Happenings Around the World

Facing page, top: A Rescue 24 team member securing emergency supplies and equipment on a plane to Ecuador

Facing page, bottom: Israel Baptist Church in Guayaquil preparing emergency supplies for earthquake victims

B

Heavy Flooding IN TEXAS, USA

aptists responded to an intense series of flooding in Texas in the United States. Heavy rains that swept across southeast Texas in April-June deluged the city of Houston and the

surrounding region, killing at least eight people and flooding roads, highways, businesses and homes. The April 2016 rains led to the most widespread flood event in

the Houston area since Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, causing a state of emergency to be declared. The heavy rains were the latest in a string of more than a dozen flood events that affected parts of the US states of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri, dating back to March 2015. According to the Weather Channel website, “the 12-month

period from April 2015 to March 2016 ranked as the wettest on record in Oklahoma, and the second wettest on record for Texas, Arkansas and Missouri.” The rains in April-June 2016 made matters worse. Texas Baptist Disaster Recovery, Texas Baptist Disaster

Relief, Texas Baptist Men (TBM) and other agencies mobilized to provide assistance to residents who were flooded out. Baptists focused on areas such as Deweyville on the Texas/Louisiana

200 YEARS of the American Bible Society

T

he American Bible Society (ABS) celebrates its 200th

2016. During its long history various

Christian traditions, including Baptist, have been involved in the organization, and it has had a profound impact on the United States and other countries. ABS,

founded in 1816, was the

successor to a number of earlier initiatives to make the Christian Bible available to Americans. This included the first complete re-translation of the Bible by an American, Charles Thomson, printed in Philadelphia in 1808 and the founding of the Philadelphia Bible Society, the first

anniversary in

Left: Calvary Baptist Church, Deweyville, Texas. Nearly 80% of members’ homes sustained flood damage

border, which had not received the attention or levels of assistance Houston did. Texas Baptist Disaster Recovery focused efforts on assisting

members of the Calvary Baptist Church in Deweyville, reporting that “Nearly 80 percent of Calvary Baptist members’ homes sustained flood-damage.” Its initiative, Shalom Builders, which “aims to mobilize trained and equipped construction workers to areas affected by disaster,” was to be deployed in Deweyville. Texas Baptist Men “established a command post in the Copperfield area of northwest Houston, and volunteer chaplains offered prayer and spiritual support to flood victims.” TBM teams did relief work in the Memorial and Katy area of Houston and provided “guidance to local churches already in the community helping their neighbors.” Volunteers partnered with the Salvation Army to prepare meals at the Orange County Emergency Operations Center for operation personnel, Texas Task Force members and survivors in the shelter. The agency recruited and mobilized church groups to assist in daylong or half-day cleanup projects in the Houston area.

Bible society in the US, in the same year. By 1830, 300,000 scripture copies were being produced yearly. Baptists were, from the outset, pioneer

members of ABS. Due to disagreements over translations, the American Bible Union was formed in 1850 by Baptist members of ABS. A major area of dispute was the translation of the Greek word baptizo. Baptists preferred the translation, “immerse,” whereas the word was transliterated “baptize” in most other English translations, including those produced by ABS. Due to heavy debt

century, the Bible union was dissolved and its assets and projects taken over by the American Baptist Publication Society, which was established in 1853.

Baptists, however, continued to be in the late 19th

involved in the work and ministry of ABS. In a resolution originally passed in 1923 by the Northern Baptist Convention, now American Baptist Churches, USA, it was “resolved, that in view of the valuable support being rendered by the American Bible Society to Baptist churches and missions throughout the world, especially the generous gift of Bibles and scripture resources to new churches, the American Baptist Churches, USA, commends the Society to the moral and financial support of all our churches.” This resolution was reaffirmed in 1986 and modified in 1999. Southern Baptists have given support

to ABS. In a 1973 resolution the Southern Baptist Convention “urges all Southern

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