helping Hand. Standing ovation, and Dr. Rainer and Steve Drake present her with a check supplimenting what was given through the C.F.
Questions are now coming from the floor.
Only one question came--about special needs materials--and Dr. Rainer is introducing the EMT and is now introducing The Worship Project video. This is a cool video intro to TWP, and borrows from those creative HP commercials where the celebrity pulls and unfolds images out of his hand or the air.

(The lady sitting in front of me is eating a warm raisin bagel that smells incredible.)

Dr. Rainer closes by saying he prays LW will continue to be a blessing to the convention.

At the Rally to Ridgecrest motorcycle event held over Memorial Day Weekend at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina, photographer Jim Yates bummed a ride with a guy heading out on a ride along the Blue Ridge Parkway to Lake Lure.

Serious bikers are known for loud straight-pipes, black leather jackets and vests adorned with patches ... many sayings and phrases that would make a sailor blush. At the Rally to Ridgecrest, however, stickers and patches took a whole different approach, as FAITH Riders and other Christian bikers proclaimed their love for for motorcycles, but more importantly, their commitment to the Savior. Here's a sampling of what you might have seen at the Rally.

Be sure to check out this multimedia piece from the Rally. It really captures this group bonding over their love for motorcycles and Jesus.