Events // Culture // MISSION FOLLOW THE FLOW AT CHAMPION FOREST SPRING 201 6 MAGAZINE Overcoming Racial Injustice GROWING UP AS A BLACK GIRL IN THE SOUTH Victory over Anxiety A CANDID ACCOUNT OF FINDING GRACE IN TIMES OF NEED TEACHER GIVES AWAY BOOKS A MISSION TO EDUCATE IMPOVERISHED ESCAPING AFRICAN STUDENTS IRAN A JOURNEY OF FAITH & FREEDOM ESCAPANDO DE IRÁN MILAGRO EN EL METRO en Español conductor de bus salva la vida de un pasajero + CURRENTMAGAZINE 1 CONTENT CURRENT MAGAZINE SPRING 2016 OVERCOMING RACIAL INJUSTICE : Growing up as a black girl in the south 2 VIETNAMESE LIFE GROUP: Faith and Friendship Among Houston’s Vietnamese Community 5 VICTORY OVER ANXIETY - A Candid Account of Finding Grace in Times of Need 8 ESCAPING IRAN - A Journey of Faith and Freedom 12 EASTER RESURRECTION ROLLS - A Creative Way to Explain Christ’s Resurrection to Children 19 LOCAL TEACHER COLLECTS BOOKS FOR IMPOVERISHED AFRICAN STUDENTS 20 METRO BUS DRIVER TASKED WITH SAVING A PASSENGER’S LIFE 24 ESCAPANDO DE IRÁN: Un Viaje de fe y Libertad 26 MILAGRO EN EL METRO - Conductor de bus salva la vida de un pasajero 32 en Español CURRENT MAGAZINE is produced by the Communications Department of Champion Forest Baptist Church. ESCAPING IRAN A JOURNEY OF FAITH AND FREEDOM PAGE 12 GREETINGS FROM Pastor David & Beverly Fleming MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR THE CAUSE OF CHRIST Thank you for picking up this latest edition of Current Magazine. Beverly and I hope you enjoy the exciting and ongoing story of God’s activity in and through his people at Champion Forest Baptist Church. After you have read this, perhaps you can pass it along to a friend who might be interested in learning more about our Lord and his church. God is doing an amazing work at Champion Forest, and we are excited to share it with you. We are a multicultural and multigenerational church helping all kinds of people make sense out of life through Christ-centered living. We all live in a troubled world, so many of us live with troubled lives. When we put Jesus first, and order our life’s priorities around him, life begins to make sense. I can assure you, Jesus can make sense out of your life as well. It begins with a relationship with God through Jesus. We turn from sin and self, and to Jesus, and are born into his family by faith. That’s when we begin to live a new life in Christ. We nurture our relationship with Christ every day through prayer and devotion, and we connect to our church family every week in dynamic worship. We go deeper in Life Groups where we gather around God’s Word, pray for and support one another, and build authentic relationships. We are a mission-minded church, making a difference within our city, across our nation, and around the world. There are so many opportunities to get involved in the ministry of Champion Forest and to make a difference in your world. So, we invite YOU to join us on the journey. With You in His Certain Victory, PASTOR DAVID & BEVERLY FLEMING CURRENTMAGAZINE 1 OVERCOMING RACIAL INJUSTICE . Growing up as a black girl in the south Separate but equal. lacking: money to provide for one’s family invitation to pray at the altar. But it was and mercy amid racial hatred. Society’s like something pushed me out of my chair, Even as a small child, Carolyn Bailey knew segregation laws required that she use and I went forward anyway!” This moment it wasn’t fair, but public policy didn’t stop separate restrooms and water fountains of receiving God’s love and forgiveness her and a fun-loving group of little kids— from that of white people and attend would prove instrumental for the rest of white and black—from playing together. “colored-only” schools. Textbooks were her life. Day after day under the Florida sun, she tattered, discarded materials from white and her friends would build club houses schools, and there was no school bus Carolyn has vivid memories of life and play hide-and-go-seek. But as the sun service provided for black students. She in Pensacola—some sweet, others would set, she and the black children went also went to school without a lunch or terrifying. She loved her father’s humor home to their neighborhood, and the white money to buy one. and remembers being doubled over with kids to another. Carolyn’s house sat facing laughter at his jokes. He earned about $35 an all-white street, the racial division far In the midst of ongoing lack and a week doing manual labor in the Navy wider and more abrasive than the cement discrimination, Carolyn felt the Lord tug yard, but managed to keep his family road between them. on her heart. While sitting in church at the smiling. She also recalls walking the long age of nine, she heard the Gospel. In her distance to and from school, sometimes Growing up as a black girl in the south own words, “I felt so compelled to accept in the bitter cold, and becoming afraid during the Great Depression, it seemed Christ as my Savior, but I was hesitant to as white students on school buses would to Carolyn there were two things always get out of my seat and respond to the name call and throw things at her. 2 CURRENTMAGAZINE Despite ongoing racial oppression, Carolyn that he stop. Spotting the restroom, was always an honor roll student, and Carolyn asked the store owner if she could by the time she was in high school, she please use his facilities, at which point he had made up her mind that she wanted grabbed his rifle, aimed it at her head and to graduate from college and become a threatened to shoot her if she dared to use “I’m a forgiving teacher. Her parents had never owned the toilet. Trembling and with no access to their own home, and she had a burning a restroom, Carolyn’s only option was to person. I love people desire to purchase one for them once settle for the side of the road. employed. Sure enough, Carolyn attended and always want to a junior college in Pensacola where she Carolyn found an escape from mankind’s see the best in them was president of the math club and voted cruelty in God’s love and truth. She “Miss Junior College.” After graduating taught children’s Sunday School lessons instead of what is with honors, she attended Florida A&M at church, which required that she study where she was a member of the Kappa her Bible. As a result, she grew in her wrong or evil. Even Delta Pi National Honor Society and voted understanding of God’s acceptance and “Miss Junior Class.” As a senior, she won goodness and looked to the Lord to help if they have treated “Miss ROTC,” and as part of the celebration, her get through college. was featured in the Orange Bowl Classic me badly, I take parade and football halftime show. Sure enough, in 1961, Carolyn graduated thirteenth in her class with a bachelor’s the opportunity to Unfortunately, on the bus ride back from degree in Elementary Education—the first the parade in Miami, Carolyn had one of in her family to earn a college degree. Soon tell them I forgive the most terrifying experiences of her life. she spotted an ad in the newspaper for teachers to travel and teach overseas, and them. I don’t harbor OVERCOMING She had a desperate need to use the she aced the phone interview. However, the restroom and asked the bus driver to job required that she complete paperwork bitterness”. please pull over at a gas station. Aware in New Orleans, and Carolyn had no car to of the danger, he ignored her at first, get there. As a huge answer to prayer, a RACIAL INJUSTICE . but the students eventually demanded young white female seeking the same Carolyn Bailey — pursuing her passion for Elementary Education. CURRENTMAGAZINE 3 they bought homes in an all-white neighborhood. In addition to having their house fire-bombed, one neighbor was so incensed that he built a seven-foot fence “The problem between them, then moved. But through all the pain, God has given Carolyn the of racism is not grace to continually forgive those who’ve hurt her and embrace all who are willing confined to one to be a friend, no matter their skin color. In Carolyn’s own words: people group— I’m a forgiving person. I love people it’s a human and always want to see the best in problem. A sin them instead of what is wrong or evil. Even if they have treated me problem. And Carolyn Bailey — Past. badly, I take the opportunity to tell them I forgive them. I don’t harbor I choose love bitterness. Sometimes when I think employment opportunity contacted back on the hurtful moments, I get and forgiveness Carolyn and asked if she’d accompany her sad, but then I think about how to New Orleans. Carolyn was thrilled to much Christ loves me—how I can over bitterness, have transportation but became overcome crawl up in His arms when life gets with fear while they drove through hard and He will hold me. Knowing knowing God Mississippi, a state notorious for terrorizing His Word and the great sacrifice that loves all people and even murdering black people. When He paid for us—how he forgives me they stopped for gas, Carolyn asked the every second for my sinful deeds and is willing and young lady, “Should I sit in the backseat and thoughts—that’s why I’m able and pretend to be your maid?” She feared to forgive and love those who have ready to forgive being seen in the front seat next to a treated me cruelly.